Welcome Guest!  [Log In]  [Sign Up]

Diplomaticcorp Discussion Forum:  Variants

(Discuss your favorite Diplomacy variants, new concepts, and technical challenges.)


Post:< 27118 >
Subject:< New Variant: Warring States (ancient China) >
Topic:< Variants >
Category:General >
Author:zurn
Posted:Oct 10, 2014 at 1:25 pm
Viewed:1769 times

  [New Post]  [Reply]  [Quote]

Thanks, I traced the contour lines over a much lower quality contour map; it actually doesn't take too long. Smile Makes for a much nicer looking physical map, akin to the original Diplomacy board: http://imgur.com/a/U9X9q (Pretty easy and cheap to make, nice for pushing armies around.)

I thought about a "barbarian" power in the north. Although I'm far from an expert, it sounded to me like the barbarian powers were much less powerful, and I thought it was nice to keep it to the main warring states. The Huns are there in spirit: Xiongnu is the Chinese term for them.

Wei is definitely in an interesting spot. They do have the "shortest" path to victory though (2.13 spaces to 18 centres from all home centres), and access to the two main clusters of centres, plus a possible supported move into Ye on the first turn. The wall in Daliang should discourage a casual opportunistic attack from Han and so enhance trust. I gave Han a wall in Luoyang to enhance its defense as well, and the wall in Anyi to help it out as well, plus access to the same two clusters of centres. I'm hoping an extra unit isn't necessary, but it's a possibility.

There are some centres outside the two main clusters, true. I think of Jiuyuan and Shang as Spain and Portugal. Smile Ba and Danyang are like Tunis. Smile Although Ba is on a river that leads into Chu. The extra space around Chu makes it a safe but slower start, and gives the more pressed countries a head start on more centres.

Obviously a lot of the balance decisions require playtesting; I'll certainly let you know if I ever get a game going.

Some more "distances to 18":

Qin 3.22
Chu 3.00
Zhou 2.71
Wei 2.13
Han 3.00
Yan 3.57
Qi 2.63

Centres within 3 that are enemy home centres, and % of all centres within 3:

Qin 5 31%
Chu 8 44%
Zhou 8 40%
Wei 11 44%
Han 7 39%
Yan 6 43%
Qi 10 48%

This message is in reply to post 27117:

Samy,

that's a pretty map. Where did you get the bottom layer from?

I really like the sound of the fleet and walls rules.

Have you thought of adding a Barbarian power to the North? Seems to me like a good idea.

I'm concerned central powers such as Wei face too great struggles. Perhaps you can give those say one more unit...?

Neutral SCs should IMO generally be grouped in clusters. To create fertile battlegrounds.

In any case, please sign me on as an observer should you get a playtest underway.

There are 5 Messages in this Thread:


New Variant: Warring States (ancient China) (zurn) Oct 08, 05:40 am

New Variant: Warring States (ancient China) (charlesf) Oct 10, 11:02 am

New Variant: Warring States (ancient China) (zurn) Oct 10, 01:25 pm

New Variant: Warring States (ancient China) (david_e_cohen) Oct 17, 12:33 pm

New Variant: Warring States (ancient China) (zurn) Oct 18, 02:52 am

Diplomacy games may contain lying, stabbing, or deliberately deceiving communications that may not be suitable for and may pose a hazard to young children, gullible adults, and small farm animals.

Powered by Fuzzy Logic · You are visitor number 55604 · Page loaded in 0.3161 seconds by DESMOND