So after getting a fancy little dungeon up and running to test how far a single set of Terraclips could take me (See viewtopic.php?f=67&t=11644), I decided the next project I'd do is see how BIG I could make a set. It's not terribly complex or fancy, I just wanted scale. We're still currently running this set of encounters (the map I made had about 6 major encounters with a number of minor skirmishes at any given time), but I figured I should post the build before I forgot

So first I guess I'll give numbers, because I don't have too many WIP pictures. This map was made using 2xStreets, 2xSewers, 2xBuildings, 1xDR:Prison, and 1xDR:Vaults, and about 6xClip Packs. I ran out of 6x6 tiles, I ran out of 6" walls, nearly ran out of 3" walls, and was left with a single T-clip and a single I-clip (yes, I ran 6 packs all the way down to 2 clips... and that was being stingy with clips when I could, too).

The first thing I did was build the street level, and the houses, as those would end up informing the creation of the sewers level. I laid out all of the street tiles and buildings ahead of time before clipping them together. In the below image, you can see that the full map is about 30" x 54" total (5 6x6 tiles by 9 6x6 tiles). You can see in the bottom right an inn, bottom left a house, middle is a blacksmith's, back left is a raised square with extra sewers below it, and back right is an inner-city infantry barracks.



You can see if you look carefully that I don't I-clip every single slot. I was a bit sloppy early on in being careful about patterning it correctly so that weight was evenly distributed, but it's help up pretty well for sitting on my table for a couple months (I technically built this back in September. My group hasn't played much at all the past while ). Still trying to get a handle on building interesting roofs. The blacksmith and the inn are pretty mundane, but the house I got a little creative. You can't see it from this angle, but the barracks' roof is actually a fair bit different from the other side.



Here you can see a bit of the interesting roof. The left portion of it is actually a half roof that cuts into the primary roof. Was a bit tricky to get figured out, but made it a bit more visually interesting. Not that I designed the map such that if the players want onto the raised plaza, they'll either have to climb outside, or go through the barracks. You can also see a couple bits of my preferred storage solutions. I have a small set of plastic drawers of varying sizes that I hold all of my tokens in, and the bigger drawers make good sorted clip storage. Many of the walls, doors, smaller roof pieces, etc. fit nicely in the toolbox at the back. I have 5 such toolboxes for the assorted pieces.

The next image is a dead-on shot from the back. You can get a better look at the roof, and see the layers of the barracks, as well as the elevated plaza. If you're sharp-eyed, you can see the plaza's lower walls are the double walls from the Dungeon Rise: Vaults of Ruin set.



The next step, once the streets were built, was to create the sewers/basements. In the next image, you'll see I had clipped together the sewers in 5x1 strips, again being relatively conservative with clips. You'll notice in the bottom right there's a bunch of tiles that make no sense. I ran our of sewer tiles and figured, eh, I need to build the support for the street, but I'll just cordon off that section of the sewers such that the players can't get there, and it won't matter.



You'll also notice that I've split the map into 2 chunks, a 4x5 chunk and a 5x5 chunk. The upper map is also split in the same way and they aren't clipped together. It gave me a little flexibility in terms of not having to pull off the ENTIRE street level if the players went underground.

Next step, add inner walls for basements and cubbies.



Then add the outer support walls. At this point I was getting desperate for walls. You'll see that I've started using 3" walls, and unused walls from the prison and dungeon sets along the outside. I was also out of L-clips, so careful observers will see T-clips along the base.



Then time to throw the streets on top. This set of pictures leaves off the upper portions of the barracks and the elevated plaza to show a prison dungeon and another set of sewers, as well as the inn to see the main floor. And more T-clips along the base of the streets for wall support.



Protip: T-Clips actually make an excellent stabilizer for the edges of large structures rather than using L-Clips. The area around my lower barracks is actually pretty much immovable thanks to the forced use of T-Clips on the edges. I'll probably start using T-Clips for edging tall structures in the future; L-Clips slip too often.




And then we throw on the roofs for the finished effect. You can see the empty clip bin at the bottom




So because I had hide this monstrosity from my party (since we weren't done the previous Terraclips dungeon I had made), I dismantled it and hid it under a sheet on my Queen-size bed:




I enjoy the last image because it's very Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a miniature city covered by a tarp

And then some in-use pictures and more for scale.



