McAuliffe

This one looks very unlikely been taken in Normandy: Libération de la Basse-Normandie pendant l'été 1944, en secteur américain. Which translates as: Liberation of 'Lower-Normandy' during the summer of 1944, American sector. Looks more like a V1 strike somewhere in London

Looks very nice! Are you using "Clubfoot's SSM Pack 1"? Would be even more spectacular, if someone created this mod for CMAK.

Doh! Just saw you have your own webite. Any chance you could publish it on yours! Cheers fur noo George </font>

Finally, the French jumped in and created a portal site covering most of France with ortho-imagery at high resolution: Géoportail Apparently, you can also call up the digital elevation model for same region, you have selected. Still have to figure out, how you can translate it in a DEM, that you can use in Mapping Mission, but if that would work out, you can create Normandy campaigns in no time. Also found this neat German site, giving full aerial coverage down to 1:3,000: Deutscher Stadtplandienst

One more thing. Make up your mind up before, if you will use the default height interval in the CM editor (=2.5 m) or the steep interval (=5 m). If you will use the latter, you can jump 1 colour for each contour line on your map (Default west-european topomaps use 5 m contour-lines, although in the more flatter regions, sometimes a dotted line shows an intermediate contour line at 2.5 m) If you will use the 2.5 m interval in the editor, you will have to paint yourselves an intermediate contour-line based on your own judgment.

Indeed, go in the dialog menu and click palettes or just press CTRL+P Click create new palette Specify number of columns. 6, 7..whatever, you can change later. Click edit color and change RGB values. They should have all the same value in order to generate a pixel value with same RGB. Do not forget to save your palette. I called it digital elevation Create an extra, transparent layer on top of your image and start painting along the contour lines with pencil or click N. Fill up space with the bucket tool or press SHIFT+B

So, if I understand correctly, when an indirect fire artillery unit is within support range - and designated to a particular tile or unit - this will be represented by a FO on the map in the CMBB battle for that particular tile, right? Should I deduct from this, that any unit, able to fire directly and within range, is 'physically' transferred to the CMBB battlefield for a particlar tile, even when it was initially located in the next tile on the CMC map? And that those units are set up at the back-end or edge of the CMBB map ? If that's the case, that solution is not too bad, given the reasonable big size of the tiles. Just thought, it would not be correct, if these 'neighbouring' units were not able to influence in any way the CMBB battle.

Most (rather all) of the scenarios coming with the game are by beta testers who are not paid a dime for their contributions. </font>

You will not be able to make a 100 % fitting map, but if you want to depict a historical event, you should have at least a couple of landmarks, which played a role in the battle, right. I must admit, that IMHO, this is something, that battlefront has been neglecting most, when releasing their games. I don't care what the amators create - they do it for fun - but, if you want to make money with it, you should have at least, the maps that come with the game, right. Even CC did a better job. BFC has created a wonderful engine, but it looked like, they didn't have any money anymore to spend on a some good topomaps and / or aerial reconaissance pics or even pre-war aerial coverage from national archives. I am talking about 7-4 years ago. Now a lot of this information is even available for free on the internet. If the map isn't right, you could as well place the two opposing forces on a soccer pitch. Could be fun to watch, but don't call it historical or semi-historical. I don't belief, anyone is able to produce any accurate OoB, even for the most documented battle. Therefore, I have less problems with incomplete OoB's, as long as they are in a healthy relation to the reality. e.g. I don't care if the Germans had PZIV J or H versions, if it were three, four or five, but just avoid to show up with a bln. of King Tigers. Now, for development of the story. Actually, we are all arm chair generals, that want to RE-WRITE history, if we had a chance, not simulate! Just put the two forces in their initial positions and let the dice roll. So, for me counts: If map is reflecting convincingly the reality and OoB more or less right, call it historical. If you use other OoB's, like in 'What if' scenarios, call it semi-historical, but... [ranting mode] ...please call Team Desobry on the CMBO disc fictional. [/ranting mode]

What about flat trajectory guns? I mean, the reach of an 88mm, for instance, is well beyond 1,500 m. Can anti-tank fire be directed from one 2x2 km tile to another? I am just wondering, when an allied armour column travels across an empty* tile and a battery of 88mm's, set-up 500 meters further -but is sitting in the next tile- will they be watching, unable to intervene? ...and if not, can tanks return fire in order to neutralise the battery in the other tile? And how is this simulated during the CMBB engagement? (*) i.e. free of long range AT assets.

If google shows high res coverage for that area, you're better off with google earth, then with a map of 1:100,000, in my opinion. I mean, what detail will you find on a map that shows only 1 cm for 1 km real life? Or are you thinking in CMC terms?

