lettowvorbeck Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 The Osprey book on the WW1 Med. front shows a railroad between Mosul and Baghdad instead of just that short piece in the game from Sammara. Does anyone else have a ww1 atlas that shows Middle East railroads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhu Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Railways are a bit odd on the map. For instance there's one from Mostar to Dubrovnik, which sadly has not yet been built to this day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill101 Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Hi Both the railways mentioned above are based on the maps in the West Point Atlas for the Great War. Map 42 shows the railway from Baghdad stopping at Samarrah, while Map 32 shows a railway passing through Sarajevo to the sea, roughly parallel to the Montenegrin border. No town is marked on the Adriatic coast, but as Dubrovnik is the largest settlement in the area for game purposes, I have had it end there. Now, one thing I've learned since I started designing scenarios some years back is that Atlases are far less reliable than one might have thought. I even have one which doesn't have the Vistula entering the Baltic at Danzig, instead it stops about 100 miles south of the city!! Considering that it is The Times Atlas of the Second World War, one would have expected better from them! I'm happy to make corrections where applicable, depending of course on its effect on the game, so please feel free to post links to details of any along with information on the correct railway lines at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lettowvorbeck Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 Oh yes, three different atlases all too often provide us with three different answers when we look for specific things. I wish maps in books were as footnoted as the text. Using google just now, I found two different maps that support Bill's interpretation in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhu Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Both the railways mentioned above are based on the maps in the West Point Atlas for the Great War. ... while Map 32 shows a railway passing through Sarajevo to the sea, roughly parallel to the Montenegrin border. No town is marked on the Adriatic coast, but as Dubrovnik is the largest settlement in the area for game purposes, I have had it end there. Fair enough, of course - makes good sense. As we were discussing the Mostar to coast railway, I had a quick look (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plo%C4%8De). According to the English page, the railway was built in the 1960s. The Croatian page is more specific, not to say contradictory (http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plo%C4%8De, for those of you who can read Croatian). It says the Austro-Hungarians planned to build it before WW1, but it was only started in 1937, and finished in 1942. Given that it's more detailed, and is in their country after all, I'm inclined to believe the Croatian version. What does seem to be clear is that it was built in the 1930s at the earliest. As you say, it's amazing how innacurate maps can be. Not to mention how contradictory Wikipedia is sometimes, though I suppose that's less of a surprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill101 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Thanks Karhu, and I agree that it is amazing how inaccurate maps can be. It can really drive me mad sometimes. If only there were a "Google Historical Earth"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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