Delta-V Solar System Map -- inspired by SolarQuest boardgame

[CreepyUncleAndy]

The following image is from the board game "Solar Quest" :


I found this board game called Solar Quest in my house a couple months ago.
LINK: Board Game Geek entry
LINK: Wikipedia entry
Recently, I had an idea for a Conquer Club map inspired by Solar Quest. I think it will be popular for the same reason as the Circus Maximus map: the orbits. You see, on the Solar Quest board, all the planets (and a number of moons, asteroids and space stations) are scattered along an orbital circuit that goes around the sun. You can only travel in one direction along this orbital track. The four gas giants each have a smaller circular orbital track surrounding them along which various moons and space stations are scattered. If you are in orbit around, say, Saturn, you can either pretty much keep circling Saturn indefinitely, going from moon to moon, or break Saturn orbit and drift to the next planet in the greater solar orbital track.

For example, you can go from Venus to Saturn, but you cannot "backtrack from Saturn to Venus -- you have to go all the way around the Solar System to get back to Venus.

I want to make a Conquer Club map like that, only with more territories. I want to include every object in the Solar System in the Yottagram range and most of those in the Zettagram range, for a total of about 50 bodies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_system_objects_by_mass

There will be at least one "racetrack" circuitous track running through the solar system from planet to planet. If there are more than one racetrack, I will probably have a different pair of two racetracks intersect at each of the four gas giant planets.

The racetracks will probably "split" as they approach a planet with moons (one path for the planet and another for each major moon along the approach vector), or maybe there will simply be a territory for each named (Planetary) Approach where (Planetary) is replaced by the given planet's name.

If a planet has more than one moon, they will be connected to one-another either along a one-way circuit or web of "Delta-V" vectors.

Most moons and asteroids will be a single territory or two territories (e.g, "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Light Side of the Moon"). Some moons (Earth's Moon, the four Gallilean Moons of Jupiter, et cetera) will have more territories, and the four (five?) terrestrial planets will each have in entire "world-map" of territories.

Earth, for example, will contain the "territories" of North America, South America, Europe, Western Asia, Eastern Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, Pacific, Mediterranean, Atlantic and Arctic -- a dozen in all -- with physically-neighboring territories connected to each other. If you occupy them all, you get the continental bonus for owning Earth.

All of Earth's territories can be attacked from Low Earth Orbit, which in turn can be attacked from High Earth Orbit, Earth Approach and Trans-Lunar Orbit. All of Earth's territories can attack Low Earth Orbit, but not High Earth Orbit directly. Or something like that.

Trans-Lunar Orbit will connect High Earth Orbit to (High?) Lunar Orbit. Earth's Moon (or Luna) will have territories like Copernicus, Mare Imbrium, Tycho and the Sea of Tranquility, and owning them all gives you the Lunar continental bonus.

All four of Jupiter's Gallilean moons will together constitute a continent; the same goes for Jupiter's two "camps" of outer moons or asteroids -- the Trojans and the, uh Macedonians???? (I forget offhand.)

Not sure if all of the asteroids in the Asteroid Belt should form a single continent (the "Asteroid Belt") or be broken into smaller "camps"?

The crux of this map will be the long-distance one-way "Delta-V" paths linking one planet to another, and the long-shots around asteroids or the sun. The surfaces of each planet and moon will be pretty much like a miniature normal Conquer Club map (microClassic, for example -- hmm, that reminds me, I should make a microClassic map first). Travelling between a planet and its moons should be pretty much two-way in some cases. You probably won't be able to land on a gas giant, so I don't think you'll be able to place armies on them or attack to/from them.

Well, thus begins what promises to be a very long thread....

[Samus]

Heh, I hated Solar Quest, you always ran out of fuel. But that doesn't mean I'll hate your map.

All of Earth's territories can be attacked from Low Earth Orbit, which in turn can be attacked from High Earth Orbit, Earth Approach and Trans-Lunar Orbit. All of Earth's territories can attack Low Earth Orbit, but not High Earth Orbit directly. Or something like that.

This would mean that after taking all of Earth, you could dump all your armies onto "Low Earth Orbit" and defend it all from one territory. I don't think that will work out.

Other than that, I think it will require a map image for us to see exactly what you have in mind and how it will play out.

[CreepyUncleAndy]

This would mean that after taking all of Earth, you could dump all your armies onto "Low Earth Orbit" and defend it all from one territory.

This is the kind of creative brainstorming and preliminary discussion we need to get this idea off the ground. Here's a different take on Earth Orbit:

Holding Low Earth Orbit merely allows you to immediately deploy reactionary forces to retake territories on the Earth's surface. Perhaps Low Earth Orbit can be split into a Light Side and Dark side, or divided into a "racetrack".

You may "drop" troops onto any Earth surface territory from Low Earth Orbit, High Earth Orbit and Trans-Lunar Orbit, which means you'd have to hold all three to "hold" earth.

Perhaps you can sneak troops onto the surface of Earth directly from outside Earth orbit, like the deep-space approaches from Venus or Mars, which would mean you'd need to deploy "tripwire" forces there to slow them down.

[Crowley]

I don't know the board game, but this sounds cool. Much better than the current space map for that matter...

[Spritzking]

not another circus maximus please

[Lt. Valerian]

This is an intriguing idea. Perhaps Low Earth Orbit could be split into like Alpha, Beta, and Delta Low Earth Orbit (Alpha LEO, Beta LEO, and Delta LEO). Also, if desired, they could be made to only attack each other in a circle, although still able to attack the Earth territories at will. This is a neat idea. Keep up the good work.