ModAAR: American Front, a CSA v USA WIP mod

[BiteNibbleChomp]

ORIGINAL: FOARP

Basically the goal here is to make sense out of the attack from the north (by Custer) and east (by Pershing) on Kentucky described in the books by providing good transport links in those places.

Been a while since I last read the books, but from memory Custer's 1st Army attacked much further to the west, following the Bowling Green-Nashville axis, which would suggest a starting point around Evansville.
I checked the books and the first chapter with Custer in it mentions his initial HQ being in St Louis, not a likely location if he was going to start his attack near Covington

You might also want to label the Cumberland Gap on the map? (Near the joint border between KY, TN and VA) I'm not sure if it comes up in the series at all, but it was a notable attack route during the Civil War and had been used by traders and explorers since the middle of the 18th century.

Looks like you're going along quite nicely! Excited to see this done

- BNC

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: BiteNibbleChomp

ORIGINAL: FOARP

Basically the goal here is to make sense out of the attack from the north (by Custer) and east (by Pershing) on Kentucky described in the books by providing good transport links in those places.

Been a while since I last read the books, but from memory Custer's 1st Army attacked much further to the west, following the Bowling Green-Nashville axis, which would suggest a starting point around Evansville.
I checked the books and the first chapter with Custer in it mentions his initial HQ being in St Louis, not a likely location if he was going to start his attack near Covington

I guess I may have been fooled by the description on the TL-191 wiki of Custer's invasion being from the north. I'll revise this when I get around to modding OOBs.

ORIGINAL: BiteNibbleChomp
You might also want to label the Cumberland Gap on the map? (Near the joint border between KY, TN and VA) I'm not sure if it comes up in the series at all, but it was a notable attack route during the Civil War and had been used by traders and explorers since the middle of the 18th century.

This ended up being one of those things where making one small change ended up changing lots of other things - adding a label identifying a mountain pass means adding the pass there otherwise the user will be confused. Adding the pass means adding the road/rail links that went through it (which means researching the rail links through it). Having the road/rail link means adding a way-station otherwise it looks a bit funny to have a long stretch of road with nothing on it. Adding London, KY to the map means removing Laurel River Lake (which anyway didn't exist until the 1940's so it's an improvement) to make room - I didn't want to put it next to Hazard as I don't like having adjacent settlements outside of dense urban terrain. Having two passes means the Cumberland mountains aren't the barrier I wanted them to be so I removed the pass via Big Stone Gap. This leaves the road/rail link to Hazard which comes close to the mountain-peaks so I increase the mountains to high mountain terrain to compensate... etc.

Now it looks like the below picture - definitely an improvement and an example of why I actually enjoy building this map.

ORIGINAL: BiteNibbleChomp
Looks like you're going along quite nicely! Excited to see this done

- BNC

Thanks BNC! BTW, I have thought about how I might be able to adapt this map for use with an American Civil War mod. I've done some experiments and it's definitely possible to chop my larger map using the shift-function in the editor to include only those parts of North America that you previously had in your old mod (i.e., North America east of Galveston and south of the St. Lawrence - or more of the west if you want a bigger western theatre). Making the Mississippi, Ohio, and St. Lawrence navigable is also doable. The main task would be removing towns, infra, and lakes that didn't exist in the 1860's (e.g., Birmingham Alabama) but again that shouldn't take too long.

Is that something you'd be interested in?

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: 1775Cerberus

On the Tennessee map. I would consider adding the Duck River in Middle Tennessee. Would run from north of Shelbyville to south of Columbia then into the Tennessee river in a mostly east / west direction. In summer the river is fordable but the banks are often steep along its course.

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

As for the TN map, the Mobile & Ohio railway, after passing through Corinth, TN, extends north to Jackson, Humboldt, and eventually reaching Columbus, TN.

There is also another major railway - the Louisville and Nashville Railroad - that goes Memphis-Humboldt-Ft. Henry-Ft. Donelson (where Grant had fought)-Bowling Green, KY-Louisville.

