New Axis & Allies Global War Variant (free map)

[Imperious Leader]

OK on Jpeg… but please maximum quality possible. I will print this out… perhaps ill pay you Jim? That way it will be decent.

Also on the azores i think the islands should be completely inside of #31… the aesthetic if the overlap of those lines into 32 does not look right IMO.

On the issue of bombing range… understand that germany does have to actually Control these SZ around the islands or the Allies will just invade and take out the air. I suspect this Azores thing will be a late war startegy for the axis which incidently would reflect on development of long range planes

In the beginning period of ther game probably serve the allies better as a ASW platform to attack by air enemy german subs.

[jim lee]

Ok, Imperious, no need to pay for an export. I just charge for printing, 'cause when that machine goes on, it bleeds money. The cost in ink is what kills you.

But what is it you would like? All I have is the original that started this thread, nothing of this new stuff everyone is exited about. Do you want a .jpg of the orignal?

-jim lee

[Imperious Leader]

Yea something that when i expand it in illustrator CS2 it will not pixilate. The previous Jpeg is no good for printing. I can barely read the territories to check them.

When everythings done then ill get a print… but right now things are in flux

[deepblue]

Imp,

I agree with your aesthetic point, I am hoping to get more feedback on the Azores in time for the next draft.

What is your issue actually, with the file formats and all?  What are you trying to do, maybe I can help?

[deepblue]

Death Head 420,

Keep the game play input coming.

The ports/air field markers need a serious overhaul.  But let’s get the map the way we like it before we go to far down that road.

[deepblue]

Pdel21,

Thanks for printing a test of the new colors.  Invaluable input.

Jim,

Thanks for the info on the PDF file.  I did a quick Google search and found that TIFF is considered the best format for printing.  Do you find this to be true?

$4.32 a square foot WOW!! Now were talking.  Can you print on heaver paper?

[Imperious Leader]

What is your issue actually, with the file formats and all?  What are you trying to do, maybe I can help?

Yes can someone please come up with an actual size Jpeg that when printed or looked at closely will not pixelate? Supreme quality… if not PDF then auto cad or some other extension…

what extentions do you have available under PSP format? Can you list what you got?

I am close to finished with AARHE and need to work on something else and that is to help you make the best varient possible.

I like the simplicity of your rules…. Id like to contribute some goodies to it but the map is the first step.

[jim lee]

Deepblue : What I’ve found so far is .jpg at 300 dpi with some compression to make it managable is best. I’m not fond of .TIFF 'cause its somewhat variable and many times the file is just huge without any noticable increase in quality. So far, and I’m new at this too, I’ve found that with these large printouts you can compress things pretty much without it being noticeable.

24lb coated paper is the heaviest I have now. And, until this is set in stone, maybe we should stick to the less expensive 24lb.

Imperious : To get higher dpi than the original, the map needs to be opened with Photoshop Pro and re-rendered at a higher dpi. { And this may or may not help. } I -think- this will only help the text and effects, but I don’t know. That initial image that this all started with doesn’t have all that much resolution. 100 dpi. at something like 32 inches.  It still printed fine for a playable gameboard. My PC is somewhat weak and can’t increase the dpi on this layout its too big for its memory.

Wrapping any bit image in some other file format will not make it scalable. Once its a bit image, your bits are set. Bigger images only give bigger bits. Some things do a better job at smoothing these bits than other things.

Why do many .pdf files print so well? Becuse they are usually vector images with mixed in very high resolution bit images. And vector images -are- scalable.

I hope this helps…

-jim lee

[pdel21]

Guys,

I’m not sure what the issue is with the jpgs.  Mine printed out really well on my HP plotter with crummy paper, (didn’t want to use the good stuff until a final map is ready).  I just printed out the map that was in the ZIP file that is on page 1 of this post.

[murraymoto]

I agree that the Azores could be bit more to the center of the sea zone, I don’t think a slight nod away from reality of location is a big deal, much of the map is not quite to scale anyhow.

As for the colors, I think they should work fine.

[murraymoto]

deepblue,

any chance you could post the latest draft, the last one I’ve seen is before the sahara and azores, (like back on page 9 of this thread)
Thanks!

[deepblue]

It’s Friday!!

The second draft has arrived!

Gentlemen,

I plan to post new drafts on Fridays as long as there are enough changes to warrant one.

I have made the following changes from the first draft:

Added:
The Sahara Desert.
Chinese roundel.
City area for Chunking.
Victory Cities. (Not Final, figured it was time to start the discussion)
Ceylon
The Azores (I did not like the fact that they were the only islands in the Atlantic so I added a few more just for flavor if you don’t like them they can be removed or changed.)
Bermuda
Canary Islands
Cape Verde
St. Helena

Changed:
Made Brazil Neutral.  (I do not like the way this looks.  I prefer to have some sort of contrast in South America.  This is purely an aesthetics comment.)
Corrected Yucatan.
Gilbert Islands are now British.

