New map by Jason Lutes

[Cainehill]

Wow! Awesome map! There's some other great looking ones out, but with many of them the prettyness detracts from playability (Britain for instance - the real map background tends to conceal the in-game information). With this one, much of it instead conveys information, with the cities, ports, bridges, magic-intense areas....

I also love the way the map file is tweaked to ensure that the starting provinces all have, mmm, 4 or more neighbors? That'd be a boon to many of the standard maps such as Aran - a MP starting position with only 2 neighbors (either total, or "viable" (ie, land)) tends to be a major handicap, especially with indie strength set high.

And the aesthetics of the map background itself are great, possibly even "perfect" in terms of background maps for computer programs.

I think it's going to be one of my favorite maps.
Many thanks to the author who put all the work into it.

Also thanks to all the others who labor on new and improved maps such as Zen's Europe.