Geoboards - ideas wanted

Robin Reeve

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Real Steppe or broken ground boards, rather than DTO boards where you must visualise alternative terrain.

A board or overlay with printed trenches - units in a trench hex are considered in the trench and one uses a trench counter, placed under the unit, only to indicate that it is out of the trench.

Old town urban board - with narrow roads, rowhouses (but not in straight rows, simply not having direct access between hexes), different level base hexes.

Marshland, with paths, ponds, brush, some woods but not tok much : would be useful for many situations in Finland, the Pripet marshes and Leningrad region, plus PTO perhaps.
 

DWPetros

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The setting is amid a major city...these canals were found in 1) rural areas, 2) outskirts of villages or 3) hamlets... those are all missing. Further the canals in situations 1 and 3 might not show/have a bridge...there are 3 on the board we have already as befits a major city. The battle quoted upstream the canal was along its length of the attack in 1-3 above...not* B23.
OK, I see. Again however, do you think that a rural canal board would stimulate significant scenario designs? I think perhaps a few, but if the canal artwork (like a River, Runway, etc.) is so particular, then it scares away designers. If we have only a few good ideas to show MMP - would a rural canal be one of them? Maybe, but like a lot of other specific themed boards, it may not be right. I realize people also don't like fussing with Overlays - especially long and difficult to place ones. But I think that going with themes that are more flexible, while maybe a little boring at a glance, would get a lot of use by designers. Just having an open terrain board - no buildings - few roads - would probably be highly useful.
 

DWPetros

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I will make the battle on the Canadians for MMP if there was a board. Also canal overlays would be a good thing too. Like RR overlays with the long lazy arc to allow change of course...
Heck, that's a no brainer. While a lot of guys don't like overlays - in a more perfect world they would. Much more could be done with them.
 

DWPetros

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Real Steppe or broken ground boards, rather than DTO boards where you must visualise alternative terrain.
A board or overlay with printed trenches - units in a trench hex are considered in the trench and one uses a trench counter, placed under the unit, only to indicate that it is out of the trench.
Old town urban board - with narrow roads, rowhouses (but not in straight rows, simply not having direct access between hexes), different level base hexes.
Marshland, with paths, ponds, brush, some woods but not tok much : would be useful for many situations in Finland, the Pripet marshes and Leningrad region, plus PTO perhaps.
All good. Especially the trench overlays, and Marshland. I've sketched a few Marsh dominated boards - and agree, could be useful in a lot of places such as you say, and Normandy too.
 

Justiciar

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OK, I see. Again however, do you think that a rural canal board would stimulate significant scenario designs? I think perhaps a few, but if the canal artwork (like a River, Runway, etc.) is so particular, then it scares away designers. If we have only a few good ideas to show MMP - would a rural canal be one of them? Maybe, but like a lot of other specific themed boards, it may not be right. I realize people also don't like fussing with Overlays - especially long and difficult to place ones. But I think that going with themes that are more flexible, while maybe a little boring at a glance, would get a lot of use by designers. Just having an open terrain board - no buildings - few roads - would probably be highly useful.
The canal may have been the object in real life, the canal may have been the barrier to the objective in real life. These are not oddities of the country side of Europe or the the East... But as I noted a sheet of canal overlays gets two cats skinned, a) canals get made, b) the worry of use is eased as a board is not 'sacrificed' for one canal form, but rather the overalls allow free form design. But these overlays need to be diverse, to include attached (for lack of a better word) small cluster of woods, or hamlet or orchard lines canal, etc.
 

DWPetros

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The canal may have been the object in real life, the canal may have been the barrier to the objective in real life. These are not oddities of the country side of Europe or the the East... But as I noted a sheet of canal overlays gets two cats skinned, a) canals get made, b) the worry of use is eased as a board is not 'sacrificed' for one canal form, but rather the overalls allow free form design. But these overlays need to be diverse, to include attached (for lack of a better word) small cluster of woods, or hamlet or orchard lines canal, etc.
OK. Canal overlays might be the better approach then. In theory, I like overlays. But I'm not a scenario designer, so have little credibility on that one. I would ask the scenario design guys 'why do you / don't you use overlays?' Too fussy? Out of sight out of mind? The little ones or the ones that are difficult to place - maybe too fussy and maybe they avoid using them believing that their scenarios won't get played. Maybe they're right on that. Dunno.

Overlays - is a whole other topic. There may be even more ideas there than anywhere - but again, the stigma is hard to overcome here. I've prepared several overlays for MMP, but as I look at the scenarios made since, I see few having been used. Unfortunate. I also have seen too many wasted boards with specific design features (ie. Airfield, overly detailed Hills, etc) that should have used overlays instead.
 

sswann

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Steve,
I've done a RR Station for a (industrial) City (below), but not a small town. You know, it would not be completely geomorphic, and that's OK with me. I think there are a lot of standard geoboard ideas that could be used, but which would also not be perfectly geomorphic - especially along the short side which is rarely used anyway.
I like the small town idea and will sketch it out. You sure like RRs !
What good are Armored Trains if there are no RR tracks to run on?
If MMP does not want the small RR Station map, please send to me for publication.
 

