THE MAP ROOM IS OPEN

 

Period Map of the Battle of Kolin Cleaned up and resized for use with half scale Bloody Big Battles and Kriegspiel Blocks. One of the products of my latest major project. 

Although I have not been painting, I have been heavily engaged in a different sort of hobby project, one that I am happy to say has reached its completion (although I hope to continue to add to it in the future).  Specifically, I have been busy building a new content page to this blog: The Map Room. This is an extension of my use of Kriegspiel Blocks on maps to play half scale Bloody Big Battles. Specifically, I have created period maps that can be downloaded and used for gaming (and I share them in the Map Room).  I also created a set of modular terrain sets to generate custom games with a post-Napoleonic Kriegspiel Map look to them.  The Map Room page contains more explanation, so I refer the curious to that source for in depth information.  But in summary, here is the process (as usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX):

HISTORICAL PERIOD MAPS

I start with a historical map. This one is of the Battle of Kolin (taken from the Royal Collection Trust King George III's Military Map Collection)...

...I then mask the graphics, leaving the terrain features...

...I then crop the image to the map only, and resize it to playing scale/size ...

...I then format it for printing (and also put in pdf, available on the Map Page)...

..I then print it out and put it together: in this case, I also hand colored it (there is a tutorial on hand coloring on the Map Room page).

Above, the finished product with a small number of Bloody Big Battles style units represented by Kriegspiel Blocks for illustration.  These historical maps can be used to fight particular battles (of course), but I picked them more as good terrain-scapes that could be used generically. There are several tutorials in the Map Room to help with how to manage gaming with them, how to assemble the, how to colorize them, and how to produce custom modular maps (which is the next topic in this post). 

MODULAR TERRAIN AND MAPS

I also wanted to be able to put together games that were not based on any particular map. In other words, to provide resources to essentially replicate the same process used for a standard miniatures scenario: ie, using terrain pieces on a "blank slate" wargame table/game mat.

Above: samples of pages from the Hill, Town, and Woods terrain sets.

I still wanted a period look, however. Whereas the historical battle maps above have an 18th century look (fair enough since they are are from the 18th Century), Bloody Big Battles is focused on post-Napoleonic (although there are variants for earlier periods).  So I pulled the modular graphics from 19th Century Kriegspiel Maps (mostly the Metz Map) and created four sets: Hills, Towns, Woods, and Rivers. Each set is several pages in length and contains multiple terrain features. I put each into a pdf and posted them in the Map Room.

After downloading and printing, all you need do is cut out the desired pieces and put them on a "Map" sheet (there is also a tutorial on producing a period looking blank map sheet). A bit of plexiglas over the top flattens them out and allows you to draw roads, town names, and other supplemental details as needed... 

...and Bob's Yer Uncle. 

Best of all, most of this kit can be organized and contained in art sleeves...

...which in turn can be neatly stored in this large artist's carrying portfolio. 

Excelsior!