Auggies Games…announcing “5 Minute Scape” UPDATED on 4/11/12

[Auggest]

***UPDATE #4***
Just back from the printers with ROAD and LAVA MATS. The lava looks good but I have to say, the ROAD looks amazing. I'll have pics up tomorrow in this thread. Prolly gonna do a SKY next and CRYPTO-KNIGHT has graciously given permission for us to print out his sky rules and include with mat sales.
Soooo, what mat contest should I run first?

***UPDATE #3***
OK, Water and Dungeon mats are up. The Dungeon pattern and color I choose is bit dark so I think it might be good for BOTH shadow spaces or Dungeon space. Same prices as the Grass mats.

***UPDATE #2***
2/29/12
OK Mats are done and up for sell. We have 3 x 2, 3 x 3, and 3 x 5 sizes listed in both our web store and Ebay (cheaper on our web store of course). They are $15.99, $23.49 and $36.99 respectively.

In other news the prefab terrain has hit a small delay as we try to negotiate a price for someone to do the initial routing set up. It seems it's a lot of work on the front end and nobody wants to do it without a large order placed up front. Once it's done though, it can just stay on file so making more would be easy enough, I just need to get the setup done. Anyway, I'll keep ya'll posted...
.....Andrew


***UPDATE***
2/23/12
OK, it looks like smaller sizes are what everyone is asking about. The material cuts fine without problems and I've looked into just getting a "roll" of it. This way I can cut to order more or less. I've not priced it yet but will do so by tonight. One side will be 3' the other will be priced by the foot. I'd expect it to be about $7 but smaller cuts (less than 3 feet) might be a tad more.

We've also tweaked the pattern a bit. The brown lines are a bit thinner and hex size was adjusted to be closer to normal scape so there will be minimal nonalignment.



Introducing Prefabricated Terrain for Heroscape. Get playing in minutes on a dynamic battlefield. Less set up time means more play time!

FAQ
Q) What is “5 minute Scape”?-
A) “5 minute Scape” is a product line we are developing to aid in FAST map creation for Heroscape. How many times have you had an hour or 2 and wanted to play a game but just couldn’t justify the set up time, especially on the go (like at a FLGS)? Our goal is to solve this dilemma with cheap affordable pre fab terrain. Simply roll out the base map then throw some terrain down and you should have a dynamic battlefield in minutes . Clean up?…just as quick!

Q) How “professional” is this going to look?
A) We have one of our base mats done and I must say it looks amazing. They are made from a heavy vinyl that’s water resistant and very difficult to rip. These mats are NOT dry or wet erasable though. DO NOT USE MARKERS on these maps. As for the pre fab terrain we have the designs done and at the printers now. Once we get profs back we’ll know more but they will be die cut so edges should be clean . The material we’re planning on using (currently) is light weight and will withstand some minimal impact BUT care should be taken not to crush. Bottom line, these won’t be big toy company quality or “Hobby enthusiast“ (meaning the hard core custom creator people) but will be of good quality for the intended purpose.

Q) Are these compatible with normal Heorscape terrain?
A) Yes, and no. The hexes are very close in size but slightly smaller. You can very easily fit normal terrain on the base mat with overlap only noticeable after aroud 10 hexes or so. but due to the locking mechanism copyright our terrain won’t fit in with the normal terrain. You can put it on top or visa versa though. Some of the optional terrain with wide bases and low centers of gravity will work well such as Glaciers but other like the palm tress may fall over if jostled during play.

Q) How much is this going to cost?
A) While I cannot be exact at the moment I’m hoping we can bring the terrain pieces in under $.10 per hex. Keep in mind though, layers of hexes will count toward the total. For example a “small grasslands hill” that’s base is 16 hexes, then second layer is 10 hexs and a third layer of 3 hexes will total 29 hexes. Our base mats are 3’x5’ and have 20x40 complete hexes (800 in all) and we’re going to be selling them at $35 which is less than $.05 per hex! Compare this with normal terrain costs where each “hex” on average over $.25 now.

Q) How are you going to release these?
A) We are currently planning on two ways to buy, a per piece model (e.g. “small grassland hill” mentioned above for $2.90) or “5 Minute Battle Boxes” options where you’d get a lot of terrain. I’m thinking of doing “sets” with themes such as a “Volcano Set” and a “Grasslands” set and so forth.

