The Free Generic Wargame Maps Page

Maintainer: Stephan Beal
Last Updated: Aug 8, '99

Are you tired of playing your wargames on the provided maps, or tired of spending time drawing up your own maps? This page has several generic wargame maps that can be used and distributed freely. Because I normally play hex-based games, that's probably the only kind of map you'll find here unless someone else submits some.

These maps were originally written for use with GUB, but can be used for almost any tabletop wargame or computer-aided wargaming program (like V_MAP or SMS). Many of them are bent towards Ogre/GEV, by Steve Jackson Games. See below for information about printing them.

If you would like to submit a map, feel free to email it to me. Please note that I am in Germany, so I pay for each minute online, so please don't email me XCF-format files or other very large things (you may send me a link to them, and I'll download them when the rates are cheap). I prefer JPG or GIF, whichever format is smaller for your map (erring in the side of picture quality, if there are noticable diffs between the formats). Basically my only requirement for posting a map here is that it be in the Public Domain or released under a similar "free" license, like the GPL, Artistic, or BSD licenses.

If you have a request for a map, feel free to email it to me. I can't promise that I will make it, but I will certainly give them a whirl if I think I can do it justice and have the time. If possible, please send a quick sketch of it.

Making your own maps: If you're interested in making your own map grids easily and quickly, and you're running Windows, check out the Graphpaper Maker. It's a handy little tool for creating grids of squares or hexes, sheet music, and all kinds of other gridded designs. It can print it for you or put it in your clipboard, for pasting into Word, Paint, or whatever. Or, if you'd like, you can grab one of the templates that I use. See below for a list of them.

The Small Maps:

OOPS: On August 1st I noticed that I mis-counted the column numbers on the small maps. The numbers on several of the maps skipped column 9! I've fixed them and re-uploaded them. If you grabbed one before that date, you should re-download it.

These fit nicely on a page of A4 paper (that's approximately equal to letter-sized, for you Americans out there). Printing them from Gimp on my Epson 440, they come out quite nicely (360 dpi looks okay, so no need to waste ink on 720 dpi). You may have to scale them down a very tiny bit (4% or so) to make them fit completely on a page, otherwise about 1/4th of the last row of hexes may get truncated. For scaling, use the scaling options of your printing tool, and do not simply shrink them in a graphics editor - the results will look much better. If you use MS Word, paste them into Word, then right-click on them and use the scaling options from the Properties menu. When printed, the hexes come out to a size that nicely fits 1/2" gaming counters.

These are also of a size that works nicely with GUB and are small enough that they shouldn't cause too many problems with lower-end systems when used as a GUB game board.

Because of their small size, these maps probably won't work so well for most long games, but work nicely for quick scenarios and microgames.

To ease in making your own maps, grab one of the templates:

The GIF and XCF templates are in the Public Domain. Do whatever you want with them. The PS and PDF files are modified versions of ones I found on the web, and are free for non-commercial purposes. See the license in the text of the PS file for details.

The maps below are all numbered unless specified otherwise. Because of space constraints, I can't post the original XCF (Gimp format) files here, but if you have someplace where I can upload them, I'll be glad to let you have them. Some of them are up to 17MB, though, so I won't be able to upload all of them. If you'll mail me a blank CD and a pre-paid, pre-addressed envelope, I'll burn you a copy of all of them onto the CD and send them to you. Email me for info.

The Maps:

 

Dragway. A single road going down the center. 184k JPG.

Empty Space. 'Nuf said? 111k JPG.

River Crossing. Plains and forest with a couple of swampy river crossings. 169k JPG.

Empty Desert with Hills. 177k JPG.

Desert with Trees. 223k JPG.

Desert with Hills, Trees, and a Stream. 211k JPG.



Cratered background, a-la Ogre. 179k JPG. (Updated Aug 7th with rubble lines.)



Street running through a small town in the middle. 188k JPG.



Forest Trails. 194k JPG.



Island. 150k JPG.



Small Islands. 123k JPG.



The Large Maps:

These maps are all pretty large, and don't print out to letter/A4 paper without serious scaling. They will fit on a legal/A3 page, but the hexes are a bit small for tabletop play. The hex scale in these works nicely on-screen, though.

I've started puting all of my focus on the smaller maps (above), because they're much faster to make, my web server won't accept files larger than 512k (which rules out most of my large ones), and because my printer can't handle large paper.

The Maps:

 

Blank numbered hex grid by Todd Zircher. Ideal for 35x35 - 40x40-pixel game pieces. Pieces that size normally print out to just under 1/2"x1/2", which is a nice size for tabletop gaming,

Empty Space. 240k JPG.

Stone Keep. 356k JPG. A walled-in area in an empty plain.