I've recently gained two new interests: Affinity Designer, and twobuckgames' AWI series. So I decided to combine the two and do a "Brandywine" map remake as my first Affinity project. I also decided to document the process and post it here; hopefully others can benefit from my learning process. In this post I cover the process of creating a hex grid from scratch, share a few tips on creating realistic looking tree lines, and generally just explore Designer's features.

Getting Started

Create a new document, set it up for print (CMYK) and set the margins for 11 x 17. Create a new layer and name it “HexGrid.” Select the polygon tool and, using the contextual tool menu, set its sides to 6. Set its stroke to the desired width and its fill to “none.” Open the arrange dialog and, with “Align to” set to margin, align the hexagon to the top and left corners of the page.

Create another new layer, naming this one “HexNumbers.” Use the text tool to place the first number into the hex, aligning as necessary.

Enable snapping with the options shown. Select all, and duplicate with Ctrl-J (Cmd-J on Mac). Repeat this process across the page, snapping each new duplicate to the appropriate hexside. Notice two things, first, the two elements we are duplicating (the hex number and the hex itself) automatically get duplicated into their appropriate layer. Very useful! Second, Ctrl-J also duplicates the last movement (transformation) of the object being duplicated. This will come in handy in just a second.

Select all, duplicate with Ctrl-J, and align the second hex row under the first. Now, as duplication also duplicates the last movement, simply Ctrl-J all the way down the page. Once this is complete, you may have to do some fine tuning inside the transform dialog to get everything to fit. Next, enter in all the correct information for the hex numbers and viola! We have set up our hex grid. Now let's start adding some terrain features.

I imported the original map as an image so I could see what needs to go where. Let’s start with the woods hexes. The simplest way to get the effect we want would be to trace along the border of the woods, and then “Fractalize” the line. Unfortunately, Designer does not yet have this feature, so to Inkscape we go. Thankfully, the process I used was still fairly simple and time efficient, and generated good results. First, use the pen tool to trace around all the woods hexes, stroke the line, and export the line as an svg.

Open the svg in Inksape. Select the node tool, select the object, and go to go to Extensions -> Modify Path -> Fractalize. Once you have a result you like, save the svg.

You can now open the svg back into Designer and set the fill and stroke however you like.

Next, I populated the hexes with a few trees, sourced from here: https://www.pixeden.com/vector-objects/trees-vector-collection-pack Pretty good results!

Adding Details

You can create hills by using the pen tool, with the stroke set to dash, to give the ground some contour. Next, switch to the pixel persona, select a brush, and with a good opacity setting, go over the contours to add a little more “depth” or texture.

To create the marsh hexes, first I opened a new document and copy pasted into it a hex outline from my main map. Second, I opened a swamp cartography element found online. By placing this graphic as a sub-layer attached to the hex, it constrains the graphic to the perimeter of the hex (or any layer above it). Using this method I can then move and size the cartography element however I like, and then trace over it with the pen tool.

Using the same sub-layering principle I was able to create some nice swampy looking areas. I used texture brush for stroke the lines, to give it more of a hand drawn feel.

I used the same principle to make the roads.

Creating custom curved text is easy. Just create a shape using the shape tool, and then select the shape with the text tool active (you will see the tool icon change). Your text will now wrap around whatever shape you made. After I put down all the text, I just had to add a few finishing touches, like the fords over the river. As one last note, I thought the export options Affinity has were quite useful. I think it would be worth it to spend some time in the "export persona" and learn in better.

Finishing Touches

I put some more work into my Brandywine map, this time scaling the map up to 17x22 inches and adding a map key, turn sequence summary, and turn track, among other things. This is my first time trying a map of this style and I like the results. The stylized charts were created with the help of the the corner tool. Playing around with the corner tool's various settings generated some nice custom touches.

The Final Map.

Map Details.

twobuckgames: https://sites.google.com/site/twobuckgames/home
Where I sourced my trees: https://www.pixeden.com/vect.../trees-vector-collection-pack

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.

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 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!