Funny looking hills and stuff

[olicana]

Just posted a simple scenario for a Wednesday night Ilkley Lads game on my blog. It's for a TtS Crusades game. Thought you might like to have a laugh at my square hills and funny looking streams.



To the Strongest! That's why everything is 'boxy'.

More pics, and scenario notes, here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-stream-runs-through-it-raid-scenario.html

[Pattus Magnus]

It is boxy, but looks quite good to work with the rules! I think if I were playing a game on that table I would quickly be immersed and stop noticing the boxiness.

[olicana]

Thanks, Pattus.

Funny thing, when we've played TtS as a demo game at shows, the most frequent question often goes something like "so you are not using a tape measure to do movement, do you just move as far as you like?"

The grid, visually at least, simply disappears and games look very much like non grid games. Of course it helps if you mark just the grid intersections with small cross hairs (the grid below is squares 200mm x 200mm, so the hairs are just a few mm long) that you hardly notice until you need them.



I love TtS as a rule system. It's quick, intuitive, and basically simple to learn; it's also as frustrating and exciting as just about any other set of rules short of Piquet (which is the best set of rules ever written for excitement and frustration).

[bigredbat]

Oh very boxy! :-)  Yet looking really good- looks like you've made a whole new set of terrain!

[fred]

Good looking table. With TTS and other gridded games, there is no real need for terrain to be square. We often play with round or oval woods within a square, or even slightly overlapping the square. The same with rivers, they can flow a bit around the corners.

Hills though we do seem to end up with fairly boxy ones for some reason!

[olicana]

I did that too, utilising what terrain I already had, and that worked great. TtS games don't need to look like a grid based game.

But, I've been on the block (no pun intended) a long time and I always remember the pictures of Morschauser's games pictured in Advanced Wargames by Featherstone (1969). I'm not a big fan of Old School wargames (or what C. S. Grant would prefer people to call 'classic wargaming') but, I was always impressed by Morschauser's full embrace of the grid. We've moved on, and I think Joseph would approve of my 'advancement' of that embrace by making grid terrain less stark. If you think my terrain is stylised, wow, Joseph is the God.

I'm not sure why people want to hide the fact they are playing a grid based game. Let's face it, games never look real: They always look like a game of toy soldiers.

That was my intention with this. Simple terrain, cheaply made, and wholly embracing the grid whilst having an eye to the aesthetic of good execution.

[olicana]

Oh very boxy! :-)  Yet looking really good- looks like you've made a whole new set of terrain!

Yes indeedy, Simon.

I was planning on taking a To the Strongest Crusades game to Fiasco this year but that's off due to people sheltering from the storm. Maybe next year.

Stylised terrain would be something different I think: Stylised things go down well at shows, especially when a game is generally respected (as a rule set) and available to buy.

In fact you are lucky because I was hoping to blag an extra bag of activation chits from you to keep everything in house for the show. Lucky boy, you dodged my bullet.

[Eric the Shed]

looks good to me 

[Vanvlak]

It's not good, it's great 
I'm getting into the TtS rules, so I can understand the box business - I have a very different set-up in mind, still boxy though.