OK, so I have me a dragon. It is in the process of getting painted. And I am casting my mind to the scenes in BoFA where Smaug immolates Laketown. I would really like to replicate the effect of walls of fire spreading across the battlefield and burning buildings falling apart in games. Does anybody use any house rules to represent this? Dare I ask, has anybody actually modelled any fire effects as a physical representation in game?

I quite like the idea of having "fire counters" or something like that, maybe modelled onto 40mm cavalry bases or some such, so that when Smaug (or his smaller, greener proxy) breathes fire they can be used to represent scenery ablaze and inflict actual changes to the battlefield...

Maybe every turn the fire is burning another fire counter can be added in base contact to the first (perhaps by the player who has priority, to keep things simple, or perhaps some other way of randomising it). So the first turn you'd place one fire counter which does damage to any scenery or models it touches. Next turn you'd place a second one touching the first. The third turn you would add two more counters (one touching each of the current ones - you are going to need a lot of fire counters I think, particularly if your dragon is breathing fire more than once...)

Anybody have any ideas for workable rules for this?

From "Gondor in Flames" pg 59:

Burning Debris: much of the camp is now ablaze and the night wind is causing the flames to spread from tent to tent and the dry grasses of the plain. At the start of each turn, the player who loses priority may place a blaze counter in contact with any rent or another blaze counter. Models my move through a blaze counter or burning tent but will suffer a strength 3 hit. An cavalry attempting to move through a blaze counter must pass a terror test as the horse shies away from the flames.

Note: The method of placing blaze counters may seem a little artificial, but represents perfectly what invariably happens to a hero when he's trying to escape a burning house, tent or underground fortress--the fires always seem to spring up along his path!

They made counters from man-sized round bases, cut the shapes with plasticard and flocked it before painting fire colors. Looks okay, but I think hot glue let to cool slightly and pulled with a toothpick or Woodland Scenics Water Effects would look really sharp.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Awesome thanks! I have Gondor in Flames, should have thought to look inside!

Great! My copy is missing the first few scenario pages, so I only had that much. Glad to be of help.

_________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers