What about to make a bit improved design of DH map with some fixed mistakes?

[Nick3210]

Will develop later editing the postView attachment 1273421

It has always been somewhat frustrating to me that there are no strictly Pyrenean mountain provinces on the map where it would be possible to honestly set 'mountainous terrain' rather than 'compromise' 'hills'. If there were options to make some (may be 1-2) true-mountainous provinces of the Pyrenees mountains, it would be good.

 

[Nick3210]

I try. At the moment I'm working on Poland but I dont get to a result I like...

Yes, I think it would be logical if after USSR will be fixed, we will smoothly move on to the partition of Poland so it's worth working on this first.

 

[Lord Rommel]

[Maps deleted]

Changes:

SPAIN:
New: Sabinanigo added for a Pyrenean flank and to adjust the provinces further south.
New: El Pont de Suert added; the partisan region that was captured by anti-franco forces in 1944. Added to adjust Lleida further south.
Adjusted: Huesca changed to a hill and cutted down in size.
Adjusted: Lleida was changed to a hill terrain type and cut down.

FRANCE:
NEW: Bayonne added.
Adjusted: Old Agen renamed into Auch.
Adjusted: Toulouse was made smaller and turned into a urban terrain type.
Adjusted: Beziers was adjusted by adding the Carcasonne area and to cut down Toulouse.
New: Montauban was added to absord the rural region around Toulouse and to get a split between the town and the large rural area.
New: Nimes was added. Nimes was an important crossroad town and a garrison town.
New: Montelimar was added; the gate to the south and the last stand of Hrg. G in 1944 before the mass retreat started to the Metz area way north.
Adjusted: Rodez was adjusted for Nimes.
Adjusted: Montepellier was adjusted for adding Nimes.
Adjusted: Avignon was adjusted to add Montelimiar.
Adjusted: Grenoble was made a bit smaller to get in the "Gate to the south".
Adjusted: Valence was moved a bit north.
Adjusted: Bourg-en-Bresse was moved a bit.
> both changes were made to get a more cohesive design in the area.

ITALY:
New: Terni was added to get the Rome hill flank and to get an addtional road around of Rome.
Adjusted: Rome was adjusted for Terni.
Adjusted: Livorno was changed to Grosseto and changed to a forrest region to get a contrast to the Apennine Mountains. The region was adjusted for Terni.
Adjusted: Perugia was shrinked in size for Terni.
New: Verona was added to get a more destintic split in the area.
Adjusted: Venice was made smaller for adding Verona.

Swiss:
New: Sion was added to get in the Rhone river cut and to fit more to the geographical area markings.
New: Chur added as a new alpes province to get swiss more room to move.
Adjusted: Bern has lost territory to Sion.
Adjsuted: Geneva has lost territory to Sion.
Adjusted: Lugano was vut in half for Chur.

Slovenia:
New: Kranj was added to get a split in contrast for the "Maribor gap".
Adjusted: Maribor was changed to a hill terrain type and lost parts to the new Krani area that is a mountain terrain.

Hungary:
Adjusted: Pecs was made smaller.
Adjusted: Szekesfehervar aka Stuhlweißenburg was moved a bit on its southern boarder for the historical "battleline".
New: Sziofok was added for a historical cut in the hungarian lake Balaton flat lands.
Adjsuted: Szeged was reduced.
Adjusted: Miskolc was adjusted in size to reduce the "hill area".
New: Szolnok was added as a new cut infront of Budapest. The province should allow more movement infront of the town for a potential forces buildup.

