I love this map as well and really enjoy it in terms of following its story and travelling through its realm. I also like the way the water is bunched up in one area, promoting an Atlantis-R'lyeh feud (although the creators seem to understand that it's unbalanced if you don't have two water nations.)
My only concern is the amount of power on the board and some of the starting locations -- I note that the water races start off with really poor opportunities with only three neighbors apiece. Haven't tried land yet (finals) but that seemed to give them a bit of a disadvantage (which might be balanced by the sheer amount of water area for them to conquer all by themselves.)
I'm also curious to hear if anybody feels any of the sites are a little overly powerful. I know I was surprised to start, as R'lyeh, in a space with a Kraken Pit right off the bat. That gave me a huge advantage to conquering indies but I think it'd balance out in the long run. But are there any greater areas of concern?
Otherwise, though, I'm -very- impressed by this effort and look forward to more. I'll definitely keep playing it SP over the summer.
