I also did the base flocking on all the polystyrene hills. I think I'm going to add a couple of patches of lighter flock to give them variety and possibly fill in some thin patches, and they'll also be done.
Finally I gave the river sections a spray with matt varnish to try to fix the kitty litter stones & sand a little more securely, flocked all the river banks and gave the water area their first coat of gloss varnish. All these really need is a few more coats and they too will be done, although I may have to sand the ends a little to ensure they fit together snugly.
All this progress on the terrain is at the expense of the figures. Four infantry units and two of cavalry sit mockingly on the painting table. I'm going to have to double-up efforts to get these done in time - three of the infantry units are partially complete and my goal is to finish these off by the end of the week. That will leave the two units of cavalry and several vehicles to finish next week.
I think I'm going to be OK for character figures. The plan is rather than give the players pre-generated main characters, each player gets a free choice of figure (from a selection of about 18), which we will then roll up as an Adventurer as per G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. One tweak I might bring in for them from my own Adventures and Expeditions by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is the wounding rules - each failed Save roll advances the character's wound status by one rank and requires another Save check. So the first failed Save means the character is Wounded and must roll again. If the second Save is also failed, that means they are Seriously Wounded and must make a third Save roll. If that fails, the character is Mortally Wounded and will die after a suitable dying speech. This mechanic makes the players' personal characters a little more resilient than vanilla G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Main Characters, but there's still always the danger that a run of three bad die rolls can put them down in a single attack.
As an aside, while I've been working on terrain or figures this week, I've been listening to the audiobook of Gust Front by John Ringo, part of the Posleen War series which tells the story of modern day earth adapting to the threat of invasion by an implacable alien foe. Ringo has a very distinctive authorial voice, and most of his military characters are very sympathetic which I like, but may not be to everyone's taste. It's not Shakespeare and not particularly G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.y, but it's easy and enjoyable listening.
Bedtime reading at the moment is a little more appropriate - I've loaded the Kindle up with The General series by S.M. Stirling and David Drake. Set on a colony world after the fall of an interstellar federation, where the technology has regressed to roughly 19th century levels, it tells the story of General Raj Whitehall who, inspired and guided by an ancient battle-computer that's linked to his mind, goes on to conquer and reunite the world. If that sounds at all familiar, it could be because Drake recycled the premise and inspiration for his more recent Belisarius series in collaboration with Eric Flint. Apart from a few minor details - the colony didn't have horses so its cavalry uses giant 1000lb riding dogs - the battle descriptions wouldn't seem out of place in a 19th century adventure story, and the series makes for excellent semi-steampunky reading.
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