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You can add rules for Gandy Dancers, then run the trains on the track that is laid.

JR
Where did I put my "Labor -4" counters? Laying track is hard work.
 

Justiciar

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OK. Canal overlays might be the better approach then. In theory, I like overlays. But I'm not a scenario designer, so have little credibility on that one. I would ask the scenario design guys 'why do you / don't you use overlays?' Too fussy? Out of sight out of mind? The little ones or the ones that are difficult to place - maybe too fussy and maybe they avoid using them believing that their scenarios won't get played. Maybe they're right on that. Dunno.

Overlays - is a whole other topic. There may be even more ideas there than anywhere - but again, the stigma is hard to overcome here. I've prepared several overlays for MMP, but as I look at the scenarios made since, I see few having been used. Unfortunate. I also have seen too many wasted boards with specific design features (ie. Airfield, overly detailed Hills, etc) that should have used overlays instead.
Overlays are like tools in the tool box. There are certain designers who will never use overlays or will only when their design demands* use for balance. There are other designer who will use them to create the best feel for the battle, and then there are those in between. Overlays like canals (would be) and RR are and really streams / wadis are probably more likely to get used b/c the battle specifically calls for it as a feature. They also tend to be easy to place as streams will connect to streams, and RRs link to RRs and players see how they build. Whereas within one scenario orders to place overlay OG1 here and WD 4 there, and B6 thus, can be form some a task.

Also if you create such overlays, then to account for things like "set amid hamlet" then the hamlet should be part of certain canal overlays, so the designer then does not have to build the hamlet via more overlays set along side the canal, if you see what I mean.
 
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Tuomo

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Righto. Small hamlets - good idea. I have a few of those too. Here's a cutout from a Normandy board. 4 buildings only!
By the way, these little sketches look pretty crappy until Tom Repetti does his magic on them when needed! Then, they work :
YES IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES TIL PEOPLE START KVETCHING AT TOM TO COLORIZE DON' S MAPS.

What you people don't realize is, Don has hundreds of sketches. I'm not kidding. And for some reason, nobody can visualize them properly without Some Idiot adding color.

While I cherish this role (which some would say I'm well-suited for), the sheer volume of Don' s imagination is more than one man can support.

So if everyone could please just TEMPER YOUR ENTHUSIASM and tell Don that no, we're all set for new boards at the moment, thanks, my poor fingers would appreciate it.

;)
 

Gordon

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YES IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES TIL PEOPLE START KVETCHING AT TOM TO COLORIZE DON' S MAPS.

What you people don't realize is, Don has hundreds of sketches. I'm not kidding. And for some reason, nobody can visualize them properly without Some Idiot adding color.

While I cherish this role (which some would say I'm well-suited for), the sheer volume of Don' s imagination is more than one man can support.

So if everyone could please just TEMPER YOUR ENTHUSIASM and tell Don that no, we're all set for new boards at the moment, thanks, my poor fingers would appreciate it.

;)
Let's all pitch in to buy Tom a nice, new box of crayons. That should make him feel better.:D
 

Paul M. Weir

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With all the talk about canals, railroads and diagonal hills I may have missed something, so here goes:

With all the hill boards done so far, few of them have much more than token cover, 39 being the most noticeable exception and I believe 77 will have some.

By cover I mean woods, brush, orchards and grain, possibly some buildings on the peak. BFP had their J & K with cluttered hills, but not enough official boards. Once you step above the base level then you usually are naked to fire.
 

von Marwitz

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With all the talk about canals, railroads and diagonal hills I may have missed something, so here goes:

With all the hill boards done so far, few of them have much more than token cover, 39 being the most noticeable exception and I believe 77 will have some.

By cover I mean woods, brush, orchards and grain, possibly some buildings on the peak. BFP had their J & K with cluttered hills, but not enough official boards. Once you step above the base level then you usually are naked to fire.
Very good point. I have thought the same numerous times in the past.

The main reason for this is that from a wooded hill you won't see anything at a lower height.
This means that the cover on those hills need to be carefully "constructed" to provide an interesting variety of LOS (which is not too limited).

Indeed, this would be worth embarking on.

von Marwitz
 

DWPetros

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YES IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES TIL PEOPLE START KVETCHING AT TOM TO COLORIZE DON' S MAPS.
What you people don't realize is, Don has hundreds of sketches. I'm not kidding. And for some reason, nobody can visualize them properly without Some Idiot adding color.
While I cherish this role (which some would say I'm well-suited for), the sheer volume of Don' s imagination is more than one man can support.
So if everyone could please just TEMPER YOUR ENTHUSIASM and tell Don that no, we're all set for new boards at the moment, thanks, my poor fingers would appreciate it.
;)
haha... Quite right my friend. And as I just mentioned to you - I'm pretty much a nobody until you add the color. Mr. Celophane. But you're quite wrong about your abilities to keep up the pace of colorizing - you just can't help yourself when something pretty comes along. So, keep up the ideas men - Tom really does love his work :)
 
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