Hey all, I am working on making the terrain needed to for a trench run scenario and would like some input. Basically, how deep, wide and long should the trench be to make for an enjoyable game?

Also, anybody have any tips on how to engineer the board so that everything is supported and strong enough, but can still be broken down and compactly stored when not in use, and is inexpensive enough for a low budget?

Thanks.

I know someone that made 2, 4 foot sections. 18 inches wide, with a trench that was taller than a TIE on 2 pegs, and about 6 inches wide.. he used sheets of plexi to span the trench for ships above it.. worked out nicely.. As to how in scale that was.. no idea.. but it worked well for a trench run. He even had good molds to make Deathstar like panels and such.. looked really nice.

he made it out of thin plywood and had some support trim under it.. I didn't look too closely at the construction, just the top..

So, was his trench 8' long, or 4' long?

Edit, misunderstanding

How wide to go looks ( From the film ) three ships with a little space in between and a little space on either side. Off the top of my head I don't know what that its but just plonk some ships down and see if it looks right. Height, as the above poster says should probably be I bit higher then a ship on double pegs.

So, was his trench 8' long, or 4' long?

18" wide, wow. I was thinking more like 8"

Yup 2 sections 4 feet each.. and if you want to stretch it out you can move the back one to the front.. lol.. 18 gives you 6 inches per side for above trench flying..

if you only do 8 inches wide that's an inch per side of the trench (on top), I thin 6 inches is fine for that I've been thinking of mocking up one of my own.. but.. motivation keeps me from it.. lol.. too many irons in the fire right now with repaints..

Lore,

Might I suggest you go over to BGG SW Xwing down to the file section. I believe there are at least 3 files to possibly help you with this. The one that most interests me is on the very last page (14 currently). It uses images you can print from your computer or more professionally done and just glue to foam board. The file was called Death Star Surface Play Mat.

Hope this helps.

The file was called Death Star Surface Play Mat.

That the one that has both pristine and damaged versions? Yeah, already downloaded and printed out the textures. Will probably mount them to Masonite instead of foamcore, both for durability and because I already have some strips cut into 4' lengths. The question is, how much of the printed textures is needed to make up the actual trench portion.

A couple people have said that it only needs to be as deep as a TIE on a standard base. That is 3.5", say 4" to be safe. Is that deep enough that it isn't going to look funny, having the trench be twice as wide as it is deep?

I was planning on the total playing surface being around 4'x5' in size, is a 4' long trench long enough to capture the right feel of the movies, or do I need to rethink and make the trench 6-8' long? The movie shows the trench as basically wide enough for 3 ships side by side with a little bit of extra space, that would be around 6-7" wide. But it also shows gun emplacements in the trench itself, should I make it a little wider so ships have room to get past the guns without colliding? 6-7" or even 8" doesn't leave any room for ships in the trench to maneuver, at all. They can just go straight. That is very true to the movie, but does it make for interesting play, or will6 turns of nothing but straight 4s be boring for the rebel player and I should widen the trench so there is some potential for maneuvering around down there.

Basically, I have never played or seen played a scenario like this and I am only going to get one chance to build the physical terrain, so I want to make sure I get it right,and that means getting a lot of opinions on what size it should be and advice on the actual construction in advance, before I start cutting things.

Hmmm.. ya know... the more I think about it.. those might have been 2 foot sections.. lol.. I got a bad memory... I was thinking about it and then remembered they were easy to carry in and get through doors.. but still 18 inches wide, he wanted a little room to fly around the outside a little...

Mea culpa for the memory lapse

I can highly recommend this layout/scenario:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/859775/dagobah-daves-death-star-trench-run-mission

I've build a model of it myself using 4 inch thick styrofoam blocks

The trench is 18 cm wide and aprox 125 cm long

The surface area/pattern was bought as a tile PDF file and then put together and slightly size adjusted. And finally printed on a filt fabric

I am still considering puting in some lighting in the trench.

I'll post some pictures later

So, 7-8" wide should be good fir an enjoyable game. Good to know.

You made it out of 4" blocks, so that means the trench is 4" deep? And the elevated portions are supported by being solid? Does that make storage a problem? Is it very bulky?