Map Idea: Raid on St. Nazaire France (1942)

[svenska18]

Hey everyone,
So here is my map idea, a map based on the raid on St Nazaire France in 1942. Here is a little history about it and my idea and images below. I dont have a program to create a rough draft yet so i included some areal photos and maps and will post my rough draft when i finish it. I am just wondering if you guys would be interested in such a map, and i will post my rough draft of the map and my proposed rules as soon as I can. Thanks for your feedback.
-svenska18-

History:
The raid was important because it crippled the only shipyard in France capable of servicing the large German battleship the Tirpitz, the largest battleship in the Atlantic (its sistership the Bismark was sunk). The Tirpitz threatened terrorize the English coastline and convoys heading to England. Taking out these dry docks meant the Tirpitz would have to sail all the way back to Germany for repairs making it an easy target on trips to and from the Atlantic. At 10PM an old British ship the, HMS Campbeltown, using stolen German codes fooled the coastal gunners into thinking it was returning for repairs then rammed into the drydock gate. It was loaded with 5,000tons of explosives and set for a timed detonation. Meanwhile the surviving commandos landed by wooden motor boat on the beach and dock and hit strategic targets in the shipyard such as the fuel station, anti-aircraft guns and other locations of importance. The raid is considered one of the greatest raids of the war.

 

[Shepherd]

It's certainly a compelling story (if a bit obscure), and the layout of the port is intriguing. But I am having trouble grasping what the gameplay will look like.

Ideally, this sounds like a one-player game: sneak your ship in undetected, hit the right spot, send out your commandos to destroy specific targets, and steal away in the cover of darkness. The MajCom game works quite differently: multiple players starting everywhere and trying to increase troop counts to control the entire map. So either we need to develop a uniquely new game mechanism, or we discard the story behind the event. Since discarding the story takes all the historical interest and drama out of the map, you've got an interesting challenge in front of you.

 

[svenska18]

I had included the story just for some background (probably more than people needed haha) but intend for this to play like a normal Majcom map, just using a similar layout.
Ex. Bonus for holding all the sub pens, coastal guns bombard the HMS Campbeltown, Campbeltown one way attacks the landing points, etc.
Although you bring up a good point about the fact that removing the story takes some of the excitement and drama out of the map. I will rethink some of my ideas on the way the map will play out.
Hopefully i can have a basic layout of it up soon, the more I read my first post the more it sounds confusing and vague, i will work on it and have it up at some point, but i play for it to play out like any normal map, maybe a twist or two.
What program would you recommend using to create my rough sketch of this map?
-svenska18-

 

[Shepherd]

What program would you recommend using to create my rough sketch of this map?
-svenska18-

For starters, I'd suggest you start by reading everything in the About the Map Studios thread. There are some suggestions about software you could use, but what's most important is that you use something that can be easily edited... there are sure to be changes and you don't want to reinvent the wheel with each edit.

For a map of such a specific event as this, I'd really push you to try to make the game play reflect history. Otherwise it's just a map of a port, and that won't have much draw.