How I design my maps



	• Game Concepts • Publication History -------- • Cry Havoc • Siege • Outremer • Scenario Booklets • The Templars' Castle • The Medieval Town • Samurai Blades • Viking Raiders • Dark Blades • Dragon Noir 1 • Dragon Noir 2 -------- • The Medieval Harbor • Dragon Noir 3 & 4 -------- • Metal Figures



	• Oppidum -------- • Sherwood -------- The Norman Saga • Guiscard 2 • Diex Aïe 2 • The Anarchy • Ager Sanguinis • Montgisard -------- Our extensions • The Magna Carta • The Belfry • Horse Raiders • Nefs & Galleys • The Caravanserai • The Welsh Castle • The Fortified Harbor • Orléans 1429 • Basileus • Montjoie



	• Claymore Fanzine • Casus Belli Magazine -------- • Other Maps 1 • Other Maps 2 • Other Counters • Toolbox -------- • Vassal (Module 3) • Vassal (Sherwood) • Vassal (Norman Saga)



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		How I design my maps

Resources

Below I give you my tips and tricks to easily () create maps for Cry Havoc. () : Note however that easily is not synonymous with quickly!
The tools you will need
I use fairly standard stuff which can be bought in any Arts & Crafts shop
	> Canson Mixed Media paper: This is a heavyweight (224g/138lb) and easily erasable paper for artists. > A drawing board: Not mandatory, but an easy way to handle the paper without risking to crease it. > Tracing paper > One rule of at least 30 cm/1 foot in length. > One B pencil to draw the various map features. An eraser; some removable tape and a pair of scissors. > 2 felt-tip pens in size 005 and 01. > One existing map of the Norman Saga series with limited features (The Islet, the Crusaders' Trail or The Desert are great).
The hex grid
		I used to hand draw the hex grid, wich was a fairly long and painful process. I now switched to a digital hex grid and only draw the various map features. > And here is the hex grid I use for my maps (Standard A2 size), and the Reduced A4 size for your drafts. You can use it for your sketches but you probably won't be able to use it to draw a map. > Here is the that I've been using for my maps.
Designing the base map
		I no longer use yellow colored cardboard for my base maps. > I created a flat terrain image that I now use for all my maps. > The final Photoshop template contains the yellow base map, the hex grid on another layer, and the side numbers and titles on independent text layers. > This saves time, but above all it guarantees that from one map to the another, the color will be uniform. > Next, I include the map features on individual layers
Penciling the map features
		I no longer draw the entire map, but only portions, which allows me to do all the work at home with an A4 scanner. > I paste an existing map with the standardized hexagonal grid on my drawing board, then I paste a sheet of tracing paper on top and draw the feature on the layer with the B pencil following the outline of the hexagons. > I then highlight the line with a felt-tip pen directly on the tracing paper. > I then conscientiously erase all traces of pencil (or fingers...).
	This is for the process. But just as important is the style, to make sure your map will look like a Cry Havoc map. Below my recommendations : > My only advice at this stage is to take inspiration from the original illustrators (Gary Chalk, Peter Dennis) and do as they did! Proceed section by section. > Tip: Practice rounding off the corners: the stones, the slabs must not have any sharp corners (or at least, this is how Gary Chalk and Peter Dennis defined the Tables of the Law). > Tip: Do not waste time at this stage in representing all the details, especially those that are repetitive and easy to reproduce freehand: for example the grooves of cut tree trunks, the uneven lines of ditches, etc. On the other hand, draw everything that can easily deviate: the slope lines, the stones, the floor slabs, etc.
Highlighting the map features
		This is the crucial phase that will transform your manual work into a real Cry Havoc map! You will need 2 or 3 types of fine or ultra fine tip felt pens: > 1 pigment tracer as thin as possible. The smallest size found in stationery stores is 0.05, which corresponds to lines 0.20 mm thick. This is the one with which you will highlight most of the lines requiring great finesse (stones, slabs, boards, etc.). > 1 fine point type V5 (sometimes called ultra fine, but don't be fooled by these names: ultra fine means in our case coarse line!). You will use it for slope lines (banks, ditches) or for filling areas (shadows, dirt spots). > Tip: Absolutely ban the use of the ruler in this phase to highlight straight lines: these are boards, stairs, slabs. Any element that in nature is not perfectly straight. Practice beforehand if you are not sure of your hand, and remember that it is the sum of the imperfections of the Cry Havoc maps that paradoxically make them standout as they don't look computer-generated! > Tip: Resist the temptation to start by highlighting the most beautiful parts of your map: practice first on less "significant" parts to be in top shape when you work on the parts that will capture the players' first attention. > Tip: Don't underestimate the importance of details and the time needed to make them. They are what make the difference between a good map and a great map. Some examples: - The little black dots at the foot of the walls to represent dirt, - The little triangular shadows on the steps of the stairs, - The nails on the boards, - The little stones on the floor hexes.
Scanning the drawing
		> Scan the drawing at 300 DPI and finish cleaning it up in Photoshop. Note: Scanning tracing paper can be tricky and you have to adjust the brightness and contrast carefully to avoid having too many pencil marks that will then have to be erased digitally. > Zoom in at 400% and inspect your drwaing carefully to correct any imperfection, erase pencil marks, etc. or you won(t be able to cut out the various elements. > Keep a white background when cutting out your various elements to make sure the background terrain will not see through when adding them to the map. Make sure that the black lines of your drawings are not open ended, or the cut out won't be correct.
Painting the map features
		This is the (very) big change compared to what I did initially: > Painting a map with gouache or acrylic brings a certain richness to the result, with all the nuances of color, and avoids the uniform appearance of the colors of a digital palette. But the constraint is the time needed to do a lot of retouching on Photoshop once the drawing is scanned. > So I decided to combine the 2 by creating an acrylic color palette that I then scanned. I now color directly in Photoshop using the Stamp tool. > Advantages: Time saving (even if the whole thing remains tedious, like representing the Murus Gallicus boards in OPPIDUM in 3 close but different shades). And from one map to another, recurring elements like the slopes or the boards always have the same color.
Final rendering
		> The last touch to get a real Cry Havoc map remains: the texts. The official Cry Havoc font is "Souvenir" in Bold/Italics. Here are the sizes to use for the different elements: - Title: 32 points - Descriptions and subtitles: 20 points - Sides: 24 points
		You will need 2 types of output for the file: - a GIF at 72 DPI for Vassal, - a TIFF at 300 DPI for printing.
> Et voilà! In total, count between 10 and 20 hours of work per map to complete all these phases. Previously, when I was drawing the hex grid and painting the map with acrylic colors, it was between 30 and 40 hours, so definitely an improvement. This may seem very long, especially when you can generate a map in 30 minutes by simply copying and pasting existing elements, but the quality and satisfaction of a job well done come at this price.