Never had the funds to procure myself Photoshop, but guess it has same - or even more elaborated - features as GIMP. I add a transparent layer to the topomap image and start to paint along the contours with a thick pencil and fill up the spaces in between with the bucket tool. Don't worry too much about the accuracy. After all, since MM imports only one pixel value per tile, you have a margin of 20 meters anyway. Just to a have a visual idea, how MM will interpret your map, try to compress your image as such, that one pixel represents 20 meter on your map. You will see, that unfortunately, a lot of detail gets lost. e.g. image of 800 x 800 pixels covering 1 square km will be compressed to an image of 50 x 50 pixels. I have been experimenting with vectorizing analogue topomaps, but in my opinion, there is too much 'noise' on the maps in between or across the contour lines, in order to obtain a decent result. So, I stick to the analogue process.

Okay, I will give it a try. First let's see what the manual says: Actually it's a bit more complicated then described above. I will explain through below examples. 1. scan or find a suitable topomap. Scale should not be higher then 1:25,000 (see below example of the Bastogne region) The height difference on the map should not be higher then 100 m, otherwise you have to level out. Remember you have only 20 height intervals in CM, even if you you use steep slopes. 2. Get an image editor program like Gimp or somefink. You can download it for free and it allows you to work with layers and to create colour palettes. Since mappingmission will import the pixel values of the colours, I suggest that you create a palette of 20 different colours, where lowest value is e.g. 30 (is almost black) and highest value reads 230 (= almost white) You step up the increments with 10 points for each grayscale in such way that the values of the palette are equally distributed With this palette you start painting your topomap until it looks like below example. 3. Importing above image, will lead to a distorted mappingmission map. Indeed the spread of the pixel values is much too wide in order to be handled by MM. You should transform the pixel values in your image from 30-230 down to 1-20. Gimp has a feature, to allow you, to automatically convert. Just make sure you end up with as much different values/colours a you have contours. You end up with a dark image like below, where you hardly can distinct the contours anymore. Doesn't matter, mappingmission can! 4. Start MM up and import the dark bmp. 6. Use an aerial view of the same size your topomap as underlay. Maybe you need to crop the aerial picture to match the same surface 7. Start adding roads, woods, streams and villages. I abstracted from above image, the modern constructions and open pits. ..and of course, the Mardasson monument was not standing there during the battle 8. Export map to CMBB/CMBO and tune fine in the CM editor. Especially the roads, railroads and rivers will need some editing to get them straight and flat. (see also Tips and tricks of Scenario design at my homepage.) Et voilà! Admit, above explanation sounds complicated, but I had a lot of fun with experimenting and you get a lot of satisfaction when your result matches as much as possible the real terrain. After all, IMHO, outcome of many battle was determined by occupation of strategic terrain instead of the clash of opposing armour or forces. Therefore, I like in historic scenarios, that CM terrain reflects as much as possible the real environment. [ June 27, 2006, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: McAuliffe ]

There was a topic about this bug in the CMBB forum. Maybe, the answer I gave there, can help you: Explain this

This kind of group hug happens, when the orientation of the initial map is opposite to the default set up. I don't play CMBB, but in CMAK the default set-up zones are on the east edge for allies and on the west edge for the bad guys. If you make a scenario with the sides inverted and use the map later in a QB, the AI controlled side will go berzerk. You can solve it, by changing the orientation of the map with Pyewacket's map converter.

Hey, thanks for the comments, although my work get's a bit dated, I guess. I still remember Samurai Man's epic piece of work. He combined not only seamingless my KGP maps together in one giant region map, but added quite accurately the surrounding terrain. Unfortunately, my poor laptop choked on the calculations in order to process a first turn. Were you able to play Pied Peiper against a human player? I am putting together a set of 16 2x2 km maps covering the NE side of the Bastogne perimeter. In other words, including the outskirst of Bastogne, Noville, Foy and Bourcy to the north, Weiswampach, Benonchamps, Longvilly, Michamps, Arloncourt, Mageret, Neffe and Mont, to the East. I have so far designed 4 maps and will post them on the new Scenario Depot.

Unfortunately, I don't have the skills or the time to write such a script. So I guess, we have to wait for the more talented people, that get bored with waiting for CMC, to make such a proggie. Although, I must admit, I have been googling for a compiler in order to write your own basic 2-dimensional boardgame. Does anybody know if such a thing exists and if you could apply it in order to integrate the launching of a CM battle as a condition to move from one e.g. hex to another?

