I made the update Sully suggested (
HERE), but after toying with the map all night, inspiration finally struck.
In order to limit first player advantage, I added an element to bottleneck assaults on the opposing ships - currently in the form of a target. The idea is that you first must locate your opponent's ships (
one way assault from your ship to same color target on the opposite side), before bombarding any of your opponent's ship cells (
one way bombardment from that target to opponent's ships).
This way, first player can only use
some armies in his first bombardment. I've started with 2 each, but I can add more and/or set a high (or killer) neutral there as needed. No other territories can assault the targets - only the ships of the same color.
It still keeps all the basic elements of the previous version. You can bombard any of your opponents ships, just not all at once.
- Click image to enlarge.