The Sidney Street Siege - Tabletop and Buildings

The Sidney Street Siege
London, 1911

Table and Buildings

The Scenario

The 4 ft x 6 ft (1.2 x 1.8 m.) table at left is designed to run the scenario with 25/28mm figures. The diagram is gridded in one-foot (30 cm.) squares. The tan areas represent city blocks with sidewalks. The dark brown outlines are building shells.

The red building is the anarchist hideout (second floor).The small red line is the jeweler's door, if you wish to combine the two historic episodes into one game.

Place your cursor on the diagram for locations where crowds will gather (purple circles) and likely positions for police (blue) and soldiers (khaki).

Click for the detailed view of the actual battle.

Thin posterboard (also called railroad board) from the art supply store can be folded into the shape shown for each block in the Sidney Street row of buildings. Posterboard is about 1/32" thick and cuts easily; it also folds easily if it is scored first. Do not get the thicker mat-board or illustration board.

If the posterboard curves, reinforce it with strips of balsa wood, scrap foamcore, or L-girders of the same posterboard. Using foamcore board for the building shell will result in a more durable building, but will take somewhat longer.

You can print off window and door pictures and paste them to the posterboard, or draw or cut them onto the posterboard sides. Only the hideout block requires the interior detailing. A reasonable and playable layout for the three floors is shown. Each floor should be a separate well-glued unit which sits on top of the one below it. Clip a small bevel at each corner of the floor to help it fit down into the building shell.

For the other buildings, simple outside shells with no roofs and windows drawn or pasted on will be sufficient. Dark red, grey and cream posterboard is available inexpensively, and can be used for the shells. You will want to cut windows out of the brewery building directly across the street and put in a ledge for the police to fire from.

Note: The Virtual Armchair General carries Studio 33's B'hoy's Towne line of 19th Century cut-and-fold buildings, originally designed to represent 1840's New York, but easily adaptible for the Sidney Street scenario.

FALL BACK to the Sidney Street Outline

REGROUP at the Battles Page