POLAND:
First of all: I'm not that happy with Poland. The entire Lodz-Radomsko-Radom-Kielce-Czestochowa-Katowice area is a clusterfu** and heavy to solve because of the natural terrain that is heavy shaped by the rivers in the area.
Adjusted: Gdynia was adjusted.
Adjusted: Bydgoszcz was adjusted. Together with Gdynia the front was made a bit smaller.
Adjusted: Torun was adjusted to allow the direct german cut. The province is now a bit too big but I dont get a better cut.
New: Ciechanow was added as boarder province and to add a step before Warsaw to allow a bit more delaying action.
Adjusted: Plock became Modlin; the historical fortress that protects Warwas for ages now. The Province will now serve as a fortress area.
Adjusted: Old Wloclawek is not Kutno; a cross town at the road Torun-Lodz-Torun-Warsaw.
New: Wloclawek was added to the mix to allow an alternative polish retreat road.
Adjusted: Poznan was made smaller to allow the historical bypassing of the province via Kalisz.
New: Kalisz was added to add a bypass and cut to Pozan.
Adjusted: Czestochowa was made smaller to get a direct one-to-one boarder to Gleiwitz for a marching route from Gleiwitz to Radom by bypassing Lodz.
Adjusted: Katowice was made a bit bigger to close the gap of "no mans" land between Krakow-Katowicz-Kielce-Radomsko.
Adjusted: Sosnowiec moved north and became Radomsko; a cross town on the road Breslau-Kielce and Czestochowa-Warsaw-
Adjsuted: Lodz was made smaller to add the "warwas buffer zone".
Adjusted: Radom became smaller to get a flat terrain southern route to Warsaw - the route preferred by german armor...
Adjusted: Krakow became smaller by moving the vistula river a bit more into the mountain area.
Adjusted: Tarnow became a forrest area with a river crossing to Krakow.
New: Kielce was added to get the more kill dominated land south of the flat lands of Radom.
Adjusted: Nowy Sacz has a part river boarder. Its just a visual change.
Adjusted: Przemysel turned into a forrest.

Thats all for now....
Poland is a real nightmare to its river dominated lands...

 

[Vilochka]

In adj-defs need: delete river cross Rostov-on-Don - Salsk, Erevan to Tabriz, Stepanakert - Tabriz.
And add: river cross between Maikop - Tikhoretsk, Bryansk - Konotop, Tula - Orel.

 

[Rodolphe123]

If you want real hardcore infos about Poland :


Roads map of Poland in 1930's :

Poland Industry & road map from WIkipedia :

Geographic map of 2nd Polish Republic (wikpedia) :

 

[Vilochka]

If I remember correctly, China was made surprisingly correctly. At that time, the map of Europe were riddled with a huge number of ridiculous errors.

There is only one major error in the base map - the name of a province in China is the same as another province in China. This is a mistake by the map designer, but it is written correctly in the other files. I don't think anyone has ever noticed this.

 

[Nick3210]

In adj-defs need: delete river cross Rostov-on-Don - Salsk

Nono, Rostov - Salsk is OK, you meant Rostov - Volgodonsk (Zimniki)

I see Rostov turned out to be overloaded with connections, they didn't even fit in the window
Therefore, next time we will separate the Shakhty from Rostov.
I didn't want do this for somehow reason, but now I see that this separation of Rostov is necessary and it will be reasonable and useful.

 

[Nick3210]

Would it do the trick?

Absolutely, exactly such way. There is even a dirt road that connects Rostov with Voroshilovgrad, bypassing both Stalino and the Shakhty.
Thus, my inner perfectionist will have a satisfactory legal justification for the direct connection of Rostov with Voroshilovgrad.

But just Shakhty without access to Volgodonsk.

###

Although I won't insist - on the 1938 map there is a tricky rather winding way to get to key point (Zimniki) of this Province..

So it's a matter of taste of modder. I will set the block, just because apart from the lack of better quality road, the Wehrmacht also did not follow this route, but chose the route through Konstantinovka where mapped more high quality road in other maps.

 

[Nick3210]

From the Caucasus, it would be logical to go east to the Dnieper river area. I don't want a lot of changes on the Dnieper, in general, it is more or less acceptable. We just need to fix the 3 most obvious mistakes.

1. Rename Kherson to Kakhovka. As well Nykolaev can be divided in half into Nykolaev and Kherson. But it seems to me that it will be an unnecessary province with the distance 50 km between Nykolaev and Kherson. Therefore, in my opinion, we may not to make a new Kherson and leave Nykolaev as it is.
But we also can do it if players want, so tell your opinion - is it necessary to divide Nykolaev in half to add Kherson or not?

2. Kremenchug is a very pointless place in the current configuration of the provinces, because it blocks the attack vector from Kirovograd to Poltava. And it is also unclear how Cherkassy can attack Kremenchug. But this can be easily fixed without changing map design just by simply changing the name of the province from Kremenchug to Lubny.

3. Dnepropetrovsk needs to be moved to his true place to the right bank of the river. The best option to rename the old province is Pavlograd.
I propose such design for the new Dnepropetrovsk that it would get both energy and rares. And the iron will go to Krivoy Rog. Kryvoy Rog will also have the opportunity to attack Poltava, Pavlograd and Melitopol.

