Mapmaker(s): Minister X and HitRed
Number of Territories: LOTS! (TBD)
Special Features: Probably very few.
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: TBD
Map Image:
This is an early-stage map showing only rivers and 23 bonus regions. That's right - those are bonus regions, not terts. Terts TBD.
There is already an Ireland map. It has 32 terts. I really like it - very pretty, easy to read, good gameplay. For reference, here it is:
I am not trying in any way to compete with or replace this map. It's just that I feel like making a super-large map with something like 150 to 200 terts and my first approach to that has focused on Ireland. The geography is good; there are a multitude of towns, cities, and counties nicely spread all throughout this densely-settled island; the island has a rich history and 1475 (circa - I'm not being excessively literal) provides interesting political subdivisions (in addition to the 23 bonus regions I've depicted so far, there can be several larger-scale divisions: native Irish lands [perhaps several groupings], lands held by Anglo-Irish lords, and "The Pale" which was owned by the English king); and the internet provides a wealth of reference materials included wonderfully detailed large-scale maps, including several from the 15th century.
And so I present this early-stage graphic in The Melting Pot merely to see if there's any interest in such a map. Most maps over 150 terts in size have quite a few special rules. Most don't depict a recognizable geography. Some, IMHO, aren't very pretty. Most aren't easy to read and understand. The exception is USA 2.1 and interestingly it gets by far the most plays of any of these nine maps with more than 150 terts. My goal would be to make a map of this size that's pretty, fairly simple, easy to read and understand, based on familiar geography, and (hopefully) provides good gameplay with lots of strategic alternatives regardless of the rules chosen at game start.
Making such a large map will be a huge task, which is why I present this incomplete (and down-sized) first draft - just enough to give you an idea of what I have in mind. If the consensus is something like, "But we already have an Ireland map - chose someplace else," or, "All the super-large maps have a primarily horizontal orientation - a more vertical one like this just won't work," then fine. Little ventured, little lost. But if this idea gets enough initial approval I'll see if I can't find a way to fit 150-200 army numbers, tert names, and all the rest into a map that maybe runs something like 1000 wide by 1250 tall (USA 2.1 is 1200 x 901). I'll need some space because names like "Earldom of Ormond" and "Mac-Murrough" will be used. Not too many Irish place names are as short and snappy as "Cork".
