ModAAR: American Front, a CSA v USA WIP mod

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

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

Creating the Map part 52 - New Mexico

Cheers! And maybe some things will crash at Roswell in this mod....

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 53 - Arizona

Hello again! This time we've moved further west along the southern border of the USA to the state of Arizona. Only one urban centre of any value is included in the state (Phoenix). The state is dominated by its geological features, especially the Grand Canyon which I have decided to model as an impassible depression. The harp-eyed may note that the historical railway lines that crossed the state east-to-west are NOT included here. The ONLY trans-continental railways that the USA will have at the start of this scenario will be those that run through or close to the rebellious state of Utah - if you want to be sure of being able to catch the 3:10 to Yuma you're either going to have to keep the Mormon rebels of Utah away from the railways or invest the substantial MPP needed to finish extending the line from Gallup, New Mexico across to Flagstaff, Arizona.

EDIT: Am now six months into this map build!

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 54 - Nevada

Not much to say about this one - the only thing of real importance is the two railways that cross it.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 54 - Kansas

Kansas is famously flat so this one was relatively easy. The infrastructure connecting Kansas to Sequoyah (Oklahoma) is limited as befits states in two separate and antagonistic countries.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 55 - Nebraska

Yet another state with not in the much of geography to get too wrong (or at least I hope not).

Still left to do:

Canada - Saskatchewan, Alberta.
US - Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah.

Saskatchewan and Alberta are likely to take some time due to size, otherwise the main difficult is likely to be putting in the Rocky Mountains. Maybe 2-3 weeks more work to lay down terrain? Then a general clean-up, convoys, add in Japan, put in weather zones, and get started on the events....

[FOARP]

(PS - Lincoln, Nebraska, is not called that for obvious reasons)

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 56 - Saskatchewan

Hi Again. This time we're visiting a huge piece of real estate right in the middle of Canada. As with a lot of the middle of the map, the main thing of value to the player in this area are the infrastructure links. In this case three massive railways cross the province from east to west - the Canadian Pacific in the south via Regina, the Grand Trunk Pacific railway in the middle via Yorkton, and the Canadian Northern Railway in the north via Prince Albert. The area also sees a link via The Pas in Manitoba to Port Nelson on Hudson Bay that the Canadians can choose to have built if the Canadian Atlantic ports are cut off.

Invading the area directly should be difficult for the US as the cities are well back from the frontier with no roads connecting to the US - that's by design so that Canadian player has less in the way of frontier areas to hold.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 57 - Alberta

Here we are where the Canadian prairies meet the Canadian Rockies. As you can see in Alberta there are three major transport routes going east-west: in the south the Canadian Pacific line that crosses the Rockies via Crows Nest Pass, in the middle the CP line through the Rockies via Kicking Horse Pass, and in the north the Canadian Northern Railway line via Yellowhead Pass that links up to the Grand Trunk Pacific line that meets the Pacific at the port of Prince Rupert.

Now Canada is finally done and there is only the last bit of the USA to finish (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado).

(apologies by the low image quality, the 200kb limit hs not been lifted in the mod forum)

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 58 - Idaho

Hello again. This time we're filing in the sparsely-populated state of Idaho. The most important features here (other than the mountains) are the impassable "Craters of the Moon" lava fields and the Union Pacific railway that cross the south of the state on its way to rebellious Utah.

Next stop - Montana.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 59 - Montana

One more state down - three left to go (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah).

Surprisingly the town of Butte, MT was the biggest city in Montana back around 1910-20 - at a guess this was due to a local mining boom. The US has enough mines already but to give some MPP value to Montana I've made Butte a town. Otherwise my main challenge in making this part of the map was simply to include all the various mountain ranges of Montana. The historic railway line across the Rockies via Lookout Pass is not built in this timeline - the only trans-continental links are those going through or near the rebellious state of Utah.

Any comments or criticism are welcome.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 60 - Wyoming

Not much to say about Wyoming - the Union Pacific line crosses in the south of the state on its way to rebellious Utah, the only urban centre worth mentioning is the capital at Cheyenne.

One more state down, now only two left to go (Colorado and Utah).

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 61 - Colorado

And now here we are at the penultimate state in this map build. Colorado is of course an extremely mountainous state and home to one of the two main rail routes acorss the continental USA.

Next - the final state in this build, Utah!

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 62 - Utah

And now finally we arrive in the land of the Latter-Day Saints! The state of Utah is dominated by deserts, mountains, and the Great Salt Lake, which between them restrict the options of anyone wishing to put down a rebellion there.

This is the final part of the map that needed filling in, but alas even the task of building the map does not stop here: I still need to give the map a copy-edit, put in convoys and weather zones, decide on national morale objectives, industrial centres, and supply centres. And then there are events and AI to be programmed!

