Finding maps

[stg58fal]

Since I'm not from Europe, finding road maps of Europe has, thus far, been kind of a pain in the ass. I've been collecting maps from old issues of National Geographic that I've found being given away, and if they're still out there I had a TON of the NG maps I got from back issues when I was in high school.

But right now, with my 2013 group being in Estonia (I'll post more of the journal entries after my GF gets done writing them, I need to edit and put ALL of them in one long topic anyway), I can't really afford to wait around until I stumble over maps that I need. If they make their way to Italy for some unknown reason, NatGeo can help me out thanks to a recently liberated map of that country that I found. Money is tight, so I can't spend $40 or so on a road atlas of Europe (if the group ever makes it back to CONUS, I've got a good atlas from when my dad was a truck driver that I can use tho).

I decided to just plug 'estonia road map' into Google, even knowing that 98% of what Google returns will be useless for what I want, and Rule 34 is ALWAYS in effect. Anyway, here's one site I found that seems pretty decent:

http://www.ezilon.com/maps/

And here's one example (Poland); the img was a bit large so maybe I'll just post a link instead:
http://www.ezilon.com/maps/europe/poland-road-maps.html



Anyone else have any other good websites for nabbing maps from? I figure that a lot of the smaller towns and most villages aren't going to show up on these maps, and maybe there are some better sites out there.

[Graebarde]

google earth is pretty good. Not maps in the sense you mean, but aerial/sat photos showing everything. In my US campaigns set in 98, I can actually click on the time bar and see the area in '98 rather than 14 years later and all the development. Just a thought.. and it IS free.

Plus you can save the shot to a jpeg or bitmap for modifications etc. Some of the 'larger' shots aren't well detailed I find, but get down to the closer and you generally can get pretty good detail. More than enough for games I think.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

To take Graebarde's thoughts on Google a little further, I've found that Google Maps is pretty good for the 2010-2013 timeframe.
Again you can zoom in/out and save images of the map or print them directly from the browser. The Google Maps interface also allows you to select satellite or terrain views plus it's also linked to Wikipedia articles and photos (if people have posted any of the area).
http://maps.google.com/

[ArmySGT.]

There is a .kmz add on that puts a topo map overlay on the satellite image of Google Earth.

You can create your own military Top maps that way.

In the options you can change the mapping system from Lat and Long to Universal Tranverse Mercator (UTM).

That way where ever you lay the pointer you will get a 12 digit grid coordinate.

The Topo overlay currently only works for the USA as the maps are derived from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Then take a screen shot of Google Maps in with the Topo layer on. Save that and open it with Milsketch. Keeping GE open you can use that to reference proper grid coordinates if you use such in your campaign.

[Graebarde]

There is a .kmz add on that puts a topo map overlay on the satellite image of Google Earth.

You can create your own military Top maps that way.

In the options you can change the mapping system from Lat and Long to Universal Tranverse Mercator (UTM).

That way where ever you lay the pointer you will get a 12 digit grid coordinate.

The Topo overlay currently only works for the USA as the maps are derived from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Then take a screen shot of Google Maps in with the Topo layer on. Save that and open it with Milsketch. Keeping GE open you can use that to reference proper grid coordinates if you use such in your campaign.

Where do you find the add-on?

[ArmySGT.]

Where do you find the add-on?

HERE (http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/03/best_topo_map_i.html)

Click on the "USGS Topographical Overlays" hyperlink.

You will be asked to download a file "topomaps.kmz"

Download, scan for virus, then open and install.

You will have to have Google Earth and not Google Maps to run it.

[Cdnwolf]

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftopmap.narod.ru%2F&act=url


Great maps... I included the google translated version