Game: Funkenschlag Atolla Modulis

Image

Toynan — 2008-09-20T12:21:47+00:00

begining of the game

Image

jumatake — 2008-07-28T06:29:02+00:00

Modulis & box

Thread: Power Line exclusivity variant

Zhab — 2008-07-01T19:49:48+00:00

When you are making a map setup whit Atolla Modulis, you often get 2 path to go from town A dirrectly to town B at two different cost. Because of this, one path is completly useless. People will always use the cheapest one.

This is where my variant comes in. The cheapest path is only available until a player build a house in both town A and town B. From this point on, the cheapest path is no longer available. All player must now use the more expensive path. Obviously, since the player who triggered that change already have an house on both side, he wont suffer from this. We say, that this player acquired the cheap path for his exclusive use .

In the case where there would be 3 direct path, the 2nd cheapest path is only available until a 2nd player build a house in both town A and B.

This only applies to paths dirrectly connected to both town A and town B. It may be possible to get to town B from town A by building threw a couple a cities and using different paths and still end up connecting town B for less than if you use a directly connected path. The long way arround do not count for a "cheap path" (or an expensive one).

This bring in a element of emergency. You want to get to connect the other using the cheap path and not only save money but also make more expensive for all the other players.

Thread: Re: Connection-cost tiles: How many?

Tatsu — 2008-06-12T02:54:51+00:00

60 total. I believe the PDF was put together to simplify printing.

Thread: Connection-cost tiles: How many?

ACK ACK — 2008-06-12T02:38:58+00:00

I've downloaded the pdf file. The instructions say to print out the connection-cost tiles sheet twice; the instructions also imply that there should be a total of 60 of these tiles.

Well, in the pdf, the connection-cost tiles sheet already contains 60 tiles (2 each of 1-30 cost). So do I need a total of 60 connection-cost tiles or a total of 120?

(I think the answer is 60 tiles total, in which case the pdf file should be edited for clarity.)

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

battlepuppy — 2008-03-12T06:07:48+00:00

My approach to printing this out was very simple.

I used the pdf someone kindly created which contains all the pictures, I printed this onto glossy photopaper, laminated this with my home laminator, trimmed the edges with a guillotine, and then found some self adhesive mounting board. This is in hobby shops and it's a couple of millimetres thick. I cut it into squares using a craft knife, and then peeled off the backing so the pictures stuck onto it directly.

Job done - no spray glue, varnish etc. And it looks brilliant.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

SimonDorfman — 2008-03-12T05:48:41+00:00

since mediafire seems to delete files after a while, i re-upped everything to divshare which supposedly doesn't delete files over time. And it allows files up to 200MB so I was able to make one rar instead of having to split it.

The PDF is here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4005425-39c

And the RAR is here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4005680-5f8

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

SimonDorfman — 2008-03-12T04:07:30+00:00

i re-upped the rar part 2 here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?prj51ivu3wm

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

DarkWolfNine — 2008-03-11T03:55:03+00:00

Simon,

Thank you so much for these files. Is there anyway you could re-post RAR Part 2 with that Part 1? (Or at least just the "tuile-G.tif") Because the new "Part 1" has the first half of that file in a folder, while Part 2, has it in the root so they won't combine into a completed file.

Thanks again,
~DarkWolfNine

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

SimonDorfman — 2008-02-03T15:47:22+00:00

I'm glad y'all found the PDF useful.

I re-uploaded the RAR part 1 here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?b0g9cv0ztxj

Thread: Re: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

zzerg — 2008-01-21T15:35:18+00:00

Thanks a lot! Even if the images link there is also dead, there is a nice printable PDF, perfect to give a try.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

zzerg — 2008-01-21T15:31:17+00:00

The PDF is really great! Thank you so much!

Also, I would like to have the source files to change it a bit, but the link for the first part is down
(PowerGridExpansion.part1.rar http://www.mediafire.com/?2uytmyrzzqy)

Please can anyone re-upload it? Thanks.

Thread: Re: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

TheCat — 2008-01-20T11:09:21+00:00

See this thread for a link.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1007441

Thread: Re: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

zzerg — 2008-01-20T09:42:47+00:00

Please, can anyone help me to download the files for this expansion? The site http://perso.wanadoo.fr seems to be down forever
And I couldn't find any other link...
I enjoy the PowerGrid, and really want to have the Atolla Modulis

Just give a link, if it is somewhere on the net, or send it to my email (zzerga-at-gmail-dot-com).

