UPDATED NOTE (March 20, 2012): The map I built has bitten the dust. The peg board started to peel apart at each screw. I attempted to cut the map free from the base but that just led to disaster and I had to scrap the entire kit. Fortunately I didn’t have too much time into it. Maybe 12 man hours or so. So it’s back to square one, using some solid plywood as a base. It’ll weigh a ton (weight was why I chose the peg board in the first place).

Inspired by Baccus' "inspired by Gettysburg" participation game here I've decided to tackle a similar project myself. I'm building troops and a board for my Bitter Angels rules but in "pocket scale." Bitter Angels is being designed for re-fighting complete battles of the ACW at a scale of 1" = 100 yards. Each unit is a brigade on a 3" square base. The rules are based on the Napoleonic rules "Grande Armee."

But in order to have a highly portable game, I'm converting from inches to centimeters. The entire battlefield is an ultra compact 38" square and each brigade will be a mere 30mm square. I’ll be posting a step-by-step tutorial/blog kinda thingy on these pages over the coming weeks. Drop by and join the madness!

[Note: I had started down a similar path for Leipzig, but unfortunately my large Russian army is lost in painter-for-hire-having-personal-issues hell and so I’ve shelved that project until (if) I recover that army.]

So here we go....

• Step 1: Planning the game board.
• Step 2: Drawing the map.
• Step 2a: Gluing down some of the terrain pieces. More tracing, more cut-and-paste!
• Step 2b: Finishing up the trace, cut and paste. Pictures of the final board.
• Step 3: Prepping the board for priming and painting.
• Step 4: Adding in Rock Creek and Willoughby Run
• Pause: Time to take a quick think and look at some issues that are popping up, plus adding to the “what I learned on Summer Vacation” list.
• Step 5: I begin to put down the road net and start flocking some fields.

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