Just to share a couple of resources I've come across that may help those seeking to include real world maps in their AARs. I wanted to try something different in my latest HOI3 AAR but equally wanted some help to hinge my cartography (coasts, rivers, that sort of thing), so that I didn't have to draw everything by hand.
I've come across two resources that offer slightly different things but both seem pretty nifty, and once generated the maps can be edited with any graphics package.
The first is online, from Demis, you'll want to open the Classic World Map demo. From this you can select by country, continent, or by drawing a box and can then carry on moving down to whatever level of detail you want. Once you have the view you want, save the output to your computer and you can edit as needed.
You can generate the maps blank, with rivers or with named towns (but a problem with the latter is you have no control over which come up). A trick I'm using is to run the same view twice (once with names, once without) and to copy over the towns I need manually.
The second you need to download to your computer, from MapCreator. Its similar but a few critical differences. You have a lot more control about the types of rivers and towns that come up and you can rename towns/cities (eg St Petersburg, delete this, write Leningrad and off you go). The flaw to this one seems to be that for the free edition you can't get rid of the watermarks on the map. But again you can capture the view you need at whatever level of detail you want.
As a shameless plug, I'll be using these in my new AAR, on a few trials it looks quite easy and neat, but I'll post back if I hit any big issues.
Both maps can be manipulated easily using a graphics editor once you have the view and level of detail set using the map system (I use paint net).
I've come across two resources that offer slightly different things but both seem pretty nifty, and once generated the maps can be edited with any graphics package.
The first is online, from Demis, you'll want to open the Classic World Map demo. From this you can select by country, continent, or by drawing a box and can then carry on moving down to whatever level of detail you want. Once you have the view you want, save the output to your computer and you can edit as needed.
You can generate the maps blank, with rivers or with named towns (but a problem with the latter is you have no control over which come up). A trick I'm using is to run the same view twice (once with names, once without) and to copy over the towns I need manually.
The second you need to download to your computer, from MapCreator. Its similar but a few critical differences. You have a lot more control about the types of rivers and towns that come up and you can rename towns/cities (eg St Petersburg, delete this, write Leningrad and off you go). The flaw to this one seems to be that for the free edition you can't get rid of the watermarks on the map. But again you can capture the view you need at whatever level of detail you want.
As a shameless plug, I'll be using these in my new AAR, on a few trials it looks quite easy and neat, but I'll post back if I hit any big issues.
Both maps can be manipulated easily using a graphics editor once you have the view and level of detail set using the map system (I use paint net).
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