(I can then even host the file, if it is ok for author rights.)

Thank you.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

battlepuppy — 2008-01-06T08:58:04+00:00

Simon,
That pdf download is absolutely fabulous. Many many thanks.

Andrew

Thread: Re: Broken link?

TheCat — 2007-10-21T02:54:59+00:00

Take a look at the end of this thread:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1007441

Thread: Re: Broken link?

stuartwinchester — 2007-10-18T15:31:30+00:00

Hi,
Looks like the guy's site where the images were located is gone.
Could someone post them or paste a URL to another location?
thanks

Thread: Broken link?

nickguay — 2007-10-14T15:05:22+00:00

The link in the description for "Atolla Modulis website" appears to be broken. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

Thank you,
Nick

Image

matthewoods — 2007-08-03T14:40:49+00:00

Image

matthewoods — 2007-08-03T14:39:21+00:00

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

bonnyaclyde — 2007-08-03T00:13:33+00:00

tempus42 wrote:
Could anyone clarify what size the tiles and counters should be printed? The tiles appear to be sized at about 22"x22", but that can't be right. How big should they really be? Thanks!

It says 18cmx18cm.
I like the floor tile idea you can pick up boxes of them cheap. But they will be heavier.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

SimonDorfman — 2007-04-14T22:50:55+00:00

I took the time to create a PDF document all ready to print everything out at the right size. I hope this saves some folks some time and energy. The 35MB PDF file is available here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?4ydnf51yzmj

Andy if you want to tweak the layout of that PDF, and you have Adobe InDesign CS2, here are all the files you need, archived into a split RAR file:
PowerGridExpansion.part1.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/?2uytmyrzzqy

PowerGridExpansion.part2.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/?0m2m1nzlmmm

Thread: Re: Best layouts.

ropearoni4 — 2007-04-14T19:24:51+00:00

I did like the idea that you could lower the amount of cities by just a few if need be by not connecting some of the cities on a tile.
I sure wish their was an official printing of the expansion. I like my homemade versions, but a professional version would be -played more I suspect.

Thread: Re: Best layouts.

DSHStratRat2 — 2007-04-14T15:42:17+00:00

One word of warning for anyone who hasn't already discovered this problem: some of the tiles have separated groups of cities on them. For example, one of the 7-city tiles has two small groups of cities that do NOT connect to each other. When laying out your board, make sure that you have a way into both sets of cities on such tiles.

I mention this because the first time my group tried using the very first set of suggested tiles for a 5-player game, we stuck that 7-city tile off in one corner and didn't notice until the 2nd round of play that we couldn't possibly reach 4 of the cities on it!

We had simply assumed that being able to reach a tile meant that you could reach all the cities that were on it, but there are at least two tiles (the 7-city one and one of the 5-city tiles) where that's not the case. So ANY time you set up a board for Atolla Modulis, be sure that every city on it is reachable!

Thread: Re: Placement of costing tiles

DSHStratRat2 — 2007-04-14T15:35:41+00:00

My group almost made this mistake as well, and it's because the rules are just a tad murky on the subject. They tell you to put one cost marker on each "intertile" connection, but they also tell you to put one on each circle as well. They don't really say whether you should do both at once.

We started laying out the board like you did, and immediately decided that we didn't like the idea of having multiple connection cost markers on the same connection between two cities. This game has enough fiddly mental math as it is without doubling up on connection cost tiles!

We just stuck with one connection cost tile between any two cities. Even then, there was a bit of confusion because some of the Atolla Modulis connections fork, allowing you to put one connection cost tile down that links three different cities. We let that slide, too, for the sake of mathematical simplicity.

Thread: Re: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

mtv101 — 2007-04-08T01:48:37+00:00

by using this new style map, do the connections "wrap around" and connect to the other side of the board?

Image

Bostich — 2007-03-30T19:32:31+00:00

Alernate setup which has track in middle of gameboard

Image

Bostich — 2007-03-30T19:31:31+00:00

Power Grid - Atolla Magnus

Thread: That new glue smell

slowcorner — 2007-03-28T20:40:05+00:00

Ahhh. Nothing like the smell of DIY in the morning.

