Swashbuckling on the fabulous City Canals & Harbours!

Presenting a Swashbuckling battle on a "Medieval" Urban themed Pedion city setup at the local Club. A feast for the eyes, the 4'x3' board accommodated a fight of the famous Musketeers vs. the Cardinal's Guard!
This time we will deviate from our usual "production" blog post, to share this incredible spectacle. Games like this are actually the reason I started Pedion, and why our Battlefields exist: beautiful, diorama-like games, setup in 5-10 minutes, carried at your local club in any regular gameday, and all carried away in 3 boxes. All other scenery and miniatures well enhanced, to a mind blowing result. And at the same time, we enjoyed a solid, full gaming experience, where scenics were not "in the way" of the game. In case you like the Urban tiles, you can still pre-order them for a few days more at the eshop

Rue Richelieu

Battle Info

We set the fight in Toulouse of 1627, with Luis XIII visiting for the inspection of the first miles of Canal en Languedoc - destined to eventually connect Toulouse (and its river Garonne) with the Mediterranean. But the canal waters "hide" the mismanagement and misappropriation of funds by Cardinal's Richelieu people!

Toulouse, Spring 1627 - River Garonne and the start of Canal Royal en Languedoc

Outskirts and the use of our Slope Elevation system to create an uphill street

Their Majesties (and the Cardinal) admire the Canal works

Musketeers Porthos and d'Artagnan lead a continent of their fellows, to inform Their Majesties, as they exit from the morning Mass held in the Basilica of Saint-Sernin. But the ever-present Cardinal was informed by Lady de Winter, and sends Count Rochefort with plans to stop them!

Porthos and d'Artagnan lead a unit of Musketeers and Servants to find the King (NW corner placement)

Lady de Winter and Count de Rochefort lead the Guard and their thugs to stop the coming Musketeers (SW corner placement)

Rochefort leads Halberdeirs and Matchlock carrying thugs to take position on the west end of the main road, Rue Richelieu

The main Cardinal's Guard makes sure their master is ok before trying to cut the Musketeers from the southern access. The Cardinal orders Captain Marcheaux to stop the troublemakers!

The Game

The Skirmish was between two warbands, Musketeers vs Cardinal's Guard, with the main purpose of one routing the other. We used the *EXCELLENT* rules of "En Garde" from Osprey Publishing/ Osprey Games which capture the single-miniature swordfights' spirit admirably!
Many of the terrific images have some battle info on their descriptions. But needless to say, the Musketeers once more foiled the plans of the Cardinal and his lackeys and carried the day!

The Musketeers see the coming Guards and choose to cross into Rue Richelieu. The waiting thugs open fire, but to no effect. 

Porthos takes position next to the bridge, waiting for captain Marcheaux to come to him

d'Artagnan joins the fight on the street, to help his soldiers

The Cardinal's Guard storms the bridge

More Thugs come up a side alley and daring swordfight occurs!

The 4th Musketeer lives up to his legend - thugs fall to his swordsmanship, among them Lay de Winter herself (the rascal, striking at women!)

Rochefort starts to get anxious, as more Musketeers come his way

Porthos shows that his fame as the most powerful warrior is not understated: he single-handedly brings down Marcheaux and his horse!

On the Nwest end we have the final showdown: d'Artagnan vs Rochefort. The two duel like there is no tomorrow, but in the end, Rochefort has suffered a Grievous wound to a simple Stun for the Musketeer. The count knows when he is beaten and flees, vowing revenge!!!

You want more detailed info (and photos)? Check out corresponding facebook post!

What we used

The terrain is of course the pre-painted urban wargaming tiles from Pedion, as well as our new lines of Bridges, Walls and Trees - just check http://pedion.ecwid.com to get yours!

Miniatures are from the collections of George Panopoulos and Panos Mountis, originating mostly from the "Musketeers" line of Redoubt Enterprises with additions from the Renaissance lines from Warlord Games. They were beautifully painted by Fedros Dimitriou, Andreas Panagopoulos, George Manis and Thodoros Galanis.

Le Carrefour

Buildings are mostly from the David Graffam excellent papercraft line, along with 3D UMBUM kits. Several details, like the market stand and the wooden pier were created by George Manis and Andreas Voyadzis .

