A recent discussion on Bob Cordery's blog, regarding generating random layouts for Portable Wargame boards, led me back to an idea I had some years ago for using MS Excel's conditional formatting function to do just that. Put simply, when a condition is met by the content of a spreadsheet cell, another cell will automatically be populated, say by a coloured fill. This enables a PW Grid to be randomly populated with colours representing scenery.
The following demonstrates this using a 6x6 grid, a system I'm currently trying using 3x3PW rules.
Two identical grids are made, one contains a random number generating function, in this case set between 1 and 20, though this can easily be altered. The other has the conditional formatting set in each corresponding cell.
The sheet I have generated will populate the squares using the above values - I put two possible options for wooded/forested squares which I may edit. The hills and woods are universal across all 36 of the grids; the lakes are restricted to the middle two rows, and the Built Up Areas are restricted to the centre 4 squares. This was just a preference for my own purposes. The type of terrain to be generated can be tailored by the settings of the formatting.
Following are a few random examples that were created with the above settings:
Adding other features such as roads or rivers automatically is currently beyond the scope of this spreadsheet, however Lakes need to be fed by a water feature and settlements usually have some sort of track/road going to them, so these can be added as makes some sort of sense.
Good little exercise, MJT. How would you modify your conditional formatting routine if you wanted to place woods (or BUA) upon a hill?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to think about that and come back to you Jonathan!
DeleteThank you for writing this excellently thought-provoking blog post. You’ve been working along similar lines to me … and I will certainly be taking your ideas and developing them myself to meet my requirements.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Bob
Thanks Bob. It's good to be able to share ideas and if another person finds one of mine useful or it provokes another idea then I feel it was worth posting!
DeleteMaudlin Jack Tar -
ReplyDeleteThe system you have devised for 6x6 grid array seems to yield a wide variety of terrain - from thick woodland, wooded hill country, to sparse plains. That would make a campaign very interesting.
Possibly some places would not be suitable for battlefields - depending, of course upon what troops you are dealing with. I'm thinking of the top left. But, if you were using this method to build up, as you go along, a whole theatre of war, you might get a number of such places. They might lead to the less usual type of battle: ambuscades, clash of light troops, affairs of outposts; and/or create situations calling for some strategic decisions.
Plenty of potential to be had here!
Cheers,
Ion
Thanks Ion. I was probably thinking more of the larger scale use of this rather than one offs. If I was randomly creating for the single battle I'd be a bit selective. Some of the random grids would prove to be very difficult for normal formations, though might lend themselves to Featherstone's Close Wars.
DeleteVery effective, MJT. It’s amazing just how varied an apparently random allocation of numbers can make a battlefield, as Ion alludes to:- So few Lakes, eg, compared to the number of hilly sections. I’ve been watching Bob’s posts, seeing this idea grow. Great inspiration for even more immersion into hobby stuff……👍🏼
ReplyDeleteCheers Martin. Hopefully this will prove to be a useful tool; it certainly lends itself to imagining landscapes even if they never get used.
DeleteI've done an adaptation of your system for 6x6 boards using dice, but only with hills, then woods/ rough ground and then towns and a 1 or 2 in 6 chance of a river. Your post has got me thinking about how to include lakes and or marshy. Ground.
ReplyDeleteI've now amended the format to include wooded hills instead of a second wooded grid option (see the next post), but I hadn't thought of soft ground or impassable terrain!
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