I am looking for a relief map of western Mediterranean suited for Punic Wars. I would prefer a map as big as humanly possible with area names only if possible. My Google search gave me a few interesting info sources but not much more. Any links or ideas are appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

I can generate one from you.

Pleace specify the exact extend of the map, and what precision you need.
I can go as detailed as one pixel every 90 meters...

Any preference regarding colours?

That would be awesome! :D

I am making a personalized boardgame edition for II Punic War. I'd like it to be as large as possible perhaps stretching 2X2 meters, covering all areas: Spain, Africa (down to Tripoli), Italy up to Adriatic Sea coast, Southern France up to the Alps to the North.
Scale, I am not sure, Sicily should be about 20-25 cms.
Colors, I would like them to be according to the terrain and relief, thus brownish orange for mountains, dark green for forest, light blue for the sea.

It would be really great Steph if you could come up with this map. What tool will you be using?

I'll send you an image covering this area, but it is relief only, no forest.

Oh, I could add the rivers and probably lakes if you want

That would be great too. If you could make one with simple gray relief and then one other version with colors that would be awesome!

I could, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow. I have the necessary tools and data and the office, I don't have them with me at the moment.

I can't wait :)

In what format do you want your map? Jpeg? Png? Tiff?

I'll probably make tiles, the images will be to big otherwise (you'll have to assemble the map by printing the different images separately).

About your request to have it as big as possible...

I'm not sure you realise how big it can get :)

Here is a sample with Sicily, using maximum resolution. The image is 4143x2178 pixels, for Sicily alone.


http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2526/sicilytq8.jpg


But as I think this would really be to big, I'll generate images with a lower resolution, like that for Sicily

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/9484/sicilyga0.jpg

Tell me if you think this is OK, or if you prefer the images to be even a bit smaller, and then I'll start generating the images.

Is this colored image enough, or do you really need it in gray scale as well?

And this will be the area covered by the map

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7181/coevragewq6.jpg

Steph, thank you for this incredible work. I'm just recovering from a hard virus that struck me to 40C+, thus I had to miss a few days in front of a PC.

I really love the maps. I think I overestimated how big the map can get as you said. If you could make just two changes the map would be fine.
On a second thought I like the 2nd example of Sicily that you made to be reduced to 1/3 or 1/4 of its size (that would be a better manageable game option)
The scale of the map is great, but however as Macedonia fought in the war mostly on its own territory, I'd like the big map to be reduced until Adriatic sea, effectively cutting off Greece.

As for the format, I haven't given it much thought, I guess either Jpeg or Png would do fine, but choose whatever format would be easier to handle.

Thank you once again Steph, I really love how the maps look!

For a map of Sicily reduce to 1/3 of the 2nd preview, I used a scale of 1/2,500,000.
It means at this scale, I cannot use the more precise relief data I have (90m/pixel), as then the map is to "grainy", this is suitable only for lower resolution.

And in this scale, the rivers are hard to see.

So here is a sample with rivers,

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/5601/carthageriversxe8.jpg

and another without rivers.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/1426/carthagenoriverskq1.jpg

Can you confirm me the scale is OK, and if you prefer it with or without rivers

And here is a low quality preview (warning, 4744x2040 pixels). It gives you an idea of the size of the map. Is the coverage OK? Do you want it to go a bit more to the East/South? Is the scale OK, or do you want it slightly bigger/smaller?


http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/7638/carthagelargeaj7.jpg


Or I can make it even bigger (7900x3400 pixels, here with low quality to reduce size of preview

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/5494/carthageverylargepw6.jpg

I loved the first preview, it is exactly matching! If you could keep just the main rivers it would be awesome, otherwise scrap all the rivers please.

What program did you use?

No program, it's magic

Steph: You are the equivalent of a cartography porn star. :D

I hate to ask, but how is the progress on that map? :)

You did very well to ask, I forgot you!

I'm working on it now, I have some free time

Thank you! I'm not stuck as well, doing the rules.

Here it is

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/6210/carthagefinalva1.jpg

Oh Gods! Jupiter will not forget your service!

Thank you very much! I've never seen a finer quality!
I will now try to proceed by adding a hexagonal tile net over it.

Well, that's not the finest quality, as you wanted only a small map I had to reduce the quality ...
But for the same area with the highest quality, the picture would have been 35200 x 17288 pixels...

I doubt I will ever be able to print that.... you have to stay more or less realistic to limits you can actually handle during play.

What kind of magic did you use?

Don't worry, it's only Light Magic. I don't do Dark Magic, no sacrifice of virgin girls during the full moon was involved.

Global Mapper 9 for the tool, mix of Digital Chart of the World, DTED evel 0 and SRTM for the data

You know, ever since I was a child I wished I could draw well. I'm kind of glad we got computers around.
Thanks again! (programs added to my wish list ;) )

You can get Global Mapper here http://www.globalmapper.com/

There is an evualation version for free, one licence is 299$, just a few Euros.

For the data themselves, you can download them for free.

It just takes a little room on your hard drive : 14.2 Gb for the relief in SRTM format, covering the whole world with 1 point every 90 meters.

Merci, I've Googled it already :). The space I have, but I doubt I will spend 300 on a hobby like that. Maybe if it becomes something more serious.

Well, I have it for my job, I wouldn't have bought it just for a hobby

I know, and I am kind of glad you do ;)