The Lost Glade News

[Geep]

This is an open invitation for anyone at any stage to make some maps for our Mordheim games. The board size is 4x4.

I use the following legend to when making my maps:
1- The usual base colour for the city. Nothing special.
2- The usual base colour for the buildings- nothing special, although look for black lines (see 3)
3- Usually just done as lines around buildings, a black line blocks movement and line of sight to everything else on that level
4- Also usually done as a line around buildings- this shows enough rubble to give light cover and you cannot run over this area.
5- Stairs. The arrow points up. On the next level will be a small brown square which is the top of the staircase- you can go back down here.
6- White- usually done around some buildings. Shows an open area. I'm trying to get rid of white in later maps.
7- Rubble- provides light cover, cannot be run over but can be moved over normally.
8- Roof. Warriors on higher levels cannot see any warriors below a roof. Roofs do not block line of sight to anything else on that level (they should not have black borders).
9- Sewer entrance/exit. It takes 3" of move to go up or down. You can jump/fall down too. You cannot run up or down them, but can otherwise move normally. You can only shoot up or down at another model touching the same yellow exit/entrance on another level (they provide very good cover).

If any issues arise, discuss with your opponent.

First map:
The Mansion



(Levels 1, 2 and 3)

[Geep]

Mansion lvl 4


Sewer Board



Levels Sewer, 1 and 2

[Geep]

Sewer Levels 3 and 4



Outskirts:
(This map does not follow the legend given- I'll describe differences at the end)

[Geep]

Outskirts lvl 3:


The outskirts map shows a green colour as the board base, buildings are as normal except thick black lines represent an opening (no cover)
Green rectangles represent ladders- they go up or down but you'll have to look at the level above or below for the corresponding green rectangle to know which.
The long brown rectangle is a barricade- gives cover, cannot run over it. The large brown square is an impassable object which blocks line of sight (black in the new legend).

And for convenience, Stunned and Knocked Down markers:

[Spoony]

Question; in your key, what's the difference between 1 and 6?

[Geep]

None really- which is why I want to get rid of it. I just used white to get rid of the black outline around buildings (to show doors, etc.), but I figure it's better to use the normal building or ground colour instead of white (as you can see I've done on the sewer map- no white except for the open air)

I still think my other maps are passable- I don't think I'll be bothered updating them. I've got another map idea I may start work on soon though...

It'd be really good if some other people would make maps too- everythone has their own style and ideas and it would be good to get some of that variety.

[Balthorn]

If I may be so bold, the Empire In Flames, Cities of Gold and Khemri supplements let you fight in the countryside, Lustria and Khemri respectively. It might have a few ideas you could use. I'm going to design a countryside map soon, once I've worked out photoshop a bit better.

[Geep]

That stuff's all fine- feel free to add it.
I guess there's some very varied terrain around Mordheim, so warriors can end up fighting in very different places from game to game.

Edit:
I thought it might be handy if I re-posted my 'How to work Graphics Gale' instructions from The Golden Arrow vs myself:

I find the easisest way to work is to save all map layers seperately, open them in Paint, go 'select all', 'copy', open graphics gale and make a new layer, go 'paste' and repeat until you have a fully layered heap of maps. Copy both player's models, open them in paint and add them as a seperate layer in Graphics gale as well (you should only need one layer for all of a person's models). Keep your layers well labelled. Save the entire thing as a 'Gale' file (i think it is called)- this way it will retain the layers.

The idea then is that you select the layer models you want to move are on, drag over the area the model is to select it and you will only select that model- not moving background, etc.
Save each turn as a Gale file, then also save as a .png file to post here (best resolution).

Hope that all helps somehow...

With the different layers of buildings it may also be necessary to have some extra layers as models move into them.

When adjusting your opponent's models to the position he's moved them to I find the easiest way is to make yet another layer temporarily, copy the exact PNG image they've posted (opening it through paint first, and copying it), and placing the entire thing in the temp. layer. Move that to just in front of the background and it should then be easy to adjust your opponent's models to the correct place (on the layer you've given solely to your opponent's models). Then delete the guide layer.
There's probably a much easier way to do it all... play around a bit.

