I drew my first published wargame map in 1969 with Rapidograph pens and plastic hex templates, 54 years ago.

Bob Bledsaw and I started the Judges Guild in 1976 with the City State of the Invincible Overlord. We then added the Wilderlands of High Fantasy for the regions around the CSIO.

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I sold half of the JG in 1978 and returned to the travel business, making maps to illustrate tour group fliers.

Also made maps for various wargaming projects. The biggest was a 5x12.5' map of the Normandy beaches and peninsula for D-Day. Initially printed in various scales (from 300m/hex to 1 mile/hex) and recently available as a PDF, which, being vectors, could be enlarged to billboard size. That's how I taught myself Illustrator. It took years because I'd get so sick of each 22x34" map that I'd shelve the project until I could stand it again.

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I helped Bob re-release the WOHF with hexes because his license didn't put a hex grid on the campaign cartography! My question was: are they not wargamers?!

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He wanted to draw more of the world in about 2002 and needed a grid with coordinates. We couldn't figure out where to get a digital version (our original was a screened version of SPI's blank map grid that Dunnigan let us use). So, by brute force, I drew a 10x10' grid with individually coordinate-numbered hexes!

Now I find that various programs will spit out a digital hex/coordinate grid! So, I'm here to learn how to do stuff the easy way.

I started a company, https://www.combatrules.com to get classic wargames back in print, Fast Rules, Tractics, and soon Brew Up, plus other projects.