Post by SgtFury on Feb 23, 2018 3:44:09 GMT
Here is the first of a planned series of AAM maps I will be using for my Strike North AAM campaign scenario. This particular map depicts Tretten, Norway where a battle occurred between British and German forces on April 23rd 1940. I decided to make this my first map because I was able to find quite a lot of detailed information about the forces involved & what happened.
I am looking for your feedback, comments, suggestions.
I will eventually post a scenario to go along with this map so that everyone can give it a tryout.
I was fortunate to find an internet site that has 1:100,000 scale maps of Norway that were made a few years before 1940. I was able to locate Tretten and isolate that part of the map where most of the action took place. After selecting a 10 by 15 hex map size, I overlaid a hex grid onto the topographical map. Obviously my map scale is way off. I'm not concerned with getting that exact. I want to recreate the flavor of the battle, not the actual historic distances.
Next I printed out a sheet of paper with a 15 by 10 hex gird on it and began filling in hexes with terrain based on what I'm seeing on the above image. You can see where I initially drew something and then erased it after deciding something needed to be moved. Things get generalized and features get moved around so that it can better fit the hex grid. In my initial rough draft I had the RR line running right next to the river. For gaming purposes this wouldn't work too well, so I placed the river and RR line in parallel hexes instead. Initially I was going to put all forest terrain north of the mountain range, but changed that to a more open snow field instead. The small town of Oyer was moved upstream along with its' bridge crossing so that there could be more flexibility of movement for players. Otherwise once you place units on one side of the river you would basically be stuck there for the entire game. The positioning of the roadways and the river had to be tweaked a bit here and there. Otherwise I would have had RR line, river and road terrain all running through the same hex. There are plenty of farmhouses dotting the entire area. I decided the Rindheim and Rindal hexes would be enough to cover this. Otherwise nearly every hex would have had a building of some size in it.
So here is the final result:
This is a low rez (3.3 MB) version so that I could upload it onto my SgtFury / Weebly website. The full sized print version is 22 MB and has the same dimensions as two standard AAM maps placed side by side. Its' full sized measurements are 30 by 41 1/2 inches with hexes sized as 3 inches. You can see the two map halves depicted above where the black line runs. I plan on printing out the entire map as one piece for my gaming purposes. I did a test printing using a different map to get an idea of the color, layout and graphics using Staples store printing services. They can print anything up to 36 inches in width and as long as I want it. The cost to print this is roughly 10 US dollars. If I laminated it, the cost would be 2 US dollars per square foot.
Elevation will play a key factor on this and every Norway map for this campaign scenario design. I decided to handle this by assuming the following: Hills are higher than clear/forest/town. If you are on a hill, you can look over intervening terrain. Mountains are higher than hills. If you are on a mountain, you can look over everything else except another mountain. The river is in a gorge. If you are in a river hex, you can't see anything unless it is adjacent or you are looking down river into the distance. The river on this map runs through the hex, not along the hex side. It will be treated as water terrain. Any hex that is clear white is considered to be snow terrain. Unless a soldier has the Ski Capable special ability, a Soldier can only move during the assault phase into snow terrain. Vehicles must make a movement roll and it is double cost for Vehicles with the High Gear special ability. Town, Forest, Bluff and Road terrain work as per normal AAM rules.
The river runs roughly south from Oyer, north to Tretten. So Oyer will be in the southern half of the map while Tretten is in the northern half. German forces will begin in the southern half anywhere west of the mountain range. British forces will start in the northern half and will be able to set up anywhere but not on any mountain hexes. The rough idea for victory conditions is for the German side to seize the Tretten bridge intact and to defeat the British force. The British player will score points for every turn he can keep the Tretten bridge in allied control. Norwegian Engineers have already wired the bridge for demolition. An undisrupted allied commander must be adjacent to the bridge and make a successful demolition roll to blow the bridge. Allied units can retreat off the board either along the RR line or the road running off the board from the town of Tretten. Once I have the scenario rules typed up I will have to playtest it to see how well it works.
And another challenge....
You must finish the scenario within one hour.
This is an important factor because my intent is to create several scenarios that can be played back to back within a 6 hour time limit. Four 1 hour games is my minimum goal right now. My overall vision for this campaign is to have 3 or 4 two player games going on at one time in a round of gaming. Then a second round, a third and finally a fourth. So you as a player would get to play four 1 hour scenarios within 6 hours. There would be 30 minutes between rounds as a break and time to set up the next round. More details later, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what I'm aiming for.
