Excellent! Also, for anyone that has the map and thought (as a GM or player): "I'd really like to see X on this map.", please offer the feedback.

@jackdays: I used the Sylvania map from Nights Dark Masters as a reference point trying my best to meld that with older sources of Sylvania. It's kind of a hybrid map in some senses. Gitzman's map collection and his big map have been invaluable in creating this.

@Angelic Despot: Are you using Acrobat Reader X? Try updating your reader to it. I just opened it in Reader X and it worked. The boxes should not be yellow, they should be white boxes. The ones visible (all but Political Lands) should have a little eye icon in them and the Political Lands should have nothing in it (showing it as not visible). Clicking either an open box or an eye should hide or show that layer. Should look something like this: www.google.com/imgres

Does anyone know of where I can find an updated master career list as of Hero's Call?

Just to make sure you are clicking in the right place, in Acrobat reader, next to each layer is a box with an 'eye' icon in it. You have to click that little checkbox to toggle on and off. Is that working?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nobility There you are! It's got all the titles and what they meant. Strangely enough Graf typically was "Count", so technically, in the Empire all the Counts should be Grafs, but I digress….

Some more updates to this map. I've decided to go ahead and add the peripheral entities such as the Wasteland, Bretonnia, and Kislev (at least put in what I had room for.) In addition, cleaned up the organization of the nobles by color now, so you can tell easily a Graf from a Baron, etc. One further reminder as I've been getting a lot of questions on it. To really benefit from viewing this map, you have to use the layers feature in Acrobat (reader or professional itself). IT is notoriously cluttered otherwise. It gives each viewer the control of what they do and do not want to see on their map. The "Political Lands" layer especially. I have it turned off by default, but you can turn it on. Last on the list is figuring out how to do resources and trade networks. It has me stumped at the moment and any suggestions would be helpful. 90% done! www.mediafire.com/file/9l9mllhdzz5z11z/Empire_Map_Project.pdf

Had some comments that the political layer faded the rest of the map a bit TOO much. Adjusted the fade a bit so you can still see what's behind. www.mediafire.com/file/g7ax0jngnxhwb78/Empire_Map_Project.pdf

Finished the "Political Lands" layer that adds the names of the nobles to where they rule. This services to help me as the GM and the players as well to know who they're dealing with in the area. The layer is defaulted to "off" but you can turn it on or off as necessary as with the rest of the layers. www.mediafire.com/file/3bt080clk9bo2f3/Empire_Map_Project.pdf

All, I've uploaded a new version that adds the Wasteland area as well as touches up the legend a bit. Also added a "bad guy" layer that shows monster lairs and greenskin tribes. Many thanks goes out to Gitzman, as his super huge map helped with that! The new upload link is: http://www.mediafire.com/file/aqabc6qsoql6576/Empire_Map_Project.pdf On another note, does anyone know how to edit a post? I wanted to just update the link in my original post, but can't seem to figure out how to edit the post…

@ RARodger - QuarkXpress of all things. I don't have any Adobe design products.

I'm going to add in the Wasteland on the western side (Marienburg area) as my players usually end up there. In addition, since I have the version pre-PDF, I can also add in or change the map depending on how my players react to the world. The next big step is to add a layer for nobility. In Sigmar's Heirs they list the name of what noble rules each area. I'm going to have a layer that fades out the rest a bit and adds in the names of the local nobles over their respective area. As I finish this, I'll upload it. As an aside, for the Warhammer map experts, two small areas I've put on the map are my creations entirely to the world that I made for a very large campaign we did a few years back. I wonder if anyone can point them out.

Hi all, This is a WIP of my Warhammer Empire map. There are many out there of varying levels of detail and no two are exactly the same. We roleplay a lot in the Warhammer Universe, specifically in the Empire. I love all the maps out there , but having the source material all over the place was difficult as well as the scale of the maps made weren't quite what I wanted. When we roleplay, we usually have a digital version of the map on my 46" TV that we can reference. So, this map specifically is built in Layers that you can turn off and on so that as a GM I can filter only things I want my players to see. It's s WIP still, but as it stands I did my best to compile the map from many sources, including Gitzman's map (check out gitzman's gallery website for his compilation of WH maps), Andy Law's maps (which are FANTASTIC) as well as the second edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay book, Sigmar's Heirs. Lastly, there is also a fair amount of guesswork and preference involved. It's vectored as well so the zoom level of the PDF is amazing and can go really close (up to 6400%). The map itself is 48x48". Lastly, the Legend is partially incorrect as I made it early on with the idea of what I wanted on the map. To reitterate, you need to be able to view a PDF and know how to navigate layers to get the most out of the map. I've still got plenty of work to do, but check it out. It's uploaded on mediafire here: www.mediafire.com/file/6u2wib38p3hv2xm/Empire_Map_Project.pdf