Our first game using the Funkenschlag Atolla Modulis download.

The images were downloaded and printed out at work on 20# stock paper using a HP4600 laser color printer. I got 2mm poster board from the local art supply. Paper/posterboard union was achieved using 3M "77" spray and a wooden paper towel holder. The images were sealed and protected with 5 thin coats of Krylon Glossy UV protectant spray. Everything was cut out using a metal ruler, utility knife, and self-healing mat. One finger was sliced open, but no permanent damage was done. I WILL get a mounted cutter if and when I make another copy for a gift. Some of the finished pieces had corners that were a bit loose (which I identified by carefully brushing each corner with the tip of my finger). These were repaired by spraying one end of one of the used razor blades with "77" spray and tucking it under the raised flap. Then, with a paper towel, I squeezed the corner down, wiping away the excess glue.

The game debuted to murmurs of appreciation. The best praise is that we played the game without being distracted by any of the components.

We selected one of the 4p setups from the list in the instructions. I grabbed the indicated atoll tiles and fanned them in my hand. Every player selected one and placed it in turn, in any orientation, with the understanding that we needed to make a 3x3 grid due to space restrictions. Continuing clockwise, neutral tiles were selected to fill in gaps. The counter tiles were turned face down, and counters were placed randomly on all intertile city connections. When we get a bit more sophisticated with our gameplay, I think I'll make two seperate piles of counters so we can intentionally make certain connections cheap and others relatively more expensive, but still choose them from facedown piles.

Our board setup was as follows:
N-4 / D / N-9
C / I / F
G / N-5 / H

An image of the game near the end:

Anyway, it was at about this point that I knocked over a fresh cup of hot tea all over my end of the table. One tile got hit, and I was able to salvage it thanks to Jim's speediness with a towel. The rest of the tea went all over me, so I played with a soaked shirt sleeve and pant leg. This would not be the last time this happened.

I think we lucked into a pretty good board setup. The atoll tiles had a lot of really cheap areas, but there were also some cheap ways to cover a lot of distance on the board. Meaning that there was usually a cheap way and an expensive way. This meant that you were forced to do some defensive building on every turn to block off cheap ways into your region. This kept me broke, and less inclined to take a turn off building to enhance my power plant situation. OTOH, everyone else quickly got up to their 3 plants, and were making more money than me early. The other problem was that I had started with a 3 Oil/2 city plant, which proved to quite expensive to operate, EVEN THOUGH I was in last almost every turn of the game. Thus, the other players were building more cities than me AND improving their power plants. I usually avoid the tastiest regions on the board for starting position, but this is what fell to me, and I felt like I had to protect it. Dumb.

After everyone got to three power plants, the market got sucky. No one wanted to grab anything that wasn't a 4- or 5-city plant. So with the saved money, cities were built more quickly, and we sprinted into Step 2. A few turns later, Sonja made her move, building 5 cities for about 120 Electro to take her to 17, and powering 12. I could power 9 cities, Jim and Jill were at 10 and 11, respectively. It was a pretty quick game.

Image

PedroM — 2007-02-15T22:57:21+00:00

Atolla Modulis at BGG.con 2006

Image

Chieftain — 2006-11-15T04:00:59+00:00

2006 BGG.CON - Wow Got to see this rare version play.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

slowcorner — 2006-10-05T21:16:46+00:00

meowsqueak wrote:
What's the best sort of glue to use?

I used 3M '77' spray glue and it worked well, but you must work outside or in a very-well ventilated area. There's also a water-based paint-on glue available at art stores that binds more strongly than Elmer's, and I've been using that for most of my homemade game projects. The spray will also get onto the front of the image.

Seconded on the roller cutter. There's a LOT of cutting involved and it's easy to get careless, so be extra careful no matter what you use.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

Tatsu — 2006-10-05T20:57:07+00:00

meowsqueak wrote:
What's the best sort of glue to use?

I used Elmer's spray glue, which you can get at Walmart or Michaels or any craft store. Be careful you use enough and then press it flat past where the edge of the image will be, so when you cut, the edges don't try and peel back.

Also, be sure to let it dry before you cut.

