Quick trees for outdoor lairs on the Demonboard

Here's something a little different for all you Demonlords.

We're going out into the wilderness now. Outside, away from our dank musty Lairs.

But out in the wilderness we need something other than demonblocks and cardboard walls to define our areas.

Making an outdoor Demonboard for the Winterlands is easy. Just grab a sheet of white bristol board. Draw a grid of 1 inch squares on it with a marker, and you're done.

But all those wide open fields get pretty boring and make combat awful tricky when your heroes are outnumbered (which they usually are).

You can add a few buildings easily using demonblocks or card walls from your demonboard, but what happens when they are out in the wilderness?

So much open space needs to be cut off with something.

And so I present to you...Trees!

Hmmm, that spider looks familliar (click for bigger view)

In the wilds, trees can be used to form forests, and trails and glades within them. The trees restrict movement in exactly the same way as walls do in an underground Lair. If you just replace the walls with trees you have a forest with trails and glades which work in exactly the same way as they do underground.

But you'll need a lot of trees for them to be useful. Luckily sins the is LoSS if, of course, have a quick and easy way to make them.

First get yourself a sheet of Black Bristol Board. A ruler, and a pencil.

Next mark a 1" grid on it in exactly the same way as when making a demonboard.

(for instructions on how to make a demonboard head to here)

To make trees you'll need to cut out rectangles. You need a set of 2 rectangles for each tree.

The largest tree we'll be doing here is 3 squares wide and 4 squares tall.

The medium trees are 2 squares wide and 3 squares tall.

The smallest trees are 1 square wide and 2 squares tall.

For these instructions I will be working with the largest size, as it's easiest to display.

So first we'll need a pair of rectangles 3 squares wide and 4 squares tall.

Next we need to make slits in them right down the middle. The first must go from the bottom to the middle. The second must run from the top to the middle.

Next cut the rectangles into triangles, making sure the slit still runs along the middle.

Next make diagonal slits in the edge on each side. Make sure not to cut into the long vertical slits. This will form a series of "tabs"

Starting at the top fold the first tab towards you. Fold the next one away from you.

See how they alternate?

Now do this to the other triangles.

You may need to click on this picture to see it more clearly.

Insert one half into the other, using the slots. The one with the slot from the top to the middle is inserted into the bottom of the one with the slot running from the bottom to the middle.

And now you have a tree, try making one of each size.

Here you ca see the trees next to minis for scale

And now a gratuitous shot of heroes fighting some bugs in a forest.

Now lets get the heroes out of their dank holes and out there in the fresh air, If you;re going to die on your quest you might as well do it in the great outdoors.

And be warned demonlords, you're going to need a mess a trees to complete the Blind Burrower story in issue 5. I created enough medium trees using 1 sheet of bristol board to complete the forest but you may want to have a few more on hand.

~Ripley