# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Board Game Mapping >  Geneva: Europe's Wars of Religion

## Micah Doulos

*Geneva: Europe's Wars of Religion*

*The year is 1517*; Martin Luther, a Catholic professor of Theology at Wittenberg College, nails his list of 95 theses to the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Saxony. The list, among his other writings, would ultimately cause the college professor to be excommunicated by the Pope and condemned as one of the greatest heretics to ever ascend from the depths of hell. The _Lutheran Church_ would eventually spread throughout most of modern Germany, central Europe, and the Nordic countries.

*The year is 1522*; Ulrich Zwingli, a Catholic pastor receiving a pension for preaching at the Grossmünster church in Zurich, Switzerland, engages in his first public controversy for openly pushing for reforms in the Catholic church. Zwingli also condemned the purchase of his renowned Swiss kinsmen as mercenaries in war. Zwingli would die in combat, but his legacy would last as laying the foundation for reform in Switzerland. The Reformed Church would eventually spread from Switzerland, into France, the Netherlands, and even up to Scotland.

*The year is 1534*; Henry VIII, King of England, disagreeing with the Pope over the legitimacy of his divorce to Catherine of Aragon, separates England from the Catholic church and declares himself head of the _Church of England_. The Nobility of England would engage in fierce feuds regarding which religious faction England would be loyal to, Protestantism or Catholicism.
---

The 16th century, a century of fierce religious conflict. Catholic armies vs. Protestant. Family against family. Nation against nation. Nations against themselves. This was the time period of the Protestant Reformation. This was the time period of Europe's religious civil wars. Take control of one of three of the Protestant churches; Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican. Spread the influence of protestantism throughout all of Europe, and raise armies to defend the church against Papal forces.
---

Hi guys, 

I've figured I'd let everyone follow along with my board game project. I posted in the Regional/World Mapping section of the forum (without as much detail), but I feel this is the best place for this thread, so I will be updating here (only here). In these first two posts will be two photos. The first will be one that I will change with each formal update. This will make finding the most recent work as simple as looking at the first page of the thread. The second photo will be the look of the map I currently have (today, March 9th, 2014). I'm not that skilled of a map maker, so I can't promise anything amazing, but I would love for you to follow this work and give me your feedback. 

Thanks for following!
Micah
---

*Current Progress:*

Update 1 (Visible on Page 1)

----------


## Micah Doulos

*Original*

Hi guys. Here is the base of the map I am making. Textures are subject to change. I planned on having mountains on it already, but after a week of trying to come up with mountains I like, I still haven't come up with something. So I will probably switch to textures for the next update. Let me know what you think.  :Smile:

----------


## madcowchef

Seems clear and well defined with no artifacts on the edges.  What style of mountains have you tried?

----------


## Micah Doulos

Thanks. What do you mean that there are no "artifacts on the edges"? Did you mean that to be a compliment?

Here are the last 3 mountain styles I made.


I spent a great deal of time on number one. Just to realize that while the mountains may be great on a small scale map at full size (400x400), they're too big to work well on a map of this scale. I had to make the mountains smaller here (125x125), and the level of detail worked against me, causing the things to become extremely pixelated. I also regret doing it all in greyscale, because that made it more difficult to undo the pixel problem. Added to the difficulty is my use of the paintbrush instead of the pencil. The paint brush painted in different shades of color, where as I learned the pencil stays at the same color value. I want mountains that are very boardgame'esque'. I don't think highly detailed mountains like number 1 fit. I don't like the other two either. I'll probably try painting directly onto the map next time, instead of making animated brushes. What do you think?

Also, on number 3. I can't figure out why a white line appears on the left side of the mountains. Everything is transparent in the layers. I doubled and tripled checked. Brown color, then a black line, then transparency. Yet when I paint with the animated brush, these strange white outlines appear. Ever seen anything like that?

----------


## madcowchef

Its a good thing, it means its clean with no irregularities.  I don't think the hand drawn fantasy style mountains are a good match here.  I'd look at old an old atlas or for other more classic directly overhead views. I'll try to find some links later perhaps.  What programs are you using?

----------


## Micah Doulos

Thank you then, for the compliment.  :Smile:  I'll do some searches for overhead views. I had not planned on going with a 2D top down view. I'd love some links if you can find them. I'm using GIMP.