Reminders:
When reviewing the map please consider both historical accuracy and game play.
The image has been reduced by 50% for faster downloads. (Makes it a little fuzzy)
Unfinished elements have been removed.
This is a work in progress.

http://www.mediafire.com/?84zwmod2qrz

[deepblue]

Victory Cities

Ok, now for our VC discussion.  This should be fun.  I found this list on Larry Harris’s board (creator of A&A) and thought it would be a good starting point for our discussion.  For the most part I like this list except for a few cities which I have noted.  I have also listed some possible replacements/additions.

The VCs are tiered with 20, 15 and 10 point cities.  Each nation has one 20 and 15 point city and three 10 point cities.  (I may be in favor of reducing this to two 10 point cities for a total of 4 cities per nation.)

20 point cities are:
Washington
London
Moscow
Berlin
Rome
Tokyo

15 point cities are:
San Francisco
Calcutta
Stalingrad
Paris
Athens 
Peiping

10 Point cities are:
Honolulu
Manila 
Panama City (Not sure if I like this one)

Canberra
Cairo
Singapore

Leningrad
Baku
Vladivostok

Oslo
Warsaw
Budapest

Tripoli
Mogadiscio (Not an Option on our Map Needs to be replaced)
Palermo

Okinawa
Seoul  (Not sure if I like this one)
Taipei

Others Options
Cape Town
Bangkok
Shanghai
Chungking
Milan
Taranto

Larry Harris’s Thread
http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=546&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[Micoom]

South America is fine now. It wasn’t really involved in WWII… Still, I would like Portugal to be added, you add the Azores (colony of Portugal, but not the Homeland) while I know it is only neutral… and add the name of Corsica.

On victory cities I have some more suggestions;

Batavia on Java. (East Indies where important to Japan!!)

Guadalcanal on the Solomon Islands (not really a city, but the most known area and historical important)

Madrid (Spain), Istanbul (Turkey), Stockholm (Sweden)

Tobruk (see it on the map, but not in your list)

Cape Town (South Africa)

Basra (Iraq)

Kiev (Ukraine)

Ploesti or Bucharest (Roumania) Very important to Germany

Rangoon (Burma) Important to the Burma Road

Gibraltar (Was very important to the Allies for entrance to the med. and to Italy)

Valletta (Malta) Most bombed place of WWII

[deepblue]

Micoom,

@Micoom:

Tobruk (see it on the map, but not in your list)

Yes, there are cities on the map that are not victory cites.  Hong Kong, Tobruk, Chungking are not victory cities.

Thanks for the suggestions on the victory cities but…
I think your list is way to long, actually I think my list may be a bit too long.  We can’t add every city that had conflict or that was a point of interest.  We need to keep it concise balancing game play with historical fact.  I am also not in favor of victory cities in neutral counties, they encourage players to invade neutral territories that were not invaded during the war, I can understand why some might want them on the map but in my opinion they are unnecessary.

You make a good counter point on Portugal.  The difference is that Portugal allowed Britain to use the Azores as an airbase.  Not really neutral is it?  I will make a test and see what the group thinks.

Thanks for the input, I’m glad you have a different point of view.

[Micoom]

It isn’t necessary to use all cities, but choose the best from all. My understanding was that your list isn’t the final one.  So I made some extra suggestions.

[Imperious Leader]

First off its nice to see Micoom around here. Now i know this will get better.

Heres your list with my suggestions:

This is now modified according to those guidelines you just posted:

1. Equal cities for each nation.  (Italy will have a hard time with this)
2. “Fairness” None of the cities should be easier to be captured than another, in theory.
3. Not so many cities that when a player loses one they say “Oh well” and move on.  Losing cities should still be a big deal.
4. Keep the number down, but more than the current AA game.  (I like the idea of 4 to 5 cities per nation, beyond 30 cities is just way too many.)
5. Encourage fighting in the historically correct regions of the world, but allow for creative plans of attack.
6. No two cities adjacent to one another.  (I know Warsaw is next to Berlin, but I figured you guys would go nuts if I left off Warsaw and I would have to agree.)