Le Pont

Panos Mountis starred as d'Artagnan and Andreas Voyadzis as Porthos, against the machinations of George Panopoulos as the Cardinal and Fedros Dimitriou as Rochefort.

I hope you like what you saw - I can only stress how great it was for us!
Good gaming,

George

P.S. (Historical) - The works for Royal Canal en Languedoc commenced about 50 years later, destined to become Canal du Midi - but why let this stand in the way of fun ;)

New Stone Bridge, full revamp of Walls and Fences!

We are proud to present a new, tabletop-ready stone bridge, and a full series of painted walls and more - check the eshop !

The new stone bridge: made from quality resin, assembled and painted, ready to adorn your tabletop

Hello all, and I hope you have enjoyed your Summer!
I have some exciting news to share: while full at work preparing even more Outdoors boards and getting ready to launch our Urban Battlefields Pledge Manager in September, we decided to re-design and re-launch our bridges and wall system line (there is no such thing as free time, it seems :) ).

The main motivation was the development of the Urban Sets and the Canal System for our KS2 backers. I wanted a series of interesting, beautiful and practical terrain pieces which could be combined with the new tiles, to enhance the new landscapes. So, first came the complete redesign of the old bridge, with something to span the new canals. And then we took it even further, creating a new line of walls and fences.

Everything presented below is intended to enhance mainly the coming series of Urban tiles. However, they are already into production, so you can grab yours sooner.

The new Stone Bridge 

When we unlocked the impressive city canals in the Urban tiles Kickstarter, I promised the backers of making available some bridge designs to span those openings and connect city areas. Since there will be two different themes for Quay designs (Medieval and Contemporary), I went ahead and designed two different bridge styles. The "modern" one is still in the works, and will have an asphalt surface. But the "Medieval" one is finished, moulded and cast in many copies already - so you can get yours now here!

"Medieval" Stone bridge; cast in high quality resin, fully painted, with a cobblestone pattern on the surface

The idea was to design a stone bridge which would not only work with the new canal tiles, but would be able to span the rivers of our original river tiles, especially at the "ford" river tile type (where road tiles can "connect" and cross "river" tiles). Therefore, the new bridge fully replaces the older (flat) design we had made available for river fords. The old design has been removed from the store, and all backers and clients with a bridge in their order will actually be getting an upgrade to the newer bridge, at no additional cost.

It works (and looks) great even on "Dirt" road ford tiles

The Bridge is cast in solid, durable high quality resin, and has a slight arch with a span of 14cm. Its width is 9cm, although the available surface for movement is 7cm wide. As everything we make, it is ready to be used straight on your tabletop!

Revamping the Walls' System

Walls and fences decorate almost every corner of the urban environs, and I wanted our backers to have some extra options for theirs. Our previous wall system, whilst ingenious, seemed to lack the practicality for everyday usage and gaming. Most people tried to use our walls and hedges without columns, or the columns were not working properly - it was time to revamp the design.

The new "Stone Walls" in a row with an Urban based Hedge

I wanted something simpler and more practical, but at the same time more sturdy and good looking! So I went ahead and re-designed a full range of walls and fences, which look great and cover most gaming needs. The new walls were expanded to include "Stone Walls", "Walls with Irregular Stones" and "Large Brick walls". All are cast in high quality resin, are extremely sturdy, they look stunning and they stay upright (although there is still the option to magnetise their bottoms). Their lengths vary from 10 to 12cm, their height is at 2.5 cm and they are 1-1.5 cm thick. They are sold in sets of twos, and you can find them in the eshop

Irregular Stone Walls

Stone Walls

Large Brick Walls

As with the bridges, any backers with walls included in their orders, will get the new designs as a free upgrade.

And we didn't stop there; our previous "hedges" were simple and affordable, but it was time to upgrade them to something closer to the quality of our Battlefields. The old idea was thrown away, and the new Hedges are now available: full irregular 3D creations, shaded in green - or flocked if you want to go the extra step.

Hedge fence, flocked variant

They are made from sturdy plastic sponge and pvc, and they stretch for 14cm with a thickness of ~2cm. Their tops and sides are hand-sculpted to be irregular, with a maximum height of 3cm. They come in sets of twos as well, with the option of getting them simply painted or realistically flocked.

