The Crusades

[Guiscard]

OK guys... As I've put my Roman map on hold to see what Qwert comes up with (and it's looking OK so far, so good work Qwert) I've been playing around with another idea, one very close to my heart (as I'm a historian of the period) and one I'd like to do really well. I present to you... The Crusades!



Borders in the area at the time were in no way marked out, unless they corresponded with a river, and so they territory demarcation is fairly arbitrary. There is certainly room for splitting territories / merging them and the eastern Muslim lands (darker green) haven't been split yet because there generally wasn't much there. The river Jordan (in the centre of the map) should be impassable, and at some point I'll make that more obvious. There is scope for more impassables in the North, and the sea connections to and dfrom Cyprus also need to be defined.

So... First impressions?

[benny profane]

this already looks incredible! i love it.
i'm curious to see how you're going to further break up territories.
what are you aiming for, 42?
obviously Damascus should be broken up.
you could probably find a better font too.
but, it looks great so far.

[InkL0sed]

Yeah, I love the look. Is there gonna be some kind of special gameplay to this?

[Guiscard]

Yeah, I love the look. Is there gonna be some kind of special gameplay to this?

I dunno really... I was considering some form of bonus for Jerusalem, but I personally like my Risk games to just be Risk, not Age of Empires or whatever... So no, nothing out of the ordinary.

And yes, Damascus will be a territory in that continent, and I might add however many more is needed. It's just not got any political boundaries during the period due to being mainly desert, so I thought I'd see if we can assess game play a little before I randomly split it.

[FreeMan10]

Wow! Phenomenal 1st effort! This looks like it's been through many rounds of revisions already.

I'm gonna respectfully disagree with benny - I think the font is perfect. I'm usually not one for the flowery script like that, but I can actually read this, and it feels very period correct. My comment on the text would be to make the descriptive text to the left a little less washed out. I know it's supposed to be hard to read because it's an old map, but I think it's just a little too hard to read.

Since there's not much historical evidence or precedence for borders, I'd say just make 'em play good!

One thought for graphics. This one may make your skin crawl as a historian of the period, but I'm willing to take the RiskTM! If you could work in a Monty Pythonesque coconut or European Swallow, I think that would be awesome! I know, I know, King Arthur (particularly in the movie) never went on a crusade, but I believe several of his k-nig-its sure did! Maybe pull several images based (due to copyright issues) on the movie, and put them in very lightly as background images - just enough to provide humor for those in the know.

Just a thought, and no offense taken in the least if you have no desire to throw a bit of humor in. It's a random thought that occurred on a boring Friday at the office...

Keep up the great work, I'm very interested to see how this turns out!

[Guiscard]

Just a thought, and no offense taken in the least if you have no desire to throw a bit of humor in. It's a random thought that occurred on a boring Friday at the office...

None taken, but none will be thrown in.

Thanks for the support.

[InkL0sed]

Oh yeah, I also agree with FreeMan about the font.

I also wanna say that I've seen many an old map (my dad is in the rare books business), and this is a brilliant imitation.

Maybe you should think about a forgery or two.

[benny profane]

I'm gonna respectfully disagree with benny

just kidding.

well, if you find yourself thinking that maybe you'd like to see other fonts, this is a great site:
http://www.creamundo.com/index.php?lang=en&letra=m

you should check out Mediaeval Caps TTF, Medici Text TTF, Medieval Victoriana No.1 TTF.

just suggestions...

[Kaplowitz]

I think there should be like double continents. Continents based on land and others based on religion. That could make it interesting.

[Guiscard]

I think there should be like double continents. Continents based on land and others based on religion. That could make it interesting.

Could you expand upon that a little?