The “base mats” are currently in our store under the category of Heroscape -“Custom Scape“-“5 minute Scape” and are $34.99.
link here.




If you have any other questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to post!
……Andrew

[mac122]

Very interesting, Andrew. Will you be adding other styles of the mats like sand or water?

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by mac122

Very interesting, Andrew. Will you be adding other styles of the mats like sand or water?

Most likely Water first then we'll see. It's a very simple matter to change the fill on the hexes but I want to see how the Grasslands sell first.

.......Andrew

[Finn]

This looks awesome. I'll probably buy one of the smaller ones down the line.

[robbdaman]

How are these comparable to Cav's Lexan mats from before?

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by robbdaman

How are these comparable to Cav's Lexan mats from before?

Ours are a tad thicker (not much though). Hexes should be the same size though I haven't actually compared the 2 side by side and of course the pattern is different. Since they are both made to put regular terrain on I can't imagine why they wouldn't "line up". I would have liked to done these out of LEXAN but it would have added $20 or more to the cost. After seeing the vinyl though, I'm very pleased as I think it will fold better and crease less once undone (I'll still keep mine rolled though).
Also remember, this is just the base mat. We have the main product coming and ready for show hopefully next week.
.....Andrew

[boromir96]

They look awesome! The only problem is, I don't have enough money (If you were to put out a smaller one I'd probably go for it)

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by boromir96

They look awesome! The only problem is, I don't have enough money (If you were to put out a smaller one I'd probably go for it)

They aren't that much cheaper to make smaller is the problem. I could do 2'x3's for around $25 I think (though I'd have to price it).

[boromir96]

You could just cut them in half(or even 3rds)

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by boromir96

You could just cut them in half(or even 3rds)

LOL, an interesting idea. I'm not sure how the vinyl would take to cutting though. Maybe I'll do a test.
.....Andrew

[lefton4ya]

Sweet! I have a bunch of Lexan mats from Cavalier (now out of print) and they are 20" x 24" inches or 15*10.5 hexes (158 total usable hexes). I usually take 2 of them (grass or road) to make a base layer, with some normal hexes covering the seam which means they could be overlapping or spaced apart, but two of them is still about 30% of one of your mats. I do suggest you find a way to cut them in half or thirds, as a 20x40 mat is actually too big of a footprint for most 2 player maps, but 20x13 or 20x20 is perfect. If so, then I will buy one or two and start working on some BoV style maps with them (sponsoring a map contest would be a great way to make sales )

Suggestion on what to make after grass mats: I recommend you make road next, as I have found a whole base layer of road makes the funnest maps and helps even up melee and ranged armies, but is a pain to use 3+ fortress/road sets to build so no one does it. Shadow also works to be a great base layer, so should be next on the list to make. I have found water to be worthless as usually I do not want more water than comes in a base set, and this does not speed up building a base layer of hexes one bit. After that ice, lava, and swamp are fun, and sand or rock gives a nice aesthetic, but really Grass, Road, and Shadow work best. The C3G guys would love if you made CityScape mats again too. My

Old Lexan flavors:


CityScape:

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

Sweet! I have a bunch of Lexan mats from Cavalier (now out of print) and they are 20" x 24" inches or 15*10.5 hexes (158 total usable hexes). I usually take 2 of them (grass or road) to make a base layer, with some normal hexes covering the seam which means they could be overlapping or spaced apart, but two of them is still about 30% of one of your mats. I do suggest you find a way to cut them in half or thirds, as a 20x40 mat is actually too big of a footprint for most 2 player maps, but 20x13 or 20x20 is perfect. If so, then I will buy one or two and start working on some BoV style maps with them (sponsoring a map contest would be a great way to make sales )

Suggestion on what to make after grass mats: I recommend you make road next, as I have found a while base layer of road makes the funnest maps and helps even up melee and ranged armies. Shadow also works to be a great base layer, so should be next on the list to make. I have found water to be worthless as usually I do not want more water than comes in a base set, and this does not speed up building a base layer of hexes one bit. After that ice, lava, and swamp are fun, but really Grass, Road, and Shadow work best. My

Old Lexan flavors:

Road is interesting, I was also thinking Dungeon might be good.

Oh and once I get the "main" items (the prefab hills and such) I was thinking of sponsoring a map contest.