The new Hedge fences - flocked vs. painted comparison

However, in an Urban environment, hedges don't usually grow unchecked. So I also designed an "Urban Based" Hedge fence, which includes a large grey stone planter underneath.

Urban Based Hedge Fence

The flower box is cast in quality resin, the fence is 14cm long, 3cm wide and reaches up to 4cm in height.

Last but not least, I would be remiss if I did not included an option for the modern and futuristic battlefield: here comes the Wirefence, a completely new addition in our line.

Wirefences can be stabilised by snapping on steel disks on their end poles

The fence is basically made from high quality aluminum mesh, and each of the two end posts is attached to a small but strong neodymium magnet. Along with the fence, we include two small slim steel disks to act as bases. You can use the disks to stabilise your fence, or alternatively, bend the fence at any post to create wirefence corners. The aluminum mesh can be bent and restored for as many times as you wish.

Each Set includes 1 wirefence section of 25 cm length, and 4.5cm high, along with two slim steel disks (2cm diameter).


I sincerely hope you like these new scenic designs. They are already under production, so while they were designed to enhance the new Urban sets, you can get them beforehand in their new eshop page.

Good gaming,

George

Last 48hrs - and SciFi PEDION Modular Terrain available!

It is quite a thing to see your Campaign's counter reaching the "hour" format. You know that a journey is almost over, and you start planing what really matters: the implementation of your dream.
"Almost" being the keyword here; a bit less than 2 whole days can be a long enough time for good, innovative things to happen!

The clock is ticking. Pedion will be around, but this is your chance to get terrain in great prices and help us design even better stuff: support Pedion on Kickstarter, get the last terrain you will ever need!

Why now? Because Pedion has gotten better than ever: SciFi themed ground variations have been unlocked, Urban tiles and free stuff are just a breath away, and a new, "get'em all" pledge reward level is available!

How about some Science Fiction Battlefields?

By surpassing the £25000 Stretch Goal, backers may order their Set and Add-on tiles in two new variations, suitable to a more futuristic/apocalyptic setting: the "Red Planet" and the "Grey Wastes". The new paint/texture variations can be applied to all existing tile types, and they Unlock two new tiles: the Impact Crater and the Artillery Craters types.
The impact Crater tile includes one big crater, with the smooth style of craters cause by large asteroid impacts. The artillery craters are smaller, with the jagged edges of exploding ground. The Craters are an add-on, or you can Upgrade your Plain/Broken Ground tiles into them!
You can even "fill" them with some liquid, like water or lava... !

The Grey Wastes, Artillery craters tile

The Red Planet, Impact crater tile

Finally, another "upgrade" option unlocked for SciFi battlegrounds is the exchange of "normal" water on River and Pond Tiles, to Lava or Green toxic flows!

The New EPIC, Kickstarter only, Pledge!

Since we have unlocked a lot of new features (and probably will unlock more), we introduced a brand new pledge level, a great "get-them-all" reward for the 15 first among you! So, as a Kickstarter only Set, you may now get a huge 8'x4' Battlefield Set at £500, and it includes 32 Pedion tiles:

• 5 Plain Grass tiles, 
• 4 Broken Ground tiles, 
• 2 Forest tiles + 12 magnetic trees, 
• 1 Badlands tile + 4 magnetic Rock Formations, 
• 4 Road tiles (2 straight, 2 turns), 
• 8 Painted River tiles (1 turn, 1 Widening turn, 6 straight),
• 1 River Ford tile, 
• 3+2 Hill tiles, 
• 2 Crops/Orchard Tiles + 8 magnetic Fruit trees, 
• 1 Pond tile, 
• 1 Swamp upgrade + 1 magnetic Willow, 1 River marshland upgrade, 
• 1 Artillery craters tile, 
• 2x sets of Crop tile Fences. 

