"Maps/Terrain in Campaigns" Topic

Hi,
1) I am looking for period maps that give some representation of secondary and tertiary roads in the major campaign areas of europe, OTHER than battlefield sized maps like Allison's).
Any thoughts, other than raiding Malmaison?

2) Is this a valid assumption?
"All fairly settled areas in France, Austria and Germany (other than rough/forrested areas)had a spiderweb of roads and lanes in varying degrees of usefullness and repair, and one should just consider anything off the best roads as "off-road terrain" -with the umpire using one variable method or other to determine move and communication speed across, based on common sense, guesswork and extrapolation from primary sources"

3)Any thoughts about a solo/blind or umpired method of dribbling out terrain info to players as they scout/move, allowing them to "fill in" a less detailed map distributed prior to the commencement of hostilities? Any such thing worked well for anybody/ any systems or thinking to share?

Look at the Perfect Captain's Battlefinder

Hi, Thanks, but not quite what I need..Ideally,(I think) I would like something that works with gridded map coordinates on period maps….

Have you tried the UK Victorian survey maps, they were done in 1840's so the settlement density isn't bad, you need to ignore the railways but other than that their good and you can fight a campaign over terrain you know. We did a Napoleonic campaign in our area and I was able to drive and recce the field on the morning of the battle,

murat.ca/maps.htm

These show major routes between large and small cities. For cross country, that is what light cavalry is suppose to recon and survey.

I was going to suggest the same website as Major Mike.
BWW

I think the detailing of maps should reflect the quality of cartography of the period you are playing.

And that would be when?

Last summer I read a book by Graham Robb called "The Discovery of France." He argues that most of France was unknown to elites until the mid- late- 19th century. The land off the main roads was inhabited, but largely unmapped and unexplored by formal surveyors. He points out that the Verdon Gorge, the "Grand Canyon of France" was unknown to the outside world until 1906.

Assuming that the rest of Europe was in a similar state, I would only worry about the main roads for moving armies. Under such circumstances, cross-country travel would be a gamble, at best.

@MadDrMark: The Discovery of France really is a wonderful book that should be read by all students of history.

This one may be overly detailed, does not cover all of Europe (but a lot), and was done late 19th century so has some pesky railway lines:

link

Click on any of the panels and map of that area comes up. There are a few (annoyingly where some interesting campaigns took place) that are missing.

I have been using a small bit of it for a solo Napoleonic campaign and it is very good for that, since it provides detailed battlefield information when forces run into each other.

Looks good printed out in colour and stuck on a wall – albeit I have only done a couple of panels so far (I don't have a wall THAT big!).

Here is another link with terrain of actually battles.

maproom.org/00/13/index.php

Thanks everone so far..all much appreciated thoughts, and links. Major Mike, the "Murat" site is great, and I have them all, but they are stylized and though quite useful at times for setting up Historical fictional one offs, I was looking for more accuraccy this time. Eagle Farm, that link is really going to be a huge help!
Anyone know of anything like it for other areas of the continent?
Thanks…all your continuing thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

I'm sorry Timurilank, If you are accessing this from another discussion board..the period is Napoleonic.
thanks

The map Foy used in his book on the Peninsular War has that kind of detail on it. They are reproduced in 'Napoleon's War in Spain' which should be cheap enough on Amazon.

Some but not all of the Petre books have that kind of detail for the roads (but you'll need a different map for the rest of the topography in the theatre).

Regards

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the 1777 Ferraris Atlas of Belgium…

This has to be seen to be believed. On line access through the Royal Library of Belgium.. kbr.be Go to collections and look for Ferraris.

Enjoy!
B

Possibly the 'Cartes de France de Cassini would be of use. Fairly small scale and reasonable detail, drawn between 1750 and 1790, so fairly good for the Napoleonic era.
cartanciennes.free.fr/cassini

The Ferraris Atlas of Belgium is beautiful, and worth having a look, just to . . look. This is a link direct to the pages that are on line:
link

Steve

Thanks Whirlwind,good to know. Beeker, you helped incredibly in Belgum. Acriter, likewise in France. In your debt, sirs.

I second the recommendation for the Atlas Ferraris. It's a treasure trove of maps for pre-industrial revolution Belgium.

BTW, if you really love maps, you should acquire a printed version of the Atlas Ferraris book.

I've just found this web page which might be of use – I think it includes all the maps already mentioned.
link

Where can one get the printed version of the Ferraris map; a web search wasn't very instructive!

Thanks-nice site!

David Rumsey Map Collection:
davidrumsey.com

The legend to the Ferraris Atlas of Belgium mentioned by Acriter:
PDF link

The Ferraris Atlas is pretty incredible. You could make a pretty awesome wargames table just by blowing that up and printing it through a poster printer, then putting it under glass! You could just add pertinent terrain to it as an accent.

I too was floored by the Ferraris Atlas. To do an entire country at such a scale in the 18th century was an incredible achievement. It's like a premodern Google Earth!