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@rastamann –

I will check out the Cold War 1985 rules.  I’m driving toward updating PanzerLeader/ Arab Israeli Wars for 1982 Lebanon – but different people who have already done PL / AIW for Moderns have very different ideas on how to handle big, big problems that start cropping up in the 1960s – laminate armor, composite armor, reactive armor, all kinds of different AP shells that have HUGE impacts on armor penetration capabilities at different ranges, etc.  This results in vehicles and units having wildly different values depending on who’s interpretation / conversion system you use.

So another, outside perspective, unbiased system might be just what I need to make some decisions in my project.

If you can’t find the AIW rules, I can send a .pdf version if you PM me your address.

I hope you post progress pics of painting / assembling your new GHQ forces!

As far as how I build the maps, that’s a mixed bag, “every trick in the book” kind of thing.  If you have a versio of the software you probably know about layers.  Well, I have a series of layers.  A base layer for basic color. Then I just go to Google images and download some textures, like pebbly rocks, etc.  I rough-erase the edges of these patches and stitch them together, making a mask I set to a high degree of transparency.  The roads are a brush of my own, really just the standard with with different outer glow and inner flow Layer Styles set to maximum NOISE level for a “pebbly” look.  The buildings are very carefully clipped out of screen captures from Google Earth satellite view, sadly taken from (I’m not kidding here) old Detroit car factories and the like.  Yes, when I need ruins for Stalingrad or Gaza, I go to Detroit.  🙁

The trees are open-source .png files, but you only get one tree.  So I copy several of them together, changing the sizes and orientations so the repetition is not obvious, and save several configurations as tree layers, then copy / place THOSE as needed.

Really it’s about building up a big library of assets.  This way when I need a new map, I can open the asset template file, rearrange as I want, merge layers, and save as a new .jpg file for use.

I’ll post some WIP PS14 images later.

I like those warships!  I want to see those painted up soon!  😀

Thanks, @limburger – regarding POWs and CASEVAC: yes, I try to put more of a modern feel in my modern wargames.  “Modern War” has nothing to do with technology or toys, but doctrines of limited warfare in the age of nuclear weapons and global, instant media.  That means small wars, with a huge priority on low casualties (at least for “Free World” forces), and a big emphasis on perception.  That means prisoners.  People are fighting over ideas, perceptions, and information, not “x” miles of battlefront or beachheads or so on.  Between CASEVAC, POWs, and avoiding hitting civilians (sometimes used as human shields by the irregular forces player) for the Free World, these games become as much about keeping people ALIVE as they are about killing the enemy.