Sired's Map project - Updated- 4/16 - files available see first post

@Call77 and its not finished like I have said a few times

I have been playing around with different configurations for a custom table and wanted to note some things I’ve landed on that I really like. A main one thing is having the map mounted so that it can slide around as needed on top of a bigger playing area. My table is 65” x 95” in total with a 5.5” arm rest around the outside and the middle is a recessed neoprene surface. I have the OOB Global map mounted on 1/2” rigid foam with a 1/2” aluminum frame around it. This allows the map to slide up close to whoever’s turn it is, but then be in the middle so both players can roll dice In front of them without disturbing the map and in easy view of the other player. (Plus we like lots of room to roll the bones). This ability to adjust the surface along with a standing height, makes it comfortable for long uses because you can move around more and don’t feel as tied down.
Things I’ve learned and changed from original design - I originally used too big of a frame for the map and mounted it on too high of a foam block (you can see these pictures at the bottom) - it made it hard to see the other player’s dice and the big frame took up too much real estate. My global map is mounted on much thinner foam (the framing is bad, you can see if you look closely) but I also used much thinner aluminum angle for the frame. This gives just enough grip when needing to move the map around (I use furniture slides on the bottom, which glide very nicely on the neoprene) but doesn’t make the whole thing too bulky. Having it an inch or so off the surface keeps the dice off, but isn’t so heigh that you can’t see the other player’s dice rolls. When playing other versions (such as Zombies) the board is much smaller, but it can easily swap in and out on the same table since it can move around where ever it is needed or be pushed aside.
I originally made it normal table height, but found long reaches while sitting were harder and it just felt cramped. Standing height with a bar stool is a great way to have the best of both worlds.
The 5.5” rim around the table itself gives you a nice arm rest that doesn’t interfere with the gaming surface. I’m playing with how to best add some cushion to this part - open to suggestions. Sometimes I just lay a piece of leftover neoprene on it.
Dice bounce nice on the neoprene and stay off the floor. It also feels nice and has enough give to allow things to slide but be picked up easily. Wouldn’t definitely go with neoprene again as a surface covering.
I made the drawers open to the inside of the table so you can stay hunched over the action while accessing and stowing stuff away. 50/50 on whether I would keep this if I were to do it again. If I were doing it again, I might try to build customer drawers form scratch using actual drawer glides, but that was beyond my ability when I first did this, so I just used clear plexiglass boxes with aluminum pulls mounted on them. It’s nice having them clear, and I was happy with how the pulls came out, but without glides they can be a little fussy sliding in and out of their slots.
I originally designed the table so that I could put a cover surface back on top when not in use, but find I don’t really ever do that, so if I were to do it again, I might not mess with that part (I never even finished staining those as you can see in the pictures).
CF362D52-269F-4480-8CBB-08139099138F.jpeg A9E12EA1-66EB-4671-86AC-68C62FD30AD5.jpeg 858DE1F2-030A-4D5A-93E4-70A7D1180ADB.jpeg 8F513EE0-DA37-4BA9-880E-4D5EF7BF431F.jpeg F0188165-757B-4CC1-BF67-5045832283C9.jpeg 2E3CD627-0D31-4121-ACF8-682F9F58A40B.jpeg

Well he did get map free. Just paid shipping costs. If he gives to you at just shipping costs probably be around 45 - 50 bucks.

Counting TUV, expected losses after a variety of round 1 openers, KJF and KGF both need some viability the additional russian units are necessary for an even remote possibility of KJF, assuming a 6-9 bid for the allies.

A heavily stacked axis map needed more to it going on many fronts. Kept the fun and minus the complete devastation. UK can sink Japan fleet by east indies with a sub bid and an infantry on egypt, the KJF becomes viable, at the same time, japan quickly catches up in income and can knock out india if it gets no support.

Lots of Russian players like to do ukraine, the added artillery smooths it out, Germany has plenty to counter attack no problem, nothing drastic. Taking london with tech roll LRA on round 1 non sense is out of the picture, tech players rejoice, as if LRA is germany is not devastating enough, plus even a carrier in baltic seazone and air on france… forces a huge turtle buy from uk, mitigating some of that still makes the baltic fleet thing strong just not so overwhelming. Basically all the germany strategies need some kind of drawback or investment. Like you should have to work for Africa if you want it instead of just getting it. The high risk high reward battles still there, because it comes under the assumption of an allies bid, even if you play without one there is still something for the allies to look forward to.

One of the key reasons this map is seldom played is because the allies really have nothing to look forward to for the first 3 rounds. So this just addresses that issue, it is still an axis favored map, the allies still have to make something happen, it is just they now have the tools to try to do something.

The germany destroyer may get removed, I added it to make germany 1 a bit more dynamic instead of linear. Players would also send 2 subs to sink usa transports, baltic subs to sink uk bship, go for egypt or protect bship at gibraltar, it is all the same stuff, now you can yolo attack usa and have a pretty even fight, block usa from landing africa, 2 sub sink uk dd trans and 1 dd to hit the cruiser or use dd to sink bship sub from russia, there is more decision making.

TL:DR More decision making for the axis instead of “this is the best option so I got to do this or I can risk this purchase if it does not work out oh well there will be no punishment anyway.”

Man, these are sweet! Great job on these! :-D

@cyanight:

Everyone has their own unique way of painting the pieces.  No matter how we paint the pieces they must still be playable within the game.

And the nice difference between game sculpts and real military equipment is that sculpts are rarely lost or damaged in combat.  If that wasn’t the case, people might actually hesitate to risk sending their painted sculpts into battle on the game map, given the large amount of time they’ve spent on customizing them.  :-)

Guys,

––This thread will eventually contain all of the U.K.-European Forces(London-based) that I’ve had detailed and painted by the “WARMACHINE TEAM”.

––So far the list contains:

BRITAIN

U.K. European Forces(London-based)
U.K. Infantry
––U.K. (Infantry, Rifle)…European scheme…(Starting at message #1)

–-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone,

----These fine paintjobs were completed by a very talented painter by the name of Chad Coffman, a.k.a. “Allworkandnoclay” who’s AWESOME paintwork is known to everyone here on A&A.Org. I hope you enjoy them.

“Tall Paul”

infantry-uk_europe01.jpg

I’ve updated the approximates sizes/scales for some basic and alternate units.  Keep in mind that many classes of ship and aircraft, though in the same class, varied in size so my sizes will be off on some units.  If your like me I want to be able to visually distinguish between units quickly so keeping classes similar in size I find works the best. Below is my guide/attempt to standardize my pieces where they are relatively the same size for their respective class.  I’ve added some alternative classes that I use in my games and ties in some of the alternate pieces that HBG is putting out.  If you need something scaled and not sure how to do it let me know and I’ll do my best to help.

Carrier 6.5 cm 1/3700
Light/Escort Carrier 5cm 1/3100
Battleship 6 cm 1/4000
Cruiser 5.5 cm 1/3700
Light Cruiser 5 cm 1/3400
Destroyer 4.8 cm 1/2400

(cm is for the wingspan)
Heavy Bomber 4.7 cm 1/700
Medium Bomber 3.5 cm 1/600
Light Bomber 1.7 cm 1/600
Heavy Fighter (Twin engine) 2.8 cm 1/600
Fighter 2.2 cm 1/500
Light Fighter 1.7 cm 1/600
Dive/Torpedo Bomber 3 cm 1/500