(Humboldt, TN may be too small to be included on the map, I think you can use Jackson as its replacement.)

Thanks guys, those are all great suggestions. I've updated West Tennessee per your comments as you can see below. Now all I need to do is work out a satisfactory way of portraying that pesky Missouri bootheel! There just doesn't seem to be a good combination of town-locations, river-hex, and border-position to properly do it with everything being as it should be (really Dyersburg should be close to the southern end of the bootheel, Union City should be level with the main line of the Arkansas-Missouri border, Reelfoot Lake should be further north as well - but moving these north crowds Paducah).

[BiteNibbleChomp]

ORIGINAL: FOARP

This ended up being one of those things where making one small change ended up changing lots of other things - adding a label identifying a mountain pass means adding the pass there otherwise the user will be confused. Adding the pass means adding the road/rail links that went through it (which means researching the rail links through it). Having the road/rail link means adding a way-station otherwise it looks a bit funny to have a long stretch of road with nothing on it. Adding London, KY to the map means removing Laurel River Lake (which anyway didn't exist until the 1940's so it's an improvement) to make room - I didn't want to put it next to Hazard as I don't like having adjacent settlements outside of dense urban terrain. Having two passes means the Cumberland mountains aren't the barrier I wanted them to be so I removed the pass via Big Stone Gap. This leaves the road/rail link to Hazard which comes close to the mountain-peaks so I increase the mountains to high mountain terrain to compensate... etc.

Now it looks like the below picture - definitely an improvement and an example of why I actually enjoy building this map.

...
Thanks BNC! BTW, I have thought about how I might be able to adapt this map for use with an American Civil War mod. I've done some experiments and it's definitely possible to chop my larger map using the shift-function in the editor to include only those parts of North America that you previously had in your old mod (i.e., North America east of Galveston and south of the St. Lawrence - or more of the west if you want a bigger western theatre). Making the Mississippi, Ohio, and St. Lawrence navigable is also doable. The main task would be removing towns, infra, and lakes that didn't exist in the 1860's (e.g., Birmingham Alabama) but again that shouldn't take too long.

Is that something you'd be interested in?

Looks good!

I have in the past thought about making a scenario for the Settling Accounts series (to be called 'Battle Cry of Freedom' because that sounds really cool!), but right now I'm quite busy with other things so I'll have to decline your offer. Appreciate the thought though!

- BNC

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 46 - Arkansas

Hi again. This time in we're in the state of Arkansas (which I pronounced wrong as "Are Kansas" until I was well into my 20's). Arkansas at this time lack any truly large urban centre at this time - even Little Rock had a population of only 45,000 people in 1910 - so I've not given it any large cities. The same goes for mining.

Instead I've focused on making sure that it serves as a barrier against "Northern Aggression" immediately west of the Mississippi, by giving it limited infrastructure, a large mountain/river barrier extending east-west, and fortresses standing on the two routes that do extend north-south, and made Little Rock a fortress into the bargain (it is an important centre for the military so this is not far-fetched).

I've also added a fortification at Fort Pillow just north of Memphis - site of an infamous massacre in our timeline.

[eightroomofelixir]

If I recall correctly, Turtledove mentioned some kind of outlaws were active in the Ozark Mountains around Missouri and Arkansas in the first book, but never elaborate it afterwords. Don't know if you are interested to put some partisans here.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

If I recall correctly, Turtledove mentioned some kind of outlaws were active in the Ozark Mountains around Missouri and Arkansas in the first book, but never elaborate it afterwords. Don't know if you are interested to put some partisans here.

I think bushwackers spawning in the countryside might be dealt with mostly through events - actual partisan hexes will be urban.