Alternatively, we can make a cross connection in one point: Dnepropetrovsk - Nykolaev and Krivoy Rog - Melitopol, roads map allow this.

In general, adding an additional province to force the Dnieper is a slight strengthening of the attacking side, Germany will get some more places to attack from several provinces.

So what do you think about such design of the lower Dnieper?

 

[Vilochka]

Nono, Rostov - Salsk is OK

View attachment 1273569

My mistake! I have disconnect Rostov-on-Don - Salsk. Fix this with Shakhty

 

[Nick3210]

My mistake! I have disconnect Rostov-on-Don - Salsk. Fix this with Shakhty

I thought, by default, there is no need to make any blocks there, there may be a different vision of this issue, because I was able to find a map with a winding road that can still lead to the destination. Whoever want this block, like me, can add it himself.

 

[tioperete]

View attachment 1273476

Changes:

SPAIN:
New: Sabinanigo added for a Pyrenean flank and to adjust the provinces further south.
New: El Pont de Suert added; the partisan region that was captured by anti-franco forces in 1944. Added to adjust Lleida further south.
Adjusted: Huesca changed to a hill and cutted down in size.
Adjusted: Lleida was changed to a hill terrain type and cut down.

FRANCE:
NEW: Bayonne added.
Adjusted: Old Agen renamed into Auch.
Adjusted: Toulouse was made smaller and turned into a urban terrain type.
Adjusted: Beziers was adjusted by adding the Carcasonne area and to cut down Toulouse.
New: Montauban was added to absord the rural region around Toulouse and to get a split between the town and the large rural area.
New: Nimes was added. Nimes was an important crossroad town and a garrison town.
New: Montelimar was added; the gate to the south and the last stand of Hrg. G in 1944 before the mass retreat started to the Metz area way north.
Adjusted: Rodez was adjusted for Nimes.
Adjusted: Montepellier was adjusted for adding Nimes.
Adjusted: Avignon was adjusted to add Montelimiar.
Adjusted: Grenoble was made a bit smaller to get in the "Gate to the south".
Adjusted: Valence was moved a bit north.
Adjusted: Bourg-en-Bresse was moved a bit.
> both changes were made to get a more cohesive design in the area.

ITALY:
New: Terni was added to get the Rome hill flank and to get an addtional road around of Rome.
Adjusted: Rome was adjusted for Terni.
Adjusted: Livorno was changed to Grosseto and changed to a forrest region to get a contrast to the Apennine Mountains. The region was adjusted for Terni.
Adjusted: Perugia was shrinked in size for Terni.
New: Verona was added to get a more destintic split in the area.
Adjusted: Venice was made smaller for adding Verona.

Swiss:
New: Sion was added to get in the Rhone river cut and to fit more to the geographical area markings.
New: Chur added as a new alpes province to get swiss more room to move.
Adjusted: Bern has lost territory to Sion.
Adjsuted: Geneva has lost territory to Sion.
Adjusted: Lugano was vut in half for Chur.

Slovenia:
New: Kranj was added to get a split in contrast for the "Maribor gap".
Adjusted: Maribor was changed to a hill terrain type and lost parts to the new Krani area that is a mountain terrain.

Hungary:
Adjusted: Pecs was made smaller.
Adjusted: Szekesfehervar aka Stuhlweißenburg was moved a bit on its southern boarder for the historical "battleline".
New: Sziofok was added for a historical cut in the hungarian lake Balaton flat lands.
Adjsuted: Szeged was reduced.
Adjusted: Miskolc was adjusted in size to reduce the "hill area".
New: Szolnok was added as a new cut infront of Budapest. The province should allow more movement infront of the town for a potential forces buildup.

