Making a map is a fun process. It is akin to researching a historical subject for the first time and travel different paths using different lenses to read more or less into the general picture or the more intricate details.
The entire idea behind William Silvester’s the Solo Wargaming Guide is simple and the essence of all wargames. A blue power and a red power fighting a war so the very basic would be to have two places divided by a frontier and invasions happening.
Given I wanted to focus on ancient warfare so as to use the new Dawn of Battle wargame system I drank inspiration from the Roman Republic civil wars, mainly Caesar and Pompey, a very classic reds and blues respectively.
With that in mind and having the pattern I created previously ( read here ) I started adding the elements, the best I could with the naught drawing skills I possess, and it came to be that mountains, rivers, swamps, cities, forests and woods gained life. Cities were given names, some landmarks like rivers, mountain ranges still miss names but I will discover their names as the story progresses.
Naming things and making sense of them
Using a mix of everything, known latin places around my country, latin poor grammar, and also shamelessly borrowing from youtube channels I get inspiration from, and bastardising their names, I came up with a collection of fine names for cities and some of the landscape notables.
The entire map is part of a bigger map of course and the area we see is based on a peninsula named Caligo.
note: North is directly to the left of the image.
Caligo is home to the Vella Rem Respublica, a fairly small but ambitious “city state”. Three regions are under the direct influence of the Senate. Caerula to the North, with Ipses in the middle of Caligo and the South being Rubri Mons.
Rubri Mons is a lush and fertile land, home of horses and stone masons. It boasts few settlements but big cities.
Tergeste being the administrative capital of the region but the bigger city being Zama Cellae. Canae is the commercial hub of the region with Turicum and Arabona being the more labour intensive and focused on agriculture and herds in a grand scale.
Caerula, being up north, boasts large resources of mining and forestry and due to the broken lay of the land it has many more settlements when compared to the southern sister.
Vella Locus is the biggest city and the true administrative and financial seat of the region. Hasta being the second largest city and the center of all trade by land with the rest of the peninsula. Palus Portus, being the only harbour in the region of note can carry ocean going vessels but isn’t bigger than a hamlet although it is very important due to its direct connection to Ipses with vessels sailing regularly to and from Portus Sanctus.
Mons Bellona and Cris Ridelis are both the gateways to the east and west across the Ardlupus Fluvius, the majestic river that cust through Caerula from the mountains in the East and flows into Mare Pancaldis in the West near Palus Portus.
All other settlements are majorly focused on mining or forestry with agriculture and husbandry being at survival levels rather than big estate ownership.
Vetera is a fair big town, Dierna, Aricia, Arbeia and Mauricius Mesam along with Acri Oppidum closing the list.
In the center of the peninsula lies Ipses, a free region under control of the Magisters of the Senate. Ipses Briga being the home of the Senate headed by the Respublica Dictator and until recently the seat of the Triarch represented by the Blues, the Reds and another force which has been defeated even before the war began.
wargamer.coffee.break 