----------


## timallen

Can we have a few more details on the game itself?  Is this to be a board-wargame, or what?  Area movement or point-to-point?  What other parts to the game will there be (counters, cards, etc.)?  Whats the objective and how do you win?

----------


## madcowchef

Here's the style that comes to mind first:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...-maps-prov.jpg

Here's the thread you'll find that image in
http://www.cartographersguild.com/re...ic-maps-4.html

Though for your purposes the level of detail need not be nearly so high.

----------


## Micah Doulos

> Can we have a few more details on the game itself?  Is this to be a board-wargame, or what?  Area movement or point-to-point?  What other parts to the game will there be (counters, cards, etc.)?  Whats the objective and how do you win?


Hi timallen, thanks for commenting! I'll give you a few more details. It is to be a war game, with a primary interest in emphasizing the religious conflict going on. The map is divided into different nation states, France, Switzerland, Saxony, etc. It's also divided in cities and towns. Movement is point to point, city to city, town to town. Each player starts with a home city, Lutheran would be Wittenberg for example. You have a "church" in that city which gives you reform points, and a missionary piece you can move to a new town. You'll rely on your missionary at first to establish churches in neighboring towns, once you have 3 or 4 churches in 3 or 4 towns, you'll have enough RP generating every turn that your able to establish churches without a missionary. Armies come later with additional RP and the upgrading of your churches. The player will draw cards as well. Don't want to give to me details out to the public!  :Razz: 




> Here's the style that comes to mind first:
> http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...-maps-prov.jpg
> 
> Here's the thread you'll find that image in
> http://www.cartographersguild.com/re...ic-maps-4.html
> 
> Though for your purposes the level of detail need not be nearly so high.


Thanks for the link madcowchef. I've seen this style before and never really thought it would be a good fit for what I'm attempting. It reminds me of this map A Mighty Fortress | Image | BoardGameGeek . I want my game to be instructional on not just history, but geography as well. I don't think this style has a focus on clearly visible geography. With that thought, I'd like for mountains, lakes, and major rivers to be easily visible on the board. I have kind of settled on a style now. I'm currently "painting" the map through use of transparent brushes. I should have an update tomorrow.  :Smile:

----------


## Micah Doulos

*Update 1* (March 12th)


Check out the paint work I've been doing. I've never done this before, painting with transparent strokes, so this a first time. I'm not very fond of the color scheme. I'm hoping there are easy ways to manipulate the colors and cause cool effects after the work is done. I'm not done yet. Some places have received more details than others. I'll probably continue to add detail as I go on. Any feedback? Advice?

----------


## timallen

Whoa...that sea is waay to dark.  The land colours are fine, but I think a much lightened up sea would do wonders for the map.  Something like this-

----------


## Micah Doulos

Oh cool. How did you cause the variance in the light green coast line? Did you do that by hand?

----------


## timallen

That's just a by-product of using the "colour replacement tool" in photoshop.  I set it to "find edges" and Most of the time it only added the new colour to the sea areas, but you can see occasionally it slipped over onto the land and added a bit of colour there too.  Its a complete fluke that it happens to look good that way!  :Smile: 

BTW, did you know GMT already has a point-to-point, card-driven board wargame on this same topic?  Its called "Here I Stand" and its gotten some pretty good reviews.  I havent played it myself.  I gave the GMT map a quick look and it seems like it covers more of Europe.  Your's sounds like it will be much simpler.

----------


## Micah Doulos

> BTW, did you know GMT already has a point-to-point, card-driven board wargame on this same topic?  Its called "Here I Stand" and its gotten some pretty good reviews.  I havent played it myself.  I gave the GMT map a quick look and it seems like it covers more of Europe.  Your's sounds like it will be much simpler.


Yup. I was aware that Here I Stand existed.  :Smile:  When the idea for my game first came to me, I did my research on the web to make sure I wasn't replicating something that already existed. The two games I found was Here I Stand and A Mighty Fortress. I haven't played either, but yes, they both seem very complex. My thought was to make something much simpler. I feel like these 2 games both cater to the extremely devoted historian or board game player. I want something that is good, but kind of "dumbed down",  :Razz:  lol

----------


## Nathan

I might have miss a thing but wouldn't it be better to use the 16th century international borders ?

----------

