I am creating a map based on world war 2.
http://warlight.net/Map?ID=12375
I have got one test game running.

Things to do:
1. Make islands larger and boats smaller.
2. make sea connections clearer (maybe with sea background territories).
3. Rename Melanesia and Kiribati.
4. Correct spelling mistakes.
5. Change sea bonuses (probably to US pacific, British pacific etc).
6. Make the US have china in the scenario.
7. Turn the boats into battleships/ carriers.
8. Move the bonus links.
9. Re-balance.
10. Label wastelands/ seas.
11. Add Hawaii, Alaska and Wake Island to US in modern day start.

If you have any improvements please tell me.
If you want to be in a test game please tell me.

Edited 2/20/2014 08:36:42

you already tested it?

It is a bit of a mess, visually :D, maybe it's the connections i don't know. You should try to clear it up. Also make the boats battleships considering it's WW2 and i think that way they will take less space. One thing is not clear, all the bonuses are one territory, have you not divided them yet or do you plan to keep them that way? It will be very unbalanced if you do.

My suggestions:

1) It does look messy. The countries look like they were drawn free hand with no base map to trace off.

2) Ocean bonuses seem odd (particularly Indian/Pacific), some are in wrong ones. Why Indonesia water bonus? It isn't an ocean and seems inconsistent (also puts more emphasis on that area, when WWII was mostly about Europe).

3) Bonus per territory. This makes sense if you use Local Deployments, but in WWII board games like Axis and Allies they restrict deployments to even less areas. You might consider what I did for my map (it gives 1 army for every 3 territories, plus the extra in manufacturing spots): http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=370893

4) China - In axis and allies, US China does not connect to sea. That will effect balance a lot if they can deploy there, especially without actual ships. Part of the reason why Axis can succeed in that is it takes a while to support from afar with boats. It will be much faster on here since you can just ferry 100 troops without restrictions (like actually having transports). If you don't use local deployments, the game will be horribly lopsided (US can just full deploy in China and steamroll Japan).

5) Wastelands - should label deserts/neutrals since they won't have territory names.

6) Should color bonuses with their starting nation. Will help differentiate starting boundaries.

7) Bonus links - should be within territory as long as army amount also fits. Having the "6" on Switzerland rather than Germany is confusing. Almost all should fit inside (many islands will not).

8) middle east - another balance issue here is connection from Italy to middle east. Germany will have very fast access that way that it did not in the board game. It also takes importance off having Egypt (in the board game you have to have both sides of Suez canal to pass with ships). Might want to keep some spots still significant and remove that boat for East Med Sea.

This map is based of the 6th version- I guess you must be thinking of a different version. The coloring of the bonuses based of the starting country is a good idea except there are multiple starting positions (1941 and 1942). The bonuses will be staying one for each because a) Europe was more valuable than Siberia and b) it is designed for diplomacy games in which 1 for each territory is common. I local deployments would be a good idea however, I am not a member or high level. There is still a use for Egypt- every piece of income helps. I will probably move the bonus boxes and change the ships seeing as the test game found it a issue as well. WWII was not mostly about Europe. The Pacific theater was also very important- it occupied American and British forces as well as change the fate for many Asian countries. Emphasis in the pacific theater is needed as the land territories are worth less. However, the Indonesia bonus may be removed and replaced with Japanese/ British Pacific/ Indian ocean. As with balance, in the 1942 scenario, Russia starts with 22, Germany starts with 32, Japan starts with 39, Britain: 42, US: 32 (with current bonuses). Upon reflection, there are some balance problems which need to be fixed but it is not too bad (unless you do automatic full distribution).

Edited 2/20/2014 08:28:09

I am thinking of the original PC/board game (in terms of how China looked). I had thought about doing the map myself at one time, but was worried it would not play well (without having actual ships and air units, I wasn't sure how it would hold to the original balance). I suppose balance can be tweaked after testing.