The review has taken longer than I expected. I had hoped to use the current wargame maps, but they are not suitable for the new concept. So I have had to design new maps.
The campaign maps I have used for many years are based on European road maps. I added a grid where each square is 15 miles. This allowed me to make a map of Germany and Spain, where each square is one days march. Each square also became one wargames table.
This worked well to position the towns and villages, and made it easier to add historical borders. I then added my own road system with red lines as major strategic roads and yellow as minor roads. I could add major rivers, but mountains and woods were guess work.
This worked well for the previous concept, which was to produce mini stand alone campaign phases. But the location of the cities was a problem. There are large areas of both countries without any large towns, and others (particularly Germany) where there are too many in a small area.
I want to keep the mini campaign system, but to create a higher level of command. This would allow me to have cooperation between the five major armies, to create a more complicated system of supply and to introduce sieges.
My current plan is to introduce military regions and districts. A region would be consist of nine districts, each of which would be a small town and a wargames table.
I found that it was very difficult to impose this on my current maps, so I am experimenting with creating new maps of Germany and Spain. After considerable failed attempts I am satisfied with the latest effort. At least enough to put them to the test with some play testing.
As a result I have restarted the campaign diary blog. There will be a few posts to explain how the new concept will work, and I will then continue to record the progress of the campaign with weekly updates.
If you would like to follow the new campaign you will find the diary blog here
link
paints brigs for the British fleet.