I've tried the Avery full page stickers before and this works ok, but the colors don't end up as bright and the page ends up being slightly translucent, so it shows through slightly. IMO, its worth the extra time and trouble to use the spray glue and better printing materials.

Image

myadestes — 2006-10-05T17:33:49+00:00

Everything fits nicely in the cozy little homemade box

Image

BeyondMonopoly — 2006-08-19T19:14:09+00:00

Game In Progress

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

meowsqueak — 2006-08-15T23:18:33+00:00

What's the best sort of glue to use?

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

Verkisto — 2006-07-31T21:49:35+00:00

agnespoodle wrote:
Each page fits fine on an 8.5x11. It's just a lot of pages.

I had fun building mine, and it looks flippin' awesome.

Ditto. And I printed mine out through Word, of all things. Just make sure when you go in to format the image that it's at 100% (you might need to fiddle with the margins to get them to fit on a page). Then I pasted it all to matboard and pulled out my trusty rotary cutter.

I'm not the only one who thinks mine turned out "flippin' awesome"; many of the guys in my group commented on how professional it looked.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

Solamar — 2006-07-27T15:28:50+00:00

I tried to move this to the game page, but had problems getting it to work. Hopefully, it has arrived there ok now.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

agnespoodle — 2006-07-27T03:34:40+00:00

Each page fits fine on an 8.5x11. It's just a lot of pages.

I had fun building mine, and it looks flippin' awesome.

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

schlappy — 2006-07-26T23:51:52+00:00

I would suggest printing them *slightly* larger than 18x18cm, on the outside chance that your printer (like mine) doesn't want to really print them out as perfect squares.

This way, you can trim each tile the same way to the exact specs you want. I printed at 19x19cm, and that worked fine. Of course, due to operater error, my tiles *still* aren't perfect squares -- but at least they are all the same dimensions, which is all that really matters.

Follow Tatsu's tutorial & you'll get great results. In any case, the two most important things I learned are:

-- Krylon UV Glossy spray (3 or 4 LIGHT coats)
-- Roller Cutter!!

There is also a file of mine that is a reworked version of the resource market tile, in a linear form that is more like the original and Italy/France ones. I found the square one included with Atolla to be tricky to replenish & suss out at a quick glance, tho YMMV.

Good luck!!

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

deacondavid — 2006-07-26T22:02:21+00:00

The manual gives the exact sizes for everything. I resized everything in Photoshop and printed them from there (for friends - I don't actually own a copy of PowerGrid, but I have friends that do).

Thread: Re: Printing out Atolla Modulis

AnakinOU — 2006-07-26T22:01:39+00:00

per the details at http://perso.orange.fr/taverne.ligue/funkensite/index.htm, each file is 300dpi, and fianl print size varies (although most are 18cmx18cm).

Thread: Printing out Atolla Modulis

tempus42 — 2006-07-26T21:54:07+00:00

I found this fan-made expansion for Power Grid here, and I'd like to make my own copy. There are several threads detailing how people made their own cool versions, and I'm inspired, but I can't find one important detail: Exactly how large should the tiles be printed so they're at the same scale as the base game? The pictures are saved at 22"x22", but I'm sure I'm not supposed to print them at that size. At least one person said they printed them at the "default size", but what should that be? Every application I open the jpgs in scales them as it sees fit....

Can anyone help? Printer ink costing what it does, I'd prefer not to have to experiment to figure out what size is right...

Thanks!
Brad/tempus42.

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

tempus42 — 2006-07-19T19:03:07+00:00

Could anyone clarify what size the tiles and counters should be printed? The tiles appear to be sized at about 22"x22", but that can't be right. How big should they really be? Thanks!

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

brainrob — 2006-06-20T13:05:54+00:00

shawn_low wrote:
Instead of mucking around with spray adhesive, try printing the images onto laser/injet label sheets (available as full sheets). This way, you can just peel off the stickers and paste it straight onto illustrator board! Voila!
That was my plan until I discovered that my local DIY store was selling ultra cheap 30cm² (1 mm thick) self adhesive vinyl floor tiles. I simply laser printed the tiles onto standard paper, stuck them on to the sticky side of the floor tiles and trimmed the pieces.

