Project: Pohjola

Hi all!


In my last post I mentioned something along the lines of beginning my DAK project blog. I also mentioned something about inspiration and how it varies from day to day. Sooo.. This time I got an outside project in my hands, and I’m pretty excited about it!

My customer’s project takes me to a land of Pohjola. Pohjola is a skirmish type fantasy miniature game, where you take control of a small warband and fight in the northern realm of Pohjola.

From the makers;

“Pohjola is a skirmish miniature wargame with a heavy emphasis on narrative campaigns set in the fantasy world of Pohjola. It is a frigid, northern realm, dominated by pine trees, steep hills and deep fjords. Its hardy people have long been sheltered from major conflicts, but now ruin has finally returned to the north. An ancient device of enormous power, the Divine Engine, has been unearthed and is being rebuilt. Now warbands from myriad factions are vying for its control in the devastated city of Hreithurholm, and the victor will decide the fate of all.

Pohjola’s gameplay is designed for 2-4 players to be played on a 91cm x 91cm (or 3’’ x 3’’) table with 28mm scale miniatures and 6-sided dice. It is based on activation of units and contesting objectives in a fast paced game of combat. Movement, positioning and timing are keys to victory in a game of Pohjola. Players are able to choose from six different factions with multiple different units, and due to innovative campaign systems and character abilities that drastically change how a warband plays, all warbands are unique to the campaign they are played in.”

Sounds cool, right?

So, my customer wanted me to make terrain for this game, enough for one tabletop. Two normal dwellings, one longhouse and one inn. I also make some scatter terrain in the same theme as other buildings, fitting in the world of Pohjola.

I got some drafts of how the buildings should be approximately. We discussed about the features so they would work game wise on technical level too. So I started building the first dwelling!

This one is 10x15cm with thatched roof. It will have reinforced corners and furniture. I made the logs using wooden sticks, fireplaces using recycled XPS-foam and frames using balsa wood. The base is foamboard.

At this early point it looks kinda ridiculous, not so dark fantasy, eh? Well it will look much better later!

It was pretty straightforward until this point, but the roofs are always a little bit trickier. So you will have to wait until next time, when I show how to make thatched roof step by step!

And hey! Feel free to contact me at info@miniaturewargameterrain.com if you have a specific terrain project in mind! I will happily help you with it!

Thanks for reading!

-Juho from MWT