To this you may add 3 extra free trees and 1 free rock formation, as well any other SG freebies. So. do you have the space? For this is the wargaming board that includes EVERYTHING up to the £28K Stretch Goals! Full of features, either for 8'x4' epic battles or for multiple smaller configurations. Do not expect a photo of this monster, I do not have such a big table :)

Those SciFi/Urban tiles

The next Stretch Goal is tantalizingly close! At £30000 backer will be able to add a number of tile types more suited to an Urban environment: either SciFi, Modern or Gothic, perfect for wargaming in in such an enviroment.

The Urban tiles are mostly re-designs of the main Road tiles, with added texture and road options. Specifically:

1. To the existing 7cm Road width there will be another width added, 14cm; Such a wide road can easily be considered a double-lane road at 28-32mm or a highway in 15mm. 
2. To the existing Road surfaces (cobbled, dirt, asphalt) two new, futuristic surfaces will be added: Aluminum Hoverway (a bright, aluminum textured surface, that can denote hovercraft or spacecraft lanes and landing strips) and Plastisteel (Square or Hex grid in light grey or blue coloring)
3. Roadsides are expanded; apart from dirt (magnetic), now three more types will be available: raised 1" sidewalks (magnetic), sloped 1/2" black/yellow caution hatch (magnetic) and the impressive 1/3" LED illuminated roadsides (non-magnetic) - read more below*.
4. Tile textures are expanded with an urban range. So far, road tiles included the texture of their greater set (eg Green grass for Spring Green theme). Now, many more more Urban-appropriate textures can be selected for your urban tiles: Grey cement (all magnetic), Irregular cobblestone (all magnetic), Stone pattern (Granite or Sandstone, plasticard, magnetic hardpoints), Brick Pattern (plasticard, magnetic hardpoints), Futuristic Plastisteel Grid (Square or Hex, all magnetic)

WIP: Urban tile, with Aluminum Hoverway road, Illuminated roadsides* and Plastisteel grid texture (fully magnetic)

Backers can choose whatever combination of surface, roadside and tile texture for their Urban Sets. They can even choose some tile to be "transition" tiles from the rest of their Set; that means that tile on one side of the road can have an Urban texture and on the other the regular tile texture, like Grass.

The Urban tiles will be available as add-ons in sets, of 2, 4, 6 and 9 pieces.

Prototype of Illuminated Roadsides - LED strips clip to one another and transfer power*

*The Illuminated option roadside add-on is based on high quality, extremely low-voltage LED strips. One of the tiles is connected to a 12V power source (battery) and then the tiles snap one into another, so all LEDs can switch on and off. LED Strips will be silicon protected on final product. Manufacture and installation of lighting elements will be contacted by MP Illumination, the leader in technical lighting solutions in Greece.(www.mpillumination.com)

Who wants some Coastline?

And there is a new Stretch Goal as well! Many people love the idea of playing Sea battles or making D-Day scenarios come through. Pedion will deliver, if we reach £32000: we will unlock Tile designs for:

1. Sea/Water Tiles
2. Straight Coastline/Lakeside 
3. Curved Coastline/Lakeside
4. River Delta

What are you waiting for? Come and help us make everything true!

Good gaming,

George

Journal #1 - or, What I need from a modular terrain board?

So, this is my first post - my ramblings on creating a terrain board to play my wargames on, and my decisions that will shape (pardon the pun) the final form of the Pedion (tm) terrain tiles.

Please, whomever happens upon these lines, please bear with me: I am neither a native English speaker, nor have I written any kind of fan-blog entries before. And for any Greek speakers, please use the "translate" button on the right, hope it will help!

How it started? By giving into my desire to play as many wargames as possible. And I do not mean board wargammes, with chits, counters and hex boards, but the "paint-field-move-miniatures' army" kind. My friends will know I am an avid role player but I did not play wargames at home, and wanted to start doing so.

The painter-modeler in me wanted an appropriate battlefield to place my armies. I can live with playing with book stacks, boxes and rubbers, it is perfectly fine - it just ruins the experience for me, as it does for many people I guess.

Another common problem is that I do have a table, which is large and sturdy enough. However, living in a flat, that means the table rests in the living room (or the kitchen or someplace equally non-game friendly) and not in a play-room or garage. Therefore, I could not create a magnificent one- or two-piece terrain board, and put it there permanently (or even semi-permanently) without disrupting my domestic life (read: my wife would crucify me).
Actually, space is a commodity that I find exceptionally dear in a flat, as do many of you: terrain boards and big feature pieces, while so cool looking, need some place to store. And they take a LOT of room, usually far away from where you need them most; that is, the living room table (again, storing them next to china and crystals proves ...unhealthy).

