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Has anyone tried something like this before? I've got a series of Apoc games starting in three-ish months, was wondering if anyone had experience with it in the past.

My current plan is to use pink styrofoam.

>6"x12" 'front trench' pieces with a each trench piece having a common connector space (i.e. all trenches end 1" from the back of the piece)
>6"x12" support trench/gun emplacement pieces with a common connector space
>6"x12" blanks
>12"x12" Dug out/block house/artillery emplacement pieces with common connector spaces & communication trench to connect front line to reserve line
>6"x12" 'reserve trench' pieces with common connector spaces (might just be extra front trench pieces, we'll see)
>6"x12" 'ammo reserve' pieces and the like

There'll be some engineering to do to make sure they all stack together nicely. Maybe magnetize the sides...?

Biggest problem I cannot find a way around is slight gaps giving away distances. Same problem the modular GW tables have, but worse here as it would be delineated into 6"/12" sections. Ick. Anyone have any ideas for that?

Oh, and the motivation for all this: I think it would be really boring to play games over and over again on the same trench system. Thus, lots and lots of extra pieces to be made for whatever crazy trench the defense wants on that particular day.

Hey, theres a British company called Amera Plastic Mouldings. They make good plastic terrain. They make a modular trench system, and a number of other things. I have just received my first order from one of their stockists, and i'm quite happy with it (i didnt get the trench stuff though). Worth checking out, they quite cheap in my opinion. http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=z

I am making a trench board. Currently have a 2' by 2' board made up.



More WIP shots in my gallery and in my PLog (link in sig).

One way to help eliminate range guessing is to offset your trenches on the boards. Although you may start the trench in the middle (say) of one edge, jink it around on the tile so that it does not stay at a fixed set of distances from the edges. Mine bends around fairly randomly, while maintaining straight sections of trench:



Edit: I would also advise you to use pink foam, and to use a thickness greater than you might expect. By the time I added duckboards to the bottom of my trench, I had to build up the walls higher than I was expecting so that the men inside actually had cover. I was using a thickness of about 1 inch - 1.5 inches. I would suggest using 2 inch thick foam so you can really sink the trenches in.

I'll definitely remember the height issue. I was planning to put sandbags on the edges of the trenches, so that would probably help a bit.

With the vacu-form plastics, I was tempted to go that route, but I want a trench system that's inlaid into a table. What I'll try to do here is make table sections that are ~1 1/2" depressed to allow for the trench sections to lie flush with the rest of the table.