MDR Please Read

[Defiant]

Do you have a map of the USA, bottom part of Canada, Mexico?
What I was thinking would be a setting of the Civil War with the Powers being USA, CSA, Native Americans, Mexicans, French and English. I would like to put it a map of the dimensions said above, but I don't know if I would need to include a portion of France and England home countries with all the Atlantic Ocean. Is there anything like this?

[MDR]

I don't have a map like that, but I know where you can get one...

Go to the Perry-Cenasta Library website. You can find it by searching for PCL Maps under Yahoo. That's where I've picked up all my information for my two variants.

As for variants like this? The closest thing I can think of to this would be the Empire variant by Vincent Mous. You can find that at the Diplomatic Pouch. You might want to snag that map and alter it to your needs (with Mous' permission, of course). If you want to crop the North American portion out of either of my maps, go ahead.

The powers you could have so far would be:

British Canada
Spanish Cuba
French Mexico
USA
CSA
Indian Territory

You might need one more...Russian Alaska? The Guyanas? I think the French politically controlled Mexico by this point, but I'm not completely sure. I don't think you'll need to include any portion of Europe on this unless you want the possibility of choosing sides in this conflict causing yet another European land war.

I know you didn't ask about graphics software, but I recommend using Paint Shop Pro for the map.

[Defiant]

Thanks MDR,
Maybe I will crop one of yours, they are nice, I do have PSP6, if I do this and finish it, I will run it by you before I present it and get blasted by the critiques.

[MDR]

Cool. I wish I had a copy of PSP6. I have to do my work on the shareware version. I look forward to see what you can come up with.

[Defiant]

MDR,
I just pulled down the North American map by Perry-Cenasta and is this how you start a Diplomacy Map? This is exactly the kind of map I am looking for. I will see what I can do to it under PSP6, do I need to tell or mention anyone for rebuilding this map or does it matter?

[MDR]

If you're pulling it off the library, I wouldn't bother telling anyone. I think stuff like that's pretty much public domain. Besides, you're not trying to make any money off of it. A couple pieces of advice in making the map. Trace the continent and major country borders first in straight black, then use something like red (or some sharp, easy to see color) to clear out inside the borders and the oceans. After that, color the red with straight white. Then you should have a two color "empty" template that'll work with any palette and will be easy to alter as needed. I got smart after making the 20th Century map and kept an "empty" black & white template of the world in case I ever needed to make another variant. I've been adding island chains to it ever since.

Most of this advice goes under the assumption that you'll be doing single easy to fill colors for all of the major powers and the neutral provinces.

[Defiant]

Thank you Sir.

[MDR]

No problem...