As the tiles were fairly large, I also managed to create a copy of InterUrban and a couple of prototype games, all for GBP12.64

Thread: Placement of costing tiles

PaulGrogan — 2006-04-12T10:23:39+00:00

We played this for the first time last night, and since BGG was down and I couldnt see the pictures, we weren't sure where to place the connection cost tiles.

So: We placed them everywhere

Every intertile connection we placed one on. And every circle on the neutral tiles.

This meant that in a number of instances, there were 2 or even 3 connection cost tiles between some of the cities, giving some huge connection costs.

Now, BGG pictures is back up, and from one image, I think we placed them incorrectly. I think they should be placed so that each connection has one cost piece, wherever that is placed.

But, the game worked anyways

Paul Grogan

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

kfritz — 2006-04-09T02:06:46+00:00

schlappy wrote:
First of all:

I also used the Krylon UV/Glossy overcoat, and that came out great -- and waterproof, too!!

Can anybody comment on what the difference between the Krylon Crystal Clear Top Coat versus Krylon UV overcoat is? I of course made mine with the Crystal Clear Top Coat, and now find that Krylon also makes a UV coat..

What is the difference (besides UV).. Is there any difference in appearance?

I'm happy with the appearance, and used a color laser.. will I get fading over time? Or is that usually just an inkjet thing?

thanks

Thread: Re: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

schlappy — 2006-04-06T23:34:41+00:00

I don't see why folks couldn't follow the France Expansion rules -- I can't imagine how a different board layout would impact the plant auction/resource market variables, anyway. In any case, we haven't tried it yet -- it seems that the new layout issues have provided enough new variables for the moment.

I have heard others suggest that a mod involving Hydro/Geo-Thermal would be in order (& I agree), but I don't see how to incorporate that without some additional/replacement plant cards.

Maybe Maura will mock some up for us one day

Thread: Re: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

TheCat — 2006-04-02T22:33:43+00:00

How practical would it be to play with modified power plant and material supplies? Could you duplicate France's reliance on nuclear power? Or adjust things to emphasize renewable energy?

Thread: Atolla Modulis: Power Grid/Funkenschlag expansion

schlappy — 2006-04-02T03:55:23+00:00

OVERVIEW: Atolla Modulis is a free print-and-play expansion for Friedemann Friese's Power Grid, developed by Jean Claude Adelmand. While the expansion requires that you already have a copy of Power Grid (for the power plant & player aid cards, money supply, and the fabulous wooden bits), the complete set of Atolla graphic files and rules can be found here:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/taverne.ligue/funkensite/index.htm

COMPONENTS (a): The website has itemized access to all of the necessary JPG files: 11 City tiles, 9 Neutral tiles, 1 Resource Market tile, 1 Scoring tile, 2 Plant Market tiles, and 1 sheet of Connection Cost tiles (print 2x), as well as a PDF of the rules. These are all VERY well done -- the artwork is both beautiful in its own right, and completely consistent & recognizable to anyone who has played any of the existing Power Grid maps.

The City tiles each depict a random assortment of small tropical islands surrounded by ocean, with the familiar Power Grid artwork detailing a number of cities and their associated connections. There is one tile with seven cities, three with six cities, two each with five, four, and three cities, and one with one city. It is interesting and entertaining to note that many of the cities are named in honor of some of our hobby's great designers -- Kniziapolis, Santa Sackson, Teuberlin, and of course, Friedemanhattan, to name a few.

Also of interest is the fact that not all cities are directly connected on any given tile; though, each tile has three connection lines running out to each edge of the tile, making them completely interchangable in terms of physical placement.

Similarly, the Neutral tiles have a random assortment of spaghetti-like connection lines running to each edge in groups of three, although there are no cities on them, nor any fixed connection costs.

The sheet of smaller Connection Cost tiles is numbered from 1 to 30 -- and should be printed twice, to allow for the possibility of duplicates.

The Scoring tile seems to be an improvement over previously existing versions, as the player order seems more clear -- due to a brighter "light bulb" graphic; and, the critical Step 2/City #7 is marked in bright red -- in contrast to the rest of the blue/black city spaces.

