CMBN Building Screenshot Gallery

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As an aid to the scenario design community, I have captured 45 screenshots of the various buildings (modular and independent) other than churches that are currently available in the game and uploaded them to this gallery

I have labeled each screenie with some basic identifying information. The "independent buildings" have a number corresponding to their row and column in the Editor.

I hope this resource is useful to you in designing realistic (or at least attractive) settlements for your maps, as in this example of a "typical" medieval Norman farmstead

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These might be found on their own (e.g. out in the woods) or as village and town buildings, perhaps with a little garden and surrounding hedges and or walls.

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For security and shelter, these stout structures generally sit within a walled or hedgerowed compound which also contains farm buildings. Large trees provide additional shelter and shade. They would very seldom exceed 2 stories in height.

NOTE: In farmhouses built before about 1870, windows were a luxury for the wealthy (who could afford glazing and extra heating). The default modular buildings have windows on all 4 sides like modern suburban houses. I advise you to get rid of nearly all the windows on the sides and most of the windows on the sides facing outward or north (where the chill winter winds come off the Atlantic -- that's the real reason for the creation of the hedgerows in olden time!)

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These less ornate houses can also double as village and town houses or newer (19th-20th century) farmhouses or inns/general stores found along main roads (typically enclosed by a hedge or a low wall).

[sburke]

I bow before you sir. I need to print all this and put it up on my dang wall once I start laying out buildings.

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These can also be outbuildings for industrial or agroindustrial (e.g. dairies) establishments.

An open-fronted stable or storage area, Don't worry; your troops will not go out on the balcony if there's no door!

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Just as in Great Britain and New England, the Industrial Revolution (inasmuch as it came to Normandy at all outside the larger towns) was built mainly of ugly red brick. The fancier dressed stone textures available in the game should generally be used only for either public buildings or the (mainly urban) homes of the well-to-do.

The number of windows is going to depend on the use of the structure. Warehouses have fewer, workshops have more (need light to work).

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When laying out bigger towns, you can also turn the various shop buildings backward to create additional apartment frontages.

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Like the Hotel California, you can never really leave the Cafe Grammont....

A rural tavern using the modular building type and a balcony.

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These look a little more rural and weatherbeaten -- enough to be convincing roadside inns or hotels....

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The stone chateaus. It's too bad these don't have the artillery resistance of the cathedral buildings. If you need that though (I do), you can use the 3 story Cathedral tile

These fancier buildings (dressed stonework, big French windows) would rarely be seen outside towns (except for chateaus or convents).

(The one below is mislabeled -- it's row 2 column 3 in Independent Houses)

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OK, that's everything in the gallery....

[A Canadian Cat]

Brilliant - thanks. I appreciate the effort to show what each of these buildings look like I also really like your helpful comments on where to use examples of these buildings. That part is something you cannot get from playing around in the editor.

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Thanks Ian. Anybody who wants to upload screenies of particularly nice or authentic buildings they've done into this thread is welcome to do it. I'll slap a few up from La Meauffe in a bit.

Also, I noticed CMBN doesn't let you preplace a rubbled building tile like CMSF did. This is a miss IMHO, since battles often take place in places that have already seen heavy combat and bombardment.

[Broadsword56]

I wish this thread could be stickied -- we'll be referring back to it for ages to come!

Thanks LLF!

[Erwin]

Very helpful. However, I wish there was a way to "rough in" the bases of the buildings with shrubbery or other garbage. They still look like train set models placed on a flat surface.

[Sgt Schultz]

Great work LLF! Thanks for the excellent reference tool. Too many times I have loaded a map with 3 choices side by side, and then try to find just the right one.

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My personal best imo so far is a warehouse/small factory type building. Not really historical so much a tactical design. Medium multi-story Modular for strength, but windows galore.

Only way to fix the double chimney issue was to damage one roof. Fixed.

From the back. Chimney still there on single story structure, even with damage. Bummer.

Making all the interior partitions work was an adventure.

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You may notice that for some reason the "medium rectangle" (2 squares) has a single chimney (as well as a metal roof)

[Erwin]

The wear on the building walls looks good. Anyone thought of graphically inserting vines growing on the walls, things leaning against em, bric a brac etc?

[Tanks a Lot]

The wear on the building walls looks good. Anyone thought of graphically inserting vines growing on the walls, things leaning against em, bric a brac etc?

Unfortunately, at least for the independent buildings, the walls don't go all the way to the ground. They go into the base part that juts out, so any plants added to the bottom of the walls, will not look they are growing out of the ground.

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Since the texture is only 2d, it doesn't seem like it would look good. The guy who jist posted all those excellent vehicle skins tried to put twigs on a jeep hood and it looked silly. I think Schultzy is on the right track with using hedges and fences, or segments thereof. Just remember very few rural buildings in France don't have some kind of enclosure surrounding them -- walls, hedges or hedgerows as well as outbuildings. This isn't America. Too many of the CMBN maps look like Vermont. That matters tactically -- a lot -- for both protection and field-of-fire reasons.

Also, too many doodads will make a map really slow. CMBN isn't as tolerant as CMSF due to the foliage.

[Erwin]

Well, slowing the game down is no good, I agree. Shame that buildings can't be improved. From a distance the lack of realistic-looking foundations makes em look not much better than a well-modded CM1 building.

[Pete Wenman]

I came up with this advertising mural, and while it shows on both gable ends it does help make villages and towns more "interesting"

I think you guys are being a little tough on some of the maps, as fences, hedges and flavour objects abound in the vicinity of houses. (I'm thinking PaperTiger and, modestly, myself here among others)

P

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No disrespect intended to anyone here. And after 1860 or so the homebuilding and fencing aesthetic would change since the wider availability of barbed wire, sawmills (using imported wood and rail haulage) quick growing "screening trees" (eg poplars) would become economically competitive with building labour-intensive hedgerows, and protection against Vikings would be less of a concern. So fast growing towns would replace high stone walls with decorative hedges and wooden sheds, carriage houses and garages would replace older stone or half-timber oubuildings.

But the farther you get into the countryside, off the main roads, the more you see buildings and fields built and enclosed on 1000 year old patterns.... which is to say, stout-walled with few windows, huddled behind walls and embankments which generally limit LOS both in and out. A wealthier farmer (and Normandy is not overly wealthy as French regions go due to the harsher winters) might add a wooden barn or cottages but the basic layout wouldn't change much.

Tractors changed everything, but did not enter widespread use in Normandy until after Liberation. Looking at modern photos can be deceptive.

Construction here in North America, in contrast, was largely greenfield and took place in what to Europeans would have been a veritable ocean of cheap local timber. So even our 18th century houses are almost entirely wood, as were the fences.