im creating a carboard box based terrain based on color prints. I will use stackable card boxes as buildings and obstacles and foldable cardboard game boards as terrain. The box covers can be used as removable roof tops and or transitions / bridges. For Both im photoshoping prints to glue on, which i will share later. I will use magnets and brackets to create stable intersections and bridges and to fix scenery to terrain - already tested it out, works great. Im confident to get a nice looking and modular terrain which will need a minimum of space to store. Anyway - i would like your tips and recomendations and have some questions. 1.) should the battlefield be (or at least help to) symmetric, so that both players have similar conditions? 2.) what do you think about buildings which can be entered (removable rooftops)? 3.) should the space between buildings and the size of buildings be optimized for the use of templates (for example for landing zones)? 4.) Should the boarder zones follow special dimensions / leave empty space (for example for entering from the side) ? what else would you wish me to think of / advice me to avoid?
Here is my first draft of a project I dropped. I had the same questions when I started, and found the following. The market is saturated with 4x4 and 8x4 terrain. The majority don't work well when it comes to allowing models to move through it. You might as well make any building that size a closed space, or just have an ARO spot. If you want to make terrain that lets models move through it, work with 8x8 minimum. You want to make it big enough to have a firefight in the building, or make it an alternate safe route for an objective. if you make a building bigger that 8x8 you need to make the corners a bit stronger. Players will try and pick up building with one hand and if they grab it by a wall it may break. Smaller building are usually light enough to take it. If you are making large multi story building, try and have the upper story come off in sections. So you can leave the the models in place and reach into the building to access other models. Try and theme it so you can add scatter later easily. I went for Garage\warehouse style on the larger sections, just to let me put cars and crates in it. I'm a little fussy when it comes to storage. I don't want terrain that will take up a ton of closet space. So the idea of being able to compress it interests me. In the building below I made it so the second story fits inside the first. I intentionally tried to make my larger building L shaped to stop the building from having very long straight sides. It makes is a lot harder for an Enemy infiltrator to turn a corner and template you on turn 1. If you want ideas on smaller modular closed buildings take a look at one of my older posts. it has some lessons learned for smaller building. Specifically look how I would cluster the small pieces into a larger building, if designing from scratch you might be able to do something better than the dollar store boxes I was using. I would design it to be either closed and modular. or Larger allowing a play through. Trying to do both will not be as good.
thanks for your reply and really nice tips - glad you share your experience. im already trying out (prototyping) the stackable boxes - i think you are right it will be a challenge to design it modular and stackable while still being able to use the same building for play through. I guess this will lead in something more function over look. Just to give you a short impressions of the basic box-design im going to use: they are very thick (so no risk of damage) and will be hard to be cutted, i will do it anyway to create windows and doors etc. they can be stacked into each other (very nice for transport and storage). they do have covers which can be used as roofs, which can be pulled away (to enable wlak through) or used as bridges. they easily can be put one on the other to create higher buildings,
Thanks, but i did not anything until now, its just the basic material (stackable boxes) with glued printouts on it :)
