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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| A double raised area at the top will be three layers of foam thick, hence the additional steps. |
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| The market square, with roads running around the outside so it can link up with the roads of any other board. |
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| 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). |
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| 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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