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Post by Whiterook on Jan 24, 2023 11:41:19 GMT -5
Neat! Nice job with the painting. I'll admit, I was kind of hoping to see three-dimensional tiles with table terrain. It would be so cool to have the figures hidden behind trees and buildings that stick up from the surface. But this looks great! Thanks! I definitely upped my figures painting cred, haha… I’m getting closer to achieving in 15mm, what I can do in 28mm. I agree with elevated tiles and tabletop terrain being much cooler looking. I’ll be honest is saying, those options didn’t even enter my mind  So folks reading this have an insight into my thought process, I knew i didn’t want to use a map, and chose tiles instead because I not only wanted to play the included scenarios with the book, but also design my own. However, introducing the idea of dioramas and raised tiles is compelling! In my mind though, two different things would rule those out in this case: First, for this game in particular, it’s an extremely simple and conceptual game/rules set, where the game objectives and mechanics revolve around moving from entering at the bottom of the map, and exfiltrate through the top of the map. There’s not a lot of tactics involved, but just straight up strategy in movement and reaction. That’s not to say a dynamite battlefield diorama wouldn’t work… it most definitely would! …but would it be worth it? I’m honestly not sure. Second, unlike battlefields with lots of open ground and roads, which yiu see in so many dioramas… Vietnam is dense jungles and hills, and swamps, and rolling terrain with tons of vegetation’s and roots, and just a never ending much and clutter. That’s a lot of terrain to create, and harder to move minis on. But cool as heck! …saying that, there’s a great chance these minis may see something like that in the future, but with a much more advanced ruleset. |
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Post by Whiterook on Feb 9, 2023 13:18:54 GMT -5
Finished the Terrain Tiles today, amounting to 54 tiles in all, for my Vietnam War miniatures game! Jungle, Clear, Rice Paddies, Rocky Hills, Village Huts, and Swamps. Done with COPIC markers and permanent pen&ink. Around 10 hours work. Just in time to try them out this weekend with my 15mm miniatures!!! The Rice Paddies aren’t in the book-game, but make sense to have… they will cost the usual one Movement die result to enter, but will have roll two Movements die results to move out to an adjacent passable tile.  Missing are tiles with dirt roads, but the tiles I have can accommodate the truck attack mechanic on the multi-jungle hexes that have paths; as well as the tiles with huts, since they have open ground that trucks can traverse included. I can always add and tweak as needed, but this gives me enough to play the “Ghosts of the Jungle” game. |
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Post by Whiterook on Mar 2, 2023 11:56:10 GMT -5
I decided to make Road tiles after all  …I really debated on these but, in the end, I figured I might as well have them. They are mostly geomorphic, except for a few oddballs that are scenario specific, including one intended to be an enemy radio shack.  These cover every combination for battlemap creation in the Ghosts of the Jungle games’ eight scenarios. In the end, I’m glad I did them, as it’ll give that games’ scenarios that much more visual appeal. Along with the tiles previously made, I’ve have a great starting point for the Legion game, as well as use for WWII PTO, and a host of other battles zones. All together, there are now 78 tiles made. I’ll probably make more as needed… both duplicates of tiles needed, and new terrain, such as prisoner enclosures, depots, command posts, and so on… but this is starting to take my interests father into other possibilities! …but ‘til then, and despite whatever I come up with, this project took Ghosts of the Jungle in a much more playable form. For the most part, I think this upgrade is complete! I’ll play it as the rules layout; but I’m also now, developing The Legion game to add more meat to the bones, or maybe become its own thing…on the latter, I was just talking to a wargamer friend yesterday, answering some questions from his seeing the posts on Facebook, and we were discussing how some designers “borrow” mechanics from other designers/games and come up with new games, so it’s not precedented, as long as you don’t fall into the plagiarism zone. An example of that is Greg Smith’s upcoming “Gladiator: Blood & Sand” from Compass Games, shares a lot of concepts from Ed Teixeira’s “Heroes of the Colosseum” from a Lock ‘N Load Publishing…there are significant differences, but a lot of blueprint sameness. There are a lot of examples of this, and it makes sense, when you consider there are only so many ways to make a grilled cheese sandwich! |
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Post by mikeh on Mar 2, 2023 17:21:08 GMT -5
Love them road tiles! And the radio hut, at the end of the road right?
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Post by Whiterook on Mar 4, 2023 15:29:04 GMT -5
Love them road tiles! And the radio hut, at the end of the road right? Yup… good eyes! Third over from left, second row up… I tried making it have a main hut, with a small side power generator room; I also tried to make it look like aerial antenna and tower. It’s so small, there’s not much detail I could get in there |
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Post by Whiterook on Mar 4, 2023 15:40:25 GMT -5
One of my last goals for this upgrade was, putting some felt on the base bottoms of minis. Since these are moved on the cardboard tiles, even though the ink dye is pretty tough, the mini bases are just the metal of the fender washers, including their somewhat sharp edges. So, I bought some adhesive backed felt sheets at Hobby Lobby, which was about $1.29 a sheet…the sheets are about the size of typing bond paper. I started with marking around one of the mini bases with a thin leaded mechanical pencil, and then cut the felt circles out. The next step is to peel the back off the adhesive and stick the circle on the mini bases’ fender washer. Finally, they need some trimming around the edges, as no matter how careful you try to cut with scissors, you’re going to have some external overage. I suppose you could use a craft knife, but I hate ER! Yiu can run your thumb and forefinger around the edge to round the edges a bit better. Overall, a little tedious to do, but what a nice end product!    I tried them on the tiles and what a HUGE difference! The mental minis still have the weight, but they are quieter to move around when you plop them down, and they slide effortlessly and no abrasively on the tile surfaces. |
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So folks reading this have an insight into my thought process, I knew i didn’t want to use a map, and chose tiles instead because I not only wanted to play the included scenarios with the book, but also design my own. However, introducing the idea of dioramas and raised tiles is compelling! In my mind though, two different things would rule those out in this case: 
…I really debated on these but, in the end, I figured I might as well have them. They are mostly geomorphic, except for a few oddballs that are scenario specific, including one intended to be an enemy radio shack. 
