I want to test

I wanna test

The connection will be added, Just after I've redone Egypt. Also as for cyprus I think it might actually be a very important Ally and country in a diplomacy, why? Because being allied with Cyprus allows for transport through the Levant so for example from Egypt to south Turkey or Turkey To Lebanon

I'm happy to say that Iran is complete, finally...
So now I'm moving on to the renovation of Egypt and trying to balance it more.
As for connections, I think I've put them all in but again feel free to point them out and I'll be sure to put them in.
Thanks
Also what do you think of Iran?

Iran is nice, maybe a bit too large in territory numbers, but I don't mind that as long as it's balanced, which we'll see in tests.

for connections, I also suggest cutting off all connections between two sides of Suez Canal expect for "Suez" territory itself(which has lands on both sides) - or shortly, make Suez the chokepoint bridge between Sinai territory and Egypt proper. Some may not like this idea, but it certainly will show the value Suez Canal, and make it easier for Egypt to defend against Israel if they occupy Sinai...again.

Same may also apply through Bosphorus once Turkey's done.

Either way, this is certainly going to be my fav diplo map :P

Thank you Stewie, I think I will do what you have said with the suez canal but as for the bosphorus, I don't think it's long enough to put in the same thing. As for Iran and its Territory numbers, I realise that they are very high but hopefully they will be balanced. It's actually what lead to me deciding to redo Egypt as I felt that Egypt was very undervalued and had too few territories to truly be realistic and for the map to represent the large level of power that Egypt has in the middle east.

Edited 3/24/2016 21:31:10

Territory number in Egypt has now been doubled which in my opinion makes the map a lot more aesthetically pleasing as well as more balanced and more fun to play as well as making war in Egypt a lot more realistic as territories along the nile are much more valuable than the rest of Egypt making them prime targets, especially the Delta, and without it the Egyptian state would collapse. This in my opinion is a lot more realistic and more adaptable.

Now as for Red Sea connections, multiple have been added to allow for Egypt to not only get to Saudi Arabia but also as far as Yemen, which is realistic in terms of the coalition against the Houthi rebels in Yemen in the current day.

You might have also noticed a colour change for Egypt. I just didn't like Iran and Egypt being the same colour just for aesthetic reasons.

So in general, Egypt has been completely revamped and I hope you all like it. I will be begin the process of making Turkey as soon as possible and hopefully we will breeze through the testing phase (still need more testers, feel free to join) and then the map will be available for everyone to play on.

Also, The West Bank has now been split into two, In a proper diplomacy game I feel that the the state of Palestine is rather important and can be the centrepoint of many wars such as an Israel v Egypt or Jordan war in order to instate a Palestinian state. And I would like for Palestine to be more important than just a small nation that can't really do much for itself at the start with ISIS near which in a diplo game could spell the End of palestine rather fast.

Cyprus now connects to Syria as well to allow for mare transport through the Mediterranean Sea.

Naval connections in the Persian Gulf have also been revamped and increased. The new connections allow for travel between Saudi Arabia and Iran in two territories. This allows for a realistic battle for the dominance of the Persian Gulf between the nations surrounding it, especially Iran and Saudi Arabia. It also allows for a growing tension between the two countries which is realistic and very applicable to current times. As well as that Oman also connects to Iran to allow for an allied attack on Iran from the Arabian peninsula or another way for Iran to cement themselves into the Arabian Peninsula and secure power over the region.

I've also planned the trade route which will go from Istanbul all the way over to Kuwait stopping off at multiple territories along the way,what this will mean is that the Middle East becomes far more realistically navigable and allows for (in a lack of appropriate terms) 'bunny hopping' from the Mediterranean all the way over to the Persian gulf.

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to update you on everything that is going on so finally, I am considering giving Saudi Arabia a territory bump if it doesn't balance up as a major power in the testing phase.

Israel has also been beefed up with two territories added...the gaza strip has now got a connection to cyprus which will allow for more involvement for palestine in a diplomacy game. Cyprus will also probably get a few more territories but the bonus value for Cyprus as a whole will not increase, I don't want to make cyprus overpowered.

Edited 3/25/2016 18:13:28

Al Quaim does not connect to Tulaya.

perfect update, I love how Egypt is reworked, great job there.

I gotta say thought that Cyprus is really scary right now with two ports in each territory...it really shows the value of the island(hence the reason for Turkish invasion), but I'm not sure if it would be overpowered, maybe splitting it further may do a better work.

Here's the divisional map of Cyprus to help you get with it: http://www.rainews.it/dl/img/2014/11/0x768_1415133480171_Cyprus_districts_named_autore_golbez_wikipedia.png

"Trade route" is a good idea, but since we are talking about geographic stuff, I'd recommend adding the two major rivers in Mesopotamia - Euphrates and Tigris:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Tigr-euph.png

they are actually a bigger deal than they look, especially Euphrates; a major crisis happened some years before Syrian Civil War when Turkey built a dam in Euphrates and had cutten off a lot of water stream to Syria.

I'm not even starting with the military part of rivers - I'm sure you are familiar with it already :P

Stewie, I admit, the idea of adding in rivers is very appealing, but at this stage I don't feel like I would be able to implement it in aesthetic and useful way, unfortunately.

Now as for Cyprus, I will indeed be dividing it a bit.
Also, thank you all very much for your support, it really does help. Hopefully the map will impress when complete.

Edited 3/25/2016 19:10:22

@Feline

Ofc, Israel is really weak on this configuration. Could be easily overun by Jordan or Syria lol.