POLAND:
First of all: I'm not that happy with Poland. The entire Lodz-Radomsko-Radom-Kielce-Czestochowa-Katowice area is a clusterfu** and heavy to solve because of the natural terrain that is heavy shaped by the rivers in the area.
Adjusted: Gdynia was adjusted.
Adjusted: Bydgoszcz was adjusted. Together with Gdynia the front was made a bit smaller.
Adjusted: Torun was adjusted to allow the direct german cut. The province is now a bit too big but I dont get a better cut.
New: Ciechanow was added as boarder province and to add a step before Warsaw to allow a bit more delaying action.
Adjusted: Plock became Modlin; the historical fortress that protects Warwas for ages now. The Province will now serve as a fortress area.
Adjusted: Old Wloclawek is not Kutno; a cross town at the road Torun-Lodz-Torun-Warsaw.
New: Wloclawek was added to the mix to allow an alternative polish retreat road.
Adjusted: Poznan was made smaller to allow the historical bypassing of the province via Kalisz.
New: Kalisz was added to add a bypass and cut to Pozan.
Adjusted: Czestochowa was made smaller to get a direct one-to-one boarder to Gleiwitz for a marching route from Gleiwitz to Radom by bypassing Lodz.
Adjusted: Katowice was made a bit bigger to close the gap of "no mans" land between Krakow-Katowicz-Kielce-Radomsko.
Adjusted: Sosnowiec moved north and became Radomsko; a cross town on the road Breslau-Kielce and Czestochowa-Warsaw-
Adjsuted: Lodz was made smaller to add the "warwas buffer zone".
Adjusted: Radom became smaller to get a flat terrain southern route to Warsaw - the route preferred by german armor...
Adjusted: Krakow became smaller by moving the vistula river a bit more into the mountain area.
Adjusted: Tarnow became a forrest area with a river crossing to Krakow.
New: Kielce was added to get the more kill dominated land south of the flat lands of Radom.
Adjusted: Nowy Sacz has a part river boarder. Its just a visual change.
Adjusted: Przemysel turned into a forrest.

Thats all for now....
Poland is a real nightmare to its river dominated lands...

Well, you acted before I modified the post with an explanation, so many of them are not needed now

In Italy, we could think about making Venice marshes, now that it not includes Verona, like Ravenna could be.

I like the change from Livorno to Grossetto instead the initial split I proposed. I'm sad about the perfect province pic I had for Livorno

Florence and Perugia shouldn't be disconnected, they were perfectly communicated by Arezzo and Trasimeno areas.

Rimini, while was the first name I said, does not fit well the area, as it would be located in the river and 95% of the province wouldnt be Rimini land but the Marches. Urbino or Pesaro would be much better name.

Not sure about it, but Alessadria and Parma seem too big now compared with the others. Piacenza would fit between them. Just an idea I'm not too comvinced.

Something I just thought now, what do you think about taking Lecce/Brindisi from Bari and Tarento?

About France, I like the changes you did in the area I marked in dark red, just wanted to point that area was badly designed before.

I also pointed 3 new provinces in France from which you took only one, Bayonne.

I considered Vannes to avoid Brittany being blocked by one 2 seas province, the same effect could be achieved by giving some Rennes land to St Nazaire.

In the Pirinees, I proposed Foix cause diverse reasons. Different cultural regions, Foix is occitain while Perpignan is catalan. Perpignan was claimed by Franco in the negotiations to enter the Axis, Foix wasnt. You can even close the connection from Northern Lerida to Pau or Foix as only little passes exist there.

I showed some provinces bad designed in Spain but let's ignore that until we look at Spain with more detail, I'll stick just to the Pirinees. You implemented the idea of separating the Mountain fron Huesca and Lérida perfectly, but trust me, the names I told before, are the correct ones. Sabiñánigo is just a random town in Jaca shire, while Jaca was seat of the Mountain Brigade, old capital of Aragonese Kingdom and the most important fortress in the Pirinees to defende from France.
El Pont de Suert... well, I think most of the Spanish people don't even know it exist. La Seu d'Urgell is the most apropiated name for it, as it's the most important town there.

In Slovenia, you took the Kranj idea and made Maribor hills, that's nice. In Croatia, I proposed the Karlovac - Senj split as Karlovac is an inland city and it seemed for me better to have 2 diiferent points, inland an coast, for distance calculations and army movements.

The Kotor split from Cetinje and Dubrovnik is just for historical reasons in the partition of Yugoslavia, same way I thought to propose Murska Sobota from Maribor also, but finally decides to forget the idea.

In Hungary, it's Siófok the one in Balaton lake, not Sziofok. Anyways I'd favour Szekszárd or Kaposvár instead Siófok as name for the province.
Szolnok seems nice.


About Poland, am not convinced but still it seems better tha vanilla.

 

[tioperete]

Well, after studying road map and routes of German offensive, I got this result for Stalingrad-Caucasus area:

1. Salsk! The expected for 14 years miracle happened! Salsk no longer blocks direct way to south to Krasnodar!! It was very annoying for me, this absolutely ridiculous detour that greatly increased the path to the south. This was probably one of the most ridiculous province design of the vanilla Map.

