Game Board Map Design

[Kraft]

Hello everyone!

Although I am not a cartographer myself, I really enjoyed most of the incredible works on this side. So I thought you might be exactly of that type which could help me.

My problem:
In the last three months I grew a serious board game addiction so I decided to try something by myself. My nephew will celebrate his 16. birthday in January so it will be a present for him. Since he is nearly 16 I figured something with action should be nice, something like Battlelore. The problem is I want to reuse my Warhammer-Models for it, means I cannot use the board of that game since its too small. I need something bigger and therefore I have to create it myself. But I do not know a single thing about building a map or even designing a single hex tile!

Are there any templates or programs for it?

Greetings
Kraft

[xpian]

Wow, sounds like a fun and ambitious project.

[Chick]

If you want to do it yourself, let's start with two things .... (1) what graphics software do you have to work with (MSPaint, Photoshop, etc?), and (2) have you drawn a sketch or layout of what you want the board to look like?

[jkat718]

If you really want a cheap and easy way to make a hex map, check out Hexographer, over at Inkwell Ideas.You don't need the pro (i.e. paid) version, and the freeware is fantastic as it is.

[Tomalak]

I think the easiest way to do what you are looking for is to use the tutorials on this site to make the map, then overlay a hexgrid. Although there are numerous ways to do that, this site will let you build hex or grid paper to specifications quickly & easily. You can open the PDF file the site (Incompetech) gives you in your drawing software (I use photoshop) to put it overtop your map. This method will let you put most of your effort into getting your map the way you want it.

When planning your battlemap, remember 2 important things:
1) The human eye cannot generally see anything more detailed than around 300 pixels-per-inch, so that's a good resolution for printing, if you want high-detail.
2) Printing on paper that's bigger than 11"x17" can be expensive. It might help to contact your local print shop and check out pricing before you plan how big to make your game-board.

It sounds like you've got a fun project planned, stick with it and don't be afraid to come back for more help if you need it!