Roughly what I'm planning is to have the various insurgencies (Deseret, Congaree, Black Belt) modelled as sudden declarations of independence in 1915 within the US/CS (as I understand it, this will cause US/CS units in the area where this happens to move to the nearest friendly territory). Salt Lake City will be capital of the Deseret, Albany GA will be capital of the Black Belt, and St. Matthews SC will be capital of the Congaree. If the US/CS manage to crush the insurgents, then their capitals will be a partisan spawn-point which the US/CS will need to keep occupying troops in.

To actually switch the partisans hexes off the CS player will have to choose to open enlistment in the CS army to oppressed Confederate black people in an event firing in late 1916. This will have the effect of annexing the Black Belt and Congaree republics and switching off the partisan-spawn, as well as adding a number of infantry divisions to the CSA build-queue, but will also hit national morale and maybe MPP.

Turtledove makes it sound as though the Red Rebellion was widespread but the Congaree and Black Belt republics were the only ones named in the books - I think elsewhere in the south the CSA will just get a hit to MPP production and national morale, maybe unit strength. I'm not going to try to invent any Red republics not named already.

The US won't have any way of switching off the Salt Lake City partisan spawn and will just have to keep it occupied.

I think both the Deseret and Red rebellions should happen regardless of whether they are supported by the CSA/USA, but support should make each rebellion stronger. For example, if the CSA supports the Deseret uprising at a cost to MPP, then the units that spawn in the Deseret should already be upgraded to Infantry tech 1, and maybe some additional units should be formed. Similarly, if the USA supports the Red Rebels, then they should be upgraded to Inf Tech 1, and maybe have more (or bigger) units.

Elsewhere, probably all big cities will be partisan spawns in Canada, the USA , the CSA, and Haiti so you'll have to keep them occupied. This is mostly because it hurts the USA the worst, and the game needs things that hurt the USA for balance.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 47 - Sequoyah

The last Confederate State is now on the map with the completion of Sequoyah (that's Oklahoma to us)!

The main city of the region is Oklahoma city, which I presume in this timeline would have had a different name (although since Kansas City isn't in Kansas but in Missouri, and Arkansas City is in Kansas, and largest place called Colorado City is in Arizona... maybe I'm being too logical here?). Other than that the town of Tulsa forms an important regional centre and in this timeline is fortified because of its proximity to the border. In the early 20th century Oklahoma was the largest centre of oil production in the western hemisphere and this is reflected in the CSA state of Sequoyah in this timeline, with the Cushing-Drumright oilfields represented on-map.

In this timeline the Five Civilised Tribes still have a degree of autonomy so each of their respective capitals is featured on the map (Okmulgee for the Creek, Tishomingo for the Chickasaw, Tahlequah for the Cherokee, Wewoka for the Seminole, Durant for the Chocktaw) as well as the Osage nation capital at Pawhuska. My plan is that, as in the books, these will raise weak garrisons, detachments, or cavalry brigades to represent the armies of each of these Native American nations if and when the USA invades - if the CSA player wishes to invest the MPP and take the small morale hit for doing so that is.

The region is dominated by west-east flowing rivers and lakes (many of which were later inundations, but I'm presuming the CSA was more developed in this timeline) so should form a reasonable barrier to invaders from the north, particularly with its low infrastructure, but the CSA player is going to have to fight hard to hold the oilfields.

As normal any corrections/improvement suggestions are welcome.

Next stops: Missouri, Iowa, the Dakotas, Manitoba (basically the right bank of the Mississippi and beyond)

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 48 - "I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognise Missourah!"

Building up some steam here with yet another state down - the state that Grandpa Simpson couldn't bring himself to recognise for some reason (I understand this is because of bitter memories of Missouri Bushwackers? Who sided with the Confederacy? If that's the case, I think there's some events that could be built on that...).

Not much to say on this one except it's surprising how even state such a long way from the sea have so many rivers and lakes. St. Louis is yet another one of those big American cities that has made a limited cultural impact so its size surprises me a bit - with Cleveland this brings the count for major US cities up to ten (NYC, Boston, Philly, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, LA, San Fran) versus five for the Entente (Mexico City, Toronto, Richmond, Atlanta, NOLA, Dallas). The lead/Zinc mines down in Joplin on the Confederate border may make a tempting target for cross-border raids as well.