[bryguy]

like territories could be part of 2 continents at once, kinda like conqueropoly

[Qwert]

I can give you only a simple sugestion,can you start first in small image.
Dont worry i dont have any attempt to research for these historic period, people hate when i search something and try to give hem relevant informacions(Caspian sea,Lone,Prophet ROMAN EMPIRE,ofcourse yours Roman Empire).
Thanks for good word for mine Roman Empire

[Guiscard]

I can give you only a simple sugestion,can you start first in small image.
Dont worry i dont have any attempt to research for these historic period, people hate when i search something and try to give hem relevant informacions(Caspian sea,Lone,Prophet ROMAN EMPIRE,ofcourse yours Roman Empire).
Thanks for good word for mine Roman Empire

You're welcome to research it, Qwert. I'm currently researching my PhD in Medieval History, and my focus is the crusades. Its a wonderful topic. There certainly are major historical errors in the map (Armenia, for one) but it would be impossible to create a playable continent arrangement without some poetic license.

As for the tip, I'm doing the small one at the same time. Just haven't posted it.

[bellaraphon]

I'm not too clear on the history of the crusades, but I think there was reinforcements from the west-Britain, France, Spain (I could be wrong.) So maybe you could put an auto-deploy somewhere in the North-West or somewhere that is more historically accurate. To even it up, you should do it for the South-East as well though. I dunno, I could be talking jiberish

[Refugee77]

im really loving the idea, considering im a big fan of the middle ages. one question, could there be some more territories. not judgin or anything, but it seems kinda small

[Guiscard]

im really loving the idea, considering im a big fan of the middle ages. one question, could there be some more territories. not judgin or anything, but it seems kinda small

There certainly could, yes, but we'd have trouble fitting them in, I think... Territroy lines weren't exactly legally drawn up in such a fashion, so everything is fairly fluid other than the fief lists from the Kingdom of Jerusalm (and even then, actual borders are not really in existence).

As for the other idea about re-enforcements... well, that's what continent bonuses are for. I was planning on possibly setting the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Principality of Antioch (i.e. the Crusader States) as a a fair bit higher, to represent the inlfuc of crusades from the west, but then I'd need to compensate the other continents somehow... Either way, the red continent should be the key - the centre and the highest bonus for possession.

[hulmey]

what era is your map representing Mr Guiscard?

[Kaplowitz]

I think there should be like double continents. Continents based on land and others based on religion. That could make it interesting.

Could you expand upon that a little?

2 sets of continents that overlap eachother

[Guiscard]

I think there should be like double continents. Continents based on land and others based on religion. That could make it interesting.

Could you expand upon that a little?

2 sets of continents that overlap eachother

Yes but where? The current lines are pretty much religious and political.

[Guiscard]

what era is your map representing Mr Guiscard?

To help playability, I've had to make a few compromises (edessa is one inaccuracy) but you could place it as directly after the Second Crusade fairly comfortably.

[sam_levi_11]

split cyprus into two maybe, north and south, then have tripoli have a sea route to the north and acre and beirut a sea route to the south.

acre and beirut because they were huge citys in the crusades. also damascus could be made its own continent and split up into say, 5 big teritorys.

[shadowsteel9]

hi, i'm glad someone is creating this map, here is an indea that i was going to try to implement when i created it but since you're so far ahead i figure I'll offer it to you.
The bonus areas would be the land controled by waring groups, and those groups would be the Christian Europe, Muslims, pagan Slavs, Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, and possibly, political enemies of the popes. There would also be bonuses for controlling the holy land, and for controlling 3 major religious cities.

[Guiscard]

split cyprus into two maybe, north and south, then have tripoli have a sea route to the north and acre and beirut a sea route to the south.

acre and beirut because they were huge citys in the crusades. also damascus could be made its own continent and split up into say, 5 big teritorys.

Noted... Damascus will be a smaller territ. that area has to be split still (I'm still researching possible territory names, not many real political borders in the area).

[hulmey]

nice map...love the style

[cairnswk]

Guiscard...love the style and colours....my history is not good on this period so i will leave it to others to decide that, but power on with these graphics..it's looking very promising already.