How Much Difference a Good Looking Map Can Make?

I am the king of vanilla gameplay and visuals. Not that I'm proud of it, but I just don't mod my games. There are a few exceptions, though. The map mods for HPS Simulations games made by Philippe Divine are an example of mods that I follow and download regularly.

Recently, he added map mods for the "Total War in Europe" series. Please see below an example for the "War in the Southern Front". BTW great game at the operational level of war.

Before the mod. El Alamein to Tobruk scenario. Click the image for a detailed view.

After the mod. El Alamein to Tobruk scenario. Click the image for a detailed view.

The scenario description, taken from the game:

El Alamein, October 23rd 1942: Two years had passed in the struggle for control of the Western Desert. Each side had won, and each side had lost, neither side had managed to inflict a decisive defeat on the other. The two sides had frequently been compared to two boxers, each tied with the elastic rope of their supply line, as one moved further from the supply source, the stronger the pull his rope exerted to get him back to his corner. The balance had now passed back to the 8th Army, close to its supply and getting stronger each day, while the Afrika Korps was at the end of its rope and getting weaker. Montgomery had planned a deliberate bleeding of Rommel's daunted troops, attacking here and there to cause them to react and burn precious fuel in constant movement. The time was now ripe to finish the Afrika Korps once and for all. Monty's plan was for XIII Corps to mount holding attacks, while XXX Corps delivered the main blow in the north. Two corridors were to be secured so that the armor of X Corps could move through the extensive minefields and destroy the Axis armor. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the Allied victory at Alamein "The End of the Beginning!"

Cheers,