I. Introduction
I love games with an unlimited number of possibilities.
But most wargames are limited by their maps.
I've made several modular map systems to try to fix this.
First there were the M6 maps (Mike's Multiple Maps for Miniature Military Mayhem).
The map tiles were rectangular and the hexes weren't fully
symmetrical, so I was limited in how I could rotate them.
Then came the M7 maps (the seventh "M was for Modular), with hexagonal tiles.
These could be rotated in any of six directions, which made them much more useful.
There were several hundred of them, sometimes with only subtle differences between them,
which could make it hard to find the one I wanted. The real problem
was that they were so big, you had to tweak your printer settings to get them on one page.
And if that page was an A4 page, forget it; I never considered the non-USA audience.
Now I've learned some international manners, and the M8 map system is the result.
It uses the same hexes and symbols as the M7 maps, for counters roughly 1/2" square, but the
map tile is smaller so it will print on any "normal" page (A4 or letter) with normal margins.
Each tile has 43 full hexes, and another 12 half-hexes at the edges, which form
full hexes when next to another map. Rows are numbered 0 to 6, and columns from 0 to 8.
The map name is printed in the top-leftmost hex (hex # 0200).
You can print extra copies of any map tile so you can create the exact map you need.
There are exactly 100 map tiles, so the sheer number of them won't overwhelm you.
And many of them come with extra map symbols, so (for example) you can convert a road tile
into a road-with-town tile without having to print an extra page of town symbols.
Thus, the one M8 "straight road" map replaces four M7 maps (straight road, straight road with
village, straight road with town, and straight road with city).
The extra page of symbols still exists, so you can customize your maps.
The hexes are almost prefectly symmetrical, but not quite -- you can get only so close
with pixels that were designed for squares and not hexagons. This means any map
will mate perfectly with any other map, either right-side-up or rotated 180°.
Rotated at other angles (60° or 120°), there will be a very slight mismatch
between the hexes at the map joints, but not enough to pose a problem for gaming.
II. Map Symbols
The following landforms are used in these maps:
- Grassland is green with dark-green plants. Most maps have grass around their edges,
regardless of what else is on them.
- Forest is green with lots of trees.
- Desert is yellow speckled sand. This symbol is also used for beaches near the ocean.
- Swamp is aqua with dark-green plants.
- Hills are olive with black contour lines. Hill slopes or hillsides are hexes where
the contour lines don't meet each other; hilltops have their contour lines forming a
complete circle within the hex.
- Depressions are green with dark-green wavy lines running in from the edges.
Desert depressions are yellow with brown lines.
- Rivers are blue with aqua and dark-blue ripples, running through other terrain types.
- Shallow Water is aqua with ripples.
This is used for shallows in the ocean, and for lakes and ponds inland.
- Deep Water is blue with ripples.
- Roads are dark gray with dotted yellow lines.
- Town hexes are beige with different-colored small buildings.
A village is 1-2 such hexes, a town is 3-5, and 6+ form a city.
- Bridges are brown with gray edges, running across rivers.
Road bridges look like roads, with slightly thicker edges, crossing rivers or swamps.
- Lunar is mottled gray. Lunar craters (depressions) and lunar hills look like
their earthly counterparts, but are gray and black. Environmental domes take the place of
towns, and roads become sealed tubeways. Some domes have a dark box on the side;
this can be either a connector to another dome, or an air lock to the outside.
- City Buildings have light-gray sides and dark-gray roofs.
- Tech Facilities are intended for my StarMarines sci-fi game,
or similar small-scaled games. The map features are described in a separate HTML file.
- Derelict Spaceships are intended for my StarMarines sci-fi game. The maps
are described in the rules that come with the Derelict-Spaceships supplement to that game.
Some hexes feature multiple landforms, like a road crossing a river on a bridge, or a river
running through a swamp. Such hexes can be considered either type of landform, unless your
game rules say otherwise.
Straight means a river or road runs from one map-side to the side 180° opposite,
even though it may not run straight as an arrow to get there.
Bend means a road or river turns from one map side to the side 60° to the
left or right of straight across. The direction of the bend doesn't matter,
since you can rotate the map to line it up any way you like.
Hairpin means a river or road that turns from one map side to an adjacent
map side. Again, the direction of the bend doesn't matter.
Most of the maps are to the same scale, which you can define as needed for your game.
One Urban map tile roughly equals one Town hex on other tiles, but if you don't use the Towns,
you can connect Urban maps to other maps with roads with no discontinuity at all.
The Tech-Facility and Derelict-Spaceship maps are meant for one person per hex.
