IMPORTANT NOTE! YOU MUST HAVE WF OR LATEST RR
ELEMENTS FILE INSTALLED TO PLAY THESE MAPS!!
All 9 Grizz maps pasted together!
The Grizz series took shape innocently as my attempt to make one map,
which was my second one ever. Id like to answer the question I always get when I
discuss this series as well.. “NO!!! This is not based on any REAL geographic
area, its all fictional!!”
It basically came to be as I was looking for unique textures for a map
period. I had originally logged on to the net hoping to find something for a Great
war map, so trenches or mud, but after a few duds I types
“snow+picture+graphic” in Google hoping to find something for perhaps one of
my other CC favorites, a CC4 map.
Well I got this!
As you can see, the texture I used for Grizz is a REAL PHOTO of snow!
(Minus the tree in the picture.)
Now when I cropped the tree & laid out the graphic as a basic map, I was
excited. The pasted sections blended in well & I immediately began the map!
Now, I DID mention my first feeling was to look for GW textures so I
obviously wanted a GW map as my next one, so I actually compromised & put an
important element of the GW maps into this snow map, as you can see by the
small trench system in the bottom right of the first map of the series Grizz1. I also
modified a barbed wire graphic I found & made the double rowed barriers directly
guarding the trenches. This is featured on a few, but not all of the Grizz maps.
After I finished Grizz1, I liked the snow texture enough to do another
snow map. I also liked the lake at the bottom of Grizz1, & decided to make a map
to go below Grizz1. It was creating this add-on Grizz2 map that I decided that this
should become a series of maps, & I decided as Grizz2 was just beginning to take
shape that a 3 by 3 grid would be my Grizz series.
Before Grizz2 was even done I decided to roughly draw an overview of
the 3 x 3 area. I already had good direction with Grizz1, I had the lake, which
became a river which would be included in 4 of the 9 maps. I had the plateau
which would also be in 4 maps. I added the southern more forested area. (Grizz1
actually had very little forest in comparison to most of the rest of the series.) I
also made the right hand factory ‘village’ on the right as the activity hub of the
Grizz sector. Now Grizz had a reason to attack & defend. It was an industrial area
deep in heavily protected & in hard to reach forest area. Each map would have its
own unique pros & cons. The southern forest, the western defenses, the eastern
village & even a fairly diverse & interesting middle map which adds most of the
features you’ll find on all the maps into play. Okay, this isn’t a WW1 map
anymore.. but even better it works well with ALL mods!
GRIZZ1
Grizz1, was not at first intended to be a part of what became a series of
maps. In fact I had at first intended it a winter GWM map. You DO have the
element of defensive trenches in the SE protecting a plateau. But as I painted
more & added in, the GW element disappeared greatly. In the grand scheme of the
Grizz series this is the approach to the main ‘loading’ plateaus. The town of
Grizz makes the material needed by the easy, & this plateau hosts a stockpile of
this material & is well protected. As far as the western attacker, this is the only of
the western maps which gives you a fortified bunker & some trenches to work
with, although the journey between these defenses & the eastern trenches is a
tough one.
Grizz2
Grizz2 is one of my favorites of the series. Although at first I looked at
this as a clearly one sided eastern strong map, I made a couple of Ops for it &
found the game play very balanced & fun. It was making this map that the
Matthew river was born from the Grizz1 lake. This map in the Grizz Operation
‘Center’ leads to Grizz5, the center of the series, which in the Op test, was a really
awesome battle. In fact it’s a toss up between going from Grizz 2 to 5 in this Op
& the Grizz3-6 in the ‘Southern’ Op as being the top two back to back maps as
far as really good game play. I think what saved Grizz2 from being a nightmare to
take if you are the west is the heavy tree line to the west of the river which gives
great cover.
.
Grizz3
Grizz3 is entry point for the Southern Op. What made this map really
interesting in testing was the southern forest area which will mean plenty of literal
Close Combat! The central rocky rise will be both difficult to take & hold but will
no doubt be the focus whether a VL is placed there or not. Although tanks are not
really welcome on any of the Grizz maps, especially outside the eastern ones, it
might be interesting to see if someone can control the northern roads on this map
& effectively make it a north/south battle as opposed to east/west.
Grizz4
Grizz4 because of the central location of the trenches, could very well be
a race of who secures this first,. yet just as Grizz2, the opposing side has a good
tree line to work with in its tactics in the event it doesn’t secure the trenches first.
(The west doesn’t have a long tree line, but 2 groups instead, still defendable.) In
the ‘Center’ Op it should be noted the west still has to charge out of their
defensive placements to drive into the Center of Connortown, so has interesting
tactical decisions to be made when setting up.
Grizz5
Grizz5 seems to boil down to north & south. The middle area is too open
to run troops from either side. The north in Op testing was the hotspot for activity,
although many flanks were attempted from the south. Given the choice, Id be the
east on this map though!
Grizz6
Grizz6 feature NO roads or buildings. It has mostly forest & the rocky
enclaves make for battles in testing that were very unpredictable indeed where as
the game plan in the other Grizz maps are more easy to read. The east seems to
have it tougher though.
Grizz7
Grizz7 is explosive! East & west on this map can make solid defense
along the tree lines while crews can use the town itself as ‘no mans land’ &
gradually take positions in here. Id expect many dead bodies in the middle area at
the end of any battle here. If either side can gain control of the entire northern
forest, it really swings the battle in their favor.
Grizz8
Grizz8 features the unique trench network on the right. Where as the west
tend to have an advantage to take the town in this map, the trenches mean the east
are dug in very well indeed. Once taking the town, the west is far from victorious
with those trenches!
Grizz9
Grizz9 is another map on the series which can end up being a north/south
battle. In testing whoever took the town area in the north always won the map
eventually. Was it morally wrong to put a hospital in a combat zone? Nah!!!!
The name for the map is something I know Ill always agonize with. I want
something people will remember & that’s not boring like “Snowmap1”. After a
few minutes of pondering it, it hit me. This is the wilderness & I thought of
‘Grizzly’ as in bear. Funny enough I have a nickname for my 1 year old son
which is “Grizz”. So there’s the name! Hope you enjoy the Grizz series.
Id like to thank CSO_Brent who helped me turn my JPG’s into TGA’s on
one of the maps & NJRJR who did the same for a couple of the maps, while I had
problems with my graphics editor! Another kudos to CSO_Axreal who had to go
through a long series of posts & a long MSN session to help me figure out how to
make maps properly as I seemed to mess up every step of the way! He even was
kind enough to send me essential files on disk all the way from England to
Canada at his own expense! With all these guys help I went from a green rookie
to getting around rather well in the map making area by the time the last Grizz
map was coded.
CSO_Sbufkle
Sbufkle@aol.com