While homemade and store bought objectives look really cool on the battlefield, they are not aways game play friendly. Many of us have encountered the same problem: inevitably, someone needs to park a tank right on top of the objective during a game. This can not only look silly, but can also result in a damaged objective or tank.
When this happens, many people simply swap out their objective for a flat, unpainted large base. However, that large unpainted base detracts from your wonderfully painted army and terrain. What options are out there that you can use instead of a blank large base?
Battlefront has a line a flat, inexpensive, full color objectives with national symbols on them which work great for objectives. You often see these in WWPD battle reports and it is totally safe to park a tank on top of them. The only draw back to these objective is that Battlefront only has them for the four major nations. If you play Finns, Greeks, Romanians, Hungarians, etc you are S-O-L.
If you don't want to buy these full color objectives from Battlefront or use and dull large base, you can always make your own flat objectives. Here are three objectives I made that meet the needs of table top miniature safe combat.
The Open Field Objective
The first, and simplest, is just a large flat base that I have flocked to match my late war British/ Canadian and late war German armies. This is relatively easy to do and blends in well with your battlefield.
The Badge Objective
The second is a objective I did for my Fallschirmjager. I found a Fallschirmjager glider pilots badge at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store), so I picked it up. I clipped the safety pin off the back and glued it to a large base I had flocked to match my Fallschirmjager. While a bit more expensive than the pervious objective, it looks pretty sweet and is very thematic.
The Photo Objective
The last type of flat objective is a photo objective I did for my Battle of the Buldge Americans. I found a photo online and printed it to fit the large base. I then applied white glue to the base and pressed it with another base to get all the exess glue and air bubbles out from underneath the photo. This will prevent the photo from wrinkling or bubbling. Next, I flocked around the edges using the same technique as my American Army. Photo objectives lay flat and are a cheap easy way to make objectives with character. The best part about these photo objectives is you can use any photo from the war to make them. Better yet, you could use arial photographs or maps of actual battlefields.
You can use any of these different flat objectives ideas as either place holders to protect your 3D objectives or instead of using a 3D objective. They are all easy to make and fairly inexpensive as well.
I hope you found this series of articles helpful. If you have any unique and creative objectives or ideas for creating objectives, feel free to share them on the WWPD community Forum.
“Craig Baxter is a miniature wargamer from Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles at frozengamerak.blogspot.com.”
