I just finished a Diplomacy map variant. It's an edit of a previously available 13-player variant with the entire world that someone made. Here's the original:
And here's my version:
Highlights: I decided Britain was too powerful in the original, which was based pretty faithfully on the world as it looked in 1861. This sort of killed that; I added a number of territorial anachronisms ranging from the 17th century to the period just before World War One. It's still recognizable the same world, but with some major edits, achieved almost entirely through the inclusion of both obsolete and futuristic territorial anachronisms. Specifically, Britain has been nerfed a bit; the Union and Confederacy are a bit more powerful (I'm still having doubts about giving Hawai'i to the Union), Mexico and Brazil have both received portions of their former masters' overseas possessions (although neither Spain nor Portugal are around anymore), and the Dutch have gotten back Dutch Brazil, which they hadn't previously owned since the mid 17th century. Also, upon recognizing that both Prussia and Austria are basically screwed six ways from Sunday in the original map, they've been beefed up a bit (Prussia gets some of Germany's former empire; Turkey has been kicked out of the Balkans and gotten Libya back in recompense so the Austrians have more expanding room). There has also been some just plain geographic revisionism (Newfoundland has gotten its own little Helgoland Bight to make transatlantic crossings slower and less Britain-oriented; Victoria is no longer a first-term certainty for Vancouver; the Kalahari Desert has been introduced as an impassable zone so the Dutch have a better shot at duking it out with the Portuguese in southern Africa).
There have been three major rule changes to add some realism. Firstly, the calendar. Although territory consolidation and rebuilding still occur every two turns, the turns are now Northern Hemisphere Spring, Fall and Winter. This is to allow the ice to do its magic. In Winter, the Barents and Bering Seas, plus Hudson Bay, freeze over. This means you cannot move a fleet into them, and any fleets that were unfortunate enough to be stationed in them when Fall turn ended will be destroyed (along with any armies they were convoying). You also cannot move a fleet stationed on a shoreline to an adjacent coastal province if it's clear the fleet would have to go through that sea; however, any fleets stationed on shore, even if that shore is entirely iced over, will not die (they're just stuck until spring). For example, if you have a fleet stationed in Norway, you would be allowed to order F Norway -> Sweden, since it would be going along Skaggerak, but F Norway -> NC of Finland would be a no-no (until Spring). Greenland does something similar: if you have a fleet or army in it it's not allowed to move in Winter, and you cannot move into it, although luckily anything wintering over in Greenland will survive. (Since during winter the only approach to Greenland is via the North Passage, what this in effect means is that you cannot move between the two, or support one from the other.)
In Fall, it swaps, and it's the Southern Hemisphere's turn. You get basically the same thing: the Drake Passage ices over, and the Falklands and South Georgia both act like Greenland. This is also a check on England's fleet in the Falklands: if it moves into the Drake Passage first turn (Spring, year 1), the next turn is Fall, and it will die. It also can't take South Georgia in time for the first building phase.
The second rule change are canals. If you control Cairo or Panama, and have it free during your build units move, and have the ability to build extra units, you can forfeit building one of those units and make the territory a canal. (Useful, to be sure, but it could also become more trouble than it's worth: in addition to losing an extra unit for a turn [since the supply center will count towards unit support next time you're building units], watch as an otherwise safe generic supply center of your empire suddenly becomes the focal point for invasions of all sorts.) Meanwhile, if you have a unit occupying either of these territories, you can order it to "fill in": this is somewhat like holding in that it moves nowhere. If it is not attacked, the canal will be destroyed and will have to be rebuilt again the old way. If it is attacked, it will be distracted holding off the invaders and will not be able to finish filling in the canal (so the canal will still be open).
Thirdly, you may build not just in your home supply centers, but also elsewhere. I'm not sure whether to make that "any unoccupied supply center you currently own" or "any supply center you own that was a home supply center at the beginning of the game" (so that, for example, you could build in Oregon, Perth, Moscow or Angola, but not New Zealand, Denmark, Karachi or Rhodesia.) It strikes me as a good compromise, but maybe it would have unforeseen consequences...luckily, I think I've scattered enough home centers around the map that it shouldn't be too much of a problem, limiting building a bit while still making it not a problem.
Comments and constructive criticism are welcome...if enough people expressed interest I suppose we could even set up a forum game of it...
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Topic: Bizarro World 1861, a Diplomacy variant (Read 1451 times)