Another Month. Another Challenge. And another tough round of voting. I'll say this much, however, everyone deserves a pat on the back for attempting this challenge. It wasn't exactly easy and forced us to change our approach to mapping to a certain degree as it relates to setting up rivers and laying out lakes. As for my voting . . . Like I said, it wasn't particularly easy since I thought each entry had its merits. In the end, however, I cast my lot as follows;
RobA - Possibly my favorite overall. The coloring was great and there was just enough texture to keep it from looking too flat. Great work Rob!
Ascension - This one was right behind Rob's entry and, like GamePrinter's entry for last month, it was the little extras that did it for me. The "Wanted" poster format was wonderful, though I would have liked to see some labels just to push it over the top. Perhaps the only other comment I can make about this map is that I would have liked to see all the rivers stick with that same light blue coloring that they ended with at their discharge points. The darkness of some of them makes them hard to pick out at times. But that, of course, could just be my monitor. With labels and that slight shift in river coloring, this could easily have been my favorite map.
Torq - Like Rob's entry, the coloring was great and the textures . . . Oh, the textures. The only thing missing was the grid-work required in accordance with the challenge rules, but I was able to set that aside for the artwork in this instance.
Torstan - This one was different and caught my eye. It wasn't anything specific about the coloring or style. It was simply the fact that it was different.
All in all, I wish I'd been able to vote for a few other entries, but with a limit of four votes . . . Well, I had to draw the line somewhere.
Good job to all, though!
GW