Unfortunately, the Resource Market tile seems like a small step backwards -- in that, while the other versions have all been linear, this one is laid out in more of a grid fashion, making both replenishment and quick-glance analysis a little more difficult. I understand that the reason was a practical one -- to match the rest of the square tiles. Nonetheless, I ended up creating my own Resource Market tile that is more like what we are accustomed to; I expect it will appear in the Files section shortly.

The Plant Market tiles seem to be completely optional -- they look great, but neither add nor detract from the original function.

COMPONENTS (b): For assembly of these components, I must recommend following Tatsu's expert & detailed instructions found in the Files section. In brief, I printed on matte photo paper, sprayed four light coats of Krylon UV/Glossy, and mounted on 1/16" thick "white board" -- cardboard between two plys of paper, using 3M 77 spray glue, and trimming with a rotary cutter. My results were outstanding, with the added bonus that EVERYTHING -- including the France/Italy board -- fit back in the original Power Grid box, once I discarded the insert. But, it IS heavy!

GAMEPLAY: Essentially, Atolla is played exactly like Power Grid, if using the German/USA maps -- with the notable exception being that the board itself must be constructed first. Depending on the number of players, the number of cities to be in play is determined: 2 to 3 players use 21 cities, 4 use 28 cities, and 5 or 6 use 35 cities.

Fortunately, the number of cities on each City tile is printed in one of the bottom corners -- and there is also a handy chart in the rules which presents myriad options of tiles to use to get to the proper number of cities. Once agreed upon, these tiles are placed in any fashion the players choose -- the suggested initial goal being a grid of tiles that is 3x3.

Usually, there will be spaces left open, which are then filled with the Neutral tiles. My suggestion is to place all nine tiles in a way that affords a variety of connections and options -- it became clear in my early setups that there could be a SERIOUS bottleneck problem if gamers aren't careful to avoid it. Then again, I imagine there are some who might seek this sort of thing out on purpose.

The last aspect of setup is assigning costs to the connections that are created as a result of adjacent tiles -- this can be done by random draw, or (as I recommend) with purpose, by reflecting what similar existing costs are relative to their distance. Again, there is plenty of wiggle room for folks who want to really shake up how their board is laid out.

Once this is complete, money is distributed & away you go!

STRATEGY: Since only the layout of the board is different, it seems to be more an issue of tactics than strategy. As experienced players may have certain favorite playing areas and starting cities when using one of the existing maps, the thousands of combinations that are possible with the Atolla tiles are bound to throw a wrench in *somebody's* plans. Which is a good thing, I think.

At any rate, it is at least as important as ever that players start and plan wisely in Atolla, because it is possible that any random tile configuration will be far more unforgiving than the average US/German/France/Italy are designed to be, and it can be harder than ever to dig oneself out of a hole of poor decisions.

But, the payoff for playing well can be that much sweeter, too.

IMPRESSIONS: Atolla is a wonderful execution of a brilliantly simple idea -- reward existing fans, while enticing new ones. Thanks in no small part to the advice of those with experience at assembling this sort of thing, I am now the owner of an expansion I am proud to play and show off. Additionally, having what amounts to an unlimited supply of new maps for one of my favorite games has made the effort and cost of production a bargain at twice the price.

RATING: 9.5

Thread: Lets give this a Spin

karrde — 2006-03-26T15:47:16+00:00

Players:
Duane - 17 powered
Steve - 16 powered
Lisa - 14 powered
Jame (me) - 15 powered

I had discovered this version just last week, and we had played Power Grid just the week before. But being a sucker for modular boards, Duane and I at least, we had to give this a whirl.

I randomly selected a 6 tile layout from the chart, we threw in 3 random netural tiles, "shuffled" them up and placed them out on the table. This ended up withcity heavy cluster of 3 tiles on one side of the board, With lon connections to a smaller cluster of 6 cities between 2 tiles on the opposite corner.

After the inital powerplant auction I ended up being first to build. I had only purchased a 1 house plant and feared the congestion that would happen on the 3way free interconnect tile, so built apart from it. The section I built upon had plenty of cities, but I think my down fall was that the only way out was through the 3 way. I quietly built over in my section while Duane and Steve competed in the "cheap" cities, and Lisa built in the truely isolated zone.