Why the long intro? So you can understand what led me to stating the requirements further below. Keep in mind - I would kill to have some of those incredibly looking, large an heavy terrain boards/tables where I could easily game in no time. But having only a living room table and limited storage space, I have to find something that suits me.

Being not the first into such dire straights, there are a number of solutions for gamers like me. They can be generalized into three broad categories:

1. the flat, printed board; either on plain plotter paper, cardboard or vinyl you may now print battlefield 2D pictures with reasonable cost, even for large sizes like 6'x4' tables. Or the flat surface can well be a tablecloth (usually green) or a large static grass mat. These are great solutions and I have used them many times (and will again). They are especially useful in RPGs or skirmish wargames, they make no mess, they can include a square or hex pattern, and you can roll them and store them away. Of course the rolls are big and take some space. But my main problems with printed surfaces are a) they are flat, and b) they are fixed.
2. adding terrain pieces on a flat board; I guess this is the most common solution - God knows, it is the one I have used so far. It usually is an expansion of the previous solution: get flat green/printed board and add roads, rivers, hills, buildings etc. Its fast, does the job, looks good, and has actual game value: you can create different terrain configurations, depending on the scenario played or even random terrain placement rules. But it does not "look" that realistic. I am not only a modeler by hobby, but an surveying engineer/cartographer by profession. They are not pleasing to my eye and do not reinforce my will to wage battle on them. I am especially sensitive towards the ground features -not the man-made ones, like buildings. I would like hills and roads to look a part of the surrounding terrain, not like afterthoughts. And especially, I cannot stomach rivers, creeks, craters and chasms that actually rise OVER the surrounding ground (ok, only for WWII gaming in the Netherlands) 
3. modular terrain boards; this is the most complicated and more expensive -but also most realistic- solution sort of a fully build terrain tabletop. And they come in all sort and sizes. Here is where Pedion come in. You see, I started searching for commercial solutions in terrain tiles, and while many, none fulfilled me completely. While there are many solutions for dungeon-building, the wargame terrains where quite expensive, big in size, did not allow much variation and came mostly unpainted - and they were expensive, did I say that? One of my favorites -which I almost ordered- is the HEXON II modular terrain; they are modular, lightweight, easily stored, allowing for an extreme variety of battlefields. However, even with them I would have to spend around €200 (that is ~$250) to fill a 6'x4' area of flat green flocked tiles, without any other features... ouch

After examining (and applying) the solutions above, I came to some basic requirements for my wargaming terrain (finally mate, took you long enough). These are:

