Teun Tries Terrain: Easy Zone Mortalis Board - Caverns (Part 1)

So I have been thinking about making a Zone Mortalis board pretty much ever since Betrayal at Calth came out. I wanted to try out some 30k without needing all the Forgeworld toys that would bankrupt me... and ZM games are a perfect way to ease into it, I figured. Well, fast forward to now, when I have bought enough darn toys to play full sized 30k games anyway. However, a lot of new people are starting up with it, now that Burning of Prospero is a thing.

A local guy is trying to get a 30k ZM league going, to get more people hooked on 30k. It got me thinking about how I never got around to making the board I wanted.

Unable to sleep last night for unrelated reasons, I started brainstorming. Papercraft bulkheads and walls? Doable, but kind of cheap for my tastes. Plaster mold kits? That would work, but it also could get super heavy and expensive, not to mention taking a really long time.

So I started thinking about alternative ways to make a board. The description of ZM battles mentioned caves, tunnels, etc. That sounded easy... It is harder to mess up an organic shape!

I drew up some quick plans and hit the sack, being 2 or 3 in the morning.

Today I went to the hardware store and bought a sheet of 2 inch thick "rigid foam insulation" board, 2 feet by 8 feet long.

I had to cut it in half to fit it in the truck, which turned out to work perfectly. I had brought a tape measure and a pencil with me, so I bought a utility knife with the board and cut it in half as evenly as I could by scouring both sides as deeply as I could with the knife before breaking it off.

When I got home, by far the hardest part so far was to recreate the plans I had drawn:

Drawing the outlines in marker, I found it hard to erase mistakes and get it right. So I had to go back over it with brown craft paint to be more sure of the areas I had marked out:

Now, I designed it to be used in two configurations (hopefully giving it a little more usefulness without making it a pain to use). I planned the way it is pictured, where each side joins up in a large center room with two passageways on either side. Alternatively, each piece of the board can be flipped around, making a second configuration of the tunnels and rooms.

I think I did ok. Using a Dreadnought to test the width of the corridors, I realize I may have planned it a bit narrow. So I will have to widen them when I start carving. But for now I have a much better idea of how it will look. Line of sight will further be broken up when I add hatchways and stalagmites. Should be a fun project!

Stay tuned if you want to see how this project develops! I hope to have it done by this Saturday... just in time for the Burning of Prospero set to arrive!