Wargaming with Miniatures - with Tabletop Simulator

I've discovered during Lockdown that my favourite tabletop wargame 'L'art de la Guerre' has been turned into a 3d online game. Tabletop Simulator ( TTS ) is a 3d gaming platform which allows you to recreate your favourite games and play them in real time against real opponants.

You can simulate 'bases' of army units for use in the game. Here are some classical Greek Spartans lined up.

You can construct all the boards, parts, cards etc needed and they move with simple controls. Its problably based on Unity or something but it has a simple interface and is customisable by adding simple 3d models as .objs r .fbx. Flat art can be put onto cards etc as jpegs and pngs.

A medieval battle showing some of the simulated game props and terrain plus the TTS interface

The L'Art de la Guerre game board and miniature armies have been put together for TTS by Massimo Gamberi - an Italian wargamer. Since I discovered it I have figured out how the mods work and added four or five armies myself.

Low poly hordes of Dacian barbarians in Maya

The base figures are taken from existing 3d computer games such as Field of Glory or Rome Total War. Then the models are file converted using Blender and adapted and posed in Maya. They can then be imported into TTS and saved as 'Workshops' in whole army groups which people can access and bring to their own games.

Adapted texture maps - to give more variations of paint jobs to miniatures

When I edit the models in Maya I am looking to make two or three poses to mix up and then up to four different texture varaiations ( to make over 16 combinations of shield design, clothing, heads etc) . I can also mix up the horses and positions / facing directions to make them look a bit less uniform.

figure in Maya - showing the low poly mesh. Fairly easy to pose - but needs attention at shoulders.

Once I have a selection of individuals I can group them into bases of units - some mixed and random lik ethe barbarians. Some will be close ranked and uniform like this Roman army I put together.

Middle Imperial Romans - Auxhileries and Legionaries

Still from a battle I lost - my Spartans were defeated by the Carthaginians around 250BC

Heres a Youtube video I made just showing a medieval army selection I put together.

There's a Facebook group for ADG with TTS here

After making these conversions for ADG I decided to make some 3d models from scratch. I first created a rare early bronze age army ' the Sumerians'.  After completing those I then made a Norman army. These figures have very low poly meshes, a mix of poses and weapons and also a large variety of texture maps.

bronze age warriors

 

Normans