Mongol Empire Variant - First sketch of Europe

[–] TheRedArmy 1 points (+1|-0)

Not a bad map at all. One of the naming conventions of the Calhamer map is that Supply Centers are named after cities, while non-SC provinces are named after regions. Consider Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, Constantinople, and Vienna against Ukraine, Edinburgh, Gascony, Apulia, Armenia, Albania, and Ruhr. I dunno if you want to adopt that or not.

I can't decide if Crusader States are in a really good or really bad position. I guess it all depends on their diplomacy and the players' attitudes (so much of the game is predicated on that), but it seems like things could be really good for them right off the bat in a natural progression. Their fleet advantage early on gives them the potential for a lot of tension put on other powers without a lot of means of retaliation, it seems. Imagine this -

Crusader States

F England-Atlantic
F Malta-East Med
A Outremer H
A Prussia-Livonia (to capture Karelia)

Assuming all these moves succeed, CS suddenly has a lot of tension on other powers. They can potentially strike three Byzantine home centers, and the Byzantines basically have to return home to protect themselves if CS can't be trusted (or else risk the loss of a home center, with carving by CS and Hungary likely to follow). Meanwhile CS might just be trying to convoy their army out of the dangerous middle east into Rome, surrendering that center for a more centralized position. They can also try to guessing game the Mamluks if A Bedouin goes east to Egypt rather than west into Moors.

I mean it's hard to say anything before you see the whole map, not to mention this is kind of a passing glance, but CS feels like they're in potentially a very strong position unless others work to stymie them at the cost of their own development in year one. Add in the fact that two of their "home" SCs along with a neutral seem to be very out of the way for most of the other powers, and it feels like they have the potential to be very safe early.

I don't mean to be overly critical; I think it's a good map, and the game you described has a lot of potential and fun in it. This is just what jumped out to me right away. Further analysis might show me to be completely off my rocker.

Not a bad map at all. One of the naming conventions of the _Calhamer_ map is that Supply Centers are named after cities, while non-SC provinces are named after regions. Consider Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, Constantinople, and Vienna against Ukraine, Edinburgh, Gascony, Apulia, Armenia, Albania, and Ruhr. I dunno if you want to adopt that or not. I can't decide if Crusader States are in a really good or really bad position. I guess it all depends on their diplomacy and the players' attitudes (so much of the game is predicated on that), but it seems like things could be really good for them right off the bat in a natural progression. Their fleet advantage early on gives them the potential for a lot of tension put on other powers without a lot of means of retaliation, it seems. Imagine this - **Crusader States** - F England-Atlantic - F Malta-East Med - A Outremer H - A Prussia-Livonia (to capture Karelia) Assuming all these moves succeed, CS suddenly has a lot of tension on other powers. They can potentially strike three Byzantine home centers, and the Byzantines basically have to return home to protect themselves if CS can't be trusted (or else risk the loss of a home center, with carving by CS and Hungary likely to follow). Meanwhile CS might just be trying to convoy their army out of the dangerous middle east into Rome, surrendering that center for a more centralized position. They can also try to guessing game the Mamluks if A Bedouin goes east to Egypt rather than west into Moors. I mean it's hard to say anything before you see the whole map, not to mention this is kind of a passing glance, but CS feels like they're in potentially a very strong position unless others work to stymie them at the cost of their own development in year one. Add in the fact that two of their "home" SCs along with a neutral seem to be very out of the way for most of the other powers, and it feels like they have the potential to be very safe early. I don't mean to be overly critical; I think it's a good map, and the game you described has a lot of potential and fun in it. This is just what jumped out to me right away. Further analysis might show me to be completely off my rocker.

[–] Skyrock [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

The vulnerability of Byzantine in case of F Malta - Eastern Mediterranean is something I haven't considered, and indeed a huge problem.

Some potential solutions:

Reintroduce the Agaeis with the border between the southern tip of Greece and the middle of Outremer, exposing only Athens directly to the EMS.
Start the CS only with A Prussia, A Outremer and F England, nerfing their fleet advantage until Autumn when other powers had the chance to catch up.
Remove F Malta, give the CS instead A Cyprus as a new island province in EMS (or on the new EMS / Agaeis border) with a land bridge to Outremer. (Historically appropriate as Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom at that time, and geographically only a slight stretch.)
Make England more vulnerable with a land bridge between Normandy and England.

