Adowa playtest

I have a long-due play-test I promised to my friend EB, who is working on the second edition of... well, I am not saying yet: it suffices to say this will be a very exciting update of a popular set of rules for the colonial period. My job in the project is providing some data and play-test for section regarding the Italian in Abyssinia. I am not quite ready yet to deploy my miniatures, as I need to complete some preliminary task as filling the orders of battle, and rating the units so that the game can actually take place. Yet, out of the excitement for my new camera, I started working on the tabletop of what will be the battle of Adowa, or at least a bonsai version of it, due to the limited size of my East Africa collection of miniatures.
Back to Adowa game board. The goal is NOT to reproduce an accurate model of the ground, but to catch some salient features of the area. After experimenting with a few alternatives, last year I came to the conclusion that the old approach of cloth-over-books still works for me. So I started spreading magazines and texts from my library on the board.



There is a lot you can learn about me by checking out my reading materials, but this will be a wargaming only blog, so we are not going there.
I then proceeded to cover hills and mountains with my desert cloth. Today, I added a twist: I used some dark brown watercolor to highlight some of the features of the terrain. Here's a general view.



On the right, Mount Raio; on the left, Mount Esciascio. Between the two, the strategic Colle Rebbi Arienni. Again: not historically accurate, but good enough for an enjoyable game.
With this background work done, I believe I am in good shape to go on to the next steps in the coming days: completing the miniatures needed for the game, and add some scenery to the terrain. So far, so good. EB, here we come! This is going to be a fun play-test. Stay tuned.