FH2 Dev Blog - Mapping Bodange — Part I: ambience and aesthetic design - La Hire

[RAnDOOm]

Welcome back to another dev blog! In this series, we will talk about one of our future map: Bodange. This first dev blog will be focused on design, environment and statics.

But first, what is this map about? Bodange is a small village in the Belgian Ardenne, near to the German border. Established in a steep valley through which flows the Sûre river, it was an easy-to-defend key point on the roads of the German armies towards Sedan in May 1940. As a result, firmly entrenched in favorable positions that allowed them to lock down the valley, about sixty Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais managed to hold out all the day of the 10th of May against the advanced elements of the 1.PanzerDivision. The Belgians only left the battlefield after exhausting all their ammunition.

That's, in short, the context of the map. A second blog will go deeper into military aspects.

But let's start with a minimap overview of the map:
 

We can compare it with an aerial photo of 1971 (all credits go to the Géoportail de la Wallonie):

 

And I guess, you will first notice that there weren't much forests back in time! Actually, the Ardennes wasn't much of a forest. Most of the land was used for agriculture; it is only recently that it has been taken over by the timber industry.

But to help making the gameplay fun and actually playable, we decided to add more woods than there was back in time to cover spawn points or routes to flags.


Topography

N.B. all in game screen shots are WIP.

This topographic map should help you to visualise the relief of the area.
 

As you can see, the two rivers, the Sûre, flowing North to South, and the Basseille, flowing East to West, are "digging" the valley steep. The Germans would attack from the road North/East (Rue de la Fieltz) and from the southern road, the N(ationale)848, following the Sûre river.

While the Belgians are lying in ambush at the top of Le Stein hill, and in the houses and farms along Rue Haute, the two rivers, the need to attack down the slopes exposed to the enemy uphill, and then to climb the other side of the valley to storm the Belgian positions, will make the party hard for the Germans if the Belgians manage to use their positions wisely.

 

The Stein. Looking south.



Rue Haute. Looking North/East.


Rue Haute, looking to the Stein.

Attacking from the Fiels forest will be of no help since this one ends into a cliff, giving a natural "shield" between the two main roads.

 

Note that there were barbed wires all along the Sûre. There was too a railway down the cliff, which no longer exists.

But fortunately for the Germans, the slopes of the valley are mostly covered with woods, helping them to find cover to progress down to Belgian positions.

 

Planted pines forests, dedicated to industrial production, like all forests of the area. Barely nothing grows into the ground, just a bit of moss.

These forests might also help the Germans to flank the Belgians West of Rue Haute, going down the Stein to cross the Basseille at a dam and secure the Perrad sawmill.

 

Perrad mill from the northern slopes of the Stein. The watermill was actually used for the flour but also to slice wood, a detail we unfortunately couldn't depict in game...

On the other side of the map, the Belgians destroyed the bridge over the Sûre, at the entrance of the town...

 

The bridge, made by Cpt.Bocquier, is a 1:1 copy of the historical bridge of Bodange.

... but fortunately for the Germans, the river is shallow here. And they can still try crossing another ford, north of the bridge...

 

 

... but this one is well guarded! You can see, camouflaged into the slope, a small Devèze Type D bunker.

Devèze refers to Albert Devèze, a Minister of the Defence having advocated the construction of a line of fortifications in the Belgian Ardenne in 1933-35, the Devèze Line. These constructions are light, since troops were supposed to only delay an attack from Germany before reaching a defensive redoubt in the Flanders.

Another one is hidden just under the Stein, along the N848.

 

 

They were simply made to host a light machine gun...

 

 

... unlike this other Type D Devèze bunker, able to host an heavy machine gun thanks to its Affût Chardome.

 

Inside the bunker, with its Affût Chardome.

 

All these bunkers were made by Cpt.Bocquier.

Finding the location of the last one was not easy. Various sources mention a bunker "in Hartman farm", being blown up by a PaK-36, equipped with a MG-08, and having views over the river. Contemporary mentions said its remainings are still in a garden around there. So, this photo, taken after the battle, plus another one in Google Maps street view, let us think it was actually there:

 

 

Camouflaged into the farm, this one was meant to fire at the river crossing under the bridge. For sure, the Belgians did their best to use the topography at their advantage!



Architecture and landmarks

As you will see below, Bodange is quite of an uniform village colour-wise. Under their thick stone walls, which gave a great service to the Chasseurs in 1940, the houses were generally coated with white, and their roofs covered in slate.

To give the map its real life uniformity, we retextured some of our existing houses, but I also decided to make a small new set of houses to complete the "bulge" one.

It also appeared that we actually lacked of buildings to make realistic huge farms, with their courtyards, as they appears in the photos of the town...

 

Here a photo from end of 19^th century or early 20^th century, to compare with the layout of the map. Some buildings didn't exist yet at the time the photo was taken, and the vegetation has evolved as well. Take note that the map is not a 1:1 copy of the real terrain, but very close. Thus some stuff are depicted a bit packed compared to real life.
 

 

We were also missing opened farm houses, where to hide the heavy machine guns of the Chasseurs, like they did at Bodange...

 

 

Both of them still exist. First one is also inspired by another house at the end of Rue Haute. For the latter one, we have a photo of it in 1931.

 

 

All these houses were made by myself, with help, advice and amendments of Cpt.Bocquier.


And finally, the ancient train station of Bodange, made by Cpt.Bocquier too.

 

 

The train station no longer exists. About the hotel, photos of 1940 show it has been rebuilt into something more modern. The hotel has changed again after the war, but still exists under the name of Le Martin-Pêcheur ("The Kingfisher")!

 

The crossing of Bodange near the train station by the Panzers, shortly after the battle.

 

And to end up this small tour of the map, another landmark, the "waterfall" of Bodange....

 

 

Of course, that photo was probably taken in 19th century or early 20th century, when there wasn't vegetation at all, or almost!

 

 

But you'll surely be able to compare these photos, and others you could find, with the map when it will be out!

And we will just leave you with some ambience stuff, to get yourself immersed right in 1940, made and researched by Cpt.Bocquier!

 

 

What would be Belgium without their delicious beers? As the German attack took everyone by surprise, I have depicted the map like if peaceful activities had been suddenly interrupted, as you will see in many places on the map.


Hope you have enjoyed reading this blog, and see you for the next one!

 

La Hire


Thank you to @La-Hirefor this post.

Original post here - http://fhpubforum.warumdarum.de/index.php?topic=22477.0