So here's the list of potential changes (with comments). Feel free to
comment on any/all of them, but your input would be especially
appreciated on those marked with a *.

1. Name changes because I'm an idiot:
-It's Sea of Okhotsk not Sea of Okhtosk
-It's MacKenzie, not McKenzie, and I'm also going to make it
MacKenzie Bay instead of MacKenzie Delta for geographical accuracy

2. Builds:
It was pointed out that Canada's ability to build in Western Canada
puts an unfair burden on the USA to occupy Western Canada just to block
the build site. Also, it's almost impossible for Norway, Denmark, and
the USA to put fleets in the other ocean, respectively. Both of these
will be solved by implementing chaos builds (and removing the Canadian
build site in Western Canada).

*3. Russia
I don't like Russia having a Pacific fleet to start because I
think it makes it hard for Russia and the USA to cooperate, which I want
to be a viable strategy. The same is true with respect to Norway in the
Atlantic. Thus my inclination is to give Russia 3 armies. However, I
cannot decide whether to put the third army in Magadan or the
Trans-Siberian Railroad, as I think the latter gives more flexibility.
The question is whether it is too much...

*4. Time and Ice
I think having certain territories melt and freeze EVERY season
disrupts the flow of the game too much. I see two options. I could
spread the time out more, so there are the equivalent of 4 standard
years per Arctic year; each season would be a month, and therefore
territories would remain in the same state for a whole "year."
Alternatively I could keep the time scale and change the freeze rules so
that changing territories are frozen for winter and spring and water for
summer and fall (no differences within transforming territories).

5. Norwegian Sea
I think the Norwegian Sea as it stands now is too powerful of a
space because it borders all 4 of Norway's most natural centers AND 2 of
Denmark's. I think I'm going to split it into North Norwegian Sea and
South Norwegian Sea, with the line running between Greenland Sea and
Oslo. Or Tromso?

6. The Middle
A couple players commented that the middle of the board takes too
long to get across. So I think I'm going to combine Men, CAP, and AWL
into one big permanently frozen space called Central Arctic Ocean.

7. Bering Strait
The five way arrow is going away to be replaced with a normal land
bridge. The net change is the elimination of Sew/EBS and Kam/WBS
connections.

*8. The Gulf of Bothnia
I'm considering adding the Gulf of Bothnia as a space. I would also
add a canal on the Lapland/Europe border, giving Archangel two coasts as
well as Lapland. NAO would also be expanded to border Lapland.

9. More NAO
I might remove the border between NAO and Nain (Labrador Sea would
border the edge of the board).

I think that's it. Again please comment to your hearts content, and
also feel free to suggest other things. The thing I learned most from
this playtest is that the variant definitely needs some work.

Matt

8.