Anyone created a gridded terrain board?

[mmcv]

One of my aims this year in the hobby is to build more terrain pieces (or any terrain pieces for that matter!).  I have various bits and bobs for making scatter, trees, rough ground, etc. I also have a foam core board (formerly in service as a wedding table plan display) that just happens to be the perfect size to make a 12x8 70mm squares gaming board for my "mini" armies. This will be primarily for To The Strongest! but might see service elsewhere too.

My plan is to texture, paint and flock it up over the coming months and include a permanent grid.

Option 1 is to carve the grid directly into it when texturing (either full lines or corners)
or
Option 2 would be to just mark the corners with small rocks, grass clumps, etc.

Option 1 has the benefit of having a flatter profile for storage (or even making a double-sided board) but is obviously more visually intrusive.
Option 2 is more subtle and usable for other games too, but will have more bits sticking out of it (though nothing massive).

I'm leaning towards Option 2, but would be interested if anyone has done anything like this, or knows of anyone that has and could share pictures of what it might look like for inspiration?

[Smoking gun]

Hi,
I've seen the little white plastic tile spacers used to mark the corners, stick them to your board and then texture as normal and paint over them. The crosses will show up as flat areas and are uniform in height so you stack on top of them or make it double sided with no problems.

Best wishes,
Martin

[mmcv]

Hi,
I've seen the little white plastic tile spacers used to mark the corners, stick them to your board and then texture as normal and paint over them. The crosses will show up as flat areas and are uniform in height so you stack on top of them or make it double sided with no problems.

Best wishes,
Martin

Oooh that's a really good idea, may do a small test panel with that and see how it comes up. Thanks Martin.

[mmcv]

Spacers ordered. Any other ideas and inspiration welcome!

[Steve J]

I found simple black dots on the corners worked perfectly well for a square grid. Then I could use most of my terrain, with only some smaller pieces required.

[mmcv]

I found simple black dots on the corners worked perfectly well for a square grid. Then I could use most of my terrain, with only some smaller pieces required.

My aim is to texture and flock it so I'd be concerned simple painted dots might get lost. I'm going to add some dots to a fabric sheet I have for bigger games as I use it for a lot of different rulesets, but want this one to be a bit more of a proper terrain board since it's reasonably small.

[fred.]

A small dot is enough to define a grid.

If a dot might get lost in amongst the texturing then perhaps try small stones that are largely within the terrain, rather than stuck above.

It is very easier to work out were squares should be even if you can't see all 4 corners.

[Raider4]

Similar recent discussion. Some ideas there.

[paulr]

My first thought was similar to Fred's, a small rock or rocks pressed into the foam board at the corners

[mmcv]

I think I probably need to make a few small samples and see. One with rocks, one with spacers, one with subtle lines carved in.

I usually use stones and tufts when laying out manually so may make sense to transfer that to the permanent one.

Plan to cover the board in caulking/polyfilla or some sort of modeling plaster for strength and texture then sand, paint, flock. So having the grid or at least the corners embedded into the caulk itself before painting and flocking it should be visible but subtle.

[Norm]

I would carve the lines into the surface, the small 'V' shape possible. It is more functional in use and storage. The method becomes less important in those games in which you are only looking at the next square, but in games, such as WWII when ranges are constantly being assessed, hiding the grid too effectively becomes counter intuitive. Your flocking etc can also be used to dampen down the impact of a physical grid and terrain can spill over it a bit easier, which also dampens down the sense of hard lines.

[steve_holmes_11]

Spacers ordered. Any other ideas and inspiration welcome!

Baccus6mm (Other smaller scale manufacturers are available) have been running mega-games at shows for several years.
The games had names like Leipzeig Lite, and each featured a custom terrain board.
You may find something on their blog, I remember detailed progress plans as each game was prepared.

The highlight of each battle was the terrain, one or more MDF boards with terrain attached and a subtle grid marked.
The grid was produced my masking the lines during early painting.
It then showed in the form of things like "slightly shorter grass".

Bear in mind that this was a fixed board for a single battle.
I think it may be possible to produce a basic plain using similar methods, and then embellish it with hills, woodland, streams, wild boar and barbarian villages.

Apologies, can't find a link before I have to switch off and go to work (from home).

[mmcv]

Baccus6mm (Other smaller scale manufacturers are available) have been running mega-games at shows for several years.
The games had names like Leipzeig Lite, and each featured a custom terrain board.
You may find something on their blog, I remember detailed progress plans as each game was prepared.

The highlight of each battle was the terrain, one or more MDF boards with terrain attached and a subtle grid marked.
The grid was produced my masking the lines during early painting.
It then showed in the form of things like "slightly shorter grass".

Bear in mind that this was a fixed board for a single battle.
I think it may be possible to produce a basic plain using similar methods, and then embellish it with hills, woodland, streams, wild boar and barbarian villages.

Apologies, can't find a link before I have to switch off and go to work (from home).

Thanks Steve, I'll take a look and see what I can find. That is exactly the sort of thing I want to make, though in a versatile, portable form. Terrain will be made separately to be placed on top to suit the needs of the game, so the board itself will be kept fairly simple with a reasonably generic summer ground cover.

I would carve the lines into the surface, the small 'V' shape possible. It is more functional in use and storage. The method becomes less important in those games in which you are only looking at the next square, but in games, such as WWII when ranges are constantly being assessed, hiding the grid too effectively becomes counter intuitive. Your flocking etc can also be used to dampen down the impact of a physical grid and terrain can spill over it a bit easier, which also dampens down the sense of hard lines.

My primary aim is to use it with TtS! where you only really need one or two grid squares most of the time, though obviously making it as multi-use as possible would be good. I'll likely use it for mini-games of non-gridded rules too, e.g. Hail Caesar with reduced movement rates, or try out some skirmish level games. 

I'm not particularly familiar with WW2 rules, especially grid-based ones, and will likely be a while before I get to a point of doing any WW2 stuff. However, it would be interesting to know how other games make use of grids. For the sort of games you're talking about, how many grid squares would typically make up a game board? This one will be 12 squares by 8 squares. And over what sort of ranges are we talking for number of squares?



I was watching a few videos from Mel the Terrain Tutor last night for ideas. My main concern was that the foam core board would warp, but as it's the PVC coated one it looks like it should be strong enough to take a coating of filler, paint and flock. Will do some small scale experiments on card to  experiment with techniques and aesthetics before I start slapping filler, etc onto the big board and messing it up!

[FierceKitty]

Just off the wall, but what about marking out a grid with a fluorescent metallic pigment that shows only under UV light? You could push a button and have a dark light go on to show the grid as long as you needed it, then turn it off and enjoy a natural-looking field. 

O sbaglio?

[mmcv]

Just off the wall, but what about marking out a grid with a fluorescent metallic pigment that shows only under UV light? You could push a button and have a dark light go on to show the grid as long as you needed it, then turn it off and enjoy a natural-looking field. 

O sbaglio?

Haha interesting concept, however as the grid is in play most of the game you'd essentially be playing the whole thing in the dark. Though I suppose you could always indicate weather with a gentle waft of dandruff over the board as you shake your head at all the 1s.