[–] TheRedArmy 1 points (+1|-0)

Again, this is kind of with a passing glance, but my first thoughts -

Reintroduction of the Aegean is a decent change and does stymie the major problem; remember that most powers can potentially threaten an enemy home center in F1901 on the base board too.
Giving three units to 4 SCs at the start is interesting. You might also consider changing Malta to an Army - making it a dead until unless you can get another power to convoy you off or you get your north fleet down there.
Cyprus with land bridge to Outremer is not a bad idea either. It allows them to potentially consolidate and hold their Middle East holdings for a good chunk of time; right now it seems to be optimal CS strategy is just GTFO and consolidate elsewhere.
I don't think the land bridge helps at all. From home centers (which matter less, I know, build anywhere, but you can't build in any other SC until F1902 at the earliest), you're still three turns away from walking into England assuming no resistance. The main way to take England will still be fleets, and the large water provinces only reinforce that; You can get there from Moors in only two turns, same with Iberia; The Mamluks will be the main opponent to CS naval control of the Atlantic and West Med. The land bridge does become relevant if Moors falls and CS have undisputed control over the West Med. But in such a case, I would expect them to sweep this part of the board in short order, unless all local powers stop fighting and begin to fight back. If CS can control Moors and Iberia, I would expect them to have complete naval dominance over the Med in short order, and then dominate this part of the map some time after. There are only three inland supply centers on the map. Naval control is massively important; further there aren't that many water spaces, so you can move around very quickly with a fleet. I don't know how this map will connect with others and whether you can move fleets out of the Med to other useful areas of the board.

My gut suggestion is that land spaces should be bigger (to reflect the large scale of the map overall) or there should be more water spaces to slow down fleets. Again, this is a off-the-cuff analysis. A couple years of sample moves would probably be a better indicator; which I would enjoy helping you do if we can sit down together sometime (or even on here through the turtle method).

Again, this is kind of with a passing glance, but my first thoughts - - Reintroduction of the Aegean is a decent change and does stymie the major problem; remember that most powers can potentially threaten an enemy home center in F1901 on the base board too. - Giving three units to 4 SCs at the start is interesting. You might also consider changing Malta to an Army - making it a dead until unless you can get another power to convoy you off or you get your north fleet down there. - Cyprus with land bridge to Outremer is not a bad idea either. It allows them to potentially consolidate and hold their Middle East holdings for a good chunk of time; right now it seems to be optimal CS strategy is just GTFO and consolidate elsewhere. - I don't think the land bridge helps at all. From home centers (which matter less, I know, build anywhere, but you can't build in any other SC until F1902 at the earliest), you're still three turns away from walking into England assuming no resistance. The main way to take England will still be fleets, and the large water provinces only reinforce that; You can get there from Moors in only two turns, same with Iberia; The Mamluks will be the main opponent to CS naval control of the Atlantic and West Med. The land bridge _does_ become relevant if Moors falls and CS have undisputed control over the West Med. But in such a case, I would expect them to sweep this part of the board in short order, unless all local powers stop fighting and begin to fight back. If CS can control Moors and Iberia, I would expect them to have complete naval dominance over the Med in short order, and then dominate this part of the map some time after. There are only three inland supply centers on the map. Naval control is massively important; further there aren't that many water spaces, so you can move around very quickly with a fleet. I don't know how this map will connect with others and whether you can move fleets out of the Med to other useful areas of the board. My gut suggestion is that land spaces should be bigger (to reflect the large scale of the map overall) or there should be more water spaces to slow down fleets. Again, this is a off-the-cuff analysis. A couple years of sample moves would probably be a better indicator; which I would enjoy helping you do if we can sit down together sometime (or even on here through the turtle method).

[–] Skyrock [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

I originally went with England for Richard Lionheart's participation in the 3rd crusade, but it might to good for a territory for a starting SC and drag the attention too much towards Western Europe. I think I could resettle the England SC to northern France (where most of the 4th Crusaders came from) and change it into an army, recutting the borders so that the Gascogne completely separates northern France from Spain (securing Spain as the Mameluk's safe first year build) and that the Crusaders can move into Piedmont in spring, securing them Rome as one of their safe builds.

The cutting down of sea spaces is on purpose, as the map will stretch further east to the Middle East / India (where fleets will probably see little action even with navigable rivers) and East Asia (where fleets will be obviously necessary for Ceylon and especially Japan, but otherwise play only a minor role, even if I add navigable rivers). A strong role of fleets other than for fast convoys will probably be one of Europe's distinguishing features. - What the map could need is more segueing between sea spaces to keep a single fleet from blocking off an entire area, and not to expose too many provinces at once to a single fleet.

I will obviously need to re-evaluate and fine-tune once I have all the puzzle pieces glued together, but I found out that it is easier to do one theatre after another, rather than to try to tackle such a huge map all in one go.

Variants Mongol Empire Variant - First sketch of Europe

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/s/Diplomacy