Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan Master Map

[dragonwynn]

Here are some preliminary screenshots of a master map I have been working on of the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. It is roughly half done is by far the largest map I have ever tried to create. It will be 4160m wide and 2992m deep and it covers a variety of terrain including farm fields, waddies, compounds, villages, highlands and lowlands. There is tons of micro terrain to battle through and the map is for a future campaign for either the 82nd Airborne or Canadian forces, haven't made up my mind yet.

In Kandahar province, the Arghandab River flows south from the Afghan central mountains, passing just north of Kandahar City. Together with its various tributaries, the Arghandab irrigates the greater Kandahar area—including the Arghandab Valley, northern Panjwaii, Zhari and Maywand—before continuing westward to join the Helmand River immediately south of Lashkar Gah.  The Registan Desert lies south of Kandahar and the Arghandab. To the north, foothills and mountains of the Afghan central mountains separate Kandahar from Oruzgan province.  A highway runs southeast from Kandahar to the Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing and thence to Quetta, Pakistan.  The Kandahar to Kabul section of the Afghan Ring Road stretches east and northeastward from Kandahar into Zabul and then Ghazni provinces.

Arghandab district is one of the most troublesome in Kandahar because of the level of insurgency and insecurity. The Taliban have taken control partial of complete control of the strategic district as they see it as a gateway to the city of Kandahar. It is strategic terrain given its proximity to Kandahar city (it is only fifteen kilometers to the north). It also offers natural defenses. Insurgents can hide from the air attacks of the ISAF Forces in the district’s fruit orchards. 

The map is as accurate as I can make it using satellite imagery and photographs though there will be some fictional farms and villages. The campaign I hope to create will hopefully be a different type of experience where the idea is your forces, based out of a FOB and a OP, are responsible to gaining control of the valley from the Taliban. The valley is a rich source of poppy harvests used to produce opium that the Taliban use to finance their insurgency. Your mission will be to secure the villages from the Taliban and win the hearts and minds of the local population.

If anyone has a preference of whether to have the 82nd or Canadian Forces you can chime in. Right now I am leaning towards the Canadians. The master map has a long way to go so it will be a future project.

Here is the link to the screenshots. I'll post more as it comes along.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/utq8x5kmoyusg/Arghandab_River_Valley

[MOS:96B2P]

2 hours ago, dragonwynn said:

It will be 4160m wide and 2992m deep and it covers a variety of terrain including farm fields, waddies, compounds, villages, highlands and lowlands. There is tons of micro terrain to battle through and the map is for a future campaign.

your forces, based out of a FOB and a OP, are responsible to gaining control of the valley from the Taliban. 

If anyone has a preference of whether to have the 82nd or Canadian Forces you can chime in. 

+1.  Nice looking map so far.  

I vote for the 82nd Airborne.  However, I have a biased opinion since I was in the 82nd back in the day.   I'm sure it will be an interesting campaign, on this map, no matter which BluFor force you use.  It might even be possible to have the opening scenario be a "choice" scenario where the player chooses if he wants to use Canadian forces or the US 82ND Airborne.  I did something similiar with the CMRT mini-campaign Alarmeinheiten.  The AI plans are the same (which is most of the work) only the forces the player decides to bring to the fight are different.  Below is a link. The first "choice" scenario is pretty straight forward and simple. The ability to compare and contrast the challenges of the mission with different TOE is interesting IMO.  Just a thought if you can't decide.   

 https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-red-thunder/cm-red-thunder-campaigns/cmrt-mini-campaign-alarmeinheiten/

[Erwin]

Looks very good.  Since it's very big I'd go for the Canadians and give them transports at least... (if you don't want to give LAV's or Coyotes).  Nyalas are rarely seen in missions.  G-vehicles are useful as well.

[dragonwynn]

4 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:

+1.  Nice looking map so far.  

I vote for the 82nd Airborne.  However, I have a biased opinion since I was in the 82nd back in the day.   I'm sure it will be an interesting campaign, on this map, no matter which BluFor force you use.  It might even be possible to have the opening scenario be a "choice" scenario where the player chooses if he wants to use Canadian forces or the US 82ND Airborne.  I did something similiar with the CMRT mini-campaign Alarmeinheiten.  The AI plans are the same (which is most of the work) only the forces the player decides to bring to the fight are different.  Below is a link. The first "choice" scenario is pretty straight forward and simple. The ability to compare and contrast the challenges of the mission with different TOE is interesting IMO.  Just a thought if you can't decide.   

 https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-red-thunder/cm-red-thunder-campaigns/cmrt-mini-campaign-alarmeinheiten/

That's a very interesting idea that I had not thought of. I will see what I can work up. Since the map size is large I may cut it down for each scenario kind of like I did with the Operation al Fajr campaign just to reduce lag.

[dragonwynn]

3 hours ago, Erwin said:

Looks very good.  Since it's very big I'd go for the Canadians and give them transports at least... (if you don't want to give LAV's or Coyotes).  Nyalas are rarely seen in missions.  G-vehicles are useful as well.

Thanks Erwin. Yes they will have vehicles to patrol with as well as foot patrols.

[A Canadian Cat]

As a Canadian I would vote Canadian.

 

On 3/2/2024 at 11:05 AM, MOS:96B2P said:

opening scenario be a "choice" scenario where the player chooses if he wants to use Canadian forces or the US 82ND Airborne.

Wow that would be cool though. It's a lot of work. I suppose you can cut that work down by setting up the forces for one formation and play testing and tweaking. Then creating a roughly equivalent force from the other formation. That would at least cut down the play testing required to less than double.

 

On 3/2/2024 at 3:34 PM, dragonwynn said:

the map size is large I may cut it down for each scenario

A very good idea. Plus map damage does not get preserved between fights so fighting on different parts of the map helps any continuity issues that can create.

[Général_Hiver]

Obviously if you can finagle a 'choice' scenario that's great, but I don't know how much more work that is for you fiddling in the scenario editor with ToEs. If a choice has to be made I would go Canadian, purely from a variety perspective: there's a lot of US campaigns.

[Erwin]

For a similar reason it would be nice to see more campaigns featuring the other NATO members like Dutch, Germans...  They have some interesting kit.

[dragonwynn]

Thanks for the input guys. The map is still under construction but I’m thinking of trying the choice scenario depending on how I feel when the map is done. If I choose one it will be Canadian as I haven’t done a Canadian campaign yet and they were very active in this region of Afghanistan. We shall see.

Edited March 6 by dragonwynn

[dragonwynn]

A few more very quick screenshots of the map progress. It's getting closer. When done, if there are any Afghanistan vets on the forums I would like to send the map to you to take a look at and recommend any improvements. I have tried to create a realistic map of this region as possible but I am open to any suggestions. As mentioned above nearly every meter of the map has micro terrain to battle through.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/folder/dqkvz2bm3j6k3my,djoqn48j69l9ktg,hoti5waqq7o3afs,0f95x24195bixct,iy206gcdab5pjoa,0e8532f6tjttfat,rka7ccbxdt4gtgb,xepm848rpz7jdj7,iwwkrnswa4kr0jx,msdn9eau11ibomi,8ol852i8tdvgdms,hf3skax7md8ufg3,fcsotpjvtqmzpex/shared

[Dr.Hoopenfaust]

This map looks amazing.

[dragonwynn]

8 hours ago, Dr.Hoopenfaust said:

This map looks amazing.

thanks very much