Long time I have been developing a map for a campaign system with my Pas de Manoeuvre rules.
The initial idea had two premises:
The initial idea had two premises:
- First, focused on what should be a campaign in the Napoleonic era (can be applied at other epochs with the obvious differences, among others, communication and units speeds). The map of the campaign could come defined among others for areas, squares, hexagons or nodes (point-to-point). I initially thought in hexes, which fits quite well with a real map, let define the courses of rivers or roads in a less forced way that squares, and measuring distances. Another alternative was that of nodes, which seemed more suitable for my idea of game development.
- Second, developing the mechanics of the Matchbox system, described
by Don Featherstone in his book "Solo Wargaming", combined with a quite original idea, in my
opinion, that I found on the SmallWold Productions blog (http: //www.smallworldproductions.blogsp ... art-1.html).
The campaign of 1809 has always had a certain interest to me because it represented the set-up of the Austrian army restored by Archduke Charles after the defeats of 1805 campaigns, and the response of the Napoleonic combined troops (French and German allies), leading to a series of heavy fightings in some places like Eckmühl, Teugn-Hausen and Landshut.
The first source that I considered was the Kevin Zucker's gameboard, "The Seven Days of 1809" (2004) by Operational Studies Group, whose map with hexagonal grid is quite detailed.
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| Map of "The Seven Days of 1809" |
Another source was a historical map of the valley of the Danube from Ratisbon to Pressburg to illustrate the campaigns of 1808-9 and Valley of the Danube west of Ratisbon on the same scale.
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| Map from Atlas to Allison's History of Europe,1850 with hexagonal grid. |
Searching through internet and some forums, I found Malcolm Mccallum's Homepage (http://www.murat.ca/maps.htm) ,
a huge representation of Europe with a series of detailed maps for his
campaign system. Malcom's maps are point-to-point system. A very impressive work!
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| Malcom McCallum map, Bavaria area |
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| The same area of Bavaria with sepia tone and orange hexagonal grid. |
Another source of inspiration was the "Campaign in Germany 1813", of Hexasim
(http://www.wiki-juegos.com/index.php/Allemagne_1813) it is a game for two players with multiplayer option with a small solitaire mode (small by treatment that gives). The map is point-to-point, as my idea of the game. The
truth is that I had different design options (squares, hexagons,
areas, etc), but in the end, the troops moved on roads or
paths for their long journeys and most important, also simplified the solitaire mode option.
For my Bavaria-1809 version I have not used any additional program to draw the map although I have Hexdraw software, and I used MS Excel, with the whole issue of graphical objects was sufficient for my purpose. For the basemap grabbed one of Google Maps, which started as leaf background 100% vision, and the grid squares are 5 km of side. Apart from the points or nodes connected to each other is a framed grid for locating and referencing the units. I only caught the area where the first part of the campaign, from Ulm to Passau (West-East) and Amberg to Munich (north-south) was developed. I have excluded the area around Vienna where the campaign ended (or can I say where finished the first part of the campaign).
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| Allemagne 1813, by Frédérick Bey (Jours de Gloire) - http://www.wiki-juegos.com /images/8/8f/Wiki_alemania2.jpg |
For my Bavaria-1809 version I have not used any additional program to draw the map although I have Hexdraw software, and I used MS Excel, with the whole issue of graphical objects was sufficient for my purpose. For the basemap grabbed one of Google Maps, which started as leaf background 100% vision, and the grid squares are 5 km of side. Apart from the points or nodes connected to each other is a framed grid for locating and referencing the units. I only caught the area where the first part of the campaign, from Ulm to Passau (West-East) and Amberg to Munich (north-south) was developed. I have excluded the area around Vienna where the campaign ended (or can I say where finished the first part of the campaign).
It was a major effort, but I did not finish very satisfied with the appearance of the map and also with the possibility of using the modified Matchbox system.
To be continued....
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Note: As you suppose or know I'm not native or english speaking so despite my old First Certificate degree, probably there will be some failure of the spanish translation so I beg patience and understanding if a word or meaning is not entirely correct what it should be.
Note: As you suppose or know I'm not native or english speaking so despite my old First Certificate degree, probably there will be some failure of the spanish translation so I beg patience and understanding if a word or meaning is not entirely correct what it should be.
Can you explain the "original idea" from small world productions, their blog is no longer active. Thank you it's a very good project for 1809 but I will use Napoleon's Battles to resolve battles at tactical level. I am trying to emulate your idea as to map movement.
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