Designing gaming boards.

Hello,

I'm new to this game and thinking about making my very first gaming board to play on. I've been thinking that models move in inches so do you think it would be practical to divide the gaming board into 1x1" squares so you can move square by square?

Thanks from Cubies.

Unlike games like for example Heroclix and the like which use the type of board you´ve described, Mordheim is played on a flat tabletop surface without any lines och squares. A considerably big part of Mordheim revolves around guessing and estimating the range between buildings and models. This adds a strategic and random element to the game. There's a thread somewhere here concerning what height each floor of a building should be though in general you shoul try to build your gameboard so that all "normal sized" models fit in the alleys and buildings. to fit the story and overall feeling of Mordheim your buildings should/could be slightly crooked, elevated on different levels above ground, run-down, demolished, etc etc. A late-medieval city suffering from a meteor crash doesn't look very pretty after all i'd imagine

A group that frequents a local gaming store uses grid squares for their gaming surface. It does tend to speed up movement; however, with armies with different capabilities, the ability to more or less know ranges, charging, distance, etc, CAN confer certain unfair advantages to specific armies/warbands.
One thing to keep in mind when you start building your table & creating buildings, setting up alley ways, & such is that often quite large & cloddy hands will have to access most places on the board...picture Herman Munster when making scenery.

What I tend to do is design the board in 1 foot x 1 foot squares. Several reasons - it allows the board to be quite modular (thus more variety). Also, I base them on squar floor tile underlays (which just so happen to come in 12"x12" squares - very handy) which makes them easy to store.
I would warn against going smaller, as the ability to accurately pre-measure everything (as would happen if playing on a grid) takes away a lot of the game and also can offer quite unfair advantages.
12"x12" still allows enough to get a good idea, but there is still enough room to be a little hazy with the guesses.

Well I was hoping to make a small compact gaming board that would fold like a briefcase effect, that way I can either put a handle on to carry it or store it in my rucksack. Along with the buildings flatpacked inside ready for assembly. Then some kind of storage box that would either fit inside the board once closed or I could store it inside my rucksack along with the gaming board.

Depending on the size of your rucksack, that might be possible. What kind of dimensions are you looking at? The 'standard' Mordheim board size is 4'x4' and depending on the materials you use (polystyrene or wood or both) it will either be quite bulky or quite heavy.
The cork underlay I mentioned in my post above, for example, needs to be based on either a solid board (which is what I do - I use the cork tiles to create the playing area, and have a board set up that they fit in to).
However, with your 'flat pack' idea - while it is good for travelling around etc, have you considered how long it will take you to set up all the terrain? If I understand what you are after correctly (and let's face it, it's entirely possible I'm not) then you are going to be pretty much constructing the board and terrain from scratch everytime you want a game...

I've been working on a portable Mordheim table. Of course, my kids being young are pretty demanding on my time, so it's ssssslllllooooowwww going.

Anyway, the basic thought is this:

- 4 2'x4' sections, accordion fold - middle fold down, outer folds up.
- Piano hinge in the middle (yeah, it sticks up just slightly).
- Sections made from 1/8" hardboard (could also use luan or plywood).
- 1" x 2" framing underneath the surface all around
- Folding table legs underneath in pairs on the outside corners of each section
- For middile support, a screw-in leg in the middle under the piano hinge, or some sort of brace across the hinge to keep it flat.
- A generous suitcase handle on each of the two outside sections' edges
- A shoulder strap attached to a D-ring on each of the two outside section's edges.

If all you need is a surface, and have a decent table for support/height to place it on, you could easily do 2' x 2' sections attached and accordion-folded around (take a look at most any "eurogame" board for the look), maybe attached (with velcro?) to 2' x 2' frame diagonally when flattened out for support. With 1/16" luan or plywood and a diagonal frame support, you could possibly get away with cloth tape for the hinging.

