Mapping Napoleonic Europe

My campaign maps have undergone pretty major changes since the first hand drawn one I used when the campaign started in November 2009.

I had searched for a suitable commercial map to cover the area of Germany and Spain, but could find nothing suitable. All showed the modern road system, and this was not suitable for the Napoleonic period. Worse none showed sufficient terrain to be suitable for wargaming.

Right from the start I wanted a map which I could convert to my wargames table. It soon became obvious that I would have to make my own. My wargames table is created by using 2x2 foot scenic squares, and my map would have to reflect this.

So I decided on two maps. One would be for strategic movement, and would be similar to a conventional map. The second would be tactical and would consist of a series of squares each representing one of my scenic squares.

The hand drawn maps gave good service until I heard about Malcolm’s excellent wargames maps made with ProFantasy computerized map making. He has made his maps available for general use, and I would love to have been able to use them. But unfortunately I could not see a way to convert them to my table top.

I contacted him and he gave me much good advice and encouragement to get ProFantasy and try to make my own maps.

You can follow the progress of my map making by clicking on Label 05 on the right

Over the past two years my map making has developed and improved. But I now want to make a new set of maps which will be designed for use with the PBEM campaign and be more Blogger friendly.

I also want to try to make them more historical.

I have been working on this project since Christmas, and it is still far from finished. And as it is taking up so much of my time I have decided to post regular updates on the blog.