20 point cities are: 6 total
Washington
London
Moscow
Berlin
Rome
Tokyo

15 point cities are:12 total
San Francisco-US
Honolulu-US
Singapore-JP
Hsingking-JP
Leningrad-SU
Milan-ITL
Taranto- ItL
Stalingrad-SU
Paris-GER
Canberra-UK
Ploesti oil center-GER
Cairo/ Alexandria/ Suez- UK

10 Point cities are: 18 total
Archangel-SU
Manila- JP
Calcutta-UK
Panama canal-USA
Baku-SU
Peiping-JP
Oslo-GER
Warsaw-GER
Addis Ababa- ITL ( capital of abbysinia in africa)
Tunis-ITL
Toranto-UK
Okinawa-JP
Shanghai-USA
Chungking-USA
Tobruk-ITL
Kiev-GER
Chelyabinsk (Tankograd)-SU
Cape Horn-UK

wild card points: 5 total
Ankarra-neutral
Madrid-neutral
stockholm-neutral
Istanbul-neutral
Mosul-neutral

ok now each nation has 1 -20 point , 2 -15 point, and 3 -10 point= 80 points each X 3= 240 per side and 480 total. I woulkd like to make wildcard cities variable in the game Roll one die on conquest : 1-2= 10 points, 3-4= 15 points, 5-6= 20 points

note that eastern SU is not attractive to Japan due to not points… hopefully japan will leave Russians alone.

I could make four 5 point spots for each player which would give each player 100 points to start… nice round number.

[deepblue]

Micoom,

I apologize if my last post sounded negative that was not my intent.

I assumed that your list was an addition to the current list which I feel would be way too many cities.

But if they are replacements then some of them could work.

Some of my goals for VCs.  But not the requirements, I can be persuaded by a good argument.

1. Equal cities for each nation.  (Italy will have a hard time with this)
2. “Fairness” None of the cities should be easier to be captured than another, in theory.
3. Not so many cities that when a player loses one they say “Oh well” and move on.  Losing cities should still be a big deal.
4. Keep the number down, but more than the current AA game.  (I like the idea of 4 to 5 cities per nation, beyond 30 cities is just way too many.)
5. Encourage fighting in the historically correct regions of the world, but allow for creative plans of attack.
6. No two cities adjacent to one another.  (I know Warsaw is next to Berlin, but I figured you guys would go nuts if I left off Warsaw and I would have to agree.)
7.  Minimize the amount of math.  Keep the scoring simple.
8.  The majority of the group is happy with the final list.

I’m not too keen on the island cities; I feel that the current list has enough cities in the south pacific to entice Japan to move south.

I don’t think Toburk will work due to its proximity to the current VCs and the fact that it is in the hands of the UK.  So I guess we could use it if we removed Cairo but I feel Cairo is better suited for a VC.

I like Cape Town, I have put it on the map a few times, only problem is if we keep the current count what city does UK lose to add CT?

Same with Kiev I like the fact that it is closer to the Russian border and away from Germany but what does Germany lose to add Kiev?

I could live with losing Budapest for Bucharest.  It’s further away.

The others were important but I don’t feel they warrant VC status.  Just my opinion.

Thanks for the suggestions that is what I and the rest of the group are looking for.

[Positronica]

Hey, Deepblue, great job of the changes and edits you’ve made to the map.  They look great.  I should probably apologize for posting the map and then just disappearing.  I’ve been without internet for while.    Anyways, unless you really don’t want to, I’d love it if you kept working on the map.  You’re more on top of getting outside input than I ever was, and frankly I have a feeling I’d be too busy to do it right.  All I ask is that when you’re done, post the .psp files with everything in layers still.  That would be awsome.  After looking at your updated map, I do have a few issues, though…

A. Having Germany start so close to Moscow might create some game play issues.  Namely I think it might cut down on a lot of the possible dynamics on the eastern front.  Unless the starting setup is done extremely well, games might often play out with Germany buying all tanks every turn to send right towards Moscow, and with Russia buying all men every turn to defend Moscow.  Also, by starting Germany so far forward, you pretty much force the German player to always commit to going after Russia first.  Granted, this is how games normally go either way, but it would be nice if the German player would at least have the option of going defensive on the eastern front and then trying an Operation Sealion or a big push through Africa and the Middle East.

Remeber, in the new rules I posted with my map originally, the new turn order is…
1. Germany
2. Russia
3. Japan
4. United Kingdom
5. Italy
6. USA
Having Germany go first, while already all the way in Western Russia might really restrict the starting setup.  I would suggest putting Baltic States, Western Russia, Eastern Ukraine, and Crimea back under Russian control at the start of the game, and then have Germany’s starting setup put them in a position to take those four territories on the first turn of the game, if they decide to.

