Wilderness Tower Map Review

Pros

• Nice looking map of a tower in the wildernes
• Marks denoting the bounds of squares are included
• Properly sized variant for battlemap use is provided
• Smaller version for reference is provided (I often like printing these kinds of things off and noting starting locations for creatures)
• Free!

Cons

• If you already have wilderness tiles, this is more wilderness tiles
• No internals of the tower are provided. If they were, even blank, it would make the set far more reusable. Hopefully that's the case in the adventure that served as the prototype for this map.

Introduction

I've talked about maps before. Dave Zajac's Wilderness Tower Map is another map that can be used in your games. While being quite small, it is properly scaled for use with miniatures. If you are always looking for new tiles and maps to use, it's worth a look.

The Map

The map itself is quite small and simple. It's made up of two pieces that can be printed and connected. However, you can create a rather large chunk of wilderness by printing that page multiple times, rotating the pieces randomly, and connecting them. For a better effect you can include other wilderness tiles of the same size. Trees and other features are included and provide some tactical options as well as using the tower itself for cover. Towers are a classic dungeon setting so you can get some mileage out of it. Compared to some other tower maps I've seen and adventures I've run, the dimensions are a little small. However, it's easy enough to add a giant basement or something else to make it bigger if needed while keeping its outward appearance.

Art

The art is generally nice. It could be a bit more photo-realistic but at the same time it is close enough that it didn't bother me at all. I think I've seen similar quality maps with prices instead of free. It really is quite nice. It's also nice that the smaller map is provided, allowing me to plan how I'll unleash my evil undead hordes upon my players. Other than that, there is no other art. I don't think there really needs to be more.

Conclusion

It's a nice map containing a chunk of wilderness and a tower. The wilderness chunk is easy to reuse. The tower chunk isn't as reusable, but seeing that towers are a common dungeon setting, you can still get some mileage out of it. If you need another wilderness tile or you are new and simply need some tiles to get started, this is a good one to have in the collection. It's not as flexible as some multi-tile systems that let you create whatever you want, but it is still effective for what it is. Being less flexible also means you can just grab it and slam it down when you run into a wilderness combat encounter. Go ahead, grab it. I don't regret doing so and even if you do, it didn't cost you a cent. That's the best kind of advertisement.