Map Development Notes and References *

1. General Methods Followed *

2. Continent-by-Continent Modification Notes to Terrain Including Specific Exclusions to the Above Methods – Updated as Needed *

3. References *

2. General Methods Followed

Question: Why did I document this thing?

Answer: It turned out to take about ten times as long as I thought it would. If I want to change something much later, I may have to figure out why I did it in the first place. I’ve put a psychotic amount of time into this map and documentation seems needed and worth the effort. "In for a penny, in for a pound."

Also part of this document are "data tables" in Excel. Mostly data about how much each country has in reserves or produces per year. I have used the data sheets to rework petroleum and uranium resource locations. I have data from coal and diamonds, but did not follow the results 100% (diamonds do not cover all gems, and there seems to be so much coal that as long as I have the right areas represented, it seems to cover everything I need.)

1. Coastlines and Shape of the Continents

The thing I disliked about the huge map that came with Civ III is the extreme inaccuracies in scale that come with a map that is clearly a Mercator projection map. Its not a "wrong" starting point, but it wastes a tremendous amount of space on historically marginal areas (northern Greenland?, Queen Elizabeth Islands?, Antarctica?). Obviously there were also some things that got skimped on (where is New Zealand? Italy the size of my finger? Forested Spain and southern Ukraine?, an abysmal lack of rivers in Europe?). If Greenland is really that nice – I’m moving.

So the map that is presented here was originally a Mercator projection map, that has been: a) recentered on latitude 15-North, b) compressed on a north-south axis in the arctic, and c) stretched just a bit in the zone between the 15-north and 60-north. The coastline of the continents was placed block-by-block using a coordinate system to convert the latitude and longitude to the odd Cartesian system the map uses. In few instances did I stray from this method.

The resulting map covers from 75-north latitude to 60-south latitude. Each block in the east-west direction represents about 2 degrees of longitude. In the north-south direction, the number of degrees of latitude per block varies from about 1 near latitude 15 N (row 90) to more like 2 or 3 degrees of latitude in the arctic.

The "arctic" extends only down to about the upper 20 map squares. Although it’s smaller, it will remain a difficult hinterland to tame because city size will be stunted.

The map was "stretched" north-south from latitude 15 north to 60 north – this area encompasses all major civs, except the Zulus. This expands the living space of the Northern Hemisphere in relation to the southern continents, allowing more room to show complicated geography. It also warped the shape of northern South America, and India.

Because the map stops at 75 north, there is no Northwest Passage. There wasn’t one in the "real world", and I didn’t want one in this map. Speaking of passages - there is now an isthmus for Port Sa’id (Egypt). A similar situation exists for the Bosporus at Constantiople/Byzantium/Istanbul. I figured that land units should be able to cross, but that a well-placed city will open up the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It’s easy to modify though.

2. Topography

My guide for topography has been my copy of "Pictorial Atlas of the World", Tormont Publications, 1992. Not only did it give me the locations of mountain ranges, highlands, plains, and the major river systems of the world, it also has a short paragraph on every country in the atlas that includes the primary economic resources found there. I then compared the terrain I had to what I could find in the "Atlas of World History", Oxford University Press, 1999. Many notes were taken from both of these atlases to help determine resource locations.

I’ve tried to represent mountain/hill ranges that are substantial and/or strategic.

When I added forest cover, I broke with the typical world maps I’ve seen and gone for the much more forested North American and Europe that existed before the forests were cleared.

For rivers and floodplains, I tried to represent every "major" river system. If you look closely enough, you will find many that I skipped (the Don in Ukraine, for instance), but I made sure that every continent has the possibility of irrigation.

Major floodplains were also added in the areas that really have them.

China, Indus and Ganges, Tigris-Euphrates, Egypt, Volga (only at the delta), the Mississippi, the Rio Grande valley, the Colorado River, and the central valley of California (San Joaquin River). The only floodplain missing is the Amazon. . . . Because its jungle, I decided to keep it that way.

3. Resources

In distributing resources, I’ve mostly referred to the 1999 "Atlas of World History", but for more modern resources (uranium, and oil) I turned to what I could find on the internet and in publications.

There are also choices to be made as to "when" a resource is available. Does one add horses in the New World for the start, or should they have to be procured or randomly appear? In that case, I went with historical truth. There are no horses in the New World. Add them if you want.

1. Strategic Resources

The distribution of strategic resources is such a critical element in the game that I’ve tried to keep it from being a spoiler for a game on the map. Other than a complete lack of horses in the New World, I’ve tried to make at least one source of a resource be on each continent. To make up for the lack of generous resources in one part of the globe, I’ve made the sources numerous in others. Just have to trade. The oil and uranium will either be easy to get, or very difficult. The Middle East still dominates oil and uranium is mostly present in three regions of the world.