• Modularity - again, I would love to have a large, uninterrupted gaming board lying around, but I cannot. So I need my terrain to consist from multiple pieces (tiles) that I can pull out of storage and fit together to create the second best thing: a good looking terrain, even if some seams are showing. However, being modular does not mean that it would not offer some advantages: modular tiles should be used to create multiple layouts of the terrain, conforming to different scenarios - something that a fixed (or printed) board cannot do, however beautiful. Many make "modular" boards which are actually larger boards simply cut into pieces. They can be stored away, but always fit the same way (or with slight variations). I want my tiles to support different layouts - check out the great design process from Clarence Harrison over Quindia. Taking this a step further, I would also like my tiles interchangeable, e.g. I could remove some "broken ground" tiles and add some "forest" tiles in their place (kind like HEXON allows).
• Efficient storage - storage space is an issue for me, and I guess for others. Terrain pieces tend to take space. Lot's of it. While this is something you cannot avoid with pieces like houses, trees etc (or can you? I'll let you know in a later post...) perhaps something can be done with the terrain board. Large pieces of board are simply to difficult to store. Rolled prints or mats can fit vertically behind doors or tall closets, but they can fold - and they are too 2D for me. So if I go with modular tiles, I would like them in a size that can be easily stored away. Large tiles take less time to fit into a board but take more space afterwards. Small tiles take more time to layout but be put into a box, on a self (this is something that Hexon does really good, I told you I liked them). What I would like would be tiles which they strike a "golden" medium between size and storage space. Something to fit on a regular 30-40cm (~1 foot) self and stack over another, allowing my to close the cabinet door and keep them out of sight. Stacking is also important: tiles cannot be too high/deep. Stacking 15 or 20 3-5 cm (2") thick tiles one over another can create  a largeee stack that will not fit easily everywhere. I would like my normal (flat, not hilly) tile to rise around 1 or 2 cm (0.4-0.8").
• Lightweight - since I am tending towards a modular system, I will need to move it around. And not only from and towards my table, but to carry it to friends' houses, my game store, conventions, even ship it. Thus I need my tiles to be made from lightweight materials. This is one of the main reasons I would try to avoid eg mdf basing - it's great, but adds a lot of weight, even if the wood is thin. 
• Economy- by this I mean affordable, not cheap. When people and companies charge these sums for their modular tiles, they are not out to make millionaires of themselves (I think). But molds are expensive, and this is the cost you have to pay for a quality product. However, I do believe that there exist materials and techniques that cost less (especially if you are doing it yourself). Perhaps there will be some loss on quality, but the result will not necessarily suffer so much as to be unusable in everyday wargaming. To be more specific, I do not think one can get a good-looking 3D terrain board for a 6x4 table with only $30, but I do not want to spend $250 for an unpainted board either. I would consider something in the price range of $80-120 a decent and honest trade for 4x4 or 4x6 terrain (even if I still lacked the funds to buy it). 
• Durability - as theTerrainTutor aptly calls it, the tiles must be "wargaming resistant". Normal usage and storage should not see them bend, flayed, shrank etc... Not that there will be no wear, especially as long as the production cost goes down....
• Appearance - yes, I would like my tiles to look good, and even come pre-painted and pre-flocked! I know, I could do it myself. However, if I am going to pay over 200 euros, at least the terrain can come ready-to-play. I do not necessarily mean professional looking, drooling over terrain (oh  - my  - GOD!). Realistic 3D terrain that creates the illusion of a real landscape will suffice to let my imagination roar (along with my Dwarves)
• Level Surface - perhaps this sounds at odds with my wish for a 3D terrain board. I mean, if I want flat, I could just roll a grass terrain mat already! What I actually mean is that the terrain should be made for wargames, not for a modeling/railway diorama. I want realistic looking ground, but on the same time I have to move my miniatures along and roll dice. So the tiles should try and strike a fine balance between the illusion of a 3D environment and large flat (or gently sloped) surfaces where the minis do not fall off or get stuck when moving. This annoys the surveyor in me, but I HATE it when the minis do not stand upright...
• Seamless - I understand you cannot escape the joints showing on a modular board. And the smaller the tile size, the larger the number of seams among them. However, I would like the tiles to fit closely, and perhaps a solution to cover the gaps from showing to much. Deep and/or wide seams can even affect gameplay, movement of trays, and dice rolling (dice may fall into the small gap, listing on one side). 
• Connectivity - I would like my tiles to keep together and not move/slide on the tabletop. So something must keep them together. This can be done either by tile shape (an advantage of hex based tiles) or heavier basing - but the latter contradicts to my lightweight requirement above. Plastic tiles sometimes have a connecting system like some sort of clips. The minimum requirement would be a way to stop the tiles from moving horizontally. Now, if it could also allow for raising a bit of the board without some tiles falling off, all the better....

Wow, did you read this far? thank you! I will not rumble anymore, since I will elaborate on how Pedion will tackle these requirements in future blogs. I would welcome your ideas, additions and comments on the points I make, but hold your horses a bit on proposing solutions - these I will discuss in more detail another time. 

As a final note, I give you some images of my first efforts creating a modular tile system that tries to fill the Requirements I mentioned. In some areas it succeeds, in others it fails. What you see is a 4'x4' (approx.) game terrain consisting of road, plain and difficult ground tiles. It is extremely lightweight, easily stored, adequate on appearance, and can be laid out in a myriad of ways. However it lacks on durability and stability. I have moved on from these materials, but tell me what you think. Oh, and the building are just for show - cardboard printouts of the fabulous Dragon Games series. 

Good gaming all!