Terrain as simplified as possible

So far:

3D printing would get me simple colours. But I would use hexagons, triangles on top or even other objects that remain flat yet are added with help of a peg.
Even mountains would remain flat... We need to be able to place air units you know.

Using cardboard. I would simply use "ridges" again. But then the main hexagons would be pure.
And mixes would simply be several levels.
Grass, grass with a tree, grass with several tree's and finally a forest.

The "ridge" or connecting part of the board. Would then be half forest and half grass in all cases where one hexagon would be completely forest.

Doing this from scratch again...

But the start would be:
Barren

Either barren hexagons with rocks as objects.

Or barren, barren with a rock, barren with several rocks, entirely rocks. And of course "ridges" with barren going into rocks.

so, in your oppinion, what would be better?
"3D" printed or cardboard?

Either way, I have gotten to a point. Where I would love to see maps ranging from 2 hexagons to infinite hexagons. Just like the good old days.

Having a square or rectangle map filled with hexagons is a no go at this point...

The terrain would still be flat.
But it is something that i could do at home instead.

I dreamt this night about having the terrain being cardboard like a puzzle...

Is it possible to cut out cardboard as a puzzle??

The hexagons would have the females. The "ridges" the males.

Barrens, Water and Rocks.

Yes, a very desolate place that most games use. Go figure...

The basic would be that we have land, water and objects on the map.
It already will give you a feeling of a complex map, right?

Land:
Barrens; 6 vision, 6 space
Barrens with a lake; 6 vision, 3 space, 3 space for water, 6 space for air
Barrens with a river; 6 vision, 3 space, 3 space for water, 6 space for air

Water:
Water; 6 vision, 0 space
Water with an island; 6 vision, 3 space
Water with a barren path; 6 vision, 3 space

Objects:
1 Rock on barren; vision -2, space -2 except air
3 Rocks on barren; vision -4, space -4 except air
Mountain; vision -6, space -6, space -6 except air
1 Rock on any barren with water or vice versa; vision -2, space -1 for the barren and -1 for the water except air.
3 Rocks on any barren with water or vice versa; vision -4, space -2 for the barren and -2 for the water except air.

***

No mixed terrain?
Then I am left with a full barren hexagon, full water hexagon and a full mountain.
But this makes the game less fun in regards to the map.

What if I build up a map with smaller hexagons? Then I only need to make sure that a rock has a barren basis or a water basis or even a rock basis.

And I am back to fractured terrain. With one major difference. I would be using pure drawings. Meaning the drawing is the symbol at the same time. So any colour blind would see a map and can make use of it.

On graphics...

Roads, rivers, bridges, shallow water and ice are a must for the tactics.

If I have these, I can't have proper graphics from one hexagon to another...

Combination terrains would have a patch in the middle. Or a "road" like feature. It would not be abnormal to have a snow path in the mountains.

But here is the thing: If I have a river comming from the mountains. It would surely get out of the mountains. But then the next terrain is different. Example barrens.
I also need mountains to barrens hexagons. There can be variations in these.

One: So I need hexagons with a river flowing through a mountain.
Two: And then the river flowing through barrens.
Tree: the river goes from a mountain to barrens. And this is where 3 terrain types are present!!!

While having only hexagons with a mix of terrain. I will be needing a gigantic ammount of different hexagon designs...

Besides of ramps, we are thinking about something that would make a little stair case. Altough the hexagons would not be connected here. And the pieces that are used to connect 2 hexagons, might be cut in half, so only 2 pegs per piece. This way, they could be turned 90 degrees to fit on that little stair case.

I need to draw things out. Make scetches the least.

although I heared no one comment on this part yet either.

No one got to a complete mechanic. Yet they disagreed on my efforts.

Either way. I am still cutting.

And trying to find a way to remove the need for terrain types like grass and desert.
In other words, only space should become a value.
But how?

Objects are already halfway there. I have obstruction points. And this seemed to work well despite some weird side effects.

I think that when the space system is done. The objects will be no problem either.

Units should be able to have no problems on solid ground.
Ships no problem on water.
The space reduction factor should be due to softness.
Which is then added to water and thus again reduces space.

Only a few units, like air and hoovers will be able to ignore this softness.
Amphibious will be on land and water. But soft terrain will be problematic for them.

Objects also reduce space AND vision.
Air will once again ignore objects as well.

So, here is the list so far:

Normal; Ground
Ships; Water
Amphibious; Ground and Water
Hoover; Ground, Water and Soft
Crawlers; Ground and Objects
Air; Ground, Water, Soft and Objects

Now to make sure this is visible without colours. But with symbols instead...
But I would like to have the softness to be a level just like objects. Any idea's??