Journal #13 - oh, those beautiful new tiles!

Much is happening in Pedion-verse, which I would really like to share! But what I really want to do with this blog post is to show off -without a shred of shame- the newly created beautiful pictures of Tile Types unlocked as Stretch Goals during the Kickstarter. But some business first...

No, this is not a real Greek beach, is Pedion Coastline tile... more below ;)

Pledge Manager (and extra pre-orders) are Live; lock your stuff!

You will pleased to know that the pledge management system is up and running, and all backers have received an invite to lock their pledges. Almost half of them have actually gone and finalized their rewards already, so we are moving on! The Pledge Manager is set-up as part of the Pedion e-shop. This has another advantage: not only can backers add more last minute stuff to their pledges, but people who missed the Kickstarter have their (last) chance to pre-order Pedion Battlefield Sets! The Pledge manager will be open up to the end of the month, so not much time left to take advantage of Kickstarter prices and shipping.

New, Unlocked versions of Tile Types

As many may know, we unlocked an awful large number of new themes, tile types and combinations during the Kickstarter Campaign. Because of the hectic rhythm of those days, we managed to create prototypes for only a few of them -those of the first Stretch Goals reached- like Green Grass Ponds, Craters etc. However, there were a LOT more stuff made available, mostly as extra options to the existing tile types, which we did not manage to show during the campaign but only to describe it.

While we were mass-preparing tiles for the backers' orders, we also made sure that these unlocked options were implemented. We wanted to have a picture of at least some of the new options available for the Pledge Manager, so the backers could have a better idea and base their choice in what they saw and not what they read.

Another cool fact about the tiles/add-ons you will see below is that they are not mock-ups or prototypes - they are backer stuff. So, here are some images to see for yourselves, and we are very proud of how they are turning out!

Frozen option for the "Pond" tile: a special liquid glass option for the Winter themed boards with a pond included. The pond is complete cast in epoxy resin.

The Frozen Pond tile (winter theme, liquid glass)

River with floating ice pieces: Staying in the Winter theme, another option of displaying the river surface was to add floating ice pieces. The idea is not to have a completely frozen river, but to show how cold it is, and perhaps assign some wargame attribute to the ice pieces (perhaps making the river passable?). Notice the darker blue/black of the winter water.

The ice floating pieces are cast in white/blue transparent resin

Two river tiles joined. The upper tile represents a "Ford" tile, with a winter dirt road reaching the riversides. The "square" shapes showing on the river banks are magnetic hardoints for trees, walls, bridges, buildings etc

Now, to our pride and joy, the Coastline tile types. Coastline/Riversides were requested by the backers and unlocked close to the end. The Straight, Concave and Convex tiles will be of two types (2 different molds). The delta and the open water of one type (molds in progress). The tiles you see below are cast in resin or resin and liquid glass for the respective version. Also, the "water" tile sides also connect magnetically (we did not want to have to apply constant pressure on the tile corner by clipping velcro). Also, ALL the sloped beach part is Magnetic, so players can snap walls, bunkers, artillery or anything else on them.

Coast tile, Straight beach, type I, Green theme, Painted Version

Coast tile, Concave beach, type I, Green theme, Painted Version

The straight and concave tiles connected

Coast tile, Convex beach, type II, Green theme, Liquid Glass Version

another view of the beautiful liquid glass version

Urban Road Tiles: about midway during the campaign, a stretch goal unlocked which is a personal favorite. Now you can get a series of tiles to create a board of an urban environment, ready for man-made structures like buildings, ruins, factories, sandbags etc. Skirmish games become more and more popular and with urban tile options you could get the basis for a neighborhood, be it a fantasy village, a modern town or a futuristic off-planet settlement. Backers had already seen our cobblestone/dirt road version, now we present two variations of the many available: a scifi straight road tile, and a 28mm modern crossroads tile.

Urban Straight road tile: 7cm, light blue "plastisteel" surface, Caution line sides, light grey "plastisteel" tile texture, FULLY magnetic

X Crossroads Urban tile, 14cm road, Asphalt, 28mm scale pedestrian stripes, Magnetic sidewalks, Sandstone tile texture

Variant River Flows: Along with the more exotic, scifi themes for our boards, unlocked two new "river" flows, lava and green toxic... stuff! These fillings can also be applied to fill craters, ponds or even "seas"/"lakes". Check them on Grey waste and Red planet tiles. The Red planet tile has a more alien look with special minerals. Again, the square shapes are actual magnetic hardpoints.

Lava flow on regular Grey Wastes theme, painted version

Green toxic river, painted version

Sci-Fi Crystal Formations: even better than minerals, backers can now order MAGNETIC crystals which give a very scifi look on their boards. If they look realistic, it's because they are fully based on real Jade formations. They are cast in transparent coloured resin, at various shapes.

purple crystal

green crystal

"clear" crystal

cobalt blue crystal

I have even more stuff to show you, especially the new Elevation change System we developed; but it will have to wait till my next blog post. If you liked the new stuff and the images, please share the word with people interested and -of course- get yourselves some in the eshop!

Good gaming all,

George

Journal #5 - or, Into the Dark Forest

Ready to see more of my prototype tiles for Pedion™? It's time to show you what I have in mind for my Forests - and I think you will find it pretty ambitious.

