"Topographical Maps " Topic

I'm looking for an online source for topographical maps suitable for wargaming. Maps with elevation lines in meters or feet would be preferable.

Um, perhaps a bit more information …

-- part of the world
-- coverage (i.e. will a handful of representative ones do, or do you want most of a theatre?)
-- era (if you use modern maps for WWII you have to take a lot off)
-- scale

1:25000 is hard to find and super fiddly, but it's good for skirmish.
1:100,000 is a good level for most WWII, but not for modern commanders, who should have better maps.
1:200,000 and up is for higher level games

try here: link

That should get you started

If you want maps of the UK then you should go here:
streetmap.co.uk

At the right zoom level, you get the OS 1:50000 series maps.

Try this link. You can find all sorts of stuff here. You may need to search for what your looking for. There's that many maps…

link

These could be great for the Austro-Hungarian campaign….

link

I assume that having posted this on the Napoleonic discussion board, rictavian's looking for maps of continental Europe in the early 19th century. I could be wrong, it appears I usually am…

There are some contemporary(ish) maps here

link

Campaign maps

link . Probably not what you're looking for though

and some available to buy here

link

You may want to look for this book too

link

Of course, modern maps of Europe are available in many scales, but will probably bear little resemblance to the terrain of 200 years ago

Such as an (incomplete) mapping of Europe and Asia, courtesy of the Russian military

link

USGS sells maps on line. They can be slow but there is a store in Denver (Grain Elevator or something like that) called Denver map store that will get them sent out in 24-48 hours. I have all of the contemporary USGS maps of all of the eastern theater along with most of the major ACW battlefields. I use to be a photogram/map image interpreter and used them often to analize battlefields and terrain.

For Europe there are several firm that sell topo maps in scales of 1/12,500; 1/25,000; 1/50,000 and 1/100,000

VVR
James Mattes

For the US: terraserver-usa.com

There is also a related commercial site (terraserver.com) that sells high res aerial and satellite photos

Thanks guys we're almost there but……
Napoleonic battles in Europe. Good ole green maps with brown elevation lines in feet or meters. I can find tons of these covering the USA, but Europe presents a problem.

Mark Plant… The scale of 1:25000 would be great and I'm looking for Euopean Napoleonic battlefields. If you have any more questions please ask.

I don't think 1:25,000 for Napoleonic battlefields is justified.

The level of detail is terrific -- down to individual trees in some cases. But almost all that detail will be incorrect for your purposes.

Obviously there will be too many houses. Roads will have had corners knocked off to allow for faster cars. Fields will face different directions and be wider. Drainage will be generally post 1800. Many small copses will be gone. In most cases the landscape will resemble that of 200 years ago, but not any of the actual detail. (Few houses are 200 years old, even in Europe.)

And the maps of the period would be nothing like 1:25K, so it would be wildly anachronistic to use them for manoeuvre, even if you had period detail.

Also 1:25K maps cover very small areas -- you inevitably end up going over the edges.

I would take a 1:200,000. Blow them up and take the basic elevation lines. Remove most of the houses. Replace roads with crooked tracks. Add more small foliage. Basically retrograde it.

The advantage is that 1:200K are much easier to find and download. I use the Soviet ones myself, but that requires wading through the Cyrillic.

OK Mark, good points. The Soviet ones you speak of: how do I access them and do they cover the Napoleonic battlesfields? I would like to check them out and reach my own conclusions. Thanks again.