Best earth location for a battletech map?

[Iron Mongoose]

I was thinking about a defense of Washington state after another thread, since it's got two sides of the state divided by a mountain range with only a few major passes, and the industrial areas in the west have many lakes and rivers.  But, a whole state is doubtless too big for a map (at least a mech scale map).

But one of the passes might make a fun map.  I quite like the drive over Stevens Pass, but Snoqualmie is larger and carries more traffic. Either way, the idea of trying to defend a realistic mountain pass on a large scale does sound like an interesting challenge. 

[PurpleDragon]

Any place with a network of canyons could also work.  The Grand Canyon in the American SW is too restrictive, being too deep, but there are other canyons and similar all over the world.

Of course, Hilton Head in the American South was a hot spot when the Blakists hit Terra.  It's on the seashore, so while not a canyon system like the Colorado or Columbia (and there are more canyons up the American NW, too), there are enough rivers and seas to make it... interesting.

Borger, TX.  Lots of mesquite trees, dried up creeks, refineries and carbon black plants, dead fishing ponds,... 

It's a small town about 50 miles NE of Amarillo, TX. 

When I lived there the whole town was about 3 miles in diameter and had outlying urban areas about 2-15 miles out.  Lake Merideth was about 10 miles away by road, half that as the crow flies. 

[bobthecoward]

I was thinking about a defense of Washington state after another thread, since it's got two sides of the state divided by a mountain range with only a few major passes, and the industrial areas in the west have many lakes and rivers.  But, a whole state is doubtless too big for a map (at least a mech scale map).

But one of the passes might make a fun map.  I quite like the drive over Stevens Pass, but Snoqualmie is larger and carries more traffic. Either way, the idea of trying to defend a realistic mountain pass on a large scale does sound like an interesting challenge.

cle Elum looks like an interesting part of the pass....

[Death by Lasers]

  Not a map per se but the Vasquez Rocks formations would look great on a Battletech map.

[danumphrey]

Austin, TX has rivers, bridges, highways, a dense downtown, railways, and a bunch of rolling elevation.  Not so much in the way of forest, but there are trees and greenbelt (or the allergies wouldn't be so bad!).

[truetanker]

I google map using Satellite photo:

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1219679,127.7316989,13.3z

Hwacheon, South Korea

Pretty much has everything you've asked for...

TT

[Karasu]

Is that Arthur's Seat or Calton Hill? Edinburgh is packed with neat terrain, all the hills, a river running through the city, the Firth nearby, and of course the Castle.

That#s Arthur's Seat, attached to Salisbury Crags.  Calton Hill is closer to the centre of the city.  The Castle is ~8 hexes across at it's widest, and has a level difference of about 12 from the gardens to the top of Castle Rock, before adding a few levels of building on top.

[Church14]

I would actually point to Western Wisconsin. La Crosse has a road layout in the shape of Nevada, the Mississippi on the West and Southwest, Sheer bluffs on the East (maybe level 4 height), marshlands on the north. A single major road goes north to a smaller town. South side of the city is easy, relatively flat terrain.



Pittsburg would also have good geography. From what I remember, it's basically a city surrounded by hills, but nothing too extreme

[Charlie Tango]

Downtown Washington D.C. - and not for the reasons you might think.

One of the fun things to this city is that building regulations (in the actual District) dictate that a building cannot be built taller than the street next to it is wide- which tends to cap things at about eleven stories max. Most areas of town are much shorter than that even. So you end up with a dense urban sprawl, but lines of sight for Battlemechs are still going to be pretty easy to get. It'll just be more of a playground for the infantry and tanks than usual. Throw in nice, straight-line streets to shoot down for long-range combatants, and you have a great place to tear apart in a Battletech brawl.

Mapmaster actually did exactly that... unfortunately it doesn't look like he has it up for sale on his site anymore...

[Colt Ward]

You can do a lot of things, but realize that your average BT 'city' would be some road junction in the sticks with a bit of buildings around it.  When I started building my MM city maps I pulled out the stats on a couple of small cities . . . like Corpus Christi, which has a good sized port & some refineries.  Your talking about hundred of hexes of buildings and streets . . . and of course the open lots or woods bits.

Anyone ever do any of the big famous golf courses?

[bobthecoward]

You can do a lot of things, but realize that your average BT 'city' would be some road junction in the sticks with a bit of buildings around it.  When I started building my MM city maps I pulled out the stats on a couple of small cities . . . like Corpus Christi, which has a good sized port & some refineries.  Your talking about hundred of hexes of buildings and streets . . . and of course the open lots or woods bits.

Anyone ever do any of the big famous golf courses?

That is why I'm thinking cle elum is perfect.

[jimdigris]

Have you considered doing deserts?  Try the national parks in Utah and northern Chile.  Below is Chile.

[SteveRestless]

the traditional starterbox map, and many of the ones done in a similar style, remind me a lot of eastern Oregon.

[SteelRaven]

Found that Kansas City project by Techpriest I mentioned earlier
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=46608.msg1124908#msg1124908

[Mapmaster]

Mapmaster actually did exactly that... unfortunately it doesn't look like he has it up for sale on his site anymore...

Sure I do!

https://mapmasterbattlemaps.com/maps/capitol-city-4x6?category=4x6

[Simon Landmine]

Second the idea of picking part of the UK - we have small towns and cities, and really variable landscapes, but without the huge expanses of woodland of the US Pacific Northwest.

The centre of Durham is quite good - a big promontory over a river bend, mixing urban and wooded slopes, with some open space between it and the university (which would make a reasonable strategic target if there's research going on).

This tool is quite good too - allows you to overlay a grid and compare satellite and map side-by-side - https://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm - for example, here's Durham.

(I've put together some MM maps that are 64x68, or roughly 2km to a side, myself, mostly with rolling terrain - they're quite good fun to do, and I've got some more ideas knocking about being worked on. Here's one example.)