2. Two excessively huge provinces are divided into five. Now important logistics points are on the map. Now this area looks definitely more interesting for gameplay.

3. Atmospheric/historical tactical block of Rostov-on-Don - Zimovniki. They are not connected by direct road, and (probably for this reason) the German offensive went through Konstantinovsk.

4. Two useless provinces have been removed:
- Tskhinval makes no sense, because the strategic tunnel through the Caucasus was build there only in 1984.
- Nazran also is a meaningless province. In Soviet times, Nazran (Ingush ethnic people) were merged together with the Chechens into one Chechen-Ingush Republic, which we will make the same.

5. The excessively huge province of Baku is divided into two key points of this region Baku and Kirivabad.

View attachment 1273302

Maps to the north from Caucasus

Spoiler

View attachment 1273296

View attachment 1273292

View attachment 1273299

Map of Southern Caucasus

Spoiler

View attachment 1273297

My Caucasus blocks are set manually.
Do you need all Caucasus blocks to be preset at the map level?

I couldnt locate Ordzhonikidze until I went to read Vladikavkaz history XD

I know Kherson is in the other bank of the river, but the DH province is basically the Kherson oblast. Difficult issue, as I would prefer to keep the name of Kherson, as there were no more relevant cities in the area.

 

[Lord Rommel]

From the Caucasus, it would be logical to go east to the Dnieper river area. I don't want a lot of changes on the Dnieper, in general, it is more or less acceptable. We just need to fix the 3 most obvious mistakes.

1. Rename Kherson to Kakhovka. As well Nykolaev can be divided in half into Nykolaev and Kherson. But it seems to me that it will be an unnecessary province with the distance 50 km between Nykolaev and Kherson. Therefore, in my opinion, we may not to make a new Kherson and leave Nykolaev as it is.
But we also can do it if players want, so tell your opinion - is it necessary to divide Nykolaev in half to add Kherson or not?

2. Kremenchug is a very pointless place in the current configuration of the provinces, because it blocks the attack vector from Kirovograd to Poltava. And it is also unclear how Cherkassy can attack Kremenchug. But this can be easily fixed without changing map design just by simply changing the name of the province from Kremenchug to Lubny.

3. Dnepropetrovsk needs to be moved to his true place to the right bank of the river. The best option to rename the old province is Pavlograd.
I propose such design for the new Dnepropetrovsk that it would get both energy and rares. And the iron will go to Krivoy Rog. Kryvoy Rog will also have the opportunity to attack Poltava, Pavlograd and Melitopol.

Alternatively, we can make a cross connection in one point: Dnepropetrovsk - Nykolaev and Krivoy Rog - Melitopol, roads map allow this.

In general, adding an additional province to force the Dnieper is a slight strengthening of the attacking side, Germany will get some more places to attack from several provinces.

So what do you think about such design of the lower Dnieper?

View attachment 1273647

View attachment 1273648

[Maps deleted]

My 2 cents - updated.
For the names: I took the names I saw at google. I have no idea about the soviet area names of the time. So here its better to ask Nick.
When needed I can live with the ukrainian names.

 

[Lord Rommel]

@tioperete

In Italy, we could think about making Venice marshes, now that it not includes Verona, like Ravenna could be.

Not sure because from what I read only the "Venice" area would fit to the terraine change but the overall province still has the area of Padua and Treviso and I wont see marshes here. ITs a difficult decision (and spot).

Rimini, while was the first name I said, does not fit well the area, as it would be located in the river and 95% of the province wouldnt be Rimini land but the Marches. Urbino or Pesaro would be much better name.

I stay with Rimini for the reason that its more known city and it was part of the Gothic line unlike to Pesaro that was abandon by the Wehrmacht.
There are arguments for all sorts of boarder movements plus I think I cant add all towns.

Not sure about it, but Alessadria and Parma seem too big now compared with the others. Piacenza would fit between them. Just an idea I'm not too comvinced.

With that in mind I think its good to keep some "bigger provinces" to limit the amount of "new spaces". Sure. Piacenza could be added but it wouldnt add anything to the design here. To compensate the Parma size I will increae the Apennines with the La Spezia province.

Something I just thought now, what do you think about taking Lecce/Brindisi from Bari and Tarento?

Tbf I like DH map here.

