MAPS!

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Beeg

Yea... 1945, 1946 possibly. I'm still debating whether to make it in SPWW2 or SPMBT.

A quick search online says that the Donau bridge near Vilshofen was destroyed April 1945 and rebuilt in Aug 1950. Did you want to factor this in, or this being a what-if have a replacement bridge in place for the scenario?

Originally Posted by Beeg

That's why I was hoping to have the Vils running roughly north & south. That would be the major river crossing, with the main Soviet force attacking right-to-left.

Should not be a problem.

Originally Posted by Beeg

I found Venhola doing a search but there doesn't appear to be any information on how to use it. Any help there? Thanks again.

Sure. It's not that complicated, at all. Can you find Vilshofen using Venhola?

[Beeg]

That's amazing. I didn't know that bridge was destroyed. To me, at that time (a few years later), it looked new but I never gave it a second thought. I'll have to think about that for the scenario. Besides capturing both ends of the bridge, I hadn't factored that bridge in.

Yes, I found Vilshofen using Venhola.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Beeg

Yes, I found Vilshofen using Venhola.

Use the + button to center the grid where you want it. This will be your map, it'll be max size.

If you want to rotate the map you can do so by using shift/alt/mouse drag.

Use the arrow button to download your map.

[Beeg]

Got it. I download it to WinSPMBT and went into the editor. It seems I have various hill heights but there are no details on the map - it's all green (clear).

[wulfir]

Your map will be set for slot 999. You can change this if you wish, or you can save it to another slot after you have opened it.

The main map will look blank, but it is not. Looking at the mini map you will see a bit what it looks like.

What I do next is this:

1. Set fill range to cover the whole map.
2. Hit the blue triangle in the lower right corner (looks like a "play" button).
3. Hit the clear terrain button in the upper left corner. ("Add clear terrain to hex following the contours of the existing map")
3. Hit the blue triangle agian.
4. Hit the fill button and the height levels will show up. You will see very clearly where the Donau and Vils rivers are located.

[Mobhack]

The game is designed to play left-right only. Artillery arrives from the sides map edge, troops will retreat to thier map edge, and that map edge shall be the right map edge or the left map edge, nothing else.

Naturally a scenario can be designed to be played a bit diagonally, but up-down tends not to work.

Note that I said right, not East, left, not West. The scenario designer decides where North is and can put some text on the map detailing that. The top of the map is the top of the map - not North, necessarily.

[Beeg]

No luck, I'm afraid. What value do you input to cover the whole map? I typed in 9999 and it seemed to work? What about the 'block' vs. 'splatter' effect? I was using block. Splatter has the 1-90 option.

[Beeg]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

The game is designed to play left-right only. Artillery arrives from the sides map edge, troops will retreat to thier map edge, and that map edge shall be the right map edge or the left map edge, nothing else.

Naturally a scenario can be designed to be played a bit diagonally, but up-down tends not to work.

Note that I said right, not East, left, not West. The scenario designer decides where North is and can put some text on the map detailing that. The top of the map is the top of the map - not North, necessarily.

Gotcha. Yea, the few scenarios I've played that go up and down have always been tricky. That's good to know. Thanks again!

[wulfir]

The Venhola program has a button for generating a link to he map grid. I like to copy it to a word/open office document because I can seldom finish a map in one sitting.

Then it's pretty much time go to town on the map.

I fill in rivers and water first. Notice that the Donau is wide but if you build the river using water hexes it will not read as a wide river map. I suppose the easiest way if you want a wide river (and inflatable rafts) is to deploy a stream in the middle of where the Donau will be use the Convert all streams to wide rivers and maybe set it to width 1 - and then add water hexes for the rest of the shape. I guess it would be possible to make shallow water so units can cross..., but is the river really shallow in reality?

I like to use two computers (or two screens), with the Venhola map on one and the game on the other.

Save early, save often.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Beeg

No luck, I'm afraid. What value do you input to cover the whole map?

I tried it with 800 and 9000, both worked.

Can you post the link to the Venhola grid, and I can try and generate the map for you.