Countdown

[Verjigorm]

In other news, please see my new map, the Abstract Sky Tower which is designed for situations similar to this one.

As I recall we had originally looked at a symmetrical map with centralized victory points, but one of the problems I had with it was that it essentially forced all nations on the same arm of the map to kill each other before proceeding to the VP area since there is a singular bridge between the VP area and the arms. The other option would be to take bridges around through other enemies territory which means a long and circuitous route between your center and your army. Arena also doesn't appear to be designed for water nations which would have a clear advantage having 10 (at 3 water nations), 15 (at 2), or 30 water provinces with 6 entrances to the center thus circumventing the nasty "kill your neighbor before entry" problem the land nations have.

I tried to address these issues when designing the Sky Tower. The only issue I didn't address was the ugliness. I had originally thought I would do a nicely colored map like Jason Lutes (from whose artwork our "Crown" map is derived), but when I started doing it, I found that the amount of time required would be extraordinary, and resolved, rather, to simply provide the necessary structure and try not to offend the eye as much as possible, though I'm not sure I accomplished the latter task as Pinkland and Yellowland are quite difficult to look at.