UPDATED: Gallocelt has updated his map in light of input from readers here and on other forums. These changes are minor but bring the map into compliance with known facts. The map presented below is the current version.
I have had the pleasure of communicating with a fine fellow via The Miniatures Page over the past few years. We share an interest in the Thirty Years War and wargames campaigns. Over the past several months he has been laboring away on a period-appropriate map of Germany from the Denmark clear the way south to Austria and Switzerland. This is a work of the heart, it is truly beautiful, reflecting the terrain, roads and cities of the period in exquisite detail.
It is the sort of map that I wish history books would include; accurate, full-color and bursting with information. A quick perusal of it an one begins to understand why battles occurred in the sane area year after year, the terrain and road-nets force armies to move along certain predictable paths. The map is overlaid with a hex pattern to make matters simpler for gamers wishing to march their imaginary armies across.
In an act of stunning generosity Gallocelt has decided to offer this labor of love to his fellow gamers free of charge. All you have to do is click on the picture below and then download the map. I am not certain of the level of compression that Blogger uses so some detail may be lost. To remedy this, and to answer any questions that may arise in connection to this map Gallocelt has offered his email address and is happy to respond to queries. He may be contacted at gallocelt@yahoo.com.
Now if we could only prevail upon him to continue this magnificent effort and expand the map to encompass the rest of Europe :)
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Hi thanks for the map. Very interesting, but in such a great labour, the sneaks some errors in. Denmarks border with Germany is in this period, and until 1864, is the town Altona, which is now part of Hamburg, and of course there is a road from jutland to hamburg, which is called the Hærvej (armyroad) og oxenweg (cows road.). But that is of course minor points, and thank for the very nice map.
ReplyDeleteMads Kofoed
Sir, you bring up an important point. Having acted on your information and done some research, I believe if I were to revise the map, I should not include a border with Denmark, as that area seems to be in flux in the 16th century. I did not include a border with France for that very reason. Now the roads you mentioned are another matter. I would certainly be willing to add major roads in the area of Hamburg, but I was unable to find any on the 17th century
Deletemaps I used as reference. Please let me know if you are aware of period maps of this region because I am interested in representing major roads, especially the one you mentioned, the "army road".
That is pretty impressive and nice that he shared it.
ReplyDeleteI've stopped going to TMP of late. There's just less and less there of actual interest to me and the old site is extremely clunky. But I always had good interactions with the people there. 😁
I also posted it on Lead Adventure Forum, if there are any other likely locations I would be happy to link those in as well. An effort of this magnitude deserves recognition.
DeleteThanks to you for posting this and thanks to Gallocelt for the tremendous amount of effort he's put into it.
ReplyDeleteCheers
It is good to hear that you are enjoying the map. I learned a lot while making it. I plan to reread some chapters about the campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus and use my map to follow along.
DeleteCheers!
Gallo
Excellent looking map, really good resource!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks! Be on the lookout for the updated version soon to be realeased.
DeleteCheers!
Gallo
There will be an update to the 17th century German campaign map coming very soon. As usual, if you download the new version it would be best to delete the older one to avoid confusion. Anton has kindly offered to upload the new map to his previous post. Thanks to all for your interest and support.
ReplyDelete