I've always been fond of the map for Avalon Hill's 'Russian Front'. It was certainly the most beautiful map of its era.

Thanks. Agree with your number 1 map. Also the way that the 'barriers' of various terrain types define the los/movement costs. As for the game; I loooove the orders system.

@ wiseguy: Hearing you describe your love for maps was awesome! You sound like you might be a student of Edward Tufte. His book “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” is a profound experience. Recommended to all. Tufte states that Minard’s famous graphic of Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia “may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn.”

Wow, you take on some really *meaty* analysis projects!!! Well done!!!

Rick Barber already was mentioned multiple times, but not the game which in "nominate" - Devil Dogs Bellau Wood 1918 is 60% bought because of his art on map..and because it is mounted ) And Burning Banners map looks astonishing, though I saw it only in videos.

GTS maps are in my top 10. In particular Race for Bastogne…functional and evocative

I really like how your list contained games that excelled in only one of your criteria instead of all just being well rounded maps. Like others I love Rick Barbers' maps (so many great ones). I also love the Levy & Campaign maps and Bayonets & Tomahawks.

GREAT VIDEO

I would put Risk on the list… ;)

Nice choices man. Gotta love a good map. I always felt the Devils cauldron/where eagles dare maps to be really visually attractive, also some of the Charles Kibbler Library of the Napoleonic wars are very attractive.

Gcacw games have really nice maps that show every trail made and lot of information to study your maneuvers.

I buy physical games because that's what most of our game production companies sell. But if the game production company offers no way to monetise their backlog but provides the rules and Vassal modules, I have no qualms in playing them (except in practice I don't). If they offered a digital player kit for sale, I would be happy to pay to help keep them in business producing new games. It would be like publishers offering hardbacks (mounted map boards), paperbacks, and kindle editions of their books. They seem to have decided that: (a) offering de facto free digital player kits (rules and vassal) helps attract players to new games (b) most gamers want to own a physical copy of a game so the archive is interesting but will only have a tiny number of players (c) the loss of revenue from not charging for their archival games is too small to worry about (d) reprinting physical updated games from their back catalogue generates more revenue than trying to charge for digital copies (e) the effort in sending out $10 - $40 kits is probably very similar to designing, proofing, printing, assembling and posting a $100 - $300 game, but with a tiny margin, so just not profitable enough (f) they are fundamentally paper and cardboard manufacturers and don't want or have the skills to become a digital one

I am a GIS Specialist and work with cartography everyday as part of my profession so it is no surprise to me that map analysis is a common interest that draws a lot of us into wargaming!

Love this video. I also hang game maps on my wall. Mark Mahaffey can be really uneven, but his map for Red Winter is a masterpiece. I also really love the map from Legion’s Maori Wars. And finally, the Library of Napoleonic Battles series maps are full of such period flavor. We are blessed in this hobby.

I terribly disagree! I dislike every MMP map I’ve seen. Most I’ve seen are OCS, SCS and BCS. Boring colours, unattractive design, rubbish hex numbering system, but most importantly terrible terrain clarity. I HATE game maps where you have tiny slivers of terrain in hexes, or where there are multiple terrain in a hex. Just terrible design. Because it is obviously a design choice, and the designer chose to make the players work harder than necessary. It may possibly look nice (but MMP maps do not look nice), but utterly fails it’s purpose of aiding the players to play. Btw I have owned numerous MMP games, so the sub-standard maps haven’t stopped me playing them. But I do not like them, at all. None but heroes looks like a child has scribbled over it in crayon. Very ugly. And underneath that, a typically confusing MMP map. It might rank as one of the worst maps I’ve seen! I’ll bow to your experience and assume it plays a lot better than it looks. I think a well done area game map is the best map. With hexes, the designer doesn’t have to think about area size, connections, etc. In an area map the designer must have play tested the game a lot to make sure the effects turn out right. So Triumph of chaos and Vento Nuovo’s Moscow/Leningrad/Kiev 41, get high marks from me. Knut’s maps for Fall Blau and Kharkov are very pretty (much prettier than S’42) AND they are very clear and useful for a player. Rick Barber’s maps are almost always beautiful, but often not that clear.

Some great choices there. It's a shame those LOB games haven't been reprinted by MMP. Maybe one day....

I was waiting for Fontenoy, a truly beautiful map!

A Most Fearful Sacrifice game map by Rick Barber (RIP)..... immerses you into Gettysburg.

A Most Fearful Sacrifice

Traces of War had not only my favorite map, I thinks it exceeds all other maps in quality and beauty by an order of magnitude.

