Not sure if this blongs in Variants or General... I figure as I am going to introduce a new format and terrain might as well be in Variants.

Having played some overlord scenarios I was very intrigued by the Breakthrough format, especially the Seige of Seelow Heights scenario by Brummbar. But I find it odd that DOW has not offered a standalone blank map or double-sided map for purchase.

Realizing that I could not play this format without purchasing additional expansion products that I do not feel attracted to, I broke down and created my own maps.

In MS Visio I built a base hex overlay for Overlord, Breakthrough and a creation of mine I call Overlord Deep where the depth has been increased by three hexes. In Photoshop I then created the terrain backgrounds and imported to Visio as JPGs.

I printed out the Beach landing map in the Breakthrough format.
I used 11x17 tabloid paper and taped the sections together.
It looks really good except for a mis-printed map section.



I made the ocean section 4 hexes deep to give naval units space to maneuver.
I created a scenario out of my head and did some play testing today and found that ships on the last row need more range as they sit about 8 hexes away from the bluff area on the green.



I also created a new terrain type for the Pacific Theater.
It is a rough shoreline like that of Iwo Jima.
It will give infantry protection from armor and infantry but none from artillery or airplanes.
If playing line-of-sight house rules the rough shoreline will block LOS to that hex only.



I have posted some additional photos in my personal gallery.

On advice from a well respected M'44 supporter I've requested permission from Eric at DOW to post the full files I created on BGG. Once I get permission I will post what I have.
(I sent a PM to EricH’s BGG account so if someone has a DOW e-mail for him I would appreciate a quick PM incase he does not get to BGG frequently)

Game on….

Nice work. The map looks great. I also looked through your gallery and saw some other variants for the beach (things like the steep beach and the vegitation right up to the water). Have you printed those off or are they just ideas on the computer?

Looks fascinating

Hello Rasmussen81,

I have been a fan of your work on the DOW site for sometime.
Keep up the good work.

I only printed the Breakthrough beach, but all my maps are ready to go and no longer concepts.
If DOW permits me to post the maps I will probably clean up the ends/borders so they will at least have some color. The white ends looks too... blah

I originally set out to only make a Breakthrough winter map but found after I created it that I would also like to have the additional terrain types.

My next projects will be...

Making an additional map background for Italian/Crete campaigns. It will look like a rocky desert terrain with green shrubbery.

Possibly a mounted version of Breakthrough that will fold similar to the standard M'44 board.

I also have some ideas for additional terrain tiles that I may post after I get the artwork done.

I just need more hours in a day... ha ha

Brilliant work!!!

Thanks. It looks like you've been busy too! Nice work.



Is it very cost effective to print these maps? You must have an amazing color printer to do that job.



That's the same way I started out on my User Page! I had one or two little projects in mind...and then hundreds of hours later I was winning the User Page contest! You should post some of these pictures and ideas on your User Page.



I like these other ideas! Especially the Italy/Crete map background. I have a special facination with the Italy campaign (as you can see if you look at the scenarios I've created). I look forward to seeing more of these projects!

One of the advantages of the industry I am in.
I am an IT person by trade but work in a full production studio for an advertising company.
The floor director does not mind about personal projects as they foster creativity and additional working knowledge of the art programs. The more we (the IT folks) know about the programs the better we can support the end-user community.

I learned a lot about using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Looking online it will cost about $40 to printout a Breakthrough map on a large format printer. That price goes down drastically when ordered in bulk. Not sure how much 11x17 will cost.

Eric at DOW responded to my request and declined permission to post the files on BGG... Sorry guys...

I might write a tutorial on how I created them using Visio and Photoshop if there is an interest.

I hope DOW has development plans for M'44 as I am going broke spending money to collect additional unit types for asthetics.

Wow, this is just the sort of thing I have been wanting. I have been saying that we needed more ocean for a long time. How many more rows of ocean hexes does the map have? How cost effective is it to make this? I want one. I have always said that the invasion of Iwo Jima didn't start at the beach, it started in the ocean (ships), and above the ocean (aircraft).

I'm impressed, and wish I had the kind of software it takes to create something like this. My hats off to you.

I have created the final terrain for my custom maps.
The Italian countryside...



and coastline...



Do you think the green shrubbery works for this map or should it be removed?

I like the shrubs on the map. If you look on the winter/desert map, there are all kinds of little details like that. Create on!!

Excellent! I like the green shrubbery.
It makes me want to play Mediterranean.
Thank you for the excellent. Work too bad we can't get our hands on it...
Whatever you can give us I would like to see. Thanks again for the excellent work!
What is the size of the Memoir '44 board??

I finally had some time to come back and revisit this subject...

While I cannot post my completed custom maps I will post my blank grids. They are basically a cropped hex field with the foreground hex area deleted.

Here are my quick notes on what I have personally done.

You will need Adobe Photoshop to create backgrounds or any other customizations.

Download the desired Blank Grid
Downlaod and save

To create a Background
Open a new canvas, make it the appropriate size of the board format you are working with.
Scan one of your boards or a hex tile you want as the background.
Use the lasso tool to select a common looking region of the tile/board
Copy the selection area
Paste onto the new canvas
I continued pasting and rotating each copy until the background looked consistant and uniform.
When you get a large enough patch merge all the visible area and then copy the mass.
Repeat pasting and rotating until the whole canvas is covered.
Merge all the visible layers one last time.

You can also start with a solid color and manipulate it as desired.

Import the background Canvas to the Grid
Select and copy the entire background canvas
Open the desired Board Grid file.
Paste the copied background canvas into the Grid file.

Reorder the layers so that the background canvas is behind the grid layer.

Adjust the background as needed

Save the file under a new name.
I also found it is better to save the completed map as a PDF.

To print you will need to figure out the best method by looking at various pase setups.

Customizing Further
You can now scan and crop your game hex tiles as needed
Drag them onto the Grid with custom background rotate and merge as needed.

The possibilities are now endless for creating custom maps.


Some Notes:
Printing a 24in x 50+in document can be very costly at a print shop.
Folding a large map sucks as it creates ridges and valleys... It will not lay flat causing tiles and figures to list or move/slide easily.
It is better to roll the map.
If printing on letter size this process will eat a lot of ink.

*Files are awaiting BGG admin approval*