Making Field Features for Crossfire

Fields are the cheapest and easiest terrain feature to make for a Crossfire game. All you need are carpet tiles and/or door mats from a DIY store.

VillageP-167 Table
VillageP-167 Table full of fields

My tables aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing but they are effective. The example is from Village P – A Crossfire Battle Report. To quote a passer-by at a show who commented to a mate when looking at my table:

Look at that, carpet tiles! Simple but effective. And cheap

I’ve tried a few things to represent fields, for example in the photo above you’ll see two types of field feature. Both based on carpet (I think), but one of which was more successful than the other.

Now I’ve settled on a couple of cheap and easy sources for fields, one type for in-season fields and one for out-of-season fields. Both from Homebase, a UK based DIY store.

In-season and Out-of-season fields
In-season and Out-of-season fields

Out-of-season fields

If you are only going to do one set of fields, then go for the out-of-season variety. For these fields I use: “Carpet Tile Plain Sand 50cm x 50cm”. These cost £2.79 per tile from HomeBase. Amazon stocks similar products, for example the “Brown and Tan striped carpet tiles”, but they all seem to come as a pack; in this case 20 tiles for £29.99 (USA, UK, and Canada) and you’ll never need that many.

Carpet Tile Plain Sand 50cm x 50cm
Carpet Tile Plain Sand 50cm x 50cm

I like these for a few reasons:

  • the slight furrows are suggestive of a field
  • the sandy colour suggests dirt
  • the plastic backing, which makes them incredibly resilient
  • they pack up very compactly
  • they are dead cheap

Making out-of-season fields

Making the out-of-season fields is pretty easy. Buy some carpet tiles. Cut them up. You just need a craft knife, steel ruler and cutting board. The carpet tiles have a hard plastic backing. You just need to score this with the craft knife, using the steel ruler as a guide, then snap the plastic. The final step is to cut through the carpet.

Before I cut any I made a template of some of the shapes I was interested in. You may find that useful. It saved me having to measure anything when I was cutting up the carpet tiles.

Fields Template
Fields Template

One 50cm x 50cm tile makes quite a lot of field features. The following photos show what I cut out of three carpet tiles.

Fields from Carpet Tile 1
Fields from Carpet Tile 1
Fields from Carpet Tile 2
Fields from Carpet Tile 2
Fields from Carpet Tile 3
Fields from Carpet Tile 3

Having made the fields I plonked them in a 9 litre Really Useful Box. All the above features fit with room to spare.

Really Useful Box of Fields
Really Useful Box of Fields

After I supplemented with some others I’d made earlier I ended up with these field shapes in my box:

Crossfire Field Catalogue
Crossfire Field Catalogue

In-season fields

For in-season fields I use a “Rubber Backed Doormat”. Get one with bristles (Coir) and no pattern. The “rubber” backing is actually vinyl but is very important as it holds the fields together. Bristly door mats without the rubber backing will fall part pretty rapidly, making a mess, annoying loved ones, and necessitating early replacement.

Rubber Backed Door Mat
Rubber Backed Door Mat

The in-season fields appeal because:

  • the bristles are suggestive of a field
  • the golden colour suggests ripened crops
  • the rubber backing, which makes them incredibly resilient

However, the bristles mean they don’t pack up as compactly as the out-of-season fields. They are also more expensive, I think they are £8.99 for a 70cm x 40cm door mat from HomeBase. Similar ones from Amazon (USA, UK, and Canada) cost £6.99.

You make the in-season fields pretty much as the out-of-season fields. You’ll need to cut through the rubber backing rather than scoring+snapping.

Fields from 1/2 a Rubber Backed Door Mat
Fields from 1/2 a Rubber Backed Door Mat

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4 thoughts on “Making Field Features for Crossfire”

      • Ah! Thanks a lot!!! And what did you use to cover the tabletop? Is that cloth or something different? I like the mix of brown and green to simulate the soil. I’d like to make something similar.
        thanks a lot.
        roby

        Reply

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