I've done a few things in my campaign to deal with our Ironbreaker. First off, I do want to say, our party is by no means melee heavy, but the Ironbreaker can be really tough. The first rule I use is to have a good balance of different difficulty encounters over the course of a certain amount of game sessions. Let's throw out some random numbers: Out of 10 combats, I'd say 5 should be easy (say with mooks or the like), 3 should be difficult, and 2 should be very, very challenging. One of the things to consider is how to bring them out of their element. For one fight, I had a group of thugs hired by the baddie sneak into the house they were staying in in the middle of the night and set the place on fire. So they now had a fight with armed baddies (one with a vicious 2H weapon and some nice Action Cards to support it) in their underwear in a burning building (using the Burning Building location card). Makes the combat dynamic, fun, and very challenging, even for the Ironbreaker. That specific encounter ended up really fun for the players. Another fight they were on a precarious path along a cliff with a rickety rope bridge. A Shaggoth showed up a ways above them on a cliffside and opened up the fight by hurling a bunch of large boulders on them. Then he engaged. This is a good example of having the monsters try for advantages aside from the typical: "Monsters spottted, everyone charges and begins whacking on each other" Lastly, my group is facing a lot of undead in the current campaign. Can't kill the Ironbreaker with damage? You can sure as heck drop him with oodles of stress. All in all, a bit of creativity on the part of the GM can lead to some fantastic (and difficult) encounters if done right. Each group may vary, just find what they like!

There are plenty of places you can have this take place. Down off the coast of the Badlands/Border Princes there could be any number of island isolated and scattered off the coast. Also, Tilea has TONS of random little lislands all over the place of their coast as well. I suppose you could even have a hidden island off the coast of Nordland or Kislev in the Sea of Claws, maybe even Norsca. Lastly, off the coast of the island of Albion could also work. Find the culture that suits the style you want and roll with any of the above ideas!

I find Office Max has some great stuff to help save some space on the "GM's Table" so to speak. I have a side table for all my GM stuff, including this to put all my career cards in: www.officemax.com/catalog/sku.jsp Also a double-wide version of this: www.officemax.com/catalog/sku.jsp to hold the relevant small decks that I can grab for easy access. Both of the above help save a ton of room. The only components of mine, as the GM that I keep on the players' table is the wound deck and any Creature Cards and abilities for them I need.

I'm going to have to agree with James Sparrow and Haggard on this one. Monsters should act accordingly to the situation and not upon some rules set to enforce their behavior. As a frequent GM, I try to understand the enemies that the group is fighting and play them as such. For example, a Beastman faced with a Dwarf Ironbreaker and a Reiklander Soldier breathing down its neck would have little reason to suddenly decide the Student in the back cowering behind a rock is a better target. It's just a bit of common sense. Now the situations can change and there are many different situations that can arise, but the abstract combat system can be used to help in most situations. If the players are fighting in a room, maybe the Ironbreaker and the Soldier tell the Student to get in a corner and they'll stand in front of him (hopefully protecting him). It's a dialogue between the GM and players to determine what is in combat area and what is not. And as a GM, you'd be surprised at how creative players can get with what they would like to do opening up a whole host of new things. GM: "While on an Old Dirt Road on the way to Talabheim, a group of bandits accosts you!" "Student, you're up! What would you like to do?" Student: "Is there a ditch deep enough I can jump in near the wagon so I can keep my head down?" GM: "Sure. Go for it." Student: "Then I leap into the ditch and attempt to keep myself as inconspicuous as possible as to not draw the immediate attention of the bandits." GM: "Alright Ironbreaker you're up next. These bandits are coming down the road shouting, their weapons brandished." Ironbreaker: "Cuing off of what the student is doing, I'd like to try to keep him safe. I'll charge into the first group of them making as much noise as possible to draw their focus." GM: "Your bellowing sure got their attention. It's not every day they ambush a group that has a Dwarf encased in armor running to challenge them!" With a little dialogue, the combat will play out before you and the abstraction helps lead a combat into something very fluid and fun.

This might be a good opportunity to describe what I do for travel encounters. Depending on a few factors (road conditions, weather, patrols or lack thereof) I roll a number of Fortune or Misfortune dice each day and track the net boons or banes. When either reach a certain threshold over the course of the trip (usually 4 or so, but whatever works for your pace or the area the group is traveling in), the party has an encounter, either a good one or a bad one and the counters reset. I currently don't use the progress tracker for this, but I can see the uses. Maybe have a tracker with red going one way and green another with a neutral piece in the middle. You could move the track either way with boons or banes. I also add in extra fortune dice for players using an appropriate skill to aid travel (usually Nature Lore). In addition, it can help you narrate the trip. Roll some net boons one day? Describe nice weather and friendly passers by. Roll a few banes one day? Describe delays and bad weather. Of course WHAT encounter the players have is up to you. Perhaps you have a list of encounters you'd like them to have. So far this system has been easy, elegant and very little work to add some spice to the player's travel.