Welcome to the Urban Jungle

When you're looking to construct a city for gaming, there are a number of ways to go. The easiest is to simply find someone like the Miniature Building Authority and buy a finished city. Two problems with this idea are that TMBA doesn't do terribly much in the way of modern structures, and they're also pretty high on the price scale. Option two is to purchase some kits from companies like Litko Aero or Armorcast. These aren't cheap either, and they require assembly and painting. There also isn't all that much variety in the theme from either vendor. The third route is to build a city from scratch, either by casting your own bits with the help of Hirst Arts (or folks who sell finished castings, if you can't invest the time for all the molding) or using techniques detailed by hobbyists like Matakishi.

There is another route, and it's one that a lot of hobbyist are far too willing to discount as looking "cheap": paper terrain. There are a number of companies that produce cardstock terrain, and with a little work, you can create an excellent table for gaming.

The first company I'll look at is Microtactix. These folks were the first company I found who produced PDFs of modern buildings for gaming. When I saw their Twilight Street sets, I was hooked. Buildings were easy to prepare, easy to cut out, and easy to build, and you could assemble a decent city in an evening. Scoring, cutting, and gluing a building like this can be done in 10 minutes once you get the hang of it.


Scored and cut.

A judicious application of glue, and it's time to detail the piece.

When you consider the wide variety of buildings provided in the first two sets, plus the sense of humor involved (they included a strip club, a run down adult novelty store, and a movie theater specializing in porn... are you detecting a theme?), I was hooked. I went through the better part of a pack of cardstock and killed at least one set of inkjet printer cartridges printing out buildings for my city.

Then I moved, and I learned of the durability (or lack thereof) of cardstock terrain.

Once I settled in to my new residence, I availed myself of alternate printing options and tried making up a more durable set of terrain, only to realize that the Twilight Street products were still falling short of my needs.

One nice thing about products with electronic distribution is that their publishers are able to provide sample/bonus content. That way, potential customers can get a feel for the product, and people who buy in to the product have a nice little bonus that they can make use of. In the case of Microtactix, they make their Twilight Street sets available through a number of online vendors such as RPGNow, and they all provide access to each release's sample buildings.


The samples are compactly prepared for a minimum of printing, with one page dedicated to the assembly instructions and the second page set aside for the building itself. The sample kits are also designed to give an idea of the level of detail involved: mostly, these are just boxes, but there are some efforts to add a little bit of detail here and there.

So what's wrong with Microtactix? Problem number 1: the rooftops. All of the rooftops in the Twilight Street sets are marked with a 1" grid. While this is just what the doctor ordered if you're a d20 player, it does a disservice if you're playing a miniatures game where estimating range is a significant element. Granted, if you place the buildings on a board that's marked with an equal grid, then at least all players will have the same ability to estimate their ranges. Personally, I like my terrain to be a bit more flexible (as a side note for Heroclix players: while this is not the case for the demo buildings, all of the buildings in the first and second sets include optional roofs marked with 1.5" grids).


Problem 2: They're small! You don't really realize just how undersized they are until you place figures in front of the doors. Max completely blocks out the entrance to Stinky's Pizza. Particle can barely even see the door! This is one place where scale with wargame minis goes kind of woogy.


Since Citadel introduced the slotta base concept back in the mid 80's, separate uniform bases have become popular with many minis manufacturers. It means less metal needs to be used to cast each model, and it also makes it easier for gamers to cut figures away to be based as needed. In order for it to work properly though, the base has to be thick enough to support the metal tab, which means that figures get even taller, even if they're standing on the scale equivalent of two phone books. When you build your terrain, you'll need to decide whether you're scaling it for the height of the body, or the height of the entire model. My preference is to go for the entire height; that way, if you have open doors, it's easier to move models into and out of your buildings.


Unfortunately, whether the figures are mounted on slottas or washers, they just don't work with these buildings as is. This is not to say that these problems are insurmountable, but the fix for these two issues is the subject of another post.

There is one other problem with cardstock models in general: they are vulnerable to being trampled by rampaging monsters.


Oh my God! It's a lion!


Our heroes gather to witness the devastation first hand.


Where the hell was Booster Gold when the monster was rampaging? At a P.R. shoot. Dumbass.

As for what caused the devastation? I'll let you in on a secret... I'm working on models to be used in J. J. Abrams' remake of Ghostbusters! No kidding! I even have a world exclusive photo of the monster for you, currently code named: Cloverpuft.