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Author Topic: Home-made grid battle-mat, a cart-before-the-horse kind of long winded saga...  (Read 1004 times)

Offline crafty

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 108
  • Slapdash
G'day...I've been on leave for a few weeks, going a bit stir crazy...and after clicking around I found a tutorial on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWObMlqTuJ4 about making battle-mats from EVA foam tiles.

As it happens, we were recently given a bunch of these by a family posting out of Darwin so I thought I'd give it a crack. Over the years I've collected quite a few different card war-games such as Eagles, Dixie and more recently, The Last Crusade. After attempting to learn Yu Gi Oh with my son (another saga...dear oh dear don't get me started...) I noticed that all the players had battle-mats to keep track of things and safeguard the cards as well.

After following the the tutorial I measured up, scored and painted this one for Eagles etc. I didn't like the 'interlockable' look of the tiles so I cut the jigsaw-like nubs off...it was probably a rookie error, all things considered. My first attempt was a little bit how's-your-father so to speak but I could see the potential.



I was pretty happy with the outcome and got a little bit too excited and finshed another 3 grid mats a few days later, with a mind to playing those games on an 'epic' scale.

This time I probably got a bit too clever for my own good, and heated the surface of each grid square over the oven, and imprinted the playing surface with a scouring pad to provide a little more texture. This worked well, but unfortunately the tiles contracted a little and the surface won't sit perfectly flat, as you can probably see below. I've sat them under books etc, and it has improved somewhat but still...I may have to heat the opposing side of the titles to fix them. The grids are just shy of 8 x 8 inches. Maybe i'll have to live with it.

After clicking around a little more I found a link to the Quick Start guide for Peter Pig's 'Poor Bloody Infantry', and this afternoon I tested it out with help from my son's 11yr old mate from down the street. He really enjoyed the game BTW. It's excellent and I can see myself delving into that rule set further.



Are there any other grid based systems out there that would suit this board/mat? The grids seem to be a perfect started for newbie wargamers and players, so I'd love to check out different systems & different eras too.

I have thought about Rommel, but I'm invested in 1/72 and reluctant to buy/paint/bite off more than I can chew. The scale looks great though.

I also have a 3/4 finished Russian 1812 army in 15mm that is sitting there mocking me...

I've kind of fallen down the rabbit hole with this...apologies for the lengthy post, and hopefully it's in the correct sub-forum. It's just that I'm a little bit undecided about where to put more efforts for the next year or so. All my plastic pile has been painted!

« Last Edit: January 18, 2021, 10:00:59 AM by crafty »
This Slap-Dash Life
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Offline krieghund

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 320
  • Beyond all Reason
The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery might be worth a look. They're written to play on a gridded board.

Offline fred

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4359
    • Miniature Gaming
Rommel is scale independent- it is a great game, really gives the feel of the scale it is trying to represent. For it you need to be able to fit 3 units in a box/square - and looking at your grid that should be fine. Most scenarios are designed for a 16x12 grid.

Other games worth looking at are To the Strongest (Ancient & Medieval) and For King and Parliament (ECW) both by Simon Millar / Big Red Bat. We have played lots of FKaP and it also gives a great game.

Offline crafty

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 108
  • Slapdash
Thanks for the suggestions, Rommel looks great, but I was a little concerned that I would need to invest in 12/15mm. I have a decent collection of 1/72 figures and terrain, but nothing in that scale. I'll look further into that...certainly the gameplay seems interesting, and it's not tactical, which would be a refreshing change.

As for other periods, I was fibbing when I said my plastic 'to do' pile was finished...what I meant was that my plastic WW2 pile was finished (although it never really is, is it?)...

A few years ago, I was gifted a large plastic bag of 1/72 Vikings & Normans (?) and they are currently sitting in my odds & sods box. I've been sitting on the fence about those figures...so, "To the Strongest" looks interesting as well. We play Fistful of Lead a fair bit at the club so the card play doesn't really put me off.

 

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