Ponyri Map project

[Vark]

I am converting the ASL Ponyri boards to a CM map. Can I post my finished product on a CM scenario website or jut use it for my own purposes? The maps are being play tested and I am very mindful of concepts of intellectual property, I have the original artists email address so contacting him would be no problems.

The task i have set me is quite daunting, these are massive ASL maps measuting 40 hexes by several hundred and it has taken me a fair few weeks of trial and error converting the 40m hex scale to the very rigid map editor (bloody rail lines are a nightmare). So far I am very please with the results and would like to offer the end product to any Ponyri fans.

[Aragorn2002]

Hi Vark, I'm very interested. Please check my private message for my mail adress.

[Vark]

Aragorn, thanks for the message and will alert you when the map is complete. I am a just about to start mapping the sprawling village now, well over two km and the map does not include the school house or tractor repair/distribution depot, though I will put them on as their approximate positions can be guestimated (how's that for a qualified statement!). Estimated time of completion is now hopefully before Christmas as I am back at work and will be travelling to Holland on a school exchange in three weeks.

I know about the major elevation changes but does anyone have a reliable source for military maps of the area, google earth is a very crude instrument. I used it to plot the Ponyri like terrain around this neck of the woods (The Fens) and then walked the same ground and found all the tactically important micro terrain was absent. Because of this, after each section is complete I add character, using invented local terrain elevations and accentuating various areas based on old photographs of Poseloks in Kursk. It's not up to the standards of a blowtorch/Strachwitz operation (stunning) but it looks better each day, Though if anyone has any info, in addition to the historical threads, I'd be delighted.

What is fascinating, as I play at God, is the insights it gives to why the Germans came so unstuck. The open fields, on the outskirts, slopping upwards Ponyri, have got Ferdinand killing zone written all over it but as your approach the village/s the terrain fragments into small mini-hamlets bordered by orchards and tree lined paths and the terrain levels. Worse, there are only 6-8 clearly defined avenues for armoured advance, all within LOS of multiple key hole AT positions, and half of them near the raised rail embankment, which effectively splits the battle zone into two unequal sectors. You can see how the battle became an infantry meatgrinder as AFV's would struggle to help support units as they have the worst of both worlds, imagine attacking eight or nine villages and several industrial zones all within mutual supporting range and all set within patches of LOS blocking terrain. Unlike traditional FIBU, armour, if in a supporting role, will find it hard to hide and an infantry screen will not help much either as each mini-village can easily upset the traditional dance of mutual support. Infantry advance to gain the essential spotting positions and OP points and are engaged, their supporting AFV's and weapons must come to the perimiter of a mini-hamlet to engage any spotted units, these AFV's/support are then taken under often flanking fire or subject to an artillery barrage Artillery support, for both sides was massive but the scale of the map is so large that a Katyusha strike, if planned poorly, can miss its target.

Into Ponyri proper, tomorrow night!

My next project is the Stalingrad Rail station!

[Aragorn2002]

Good morning, Vark!

I only have time for a short reaction, because I'm off to work. But for good military maps you can check this site: http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/

I wouldn't be surprised when you would find what you are looking for there.

[Aragorn2002]

You can also check this site, although you are probably familair with it:

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/vy75/terrain.htm

Great to see people like you are still making maps for this game. But on the other hand, why not? It is still the best wargame around. I've read your analysis of the terrain with great interest and can't wait for the final map.

[Aragorn2002]

Any news, Vark?

[Vark]

Work on the project got delayed, at one stage I thought I was going through my own 'Ponyri', but now I face happier times, so back to the monster map. I have now got into the main 'village' area, if such a sprawl can be called a village, and need to find out where to put the rail station (much debate on other forums as to it's location). Also, the much beloved watertower is causing no end of discussion about its location and construction, rickety wooden platform of more substantial brick construction, and where was it? I wonder if any other crucial battle, in WWII has been so poorly served for details of the actual conflict?

[Erwin]

I wouldn't let a need for a realistic map get in the way of designing a fun game.

[Vark]

Yup, beginning to think that, Jason's Ponyri campaign was not that accurate, geographically, but it posed historically accurate dilemmas, for both sides, so was a good set of scenarios. Shame it could not have been a campaign, but I understand why not. I will do a bit of a blitz and see if i can get it really moving again. Another company has produced their Ponyri map and it look incoherent, so I will stick to the nice one I have here, lots of straight roads and big fields, with numerous clusters of buildings and scattered trees.