In total figures the map has:
400 x 152 = 60,800 hexes, of which roughly half are land hexes
809 named geographical features
1099 named resources

Only play testing can show whether this turns out to be too big to viably play (a concern I've had since the start of this) but looking at the main battle zones (Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Ontario) in reality they're not so big and should be manageable.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

That's a lot of work! Great job on finishing the map

- BNC

[Bufo]

Congratulations on completing the mapping! Been watching over the months and am still excited for the finished product

[eightroomofelixir]

Congratulations for the hard work!

[OldCrowBalthazor]

These maps are brilliant..and as one that drove heavy trucks throughout the Western 11 states for a few decades on basically every legal road (and not so legal road haha), I can attest the accuracy of your town, road, and geographical placements. As for the question of 'if this is too big to be manageable?', I think it at least will capture the whole expanse of this portion of the planet....and anyway, some of us like monster games! [:D]

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: BiteNibbleChomp

That's a lot of work! Great job on finishing the map

- BNC

ORIGINAL: Bufo

Congratulations on completing the mapping! Been watching over the months and am still excited for the finished product

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

Congratulations for the hard work!

ORIGINAL: OldCrowBalthazor

These maps are brilliant..and as one that drove heavy trucks throughout the Western 11 states for a few decades on basically every legal road (and not so legal road haha), I can attest the accuracy of your town, road, and geographical placements. As for the question of 'if this is too big to be manageable?', I think it at least will capture the whole expanse of this portion of the planet....and anyway, some of us like monster games! [:D]

Thanks a lot guys! Feedback of any kind is always welcome as it helps me stay motivated (and improves the map!). If the map has stayed fairly accurate, a lot of this is down to the comments and corrections you've been giving.

Looking forward to when this is going to hit Alpha, I'm thinking probably the end of the year - maybe October to put in the finishing touches on the map, November for events and OOBs, and December to at least start on the AI.

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 63 - Tweaks

I've spent the past few days going over the map and giving it a good copy edit, concentrating particularly on the areas I did first in view of what I've learned over the past six months. I've implemented a lot of smaller changes but the larger ones can be seen in the image below:

1) The books aren't clear as to whether Puerto Rico was bought from Spain by the CSA along with Cuba. In fact the books never mention Puerto Rico at all which rather suggests that it is not part of the CSA. The books do also mention Spanish ships of the North American coast so this might indicate that the Spanish still maintain a presence in the New World. Considering the absence of other countries which can be influence onto either side in the war I've decided to make Puerto Rico territory of a neutral Spain portrayed asa minor power, a base for the Spanish pre-dreadnought battleship Pelayo and a naval infantry division. Bring Spain onto your side in this conflict and you will gain a convoy and a dreadnought appearing on the far side of the Atlantic.

2) The Japanese appear in the books fighting on the side of the British against the USA in the Pacific. I've decided the best way to portray this is by including the Mariana islands, obviously positioned way to the east of where they actually are, but I think putting them closer is forgivable for game play purposes. In the books the Japanese defeated the Spanish in a war in the Pacific and took their Pacific colonies, so the Marianas are entirely occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese are a major power favourable to the Entente and have a modern fleet complete with dreadnoughts, and a strong contingent of naval infantry - both are important if the Entente are to win the conflict for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Japan starts the conflict as a neutral on the Entente side so the UK will have to offer the Japanese some thing to get them on side - or use diplomatic influence.

3) The British need a Pacific base after they lose the Sandwich Islands, so I've added Midway with a hefty port complex and Naval Infantry division waiting to go.

4) I've given the Sandwich Islands a heavy edit, expanding the size of them. Obviously they are no longer to scale but again I think this is forgivable for gameplay purposes. I've also made the Sandwich Islands and Entente minor so you can force them to surrender and thus take the entirety of the archipelago without having to invade every single island. I'm thinking of doing something similar to other British possessions (e.g., the Bahamas) but I need to make my mind up on this.

5) I've similarly expanded the UK base at Bermuda so that attackers have somewhere to land.

Things I'm thinking about doing but haven't made my mind up about: adding Germany as a CP major power. On the plus side this means there is a CP great power in the game other than the US and would simulate the German involvement in the naval war. On the negative side this means adding a German port at the eastern edge of the map and having a very small major power (maybe 20-40 MPP a turn?) that only operates a few naval units. Making Germany a minor power would be meaningless as the US player would probably just spend the MPP on the North American war.

[Jazon]

Hi! What layer did U use for Pearl harbour? Are there any extras for fortification? Where can I found them?
Cheers! Enourmous work!