I am looking for your feedback, comments, suggestions.
I will eventually post a scenario to go along with this map so that everyone can give it a tryout.
I was fortunate to find an internet site that has 1:100,000 scale maps of Norway that were made a few years before 1940. I was able to locate Tretten and isolate that part of the map where most of the action took place. After selecting a 10 by 15 hex map size, I overlaid a hex grid onto the topographical map. Obviously my map scale is way off. I'm not concerned with getting that exact. I want to recreate the flavor of the battle, not the actual historic distances.
Next I printed out a sheet of paper with a 15 by 10 hex gird on it and began filling in hexes with terrain based on what I'm seeing on the above image. You can see where I initially drew something and then erased it after deciding something needed to be moved. Things get generalized and features get moved around so that it can better fit the hex grid. In my initial rough draft I had the RR line running right next to the river. For gaming purposes this wouldn't work too well, so I placed the river and RR line in parallel hexes instead. Initially I was going to put all forest terrain north of the mountain range, but changed that to a more open snow field instead. The small town of Oyer was moved upstream along with its' bridge crossing so that there could be more flexibility of movement for players. Otherwise once you place units on one side of the river you would basically be stuck there for the entire game. The positioning of the roadways and the river had to be tweaked a bit here and there. Otherwise I would have had RR line, river and road terrain all running through the same hex. There are plenty of farmhouses dotting the entire area. I decided the Rindheim and Rindal hexes would be enough to cover this. Otherwise nearly every hex would have had a building of some size in it.
So here is the final result:
This is a low rez (3.3 MB) version so that I could upload it onto my SgtFury / Weebly website. The full sized print version is 22 MB and has the same dimensions as two standard AAM maps placed side by side. Its' full sized measurements are 30 by 41 1/2 inches with hexes sized as 3 inches. You can see the two map halves depicted above where the black line runs. I plan on printing out the entire map as one piece for my gaming purposes. I did a test printing using a different map to get an idea of the color, layout and graphics using Staples store printing services. They can print anything up to 36 inches in width and as long as I want it. The cost to print this is roughly 10 US dollars. If I laminated it, the cost would be 2 US dollars per square foot.
Elevation will play a key factor on this and every Norway map for this campaign scenario design. I decided to handle this by assuming the following: Hills are higher than clear/forest/town. If you are on a hill, you can look over intervening terrain. Mountains are higher than hills. If you are on a mountain, you can look over everything else except another mountain. The river is in a gorge. If you are in a river hex, you can't see anything unless it is adjacent or you are looking down river into the distance. The river on this map runs through the hex, not along the hex side. It will be treated as water terrain. Any hex that is clear white is considered to be snow terrain. Unless a soldier has the Ski Capable special ability, a Soldier can only move during the assault phase into snow terrain. Vehicles must make a movement roll and it is double cost for Vehicles with the High Gear special ability. Town, Forest, Bluff and Road terrain work as per normal AAM rules.
The river runs roughly south from Oyer, north to Tretten. So Oyer will be in the southern half of the map while Tretten is in the northern half. German forces will begin in the southern half anywhere west of the mountain range. British forces will start in the northern half and will be able to set up anywhere but not on any mountain hexes. The rough idea for victory conditions is for the German side to seize the Tretten bridge intact and to defeat the British force. The British player will score points for every turn he can keep the Tretten bridge in allied control. Norwegian Engineers have already wired the bridge for demolition. An undisrupted allied commander must be adjacent to the bridge and make a successful demolition roll to blow the bridge. Allied units can retreat off the board either along the RR line or the road running off the board from the town of Tretten. Once I have the scenario rules typed up I will have to playtest it to see how well it works.
And another challenge....
You must finish the scenario within one hour.
This is an important factor because my intent is to create several scenarios that can be played back to back within a 6 hour time limit. Four 1 hour games is my minimum goal right now. My overall vision for this campaign is to have 3 or 4 two player games going on at one time in a round of gaming. Then a second round, a third and finally a fourth. So you as a player would get to play four 1 hour scenarios within 6 hours. There would be 30 minutes between rounds as a break and time to set up the next round. More details later, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what I'm aiming for.