Making Tactical Maps for a 12'x5' or 6'x5' table top game
I have attempted to make a scale map where one square of a grid equals 1 foot on the table and 1" on the map; and have failed miserable. So badly I am using Powerpoint for my maps. I would like to come back to ProFantasy since I can do 3D maps. It should work. I just don't see anything on the forum discussing wargaming or tabletops. Diarama maybe?
Suggestions?
Sample maps attached
Suggestions?
Sample maps attached
Comments
I frequently want my maps to be printed out so they are printed on 4 or 8 17 x 11 inch sheets so the resulting map is 34 x 22 or 34 x 44 inches.
(sometimes this means combining maps digitally or printing them out, assembling them, and then scanning them). My maps can be as small as covering 4 square kilometers or over 500 square kilometers. At this point you can see in my photo editing program the physical size of the map i have scanned in.
I then cut or crop the map to contain the region i want to model. Then I size the resulting image to the desired map size. A 1:50000 map sheet covers about 22-23 km wide and tall and a grid square is about 2cm. and measures in inches about 17.5 - 18 inches wide (Mixing units of measure is bad, but sometimes necessary).
I know I want the hex to represent 100 meters and I want it to be 1 inch (about 2.5cm) wide, so I increase the size of the map so a grid square is 25cm wide (12.5 times bigger). Next, I find the area I want to model and then I crop the map to a rectangle that is 34 x 22 inches. I save that image and a bmp to import into CC3.
I then go to CC3 and specify a new map that is 34 x 22 inches. I insert the BMP and see how it fits. If it fits (or is reasonably close), I next create the grid such that 10 hexes fits in a grid square. It won't be exactly 10 because the grid squares are trapezoids not rectangles or squares. If I get 10 I'm almost done. If not, I resize the grid till it is the right size.
Next, I print the map specifying fitting the map to a 2 x 2 matrix so that it will be 34 x 22 inches wide and select 11 x 17 inch paper. If it mostly fills the paper I am happy. (More happier if it printed edge to edge). I then print it out and check that the hex size is close to the 1 inch size and I put the appropriate counter or microarmor piece in it to make sure it fits. At this point, I really don't care if the hex is 1 inch wide, but that it equals 100 meters. If so, I am good and I draw the map.
So, in your case you want the map to be 5 feet x 12 feet, and thus you want the map to be 60 x 144 inches. So you create the map in those dimensions. Once the map is created, you specify a rectangular grid and start by saying 12 as the grid size. If you get grids the appropriate size, you are done.
I started a new overland map in CC3 and selected the Napoleonic Map Annual as the base, input the dimensions as 120 wide and 60 tall, and created the map. I then specified a rectangular grid using the default size which in this case was 10 and it created a map with a 6 x 12 square grid, as seen below in the first image.
Next, let's see how it prints. First i turn hide the screen sheet because I don't want to display it on the printed map. I select print and I specify 11 x 14 inch paper, landscape, Fit to Page, leaving the distance 1:1, and specify the tiling as (120/14 = 8.57) 9 x (60/11= 5.45) 6, select landscape at the bottom, click apply, then select preview and get the resulting map image we have wasted space. It looks like 7 x 5 will do the job, so I reset the print dialog and input 7 x 5. Still to big so we go to the 6 x 5 and that looks good.
Now I would go on and draw the map.
Monsen told me that this is a bad way to construct the map, because then the map scale from CC3 won't be 'right'. (You can measure distances in cc3 that will tell you how far it is from A to b in map units (miles/km/meters/feet, etc.) For the map he refered you to, I took his advice and scaled the map by distance, but the map does not print the way I wanted it to, but I was able to find a compromise size that minimized white space around the map but still made the hexes large enough for my purposes. I wanted them to be 6cm from edge to edge, but they are 4.5 or something, which is okay, because I am measureing the distance in hexes, not meters.
After he reads this, he may be able to provide a better method to determine how to scale and print the map then the admittedly brute force and ignorance method (BFI) I use.
I've attached the FCW as well.