[eightroomofelixir]

Some notes and suggestions about Sequoyah and Missouri:

1. The regions around Tulsa and Okmulgee are very hilly IRL.

2. Ouachita Mountains should extend further west into Sequoyah, it's western foothills are about same longitude as Okmulgee.

3. St. Louis is being flanked by a hilly/mountainous region - part of the Ozark Plateau - at its immediate south and west. Part of the reason why CSA didn't really targeting St. Louis directly in the IRL Civil War. The Shawnee Hills of Illinois is an extension of these mountains.

4. The area between St. Louis and Columbia, MO is also very hilly, especially along the Missouri River.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

MOAR MOUNTAINS! *snip!*

All good points. I've revised the map accordingly (see below). As an explanation as to why my maps often lack mountains - typically I'm looking at an elevation map of the entire state and/or maps showing regions within the state. The problem with elevation maps is they often miss out roughness (which is what generates hillyness as much as simply elevation) and region maps often have arbitrary borders - e.g., a mountainous region will have its foothills cut off because they don't fall within the state/provincial/national park that covers those mountains. I definitely encourage you to keep correcting me on this as it save the map from having too many wide open, empty spaces.

One of the problems with the methodology suggested by the manual (get a map, lay down a hex-grid on it, then create the map from that) is there simply aren't maps that have the kind of detail required by the game so you're always going to be consulting multiple maps during your build. You would need a map showing city locations, infra, elevation, forest-cover, agricultural land-use, rivers, wetlands, resources etc. at the exact resolution required by you map. However, it would at least have helped me get a better fix on the location of cities deep in the interior of the continent - I think dead-reckoning errors are beginning to drift in a bit.

[eightroomofelixir]

ORIGINAL: FOARP

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir
MOAR MOUNTAINS! *snip!*

All good points. I've revised the map accordingly (see below). As an explanation as to why my maps often lack mountains - typically I'm looking at an elevation map of the entire state and/or maps showing regions within the state. The problem with elevation maps is they miss out roughness (which is what generates hillyness as much as simply elevation) and region maps often have arbitrary borders - e.g., a mountainous region will have its foothills cut off because they don't fall within the state/provincial/national park that covers those mountains. I definitely encourage you to keep correcting me on this as it save the map from having too many wide open, empty spaces.

One of the problems with the methodology suggested by the manual (get a map, lay down a hex-grid on it, then create the map from that) is there simply aren't maps that have the kind of detail required by the game so you're always going to be consulting multiple maps during your build. You would need a map showing city locations, infra, elevation, forest-cover, agricultural land-use, rivers, wetlands, resources etc. at the exact resolution required by you map. However, it would at least have helped me get a better fix on the location of cities deep in the interior of the continent - I think dead-reckoning errors are beginning to drift in a bit.

Thanks for understanding my "obsession" with mountains (lol). My thought possess is similar: North America has more land than Europe geographically, which means there will be a huge amount of lands/open spaces on a North American map. How to (re)balance and bring the variety to this new land-sea ratio - or the plain-mountain-plateau ratio - can be a major challenge. I definitely like the way you deal with this.

[Elessar2]

I'm running across the exact same issues on my 20km scale Euro map (tho I am about to wrap up the North American coastlines today). The entire Canadian Maritimes were VERY tricky to get everything reasonably in place and to scale [I use Google Maps and a custom hex grid overlaid, note the km scale bar on the lower right of Google's screen hunt for the right tile rinse repeat)-in the worst cases it is off by maybe 2 hexes.

As you said that is a cakewalk compared to all of the mountains/forests/hills/marshes that I will be working on next... [X(]

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: BiteNibbleChomp

ORIGINAL: FOARP

Basically the goal here is to make sense out of the attack from the north (by Custer) and east (by Pershing) on Kentucky described in the books by providing good transport links in those places.

