Federation Commander

Lo all,

Been a while since ive posted life got a little hectic as it does but things have settled down now and ive started gaming regularly with a few friends. I took Fed Commander round and it was an imidiate hit.

However,

The people are miniature lovers and we have all decided that the 1" maps just arnt big enough.

Does anyone know where I may be able to get a 4foot by 6foot 4" hex sheet from? Preferably UK (but not esential)

Failing the map itself anyone know where i can get a programe to design said hex sheet into a pdf so i can take it to a printers?

Also what solutions have you come up with for the multi ships in a hex when using minis?

Thanks all
Zero

I have a special freeware graphing program that can make any size hex sheets that you want. Send me a PM with your email addy and I will send it to you. Its not big.

You will, no doubt, be steered to a couple of popular sites where you can order the kind of hex sheets that you want.

In our case, I used the computer to make a single template on a sheet of paper. It has a black background, medium gray hex borders, and 2.5" wide hexes. We copied enough to tape them together (from the back) into four long strips. Then I laminated the strips. When put together, they make a 4'x6' map. We even put in some random points of light for stars in the background of the hexes. It is laminated, so it is glossy, but it was certainly a cheap way to do it.

I tried using some 2" hex floor tile sets as templates and spray painting on black felt one time, but the spray tends to spread out under the template. It was very laborious and the result was not very good.

You know...I just gotta ask: I can understand the 4' x 6' idea, but 4" hexes?

4" hexes equals two ships in the same hex w/o no manipulation of postions.

If he uses 4" hexes, he will need a map that is 8' x 12' to correlate to a standard map, won't he?

that is something i was trying to work out.

By standard map you mean the smaller hex side dont you.

We have a 6' by 4' table to work on (thats after extension boards have been put on). If we only make the hexes in the new map 2 to 3 inch across there will be no real reason for increasing it as the same issues come to the fore when the ships get closer. (though 3 may be doable.)

Im still new to the game having only played it maybe 10 times, and so far i find the size of the smaller hex map needlessly large. Half of the game is spent getting to the oponent so the fact we will be working on a map with fewer hexes across doesnot seem to take much from the game. Or am i missing something?.

Still hoping for some pointers for map sourcing though. Found this site in Canada http://www.hotzmats.com/mat_1-deep_space.html looks good.

Kind regards and warm thoughts to all of you.

Zero

It sounds to me like you'd be better off just using the hex-less miniatures rules and skip the hex map in the first place. Making the turning templates larger would be much easier then trying to printout a gigantic hex sheet.

If the weather is nice you can buy hexagon paving stones which are about 6" across and create a map from them.

Just my .02