Modern Military Maps?

[Ashrem Bayle]

I'm considering running a modern military game, with soldiers in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East and around the world.

Mongoose's Battlefield Evolution miniatures are perfect for this. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find anything in the way of maps.

Anyone got an suggestions?

 

[Krensky]

I'm considering running a modern military game, with soldiers in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East and around the world.

Mongoose's Battlefield Evolution miniatures are perfect for this. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find anything in the way of maps.

Anyone got an suggestions?

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but what do you mean by maps?

Street-level maps of Baghdad? Regional geopolitical maps? Miniatures scale battle maps?

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but what do you mean by maps?

Street-level maps of Baghdad? Regional geopolitical maps? Miniatures scale battle maps?

Street level with enough detail to zoom up to mini scale is what I'm looking for.
For example, Google Maps can give me a good look at the streets, but you certainly can't zoom up to mini scale using it.

I'll be projecting the map, so it's got to be mini scale.

Any good high-res images will work though, as long as they are detailed enough to be miniature scale.

 

[Krensky]

I don't think you'll find that of almost anywhere. The imagery from a satellite that would have the kind of resolution to make something usable at 1"=5' would almost certainly be classified if it exists at all. Your best bet might be to use images from Google Earth or Maps to fudge your own.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Doesn't have to be real places though.
I was hoping some game company had already thought of this.

World Works has some cool stuff, but I don't need it in 3D. A simple 2D image would be fine.

 

[utopia27]

You're looking for "sub-one-meter" maps. As someone pointed out earlier, such imagery is not generally available to the general public. Be clear about the definition here - such maps/imagery are rated based on the smallest size of features resolvable in the image. 1-meter imagery shows features at/about 1m by 1 meter - you can see a motorcyclist as a blob, a person as a smaller blob. The person is not recognizable, and can (easily) be mistaken for a mailbox or a shrubbery. 1-meter imagery _is_ available from commercial providers (inmarsat...). I think google maps/earth is around 3-meter imagery.

There was a significant dispute a few years ago between (US) DoD and some of the commercial satellite imagery folks about whether or not to permit sale of 1-meter imagery. Essentially, DoD bowed to the inevitability. Pretty much the same thing has happened with 1-meter GPS.

Note that when 'interesting' events occur around the world, there's a tendency for fine-grained commercial imagery and high-resolution GPS to dry up fairly quickly...

all that said - give a check out to nga.mil, see if you can squeeze something usable out of their publicly available stuff

 

[Edgewood]

Check out Sword's Edge Publishing, especially their Albenistan Adventure Series. They might have what you're looking for.