Stage 2 was the clincher for me I think. I really needed to be first since Duane had sterted encroachment into my area and it was already a leap frog between Him and steve in the cheap section. Duane was first however, and he snatched up the cities he didn't already have leaving me large jumps to get out of where I was.

Coal became scarce and there was some hot contention for alternative powerplants as we all tried to get ready for the end game. Stage 3 came along and the powerplants slowly dwindled. Steve was in the lead n cities, and trigered the end by building 2 to have 17, while he could only power 16. But Duane managed a 5 city build to also bring him to 17 and win the game.

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

schlappy — 2006-03-24T18:15:55+00:00

First of all:

THANK YOU, TATSU!!!!!!!! for you!!

I followed your technique (minus the blue spray on the tile backs), and it worked like a champ -- the roller cutter is DEFINITELY the way to go!

I also used the Krylon UV/Glossy overcoat, and that came out great -- and waterproof, too!!

The only thing I did differently was to create my own resource market graphic, as I am used to seeing all the wooden bits lined up in long rows. The file that came with the rest staggered the market in three rows/columns, which seemed both visually distracting & less than practical when it came to replenishment.

I'll upload my "market" file over the weekend, but imagine one that looks more like the ones on the original boards, although in a tri-fold form.

And all of my stuff also fits in the original box -- even with France/Italy -- minus the insert (which I wasn't all that fond of anyway)

BGG ROCKS!

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

slowcorner — 2006-03-18T16:28:31+00:00

To follow up my previous post: the construction went off swimmingly, whatever that means...I did slice my finger open pulling a utility knife down the metal ruler, but no permanent damage was done...I used posterboard, not matte board, but it was plenty thick...In the future, I would like to use labels, but I'm having trouble finding glossy label sheets...Some of my corners came up due to imcomplete glue coverage, so I sprayed glue on a razor blade, applied to the corner, and pressed down with a paper towel...The UV/glossy protectant was a lifesaver, as I spilled hot tea (!) all over my end of the table, and myself, early in setting up the first game...The one tile that was affected is fine, and bears no record of the incident.

That cigar box is sweet! I hope my Michael's carries them.

I am surely getting a rotary cutter, too. Nice job, Isaac.

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

Verkisto — 2006-03-18T14:14:05+00:00

Awright, I'll chime in and talk about how I made MY copy of this game (yay, bandwagons!)....

Instead of printing the graphics out onto card stock, I went ahead and printed them directly to full-size label sheets. I've begun using the Avery full-size sheets for copiers, because they're cheaper than the inkjet sheets, and seem to have the same quality of printing. I printed them out at 18cm x 18cm on the highest quality setting (as recommended by the folks who designed this thing), and they look sharp, with some fine detail. It took 25 sheets to print out all the graphics, but I also opted to print out the current/future market board.

For the backing material, I used black matboard. A few weeks ago, I picked up some 32" x 40" matboard at Hobby Lobby (still 2-for-1, $5.99, at least through Saturday!), and had enough on hand for all the printouts. The matboard is about 1/16" thick, which I think is sufficient for the purposes of this expansion.

I was able to fit 20 of the graphics on one sheet of the matboard, but I had to trim some of the excess white off of the label sheets. In the end, it took about 1.5 sheets of matboard to create the whole thing. The hardest part of this process, for me, was keeping the labels flat as I stuck them down to the matboard; as a result, I have a few creases on some of the tiles, but nothing serious.

To cut the pieces out, I used a metal ruler, a rotary trimmer*, and a cutting mat. It took about 2.5 hours to cut them all out, but the hardest part was cutting out all the connection cost tiles, just because they were smaller. The larger pieces were easy, once I was able to clear enough room off our dining room table to get the whole blasted sheet up there.

My original plans involved me making a box for the pieces, since I was under the assumption that the pieces wouldn't all fit in the Power Grid box. This was my first attempt at making a box (out of the matboard), and it was a passable success. I didn't like that I could see the white beneath the black of the matboard, and it seemed to tilt in one direction once I contructed the whole thing. Oh, and I had to make the lid twice, because I made it too small the first time around. *sigh* It was just a waste of matboard.

Anyway, everything does fit into my Power Grid box, once I take out the insert, so I scrapped the idea of the box. I now have the base game, the France/Italy board, and the Atolla Modulis set, all in one box:

]]>

It does weigh a ton now, though.