In the Pirinees, I proposed Foix cause diverse reasons. Different cultural regions, Foix is occitain while Perpignan is catalan. Perpignan was claimed by Franco in the negotiations to enter the Axis, Foix wasnt. You can even close the connection from Northern Lerida to Pau or Foix as only little passes exist there.

Wasnt aware of it. Thx for the hint!

I showed some provinces bad designed in Spain but let's ignore that until we look at Spain with more detail, I'll stick just to the Pirinees. You implemented the idea of separating the Mountain fron Huesca and Lérida perfectly, but trust me, the names I told before, are the correct ones. Sabiñánigo is just a random town in Jaca shire, while Jaca was seat of the Mountain Brigade, old capital of Aragonese Kingdom and the most important fortress in the Pirinees to defende from France.
El Pont de Suert... well, I think most of the Spanish people don't even know it exist. La Seu d'Urgell is the most apropiated name for it, as it's the most important town there.

I have ignored Spain yet. I just worked on the two provinces here for a better overview.
I will change the names.

In Slovenia, you took the Kranj idea and made Maribor hills, that's nice. In Croatia, I proposed the Karlovac - Senj split as Karlovac is an inland city and it seemed for me better to have 2 diiferent points, inland an coast, for distance calculations and army movements.

Instead of adding a province I will move the boarders to eliminate Karlovac and add Rijeka. So its just province adjustment and no new provinces.

The Kotor split from Cetinje and Dubrovnik is just for historical reasons in the partition of Yugoslavia, same way I thought to propose Murska Sobota from Maribor also, but finally decides to forget the idea.

From my point of view the map is already working? Cetinje (with Kotor in it) will be Montenegro. Cant see a problem?

In Hungary, it's Siófok the one in Balaton lake, not Sziofok. Anyways I'd favour Szekszárd or Kaposvár instead Siófok as name for the province.
Szolnok seems nice.

By error. Thx!

And for France; I will think about it.
I already have the feeling that france got many new provinces... So I'm not sure. I will look at it.

Like I said; I think some big provinces will (and have to) stay.
E.g. That is the reason why I didnt worked on the german area of Bayreuth-Nürnberg-Augsburg...

 

[tioperete]

@Lord Rommel
Rijeka was Fiume, Italian land. If you do that, you have the problem you will have a Italian city giving its name to a province controlled by Yugoslavia.
In general the Istrian area it's a mess, but did't want to touch it as it would lead to very little provinces.

Kotor was incorporated into Italy with some islands part of Dubrovnik, while Cetinje was Montenegro. Ulcinj that would be also in Cetinje province was given to Albania.
Dubrovnik in game goes to Italy. That's not true. Dubrovnik, even claimed by Italy as the old Ragusa, went to Croatia, setled the issue by a German arbitration between the two countries, leading to Italian protests. Population asked later to be transfered to Italy, but Germany refused. In Dubrovnik/Ragusa at that time they were mostly catholic... but catholic serbs and Italian minority.

The Istrian issue. Capodistria was part of the State of Trieste. Then we have the Churchill proposals for Istria. UK didnt really want to harm Italy, bu Soviets pressed for.
This would be the ideal provinces, taking into account Trieste State borders and negotiations around the partitions (Fiume could be Pisino also):

But that would lead to 2 microprovinces, Trieste and Capodistria.

 

[Lord Rommel]

I guess u will never get 1000% perfect boarders.
E.g. when u think of ww1 some of "my" proposals wont work because they wont fit into ww1 boarders (Poland/french frontlines).
But adding toon of micro provinces will lead nowhere.
So I think at some points there need to be cuts because of the map limitations.

E.g. try to rebuild the german-"polish" (aka russian) ww1 boarder ingame. Such a plan would lead to a way more complicated "clusterfu**" of the Poznan province.

 

[Nick3210]

I know Kherson is in the other bank of the river, but the DH province is basically the Kherson oblast. Difficult issue, as I would prefer to keep the name of Kherson, as there were no more relevant cities in the area.

The DH map basically adheres to the principle of spreading the influence of the town on the side of the river where it is located and giving the names of provinces not by the names of these areas, but by the names of key towns.
Drawing the boundaries of regions at the first stage of map creation allows to get tricky, winding provincial borders. It's good. But I think that then it is necessary to adhere to the system rule - the town spreads its influence on its side of the river. Because by attacking through the Dnieper River from Nykolaev, we are definitely trying to capture not Kherson town, but Kakhovka.

