Hobby Update - The shifting maze

-

 Over Christmas I got inspired and built a shifting maze game board.

This is a recent game of Solo Stargrave. At the start of each turn the player picks up the spare tile and puts it at one end of the 2nd, 4th or 6th row or column and then slides that whole row or column down so that the just placed tile is part of the maze and the tile at the other end pops out and becomes the spare. The only restriction is you can't put the tile back where it came from.
As the tiles slide past each other, new entrances are created and others closed off. Players can use the changing of the maze to advance their own characters, hinder the opposing team or unleash monsters.
In this game it was very difficult to keep the whole team in the same tile and as a result the team got separated and in some cases eaten alone and in the dark.
For the monsters I rolled randomly where the spare tile would go.
In the end 3 members of the team made it across the board with a couple of treasures.

I made the tiles with a base of 100mm square acrylic tiles. This helped me make the tiles as square as possible while giving me a nice smooth base to help with the tiles sliding across the table. The walls and floor are lines with craft foam. This was textured with my Greenstuff world rollers. The flagstone roller worked the best but the other rollers all left enough of an impression in the foam that can be brought out with paint job.





I used a mix of craft paints washes and weathering powders to get the colour into the foam tiles. You can see the different textures in this picture. Some of the corner joints had some gaps so I made webs out of stretched baby wipes (like you would make for a marble effect) and then glued these over the corners that were not quite up to code. Once all the webs were dry I went back over them with watered down PVA and used this to spread the webs over the wall and maximise the stick.

So now with extra creepy.

This terrain set works for many different games. It could be a game of AvP or it could be the inside of an Alien spaceship or it could be the inside of a tomb complete with undead guardians.


Comments

  1. Grant Michael McKenna21 March 2023 at 20:19

    An intriguing game for player versus player- terrain almost as an enemy in itself. Can you pop out a tile if there are models in it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John Tailby2 April 2023 at 15:37

      Yes you can push a room full of models out of the maze. However if you push a room full of enemies or monsters out of the maze, the next player will put them back into the maze anywhere they want. You could move some of your models out the way of the enemies but then your opponent gets to put them where they want. That might not go well.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stargrave 40k - "we just got our asses kicked man"

-
Image
Alan and I went up to the Bring and Buy day at the Kapiti Club in Paraparaumu. We took our Stargrave game. In this case we had followed our leads to an abandoned factory. However when we got there we realised that the factory was far less abandoned than we had hoped. As we approached we could hear the sounds of chanting and the smell of old blood. It certainly didn't sound like Slaaneshi cultists. Here is an overview of the factory mounds of overgrown rubble and broken machinery. At locations around the factory were groups of red robed figures crouched over bits of equipment. They appeared to be trying to unlock the access to an underground silo. Here is the new Inquisition strike team. We have two new commandos and a doctor along with a former heretic that had been reprogrammed into an assault gladiator. The cultists if thats what they are react with the skill and precision normally reserved for military units. Inquisitor Rathbourne smote a cultist with a Grenade launcher with a b...
Read more

Kill Team - Genestealers above ground.

-
Image
I got in against Ben and his Star Striders, The Genestealers had made a lair in some old ruins. The Starstrider crew needed to cross this dangerous area so they could recover a valuable relic. Here are the Genestealers lying in wait for any that enter their territory. I placed once stealer in the open because I knew I could Salk it into cover and threaten the mid board. The Star Strider's motion trackers started going off, but they could not lock down the locations of the Genestealers while they were hiding in the ruins. The Genestealers are scuttling forwards. The Genestealers have flanked around their short side and seized control of the objective point between the Star Striders and their relic One the other side the board the Star Striders are advancing. One of the armsmen got close enough to get an accurate fix on one of the genestealers. This enabled their ship to get the coordinates and a beam strike lanced down out of the heavens. However the lightning reflexes of the Genest...
Read more

7TV Vlads Army - the climax - Battle at the Church

-
Image
 The Home Guard have raced back to their headquarters at the Church. (its the only place with a working phone). They have found the vicar and verger inside and have amassed a stock of supplies with which to make maguffins and other unique weapons of war. Just then a dark smokey cloud spreads over the graveyard and long dead hands start erupting from the ground. The Vampires have arrived, and this time they are led in person by Major Shreck. Can the Home Guard drive off the fiends of the night? Here is the church and its surrounding graveyard. (Seriously, who does that?) To the right is the church hall and at the bottom a couple of bomb-damaged houses. There is a war on. Here are the brave defenders taking their positions. The vicar briefly protested as his windows are broken to make firing ports. Alan won initiative for the first time in the campaign. Major Shrek raised the Iron Cross and the horde shambled forwards. Alan also got the effect that meant he could only move once per t...
Read more