# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Board Game Mapping >  Battle of Hohenfriedberg (WIP)

## timallen

Hey all.

Its been some time since I worked on a boardgame map.  I have been mostly working on other graphics for Victory Point Games (cards, charts, and such).  But when I was searching around on the BoardGameGeek website I found a kool looking little wargame on the Battle of Hohenfriedberg.  It is a so-called postcard game, as all the important bits can be fitted onto a postcard- the counters, rules and map!  I downloaded it and decided to blow it up in size and punch up the graphics a bit.  Here is the original.

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## timallen

And here after much tweaking, is my version of the same map.

I am also working up some new counters to go with it.  I just need some time to sit down and get this completed.



My apologies for not using the regular attachments manager, but for some reason its not working for me right now.  Instead this image was pasted in here off a wargamers website I frequent.

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## Steel General

Looking good so far...

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## timallen

Thanks.  Last night I changed the coloured markers that show where to set up your units to long rectangles, that hopefully look something like a pre-20th century map of a battlefield.  Oh and just to be clear; this was originally a game I found on the BoardGameGeek website and it was a free downloadable, print-and-play game.  The original came on two pages, with the first page having all the rules, the map and the counters, and the next page a bit of history on the battle.  I was thinking of upsizing the map and putting it and all the rest (except the history) onto an 11x17 page, but now I am thinking of putting the map, counters and rules onto three seperate letter sized pages.  

Doh!  looks like I missed resizing one of the town names.

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## timallen

I have also started working a bit on the counters.  I have been gathering images off the "Junior General" website of top-down views of appropriate soldiers, cavalry, and cannons.  Here is what I have so far...not bad, but much of the detail on the soldiers gets lost when shrinking them down to board-wargame counter size.  I may have to see if something better can be done.  Although these still look pretty good.

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## Greenhorn

Hallo, Tim, very fine map indeed  :Smile: 
But for me the whole work is a little bit flawed because there's a little typo in the name of the battle: should be "Hohenfriedberg" (without the 3rd "e"). Now you may call me a nitpicker but imagine a game with f.e. "Gettisburg" prominently in the title  :Wink: 
Note that the left side is the north side. So you may add a little compass or something like that.
And for Günthersdorf I proudly present you an umlaut: ü 
If you want to add some placenames: The sole woods hex in the center is the Fuchs-Berg. The swamps are called (The) Gule and contained many small ponds which you may add.

Here is a very fine map of this battle: http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/...nfriedberg.jpg

For the graphix issue I would be more carefull with the shadows behind the little houses. The now look like individual 2D graphics.

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## rdanhenry

Greenhorn, the map you link to includes the "e" that you say doesn't belong... what's the deal?

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## timallen

Thanks Greenhorn!  That's all good info.  I must confess that this is not a battle I know much about, so this all helps.

Here is the latest map, with your corrections, and other changes (most notably, with a white hex grid instead of the dark gray one).  

Opinions?

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## Greenhorn

Yes, this looks much better. Now it's one of those gamemaps which may seem to cry loud "Play me!!"  :Wink: 

One small typo still left: it's the Fuchs-Berg ("Fox-Mountain") without "Forest".

The original gamemap has also some higher level. Was it your intention to leave this out?

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## Ascension

Greenhorn - We have quite a few Polish members (other than myself) so that sort of info _is_ cared about.  It would be wise to think before you type...we're not all a bunch of 14 year olds here.

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## timallen

I was inspired by finding a very kool font someone else here used.  I think the map is almost done.  Now I just have to re-do the counters.

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## Greenhorn

While the font looks fine you may adjust it a bit.
The year is very hard to read, also the "9th". Maybe you can use a different, better readable  font for the numbers?
The "The" is far too near to "Battle" because of the large "curve" of the "B". 
The Fuch*s*-Berg still misses it's s ;-) (The "F" should also be nearer to the "u". I don't know the English word for "Spationierung" which means the spacing between two letters.)
For the trees: you may try to place them ABOVE the streams. Note that parts of some trees are also cut off at the southern fringe.

Sorry, I'm German. So I may sometimes not use the correct English words for what I mean ;-) But I hope you can see what I mean.

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## Ascension

He's talking about kerning - the space between letters.  That's the main problem with free fonts - they're not kerned properly, and most not at all, so you have to do it manually.  That part takes me a good deal of time usually.

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## timallen

Agreed that the font isnt the best.  I love the overall look it gives, but I am experimenting with other fonts to find one that is easier to read but still gives a hand written feel.  I have also continued to work on the counters.  Here are a few examples of what I have so far.  I probably have to add in some colour to distiguish the counters a bit more.  Or maybe a flag in the background, or in a corner.  We'll see.

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## Greenhorn

> He's talking about kerning - the space between letters.


Vielen, vielen Dank :-)

Tim, the nations of the counters are almost impossible to distinguish ... expecially if there's poor light above the gamemap. I recommend to go with the good old  background colors.

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## timallen

Is this better?

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## Greenhorn

Decide by yourself ;-) :


For my thaste the flags are a little bit too much and also unneccessary.

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## timallen

But I like flags!   :-)

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## Ascension

I like the flags as well.  You know what you're doing Tim - you're the best board game designer here.

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## timallen

I think I have pretty much finished off the counters and map for this game now.  Opinions?

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## rdanhenry

Under "Turn Sequence": "calalry" should probably be "cavalry", "a players turn" s/b "a player's turn", looks like you have an extra space between "all" and "of his flipped".

Under "Movement": "You many move" s/b "You may move", missed capitalizing "flipped" at start of sentence.

Under "Attack": "is equal or greater than" s/b "is equal to or greater than","the the target" s/b "the target" or maybe "then the target", remove period before "(choice of defender)", "The" in "If The target unit" should not be capitalized.

Under "Special rules": capitalize "rules" in section title for consistency, "Only" should not be capitalized.

Standardize to spelling either "defense" or "defence".

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## timallen

Doh!  OK, thanks for pointing those out.  Obviously I was in too much of a rush.

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## timallen

I (hopefully) have now corrected all the typos.  I also re-sized the map so that it can be easily printed out onto standard letter sized paper.  The map had to be shrunk down a bit to fit, so I shrank the counters down a tad also.  Now there is an additional page just for the rules.  I am declaring this one Done!

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## arsheesh

Gotta say Tim, this is turning out really nice!  

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## timallen

I uploaded those files to BoardGameGeek.com and someone has already built a copy of the game!  Looks like the colours worked out fine (sometimes the printers dont print the colours I see on the screen, but in this case what I see is what you get).  

I gotta get my own copy made up now...

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## dchadwick

I really like the overall look, feel and structure of this wargame.....it has the simplicity of what some are calling a 'pocket wargame'...but also reflects the attributes of this conflict.   Really nice job on the graphics Tim - very professional work.

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