The party is currently in the inn with a bunch of allied troops. Elemental monstrosities and opposing rogue militia are around the city in combat. And those LEGO structures on the elevated plaza are actually ballistae that my players made for me when I put crappy things up there representing ballistae. The players have to either dart from building to building and hope they don't get shot, or take the sewers, making the open streets a somewhat interesting issue tactically.



A 2L Pepsi bottle beside the tallest building (5 layers if you include the roof), which comes up to nearly the top of the bottle. And then a final zoomed out image with the Pepsi bottle to continue to give a sense of scale.



Normally the center of my table comes apart and has a lowered 2.5" play area, but the size of this monstrosity precludes using that effectively, hence playing on top of the table. My players have been super impressed and super stoked to play on this map, and it only took me about one hour of planning and four hours of building. Given that we've already played four hours on it, and there's likely another eight to ten hours to go, it's a pretty decent return on investment time-wise!

Lessons learned that others may find interesting:

As mentioned before, I ran out of L-Clips and walls super early. I had to cannibalize other sets to get enough walls, and started using T-Clips for the outer walls/floors. Turns out, T-Clips are actually the superior choice for outer walls given they offer greater stability. If the lower wall doesn't fit in the groove of the clip, the upper portion can still rest on the edge of the T-Clip, whereas for L-Clips they just slip and then you have no support.

Roofs are still hard. I'd love to see tutorials or something on making interesting looking roofs using some of the different pieces.

When clipping together large swathes of 6x6 tiles, you don't need to clip every single spot. However, if you opt to conserve clips, make sure you never put two empty spots adjacent to each other, then you have awkward dangling streets that need propping with a pillar from the Dungeon Rise sets.

You can get away with very few clips for walls. In fact, many times I opted to not clip walls together at all unless a wall needed support due to it being a wall with a door or an arch, which means you can't clip the bottom. The bottom clips provide enough support generally.

The doors are kind of annoying. I should probably glue the stands into the door, but even then the stand portion is just a tad too small. It could do with being just slightly longer so the doors don't topple so easily.

The only major issue with my build that I've identified is moving between the basement and street level is a complete pain in the arse, given that I actually embedded the first floor into the street level. This was a mistake. It makes it difficult to have combat in the basement and in the first floor. I probably should have left those sections as holes in the street level and slide the building into place after the fact. Lesson learned for next time.

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Overall I'm still super impressed with the Terraclips sets. They're high quality, they hold up quite well, they're super easy to put together and pull apart, and they've let me become more creative with my combat encounters more easily, rather than having to spend days before hand building custom pieces just to get two levels of elevation.

My next project will probably be a fairly vertical dungeon, but given that we probably won't finish THIS map until January at the rate we've been able to play recently, don't expect that to be posted anytime soon.

I'll probably post a few more shots of the game in progress later since we're playing tomorrow

It's.... BIG.

Nice build. A few points to touch on that we have both experienced in our builds (I did the Temple of the Frog build):
1) Yes, the T-clips can be subbed for Ls, as well as flat clips. I'd really like to see Terraclips sell Tclip-only boxes, to help mix match better. Depending on the build, you could have hordes of 1 clip type left., but be short on some other clip, so having a few extra boxes of Ts would help.
2) For doors, I always slide them into their own T clips instead of the rickety flimsy stands they provide - they give stability and slide in place easily. I dont actually attach the door's t-clip to the floor, I just have it sit in the doorway and then remove the clip/door as needed.
3) On large builds, a lot of black clips connecting the floors can get to be unsightly. I really like the way the one guy placed/pasted the extra circle counters provided in the mix ONTO the top of the flat clips, to make it look nice from above. But what would REALLY be cool is if terraclips started making the clips out of clear plastic :):)
4) For multi level structures, i am starting to experiment with firm but thin cardboard (wargame boards work nicely) between levels, to speed and stabilize removal of levels to access below. Clipping the levels together makes going between levels tedious, and merely resting the levels on top of each other often causes furniture destabilization when removed. If you get the right size/color cardboard, it doesnt unduly detract from the build visual.