Undaunted: Normandy is a game designed by David Thompson and published by Osprey Games. It is a squad level tactical game with a strong deck building mechanic. It is also a blast to play, and probably one of the better "light" games I've played this year. Because I liked it so much, I decided to fiddle with the artwork.
Let me start out by saying that I love the original artwork in the game. Roland MacDonald did a phenomenal job; I am in no way trying to make the artwork "better." With Undaunted, I simply saw an opportunity to practice designing a cohesive set of cards and counters. I am entirely self taught when it comes to graphic design, and working on a project I enjoy helps to keep me plugging away. With that out of the way, on with the fun part!
Skip to the end of the post for download links.
I used Affinity Publisher to do most of the layout and design work, along with a little bit of doodling in Designer. What follows is my creation process as I documented it.
Document Set up and Master Pages
I knew I wanted to create a PDF document containing alternating Front and Back pages for each set of cards. To accomplish this, check the "facing pages" button in the new document dialog box, and start with 2 pages.
Affinity Publisher uses Master Pages to provide a way to store page elements that you'd like to appear on more than one page. By placing a design element on a master page and then assigning several
pages to use that master, you ensure that all the pages incorporate
that element. If you edit any master page element,
all associated pages will update to incorporate the new master page
design.
In this case, I set up two master pages: Cards, and Units. For the Cards master page, I used a combination of the pen tool and rectangle tool to generate a basic "spread" of cards and to draw the cut lines for PnP.
I then applied the Cards master to the Units master, and began filling in placeholder unit information.
Affinity Publisher lets you create and format a wide verity to tables. I used tables to organize each card's action information. In this screenshot I am demonstrating how pin objects into individual table cells, the object in this case being an ellipse with an embedded text field.
Here is the completed Allied Units master page. I would generate another for the Axis cards.
Adding Content
After generating the master pages, it was simply a matter of adding the individual unit artwork and filling out the various information fields for each card. In this screenshot, in the layers panel, you can see how I organized each card for easy editing. All I had to do was select each layer and edit. All the formatting work was already done for me by that master page.
Following the same process, I began filling out the Axis cards as well. Full disclosure: while I can get around with graphic design fairly well, I am no illustrator. All the unit graphics are pictures of military miniatures with various Photoshop filters applied. Illustration is one area of skill I hope to develop in the future.
Creating Counters
Using a similar process, I generated one master page to use for both counter sheets. I actually did all the initial layout work in Affinity Designer,
And then transferred over to publisher and began filling in content.
Here is the completed Axis counter sheet. For the unit counters, I created a basic "template" for all the information (Name, Unit, Defensive Value, and Unit Graphic), and duplicated the template into each counter frame, changing the information as I went. Due to how I designed the counter sheets, I had to individually rotate each counter to it's "back" side, and place appropriately. I will probably re-think how I do this in the future.
The Finished Results
As seen above, here are some samples of the finished results. Overall I am pretty happy with how the cards and counters turned out. I enjoyed learning how to use Affinity Publisher throughout this project, although I will have to re-think my work flow on a few things. I've already done a few printing tests and am happy with the results; I am looking forward to putting the full print and play together.
Download Links
You can download the full card and counter set as a print and play PDF by clicking here (Google Drive file).
