An old map idea of mine
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Years ago I came up with many ideas for maps, but till now I've been kind of reluctant to admit that this lifetime of mine is too short to do all of them justice. So here is one map concept, which is somewhat fleshed out, but which I'm certain I'm never going to go any further with. You are free to do or not do whatever you want with it, including but not limited to ignoring this entirely, being inspired by it, using parts of it or just stealing the concept wholesale.
I'm going to describe the map as though it exists.
The map has a steampunk setting with armored trains and gigantic airships and all that. Steam power is common and cheap, lifting things up in the air is easier than in our world, oil is probably rare or not as good as real life oil, and cannons are stuck at a Napoleonic tech level or thereabouts.
TripleA has land territories and sea territories. The core idea that makes this map different is that there are more than just these two types.
Land and sea territories are grouped into regions of 3-5. Each region has an additional special territory that represents the airspace above. This airspace territory is a special kind of "sea" territory that naval units can't enter, and it is connected to all of the surface territories of its region, as well as the airspace territories of the surrounding regions.
Airships (but not regular aircraft) in this world stay airborne more or less forever, and so they are "naval" units that can only exist in these airspace territories. Planes still exist, and they are just like the good old air units, but they tend to have shorter range. There are many types of airships, each specializing in one or more of: ground bombardment (with sea-to-land bombard rolls), airship-to-airship combat, sneaky-fast-hiding-in-clouds airship-to-airship combat (submarine), countering planes (AA attacks), troop transporting, or huge plane-carrying floating carriers.
Similarly, regular planes can specialize in plane-to-plane combat, close air support, ground bombardment, anti-ship combat, general anti-airship combat, or even specialized anti-sneaky-airship reconnaisance. These can of course all enter land and sea territories ("flying within gunshot from the surface") as well as airspace territories ("flying way above"), although different types of planes can perform better or worse in one or the other (territory effects).
There are also other "sea" territories scattered around the map that represent railway stations/segments. Train units specializing in bombardment, transport or anti-air combat can move between these stations as connected by rail lines, but only if all land territories along the way are owned (canals, basically).
Spectacular mountain peaks or cliffs are represented by the disproportionately many (relative to our world) territories impassable to land units (but not to aircraft).
Airspace territories have territory effects based on the general weather patterns of that area: mostly clear, mostly cloudy, mostly windy, frequently stormy, etc.
Different parts of the map have many different variations of these basic concepts: country-sized cave systems without access to an airspace territory; railway lines crossing under impassable mountains, between caves, across lakes/seas/straits; floating islands (or a plateau completely surrounded by cliff walls) only accessible from an airspace but not the ground, etc.
So, that's the idea, now take it, and do something awesome! I have different maps to attend to.
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@alkexr cool idea. Somewhat reminds me of the Turtledove book The Two Georges
