Ortona
Hey Guys,
So this is my real first stab at a map. It's been in progress for a while but I haven't picked it up and looked at it in a long time.
Until now.
I seem to think this is more of a radical map. It's a port town situated on a hill with a shift from docks to urban to a tiny bit of agricultural towards the North-West of the map. One team will start in the borderline urban-agricultural area where as the other team will start near the docks.
The twist is that this city is more based on height than anything. There are lots of narrow areas you will have to climb in order to get from one section to another. Some pathways allow infantry (COUGH MINES COUGH), whilst others allow larger tanks to get through.
So far I only have a little bit done, I'm a slow mapper and with an even slower computer I do my best.
Now for the historical value:
Ortona saw action once the Italians were invaded and the country surrender. The Reich took the precaution to arm the Italian penisula with many divisions, be it infantry, armor, or airborne, anything in reach to stop the extremely rapid rate the United States and the Commonwealth were taking territory. During this time Ortona saw a lot of bombing from the allies, destroying a lot of the terrain and making the city quite a trouble to navigate. Debris littered the streets. However, the most brutal engagement was between the 1st Canadian Divisions fighting against the 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Reich, supported by the 1st Fallschirmjäger division.
Though a smaller town and easily misjudged, Ortona was of high strategic importance, as it was one of Italy's few usable deep water ports on the east coast, and was needed for docking allied ships and shorten the Eighth British Army's lines of supply which at the time stretched back to Bari and Taranto.
Because of the prolonged allied bombing, rubble and debris created good roadblocks for the defending German army, infact nearly so much that armor could not proceed through the area. There was only one main road left open for tanks to be let through, which at the arrival of the Canadians (December 20th) was heavily mined. Building to building fighting was fierce, especially with German machine guns and AT crews holed up in various areas. Eventually the Commonwealth drew victorious because of their outstanding reinforcements, but there was insurmountable losses for control over the town that it was dubbed "Little Stalingrad".
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I actually don't know what perspective to write a description for this map yet. I might have to write it from the Canadians.
I will include pictures soon but I just wanted to give you some time to read over this
I can make this 6p I suppose, it seems to be a large enough map for either type of combat.
I haven't added enough destructive detail yet but it is all coming soon. I only have a few pictures to post.
Criticism and Ideas welcomed!
EDIT:
Alright, so I made a minimap for now, hopefully I can take some screenshots soon.
Bare with my map as I doodled it on Paint for a couple of minutes and I am also partially colorblind. If something on the map doesn't make sense please speak up.
EDIT 2:
Hello! I have taken a few screenshots. I will upload them to image shack and post them on an album here (I;ll include a couple here for eye-candy). Please keep in mind my computer is on the lowest graphic settings so I am sure that gameplay looks will improve as you jack the settings up. I think it looks fairly decent. I tried to show the distinct areas where only infantry can pass.
http://imageshack.us/g/219/relic00229.jpg/
