Coffee Conquest

[Winged Cat]

Map Name: Coffee Conquest
Mapmaker(s): Winged Cat
Number of Territories: 24
Special Features: Conquest map, one-way assaults
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: For SCIENCE! And COFFEE! But also to have a compact little map.

Map Image:
[bigimg][/bigimg]

Inspired by Molecular Warfare: Hydrocarbons, this is the caffeine molecule as seen here among many other places. (Not linking that under Map Image since I understand I'll need to draw my own for a usable map.) In the usual depiction, black = carbon, white = hydrogen, red = oxygen, and blue = nitrogen.

The nitrogens are the starting places (for a maximum of 4 players). All other territories start neutral (this is a conquest map). Each CH3 group gives +2 if held (a 4-territory 1-entrance continent), as do the two oxygens. The nitrogen that doesn't connect to a CH3 group can one-way attack each of the oxygens, so each of the nitrogens has easy access to a bonus. Hold all four nitrogens to win.

I can do the XML easier than I can draw well, but I can take a stab at drawing it, if this seems worth attempting.

[plurple]

Map Name: Coffee Conquest
Mapmaker(s): Winged Cat
Number of Territories: 24
Special Features: Conquest map, one-way assaults
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: For SCIENCE! And COFFEE! But also to have a compact little map.

Map Image:
[bigimg][/bigimg]

Inspired by Molecular Warfare: Hydrocarbons, this is the caffeine molecule as seen here among many other places. (Not linking that under Map Image since I understand I'll need to draw my own for a usable map.) In the usual depiction, black = carbon, white = hydrogen, red = oxygen, and blue = nitrogen.

The nitrogens are the starting places (for a maximum of 4 players). All other territories start neutral (this is a conquest map). Each CH3 group gives +2 if held (a 4-territory 1-entrance continent), as do the two oxygens. The nitrogen that doesn't connect to a CH3 group can one-way attack each of the oxygens, so each of the nitrogens has easy access to a bonus. Hold all four nitrogens to win.

I can do the XML easier than I can draw well, but I can take a stab at drawing it, if this seems worth attempting.

This sounds interesting however we like maps to be made with a minimum of 8 players there are a few that were made before that rule Age Of Realms: 1-3 and 1 exception Promontory Summit.

Here is a link to the specific guidelines:
viewtopic.php?f=649&t=150681#p3292841

[uckuki]

being a coffee drinker since the age of 3 I fully support
a coffee map, of any kind, even decaf.

[Votanic]

being a coffee drinker since the age of 3 I fully support
a coffee map, of any kind, even decaf.

Maybe you can make it a split-component map.
Sure, the caffeine molecule (why not?), but also, a geo-map of the world's coffee-growing regions.
Yergacheffe for the win!

[Winged Cat]

This sounds interesting however we like maps to be made with a minimum of 8 players there are a few that were made before that rule Age Of Realms: 1-3 and 1 exception Promontory Summit.

Here is a link to the specific guidelines:
viewtopic.php?f=649&t=150681#p3292841

I saw a version with the 8 player requirement crossed out, so I wasn't sure it was still in effect. Off the top of my head, I can think of two solutions that yield 8 starting spaces:
* Make the carbon atoms the starting spaces. Oxygens and hydrogens can attack each other (water route). The only bonus is +1 per nitrogen.
* Use two molecules. Oxygens can attack each other, in addition to the one-way attack from the "isolated" nitrogens (to their molecule's oxygens only). Hold all 8 nitrogens to win.

8 players on a 24 space map is really a knife fight.

Maybe you can make it a split-component map.
Sure, the caffeine molecule (why not?), but also, a geo-map of the world's coffee-growing regions.
Yergacheffe for the win!

That seems like two rather different themes, and the geo-map would just be a subset of Classic.

[Votanic]

This sounds interesting however we like maps to be made with a minimum of 8 players there are a few that were made before that rule Age Of Realms: 1-3 and 1 exception Promontory Summit.

