"detail of maps available to company commanders?" Topic

I would like to run an IABSM scenario where the americans try to get over a bridge.

I always like to give orders and maps to the players before the game, and before they see the table. I am curious about the level of detail of the maps available to the us forces.

Should I give to the american player just a skecth from "ground point of view" (sorry about my english), or would an american company commander be isued aerial reconn pics, detailed maps, etc…?

scale terrain in IABSM is nearly 1:300. As we used to play over an 2x2 meters table, you can see that itīs a very tiny real terrain (again sorry about my english). And as this is an assault bridgehead scenario, the table will be shorter.

Thanks very much in advance by your answers

The map should be a detailed topographical map. As a general rule, aerial recon photos would not be available, however that would depend on the mission and the amount of prep time. For the usual "Take that hill/town, etc." do not expect photos. A commando raid on a V-2 launch site would have some type of intel photos.

I would think that 1:100,000 or 1:50,000 at Battalion level. Possibly 1:25,000 if the front was moving slowly. In a pursuit situation you might be lucky to have 1:250,000 or 1:1,000,000 (highway map)

Someone will know for sure… but i think most of europe was well mapped at 1:25,000 before ww1, and were available during that war, down to the battalion (i recall in someone during the period, being surprised that even the outhouses were on the map).
Slow moving fronts of course, made getting new maps not so timely an issue. ( agreeing with Saber6 on the use of high scale maps, in expected pursuits, etc)
I wouldn't be surprised, if ww2 battalions had 1:25,000 maps in hand.

( not that a 1:50,000 isn't handy! )

picture
picture

( maybe an enlarged coupla squares of 1:50k might work well as an area map / table )

1:25K was certainly available for much of Europe, but the real problem was logistics: printing the needed maps (possibly in the U.S.), shipping them, and distributing them down to the company level. Much of the time that would be ridiculously behind schedule.

So I think that it would be "unrealistic" to show the table to the us players before they though about their plan, as the real comander probably only could see the first edges and the buildings that were in LOS, from ist comand vehicle. A picture with my phone from "miniature eye" should be more realistic? (and I hope, more funny).

Thanks for the info, and for your answers