Don't know if you've seen the map for Avalon Hill's Richthofen's War. It's a colorized version of an actual photograph taken of the front lines during the war.

I was initially drawn to the Blind Sword System games by the maps. For game play, however, they were far too busy and confusing.

2 things. #1 Wacht am Rhein...is there anything better than those black counters on that map? Nope. #2 Kibler's GCACW maps are my all time favorite. Perfect slice of Americana for the conflict at hand.

if i do not like the map i do not but the game

I love Simonitch maps, for me they are the perfect fusion of form and function. His map from US Civil War is jaw-dropping. I also adore the GCACW maps, even though artistically I've seen better-looking rivers, roads, forests, towns, etc on other maps, somehow it all just fits together, and the level of detail is amazing. Plus the map is just so central to game play. Beautiful maps, too, from Clash of Arms and New England Simulations. Unfortunately, I just can't agree with your assessment on maps from Dean Essig. Not a fan of the terrain not conforming (or loosely conforming) to the hex grid; the white hex grid leaps out for me since everyone else uses black grids; the "marching ants" hex coordinates are distracting; and the choice of fonts would cause a graphic designer to go apoplectic. His games are still awesome, though. By the way, I think it's virtually a prerequisite as a wargamer to love looking at maps. 😊

A good selection, would agree with every one of them. Rick Barber’s Summer Storm map has always been a favorite of mine, and I could easily fill a top ten list of entirety Simonitch maps - every single one of them pops.

When it comes to visual appeal (I haven't played them), check out Compass's/Parker's recent The Last Gamble and GMT's/Herman's Pacific War. Oh, and of course GCACW, which I'm somewhat surprised you haven't included. On the NT map, the locale boundaries are disconnected and placed somewhat haphazardly; they are one of the things Simmons would like to improve, similar to Guns of Gettysburg and Triomphe á Marengo where they all connect cleanly.

A very interesting experiment! Waiting to see how it goes!

I love maps to my favorite for detail are diffraction entertainment tsww. Anyway great video

Have you done play videos on triumph and chaos deluxe ? I enjoy complex but this seemed over the top

Is Triumph of Chaos worth playing despite its reputation of being errata and rules heavy?

Great video, from a fellow map enthusiast!

I would love to get your opinion on the "Custom DDAOB Map (reduced confetti; increased readability)" I made on BGG for D-Day at Omaha Beach. I think it completely improves both the functionality and aesthetics from the original dramatically.

I only briefly played S42 and didn’t love it, whereas Fall Blau is my favourite game (possibly), so this will be very interesting.

Looking forward to this.

For OCS CB and GBII your will need the german and soviet reinforcement books. Vassal without them is impossible. where are you, I am in Brisbane..can get it to you

Bring it! :)

What a great idea, I happen to own Case Blue and would have no problem if MMP sold a Digital Player Kit for Case Blue. (I have no plans to sell my copy, so not worried if a DPK affected the market price.)

I played this game 2 and I figured it’s better defend on the hill.

It’s an interesting topic you are addressing and one which the music industry had to deal with. I suspect platforms like Vassal and Rally the Troops actually drive more physical game purchases than if those platforms were unavailable, despite the fact that there are probably a number of players who don’t ever buy the game. The question is though, would they even buy the game if Vassal was unavailable? Ethically, and it’s the way I operate, I agree that you shouldn’t play on Vassal unless you own a copy. However, like you, I would feel comfortable playing OOP games that are not available at a reasonable price. I like your suggestion for a digital kit and I would definitely take advantage of this if it were offered.

Historically the Ariete rolled over the 3rd Indian Brigade ...then it attached Bir Hackeim with no result!!

Nathan excellent review of a complex issue---to me hard to believe with demand for MMP product they do not do reprints--they could do P500 offers then there would not be the current debate---thanx

You do so much for this hobby thank you so much.

I loved SPI games back in the late 70s and owned many of them. I didn't have Campaign for north Africa, but "Four battles in North Africa" was my favourite. The original battles you could recreate Crusader, Cauldron, El-Alemain and kasserine. Now the only SPI games I still own are Sinai and Dreadnought I really wish I had kept hold of all the others.

cheers guy, i dont know , IF the next step is the company start charge every game on vasal ?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the AT system. Basically the values have been imported from Triumphant Fox which had a different AT modifier resolution. The 88's have an AT value of 8 which makes no sense. This value is never modified. Six is all that is needed to completely cancel the Allied AT value. Next time I'm tempted to use the old combat system with the nicer looking game.