Been a while since I last read the books, but from memory Custer's 1st Army attacked much further to the west, following the Bowling Green-Nashville axis, which would suggest a starting point around Evansville.
I checked the books and the first chapter with Custer in it mentions his initial HQ being in St Louis, not a likely location if he was going to start his attack near Covington

You might also want to label the Cumberland Gap on the map? (Near the joint border between KY, TN and VA) I'm not sure if it comes up in the series at all, but it was a notable attack route during the Civil War and had been used by traders and explorers since the middle of the 18th century.

Looks like you're going along quite nicely! Excited to see this done

- BNC

BTW - as the TL-191 books are now available on Kindle (they weren't last I checked though this was a few years ago) I've bought them and am re-reading them: you're right, Custer's initial HQ is in St. Louis, he then transfers it to Independence, Illinois. He launches his assault-crossing at Metropolis, Illinois (i.e., west of Paducah). The attack on Covington must be being made by Pershing's army.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 49 - Iowa

Welcome again! Today we visit the Hawkeye State, the last state of the Mississippi valley in this build. For Iowa, De Moines is the only significant urban centre and there is not much in the way of mining, but the plains in the south of the state provide plenty of space for agriculture.

My biggest challenge in creating this state was just trying to determine the actual extent of hills in this (famously flat) state. Looking at maps you see areas of high elevation, but looking at photos of, say, Hawkeye point (the highest point in the state) it looks flat as a pancake. I think I got it about right but please feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions.

Next stops: the Dakotas, Manitoba, and then along the southern US border.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 50 - Dakota

Hello again! Now we're clearing off an immense slice of the map in the form of the US state of Dakota (in this timeline the Dakota territory was admitted as a single state, without the politicking that historically divided it into North and South Dakota). For such a huge territory it has little of economic value - Bismarck, as capital, is the only urban centre, and the primary value of the territory is the logistical links that run east-west across it.

Some of the transport links/rivers may seem incomplete at their western ends - this is because I'm not yet clear how they're going to extend further to the west and am leaving this to when I do Wyoming etc.

As normal any and all corrections and suggestions are welcome. Apologies for the low image quality, which is forced on me by the very restrictive maximum image size allowed on the SC:WW1 forum of 200KB (for completely inexplicable reasons, the limit on the SC:WIE forum is 5000KB, far larger - I've asked why the limit here can't be raised on the site feedback thread but have received no answer: I encourage other people to complain as well).

PS - 50th episode of this! To be honest, when I started I thought I would have finished this ages ago....

EDIT: PPS - One other change I've made is that the Missouri river is now a major river. As it gathers so many other rivers this was somewhat necessary in order to highlight it I think, but let me know if you disagree.

[Elessar2]

ORIGINAL: FOARP
PS - 50th episode of this! To be honest, when I started I thought I would have finished this ages ago....

Oh my no.

First rule of designing such monsters is that it will likely take around twice as long as you thought. And just wait until you get a working alpha where you can finally test the thing in the game. It took me almost exactly two months to get all of the major coastlines finished in my magnum opus.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 51 - Manitoba

Hi Again. This time we're back north of the border in Canada, in Manitoba, the gateway to the Canadian Prairies. Winnipeg is the only city of any significance in this province, the main value of which is in its transportation links between east and west. I had to spend a long time getting the lakes right in this and am not going to bother doing the smaller lakes to the east of Lake Winnipeg - marshy terrain will have to suffice.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 52 - New Mexico

Hi. This time we're on the southern border of the US, in New Mexico. Historically even Albuquerque only had a population of around 15,000 people at this time so even making a town is a bit of an exaggeration, albeit a defensible one as otherwise New Mexico would have no economic value at all in this game. Otherwise the state is primarily a jumping-off point for the slog across the desert into Confederate Texas.

Next stops: Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, Nebraska, and then along the Canadian border.

[eightroomofelixir]

I like how you put Truth or Consequences here.[:D]