A short recap: as mentioned in my previous posts, I intent each and every one of my 30x30 cm (1'x1') tiles to represent a unique feature, to act as a special battlefield characteristic. This will add variation to your terrain, and allow you to add or subtract tiles depending on your battle scenario layout (or your wargaming whim!). Terrain features are not intended to be placed upon Pedion tiles (not that you could not do this with terrain you may already own), but are actually part of the tile itself. This allows  for better and realistically looking terrain, not to mention some specific capabilities built into the tiles. On post #4 I started presenting these particular tile categories by showing the simpler and more numerous Plain Grass and Broken Ground Tiles.

Now we move on to what I call Forest Tiles.

Heracles fighting the centaur Nessus in a Pedion Forest - minis are actually 32mm toy figures stolen from my son

The concept of "Forest" tiles is really simple but innovative: dedicate an area on a tile (covering most of its surface) as forest/difficult terrain. This area is not only painted differently but will also be magnetically enabled, to add trees and other forest features on top. The main characteristics of the Forest tiles are:

• The players may place the Forest tiles anywhere in a Pedion™ battlefield, or adjacent to each other, creating a larger forest: the "forest" borders are drawn in such a way to connect on one side!
• The "forest"area on each tile is defined by color and textures, and can be declared by the players to act as Forest, Difficult Terrain, or Cover Terrain, depending on their wargaming rules. The "forest" area DOES NOT PROTRUDE from the neighboring terrain, but feels completely as a part of it. Therefore, miniatures and Unit bases do not have to "climb" when entering the forest, as is the case with most forest pieces in the market.
• The defined area is also magnetically enabled (either by metal "hard-points" either painted with magnetic primer). Thus, the player can place on top any kind of terrain feature -like trees, bushes, logs, rocks- with magnetic bases. The tiles are designed this way in order to allow for a) aesthetic placement, b) different sizes of trees in case of smaller scales, and mainly c) enable the players to remove only the trees that are in the way of their units movement or placement, without either ruining the whole forest nor trying to fit the miniatures in the spaces among the trees. The magnetic connections is strong enough to protect the trees from scattering when the tile is moved accidentally.
• The metal hard-points allow for declaring the Forest tiles as other kinds of terrain, depending on your rules. For instance, by placing rock formations or bushes with magnetic bases, you can declare the tile as Cover terrain.

The borders of the forested area on the tiles are not randomly drawn but are digitized from real forests' borders near rural areas, as shown on satellite images. Two main Forest tiles are designed, which can either be used independently, or -as mentioned- can be combined into a larger forest.

To create the magnetically enabled area, I tried two methods: placing metal hardpoints (coins) in various places and painting the whole area with magnetic primer. I used one method on the first tile and the other on the second type of tile. After caulking, painting, flocking etc, it seems that placing some kind of metal produces a better, more stable method, as the hardpoints remain strong enough for the magnet bases to snap unto.

Let me show you the development of the tiles themselves over some photos:

The two types of forest tiles, with the adjoining forest shapes - one has the metal coins to attract the magnet bases

Basecoating - the grey on the left is the magnetic primer

Texturing - tree bark and filler are combined for the larger rock foramtions

Drybrushing and Flocking - you can glimpse the metal circular areas for the trees to snap onto.

The second tile is ready - it looks great but the magnetic primer does react that strongly to magnets under all the paint layers and flocking

The two prototypes look good, much better actually than what you can see in the pictures. However, I would try to define the border of the magnetized area more strongly, as now it seems to blend with the surrounding grass. Though is looks amazing and realistic, these tiles will be used for wargaming and the players must know exactly when the forest/cover area stops.

After the tiles, it was time to create overhead forest features, like trees. As I said above, the forest tiles can be used for a variety of tree scales and even for non-forest features like rock formations. For my prototype I created mostly trees, of different sizes, and some extra forest floor features, like bushes, rocks, fallen logs etc, if the players want to add variety and some rise and falls to the forest floor.


The trees are ready made, mostly from Noch. I sculpted polystyrene foam bases for them, to fit the rear earth magnets underneath, which were painted, dry-brushed and flocked. Check my efforts in the pictures:

The tree trunks are inserted and glued to sculpted  foam bases 

Preparing some trees for smaller scale (15mm or less) games

Inserting and gluing rear earth magnets

Preparing forest floor decoration pieces

Texturing

Finished trees and forest features - goblin warrior for scale!

The trees also came out great. Their only problem is that sometimes the magnet may come off when attracted to the metal forest floor - so I will probably keep it in place by covering the whole base with tape.

If anything, the trees and forest stuff come too good - that is, they take too long to make. Since the each tile sports quite a large forest area, it needs a lot of trees to look realistic. Six (6) trees would be the absolute medium, and only for scales like 20mm to 28mm. Therefore, I have to take note and accelerate the tree-making process, or the forest tile cost will rise disproportionately.

Check out some photos of how the Forest tiles look populated with trees and bushes, especially when the two tiles are joined next to each other.

So, let's suppose that you are using the beautiful Pedion™ Forest Tiles, full of trees, for your battle. In the pictures below a sample unit of goblin archers reaches on its round the forest...

(just some old Games Workshop goblins)

On its round, the unit moves 6" into the forest - no problem! No climbing, and all the player has to do is remove for a bit any trees or features in the way.

Next round, and the unit left the forest. Putting the trees back is no fuss

Forest tiles are good terrain features, and those tiles cover all the requirements I had for Pedion. However, I am not sure every battlefield commander will want forest tiles - so I will probably not add them into basic Pedion™ configurations. This will help to keep the overall cost low.

When adding a forest tile, it will include at least six tree stands - and you can always add more trees or different features in the future, even ones you already own.

As always, I do want your opinions, comments and ideas. And more tile categories will be presented in future blog posts - stay tuned. Till then, good gaming all!