Ship Mats

[The Mad Hatter]

So in my first couple of games, one thing I didn't like was the way the ship cards fit in the ship mat. I wish they fit a bit better as we had to move the mats around a bit and they aren't convenient for doing that. Plus, I wanted a template that would allow me to create my own ships - so I've embarked on creating my own ship mats. I'm actually thinking of printing them out and either laminating them for easy dry erase use, or alternatively, putting a thin sheet of magnet behind them and then magnetizing some of the counters so they stick on top of them. Haven't decided yet, but thought I'd at least share my mats in their current state.



Everything is done in layers in Photoshop so I can play with certain design elements, and I'm still tweaking it to get what I consider a final production level product.

[crashx]

Great idea Ryan!!! If you remove the ship name, and either remove the flag or create one with a French flag also, I think you would have a very generic board that people could use!!! The magnet idea is great too!!! I hope you have this in the download file!!!

[The Mad Hatter]

Because it's all setup in layers in Photoshop, I can modify many of the elements. I have one with a French flag as well (not entirely happy with the graphics quality of the flags though, but for $30 I can buy a high res version of the flag graphics -which I may do). All the numbers will be another layer (they are just hidden in this snapshot).

One of the things I'm interested in is the discussion on generating stats for the ships and carronades - I think I could create a whole library of ships for people to use.

[crashx]

Leave off the numbers on the generic version, and let people write or print in their own!!! This could be used for larger and smaller ships as well!!! If you fill out the the rest of the boxes (cannon/crew/musket) to the end, we could just cross off what you don't need!!!

[SeaRoyal20]

You have to pay $30 for an image? I don't get that?

[SeaRoyal20]

Oh and what is the best way to learn photoshop (is it still available)?

[The Mad Hatter]

I don't have the image in a large 300 dpi format, which is what I need. I have a smaller one that I upscaled, but you can tell when you print it - it's not as clear as I'd like. I got the small image from Shutterstock I think (or one of those places) and I can buy the images from them for what I need if I want the large 300 dpi version.

Photoshop definitely is available as a software package. Best way to learn....hmmmm....really a combination of things. The idiot books aren't a bad starting point if you've never done any graphics work. I have their book for Illustrator, their Photoshop book is probably pretty similar. There are a lot of online tutorials out there as well, but the real best way is to just start using it. Some stuff you'll figure out quickly, other stuff takes time. Photoshop is probably the premier non-vector based graphics program out there, pretty much everyone uses it. If you're doing a lot of graphics resizing, a vector based program such as Illustrator (both from Adobe) is good to have.

It also depends on what you're wanting to do. I use Photoshop a lot for pure graphics work, I use InDesign for building publishable quality material (always in conjunction with Photoshop), and Illustrator on a rare occasion. So depending on exactly what you're wanting to do graphics wise, Adobe probably makes a software package to do it.

[SeaRoyal20]

I don't think a lot of people know but if you are a student or an educator you can get any of current the Adobe products - for PC or Mac - at a very high discount. The only catch is you cannot upgrade the version you get. But in the long run you save a lot of money.

[The Mad Hatter]

My recommendation is eBay. Unless there's a very specific reason you want to pay a lot for the most current version of an Adobe product, you can get older versions for very good prices.

I use Adobe CS6 as I wanted to play with some of the Photoshop painting of 3D objects, but you can get stuff like CS3 or 4, maybe even 5 for a few hundred dollars on eBay. And CS (stands for Creative Suite) comes with a number of the programs - I think Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign are all included in CS, can't remember. Definitely a good deal for a couple hundred dollars!

[fredmiracle]

I've used GIMP for this kind of thing because I'm too cheap. Is Photoshop sufficiently better to merit buying (i.e. For hobby type stuff, not a "real job")?

[SeaRoyal20]

If you are not an educator eBay is good. But again the discount for teachers is about 70% off on new product. Also, can you upgrade if you buy too old of a version on eBay? Finally, if you get something too old and have a windows 7 or 8 will it still work? Do some checking before you buy. Actually this discussion is good because I have been thinking about doing this myself. My wife is a teacher and my daughter is a college student. So I will go for the new stuff using their discount. I'll let you know what I have to pay.

[The Mad Hatter]

If you can get the latest stuff for a reasonable price, definitely the best way to go. That way it'll be a while before you really need to upgrade. I still have Photoshop 7.0 on my work PC, it works fine for any minimal graphics work I need to do at work. If I need more power, I just do it on my personal Mac at home in CS6. I don't know what the going rate is, but I'm guessing retail for CS6 is probably 2K or something like that? Just a guess, haven't looked in a very long time on what the prices are.

In regards to GIMP vs Photoshop, I can't say. I've never used GIMP, so can't compare. Like any software packages that are alike, you can probably do more with GIMP if you're familiar with it than what you could do in Photoshop if you aren't. Hard to say if it's "worth" it or not, that's a personal choice.

[The Royal Hajj]

If you know how to use GIMP, you can do just about every core thing that PS can do. It's not near as easy or fast, but you can do it.

[Scargap]

I wasn't terribly happy with the ship mat at first either. I found it didn't sit flat and the cards and tokens moved around to much. My solution to this was mounting the ship mat on a piece of foam core board. I made the piece of foam core board 10 5/8" by 8 5/8". This left lots of room for the cards on the bottom. Here is a picture and a link to the YouTube video I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoSTzBjOQMQ



They make foam core board in different colors. I am going to mount some on Blue for English and some on Red for French :)

[SeaRoyal20]

A bit more to store but I like the idea.

