Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant
The only problem is that the area you describe didn't see that much aerial action - either tactical or strategic.
In 1939, both sides flew occasional patrols along the French-German border, but there wasn't that much action. There's a good reason why the period on the Western Front from September 1939 to May 1940 gets called "The Phoney War."
The Colmar Pocket (in the Vosges Mountains, just west of the Rhine) was a scene of intense action during 1944-45, but due to the weather, tactical air ops were limited. Same for the capture of the Saarland in 1945.
A potentially more useful map would be one that follows the Belgian-French border from approximately Saarbrucken to Lille and Nancy to Amiens. (Or, perhaps 2-3 maps, depending on actual population density.) Ignoring its potential to be modded as a WW I map, this area saw a plenty of action both in 1940 and in 1944-45.
In 1940, the map covers both the Sedan bridgehead, and the middle phases of Fall Gelbe. In 1944-45, it covers Western Allied Tac Air Ops during the Lorraine campaign and the liberation of Northern France.
This map also more or less follows a line from southeast England to southern Bavaria, which literally makes it "flyover country" for USAAF or RAF strategic bombing raids aimed at Augsburg, Munich, Regensburg or Stuttgart.
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That's why I said I wanted a GENERIC Northwest Europe map a bit bigger than the one already present in the stock game. And that it COULD be used for Phony War missions or Campaigns, not that it had to. A generic map like that can stand in for any number of areas for any number of types of missions and campaings, historical or fictional. The key bit here is generic and a bit bigger! That's what I'm after since the already present one is so tiny.
And besides a Phoney War Campaign in the area Lorraine-Alsace and into the Eastern side of the Franco-German border would be a perfect campaing from a training point of view. Relative little action and enemy encounters that then finally escalates into the Batte of France is perfect for that. The inexperienced pilot will get time to learn before he gets to the real action.