B. Italian Territory.  In the turn order above, you’ll see that United Kingdom gets to move before Italy.  This means, that you could give Italy a little more territory at the start, such as Abyssinia or Italian Somaliland, and then just make sure that the UK starts in a position to take these on its first turn and bring the map back closer to historical alignment.  Granted, Japan goes before both UK and Italy, and its generally assumed that Japan’s first turn signifies December of 1941, however from a gameplay standpoint, Japan’s first move has pretty much zero impact on what’s going on in Africa, so I don’t think it would necessarily be bad to fudge things there just a little bit for the sake of gameplay.

C. China and new infantry.  I saw that someone earlier in this thread posted the rules from Axis & Allies: Pacific on how China gets new infantry each turn.  When I made this map, I never intended for it to be played with those rules.  I compensated for them by just giving China a larger number of men in their starting set up.  I think you should still put the Chinese capital symbol in Chungking, however you should probably make two different starting setups so that players can play both with and without the AA:P rule.  Also, the AA:P rule will probably need to be modified slightly, even if it is used.  In regular AA:P, China only starts with control of two territories with an IPC value.  In my map they start in control of 9 such territories.  If you followed the AA:P rules with no modification, I think that would be far too many new infantry for China to get each turn.  I think a simpler route would be to just give China more starting men scattered through out all their territories.  The men in the west would then take a few turns to get to the Japanese front, which would probably work out the same as having a few new men pop in at Chungking each turn.

D. Burma Road, Trans-Siberian Railway, Trans-Continental Railroad.  I saw there was some debate about weather to keep these or not.  Personally I would suggest putting them back in.  Without the Trans-Siberian Railway, it would take the Russian player 7 long turns to send new infantry or artillery to a possible Japanese front.  By the same token, a Japanese player who’s trying to make a push against Russia would have to take 7+ turns to get infantry or artillery to Moscow.  Without the Railway, I have a feeling most games are going to end up playing out in two seperate theaters, with Japan and Germany not ever working together on a more tactical level.  With the railway there, players have the option of not following history, if they desire to.  The Burma Road is probably the least necessary of the three, however my goal with it was to give the UK player a way to reinforce China in a somewhat timely fashion.  As for the Trans-Continental Railroad, without it, it would take US infantry 4 whole turns to move between Western United States and Washington.  That seemed like too long of time to me.  With the railroad the US player can shuffle troops between both coasts in only two turns, which is how it is in normal revised AA.

E. Northwest Territores.  I would suggest moving this text more over to the right so that it clearly touches the land mass north of Quebec.  This would make it more clear that this land mass is supposed to be part of the Northwest Territories.  (Assuming that’s what you intended.)

F. The long, thing island north of Japan.  I have no idea what the island is supposed to be called, but since you added to many other small islands, you might as well put a name on it.  The other option would be to clarify that its part of the main Japanese islands, and thus Japan touches that sea zone.  If it is supposed to be part of the main Japanese islands, then I would move the border line south of it more to the north, so that it passes through the middile of the small, thin island.  This would make things more clear.

G. We should probably clarify weather or not two two sea zones on the left and right of the Philippines touch or not.

H. I saw you got rid of the Battleship image in the Atlantic to make room for the Azores and Bermuda.  You might as well get rid of the destroyer and bomber images in the other two oceans, too.  I know some people don’t like stuff like that on their game board anyways, and with only two images left, I don’t think they add much anymore.

Anyways, that’s all I can think of right now.  Keep up the great work.  Once you get it down I’ll have to print out a new copy to replace my old map.

[Deaths Head 420]

I totally agree with posi with Germany’s starting Pos., Pull them back. If you keep it this way every game will be the same, sad to say but true. I want to see German panthers rolling in red square also, but not every game

The original map works great with the exception of a few things. They have been addressed.  and them some :cry:

1. Control of Libya changed –Done

2.Spelling and area miss Identification-- Done

3. Victory Cities-- They look great.

4. Siberian Rail way, Burma Road, Transcontinental Railroad—Put them back as they were Please  :cry:

5. Madagascar-- Good

6 Not sure if I like Sahara Going all the way to Atlantic.

7. I think I like Japan’s old color better.  Matches Red Jap pieces better from pacific

8. Probably Mundane But Anchors and Airfields Are missing. ( I’m sure U no this)

9. China’s Inf. production should be based on the income they collect they make 9 IPC’s so thats 3 Inf. Place them along Burma road and their capitol.  Also If you are Giving China a “capitol” Burma Road should not run through West Bengal. That way it is still 4 spaces from Calcutta. And as long as china gets a capitol Do they get a factory? or option to buy 1 with American $.

10. Text missing from Neutral’s

11. Portugal not needed

12. Where is Saigon? Definatly needs to be there. the territory that is.

13. I like Greece in Italian Hands.

Just some of my thoughts. Thanks for your time on this project. I think we almost have got it.