WIP | The Unsexy Business of Movement Trays

The hobby can’t all be flashy games and pro painted minis. There are the unsung heroes of the game, those things that make life just that little bit easier. For games of The Old World, where moving large bricks of soldiers across the battlefield individually would be a nightmare, that hero is the movement tray. And I had to spend way more time on making them than I thought I would, so now you get to read about some plastic squares. 

Bretonnia

Well, that's not entirely true. A blog post about only movement trays would be lame. But they did take me a while. I had to spend a whole day and half, time that could have been spent doing anything else, to make these things. But they will make playing the game a whole lot easier, and transporting, and organizing. I used the modular movement trays that GW has available. I liked them, but they don't come with a lot of corner bits. So I had to miter quite a few of the straight lengths at 45 degree angles to make it work out. Which ate up a lot of time. 

Bretonnia

More interestingly, I did add some units to my army since I last mentioned it. First is this 10 man block of Knights of the Realm on Foot with Great Axes. This is a new kit made specifically for the Old World. I think this is one of those units that had rules in a previous edition but just never had official models. Well here you go. These guys come in boxes of 20, with enough parts to equip all 20 with one type of weapon or 2 units of 10 with full command and either weapon type. 

Bretonnia

Speaking of which, that's how I decided to build them. This is a unit of 10 with sword and board. I did a little bit of conversion work on the banner, as I want to use the spare banner, heads, and weapons to make some Questing Knights. I just took a banner from the mounted Knights of the Realm kit. 

Bretonnia

And then next up I have some Pegasus Knights, who do not need a movement tray, and even if they did I wouldn't try because good luck getting these guys to rank up. Nothing fancy, just happy that they're added to the army now.

Bretonnia

I did also fill out some of the missing Peasant Archers and Man-at-arms, so now I have 2 full units of archers and 3 units of Man-at-arms. I do have cavalry built, but making the movement trays for those from the GW kit would have been annoying, so I'm pulling out my old 3D printer and seeing if that'll do the trick. Now I have enough of an army and the accoutrements required to play a 2000 point game. I'll start with 1500 so as not to overwhelm myself but still, it's nice to have gotten to this point. 

-The Space Dinosaur

6 comments:

  1. Who says movement trays aren’t sexy? I have a whole series on my blog about making movement trays for my dark ages armies as I made enough for all the miniatures.
    It’s the only way to play a big battle. Though I can’t imagine removing casualties and at the end of the game needing to put them all back into trays. 😀
    Nice job on yours.

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    1. Well I never said that your movement trays were unsexy, just generally as a concept.
      HA well I guess that becomes a part of the fun.
      Thank you!

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  2. Well my comment has disappeared again ! LOL Movement trays make gaming easier, so as a piece of equipment totally necessary, and can be made to enhance the look of the unit. Look forward to seeing your solution to the lance formation tray.

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    1. Huh that seems to be happening more often, can't really seem to find anything to fix that though :(
      I actually cheated and used a 3D printer, it seemed like the much easier option after making all of these.

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  3. These are much sexier than my mdf and balsa ones,I can tell you for nothing!
    Best Iain caveadsum1471

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    1. Thanks Iain, it helps that I already had the plastic kits ready to go!

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