Here is a link to the specific guidelines:
viewtopic.php?f=649&t=150681#p3292841

I saw a version with the 8 player requirement crossed out, so I wasn't sure it was still in effect. Off the top of my head, I can think of two solutions that yield 8 starting spaces:
* Make the carbon atoms the starting spaces. Oxygens and hydrogens can attack each other (water route). The only bonus is +1 per nitrogen.
* Use two molecules. Oxygens can attack each other, in addition to the one-way attack from the "isolated" nitrogens (to their molecule's oxygens only). Hold all 8 nitrogens to win.

8 players on a 24 space map is really a knife fight.

Maybe you can make it a split-component map.
Sure, the caffeine molecule (why not?), but also, a geo-map of the world's coffee-growing regions.
Yergacheffe for the win!

That seems like two rather different themes, and the geo-map would just be a subset of Classic.

Yes, indeed, many CC maps are in some sense ' a subset of Classic'.
..and even a larger percentage can be described as geographic in some way, either factual or fictional.
That's because a game of conquest usually works best when there is something actually conquerable at stake.
Yes, I know, we humans are capable of somehow imagining teeny-tiny armies marching across the angstrom lengths of molecuar bonds...
But maps of a similar ilk do already exist, and they often quickly become tiresome.
For example that 'map' with all the baby toys... or even worse, that Spectrum-level awkward calculator 'map'...

How about a three-component coffee map of molecule, coffee-growing regions, AND a menu of coffee drinks! Caffe Borgia for the Win!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees a way forward with a lucrative corporate sponsorship tie-in.
Get ready for CC's new Starbuck's-funded Promo-Map!

[Kevi]

You may want to incorporate a deteriorating element 'coffee rust' as this was the determining reason that brits are tea drinkers, after an outbreak of rust annihilated the Sri Lankan coffee crops in the times of empire. More recently in the 60s or 70s the Brazilian crops were were wiped out after a French plant pathologist carried some spores over on his clothing. Just some historical facts you may find interesting.

[Votanic]

You may want to incorporate a deteriorating element 'coffee rust' as this was the determining reason that brits are tea drinkers, after an outbreak of rust annihilated the Sri Lankan coffee crops in the times of empire. More recently in the 60s or 70s the Brazilian crops were were wiped out after a French plant pathologist carried some spores over on his clothing. Just some historical facts you may find interesting.

Oh yeah, Coffee Rust (Hemileia vastatrix) is a big problem and it is basically worldwide now...
But that story about that wicked/careless 'French plant pathologist' sounds sketchy. In our age of global commerce and travel, all pathogens will sooner or later (probably, sooner) make it to all regions that support their host... but being able to confidently attribute something like that to a single dispersal event is just so doubtful.

[Votanic]

You may want to incorporate a deteriorating element 'coffee rust' as this was the determining reason that brits are tea drinkers, after an outbreak of rust annihilated the Sri Lankan coffee crops in the times of empire. More recently in the 60s or 70s the Brazilian crops were were wiped out after a French plant pathologist carried some spores over on his clothing. Just some historical facts you may find interesting.

Oh yeah, Coffee Rust (Hemileia vastatrix) is a big problem and it is basically worldwide now...
But that story about that wicked/careless 'French plant pathologist' sounds sketchy. In our age of global commerce and travel, all pathogens will sooner or later (probably, sooner) make it to all regions that support their host... but being able to confidently attribute something like that to a single dispersal event is just so doubtful.

So okay, now it's a four part map, maybe something like two overlapping gene phyogeny trees, one for the fungus and one for the host (Coffea, Rubiaceae).
Th same itty bitty armies crawling on the caffeine can now also hop to every node and sample/species terminal on the chart. Fun. (...perhaps?)

[Winged Cat]

If I were to go with that idea, I might as well add in a graph of the historical price of tea in China.

If it needs stating: click the link for what I suspect would be the common reaction to adding in these extra parts, despite the narrative connection. I'd consider naming this "Caffeine Conquest" to better focus the theme, but "Coffee Conquest" sounds better.

As to non-geographical maps: I agree that Pi-School can be a bit tiresome, but because of its mechanics, not because of the content. Patch Wars, however, is a solidly playable map to me. You might also look at 8 Thoughts, Valentine's Day, or the various World Cup maps, among other examples. By "a subset of Classic" I literally meant a subset of the Classic map, taking some territories and geography from the Classic map as is (or close enough), not a map of some smaller area (such as making a whole map out of what Classic assigns a single territory to).