by Peter Gibbons on Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:39 pm
I won't get into the "should this really be the new classic" debate right now. Just offer my thoughts on the map as is:
I think Africa and South America are done. They look fine and I can't think of any changes or suggestions to improve them, really.
For North America, just a minor cosmetic change: invert the curve of either the Edmonton-Montreal or Edmonton-Chicago connection.
For Europe, I'm really not sure what to do. The Berlin-Istanbul connection isn't totally clear because of how close they are (that should signal to everyone how much worse Paris or Rome would make it!). I know there's not much room to maneuver, but something does need to be done there.
Asia and Oceania is definitely where the action is and where the debate needs to be had...
My first point is that Dubai should be Mecca. I know there will be differing opinions there, but I think a straight vote would lead to Mecca.
Second, Manila is a distinctly Asian city. I don't think it should be part of Oceania. For that matter, even Jakarta is questionable insofar as strict geography--but since Indonesia was clearly labeled in Oceania on the original Risk board, I don't think that's as big an issue (and yes, I know some Risk boards draw the Philippines into Oceania).
Third, the other issue I raised in the old thread is that using Magadan is a joke. It's just not a world city by any standard.
So, what are the solutions to these final two points? Again, I'm not totally sure.
For Oceania, I think you can either change Manila to Port Moresby (the simple solution) OR if people aren't too concerned about having the geographic correspondence to the old Risk map, you make Perth the entry point, then you use Sydney, Darwin and Auckland as the other three Oceania territories (or Darwin could be the entry point).
As for Asia itself, there are a number of possibilities. If you take my above suggestion about Australia, that frees up Jakarta and Manila to be used in Asia, which would then open up all sorts of options. You could then slide everything down south, make Seoul the connection to Anchorage, and play around with the internal Asian cities to see what would work best insofar as minimizing clutter (Shanghai, Dhaka and Lhasa could all be in play, depending on what you would want to remove and what connections would need to be made).
Anyway, that's just my (extended) 2 cents. In short, I'd say Africa and South America are done, North America is essentially done, Europe has one small problem that needs to be addressed, and the focus should really be on Oceania and Asia. Asia's the problem (I have a preference for Oceania, but I'll be honest and say that there are a number of viable options that work).