Bratslaw, around Zhmerinka

And now we come to somewhere different.  I did three sections today, because they were easy.  Starting with this blank:

Very low numbers.  Note the dark line next to Zhmerinka.  This is a trade route, between Mohilev on the Dniester River and Kiyev, far off to the north.  This is a vital route, even if the region it goes through is unable to support it according to the mapmaking generator.  So it fits into a special rule: where arable land exists within 10 six-mile hexes of a world trade route, that route is a minimum of a dirt road.  This allows some trade routes, across the Sahara for instance, to exist as non-roads, but a road like the one here to exist as a dirt road despite Bratslaw's backwardness:

Empty.  Routes occur but they are barely helpful to outside travellers.  It can be seen that virtually everyone passing through this region is going to use the Zhmerinka road.

To complete Bar and Zhmerinka, I need the next two hexes above:

The second pic is a bit of a long shot; I wanted to show the rough for Khmelnik, and wound up cutting off the completed hexes of Zhmerinka and Bar, the latter of which does get a connection to civilisation.  I'll come back and explain those hexes.  Meanwhile, the emptiness continues.  Here's a long shot of the whole area done:

Let's come back around and discuss Bar.  Zhmerinka has effectively the same sequence of generation.

When a 20-mile hex is broken down into it's constitutuent parts, it leaves gaps.  Suppose we randomly generate three hexes in a circle, each with 20 infrastructure, to express what I mean:

The grey hex in the middle is undetermined.  Each of the 20-mile hexes, shown in a black outline, amounts individually to 20 pts. of infrastructure, remembering that a "7" = 1 pt., a "6" equals 2 pts., a "5" equals 3 pts. and so on.  The blank, or wilderness hex, equals no points.  The gap in the middle, the grey hex, receives it's infrastructure as an average of the surrounding hexes ... only, first we roll to see if it's a wilderness hex, like the one in it's upper corner.  We roll a d6, and if we get a "1", then it's a wilderness hex.  We roll a 5 and it isn't.

Next, we add the totals of all the hexes together, counting the wilderness hex as 8:  8+5+5+6+6+6 = 36.  36 divided by 6 = 6.  This means the grey hex in the middle is a type-6 hex.

But what if the total was 35, or 38?  Well, then we roll another d6.  Let's take 38.  It's 2 points from 36 and 4 points away from 42, which would make it a type-7.  So we weight the die: 1-4 = type six, 5-6 equals type-7.  If the total were 39, the roll would be 50/50 type 6 or 7.  With a total of 35, it weighs heavily towards type-6 (2-6) with a small chance of rolling a type-5 (1).

Okay, now let's look at Bar, when it's partly done.  As yet, we don't know what it is.  We have to generate the hex above, to find out.  One thing we know for sure: it's not a wilderness hex.  Although when we do generate the two hexes above, we find they're both wilderness hexes, Bar is a pre-determined settlement and therefore must be in a type-7 hex or better.

So we skip rolling to see if the hex is a wilderness (ordinarily, it would have a 50% chance of being one, since it's half surrounded by wilderness) and add the numbers together: 8+8+8+5+6+7 = 42.  Bar is in a type-7 hex.

However, if the total added up to 41, Bar would be in a type-6 hex, without rolling.  Whenever possible, a settlement is always put in the best possible hex, after going through the generation process.  Unfortunately, Bar misses that chance.  If the reader looks at the maps above at Zhmerinka, you'll see that it's surrounded by five type-8 hexes and a single type-7.  That adds up to 48, but Zhmerinka is also in a type-7 hex.

Look at it again once the area's complete and Bar's numbers are put together.  Bar is a type-7 hex, but it gets +1 coin, +1 food and +1 hammer for being a settlement.  If it were on a bigger river, it would also get +1 hammer for that, and would thus be a type-7 hex with two hammers (rare!).  A type-7 hex usually just has 2 food (like the hex on the left of Bar), but Bar does somewhat better.

Still, this is a wretched, backwards excuse for a place.  It doesn't even have as much infrastructure as an ordinary type-4 hex, which would have 2 hammers.  So what's the deal?

We might suppose a number of things.  The village was raided and wrecked, and hasn't recovered.  A plague hit the village.  The village is under the thumb of a despot who is killing development and trade.  It's the centre of a cult that puts non-economic concerns first.  The founder ineptly chose to build his manor house on bad land.  Proper access has never been constructed, as the village is connect to the outside by no better than a cart path, a difficult to navigate route that's wide enough for a cart but rife with many bad places.

It's up to us to decide the reason, and make the place interesting if the party decides to enter here.