"The advantages of fighting in the mancave" Topic

Well not physically fighting but war gaming. We, in a serious game have to map out the terrain
a) so we can build it.
b) not being miniature freaks we can mark hidden units on the map, to some that is a step to far hiding their miniatures.
At the moment we have a new game set up, a complex wood system marked out in "Angel Hair" in a complex pattern. This did not look fun to map even using Hexon II. However it struck me I have a cheap Go Pro lookalike camera which is not as good but it does have 16MP still setting and a wide angle lens. Holding it up and you can get a decent picture of the whole 6ft by 6ft map. On this because of the complex shapes involved it's easy to denote where units are on a paper copy. You do it on the A4 print of the photo, while looking at the real terrain. I was amazed how accurate you can plot your positions. Distances are hard to judge on the map/photo as its not a simple projection, but hey the table is there for that.

Distance is important as if your troops move from point A to point B hidden you need to know how far it is, roughly. That way if you are moving fast hidden, your speed is a bit unpredictable, so you log your movent along a predefined track and so you know when you are there (or there about's).
This trick is not possible at the club as there is no printer available so really only a man cave solution, you do need an A4 sized print to annotate, a screen is just not big enough.

Has anybody else used this method and had any great ideas if so, it would be great to here them. Not so easy at the club as there is no printer available so really only a man cave solution.

Gentlemen. You can't fight here. This is the war room.

If you're fine not seeing miniatures then why not play on two pcs? You wouldn't need a table, miniatures or a printer.
You would need mapping software to build a virtual playing surface.
Plus some sort of fairly simple pc wargame framework.
If you can rely on 2 players then the game engine can be quite simple.

NA, visualization on a TV screen is poor in some applications.

While CADDS is great it's not the same as having the part drawn on a large piece of paper (if its a lage part).
Same for a table its far easier (at least for me) to visualize the terrain at large scale (the table).
Personally I love a PC for 3D design, far less grief than conventional scratch building but for gaming, I got bored with it after the Amiga, and though my son games a lot it holds zero attraction for me.