Sinister Cities Tactical Maps Review

More than meets the eye!

While on a 2D kick, I decided I needed an urban environment but didn't have the tiles and other goodies to work with. Unlike some products that just had streets, I wanted some top-down buildings. That's when I came across these, Sinister Cities: Tactical City Maps. As you know, I'm a huge fan of David Okum's art style so it was only natural to place it in my cart.

A little All Things Zombie Evolution featuring one of the vans. Also, some custom tokens.

What you get: You get 16 urban tiles that are top-down; sort of like the Hero Click maps. You can arrange them in various different ways to suit just about any modern, future, pulp, etc. games. I'm no mathematician but you can probably make thousands of different combinations. The instructions do suggest that you glue them to some foam board to make them more substantial. I may or may not mount them on foam, we shall see.

There are also two tiles that have layered interiors. You can print off the initial building without interiors, then turn off all layers except the interiors so you can just print off the interiors to use separately as your characters go in the door, as seen below. There is an additional floor on the factory but I didn't print it off.

Overlay on!

Bonus Material: I also needed some 2D cars and, to my surprise, it already had a whole selection of cars, vans, etc. No trucks or motorcycles but that's not a big deal. You get 13 different cars, including 2 police cars and 2 vans. I may fiddle around with one of the vans and convert it into an ambulance. No zombie outbreak is complete without an ambulance or two. Also included are top-down crates, rubble, trash bags, upturned trash cans, and traffic barricades, nice touches.

Some of the bonus material in a parking lot.

Visual Appeal: Overall, I'm happy with how they look. Pretty standard urban environment and what you would expect. Details like trash on the ground, manhole covers, skid marks, etc. The only real gripe I have is the square grids. I wish there was a layer where you could turn off the grids but it's not a deal breaker, especially with the two pages of bonus material you get.

Zombies approaching! I may have to back them with foam board but they may just need flattened out a bit.

Final Opinion: If you need top-down views of urban environments, you can't go wrong here! Whether it be zombie apocalypse, modern fantasy, gang wars, futuristic cities, etc. you'll find this set useful.