Anyone who seen my last 6mm Napoleonic post (here) will appreciate the problems I have with laying out road networks on topographic terrain, albeit massively simplified topography. I mean I'm not looking for some as extreme as this watercourse.
Trying to think of alternatives to the card I used in the last game, and having seen other bloggers singing praises of the utility of AI, I thought I'd ask ChatGPT what would work well. The instructions and responses were very promising as it seemed to know about Hexon terrain tiles, and when told I wanted the material to sag into every nook and cranny like wet tissue paper it did say that nothing would work that well.
Anyway, after a short series of questions and clarifying questions, ChatGPT suggested 05mm thick silicone sheet and a UK supplier. This was a material I had not come across before so though it was worth a quick experiment.
The supplier turned out very expensive but it turned out I could buy a small amount quite easily on eBay.
I bought a 0.5mm thick sample (50x50cm) for about a tenner with postage all the way from China - I didn't realise it was coming from China, most sellers were labelled 'from China' mine, "lucas77uk", wasn't and I foolishly trusted the name - D'oh!
When it finally arrived, it clearly had more structural integrity than I was hoping for, but nonetheless cut a couple of strips to try laying over Hexon terrain tiles. The results can be seen below, with some 6mm Heroics & Ros Napoleonic figures for scale (thick/thin refers to the width of the strip, c. 1"/½"; and, steep/shallow to the Hexon slopes that go up one or two tile depths):
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| Thick on Steep |
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| Thick on Steep |
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| Thick on Steep |
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| Thin on Steep |
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| Thin on Steep |
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| Thick on Shallow |
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| Thin on Shallow |
I then for a like for like, repeated the process with the hills I used in the last game (stiff foam shapes under a felt battle mat).
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| Thick and Thin strips |
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| Thick |
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| Thick with troops on it |
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| Thin (+ broken leg!) |
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| Thin with troops on it |
I reckon it will lay nice and flat on the vinyl flooring I play my 'toy soldier'[1] games on, but then I'm happy with my existing river and road systems for that.
The next option I came across after starting this silicone experiment is cloth printed roads that you cut out from a sheet. Geek Villain does some, so the next step will be to see what they're printed on and whether the cut edges will show up, and whether he could print them to match Hexon terrain tiles, i.e. every angle is a multiple of 60° and every feature must fit in a hexagon 100mm across flats.
But that's for another day.
Notes:
[1] With Spencer Smith figures and Charge rules.
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