I get asked this a lot on the forums, so I figure I can simply dump a copy of my stock answer here (most folks ask where Tuchola Forest is):

Best guess, North Poland... maybe...

Back when I started designing the map, my core idea was a winter forest map that used the AHz tanks, including the Jagdpanther. Beyond that, I really didn't care much about the historical context and it was mainly so that there would be another map out there that takes advantage of the 56MB AHz vehicle pack. Something slightly larger then Barbarossa and hopefully it would appeal to folks who liked Barbarossa.

I absolutely required the vehicle variety in the AHz vehicle pack as well. The combination of light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, mortars and the two types of pak guns make for a much more interesting game then the generic tanks of the stock CoD:UO. Plus, the heavy tanks in stock CoD:UO are *slow* and would've required heavy mod'ing.

The initial name was quite simply "Winter Map".

Towards the end of internal development and the start of Alpha testing, I started researching into the war. I found out that:

- The Jagdpanther wasn't produced until late 1944 and wasn't even deployed until Dec 1944.
- In Jan/Feb 1945, Russians began to push the Germans back towards the Ober river before holding for a month or two prior to the final push towards Berlin.
- Looking at the maps, this basically meant combat would've been in West Russia, Poland, Austria (maybe a few other spots).

Finally, I stumbled across the simple fact that Tuchola Forest is a pine/spruce forest. It was an easy name, clearly recognizable and not used by any other mapping project. The Russians might've come through their while pushing the Germans west towards the Ober river. It was also the right time period, but mostly it's a pine/spruce forest (which is the only models I have to work with).

(Map making is the art of compromises as your design impacts with reality.)