Use of overlays

62nd Army

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Gentlemen

I was hoping to get peoples take/opinion on the use of overlays for certain situations.

I have a scenario using board 19, it has a open crossroads and I "designed" a small village around it, about 4 to 5 building overlays and some small orchards, etc.

IMO this makes for a nice "non-standard" village (Almost like a farm compound) and spices up a open board, but I am hesitant as the use of more than 1 or 2 overlays in a scenario seems to have developed a bad rep over the years. I get it if a bunch are used and more or less scattered all over a map or maps, but do you think this applies to the situation I described above?

Just an FYI, I am not opposed to using 1 or 2 in my designs and have, this seems pretty standard and accepted.

Thanks!!
Joe
 
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Gordon

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Fear of overlays is irrational and should be treated with significant quantities of alcohol and pharmaceuticals.
 

jrv

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Make it an SSR that the overlays have to be stapled down. That should encourage more players. They are just afraid the overlays are going to slip.

JR
 

62nd Army

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Make it an SSR that the overlays have to be stapled down. That should encourage more players. They are just afraid the overlays are going to slip.

JR
Apoxy? ;-)
 

Paul M. Weir

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Nose boogers are much better and you can eat them afterwards.
 

rdw5150

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While I do not "fear" overlays :p if I see a scenario that has 6-7 overlays on one board, I will tend to look elsewhere if playing live (despite removable tape being the bomb). If I play a VASL scenario, I pretty much care less how many.

Peace

Roger
 

von Marwitz

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IMHO 4 to 5 overlays is about the reasonable limit for scenarios which I play in a FtF game in most situations.

If I play VASL, which is most of the time (but alas this year seems to be somewhat an exception with no VASL game at all yet...), then I do not mind the number of overlays at all. In VASL, overlays are easy to place and blend in better with the maps. There are no difficulties in keeping them in place precisely, especially when overlapping to a second board. For VASL, I actually like overlays for the variance.

von Marwitz
 

hayman

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I agree with von Marwitz, 4-5 is pretty much maximum overlay threshold for most players.

There are some players out there that won't play any scenario with any overlay requirements, hopefully they are in the minority, as I believe some scenarios need an overlay or two to render them more historically accurate (given that we play our non-campaign games on generic mapboards).

I am a great believer in breathing new life into the old 1-19 boards, so if the village you are creating is hamlet with orchard garden and is 'historic' to the situation or a VC... go for it.

In an aside, I would like to see the MMP gang create hilltop building overlays i.e. small huts/buildings on light & dark brown colours, so that designers can stick them on the 'plateaus' of some of the large hill boards.
 

von Marwitz

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Or print the buildings on clear acetate so they can be used on any open ground level.

Never going to happen but would be cool as hell.
I have brought up this idea various times over the years.

It would be a valuable addition to ASL IMHO. Realization seems pretty easy and cost seems low.

Especially useful this could be for new roads (creating a whole new type of overlay of great value for scenario design) or railways, but also almost any other terrain.

In a blink, it would enable all the woods, orchard, brush overlays (now on level 0 green background) to be placed on any level, even overlapping on different levels.

von Marwitz
 
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Gordon

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Great minds think like me (sometimes).
;)
 

RandyT0001

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I have brought up this idea various times over the years.

It would be a valuable addition to ASL IMHO. Realization seems pretty easy and cost seems low.

Especially useful this could be for new roads (creating a whole new type of overlay of great value for scenario design) or railways, but also almost any other terrain.

In a blink, it would enable all the woods, orchard, brush overlays (now on level 0 green background) to be placed on any level, even overlapping on different levels.

von Marwitz
Like this?

I just set the printer to have 1/4 inch margins on each side and print it out. Prints it out at 8 inches like the boards are. Pretty close for a freebie.
 

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von Marwitz

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Like this?

I just set the printer to have 1/4 inch margins on each side and print it out. Prints it out at 8 inches like the boards are. Pretty close for a freebie.
Well, the "revolutionary" element of the idea would be to have roads without green background, i.e. the road depictions only along with hexside artwork - to be printed on transparent sheets, overhead foils, or whatever may be the correct term for it.

von Marwitz
 

Gordon

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Replying only for myself, no, that's not quite it. Imagine just the road artwork (and possibly the hex grid) printed on clear acetate sheets so that the original board artwork can be seen through the overlay but now with road artwork imposed over it.
 

RandyT0001

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Well, the "revolutionary" element of the idea would be to have roads without green background, i.e. the road depictions only along with hexside artwork - to be printed on transparent sheets, overhead foils, or whatever may be the correct term for it.

von Marwitz
After printing, just cut out the roads with a 2mm or 1/16th inch border of the green. Probably one of the difficulties of printing desired images, roads, buildings, etc. onto clear sheets is the low adhesion of the ink or pigment. Paper is more absorbent medium.
 

jrv

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Probably one of the difficulties of printing desired images, roads, buildings, etc. onto clear sheets is the low adhesion of the ink or pigment. Paper is more absorbent medium.
There are transparency films designed for ink-jet printers. This is one I have used: https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Transparency-Printers-Universal-VCG7033S/dp/B000YA8RSI, albeit not for transparent overlays. The one problem for printing on transparency is that it's hard to print white.

JR
 
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von Marwitz

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There are transparency films designed for ink-jet printers. This is one I have used: https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Transparency-Printers-Universal-VCG7033S/dp/B000YA8RSI, albeit not for transparent overlays. The one problem for printing on transparency is that it's hard to print white.

JR
Interesting point that I never thought about. However, there is not much white to be found in roads except for the center dot. A black center dot would do against light background. It would be more tricky against darker background such as swamp.

von Marwitz
 

62nd Army

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Gentlemen

Thanks for the comments!! I figure to do my "village" as planned, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but
that is not a huge deal :)

The idea of transparent overlays has been floated here before, would love to seem some. Von Marwitz stated the best point about
them opening up allot of new possibilities.

Regards
Joe
 

Gordon

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There are transparency films designed for ink-jet printers. This is one I have used: https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Transparency-Printers-Universal-VCG7033S/dp/B000YA8RSI, albeit not for transparent overlays. The one problem for printing on transparency is that it's hard to print white.

JR
Hmm, I've printed a bunch of different transparent "player aids" like victory locations, factory indicators, paths, trail breaks, etc. and don't recall there being an issue with white, but I'll have to double check.
 

jrv

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Hmm, I've printed a bunch of different transparent "player aids" like victory locations, factory indicators, paths, trail breaks, etc. and don't recall there being an issue with white, but I'll have to double check.
There is no white ink in most printers. The printer relies on the paper being white. What appears white on paper is places the printer has not printed. On a transparency page "white" areas are transparent.

JR
 
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