It is better that we make proper Kherson by dividing Nikolaev.

 

[Khor]

View attachment 1273476

Changes:

SPAIN:
New: Sabinanigo added for a Pyrenean flank and to adjust the provinces further south.
New: El Pont de Suert added; the partisan region that was captured by anti-franco forces in 1944. Added to adjust Lleida further south.
Adjusted: Huesca changed to a hill and cutted down in size.
Adjusted: Lleida was changed to a hill terrain type and cut down.

FRANCE:
NEW: Bayonne added.
Adjusted: Old Agen renamed into Auch.
Adjusted: Toulouse was made smaller and turned into a urban terrain type.
Adjusted: Beziers was adjusted by adding the Carcasonne area and to cut down Toulouse.
New: Montauban was added to absord the rural region around Toulouse and to get a split between the town and the large rural area.
New: Nimes was added. Nimes was an important crossroad town and a garrison town.
New: Montelimar was added; the gate to the south and the last stand of Hrg. G in 1944 before the mass retreat started to the Metz area way north.
Adjusted: Rodez was adjusted for Nimes.
Adjusted: Montepellier was adjusted for adding Nimes.
Adjusted: Avignon was adjusted to add Montelimiar.
Adjusted: Grenoble was made a bit smaller to get in the "Gate to the south".
Adjusted: Valence was moved a bit north.
Adjusted: Bourg-en-Bresse was moved a bit.
> both changes were made to get a more cohesive design in the area.

ITALY:
New: Terni was added to get the Rome hill flank and to get an addtional road around of Rome.
Adjusted: Rome was adjusted for Terni.
Adjusted: Livorno was changed to Grosseto and changed to a forrest region to get a contrast to the Apennine Mountains. The region was adjusted for Terni.
Adjusted: Perugia was shrinked in size for Terni.
New: Verona was added to get a more destintic split in the area.
Adjusted: Venice was made smaller for adding Verona.

Swiss:
New: Sion was added to get in the Rhone river cut and to fit more to the geographical area markings.
New: Chur added as a new alpes province to get swiss more room to move.
Adjusted: Bern has lost territory to Sion.
Adjsuted: Geneva has lost territory to Sion.
Adjusted: Lugano was vut in half for Chur.

Slovenia:
New: Kranj was added to get a split in contrast for the "Maribor gap".
Adjusted: Maribor was changed to a hill terrain type and lost parts to the new Krani area that is a mountain terrain.

Hungary:
Adjusted: Pecs was made smaller.
Adjusted: Szekesfehervar aka Stuhlweißenburg was moved a bit on its southern boarder for the historical "battleline".
New: Sziofok was added for a historical cut in the hungarian lake Balaton flat lands.
Adjsuted: Szeged was reduced.
Adjusted: Miskolc was adjusted in size to reduce the "hill area".
New: Szolnok was added as a new cut infront of Budapest. The province should allow more movement infront of the town for a potential forces buildup.

POLAND:
First of all: I'm not that happy with Poland. The entire Lodz-Radomsko-Radom-Kielce-Czestochowa-Katowice area is a clusterfu** and heavy to solve because of the natural terrain that is heavy shaped by the rivers in the area.
Adjusted: Gdynia was adjusted.
Adjusted: Bydgoszcz was adjusted. Together with Gdynia the front was made a bit smaller.
Adjusted: Torun was adjusted to allow the direct german cut. The province is now a bit too big but I dont get a better cut.
New: Ciechanow was added as boarder province and to add a step before Warsaw to allow a bit more delaying action.
Adjusted: Plock became Modlin; the historical fortress that protects Warwas for ages now. The Province will now serve as a fortress area.
Adjusted: Old Wloclawek is not Kutno; a cross town at the road Torun-Lodz-Torun-Warsaw.
New: Wloclawek was added to the mix to allow an alternative polish retreat road.
Adjusted: Poznan was made smaller to allow the historical bypassing of the province via Kalisz.
New: Kalisz was added to add a bypass and cut to Pozan.
Adjusted: Czestochowa was made smaller to get a direct one-to-one boarder to Gleiwitz for a marching route from Gleiwitz to Radom by bypassing Lodz.
Adjusted: Katowice was made a bit bigger to close the gap of "no mans" land between Krakow-Katowicz-Kielce-Radomsko.
Adjusted: Sosnowiec moved north and became Radomsko; a cross town on the road Breslau-Kielce and Czestochowa-Warsaw-
Adjsuted: Lodz was made smaller to add the "warwas buffer zone".
Adjusted: Radom became smaller to get a flat terrain southern route to Warsaw - the route preferred by german armor...
Adjusted: Krakow became smaller by moving the vistula river a bit more into the mountain area.
Adjusted: Tarnow became a forrest area with a river crossing to Krakow.
New: Kielce was added to get the more kill dominated land south of the flat lands of Radom.
Adjusted: Nowy Sacz has a part river boarder. Its just a visual change.
Adjusted: Przemysel turned into a forrest.

