The Commander Series Forum

I'm planning to build a city with the molds from http://www.hirstarts.com/index.html when I get my miniatures. It's a alternative world war 2 setting with some sci-fi elements and some WW2 elements. I'm doing it on a modular board. I'll make the roads on the boards and cut out holes for the buildings so I can swap them out. I will make buildings for both 28 mm and 15 mm. The 28 mm buildings will be my primary. The will be buildings for a industrial/heavily populated area with appartments, factories, powerplants and such. And a area with individual houses and parks.

I just need some help with the layout, don't want it to be a linear, boring city part with line of sight going from one end to another (maybe rubble can take care of that?).
Also, how many buildings should have an inside?
I don't want not to use all those wonderful possibilities for cover while having one player running around and clearing every single building.

One last question. Do any of you know a helpful site/picture/post with WW2 architecture?

Thanks for your help.

unit1997

when i did my russian village. I used God, Honor, Fatherland, "Grossdeutschland" book for several of the buildings. Same can be said of Youtube. Several site's are to numerous to mention.
Ohhh....this may take some time but i got several sites that may be up your alley.

Rubble piles, parks, setting buildings back from the road with plazas in front e.g. that might have been markets or out door cafes or similar in happier times, 'curved' or bendy streets that don't run at 90* angles in a grid are good too - might be worth looking at Google Maps at some older 'classic' European cities for inspiration.

Euro cities have tended to grow organically with bits sprouting and being redeveloped and changed and repurposed seemingly at whim

If you're doing it in detail then other things like public toilets, metro/above ground subway entrances/bus stops, info kiosks, street stalls, clusters of bins, fountains/statues/benches and similar can be used to break up even long lines of sight.

I'd also make as many buildings as possible with accessible insides - just something simple like a lift off roof. Even if players don't use them all the time you can guarantee some smart arse will want to use the ones you make solid

Sounds really promising anyway - look forward to some piccies when done

Well, I'm thinking of making two "halfs" of the city. In between those there will be a river (know any good tutorials for making rivers?). I think it would be a good place divide an appartment/heavily populised area and the industrial area. It will be a bottleneck(s) where the bridge(s) will be a critical point to control. It will also allow players with amphibious units to sneak past the eneamy defences.
The irregular roads will become a challenge, but that's part of the fun! I will probably also make some parks.

The board will be 2*2 meters and will have 0.5*0.5( I will maybe, probably, change that.) for buildings, parks and other stuff between the roads. That will also allow me that make yards and big buildings. There will be space to put in smaller roads for 15mm in there too.

I will begin after summer, but (as you can see) I'm already beginning to plan it. I will see if I can post some pictures of both the drawings and, when I've begun, the scenery.

unit1997

edit: I'm just looking at google maps and Köln seems like a good source for inspiration. It has a river going through it and a roadsystem that looks like it's perfect for the project.

The real world is great for inspiration like that - Fnord bless Google Maps Good luck with the project!

I have a picture of a 28mm Stalingrad game at First Raid convention on my blog at
http://18clovehamhock.blogspot.com/search?updat...
In addition to the buildings, there was a lot of rubble, burnt out vehicles and he also included the storm drains underground by placing the entry covers in the streets and using tunnel sections in case any underground fighting happened.
Check model railroad websites for making a river. Usually done with a clear resin/epoxy over a textured bottom. Koln sounds like a very good find.