So regarding the SZ subdivisions (black lines), I'm not entirely sure what the ultimate goal is there so I'd probably back burner it till we get some thoughts just so I'm not laying down a bunch of lines that need to be instantly erased lol.
Like I can imagine more dynamism for island hoping when more of the islands straddle a line, because that makes the TT more useful for projecting power with aircraft. Effectively an island on a line becomes an air base without really necessitating an 'air base' unit per se. So that sorta makes sense to me.
It's tricky to know what sort of general Naval dynamic one wants to entertain though. Like A&A doesn't really do a great job of simulating naval warfare, and it's generally subordinated to the ground game for simplicity. Unless you want the sz tiles to somehow get ships with different movement rates and abstract it that way maybe? In Iron War you got the PT boat at Move 1 and the cheapest cost, which turns it into basically a fodder wall. It's kind of a weird unit to highlight for such an important role mechanically, but I guess like Kennedy or whatever, it's got some charm to it.
I can imagine a scheme where Carriers are M2, but the rest of the surface ships are M3, which might create a situation where you get some kinda staged back and forth trying to dance the carriers into position, while projecting the fighter aircraft and the destroyers and cruisers and whatnot. Or another way would be to have the carriers and battleships at M1, and everything else at M2, though I think many A&A players would revolt at that idea lol.
I was just trying to imagine something like Medieval Total War, where the goal in the naval game was to create a series of connected sea zones, to increase trade and transport armies. Connected Empire in Risk more or less, but on the water. You know so that rather than just needing to preserve your massive armada stack in a single tile, the player has a reason to divide and try to hold more Sea Zones at once. That is very different from standard A&A play though, and probably requires like a complete reimagining of everything about the naval game. Kinda ambitious.
I honestly think you could have a pretty fun AI type game, just using the regular rules and unit interactions for the most part, and just make it simpler to move production fronts. Basically allowing players to place "Factories" in many more locations as the game progresses. In A&A you can't do this unless a TT is worth enough to make it possible and there are always rules about where they can go, but I kinda like the dynamic that allows the players to push their warfronts that way, even if it's super abstract and gamey. Forward Bases or deployment points, rather than 'factories' if that makes sense. Cause if you can drop one of those on an island chain after advancing, you can sorta build on the momentum of a press.
When it comes to divisions in places like say the North Pacific, I'm less confident about how to do this, if only because having a ton of tiles separating Japan and the USA would seem to preclude any endgame where Japan tries to threaten the USA directly. Gamey while that might be, it's still an alright goal I think, of a good A&A style game, to give Japan the option of putting pressure on the W. USA, like if the Americans are ignoring them to focus on Germany and the Atlantic. So the further away you push Alaska the less likely likely that becomes. For an AI style game where the player is basically just beating up on the computer cause they want to paint the world their colors, I'd think allowing for warfronts in the Americas would be a good thing. Same deal with Japan fighting the USSR. Sure we could take it off the table entirely, but then you definitely limit where that kind of game can go. Rather than a NAP, I prefer I situation where the USSR can fight and win a landwar in Siberia vs Japan rather than simply folding like they do in the Classic dynamic. But the challenge is always sorta the same, give the Allies too much and KJF crushes, give them too little and Japan runs the board. I think what I'd like to see is tiered projection centers, like lily pads, so the Soviets have fallback positions if the IJA gets it's way and a landwar into Siberia is initiated.
The thing that prevents the USSR from just rolling up Japan, should be more the coastal transport advantage. But you'd almost want a situation similar to how France works in Europe, like under the Classic Dynamic where Germany can basically eject the Allies trading out of their main tile. So in the Soviets vs Japanese invasion context, if Japan lands a gang of units in Amur or the Soviet Far East, that the Soviets could clap back and turn the coastal tiles into deadzones that are traded, rather than just ceding those TTs instantly cause they are too economically weak and lack any production to reinforce them. I feel like a potential landwar in the Americas should be similar, you know where Japan might grab a toehold in Hawaii or Alaska, and perhaps advance on the West Coast, but then giving the Americans or Canadians ways to clap back.
I don't know though, my thoughts are kinda all over the place on what sort of map to make. I really enjoyed Iron War, and I'd almost like to see something along those lines, but just with a bit less going on in terms of Resource Management and the sheer number of factions. I thought D10 and the advanced roster was fun, but it might be a bit much. The old Big World map I think had a nice approach, which was essentially A&A Revised, but bigger lol. I think one could probably do something similar and have that be pretty entertaining. Like Ozteas G41, but just with a few more things going on, and a new map that looks pretty heheh.
I don't know, I'll let you guys figure it out I guess.
What I'd like to do now, is lock in those G40 divisions, which means repainting from the 2 color bitmap to make sure I didn't break any lines while redrawing (which I always seem to) so I'll bang that out with the simplified G40 ownership just so it's easier to compare to OOB and catch any mistakes. I'll give it a shot tomorrow
ps. @Cernel how do you feel about the handling for those G40 tiles corresponding to W. Germany and Greater Southern Germany? My thought was that it kinda made sense just for the shape of the G40 TTs. Where I guess the 'Greater Southern' part just means like Austria sans Tyrol heheh.
I thought about including Bohemia in the tile, but then there's the G40 need for E. Germany to touch the Hungary-Slovakia tile. It might work if more of the Czech tile was carved into but then you kinda lose the recognizable shape for Czechoslovakia, which maybe might be worth keeping just for game set more in the late 1930s? I don't know, but I guess it's kinda similar to the Axis Balkans or Yugoslavia conundrum. Like trying to give a shape that works for a couple possible start dates, but that doesn't break the basic G40 look too hard lol. I don't know if there's anything that stands out too weird let me know. I guess for stuff like Dutch Borneo we just paint everything to look like the OOB board. Like basically everything in the Western Hemisphere is getting that drab almost USA green, even if it was a British colony or whatever. Probably simplest I guess, still I kinda liked the idea of showing the British Empire in full. I feel like a cool theme for a WW2 game is sorta the preamble to dissolution of the Empire. Like just the way G40 has them busted up into 3 factions as a nerf. On the other hand, I also like the idea of the British globe trotting, which having more of those tiny zones represented might be fun. So it's sort like you got the crown running stuff out of Labrador and Newfoundland, but the Canadians are doing the heavy lifting out of that zone. Or similarly in the Pacific early on the Brits are scrambling around Malaya or Solomon Is and trying to hold the lines, until India and Anzac can show up, where then they fall into the support position. So basically UK still sorta everywhere like in the old games, but not as pronounced. Basically treating the those regional dominions like a separate faction but just grouped into the same turn block?
its just one map size, but with two border sets, 4K and Global.
