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.

Mats By Mars Review

The Green Meadow mat with orc blood spilled upon it.

I've been meaning to do a review on my Mats By Mars battle mats. In particular,the 30" x 30" Rumble Mats. I have quite a few actually. They include Green Meadow, Bustling City, Desert, Koncrete Blok (dark), and Winter's Wrath as well as some 24" x 24" in Dark Caribbean (water), Desert, and Urban Strike. I feel the 30" x 30" is great for what I had to play on at the time, a folding card table. Now I have a larger table to play on but I still like the Rumble Mats. Truth be told, I accidentally ordered the 24" x 24" mats last Christmas! I did, however, get the water one for Pirates of the Spanish Main on purpose.

You can get a wide range of sizes from 24" x 24" to 48" x 72" in a variety of different overlays if you have a specific need for something like that. As you can see, I didn't use an overlay. 

Let's look at them more closely...

In defense of the tower! Swordplay 2015 Battle Report AAR

 As I left off last encounter, Sir Scott and his band raided an orc village to save a damsel in distress. Sir Scott and his gang, along with their newest member Jenkins (Rep 4 human warrior, AC4), sat in their tower basking in the glory of victory. That is until war horns could be heard in the distance...It could only be one thing, the orcs wanted revenge! Throwing together a hasty defense (and an equally hasty narrative!), Sir Scott and his grunts set out to defend their home.

My newest piece of terrain that I built! These guys better defend it...

Two Hour Wargames Swordplay 2015: A quick review and battle report

 Swordplay 2015 is a FREE set of introductory fantasy/ancient non-gunpowder era skirmish rules by Two Hour Wargames. If you've never heard of THW, I'd advise you to check out their website and get the scoop there as this is just my review and not an overview of all the rules. I will touch upon some, however, particularly my favorites.

 Swordplay is offered in both PDF format for free and printed version for $5 plus S&H. So you've got no reason not to pick them up and check them out! This is a complete gaming system, not just a teaser. There's also a set of gunpowder/modern/sci-fi rules (Chain Reaction 2015, see above link) as well that is worth checking out and guess what? It's also free in PDF form!

So if you're interested in learning more of how I feel about the game, please read on! (Battle report is after the review if you want to skip on down there.)

Mini terrain tutorial and a picture of my small village...

 So I was walking through the garden section at Wal-Mart when I came across one of these buggers...

Miracle-Gro GrowAbles seed pod

 Of course, being the miniature guru that I am, I thought if I flipped it over it would make a great stone marker! Maybe an objective, statue, magical stone, etc. So I picked up a couple and ever since then I've been on a terrain binge. Here's how I did it!

Step 1: Open up the pod and dig out the dirt and seeds...You don't want that stuff in there on the battlefield, I think there's animal poop in there!...Or maybe you do, that's your business!

Step 2: You can optionally add a base like I did or simply leave it as is. There's a nice lip around it if you don't want to have a base.

Step 3: Prime and paint however you like! Looking back at it now, I might repaint it but for now, it's okay.

 Total time, about 20 minutes for two of the suckers. Here's the end result...Nothing super spectacular but was a nice little terrain piece for cheap and little work.

All done! As you can see, the little design kind of makes it look of elvish perhaps...

Charge the blurry dwarf!

And finally, I've always admired the houses in my Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd Edition rule book and I wanted a small village of my own in a similar make. I managed to find a couple good templates, set to work cobbling some cardboard together with hot glue, texturing with wall filler, thatch roofed it with hot glue, and slapped some paint on it. Very happy with the results!

Needs some orc invaders!

 Thanks for having a look!

My first attempt at a "DIY Caulk Battle Mat"

I was recently looking into buying a battle mat. Something I could roll up as space gets more limited it seems. I also wanted something that wouldn't break the bank. With a baby on the way this fall, both of these things had to come into consideration!

 That's when I found this awesome tutorial on how to make battle mats using canvas, caulk, and paints! Seemed like a project I could tackle rather inexpensively. Here's a quick look at how mine turned out...Not too shabby for around $10 worth of materials! Not to mention, I've got plans to make a whole bunch of different ones, including some smaller ones for my 10 mm and 15 mm figures.

Randomly placed figures and terrain!

 Another key factor was the size of my playing area. I have a beloved card table that I use for almost everything, from crafting to playing games on. While the ideal size for most of my games is 3'x3', my table is only 33" x 33". With a custom mat, it was as simple as measuring and snipping out the right size. :)

Painted to match my basing style.

Incoming!

 So there you have it. Cheap, durable, able to be stored, and looks halfway decent. Thanks for reading!