III. The Map Tiles
| The M8 Maps |
|---|
| Map Name | Description |
|---|
| m8map001 | Grassland |
| m8map002 | Grass w/ copses of forest |
| m8map003 | Grass w/ big forest |
| m8map004 | Grass w/ one big hill |
| m8map005 | Grass w/ two medium hills (Little Round Top) |
| m8map006 | Grass w/ many small hills |
| m8map007 | Grass w/ small swamps |
| m8map008 | Grass w/ big swamp and small island |
| m8map009 | Grass w/ mixed terrain |
|
| m8map010 | Forest w/ straight path and clearing |
| m8map011 | Forest w/ straight path |
| m8map012 | Forest w/ bend path |
| m8map013 | Forest w/ hairpin path |
| m8map014 | Forest w/ three-way path junction |
| m8map015 | Forest w/ four-way path junction |
| m8map016 | Forest w/ dead-end path and clearing |
| m8map017 | Forest/grass transition (forest on 2 sides) |
| m8map018 | Forest/grass transition (forest on 3 sides) |
| m8map019 | Forest/grass transition (forest on 4 sides) |
|
| m8map020 | Desert |
| m8map021 | Desert w/ large hill |
| m8map022 | Desert w/ small hills |
| m8map023 | Desert w/ depressions |
| m8map024 | Desert/grass transition (desert on 2 sides) |
| m8map025 | Desert/grass transition (desert on 3 sides) |
| m8map026 | Desert/grass transition (desert on 4 sides) |
|
| m8map027 | Grass w/ straight river |
| m8map028 | Grass w/ straight river and straight road |
| m8map029 | Grass w/ straight river and bend road |
| m8map030 | Grass w/ straight river and island |
| m8map031 | Grass w/ straight river through swamp |
| m8map032 | Grass w/ bend river |
| m8map033 | Grass w/ bend river and straight road |
| m8map034 | Grass w/ bend river and island |
| m8map035 | Grass w/ bend river through swamp |
| m8map036 | Grass w/ hairpin river |
| m8map037 | Grass w/ three-way river junction |
| m8map038 | Grass w/ four-way river junction |
| m8map039 | Grass w/ lake as a river source |
|
| m8map040 | Grass w/ straight road |
| m8map041 | Grass w/ straight road through hills |
| m8map042 | Grass w/ straight road through swamp |
| m8map043 | Grass w/ bend road |
| m8map044 | Grass w/ bend road through hills |
| m8map045 | Grass w/ hairpin road |
| m8map046 | Grass w/ three-way road junction |
| m8map047 | Grass w/ four-way road junction |
| m8map048 | Grass w/ dead-end road |
|
| m8map049 | Forest w/ straight road |
| m8map050 | Forest w/ bend road |
| m8map051 | Forest w/ three-way road junction |
|
| m8map052 | Desert w/ straight road |
| m8map053 | Desert w/ bend road |
| m8map054 | Desert w/ three-way road junction |
| m8map055 | Desert w/ oasis and dead-end road |
|
| m8map056 | Grass w/ coastline (1 side sea) |
| m8map057 | Grass w/ coastline (2 sides sea) |
| m8map058 | Grass w/ coastline, river mouth, road (2 sides sea) |
| m8map059 | Grass w/ coastline (3 sides sea) |
| m8map060 | Grass w/ coastline and roads (3 sides sea) |
| m8map061 | Grass w/ coastline (4 sides sea) |
| m8map062 | Grass w/ coastline (5 sides sea) |
| m8map063 | Open ocean |
| m8map064 | Island |
| m8map065 | Island w/ bridge to mainland |
|
| m8map066 | Urban #1 (Urbans 1-6 have 3-way road junctions) |
| m8map067 | Urban #2 |
| m8map068 | Urban #3 |
| m8map069 | Urban #4 |
| m8map070 | Urban #5 |
| m8map071 | Urban #6 w/ bent river |
| m8map072 | Urban #7 w/ park and lake feeding river |
| m8map073 | Urban #8 w/ airfield |
|
| m8map074 | Tech facility #1 (mixed features) |
| m8map075 | Tech facility #2 (large building) |
| m8map076 | Tech facility #3 (small buildings) |
| m8map077 | Tech facility #4 (medium building w/ storage tanks) |
| m8map078 | Tech facility #5 (large storage tank) |
| m8map079 | Tech facility #6 (2 medium buildings) |
| m8map080 | Tech facility #7 (low equipment racks) |
|
| m8map081 | Lunar |
| m8map082 | Lunar w/ small craters |
| m8map083 | Lunar w/ large crater |
| m8map084 | Lunar w/ hills |
| m8map085 | Lunar w/ straight tubeway |
| m8map086 | Lunar w/ bend tubeway |
| m8map087 | Lunar w/ 3-way tubeway junction |
| m8map088 | Lunar w/ dead-end tubeway |
|
| m8map089 | Derelict spaceship #1 (bridge) |
| m8map090 | Derelict spaceship #2 (cargo bay) |
| m8map091 | Derelict spaceship #3 (officers' quarters & rec area) |
| m8map092 | Derelict spaceship #4 (crew quarters) |
| m8map093 | Derelict spaceship #5 (life support & utility spaces) |
| m8map094 | Derelict spaceship #6 (teleporter & escape pods) |
| m8map095 | Derelict spaceship #7 (passenger staterooms) |
| m8map096 | Derelict spaceship #8 (power generators) |
| m8map097 | Derelict spaceship #9 (ship's stores) |
| m8map098 | Derelict spaceship #10 (sickbay & escape pods) |
| m8map099 | Derelict spaceship #11 (engine room) |
|
| m8map100 | Outer space |
|
| m8map000 | Special map symbols & landforms. Most of these symbols
are aimed at a particular era; for instance, I can't imagine a map that would need
both a Fortress and a Nuke Silo. Extra towns and bridges are also included. |
| M8 Map Macros |
|---|
| 7 Map Tiles |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
|
| 8 Map Tiles |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
|
| 10 Map Tiles |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
|
| 11 Map Tiles |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
|
| 12 Map Tiles |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
|
| 13 Map Tiles |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
|
| 17 Map Tiles |
|---|
| (pattern #1) |
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | - |
|---|
|
| 17 Map Tiles |
|---|
| (pattern #2) |
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
|
| 18 Map Tiles |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map |
|---|
|
| 19 Map Tiles |
|---|
| - | - | map | map | map | - | - |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| - | - | map | map | map | - | - |
|---|
|
| 23 Map Tiles |
|---|
| map | map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map | map |
|---|
| - | map | map | map | map | - |
|---|
| map | map | map | map | map |
|---|
|
I'd be curious to find out
if anyone uses these maps
in even bigger formations. |