That's news to me, didn't know that actually. I guess, that what Samuraiman means, that if we can integrate the mapping mission editor in a macro that automatically makes you jump from one portion of a 'mother' map to another one depending on the outcome of a CM battle? e.g.: Imagine, you create X number of blank 2 x 2 km maps in CM editor, no landscape! For each (empty map) you add OoB's for both sides and save these maps in the QB folder. The input of the OoB's depends on the situations that could result from the outcome of the first battle. e.g.: First battle shows 'major victory' for Germans. You are then directed to a blank map with the OoB for german side pretty much intact, while the allied part shows some depleted forces + maybe some ad hoc reinforcments. The map is filled in, by exporting from CMMM portion of the 'mother' map into the blank map. What portion is imported, is determined by the winner of the previous battle, but it should be adjacent to the previous battlefield. (e.g. Winning player is allowed to click available quadrant from a topographic overview map.) If you lose, you are directed to a blank map with - although some re-inforcements - a handicapped OoB, while the enemy shows up with his forces intact and at the place of his choice, which is again imported from CMMM, according to the same restrictions as described above. I am thinking in big lines now, but since I know, that there are people able to write converter and editor programs and write progs in order to randomise turn numbers, I have the impression that in CM, the parameters, editor screen and unit selection can be made programmable by external macro's. But I guess, that still some data have to put in manually in a basic interface. i.e. results of the consecutive battles.

I am looking forward to CMC adapted to CMAK ETO I am already working on Peiper's itinerary in the bulge: 1 down, 47 2x2 km maps to go

I stand correct. Apparently you were referring to Bockholz, which is indeed in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and which makes more sense, as you mention the 26th Volksgrenadier, since latter location was in the path of its advance. Sorry for the confusion. Can't give you much of additional info, except for Kettler's info above.

Did you ever had a look at the pages of this guy? Dom Butgenbach Also some more pictures of the memorial for the big red one: memorial

You rang My Lord? I assume that you are referring to the fight at Buchholz station - actually, it is still located in Belgium, not Luxemburg. The lines were held by the US 99th ID, please have a look at the accounts in details at this place: 99th Infantry Division Now, for the map details, your work is already half done because, as it happened, I have been playing a bit with the Mapping Misssion editor and guess what: I focused on the area of the Losheimergraben and Buchholz station. I used following resources : Topomap at 1: 10.000 I transformed it into a Digital Elevation Model, which looks like this: I fiddled around a bit with the pixel values and imported the DEM into Mapping Mission. I added the roads, railroads, houses and forest patches. I had to adjust a bit the elevation tiles around the roads, but got a pretty good result. I used also the information, I got from a brand new orto-imagery site, showing hi-res images of the belgian Ardennes. See below example of Buchholz station area. You can actually zoom in further. See also my post in the scenario forum The Ardennes from the air So far I exported the map from mapping mission only into the CMBB-editor, but I will convert it into a CMAK map - thanks Pyewacket!- and send you a copy. You can use it for you scenario design and I will be happy to playtest it. I like to design maps, but I am just to lazy to look up correct OOBs and write briefings.

For map makers, that still are interested in good coverage of the Ardennes region (Battle of the Bulge), the Walloon government has opened recently a site, where you can consult orthographic imagery at high resolution: Carte dynamique You can combine these resources with the modern topographic maps, at : Site de Cartographie Détaillée et Interactive The latter site is only navigable with IE or Netscape. Actually, it's a NATURA2000 site, showing the protected environment, but by selecting - and confirming - the right layers, you can address only the topomap background. The 1:10,000 maps are in B&W. If you want color, you should select simultaneously the 1:50,000 layer, less detailed though. You can find also scanned vintage 1:20,000 (color) topomaps of the Walloon region at: Le patrimoine cartographique de Wallonie You will need to download some plug-ins like "DjVu" or "Expressview", but once you're able to view, you have access to some remarkable topomaps, dating back to the 19th. century, 1910s, 1920s or 1930s, which are of course, an excellent resource in order to abstract 1940-44 scenery. Above sites are all in the language of Molière, but for those that have some experience with GIS sites of other countries, it's pretty self explanatory. Enjoy. [ July 02, 2006, 04:12 AM: Message edited by: McAuliffe ]

Very good, excellent choice! I was already afraid that I would not have been able to finish the renovation of my mountain cabin, while it was coinciding with the release of the most fantastic WWII simulation game ever developped. Now I can look forward to some nice winter-evenings, relaxing in front of the fireplace after a day of skiing, instead of waisting my time plotting pixeled GI's through the snowy fields of Bastogne.

I am not sure, but is the place not called BIHAIN? I thought I saw that place name in the report. There is another site that redirects you to topomaps, where you can zoom in up to 1/5.000 at environnement Wallonie Under recherche click anciennes communes and choose from the drop-down menu the place you're looking for. You can delete or add layers at your choice. The site needs IE though and can be quite slow.