In the midst of my various experiments I finally finished my first Battle Board style hex terrain piece. It’s pretty successful, actually. Needs a nice coat of black paint (preferably one without solvents this time) and it holds a good-sized 10 x 9 battlefield with 60mm hexes. Good for small battles, primarily 3mm scale on my coffee table.
Mindful of the complaints of my fellow club-members about the setup time for my modular interlocking hexes, however, I’ve also decided to try another tack as well: a multi-panel board for larger battles – namely, Battletech at “true” scale with my 3mm scale figures, and BattleForce. That was after all what started my whole hex terrain excursion over a year ago. The ease of setting up battle boards without having to slot the hexes together is a nice thought – I prefer the interlocking hexes myself since my obsessive brain prefers the maximized flexibility of the system. But for the club, something else is required.
My thought was to have a try with 3″ hexes on 24″ boards, which would let me cover a 4′ x 6′ table, one of which I own, with hexes up to about the size of a classic Battletech map sheet (slightly bigger in fact). A 3″ hex with 3mm scale mechs and tanks gives you a roughly true-scale battle, which I find extremely appealing. And I’ve decided to go with 5/8″ thick hexes for this one, as this gives you good levels for the hexes. The board has to be in segments, however. For starters, I’m going to try four of them, but if I play my cards right this could be expanded effectively indefinitely. The first quarter sized out very nicely. Using some steel shims and a couple of shop clamps, I’m able to make a nice jig to cut the edges true with a wire cutter, which limits the amount of knife-cutting, the enemy of clean foam edges (and obsessive gamers). Hills and terrain features, in Battletech fashion, will be contoured, since hex levels make a big difference to gameplay. I’ll have to find a happy medium there as regards slopes, but may just go for the “successive cliffs” that Battletech always leans towards. I will almost certainly be making multi-hex hill modules, with infill hexes around them, to allow quicker setup. Again, this set will be for club use – at home, where I can obsess over my terrain ad infinitum, I’m still manufacturing interlocking single-hex parts.
The trickiest part is that I intend to magnetize the board segments so they will not shift in combat. That I plan to do with some 3/4″ ceramic magnets obtained for a few dollars from the hardware store, and if done right should allow the board to be expanded more or less indefinitely. They’ll have to be glued in place and recessed into the edge of the foam board which could be a bit of a challenge but I’m going to give it a shot. We have some large tables at the club so the possibility of some big battles is quite appealing.
In any case, the first segment measured out very nicely, and the results size up very well.
White foam being cheaper in lots than XPS, and easier to form, it will be the main material for the landforms and hexes. I have a thought to try knocking the top edges off the hexes in order to emphasize the hexes very slightly, but given how the sets work when they’re painted, it might not be necessary.
The Sun God is a Fun God, Ra Ra Ra!