Map Revisions

Map revision in progress. Version 3.1 on the left, 3.2 on the right.

The gradual refinement of the map is driven by testing results. Sea spaces see less use than land territories. While players pass through them, they don't often linger there, thus sacrificing that area to continents increasing in size makes for better readability. In particular, Europe tends to have a lot of activity, and thus a lot of pawns in a small space. So, while expanding Europe was an objective in this revision, it seemed logical to leave the shapes undistorted and simply expand and rearrange wherever possible. There are a few refinements to connectivity in this revision as well.

This represents a gradual shift: early on, I really wanted to prioritise geographical accuracy, but good gameplay needs to take priority. I honestly cannot find V1.0, and I'm not sure it did not get trashed. V1.2 can be seen below, as well as the original concept sketch where I was trying to figure out territory counts, connectivity, and the game's asymmetrical dynamics.

Note the ad-hoc revisions done in marker. Each of these resulted from player feedback.

Early maps were based on the Robinson projection, which prioritises size fidelity over shape. The results would have had to have been a very long board (32" x 17.25", or 81.28cm x 43.815cm), which wasted a lot of space and would have been impractical for many players.