I love a good map on a blog or in a book. I noticed this beautiful map on Tony Adams’ The Woodscrew Miniature Army blog. He has been writing recently about his reimagined Earth in the form of his ImagiNations world Tian.
Please note his map is personal and copyright and not to be used or published without his permission.
It was made for Tony by a professional cartographer, Greg Shipp of Lost in Maps, prepared from Tony’s sketches. https://www.lostinmaps.co.uk/
Screenshot from Greg Shipp’s website Lost in Maps.
Tony has been setting out in print over several blog posts the background to his reimagined version of the world for his ImagiNations.
One of the interesting points he made is that his reimagined world and its armies c. the Eighteen Nineties has only coal and therefore steam power, but no reserves of oil or petroleum. So effectively, what some others would call ‘steam punk’.
As Tony says in his first Tian related post on Thursday 5th March 2020:
“In most respects my planet has evolved in the same way as Earth and has now reached the equivalent of the 1890’s on Earth. At this time however, progress has slowed in some areas. My planet’s development is firmly harnessed to the horse and steam train as the only forms of transportation and apart from the very earliest experiments in coal fired steam generation of electricity, the future holds no prospect of an Earth like oil based revolution.
Small quantities of oil for lubrication purposes and a little gas are becoming available as by products from steaming of coal for the production of coke for iron smelting but these are still very infant technologies. However, radio technology has advanced a little faster than on Earth and is at a level similar to that on Earth in 1918. In addition the telephone and telegraph are in widespread use and general industrial capabilities are very close to those on earth in the 1890s.”
Fascinating.
I first came across Tony Adams when I found his blog about his Miniature Woodscrew Army, inspired by an article in Miniature Warfare in 1969. Tony then kindly sent me some vintage Airfix 1960s figures that he had spare, as he is not currently wargaming. Some of these repainted and rebased figures have featured on this blog such as https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/28/adamstown-or-angria-vintage-airfix-acw-repaired/
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/a-1960s-airfix-owl-pellet/
Tony’s blog and book reviews (often about military logistics) are worth dropping in on from time to time. I’m sure Tony would welcome people’s comments:
https://thewoodscrewminiaturearmy.blogspot.com/?wref=bif
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 29th March 2020
Man of Tin blog 
Mark. Thanks very much for this post. I am most grateful and glad you like my blog and Tian. Kind regards. Tony
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I hope many new people enjoy your website.
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Great post- thanks for the heads up on Tony’s blog- have followed it with my blogger account.
Cheers,
Pete.
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That’s good. Some interesting book reviews and ImagiNations back story.
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You remind me I have to complete my own maps of my imagi world. I used Games Workshop plastic clip together hexes but then realized I could as easily draw and paint them mon a piece of wood, paper etc. I have my map of Bogavania and Beerstein plus some bordering lands but have to add a detailed map of Fezia, Bogavania’s ally. I roll dice to determine the geographical features of each hex. I could also leave some of that to the course of a campaign when ‘unknown’ lands are entered. With ‘unknown’ lands I could also use random factors to determine the level of technology of the inhabitants – stone age, ancient, medieval, horse and musket etc.
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The dice idea to choose geographical features in unknown lands is an interesting one. Likewise the tech status of the natives.
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Maps do add a lot to the hobby be it the professional ones or our scribbles on the back of envelopes. They can transport us to far away places that never were. Good distracting and engaging activity for the current times. My favourite maps are those which show the Holy Roman Empire and its constituent parts, Burgundy falls a close second. Years ago I drew one for some Scottish Ecw gaming in the highlands. Place names were Glen Close, Glen Campbell with its rhinestone mines and much more in the same vein…
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I like the Glen Campbell, Glen Close jokes! Very funny. There are some lovely mapping / maps at https://gridbasedwargaming.blogspot.com/2020/03/ww2-western-desert-campaign-game-2.html
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This is great! I love that we’re finally getting more 19th century imagi-nations after the 18th century/lace wars imagi-nation craze of a few years ago. I also have a late 19th century “imagi-world” that I need to write up a history of, but I’ve got a map on this post: https://www.atthequeenscommand.com/skirmish-at-tun-creek-charge-battle-report/
I made it using Azgaar’s free fantasy map generator which is a great resource for anyone wanting an instant, quality map they can play around with and customize: https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/
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Thanks aducknamed joe for the link to your map and the fantasy map generator – very useful and stylish indeed!
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A little late, but this post (and some others) inspired me to get some of my own imagi-nations thoughts up online: https://www.atthequeenscommand.com/19th-century-wargames-imagi-nation-pelia/
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