Horses:

entirely absent in Americas, Australia, and southern Africa, present in African Sahel, North Africa, Spain, Ireland, southern France, Gallia Cisalpia, Poland, several in Ukraine, and plains of Hungary, very numerous on Eurasian steppes.

Iron:

present on all major landmasses, but more sources in central Europe, western Africa, Minnesota, northern Chile, Sweden, Australia, Russia (Urals, Baikal), southern India.

Saltpeter:

very plentiful in northern Chile and India, but also fairly common across the globe.

See "Fertilizers and Powder.htm" - seems almost ubiquitous.

Coal:

Coal is available worldwide. Most plentiful in USA, Britain, China, Australia, Ukraine, central Europe, Urals, and Brazil. I did get some data from the US Department of Energy (USDOE) regarding reserves by country, but the data are not too different from my initial map. Have added coal to Australia and India.

Oil:

Have redone oil to reduce the number of oil tiles - see Excel data tables. I took reserve data from the US Department of Energy and calculated the percentage of oil reserves for each country. I reduced the number of oil tiles in the Middle East (already has plenty) and combine some countries together to represent at least one tile. I deleted the island in the North Sea that had represented oil, and connected the oil to Norway. The number of oil tiles is now 30.

Number of Oil tiles	Countries
Four	Saudi Arabia, Russia (Caspian, Ukraine, two Siberian)
Two	Iran, China, USA (TX, AK)
One	Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Libya, Mexico, Nigeria, Algeria, Norway, Brazil, Indonesia, Canada, Romania, Brunei, Malaysia/Burma, Ecuador/Peru/Columbia

Rubber:

Tropical forests only: Indonesia, west Africa, Congo Basin, southern India, Brazil, Philippines, Burma

Aluminum:

Australia, Brazil, west Africa, Guiana, central Asia

 

Uranium:

Very regional distribution. See Excel data tables for proven reserves data and my calculation for number of sources. Largest uranium reserves are in Canada (near Lake Athabasca in Saskatchewan), Northern Australia, and the Lake Baikal area. There are 28 sources of uranium on the map.

2. Luxury Resources

I aimed to make the distribution of luxuries variable. I wanted it to be fairly straightforward to obtain at least a few luxuries, but downright unfair and hard to secure all of them. Therefore, I've made luxuries even more regional in distribution. As time goes on of course, some resources will disappear and others will appear elsewhere on the map – perhaps a reflection of a new source of indigo (dye) being farmed somewhere else in the world, or silkworms being smuggled out of China. (Might not want to cut down all your trees.) Here is the distribution of the luxuries

Silk:

China has eight silk tiles - definite trademonopoly. Japan has one silk, India has one silk, and I put a silk in Spain – a map I found showed there was a silk industry in some European cities such as Barcelona, Spain and Paris, France. Apparently silk spread there by the 1300’s. So Europe has one silk to fight over. There are 11 tiles worldwide.

Incense:

Entirely in Yemen, Oman, and Somalia (the original range of Frankincense), didn’t put it anywhere else in the world. There are only ten incense tiles worldwide. Definite opportunity for another monopoly

Spices:

Indonesia (Sumatra, Celebes, and the Moluccas Islands); lesser sources of spice are in south India, and Central America. I count 40 tiles, easy to get if you spread into tropics.

Number of Spice tiles	Countries
Six	Borneo
Five	Small islands in Indonesia, Congo Basin
Four	Sumatra, Philippines, India, Cuba-Jamaica-Lesser Antilles,
Three	Brazil
Two	Malaysia,
One	Vietnam, Yucatan, Honduras, Florida (USA)

Ivory:

Eastern Africa strongly dominates with the eight sources . . . India has one ivory (south and Indus River area). There are nine ivory tiles. Another potential trade monopoly.

Gems:

several rich regions - South Africa (diamonds), Congo Basin, west Africa (Sierra Leone), Columbia-Brazil (emeralds), Burma (rubies), and Sri Lanka. There are 21 gem tiles.

Number of Gem tiles	Countries
Four	Congo Basin, Brazil
Three	South Africa, Burma
Two	Western Africa, Sri Lanka, Columbia
One tile	Northern Australia, Southern Mexico, New Guinea,

 

Dye:

The distribution of dye is split between eastern Mediterranean (Tyrean purple), India and the Carolinas (indigo farms), have some in Central America too (more indigo). There are nine tiles worldwide.

Number of Dye tiles	Countries
Five	Lebanon
Three	South Eastern USA
One tile	India, Guatemala,

 

Wine:

Wine: Extremely plentiful in France, central California, and Greece. There are 22 wine tiles worldwide.

