Monday 10 April 2017

Modular town tiles

With some modelling of terrain underway, I decided it was time for yet another new project to house all this scenery...

For large fantasy battles I like a nice green landscape with terrain laid out either by a GM (ideally with a scenario in mind) or by one player with the other then choosing sides to set up from. I don't really like a fixed set up (although it can look splendid, it surely must become repetitive) and modular battlefields only have a limited appeal.

I have already made modular dungeon tiles for underground games, but to compete the fantasy "set" I want to make a modular townscape for skirmish games like Frostgrave and Mordheim. With a few sewer entrances I can easily link up with my dungeon tiles to continue the game underground.

So here's the plan; 9 boards that have been designed to be put together in a wide range of configurations; I initially sketched up my ideas and then transferred them to graph paper so I could measure the size of the squares and keep everything to scale:



The graph paper also helped ensure modularity, making each road be able to link up with the next road. Here are all the pieces cut up into squares:



And randomly re-arranged three times into new modular gaming boards:




You can see how these will create a wide range of variety and I'm planning on making them so that they can easily be stacked upon each other for ease of storage. My experience is telling.

Both of these are 1 level with a few roads and a statue/well in the middle section. I like the idea of a few narrow lanes too.


Slightly more complicated with raised sections which will be higher than the street level. Steps going up/down and a footbridge across one road section.


A double raised area at the top will be three layers of foam thick, hence the additional steps.


The market square, with roads running around the outside so it can link up with the roads of any other board.

The canal runs down the middle, so the outside will be slightly raised. A footbridge spans this section. I'll be adding details like sewer pipes, mooring posts and walkways under bridges (perfect for trolls).

A road bridge runs over this canal section. A raised section at the bottom with two tunnels




So to make these I will be using 20mm extruded polystyrene (thicker than my dungeon tiles to add extra height and so I can carve steps, curbs, cobblestones etc into them). They've been ordered and I have my glue gun, knives and pencils at the ready to start making. I'm not sure I've been quite so excited about a project for a while...

Oh and here's what has inspired me (images from google, apologies for not being able to give credit to the makers):








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