New HTH map uploaded: La Nicollerie

[Broadsword56]

Just uploaded to the repository:

Designer's notes:

La Nicollerie is a 1040m x 1120m large bocage map, based on authentic Google Earth imagery and topography and 1947 French aerial photos of this area near Villiers-Fossard. The map is a detailed submap of my 4km x 4km XIX Corps-Center master map that I made and posted on the BFC repository.

The map has been playtested twice in PBEM play with delightful results. But I stongly advise that you play this map HTH ONLY, because the map eventually crashed CMBN both times it was played via PBEM. To play HTH, set up your battle as a head-to-head hotseat 2-player game. Then save your turn and send the actual game file (the .BTS file) back and forth. This seems to be a more stable way to play large maps, and it keeps the file size down.

Terrain notes:

All fields with bocage borders have logically placed entrances and exits, to represent what the farmers and animals used to come and go. These are marked with dirt and/or mud tiles.

BUT... these spaces would not necessarily have been wide enough for WWII vehicles. So here's the key:

Entrances/exits that are NOT accessible to vehicles appear on the map in two forms:

1. A bocage "gap" over a dirt or mud tile -- passable only by infantry on foot, unless/until it's widened by artificial means (Rhino tanks, demolition, HE fire, etc.).

2. A wooden gate -- These are placed over heavy forest tiles, so that stops vehicles from crossing them. The gates make it easy to spot vehicle-unfriendly gaps, so you don't have to resort to frustrating trial and error.

Exits/entrances that vehicles CAN cross appear on the map as open action spaces (no gate), marked by dirt and/or mud tiles. These often occur on larger fields and wheatfields.

Remember that in addition to marked entrances/exits, bocage has many random gaps and thin spots that foot infantry can move and shoot through. They're all over the map, but you have to find these on your own and decide how to make the best use of them!

--Broadsword56