39 replies to this topic

[grimzod]

Our game board for the last ten years has been a pair of old doors latched together with their old hinges. I spreay painted a grid of 2 inch hexes across the entire surface. We've enjoyed several regimental level battles on the table so far. Lots of room.

[Honorabili]

I'm not poor but I did this anyways. It was fun!

[Nairdowell]

Using the hex maps, I used to cut scrap cardboard to the appropriate number of hexs, then stack them. Worked great for creating 3D cities once the cardboard was painted grey....
Then I left the maps behind and went 3D using foam, foamcore boards, twigs and flocking, etc... lots of variables possible... even added a train track for one scenario (player misjudged the distance and stopped on the tracks, was almost rammed...)
Any way you choose to modify the maps, enjoy yourself doing it and your players will love whatever you do!

[FeederOfRavens]

We used leftover linoleum flooring in our group.It had this imprinted hex pattern that was almost exacty the size of BT hexes. I remember it ended up getting lost, and then a bunch of our players spent years, literally years, searching for the exact same pattern.
If memory serves, by the time we found the pattern, it was actually cheaper to buy the hex tiles from Catalyst...

[Uller Phrost]

Well now, I use GAMING PAPER hex paper. its about 3 ft wide on a roll. I know the folks that make it. They made squares first for D&D but alot of us asked Him about Hexs. They asked me about a Demo once. I should run one this summer and link.

originally I had a solaris map that I taped to the back of a glass porch door. we set it on a coffee table and marked the terrain with colored markers on the glass side. Still have the door just not the house.

Edited by Uller Phrost, 13 June 2012 - 07:21 PM.

[CanAm]

I don't want to come off as a jerk for pointing this out, but the shading on your craters is on the wrong side.

Other than that, those mats are fantastic!

[TWolfWD]

CanAm, on 17 June 2012 - 06:31 PM, said:

I don't want to come off as a jerk for pointing this out, but the shading on your craters is on the wrong side.

Other than that, those mats are fantastic!

Don't worry, I was half way through shading them when I noticed that myself, but I carried on in a "And not one f&%# was given that day" sort of way.

[CanAm]

TWolfWD, on 17 June 2012 - 06:38 PM, said:

Don't worry, I was half way through shading them when I noticed that myself, but I carried on in a "And not one f&%# was given that day" sort of way.

Haha, carry on!

[Dan Baxter]

TWolfWD, on 07 June 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

Here's the best map I have currently. It's been hiding in storage for the last year, so I went and dug it up.

Spoiler

As it can probably be assumed, Light green trees represent light, while dark green represent heavy. The same goes for water, light being level 1, dark being level 2. The outpost is filled with generic building hexes that I'll have to remake, and the wall consist of reinfoced level two structure. This map is one of my favorites to play in objective based games, as it provides great room for manuevering.

I'm currently in the process of making new maps for a campaign I'm going to be hosting for my brother. If anyone's interested, I'll be documenting my (barbaric) process.

Reminds me of the final MW4 Vengeance mission with the one road to a single rectangular outpost.

[Saevus]

Love the 2D work, I've seen some really nice 2D maps and I think they are a great way to play. I personally make custom 3D maps out of 1 inch styrofoam insulation sheets, the hexes are 1.75 inches, which is a bit large, but works out great once you factor in all the various things like rocks, trees, logs, grass etc that I throw on the map. Honestly, I don't get a chance to play nearly as much as I would like because I am busy making terrain for the local TT groups for various games, though I much prefer BT maps. (I put waaaay more effort into a BT map). No matter how you make a map, I think creating your playing surface and painting your models is 75% of the hobby. The battles are great and I love my books, but nothing beats putting all that effort into your map and having a group really enjoy it. Great work, keep it up!

[Surtr]

I once saw an eBay auction for some maps a guy had made using satellite shots of some industrial complex in the desert, printed on a heavy vinyl sheet with hexes to scale to the terrain (1"=30m). There were 2, each one 4'x4' i think. I was so broke at the time though

[RangerRob]

You could also consider using the hexless mini rules...







Course then you will want to start making terrain to match the known maps out there...Like Solaris.

[MandaloreWise01]

Hello I got started in the battletech universe through the mechwarrior games, and got interested in playing the board game after hearing about it from my group. Im starting on a exthremely limited budget, as in I might have the materials at my home to make a 2d board and hex pieces, and I could probably find everything else lying around my home.
How would you start if you were in my situation?

[Mech42Ace]

Well, I geuss I'd watch some tutorial videos, gather most the materials that that say you need, then follow the instructions.

Sorry I don't really think I'm helping you that much, but it's a start. maybe others will chime in the conversation too.

Thanks,
Ace

[MandaloreWise01]

Mech42Ace, on 28 September 2014 - 08:04 PM, said:

Well, I geuss I'd watch some tutorial videos, gather most the materials that that say you need, then follow the instructions.

Sorry I don't really think I'm helping you that much, but it's a start. maybe others will chime in the conversation too.

Thanks,
Ace

Its a start, and I'll take what I can get. I did a search for "hexagonal pattern" and found a black/white pattern, cut it out, made ten copies, and am proceeding to glue it to a posterboard. After that, I'm thinking of going the color-coded option mentioned earlier. The hexagon size is 1 1/4 in, but seeing as im planning on making custom pieces, it shouldnt be that bad unless someone wants to play using their unique pieces.

Edited by MandaloreWise01, 29 September 2014 - 07:58 AM.

[Mech42Ace]

Hey I found this today: some inspiration to ya:
http://www.terragene...?t=7454lp=95293

This guy has some amazing looking hex maps.

Found this place with free graph paper; including hex paper? If that's what you call it?
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Paper textures:
http://www.davegh.com/index.php

Edited by Mech42Ace, 29 September 2014 - 02:50 PM.

[MandaloreWise01]

Thank you for the links! It will be spectacular inspiration! I have almost finished a 16 by 11 grid for a small map, and decided on a terrain placement for it. All that's left is to paint it and make some basic scenarios for it. For mech pieces, im planning on using a hex with the mech name and variant number. The biggest problem with my map so far is that some of the hexes were placed slightly wrong, forcing the map to be smaller than originally planned. If you have a Twitter account, I plan on tweeting pictures soon. My twitter page is @MandaloreWise01.

[Mech42Ace]

Glad I could help, even though ive never done hex boards before. I might just create a Twitter account also, should be some thing like "Mech42ace". If that's not already taken!

[Mechteric]

My brothers and I used to play BT on this roll-up hex mat that we could use dry-erase markers on to make the terrain different each time

[Lyoto Machida]

Nice work...also loving the multiple uses of the word "barbaric" throughout this thread.

It's like your version of H.G. Lovecraft's fascination with the word "cyclopean" in his writing...