I'm very pleased with the results, too, because I think the final product looks professional (if I do say so myself...).

*Rotary trimmers ROCK. They provide much more control than using an Xacto knife, and can provide a straight cut through the materials (when using a knife, I tend to make my cuts at an angle). You can get these things cheaply from Wal-Mart, and are well worth the investment.

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

Tatsu — 2006-03-07T02:58:04+00:00

And here is the box.
]]>
Again, just a $2 wooden cigar box from Michaels.

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

Tatsu — 2006-03-06T15:16:27+00:00

I found some wooden cigar boxes at Michaels on sale for $2 each. Big enough to hold everything but the connection cost counters. I'll try and put up pictures tonight.

Glad to hear it all worked out well for you Greg.

Thread: Re: Best layouts.

ropearoni4 — 2006-03-04T20:19:53+00:00

here was my 5 player game:

A G
C B
D F

Thread: Re: Best layouts.

Tatsu — 2006-03-04T18:35:27+00:00

The layout was:
E - I - F
D - N2 - H
A - K - G

N2 was turned 90 degrees clockwise

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

shawn_low — 2006-03-03T04:50:46+00:00

Instead of mucking around with spray adhesive, try printing the images onto laser/injet label sheets (available as full sheets). This way, you can just peel off the stickers and paste it straight onto illustrator board! Voila!

Thread: Re: Making of Atolla Modulis

agnespoodle — 2006-03-03T03:01:10+00:00

Agreed! And THANK YOU for all of your tips. It never would have looked this good without them.

After two trips to Utrecht, I came back with 3 22x28 sheets of Mounting board - not Illustrator board - at $1.99 each. Same thickness, but it's for mounting photos and paper, not drawing. So it's even more ideal for this project. You really need 4 sheets.

Here is what I purchased to complete the project (which is COMPLETE as of 5 minutes ago). But it's important to note that apart from the paper, I'll use all of this again, or my wife will, as she's a photographer that mounts her prints. So it's not like I'll be wasting any excess.

Final materials:
27 Color Laser prints onto 80# card ($29)
3 22x28 sheets of mounting board ($1.99 ea)
2 20x30 sheets of Illustrator board ($4.29 ea)
1 can Photo Mount spray adhesive ($12.99)
1 Straight Blade for a Logan Compact Mat Cutter ($21.99) (http://www.logangraphic.com/products/boardmounted/compact.sh...)

I don't know how I would have done this without the mat cutter, which I bought for my wife a few years ago. And that straight cutting head made all the difference in the world.

After picking up the prints from OfficeMax (color laser onto 80# cardstock), I came home and made a salmon dinner with steamed veggies and rice. Next to the stove, while this was all cooking, I used my wife's roller paper cutter to trim down the prints, leaving a small white border (thanks again for the tip!).

After dinner, I made the trips to Utrecht to pick up the supplies and headed into the basement. Inspired by your metallic blue paint job, I spray painted the back of one of the illustrator boards to cover up the logos using an old can of metallic silver (that I'd used to trick out my PC a couple years ago). But the mounting board was the same on both sides, so I deemed it Not Necessary to continue with the spray paiting.

I proceeded with the spray adhesive, spraying it onto the backs of the prints. All the hair on my left arm is now stiff from this wicked adhesive. But MAN that stuff is genious. A tight, uniform coating and those prints are locked on that board for good.

I mounted the scoring track, 60 chits, the power plant and resource markets onto the spraypainted board. That stuff dries fast as hell, so I took it all upstairs to my wife's photo matting area (a luan door on two IKEA sawhorses) and began the cutting.

Two hours later, my back hurts and I'm a little fuzzy from the fumes. But HOLY CRAP does this look awesome. Full-bleed, thick boards and gorgeous art. My wife said it looks professionally done, and I have to agree. (Then she said, "Now you have to find a box.")

Not so! Out goes the box insert, and it all fits in the Power Grid box. Of course, my copy of Power Grid now weighs about 20lbs. (I have the Italy/France expansion in there also, so it doesn't quite close all the way.)

That was a fun project, and the results are fantastic. I'm going on a gaming retreat next weekend, and I'll get to show it off there. I'm hosting tomorrow night, so I'm sure it's getting to the table tomorrow night.