Map design questions for major cities…

Let me get back to ya. I’ll double check all size circles from 3 different size maps and list them. I’ll post it this evening.

City blow-up circles help to draw attention visually to a city, so they’re nice in that respect, but if the circle includes an IPC value then this raises the question of whether the city circle is a large version of a city or a small version of a territory.  In other words: is there a functional difference between (on the one hand) a large named territory that has an IPC value and which contains a city, and (on the other hand) a circle that contains a named city and has an IPC value but has no territorial name?

The only reason that changing the shape of the territory to a circle would have a functional impact on the game is if the circle makes it easier for you to have more or fewer average connections than a tentacled blob. E.g., maybe the Stalingrad circle is adjacent to 5 other territories, whereas the Caucasus blob is only adjacent to 2 other territories. In practice, most maps don’t maintain any such distinction – you can usually arrange the blobs to have the number of connections you want, with or without circles.

Still, I love using circles for cities, because it’s visually arresting and helps explain the strategic structure of the game to casual players – much easier to point and say “capture those circles!” than to try to explain about barely visible victory cities or (worse) to have to insist that repeated play has shown that territories x, y, and z are crucial to victory, even though those territories look visually identical to all the others.

The map I’m using for 40 game is 4’ x 8’ map has 2 1/2" circles for all but one circle. That is Moscow which is 3 1/2" and that is Deaths Head Map.

HBG 39 map 4’ x 8’ I also use has 2", 2 1/2" and Moscow at 3 1/2" which they copied from above map.

Looks like size circles just bigger if more pieces need the room. Other wise it also looks like the normal size is 2" for smaller maps.

Here’s a pic on a 4’ x 8’ map Der.

@Der:

OK thanks - I like the city circles - seems like they would add some immersion to the game.

I like them as well, I also like the capital roundel opacity at 100% while the others are not.

In the Amerika board game, there are a few rules when attacking city territories. The first is that artillery fires first in the opening round of combat and casualties are removed before continuing. The second is each city has it’s own Anti-aircraft guns which fire before combat begins and casualties are removed. This is not like the AA guns on factories, these are for ground assault. Lastly, the attacker can only use one round of combat to simulate the difficulty and length of time it takes to capture a city. I don’t know if this would transfer well to A&A though because there is also a stacking limit in Amerka. You would never be able to capture a capital in A&A if you stacked 20-30 units on it. You could make a limit of 2 or 3 rounds or something like that though.