Making a model from a map

 I have been reading some quite brilliant new(ish) books on World War Two.  I especially recommend The Wages of Destruction: The Making And Breaking Of The Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze and Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East by David Stahel.  Both books aim for maximum myth busting, Tooze focusing on the “Speer production miracle” and Stahel digging deep into the communication within the German high command and the post war blame shifting.  Both look very hard at logistics. 

Stahel looks (among other things) at the wear rate on German trucks which steadily de-motorized the supply system. If you are used to games win which the limit of logistics is to trace a supply line, his analysis is quite a revelation.

Tooze (an economic historian) works at a high level and uncovers the real constraints on the German economy during the war.  I had especially not realized the extend to which food production – and starvation – drove so many decisions and limited German options.  I think, coming from North America where we export food, that it’s hard to have a visceral feel to how food production can be a key factor in strategic thinking.  

Thanks to that reading, I want to put together production and food supply models for my still unnamed campaign.  Step one is counting a classifying hexes.  So looking at the Blitzkrieg map lets enumerate the terrain features.

First we have the map itself

Category	Type	Notes
Hex	Clear	In most games this is treated as unremarkable open land with uniform road development presenting unremarkable military opportunities or obstacles.   This is not fine grained enough for me for the economic model or for differentiating terrain for the gaming table.  I think that I can get a finer granularity by including adjacent terrain as a modifier.
Hex	Desert	To be precise, the Great Koufax Desert, included in the game for players with Rommel fantasies.  Oh, and the original Blitzkrieg had a couple of 60s pop culture and wargaming names for the geography.   I’ve been arguing with myself about this one because it’s unrealistic.  But seriously? It’s just for fun.
Hex	Mountain	But how high and rough?  My current thought is to select some European range such as the Carpathians as a standard.  I note that mountain to mountain hexsides have been highlighted on the map.  Mountains surrounded by mountains might be special.  And gaming mountain warfare would at least be a challenge.
Hex	Swamp	What it says on the tin
Hex	City	There are some hints at relative size.  The multi-hex cities of the original version are missing.
Hex	Forest	Very dense woodland, with low population density, little arable land, and occasional settlements linked by logging roads.
Other	Road	Mainline dual track railway. Also, an indicator of development, so hexes near a mainline might be more developed in some way.
Other	Beach	A yellow line on the coast indicates beaches which can be used for landings.  But is all the Great Koufax shoreline also beach? A decision to make.
Other	River	Navigability is a detail that most be sorted out.  River monitors are not in the rules but are an interesting detail.
Other	Port	Labels some cities, a few actually inland on rivers.

and then the points from which more details can be drawn

Type	Adjacent to	Effects
Clear, Forest	Mountain	Somewhat hillier than normal, on the level of the Ardennes (forest) or the Alberta foothills (clear)
Clear	Road	Better communications, improved agricultural development, higher population density
Clear	River	Slightly higher agricultural productivity
Clear	City	Higher population density and some industrial buildings especially along roads.

Also, thanks to JSTOR and a professional historian friend who pointed me in the right direction I was able to download Arnold Daniel, "Regional Differences of Productivity in European Agriculture" (Review of Economic Studies, 1944-1945, Volume 12,  No. 1 pp50-70").  In addition to an interesting discussion of the reasons for differences which can lead to cultural backstory for a worldbuilding, he has productivity for key crops in Metric tons per hectare for the countries in his study.  So count hexes, determine scale, attach a factor for the terrain and the country, convert to calories per hex per harvest, Bob's your uncle.

I think that next I will look at scale, which will be an interesting problem since how scales work will determine how strategy translates to the table.  I am thinking right now or some for of nesting of time and distance so  the pace of the game and the strategic/operation/tactical interfaces feel "right" without worrying about everything being mapped 1:1.