Wordless

[Minister X]

Map Name: Wordless
Mapmaker(s): Minister X
Number of Territories: 140
Special Features: Neutral starters as needed to prevent fortuitous drops
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: How simple can a map be? How many terts can it have? Can graphic simplicity coexist with gameplay complexity? This map combines a maximum of terts with such simplicity that not one word appears on the map (not even a title!), yet the impassables and the large number of varied continents create significant strategic and tactical complexity.

Note: unlike other maps, I've begun with the small version. This map is 592x547. It should be very simple to enlarge. At this initial stage I've not created accurate bonus values for the continents. I don't necessarily expect this map to ever get made and I'm not going to go through all the spreadsheet work if it's not. I think this would be a gas to play and is a good "big" game, but I offer it just as much as an example of how far simplicity can be taken as an actual candidate for acceptance, publishing and use.

Does it work without a word? Is it understandable and sufficiently unambiguous? Diagonal movement will be allowed - must I make that clear somehow? Wouldn't it be great if it didn't need a single word - it would be great for people with no English.

Map Images:
Small

Click image to enlarge.

[koontz1973]

initial thoughts.

Splendid idea. God knows where this will go in the map lists.
Make your blobby continents touch and use colour to separate them. This will give the black bar impassables much more cohesion.
For the sake of having no words, put a small diagram in the bottom right corner showing the directions of attack or use Chines Chequers attack lines (this might be easier to understand) and will give you more options of which attack routes to use in game play.

As for having no words on the map, you have two in the form of A & I.

Plus a whole sentence is written on the map.

[Minister X]

Plus a whole sentence is written on the map.

Is there a letter that comes after 'a'? Yes. A 'b'.

Make your blobby continents touch and use colour to separate them.

Isn't using color alone to make critical definitions disallowed because of the color-blind?

This makes me realize, however, that a wordless map is an impossibility under current rules/guidelines. Continents must be named. I'd have to use letters, since numbers would get too confused, and since there are over 26 continents I'd need two letters each.

This is just a for-fun posting anyway, so it's not really worth worrying about. (Though I really would love to play this map!)

[CPD SARGE]

i like the concept Minister X. Simple yet engaging.