tinypic then post the link.

Upload it to imgur.com and post the link here.

Wow... ok, I'll try to helpful here...

Upload to imgur.com
Post link here

http://imgur.com/zGrp8

I don't think this map is balanced at all...France would probably never get a build.

Oh ok thanks for expanding my knowledge
Anyways what do you think of the map
I was planning on printing it off and playing with friends
Any suggestions?

OK, first thought... Unbalanced. All the new SCs are either for France or Italy. No one else can reach them. In fact, France would probably win every game. A France/Italian alliance would be unbeatable.

And that throws off the rest of the game. It would also make it basically impossible for anyone to break out of / into the med.

@draug: I am assuming that Spain is an eighth power? so this is actually awful news for france.

So im getting France wont get a build but win every game?

Yes Spain is an Eight power

No, draug thought spain was neutral. if spain is a power, this is awful for france and also bad for italy because they now have a real western front.

I think it is less horrible for France than it is great for Germany... They would get 3 builds guaranteed and have only England as a potential enemy.

Yeah. Very unbalanced. A western power would likely win every game with the extra SCs over there.

Yeah, I thought those were open SCs. Now France has no guaranteed SC like veirtually every other power has. France is screwed after all.

ok so any tips on how to balance
i was thinking of removing frances nationhood

France is now the Austria of the west. :)

it also messes up the stalemate lines. i assume you are looking to play with eight people? check vdiplomacy.net, they might have some eight person variants that are more balanced.

this is the worst diplomacy map I have ever seen. I guess it took you 5 secs in ms paint to draw it :P

Besides what's the point of including Spain in the game?
Spanish people are only good for soccer, pot and pussies.

You know it hellalt

here's a moderately similar map if you're interested...

http://vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=14

if you check the stats I think its pretty balanced

in that order?

Good gracious that first one is terrible. If France managed to live past 1904 I'd be very impressed.

That last one that P-man linked is interesting; basically getting rid of open SCs at the outset, which would mean that alliances would have to be formed pretty much immediately. It is quite intriguing to think about, at least. I would guess Turkey goes down pretty quickly to a Balkan/Russian alliance pretty often, esp with Rumania's unit being a fleet.

http://imgur.com/Db9jL
i edited it alot with your suggestions
mostly ridded france of nation-hood because they would have probably forfitted before any war even started and moved italys build up one from rome so they have a chance of one of the old french supply centers

i was thinking army barc and madrid and fleet sev

I would like to see a variant where Kim Jong Il is dead. Oh wait, reality beat me to it.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/18/world/asia/north-korea-leader-dead/?hpt=hp_t1

I think you need to do some more redrawing in France. Suggestion based off original French divisions:
Combine Brest (not Breast) and Pic.
Merge Gas and Par
Marseilles adjacent to Barc, Bil, Par (new), Bur, Pie
Burgundy adjacent to Bre (new), Par (new), Mar, Pie, Hol, Ruh, Mun.

...or make Par (new) adjacent to both Bil and Barc, making Mar only adjacent to Barc on the Spanish side.

Allright listened to your suggestions and....
http://imgur.com/JpZm5

brest and tuscany shouldn't be sc...

hang on, hang on, why are we deleting breast? i feel very strongly that we should reconsider and keep breast. Breast is good, no?

i prefer the first 8-power map.

France is forced to find an ally, either england in the north (to secure belguim, and give england a figthing chance against germany) or italy in the med, as together they have many centers to gain from spain.

Alternatively France coudl ally with spain against italy or against england (both sev and bre can build fleet and send them into MAO)

The 5 center spain will definitely be seen as a threat by france, which means i assume alliance against it will be more likely. (BTW i'm assuming Spain starts with A Madrid, F Seville, A Barcelona - but the alternative of A Sev and F Barc would make a huge difference)

French openings, F Bre - MAO threatens Sev, Por and Mor (where a Spanish fleet begins is vital, as being able to bounce this move has consequences) If france decides to push war on spain, (paris - gascony, mars - barcelona) then spain will be hard pressed to do anything other than defend (an opening of madrid to bil would allow for the army to take portugal, but with france in gascony risks losing barc; meanwhile barc is stuck holding out against france in any case, opening to gascony makes decent sense - but again a fleet in barc strengthens the french hand while weakening spain)


Assuming A Barc, F Seville, Sev - MAO can bounce brest and then take portugal, meanwhile Barc - Gascony, might lose to A mars S A Paris - gascony, forcing madrid to support barc to hold.

Alternatively Spain can try to make a deal with france where F Sev opens to west med, (threatening the italian build of tunis) Madrid opens to Bil (to take portugal while defending against the possibility of a french opening to gas)

In the long term, a weaker france means germany and england have to see each other as bigger threats, wiping out france early may be a viable option (but virtually guarentees a six center spain growing in france's place)

It does make France like Austria, while Spain is similar to turkey, though i suspect turkey's 4 center box is harder to break into than Spain's 5/6... MAO being vulnerable to attack from the north.

There are lots of variants like this out there,
http://www.xcelco.on.ca/~ravgames/dipmaps/aberration_ra.gif
http://www.diplom.org/Online/maps/1720.gif
http://www.diplom.org/Online/maps/AE.gif
http://www.diplom.org/Zine/W1995A/Mous/modern.gif

The no-neutrals map is an intriguing variant...makes it totally zero-sum from the start...

You can also look at diplomacy variants here:
http://www.variantbank.org/

Balkans dies to a split between russia, austria and turkey...

very quickly, much more vulnerable than austria in classic.

oh, and nothing unites people like a good enemy to fight, i think that crowded benefits the edge powers more than the rest as it is harder to reach them.

sorry, out of context that makes little sense, it @crowded, the 'no-neutrals' map.

@orathic:

couldn't that same logic be applied to say the Central powers in the map would give each other huge buffer zones and strike out against the edges together?

@obi, are you talking about crowded?

italy, austria and germany can indeed strike out against the edges, but they will have trouble uniting against any given foe... whereas the edge powers will have this trouble, but without the need to first create a buffer-one agreement.

@ ericisawesome: I thought for a while Epic Troll is Epic, with you returning with a map that screws up France. However, I didn't see France wasn't a power anymore. I don't know if your goal was to have more players. If so, there's a very interesting variant, called 'Modern Diplomacy II', based on European countries as they were in 1994:

http://vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=19

So if you've got eight or more friends who want to play I'd recommend this map. I don't know much about the balance, but it's thoroughly tested on that site.

Thanks for the tips