Presenting the "Beimbacher Reichskreis" of 1720

Click for a better view - it is a fairly big picture!

Complete with Reichkreis standard carried by the various State contingents alongside their own.  Place names have yet to be added as have roads etc but I have made a start on the position of towns and cities along with the internal boundaries.  The Prince Archbishop of Dirlewitz domain will be the land-locked territory surrounded by the other States.

Veterans will notice that the boundaries are very similar to the original B-S map albeit with some logical alterations.

Any helpful suggestions are appreciated.

Campaign Cartographer - a précis

Having tried this software for just over a week I thought it high time to write a brief review.  Sadly, this is unlikely to endear me to the folks at ProFantasy Software.

My reasons for purchasing Campaign Cartographer 3 (CC3) were twofold:  Firstly, I wanted an application that would enable me to apply a constant theme to a series of maps and deliver predictable results.  Secondly, I feel capable of producing what I want in pen and ink but the idea that one error could muff up the whole effort was daunting.  These days I am a bit ham-fisted - I blame child-related exhaustion!

Anyway, I viewed the rather good tutorial linked to ProFantasy's website and decided that if the application could render a "Pirate Island" sized 1000 x 800miles  it could certainly cope with Beimbach-Schönau.  (on a 200x200 mile background)  After playing around with the software, I can report that it is more than able to do so.  My first effort shows, in low-resolution,  the revised State boundaries.

The system works with "Sheets" and "Layers".  A new approach to me but apparently old hat to CAD diehards.  A good way of describing this to a layman would be to think of  "transparencies".  Your work is laid upon your background via a series of transparencies, each one laying upon the other with user-defined levels of opacity.   Thus some can show the details on previous sheets others block the sheets below.  

In practice this is simple to grasp, in reality things get confusing.  My confusion stemmed not from user error (well not too much!) but from the rather annoying way the software automatically adjusts sheets and layers when you choose various map building features.   For example you want (for your own peculiar reason) to add mountain graphics to your Contours layer.  The software will change the layer to what it thinks is best as soon as you click on the mountain tab.  This happens with sheets also and if you don't keep your eyes open you can get into a real mess.  

I am sure there is a setting to turn off the "thinking" process but I didn't want to dabble too deeply in the advanced user settings when making my first map.

Another problem was creating an infill up to a border.  Complicated jargon but in my case what I wanted was to show the State dissecting a given terrain feature without the terrain having to end just short of the border.   Try as I might I could not find a way to do this other than tracing the border in extreme zoom and hoping you don't slip.  This was the same annoying process that I had to use for the coastline and after many tries I was literally screaming at the PC.  Again, there is probably a command to do this but I didn't find it after days of exploration.

For the record, the software crashed when trying to open different symbol sets - disheartening as your progress is lost.  This was mitigated somewhat by the autosave but nevertheless such problems are annoying.

Finally comes the most serious, and in my case fatal, flaw.  Apparently, when your map is highly detailed  (mine is both small and simple) the ability to save your work as a large BMP, PNG or JPEG no longer works.  The file becomes too unwieldy at anything but low-res (seen above).  At this point higher-res images have to be saved in PDF format.  I had no idea this was the case when I purchased the software.  As I wanted to post various maps online and (eventually) use them in a work of fiction, it has really been something of a terminal problem.  To have to upload pdfs and then provide links to said is very clunky and not what I wanted.  Additionally I went ahead with the pdf save as an experiment and the damn process changed the properties of my map - making lines thicker and so on.   It looks not nearly as good as it does when opened in CC!  

ProFantasy suggest that this is not an error with their application but is due to the inadequacy of users' systems.  My Desktop is approaching three years old but has a fairly fast quad-core processor, decent RAM and  full gamers-standard graphics acceleration.

After much stress I think that, for me, CC3 is not worth the effort.  It is possible to create beautiful maps and once the interface is mastered, do so quickly.  However, the inability of the software to turn the lovely high-res images into high-res PC viewable graphics files is a deal-breaker.  

Your author will be taking advantage of the 14 day money back guarantee - pronto!

Steady that hand and get drawing!

Borders and Bunkum

Since my last posting I have been toying with maps - yet again.  Looking at the borders of the State as shown in my earlier posting, I was dissatisfied with the shape of the territory.  There was an uncanny similarity to Cyprus and even modern-day Austria.

Although the territory was logical and the size fine - the shape needed tweaking.  I have done this by shifting the borders South and West by approximately 50 miles.  This has had the added bonus of giving me a short stretch of (mountainous) coastline with a couple of small towns.   Thus B-S is no longer land-locked.

I have no interest in naval power but the ability to send ships out on the high seas is a boon.  Minor colonial adventures can be undertaken and trade routes generated.  Indeed the presence of Red Indian servants at Court (long planned) is no longer so hard to justify.

At present, I am trying to get to grips with Campaign Cartographer.  Mostly, I find the interface to be fairly straightforward but I am having a great deal of trouble when it comes to borders abutting borders.  The software seems to prefer generating a random margin rather than in-filling an area.  Probably something I am doing (or not doing) but frustrating nonetheless.

Map will be posted in due course and then I can finally move on to what I had planned for last week!

Cartography - a tricky matter.

Whilst waiting for the delivery of my figures from Northstar, I decided to take the plunge and map Beimbach-Schönau.  Surprisingly, I found this to be one of the trickiest things to date.

The Reichsfürstum is known to be on the very fringes of the Holy Roman Empire and to enjoy a good deal of autonomy.  Additionally, the very real menace from the savage Turk needed to be immediate and relevant to the C18. 

After much perusal of Google Maps and pouring over old documents, I decided upon a plausible location.   In short the ImagiNation is located in the area now occupied by Southern Hungary, Northern Croatia and Eastern Slovenia.   The map I have created is very much a first draft and I can see many ways to improve it.  However, it shows the main highways, fortresses, conurbations and topographical features (the latter two are grounded in reality)

Additionally the cantons, for want of a better term, are shown outlined by a broken line.  These are in the process of being numbered and named.  The system used will approximate to that of the C20 "Wehrkreis" - anachronistic but logical.

I think over the next few weeks I will have to hand-draw a full map complete with all desired information.   However, the above will suffice for the present.