Also, once you've selected and moved something Graphics Gale can make it hard to unselect it. for that:
I don't know why that happens, but to 'unmark' whatever you've selected I usually just press the 'draw rectangle' button, then you can press the 'select' button again and move something else. If you accidentally draw a rectangle, just go edit- undo. Hope that helps.

As for how to measure distances, there's a grid file in the 'getting started' area (use the 4x4 one). Put this grid as it's own layer, after all map layers but before models. You can use a normally clear layer to keep track of movement and work out distances:
Draw a line along the grid the required number of inches. Select the line and rotate as needed. Place against you model/ the enemy model and see if they're in range (or if moving, unselect the line, select your model from your model's layer and move it to the end of the line/ as far as you want to go).

This post has been edited by Geep on Oct 29 2007, 04:57 AM

[Geep]

Sorry for all the double posts, but this isn't the kind of thread where I expect many replies.

Here's another map I though may be a bit fun:





Four Corners, Levels 1-4.
Ignore the slightly different colours around the edges of the planks and roofs- it's just to help them stand out a bit against each other.

The green is a new feature- water!... sort of... well, the locals say it was once water... they also say not to go near it...
I don't think there are any rules for polluted water in the game, so I've made the following:
You cannot run in water (but may charge)
Your movement is halved when moving through water
At the end of each player turn, that player takes a S3 hit against each of his models in the water. This is not just from poison, so being immune to pooison won't help. The hit will not cause a critical hit, but allows no armour saves.
If a model is stunned while in the water it must pass an initiative test or be immediately taken out of action. Knocked down models still have enough sense to stay above water, so don't suffer any extra penalties.

[Spoony]

Figured I'd give this map making business a go...

Level 1


Level 2


A lot of it's pretty self explanatory. The wall on the left blocks line of sight, but rubble only provides light cover, so you can still cast spell, shoot etc. as normal. Blue lines are doorways, red lines are windows. You can jump through and shoot through windows, and they provide light cover. The black chasmy thing on lvl 2 is just a hole in the floor. If you fall while trying to jump it, you fall down to lvl 1, south of the rubble. I think that pretty much sums it up. *Edit* The stairs on lvl 2 only go back down to lvl 1, mind you.

This post has been edited by Spoony on Oct 31 2007, 01:19 AM

[Geep]

Nice. I like your depiction of rubble.

[Spoony]

Here's another.



The arrow is which way the river's flowing, the lighter blue is the shallows. The rocks cannot be moved through, climbed on etc. and block line of sight. The grass and bridge are just open ground, nothing strange.

[Geep]

That's a good one for variety from buildings.

I thought it'd be worth making some kind of 'official' mention of this.
A standard is needed for the height of building levels/layers. Last game Spoony and I used 4" to climb in a window.

I suggest the standard height for floors be set at 3" (otherwise dwarves cannot climb). Is it worth adding in extra scenarios (eg. climbing to a window rather than some giant wall-sized hole adds 1")?

[The Golden Arrow]

Here's a map made for the scenario streetfight, uses the same legend as Geep.

Ground Level


Upper Level


This post has been edited by The Golden Arrow on Nov 27 2007, 09:56 AM

[Spoony]

Okay homos, new map: Cluster.





Big rocks act the same as the walls (block los, can't be moved through), little rocks provide cover and count as difficult ground (half move rate). Can be leapt over, but not climbed. "<" blocks are stairs up, ">" blocks are stairs down. The bridge on the second level is old and crappy. Every time you move across the bridge, roll a d6. If the result is higher than that character's initiative, the square of bridge you started your move on falls down to ground level. Reading through the older topics, it seems Geep and I decided each floor was 3" apart, so the character who falls with the bridge lands in the same square, and takes D3 strength 3 hits, no armour saves. If anybody is occupying the square the same square on the ground level is crushed by the combined weight of the bridge and the character, and is taken out of action immediately. The grid in this is larger than what we were using for other maps (20x20 pixel squares on my screen), but I think it works better that way. If you guys think it sucks being bigger, I guess I'll shrink it all down. Any questions?

This post has been edited by Spoony on Jul 21 2009, 10:43 AM