Thats all for now....
Poland is a real nightmare to its river dominated lands...

I like the redrawn map very much, just a small note. Siofok in Hungary is written properly with an "s" and not an "sz".

 

[Nick3210]

View attachment 1273739
My 2 cents - updated.
For the names: I took the names I saw at google. I have no idea about the soviet area names of the time. So here its better to ask Nick.
When needed I can live with the ukrainian names.

As a lazy person, I wanted to make minimal edits, but okay, I agree that this area is worth to put more efforts and to make it in more detail and quality!

First, what I disagree with.

1. Krivoy Rog is a unique chess square from which the attacking side can threaten both the northern and southern provinces!
Krivoy Rog is also an excellent logistics hub through which you can quickly move troops along an internal short radius, forcing the enemy to move along an external long radius.
Therefore, Krivoy Rog in no case should be blocked to the direction to Dnieper - this deprives the attacking side of the unique tactical advantage of this province.

Thus, we cannot expand the new Dnepropetrovsk in the north, we must expand it only to the south, including the zone of Nikopol. Nikopol is not needed to avoid creating two provinces that are too small.

And I support other suggestions.

2. Yes, the creation of a new province of Kremenchug is the only right decision. And a very good decision!
The only thing I want to fix, I sure is that all three provinces of Lubny - Kremenchuk - Pavlograd should have the same threat - two attacking vectors for each province.
This creates the right tension for the defending side throughout the Dnieper River and also corresponds to realism/history.

The success of the German breakthrough of the Dnieper in the Kremenchug zone was achieved not by concentration of efforts (not a "strike from three directions"), but by false actions and deception.
For too long, the Soviet command believed that the main direction of the Dnieper breakthrough was in the Cherkassy area, and the pressure in the Kremnchug area was just a distraction.

Accordingly, it will be right if we keep this tension to the Lubny of two atack vectors. Moreover, the real German attack through Kremenchug was directed to Lubny.
That's why I made exactly this form of Kremenchug - so that there would be 2 attacking vectors per defending province along the entire this Dnepr line.

I did not correct the Kremenchug-Pavlograd border to a more visually beautiful one, just because it follows the contour of the official border in the region.

3. Zaporozhye! Yes, it's very good that you reminded about the wrong Zaporozhye! I completely forgot that vanilla Zaporozhye is also a very ridiculous mistake - vanilla Zaporozhye blocks direct access from Melitopol to Mariupol, it definitely had to be fixed!! I completely forgot about it!

The addition of Berdyansk (it became 'Osipenko' only in 1939, so we'll leave the natural name Berdyansk) solves this issue. But it is probably desirable for modders to set as coordinates of this provincee not Berdyansk, but the road junction to the north from Berdyansk, because the attack on Mariupol can be conducted from Melitopol bypassing Berdyansk, directly.

Also, since we are adding Berdyansk, this is a good reason to change the shape of Melitopol and add the Molochnaya River, which was part of the German defensive line and where severe battles were fought in 1943 to break through the German defenses on this river.

4. Well, let's add true Kherson and also create cross-connection in one point for more easy moving around inner radius: Kherson - Dnepropetrovsk and Krivoy Rog-Melitopol.

##################

I would also like to raise the issue of transliteration of the Russian rough sound 'H' in the names of cities.

Not so long ago, I accidentally watched a YouTube video that criticized the accepted transliteration of the Russian rough 'H' as 'KH'. I completely agree with this criticism. I also think this weird 'KH' sounds very ridiculous and cringe.

So, just my strange idea - what if to use 'KH' only if it stay at the beginning of the word - Kharkov, Kherson, but to use just 'H' if it is in the middle of the word - Kahovka, Shahty ?

Just 'Kakhovka' makes me choke.