The 509th Gazetteer, and How It Got This Way
Sept 4, 2024 6:00:04 GMT -8
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Post by ChefEd on Sept 4, 2024 6:00:04 GMT -8
When creating the strategic map we use for the campaign I needed to "fudge" some things. I needed to make a compromise between the Gazetteer that Steve Dixon created for "Target for Today" and the actual "Google Maps" distances from Base to the targets that our Gazetteer is based upon.
Strategic Map and Gazetteer Creation
Each Zone in the Gazetteer is described as 50 miles across. When I compared the Gazetteer zones to actual miles on Google Maps, I found the actual distance per Zone to fluctuate. Let me explain.
With a Zone 50 miles across, a target could be at the very beginning of the Zone, or at the end of the Zone. Say two targets are in Zone 5. That would make them, in game scale, 250 miles from Base. In actuality one could be at 201 miles and one at 250 miles from Base.
What I did was measure the distance to each target and divide that distance by the Zone number it sat in in the Gazetteer. The target distance Zone Averages varied between about 42 miles per Zone to over 49 miles per Zone. Overall Zone average was just over 46 miles per Zone.
With such a discrepancy in base Zone distances a single set of rings would have been inconsistent with Steve's Gazetteer. I was not about to tinker with Steve's work. So, NO rings on the strategic map, just a calculated Game Gazetteer to correspond to Steve's original work.
Route to Target Creation
Finally, there was the issue with route to target lines. To enhance game play I opted to draw dog leg routes for most targets.
Using the Google Maps Distance tool I mapped out routes that corresponded, in most instances, to the Gazetteer. In many cases, routes shared initial route legs. This is intended to add some color to the game. By having multiple target routes start the same it would "confuse the enemy" as to our true target, until the Group "committed" toward the true target.
There are a few target return routes that are a zone shorter than the inbound routes. Again, to add some color to the game, by providing a more direct route "home".
With the creation of these "dog leg" routes the country borders crossed sometimes vary from Steve's Gazetteer. In those case I used my estimations on what country was being crossed per zone, based upon the 1940 map I used for the strategic map. However, I would say the greatest majority of instances match with Steve's Gazetteer.
Conclusion
Finally, It is my opinion that the Gazetteer Zones are a combination of formation air speed, ground distance, and elapsed time. In real life bombers would be making small adjustments to speed, direction, and altitude, to throw off enemy tracking and forecasting of the formation. These could account for differences between the Gazetteer and the map.
Therefore, my opinion is that the 50 miles per Zone would be the actual courses flown, rather than the "as the crow flies" distances to the targets.
Rough 15th AF Strategic Map
This map is based upon the (assumed straight line) 50 mile per zone estimated in the game rules.
Our targets are not included on this map.
A caveat: The zones on this map were drawn using an online mapping tool. I have not tested to see how accurate the distances are. Each circle was drawn using radii of multiples of 50 miles.
Note: In our campaign, we have a target, Constantia, in Romania on the Black Sea. In the game it is in Zone 15. According to the tool I used for this rough map puts Constantia in Zone 13. Also on this map, Nice, France would be in Zone 10, where our Gazetteer has Nice in Zone 11.
Strategic Map and Gazetteer Creation
Each Zone in the Gazetteer is described as 50 miles across. When I compared the Gazetteer zones to actual miles on Google Maps, I found the actual distance per Zone to fluctuate. Let me explain.
With a Zone 50 miles across, a target could be at the very beginning of the Zone, or at the end of the Zone. Say two targets are in Zone 5. That would make them, in game scale, 250 miles from Base. In actuality one could be at 201 miles and one at 250 miles from Base.
What I did was measure the distance to each target and divide that distance by the Zone number it sat in in the Gazetteer. The target distance Zone Averages varied between about 42 miles per Zone to over 49 miles per Zone. Overall Zone average was just over 46 miles per Zone.
With such a discrepancy in base Zone distances a single set of rings would have been inconsistent with Steve's Gazetteer. I was not about to tinker with Steve's work. So, NO rings on the strategic map, just a calculated Game Gazetteer to correspond to Steve's original work.
Route to Target Creation
Finally, there was the issue with route to target lines. To enhance game play I opted to draw dog leg routes for most targets.
Using the Google Maps Distance tool I mapped out routes that corresponded, in most instances, to the Gazetteer. In many cases, routes shared initial route legs. This is intended to add some color to the game. By having multiple target routes start the same it would "confuse the enemy" as to our true target, until the Group "committed" toward the true target.
There are a few target return routes that are a zone shorter than the inbound routes. Again, to add some color to the game, by providing a more direct route "home".
With the creation of these "dog leg" routes the country borders crossed sometimes vary from Steve's Gazetteer. In those case I used my estimations on what country was being crossed per zone, based upon the 1940 map I used for the strategic map. However, I would say the greatest majority of instances match with Steve's Gazetteer.
Conclusion
Finally, It is my opinion that the Gazetteer Zones are a combination of formation air speed, ground distance, and elapsed time. In real life bombers would be making small adjustments to speed, direction, and altitude, to throw off enemy tracking and forecasting of the formation. These could account for differences between the Gazetteer and the map.
Therefore, my opinion is that the 50 miles per Zone would be the actual courses flown, rather than the "as the crow flies" distances to the targets.
Rough 15th AF Strategic Map
This map is based upon the (assumed straight line) 50 mile per zone estimated in the game rules.
Our targets are not included on this map.
A caveat: The zones on this map were drawn using an online mapping tool. I have not tested to see how accurate the distances are. Each circle was drawn using radii of multiples of 50 miles.
Note: In our campaign, we have a target, Constantia, in Romania on the Black Sea. In the game it is in Zone 15. According to the tool I used for this rough map puts Constantia in Zone 13. Also on this map, Nice, France would be in Zone 10, where our Gazetteer has Nice in Zone 11.