General Amoora, I'd really love to see some bonus giving extra income for strategic positions controled (ex dardanelles straight, suez channel,...). They could give 0 income as default, but it'd be great to have them as options to add.

Feline, I am aware that Israel is severely underrepresented and its something that I very much dislike as well, however the most I can do is try to divide Israel as much as I can which is what I'm going to be trying to do. However I don't want to make a city like tel aviv, worth as much as Cairo for example, it just wouldn't be balanced and my solution is to have 0 default country bonuses, it's the best thing that I can think of to do to solve this issue. Which brings me on to my next point

Teamguns, i will have bonuses at default 0 for strategic control, for example a kurdish state region and as you say, the suez canal and other things. It's just I'll be making them once I've finished the whole map territory wise.

EDIT: also just one question, would you all prefer ISIS to be an ai or player controlled in the testing phase? As they won't follow rules of any diplomacy if its properly done. As for other groups such as the Kurdish controlled regions, they will have to be players as the Kurdish state can indeed become very important in the Middle East in real life.
And just one more question, would you like to see things like default 0 culture bonuses. These sort of things would make uniting a culture very desirable and make things very realistic, the best example would probably be Kurdish people, they span a large region of the central Middle East and a bonus for culture would make the country look much more realistic and give reason for it to declare war on other nations for legitimate reasons, rather than the state looking rather odd and not controlling fully kurdish lands. As well as that what about Religious bonuses that would be default 0, they would be extremely important to entities such as the houthi rebels in yemen to make control of Shiite lands much more desirable than sunni lands for the bonus.

Edited 3/25/2016 21:31:24

Israel IS underpowered here, but I don't think there's a solution for that expect overridding territory bonuses, and that'd be unrealistic - so it turns to be a realism vs balance conflict, and I'd personally go for the latter since this is a game. It's best to leave it to game creators.

on tests, I'd prefer ISIS to be human player since 1. even ISIS knows they won't survive without a bit "diplomacy" and 2. AI is simply too dumb to fight against human players, let alone 1 player; We'd need them to be a challenge. If there's lack of players thought, go for AI.

I'd prefer all extra bonuses to be 0 on default or maybe 1 to simply see them drawn, no need for complications.

Feel free to ask me for culture/strategic extra bonuses in PM or here as I can give some off my head.

And no problem, just making my contribution as a WLer from that region :P

The issue with boosting Israel bonuses is that the land becomes increasingly desirable die to the high tpt count increasing chances of mass coalitions such as syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine all up against Israel. Now in real life we know that Israel might actually be able to handle that but in Warlight, the chances of a player being able to handle that situation is very slim. Very slim, now i do understand what you mean but I'll leave them as they are for now and leave it up to gamemakers to change them If they'd like to boost Israel's bonuses.

EDIT: I just wanted to give an example of how Israels bonuses being overloaded could actually be very bad for it. In terms of diplomacy, Israel will already be in a tough position and if being realistic no one will ally with israel at the start of the game at least. Now lets imagine that I'm playing syria and struggling to crush ISIS, nobody wants to help with ISIS because lets imagine for a moment that ISIS has made a deal not to attack others so long as they leave ISIS to eat me up. I as syria, need troops and looking to my western borders, if Israel has bonuses of around 10 per province, that'll be very appealing, Ill call up Egypt and Jordan and offer them a slice of Israel if they help me and shortly Israel would be crushed. Thats why I don't want to overpower Israels territories. I mean even If i really overpower them, they wouldnt be able to hold up against the armies of Jordan and Egypt an Syria at the same time from all corners.

Edited 3/25/2016 22:01:02

Yeah ISIS will be a human player if I can muster up enough testers.

For overlaping/extra bonuses, I'd say:
- Country bonuses are by default at 1, it's interesting to see them at any game.
- Rebel groups bonuses are at 0.
- Religion bonuses are very interesting, could be put as 1 by default.
- Strategic positions such as channels, straights and holy cities at 0 would be cool.
- Natural ressources options would be good too: oil and gas fields, refineries and pipelines positions.

Links for the ressources maps:
http://www.slidego.com/res/palooza/world/MiddleEast-geography/2A2900AA.png
http://321energy.com/editorials/nigelmaund/nigelmaund102010A.jpg
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/06/11/infographic.ime.oil.gas.jpg


A sanction/foreign help system could also exist, but it'd need to have the US/USSR on the game to have any sense. To boost a bit israel's strengh, split the extrem south Syrian province in 2, the golan mountains are De Jure syrian, but Israel controls it.

Edited 3/25/2016 22:14:34

Feline, as much as Israel is powerful, it isn't that powerful for a '300' bonus, that'd make it beyond unbalanced for such a small region. As well as that one cannot only take into account military but population and other factors, israel isn't very highly populated. Now as for externals like the USA, Russia and China, as much as it is realistic to have them, especially the USA as they do actually get ivolved in the middle east as history has shown, I feel like the presence of them is rather unbalanced, a country that gets their support would have no issues smooth sailing through the game.

No need to have them as OP as that. Just put them as 0 income default. People change that if they want. But they really need connections to the mainland, or some1 could troll by sitting there. US could have connections to Israel, Egypt and Turkey (maybe Yemen and Oman too if you add a fleet there); Russia to Turkey and Iran.

I'd like to have that sanction/help thing that would be pretty interesting to have.

Edited 3/25/2016 23:06:42

We'll try the first testing phase without them and then perhaps we'll see if they are necessary.

Also, I've now done the preliminary divisions for Turkey, what do you think? I'll probably finish them all of tomorrow if everyone likes them as they are.