Redone GDW Imperium strategy game board (Photoshop)

[mearrin69]

Yay, finally, a new map!

Hey, everybody. I've been playing around with an app called Tabletop Simulator, which lets you play board games virtually over the Internet. I'm a big fan of wargames but don't have a lot of local players. Over the next little bit I plan to import some of the stuff on my shelf for play in TS.

One of my favorites is GDW's Imperium, a wargame based on the initial Terran/Imperial conflicts in the Traveller universe. It's an amazing game that makes asymmetric warfare (the outnumbered and outgunned Terrans versus the vast Vilani Imperium) somehow seem balanced...and it's definitely fun to kick the interstellar butts of some too-many-vowel human-but-not-human aliens.

If you're not familiar with Traveller then maybe none of that made sense to you. No matter because...map, with hexes!

I laid this out in Photoshop using a photo I took of my original Imperium board (actually, it's a later edition) and then just building up layers from there. I think the starry background is a public domain image from Hubble. The hex overlay is from Incompetech, with many times many (736) hex number labels. Stars and planetary surface markers and jumplines are all just shapes with layer styles. I built up a copy of the original logo using shapes and the pen tool. The Terran Federation symbol is, simply, the UN symbol with the wreath stripped off...though it's slightly different from the original in the game, I doubt many will notice. I started with one file, broke it into other files as sizes climbed, and finally pasted the several bits back into a single file as layers for export.

The finished map is 5,000 on the long side, the max allowed for a game board in Tabletop Simulator. The one I'm posting is 50% scale, because it's 12Mb at full size.

I've started working on the counter sheets for the Imperials and Terrans. I don't think they'll take too long, though the ship shapes are a bit intricate. Once that's done I'll scan and remake the turn/resource/victory trackers and such and start importing all of that into TS.

Hopefully you guys dig it!
M

[mearrin69]

BTW, here is a sample of the unit counters. Imperial forces: destroyer, infantry and jump infantry (elites), and world and outpost counters.

destroyer-counter.pnginf-counters.pngworlds.png

[arsheesh]

I've not played the game, but this is a nice clean readable game board layout (the red labels are a little more difficult to read however). Nice work. And nice to see another of your maps Mearrin.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[mearrin69]

Thanks, Arsheesh. Appreciate the comment! Hoping to find time to do more maps in the coming year. I have a request from a friend to make a Star Trek galaxy map so I'm going to work on that soon and will post here.

Yeah, the text is difficult to read even on the original board. I did not help readability with my choice of font. The GDW original used a simple non-serif but I used Venus Rising in the title box and kinda liked it. It's not easy to read at a distance, however. At 100% it isn't too bad...and in TS you'll have to zoom in if you want to read hex numbers, finely manipulate counters, and such anyway so I went with it.
M

Edit: Finished up the Imperial counter sheet, BTW. Turned out okay, I think. Can't recall if this is saved at 50% or 25%.

[mearrin69]

Final post on this. Terran forces counter sheet.

Imperium---Terran-Forces.png

[Ilanthar]

Clean and efficient map. The counters are really cool.
Well done Mearrin!

[mearrin69]

Thank you, Ilanthar!