Tsue-jo Castle Town, Kaidan

[msa]

Maze-like structures are very Japanese indeed (as I'm sure you know). It would, perhaps, be even more appropriate for the castle-on-the-hill to be surrounded by a maze-like city, so the castle's residents could see an army approaching.

It occurs to me that a river-moat may be more of a liability than a defensive structure. A moat is a problem for terrestrial attackers that don't have a boat, but a river-moat may well just make it easy for an enemy to pull a boat full of army up to the front door.

Nevermind, I'm an idiot: its on a bluff.

That said, its fabulous, and I love it. Can't wait to see what sort of gorgeous map you produce this time.

[Gamerprinter]

How do get all those straight hand drawn lines? Do I use a ruler? Heck no, I cheat. First I create a Xara object styled map of the area I plan to hand draw. So the reference only has the castle area, which is what I'll draw first. Then this is printed, placed on a light table and traced.

I'll try to draw each section as a letter size area, that will take multiple sheets to complete, and just overlap each slightly so I can line things back up. This way I can keep my drawn lines at a consistent size.

All the detailing will be completely freehand, but the basic shapes are easier to trace first, then detail fill the interior.

I will continue to update this guideline map until the entire city is created, but I'll hand draw in parts as I get this map completed phase by phase.

So nothing artsy yet, just making two rough maps for tracing, one of the planned town entirety and one of just the castle...

Now to begin tracing!

GP