Thinking about maps

The recent problems that I have had creating the maps for my Belle Époque project have encouraged me to look at alternative methods that I might use.

I have looked at several drawing programs including Paint 3D and Affinity Designer 2, but none of them seemed to be suitable. I also looked at Hex Kit (a desktop application for building hex maps for use with table top role playing games), Hexographer 2 (which comes in a free basic and paid for expanded versions), and Hexfriend. All of them are very suitable for drawing D&D and RPG maps, but none of them quite met my requirements.

On the advice of two regular blog readers (Mike Lewis and Mike Hall) I then looked at two drawing programs, Inkscape and Paint.net.

I then looked at the one blog where I know the creator has spent a lot of time designing maps for his ongoing Napoleonic campaigns ... Thistlebarrow's Napoleonic Wargaming blog. He recently revised his maps and explained the process on his blog. His finished maps looked like this:

Map of Europe.

Map of Germany.

Map of the Brunswick area.

Campaign map

These stylised maps are closer to the sort of end result that I am looking for, and having read his explanation of the way in which he created his maps, I am seriously thinking about following Thistlebarrow's methodology.

I also looked for inspiration on YouTube ... and discovered that just two weeks ago Henry Hyde had produced a video about the way in which he creates his maps.

It was very interesting to see Henry's methodology in operation, and it certainly gave me lots of ideas ... and reminded me that I really ought to re-read the relevant section in his book WARGAMING CAMPAIGNS.

This research has left me with plenty to think about. It has also left me feeling far more positive and my enthusiasm to re-start my map drawing project has been reinvigorated.

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Please note that photographs featured above are © Napoleonic Wargaming blog.