"Battle mat project completed!" Topic

1809in3mm.blogspot.com

Not too shabby for $30 USD!

That looks very nice.

Now you just have to find a scenario that uses those exact roads.

It looks fabulous. Bruce Weigle look, but foldable!

(I agree with your own opinion, that smaller roads would have been even better. But thats really nitpicking.)

Very keen! Well done. What scale?

Dentatus- it's at 60mm=100m. It was made for my 3mm figs, which you can see in the left corner (that' what a division will look like).

Glad you guys like it. I can't wait to see what it'll look like with trees, towns, water and figures!

Rallynow- it's generic, true. You'll notice the balance between roads coming on-table however. I wanted to make it as flexible as possible as far as scenarios went. Hence no integral waterways, so I can have maximum freedom in laying out topographical elements.

I've found that by varying where the buildings, woods and orchards are placed, and particularly where contoured hills [which I place beneath similar mats] are located, the geography of the mat changes dramatically.
Roads were important on the approach to battle, but less so, once combat began. So their positioning, other than for troops marching onto the battlefield in march column, has little significance during the battle. At least that's been my experience of creating specific historical terrain mats, and then repurposing them for more generic games.

Great job!

You'll notice the balance between roads coming on-table however. I wanted to make it as flexible as possible as far as scenarios went.

Good plan (and beautiful mat, by the way). I believe you have succeeded, and will find this mat to be endlessly useful.

Roads were important on the approach to battle, but less so, once combat began. So their positioning, other than for troops marching onto the battlefield in march column, has little significance during the battle.

This has been my experience, also. Each of my mats has been used dozens of times, and I have never felt that my scenario choices were limited by the road net.

This has been my experience, also. Each of my mats has been used dozens of times, and I have never felt that my scenario choices were limited by the road net.

The first mat I made I paid insufficient attention to the road network and so it don't get used very often. The 2nd has a stream network that can effect hill placement.

Roads were important on the approach to battle, but less so, once combat began.

I find the pre-battle maneuvering and setting up the positing of troops to be one of the most interesting aspects of the combat. Again, the advantage of smaller scale figures.

You did a wonderful job on the mat.

Looks great; very inspirational.

Concerning movement onto and across the board, it works out that the mat is almost exactly 2 miles across, which can be walked in about 20 minutes at a normal pace. It's representation is fine enough to where I could get down to 1 minute turns in a kriegspiel, which would be quite interesting to try out. I have a bunch of ideas for rules that I want to try out with this once I get it looking properly tactical.

Glad to hear people found it interesting. It was certainly fun and pleasantly hassle-free and cheap. I'll definitely be making more, and probably be expanding the above mat to truly monstrous proportions at some point in the future. This weekend I'll set it up properly with woods, water, shrubs and villages to see how it goes. I'll try to get two decent corps sized forces ready by then, and maybe even do a basic batt-rep. That would be nice for a change!

If you are doing regimental or company scale the roads can be crucial. I you are doing brigade level then maybe not so much.