Me & a friend thinking of doing a full battle-board - need advice...

[Blackadder]

As title really

Basically today me and a friend went down to the GW centre in Nottingham for the day, had lunch, a battle and all round great fun, however one thing that struck us above all else was the sheer quality of the maps and terrain available there - particularly this work of awesomeness which we had the enjoyment to use - Warhammer Tau: Apocalypse Battle Report (just look through the pics to see the Tau terrain). We usually just play on a table or on the floor so we never use terrain, but seeing and using this stuff made us both realise how much it enhances the game...

Anyway - my life story aside, this has done 2 things, and I'd appreciate advice on both:-

1) We are considering designing and creating our own game board. We're total noobs in this department, we've never done anything like this or on this scale, so any help on tips and equipment would be appreciated. We were either thinking of going halves on the Citadel Realm of Battle Game-board (a pretty expensive choice), or having a go building a board using some wooden boards my friend has which are pretty big and probably the right size (although I've got no definitive measurements yet). - Which do you think would be better, and what would you recommend because this is a pretty big project to begin with

2) Secondly, this is for me only really - seeing that truly spectacular Tau terrain has made me want to have a bash of my own (to use on the above game-board from time to time, since I'm a Tau player and love the aesthetics of Tau... it's almost star-warsy), but again I'm stumped. I just dont really know what sort of stuff to build, or even how I'd go about it really, I've had a look over the internet for tutorials but keep getting sent back to the same few threads on AdvancedTauTacita where the bloody pictures are missing, so they are useless - best I can find is the following tutorial on Youtube for making Tau bunkers which is cheap and easy to give a whirl - Tau Bunker Build part 1 - YouTube But obviously I think a single bunker would look pretty rubbish! .

EDIT: Oh yes, I've also found this tutorial for making those nice Tau platforms with rounded edges - http://www.librarium-online.com/foru...u-outpost.html (Iron Chef 4: Tau Outpost)

EDIT 2: Just another quick thought, am I correct in thinking that for most Tau-ish buildings, where you will have lots of circles and smooth edges where in some cases, bits will be stuck together, all it comes down to is looking for those natural shapes in the stuff we use to build it with, and then cutting them up so that we get the best fit possible? Rather than say getting a solid block of polystyrene and sawing out a shape (I ask because I really am crap at sawing and stuff, so I'd like to keep that to a minimum). - take for e.g. this thing: http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/compet...try.php?id=319 - it's big and complex but if you break it down into the basic shapes you've got effectively an oblong with a circle on top, kind of half-triangles/(trapezeums?) at the bottom, and I'm not sure what you could describe the fin as to be honest... but yeah, I hope you can see my point about the shapes... I'm not aiming to build something that complex right away, maybe throw out a few of those bunkers and circles first to get the techniques right, but I wouldn't mind having something like that one day

So yeah... ANY help you can give regarding how we should plan it, tools, stuff to use, what we should do regarding the board, and also about my Tau terrain/building thing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Herbiie]

Sorry for not answering questions but what the hell!

Warhammer world is pretty awesome! How long have you been going? I can't transport my stuff over there anymore so can't go until I get a new bike

[Blackadder]

Today was my first trip, dunno how many times my friend has been. I was hoping to see this looted Ork Devilfish he's told me about, where you have Ork Paratroopers jumping from the back haha - but it wasn't there Bugman's bar was good too - although expensive, my friend ordered the "gut-buster" burger... they weren't lying - it was roughly the size of his face! After that we had a battle on the Tau table I pictured above, was great fun, and I bought a Guard platoon too PCS and 2 Infantry Squads.

[Herbiie]

It is pretty awesome for a Warhammer day out.

Good luck with making your board, I personally just covered 6 2x2 wooden boards in the Battlemat thing cut into shape, then used Citadel scenery hills, trees, and the like, you can buy Tau towers too from Forge World:
Forge World - TAU SENSOR TOWER
Forge World - TAU DRONE SENTRY TURRET WITH BURST CANNONS
Forge World - TAU DRONE SENTRY TURRET WITH FUSION BLASTERS
Forge World - TAU DRONE SENTRY TURRET WITH MISSILES
Forge World - TAU DRONE SENTRY TURRET WITH PLASMA RIFLES


I'd get two sensor towers, and one of the Sentry Turrets, + the Battle mat is £68 - gives you three bits of terrain, then if you get a couple of hills at £18 each (Or you could model hills onto the board underneath the mat) then you've got some Tau stuff and a nice map, or if you just get a couple of the Tau stuff then that's a good reference for you

Also this old thread might be helpful:
http://www.librarium-online.com/foru...buildings.html (Need a tutorial to make tau buildings.)

*edit*
Aha!
http://www.librarium-online.com/foru...u-outpost.html (Iron Chef 4: Tau Outpost)

Perfect for you methinks

*edit edit*
Also, the battle mat:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/ca...Id=prod2060001

You can use it by itself but it'd require ironing!

[Blackadder]

Thanks for that stuff

- although I'd already found the tutorial, but it's always useful to have it in the thread for easy clickin'!

And thank you for your suggestions on the board/mat & FW stuff - they're probably a tad small methinks to work on their own, but with some extra tau buildings they'd fit right in - especially those bunkers I mentioned, and as far as the mat goes, I've already got one for my table - it's red polka dots, so not quite...battlefield like, but who knows? Maybe an alien world is red polka-dot patterned int he 41st millenium?... I'd like to see someone prove otherwise!

[Herbiie]

Just bear in mind that the battle map is self weighted so you don't need to put things on the corners

[Blackadder]

Thanks for your replies

More updates, I've done even more digging around the internet and have found loads of useful bits and bobs for helping me design some Tau terrain - I can post the links if you're interested. But I think the main thing to do first is to get an idea of what it is I want to create, and then go to work thinking how I want to do it...

At the moment really all I'm thinking of is something like a Tau outpost, which would include the following:-

. Command Post (obviously...)

. Landing pad (for supplying the place)

. Power Station (for you know...power)

. Bunker or two (for defence)

. maaaybe some kind of barracks/hab centre

. and lastly, something to act as a centre-peice - I was thinking something like this beauty:- Tau Memorial Wall - a Tutorial - Warhammer 40k Forum Tau Online

That does seem like a lot, so it may be cut down considerably, but that is the sort of thing I'm thinking of - what do you think? A bit more than I can chew?

[Herbiie]

Sounds awesome. Go for it, if you take your time & be patient you'll be fine!