Detailed Prokhorovka map (wip) and scenario

[john connor]

I decided, finally, to have a go at making a map! Wow! This is too much fun, takes too much time, and is way too addictive.....

It's Prokhorovka (again) and I've been very grateful to Chris for assistance with finding maps to trace etc, and also for his own (bigger) Prokhorovka map and scenario, which got me started wanting to do my own, in much more detail. This map is a smaller area (basically, the 'Corridor' area of the battle) and will base a scenario dealing with the 12 and 13 July 1943. I will use Chris's EF estab, pending an official EF estab!

Here's a pic of what I've done so far. The map is almost complete - I need to put names on all the little villages rimming the Psel and I need to research field patterns and sizes for the 2 huge State Farms that take up the centre of the map, then put those fields in. I need to put some mud in around the balkas (I think that's what those low gullies are called).

All help very welcome. It was extremely frustrating learning how to do the contours, and hurt my eyes a lot! I worry about all those control points dragged off the left edge of the map - hope they don't turn that edge into a cliff face of some kind.....

Is there anything anyone who has done this before knows that they wish they had known, but didn't, when they did their first map? If so, tell me!

 

[Kurt]

I decided, finally, to have a go at making a map! Wow! This is too much fun, takes too much time, and is way too addictive.....

It's Prokhorovka (again) and I've been very grateful to Chris for assistance with finding maps to trace etc, and also for his own (bigger) Prokhorovka map and scenario, which got me started wanting to do my own, in much more detail. This map is a smaller area (basically, the 'Corridor' area of the battle) and will base a scenario dealing with the 12 and 13 July 1943. I will use Chris's EF estab, pending an official EF estab!

Here's a pic of what I've done so far. The map is almost complete - I need to put names on all the little villages rimming the Psel and I need to research field patterns and sizes for the 2 huge State Farms that take up the centre of the map, then put those fields in. I need to put some mud in around the balkas (I think that's what those low gullies are called).

All help very welcome. It was extremely frustrating learning how to do the contours, and hurt my eyes a lot! I worry about all those control points dragged off the left edge of the map - hope they don't turn that edge into a cliff face of some kind.....

Is there anything anyone who has done this before knows that they wish they had known, but didn't, when they did their first map? If so, tell me!
View attachment 826 View attachment 826

Excellent work John Connor

 

[john connor]

Thanks Kurt.
Map finished.
This is the full thing. With grid.





Without grid:

 

[john connor]

A max zoom detail of the Psel and the village of Prelestnoye:





And the key objective Oktiabrski State Farm:

 

[john connor]

A shot of the 'Corridor' area where most of the most 'famous' battles took place, on 12 July 1943, between LAH and 18TC:

 

[john connor]

It's taken me 3 days to do that map. First try, so I had to learn as I went. Great fun, but I really do appreciate now the work that goes into these things! Many thanks to Capnhillrat (Chris)for all his help, and his own excellent and much larger map. Mine is different, traced (painstakingly, believe me!) from a different soviet map, I believe, done in a lot more detail as it deals with a much smaller area.

Now I'll go and test it, then put the scenario together. Not sure how you post scenarios in here, but I'll get to that.

 

[sinbad]

Cool!
Very cool!!!

 

[john connor]

Thanks Sinbad. Maybe we can play it next week? It will be only a 22 hour scenario. What do you think?

Peter

 

[sinbad]

Yes
Of course!
I wll try to stop your attack at manhay...
but
I thin i will need a re-match! with another scen!

 

[CapHillRat]

Peter it looks great! Fantastic work!

 

[Rob]

Very nice indeed!!

 

[john connor]

Thanks all.

Play testing the scenario now. Difficult to balance. The Allies seem to have masses of men and tanks, but the those SS Divisions are really very powerful.

This sort of thing - from early evening (it's not even over yet....) - is fairly typical.....

 

[john connor]

Testing coming along nicely, I think.

Soviet pincer attack from the AI below! The yellow circle was Wittman's 4 Tigers.....

 

[CapHillRat]

It looks great Peter. Is this late or early on the 12th?

 

[john connor]

Thanks Chris. It's around 3pm, I think. But it pans out differently each time. It's nice, as Axis, to see all those Soviet losses, but historically (due to the very large reserves) they weren't as significant as they seem (from a win/lose perspective) so I don't give many points for racking up the burning tanks, as opposed to getting to the end of the map. I'm finding it very challenging to balance H2H, play as Axis v AI and Allies v AI all in one scenario. Might have to do 3 to accommodate the needs of the AI, if I'm to get it to give a good fight. If I balance the forces more or less historically then it becomes easy to win as either player against the AI. The AI is better at defence, I think, in very complex scenarios. I'll keep messing with it.

 

[CapHillRat]

Hi Peter, play balancing is one of the hard parts in my opinion. It takes some time to try and get right and it is different for every scenario.

 

[john connor]

I want to keep roughly to historical balances of force - and the historical result, roughly, was a draw. I'll have to do 3 versions, I think. I'm happy with the Axis v AI version now though.

 

[john connor]

Does anyone know how I upload the files to this site? I have zipped them up with 7-zip and when I direct the 'Upload a File' dialogue to their location it doesn't see them?

 

[john connor]

Oh. I see now. I think.

Here's the Axis v AI version. I will try to upload 4 zips in the next four posts.
1. There is an estab zip which contains three EF estab files by Chris (CapHillRat) Maiorana. Unzip to a location of your choice then copy the 3 files into your estab folder in the main BFTB directory.
2. There is a 'Thunder at Prokhorovka' map zip. Unzip somewhere, then copy into the Maps folder in the main BFTB directory.
3. the largest file, I think, is the map cache - the cop.cache zip. Unzip somewhere and also copy into your Maps folder in the main BFTB directory.
4. Finally the scenario zip 'Thunder at Prokhorovka Axis v AI'. Unzip and copy into your 'My scenarios' folder within the Scenarios folder of the main BFTB directory.
It should then run ok.

First the estab pack.

 

[john connor]

Now the map cache

Oh. File too big.....Thought that might happen.