Battle of the Bulge Terrain [maybe]

[Wrench 9,847]

freeking awesome stuff Geezer! 

[KJakker 901]

If you need help doing online searches for photos I would be happy to help.

[+Geezer 3,569]

If you need help doing online searches for photos I would be happy to help.

 

I might take you up on that.  Stephen1918 and I have begun a series of Spanish Civil War aircraft and ground objects.  There is still much research to do for artillery, AA guns, etc.

[+Sundowner 4,818]

Might be something useful here.....

http://histomil.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=a00786a56034434d30389b13a3c96ee5

 

Or for any other era too.

[+Geezer 3,569]

Might be something useful here.....

http://histomil.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=a00786a56034434d30389b13a3c96ee5

 

Or for any other era too.

 

I checked out the site, and its going to be very helpful.  Thanks!

[KJakker 901]

Here are photos of Noville, Belgium...

 

 

Manhay, Belgium...

 

 

Stolzembourg, Luxembourg...

 

 

Edit:

 

St. Vith, Belgium...

 

 

Edit2:

 

Losheimergraben, Belgium.

 

 

Edit3:

 

Bastogne, Belgium.

 

 

I should have more for you tomorrow. 

Edited March 13, 2017 by KJakker

[KJakker 901]

Clerf, Belgium

 

 

Esch-sur-Sure, Belgium

 

 

Heiderscheidgrund Bridge Belgium

 

 

Ouren, Belgium

 

 

 

Clervaux, Luxembourg

 

 

Wiltz, Luxembourg

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by KJakker

[+baffmeister 1,205]

I've actually seen all those town photos but unfortunately, the stock TW Euro terrain doesn't have enough terrain details to make very convincing town sites possible. None of the rivers that were involved in the Battle of the Bulge are modeled, the area covered in forest is far less than in real life, the stock height contours don't seem very accurate, and the towns have to be built on whatever tiles happen to be in the area. Also, some of the towns that have actual period photos I haven't even included in the terrain because I have to simplify things quite a bit for a campaign. Best I can do is replicate some town shapes and sizes to a certain extent. The locations aren't very realistic either, with locations being very relativistic and some further apart than real life, done to hopefully avoid some potential campaign issues. A new terrain would have been nice but would have taken years instead of months to complete.

 

However, I have been keeping a close eye on the Europe-Total War terrain as a possible candidate for a Battle of the Bulge re-work at some point. From the map screens, it looks like it may have at least some of the rivers included, as well as winter tiles and better height mapping. Time will tell!

[+whiteknight06604 934]

I've actually seen all those town photos but unfortunately, the stock TW Euro terrain doesn't have enough terrain details to make very convincing town sites possible. None of the rivers that were involved in the Battle of the Bulge are modeled, the area covered in forest is far less than in real life, the stock height contours don't seem very accurate, and the towns have to be built on whatever tiles happen to be in the area. Also, some of the towns that have actual period photos I haven't even included in the terrain because I have to simplify things quite a bit for a campaign. Best I can do is replicate some town shapes and sizes to a certain extent. The locations aren't very realistic either, with locations being very relativistic and some further apart than real life, done to hopefully avoid some potential campaign issues. A new terrain would have been nice but would have taken years instead of months to complete.

 

However, I have been keeping a close eye on the Europe-Total War terrain as a possible candidate for a Battle of the Bulge re-work at some point. From the map screens, it looks like it may have at least some of the rivers included, as well as winter tiles and better height mapping. Time will tell!

one can only do their best with the tools they have available. I'm sure in the end it will be glorious if not an exact replica. thank you for the work you are putting into this and the research and details you are putting into the terrain given the games limitations.

[+baffmeister 1,205]

Vianden, in Luxembourg, is on a river and doesn't actually look like this but there is a quite large castle nearby so I get to use one of ThirdWires better looking objects.

 

 

Getting more German AAA in place with some 88mm and 20mm quads visible. Also a half track with a single 20mm and another half track with just a single machine gun.

The large Wingwiner building to the left of the church I usually use as a hotel but in this case, it's a local HQ building. [and a target.]

 

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Working the Panzer4 now.  When complete, that will be a wrap for Bulge stuff.

 

 

[+baffmeister 1,205]

Back to Bastonge. With the object count at 200 and more vehicle objects desired this is probably as good as it gets.

 

 

Some towns are more or less impossible to model and they get the impressionistic approach. Echternach is on the Sauer river and has a big four steeple church with another twin steeple church nearby as well as some old monastery buildings and some old city walls. Without the Sauer river it's a bit pointless to spend a lot of time on the town so I just threw a bunch of objects together and moved along.

 

 

 

[+Stary 2,427]

WOW

[+baffmeister 1,205]

Things are taking longer than expected. After getting the front line towns more or less finished I've started adding some towns behind the front line along the various attack routes. There are a lot of them! Here is the town of Houffalize, on the road between Bastonge and Liege.

 

 

 

[+baffmeister 1,205]

An "artistic representation" of Clervaux, Luxembourg. It's also known as Clerf, in German, I think.

 

 

KJakker posted a photo of this town so you can see what I mean by "artistic representation."

 

On the hill behind the town there is a walled Abby. Off to the left towards the horizon is the town of Trois Vierges.

[Peugeot205 2,745]

WOW!!!!!!!  I didn't realize that this masterpiece existed till now!!! What a masterpiece baffmeister!!!! I would really appreciate (and also the community I guess)  if you could share with us some of this magnificent villages. They may be extremely usefull for some terrains.

Edited April 29, 2017 by FRPignon

[+baffmeister 1,205]

Geezer has made some great looking building objects for this terrain and they will be made available to others once the terrain is released. I'm still doing some work on them regarding damage modeling and matching them to various destroyed lods but once I get things sorted out I will upload a package. Many of Geezers vehicles I'm using as eye candy or static targets only but some will be motorized eventually so will upload those as well.

[+baffmeister 1,205]

This project is in a summer slow down [better things to do ] but will try to get a beta version released some time this summer. The final version with a campaign will be a project for this winter.

 

I was wondering what kind of targets to place in some of the larger cities surrounding the Ardennes region and decided to keep the focus very narrow and concentrate the action in the actual Battle of the Bulge area. The exceptions will be allied airfields and a couple of German airfields in the south east. Some of the German cities such as Bitburg that were close to the action will get target objects as well. Other large cities that may be overflown on route to target areas will get some of the larger building objects, some destroyed building lods, and AAA defenses but no target objects.  I don't plan on doing a lot of work on the larger cities but here are a couple of examples.

 

Bitburg, with some warehouses, communication buildings and HQ buildings.

 

 

Liege, with various building objects and AAA defenses but no target objects.

 

 

The cities modeled in the TW GermanyCE terrain are probably about 50% too large for WW2 use so I'm just adding the objects to the middle of the cities and moving along.