my map:
http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=8697 (waiting for Fizzer to make it public)
Based on:
- [This map](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EN-WarringStatesAll260BCE.jpg)
- [Warring States Period](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_Period)
- [The 7 Warring States](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Warring_States)
Before the military revolution and balance of power in early modern Europe (17th century), China had already experienced its own periods of military revolution and balance of power (more like hegemonic power struggles in the Chinese case). Since the Warring States Period was a city-centered era (all major Chinese cities had walls and siege warfare was the norm), I tried to construct this map with city-centered territorial and hegemonic expansion as the basis of play.
About the map:
- 117 territories, 51 bonuses
- 17 city bonuses (worth 1 each) & 5 hegemonic bonuses (added more for fun than play, as a means to introduce the importance of [the Nine Sacred Vessels](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Tripod_Cauldrons) as a symbolic basis of the Mandate of Heaven: the character ding 鼎 is found everywhere in China and Taiwan today).
- 11 Regional & 7 unified bonuses: If I had simply plopped the 7 Warring States into 7 bonuses (3 as is, 2 huge bonuses, 2 large ones), as some map makers like to do, there would be two huge, utterly useless bonuses and 2 somewhat useless bonuses. Thus, Chu (15 territories, 4 regional bonuses, 1 unified bonus) and Wei (16 territories, 4 regional, 1 unified) were broken up into a handful of smaller pieces, while Han (8 territories, 2 regional, 1 unified) and Qi (7 territories, 1 regional, 1 unified) were also divided for the sake of game play.
- Thus: Take away the city bonuses (17), hegemonic bonuses (5), and regional bonuses (11), and you have 18 normal/standard bonuses (and not 51).
- States rise and fall. Fallen states from the Spring and Autumn Period and early Warring States Period (Jin, Cao, Wu) have their own bonuses within the bonuses of the seven warring states: This provides a little map balance and allows me to make an additional historical scenario ([the Three Kingdoms](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms).
- Intended expansion: (1) Start in a city, (2) expand to take your first (smaller) regional bonus, (3) next (a) take a neighboring small bonus and/or (b) your state's full expanded bonus, then (4) fight for hegemony. As you expand, you are rewarded little by little, rather than having to get all (of a very large bonus) or nothing.
- The ethnically Mongolian Xiongnu (ancestors of the Huns) were a continual threat to the Chinese (hence the erection of the Great Wall, which is one reason why the Huns migrated toward Russia and the German tribes in central Europe) and the Qin would later unify China (thanks to military, political, legal, and economic/agricultural reforms). So I tried to make their bonuses with this in mind.
- [Sunzi's Art of War](
http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/bingfa.html) was created during the Zhou Dynasty (which is divided into the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods), so maybe you can read it (again) to learn how to be a better general on this map!