I made a "portable" board with a Fan Foam base; Fan Foam is 3/8" in 2' X 4' Pink Foam panels that are joined along the long edge...the bundle opens up like a fan, although I think it looks more like an accordian. I just cut off two panels & left them joined to each other, scribed the inside of the panels for a cobblestone effect & painted the outer/bottom side black. Since I haven't been called upon to do any repair work on it [it was a commission piece], I would imagine it's holding up fairly well.

Magoiron makes all his buildings so that they can fold flat. You can see his pieces here: https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/scenery-f13/magokiron-s-buildings-t1553.htm . Unfortunately he hasn't been around for awhile SO...he probably would not respond to questions.

I've actually recently, in the last two weeks, purchased the wood needed to make something similar (for display/photography rather than gaming though). Here's my opinion on some of the materials.

1/4" hardboard is probably the best choice for playing surface. It's light enough to carry while being more durable than foam and it's cheap. The downside is that it is warp-y, but not as warp-y 1/8" hardboard.

You absolutely want to frame the bottom. I got 1" x 2" wood for this, I think it will need some cross-membering as well to keep the warp out--and that's on a 24" x 18" board plan. You might also consider framing vertically with the thin edge screwed to the board as it would be much stronger.

And--from a gaming stand point--consider playing on a 24" x 24" board rather than a 48" x 48"; you'd have to carry 4 times as much scenery to properly populate the larger board.

DeafNala wrote:

Magoiron makes all his buildings so that they can fold flat. You can see his pieces here: https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/scenery-f13/magokiron-s-buildings-t1553.htm . Unfortunately he hasn't been around for awhile SO...he probably would not respond to questions.

Thanks for racalling my work Deaf.

It's true I didn't show for a while, but I'M BACK.

So if you like my work, feel free to ask.

Best wishes.

magokiron wrote:

DeafNala wrote:

Magoiron makes all his buildings so that they can fold flat. You can see his pieces here: https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/scenery-f13/magokiron-s-buildings-t1553.htm . Unfortunately he hasn't been around for awhile SO...he probably would not respond to questions.

Thanks for racalling my work Deaf.

It's true I didn't show for a while, but I'M BACK.

So if you like my work, feel free to ask.

Best wishes.

WELCOME BACK, Amigo! I couldn't help but recall your FINE work...you're an unforgettable character...meaning that as a compliment.

I created our club's current board, and I think it came out a great success.

I had 4 2x2 pieces of half-inch plywood, and glued to them a 2x2 piece of 1.5 inch thick insulation foam board. One of them, I made flat, and into the others I cut a 4" wide river down the middle of the insulation foam - 2 straight pieces and a 90º elbow piece. Along the sides, I carved bricks, and then textured the tops with a cobblestone-ish textured wallpaper I found at the local hardware store, and some sand.

After that, each board was painted with a dark brown (vermin brown?), then a heavy drybrush of mid-brown (graveyard earth?) and a drybrush of Bleached Bone (that one I'm sure of!). We made swatches of each of these colors, and took them to the local hardware store to have them color-matched, so we're using big cans of house paint instead of little expensive GW pots for the entire thing.

Inside of the canal was a mix of various colors, all in the green / yellow / brown range to make nasty murky water you'd NEVER want to dip a toe in. After it was dry, we put a layer or two of water effects over it.

The board can be arranged several different ways, giving interesting terrain options with bridges and the like. You can even make special rules about going into the water.

You can see the canal / aqueduct there, as well as the seam between boards, and how it fits together nicely. As long as you put the ends of the river in the center 4" of any side, they can go in or out of whatever side of the board section you want, for some truly dynamic board choices.

We cooked up a couple of those elevation risers (inspired by Ashton!) and painted / textured them to match the board. One of them is roughly 12" x 24" x 1.5", and the other is half the size at 10" x 14" but at 3" tall. You can see the short broad riser here.

When we build our table for the evening's games, we often use the elevation risers to build overtop river sections, to either obscure them completely or to create the illusion of a sewer entrance, allowing the river to flow under the section of city street.