Combat Leader: Winter War

The Winter War expansion for the Combat Leader system originally came with fairly basic maps with the standard "ASL" style artwork. So, for fun, I "winterized" the maps with some new artwork. I also used the opportunity to try out a few new techniques for creating woods hexes.

I primarily used GIMP for this project. To generate the trees, I selected various tree brush patterns (created previously), and played with the brush dynamics to create randomized size, rotation, and color variation with each brush stroke.

If you own Combat Leader and would like to use the maps yourself, feel free to download them from Google Drive here.

Combat Leader artwork re-design

Here is an artwork re-design project I completed about a year ago, as fun personal project. The maps and counters are from Combat Leader: Poland 1939 by Minden Games.

I took on this project largely because I wanted practice creating maps and counters. I learned a lot in the process, and I hope you enjoy!

(The original counters, via boardgamegeek)

(The new counters, front and back)

The two programs I used for the artwork re-design were Inkscape and GIMP. Before beginning this project, I had almost no experience with Inkscape (or vector art in general, for that matter), and only limited experience using GIMP. By the end of it I felt like I was familiar with both programs.

(The original maps, via boardgamegeek)

(The new maps)

A few of the more valuable lessons learned were how to set up a good workflow, how to use and organizes layers productively, and to work consistently across multiple files. Unfortunately, when working on this project I had yet learned how to optimize for print. I am still happy with the end result, however.

If you own Combat Leader, you can download and enjoy the files for your own use here (from google drive).

Thanks for looking!