Hi all.

I've had CC3+ along with DD3 and CD3 for quite some time, but I've never been able to really grok the program well enough to use it. I know that this is purely a lack of practice - I have just found it hard to find the time to devote to really learning the software.

I'm coming to the end of a long-time campaign that was using a published adventure path; after this I'm planning to take my group into a new campaign that is more custom designed. For this I'm going to need to start making a lot more battlemaps (we use a VTT set up for face-to-face gaming).

I'm looking for resources that will help me get up to speed using CC3+ specifically for the creation of tactical battlemaps. I have tried to work my way through the tutorials that start with overland mapping, but I don't have any call to speak of for overland mapping, and I always do better when I learn by tackling actual problems that I need to solve rather than exercises that are less directly beneficial.

I've seen a couple of videos out there that give some direction for what I'm trying to do; are there any suggestions on where to start? I'm also thinking I should probably try to recreate some existing maps before digging into truly making maps "from scratch."

My group is very forgiving, so it isn't like I have to get super pretty "publish quality" maps - honestly simple black and white scale drawings would work fine. Obviously, the long term goal would be to get better at making things pretty, but I really need to get up to speed on making functional battlemaps ASAP - we're probably only a month or two away from finishing the current campaign. Any help finding resources to get me on the correct path would be very appreciated.