Number of Wine tiles	Countries
Seven	France
Five	USA (California, NC, central TX)
Three	Greece
One tile	Cyprus, Georgia, Belgium, Peru, Argentina, NSW Australia

Furs:

Across the northern continents wherever there is pine forest, there are furs, and some of the temperate forests near rivers have furs too. Also included furs down the California coast (sea otters). There are too many fur sources to count.

 

3. Bonus Resources

Gold, were added where the atlas' write-up indicated some form of profitable mining (gold, silver, copper, platinum mining).

Wheat and cattle were added to represent areas that the atlas showed intensive farming, fertile soils, or any kind of ranching (goat, sheep, cattle).

4. Continent-by-Continent Modification Notes to Terrain Including Specific Exclusions to the Above Methods – Updated as Needed

Have added some sea tiles and extended the continental shelf out based these changes on NGDA map. (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/2minrelief.html)

1. Europe

1. Asia

1. North America

• Most of the Eastern USA is covered in temperate forest with grasslands underneath. This is a representation of the initial state of N America. Major floodplains are present along the Mississippi, Colorado and San Joaquin rivers.
• Modified Quebec area to make a canal through St. Lawrence Seaway impossible.
• Changed southwestern USA to more hills, less floodplain, reduced fertility of San Joaquin River Valley slightly.
• Added the Athabasca River (flows from the Columbia Icefield to Lake Athabasca, then to the Great Slave Lake. The McKenzie River has been extended to the Great Slave Lake. The Saskatchewan River has also been added.

1. South America

• Greatly expanded the Amazon rainforest to cover most of Brazil. Changed "some" jungle to forest.
• Heavily modified southern part of rain forest to forest on plains - deforested tiles will not be as productive.

1. Africa

• Removed about half the barbarian encampments in the Congo Basin.
• Have added some forest to plains tiles in Southern Africa, and Western African Sahel.
• Added hills to central Sahara desert. Production not much different, but definitely better defensive terrain.
• Added a few trees to Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe plains.

1. Australia

• Has not been modified

2. References

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/trade/hd_trade.htm

Egyptian records as early as the Predynastic Period list some items that were brought into Egypt, including leopard skins, giraffe tails, monkeys, cattle, ivory, ostrich feathers and eggs, and gold. Punt (whose location is uncertain) was a major source for incense, while Syro-Palestine provided cedar, oils and unguents, and horses.

Donkeys were the only transport and pack animals used by the Egyptians until horses were brought
to Egypt in Dynasty XVIII (ca. 1539-1295 B.C.). Horses were valuable and used only for riding or
for pulling chariots. The domesticated camel was not introduced in Egypt until after 500 B.C.
http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmnh/exhibits/egypt/trade.html

Diamond production table for the year 2000 - Worldwide production

http://www.terraconsult.be/overview.htm

http://cei.sunderland.ac.uk/sakha/worldiamond.html

Some of the more favoured regions are:

http://www.geogem.com/gemstone_deposits.htm

Indigo
http://www.chriscooksey.demon.co.uk/indigo/index.html
Tyrian purple
http://www.chriscooksey.demon.co.uk/tyrian/index.html
Various Dyes in the Ancient World
http://www.arts.ed.ac.uk/classics/colours/dyes.htm

Original location of the Frankincense bushes was exclusively the Yemen, Oman, Eritrea and Somalian regions. Some, if not all, of these regions comprised the legendary Biblical "Land of Punt"
http://www.panspantry.co.uk/incstrd.htm

Silk
Silk in the Ancient Orient
http://members.aol.com/modefrance/story/history_orient.htm

http://www.world-nuclear.org/coreissues/stats/uprod.htm

Geology of Uranium Deposits
http://www.uic.com.au/nip34.htm

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf23.htm

Saskatchewan is currently the largest uranium producing region in the world
and accounts for more than 25 per cent of annual world uranium production.
http://www.gov.sk.ca/enermine/facts/semuran.htm

http://www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/urnm/p0005.htm

Australia, China, Brazil, South Africa and Sweden are the world’s major iron ore producers and exporters, accounting for more than 88% of the world's iron ore exports.

http://www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/iron/p0005.htm

Table 8.1 World Crude Oil and Natural Gas Reserves, January 1, 2000

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/iea/table81.html

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/SohailAhmed.shtml

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/EvanAbel.shtml

"Eventually a saltpeter industry grew up, based on artificial nitre beds, in which layers of decaying organic matter, old mortar, and earth were built up in a compost heap about a meter high, and sprinkled regularly with blood and/or urine. Nitrate crystals could be collected after about two years. " From Geology 115 notes - UC Davis.