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Not really sure where else to pose this question. I've been interested in doing batreps for a while, and what I really miss are the old school White Dwarf illustrated bird's eye view tactical maps of what is going on. I am not graphically talented and can't make them myself, but I'd really like to get the same view of the battlefield for my future reports and may be able to annotate some things that are going on along with photos/videos of particular clashes.

Does anyone have any pointers on how to do that? Do you use a giant tripod? Attach some sort of Go pro to the ceiling? Use cell phones? Any direction would be welcome.

I usually use a cellphone directly over the battlefield



Problem with cellphones is the quality of ones camera and inability to get a completely steady shot.
ArbitorIan does similar shots - search for his batreps, usually great quality shots he gets.

I was pondering fixing a camera to the ceiling above the board, but never got around to doing it. I do wonder how easy it will actually be to see the models from a distance sufficient to see the whole board.

You can get good utility from simplified unit diagrams from Powerpoint. Here is an example from a battle report I did a while back.



Once you've done the unit representation once, you can copy it infinitely.

You could use Vassal to create maps based on your photos/notes from while you were doing the game.

Inkscape is an absolutely beautiful tool for doing this kind of graphics work. It's really easy to learn the basics of - bearing in mind that I myself have absolutely no training in using graphics programs since I learned to move the turtle in year seven, I made this nearly from scratch in the program, having extracted the roundel and the table outline (only) from a pdf;

Thanks all, these are all great suggestions.

Flinty, how did you create those unit shapes in Powerpoint? just through a combination of basic colors and shapes?