Attention Mapmakers: Soviet villages

Srynerson

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Maybe I am missing something but it is not like the terrain the various armies ran across was designed with ASL in mind. Isn't the idea to use what is there to the best of one's abilities?
That's one of my pet peeves when reading a lot of complaints about new board designs -- armies generally have to deal with the terrain they encounter "as is," they don't get to complain that trees are blocking what would be a great LOS or that the configuration of the buildings precludes VBM.
 

bprobst

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B.1 says you can put your grain or brush wherever looks best.
Wow. Your B.1 must be worded very differently to mine. Mine gives guidance on how to interpret existing board artwork so as to avoid confusion. It says nothing about creating new board artwork that might cause confusion, which most rational folks would conclude would be a poor idea and should be avoided (especially when it's really, really easy to do so).
 

Proff3RTR

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And ...? Nobody was talking about "unavoidable" marsh, and no examples of such have been provided.
And here we go again with the typical Gamesquad ASL 'correctness/anal retentive' approach to life, I give up with this place, I truly do.
 

zgrose

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Wow. Your B.1 must be worded very differently to mine.
You're just being obstinate.

For aesthetic purposes, terrain symbology may extend marginally out of a hex into an adjacent hex of another type, but most hexes are dominated by one specific terrain type...
 

Proff3RTR

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Here's a a draft village with more steppe-like terrain and hedges as fence "design for effect"

I like that, but how about replacing the hills with Slope or even hillock terrain? I think BFP's CoS maps did a good job in replicating 'Open' (Ukrainian/Russian) Steppe on some of the maps.
 

footsteps

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Here's a a draft village with more steppe-like terrain and hedges as fence "design for effect"
The Valley hexsides should be Valley coloured. Apart from that, I like the looks of what you've got there.
 

RobZagnut

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I agree. Not to be nitpicky but building a bridge is not an easy undertaking, so seeing one placed in an avoidable location seems unrealistic. I otherwise really like the map. :)
I think of it as the bridge was placed there as a necessary crossing and the marsh slowly dried up or was drained over time.

If anything the marsh should be extended one or two hexes on each side to make it more restrictive for AFVs/infantry and to force them to come across that bridge.
 
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RobZagnut

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I'm not a fan of how one can't lay a firelane down the road. Unless there is some special EXC that I'm not aware of for the narrow roads.
Why?

If I'm defending that town I'm digging Foxholes in the grainfields like it's nobodies business. Because that's where the action's at... keeping the attacker out of town, because once he gets in it turns into a CC brawl.
 

RobZagnut

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One wonders who in their right mind would build a bridge over some marsh when beating a road around the marsh would take considerably less effort. Erecting that bridge would have taken more effort than building both hamlets combined.

Otherwise seems logical enough, but as stated above, I don't believe all those hedges should be there. The wooden fences between each plot are not worthy of being depicted on the map, for the most part.

That little quarry in O2 needs a little pond beside it -- maybe just a hexside pond across N1/O2.
I like the hedges between the grain hexes. It's new, cuts down the LOS, it's unique and 'snappy'.

I agree that there should be a pond or at least another crag in N1 to show why there's a cliff (falling rocks) along that hex side.
 

RobZagnut

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what's wrong with using barb wire fence rules from the various official HASLs it appears in to denote the fence effects and thens using the artwork that already is used on official HASL maps?
Just say no to barb wire. Too much pain for too little gain.

And those wooden fences in the first pictures will block LOS and restrict movement much more than barb wire.
 

zgrose

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Why?

If I'm defending that town I'm digging Foxholes in the grainfields like it's nobodies business. Because that's where the action's at... keeping the attacker out of town, because once he gets in it turns into a CC brawl.
Why? Because I look at the pictures in the original post and they seem pretty straight. So straight that nothing seems to interfere with LOS down them. To design for that effect, the road should run down a hexgrain. The lack of cover also means crossing the street would perilous. Far more perilous than a Snap Shot. To design for that effect, the roads should be in their own hex.

That's why.
 

klasmalmstrom

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The Valley hexsides should be Valley coloured. Apart from that, I like the looks of what you've got there.
Yes, the Crest Lines into the valley should be in the Level 0 hexes - not the in the Level -1 hexes.
 

xenovin

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I like that, but how about replacing the hills with Slope or even hillock terrain? I think BFP's CoS maps did a good job in replicating 'Open' (Ukrainian/Russian) Steppe on some of the maps.
My take on the terrain, Marks photos, and east front memoirs is that when down in the saddle troops were unable to see over the next rise. Thus level 1 hills seems to best represent the situation over slopes and hillocks (plus my graphic for hillocks sucks!). if this was a fort board, I would mix in all three but I feel this best represents the "feel" for what you can do with a geo-board. Point taken about the valley hexsides.
 
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