July 2014 Challenge: The road of the Khans

[Ilanthar]

I like the icons/arrows and the whole concept. I'm wondering if you could add an effect on the lands, though. It's probably a matter of taste, but I would like an "older" feeling to it, the colors are good but the terrain is kinda sharp right now, imho.

[Azélor]

they fought as far as Hungary, interesting.

I would suggest that you add the Republic of Novgorod on the map since it's one of the few states that wasn't conquered.

[xpian]

It's looking great! So much good information in there.

Minor point: as I understand it, the battles of Legnica and Mohi, in Poland and Hungary, happened just two days apart and are separated by hundreds of miles. These were two branches of Subutai's expeditionary force, so you might consider having two branching arrows or two battle markers over there, indicating simultaneity.

Azelor, that phase of the invasion is really fascinating. The european forces lost both of those battles. There was nothing to stop Subutai from advancing deeper into western Europe...then the great khan died back in Mongolia and everyone had to return in order to sort out the succession. And the mongol forces never made it back to pick up where they'd left off. (There are many who speculate that any returning mongols would have met increasingly stiff resistance in the dense foliage of Germany and France, with hundreds of stone castles all over the place. It's never been easy for steppe horsemen to rampage in those areas, not since roman times.)

[Francissimo]

Thx for the feedbacks guys, you seem to know much more than me about mongol history! i've tried to take your remarks into consideration and add places and soften a bit the relief. Doing an historical map was a fun way to learn things about a part of history i didn't know well. The tough point is to find reliable sources of information, here i mainly use google image results of 'gengis khan map' and the various websites provided by kind members of the forum. It was really interesting to discover mongol history, the way they win while they were heavily outnumbered and how they were masters in psychological war is really impressing!
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[Meshon]

Holy smoke! I wish history textbooks had more maps like this.