[Scargap]

A bit more to store but I like the idea.

Yep they do take more space to store and no longer fit in the core box but I am already way past that with all my stuff :) We have been using the mounted mats for a few games and everybody seems to like them.

[Coog]

I wasn't terribly happy with the ship mat at first either. I found it didn't sit flat and the cards and tokens moved around to much. My solution to this was mounting the ship mat on a piece of foam core board. I made the piece of foam core board 10 5/8" by 8 5/8". This left lots of room for the cards on the bottom. Here is a picture and a link to the YouTube video I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoSTzBjOQMQ



They make foam core board in different colors. I am going to mount some on Blue for English and some on Red for French :)

Instead of foam core board, I think matboard, which is used in making an outline around pictures, would work better and it too comes in a variety of colors.

[Scargap]

Wouldn't matboard still flex a bit. The last time I used any was way back in the 80s so I don't really remember. Also I like the thickness and stiffness of the foam core. It is easy to pickup and move around.

[Coog]

Wouldn't matboard still flex a bit. The last time I used any was way back in the 80s so I don't really remember. Also I like the thickness and stiffness of the foam core. It is easy to pickup and move around.

At the size needed and being whole without a cutout as used for pictures, flexing should not be a problem. Either material would be fine for an inexpensive choice, just a matter of preference.

[Пилот]

I hope The Mad Hatter wouldn't mind my intervention

[Baxter]

Shouldnt the sword be a curved scimitar on on of those :-)

Actually they are all really great and thank you for sharing. I have stuck my ship mats to an unused wall calendar planner cut to size. That is pretty rigid and now I can easily move from one side of the playing table to the other with them. It does not solve the problem of counters/tokens falling off when you knock the boards though. Perhaps sliders where you can move a marker along to point to available broadsides or crew killed. Maybe laminating some of these great Mat designs would be an alternative too,that way you could draw on and wipe it off using a white board marker.

[Gunner]

Finally got around to using some of these. Thanks Ryan & Heмaњa.

[colby_bimore]

Thank you Ryan & Heмaњa for sharing.

What I have done is downloaded the Ship Mats and used Powerpoint to modify them as required. To do this all you need is one the images, copy & paste this image into Powerpoint, and edit as desired (you can even resize if needed). Then you can save the finished product as either a PDF or JPEG file. I think that the availability of Powerpoint is pretty common and it can be used for many basic imaging tasks.

Good luck.

[colby_bimore]

FYI ...

If you take the Ship Log images pasted in Kipp's thread and combined them with the Ship Mats included in this thread you would get a nice combination that you could print and laminate for use. I used Powerpoint to make this combination but you could use any image editting program to do this simple operation.



Or if you prefer the "Classic" look here is another version ...



I hope this helps.

[TalkMonkey]

I’ve been giving some thoughts to this... I like the magnetism idea. Has anyone tried that yet with any success?

[Bligh]

Looked at the possibility, the price to do a couple of dozen ship mats is expensive but the trouble of adding the steel foil to hundreds of counters is more off putting.
If you only do games using a few ships and one set of counters it may be feasible.

Rob.

[Naharaht]

The reprints of the official Ares ship mats are supposed to be avaiable now. Has anyone actually seen any?

[The Royal Hajj]

The reprints of the official Ares ship mats are supposed to be avaiable now. Has anyone actually seen any?

Retailers got a notice that they could now be ordered. I'll have some coming in my next Ares shipment, but that is not happening until Tripods is ready to ship.

[Bligh]

Thanks for the heads up Keith.
I will look out for them.
Rob.

[Naharaht]

The Upcoming page on the Ares website now says that the Additional Ship Mats reprints will be available in November together with the reprints of the 'Coasts and Shoals' and 'Coastal Batteries' Accessory Terrain Packs. Of course there is the usual "Dates are subject to change." footnote.

http://www.aresgames.eu/upcoming-products

[Bligh]

Just like my hairline they are slipping further backwards each month.
Rob.

[The Royal Hajj]

And Tripods has slipped back to Dec. :(

[Bligh]

Thanks for that extra piece of info sir. Looks as if this will be yet another birthday present rather than a Christmas one. Still "Ne illegitimi carborundum te descendit."


Rob.

[Comte de Brueys]

Hmm...

[Bligh]

Ship mats and coastal forts have now vanished from the upcoming entirely as of today!
Tripods are now moved to January.
Rob.

[Capn Duff]

The ship. Mats etc have now moved into the Available now section, however I not seen any available in a store on line. Saw some on ebay but dont know if they the new stock.
Wonder if Entoyment got any.

[The Royal Hajj]

I've just restocked a small supply of these along with some minis for Wings on the AA store.

[Naharaht]

It is good to know that they are actually available again. Thank you.

[Bligh]

Thanks Keith.
I will post an order.
Rob.

[Bligh]

Well I managed to buy a sets of mats and a coastal forts mat after resetting my cookies.
Rob.

[The Royal Hajj]

Well I managed to buy a sets of mats and a coastal forts mat after resetting my cookies.
Rob.

Thanks for the order Rob, it is shipping out today.

[Bligh]

Thanks Boss.
Rob.