Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Extreme Ways.
I took a close look on Google Maps and Rabat has no real port - the big one is Casablanca and it would serve your purposes just as well. And there is indeed a port down in Tan-Tan. Also one up in Nador, which might be a good place for a second connection from Casablanca. I've gone ahead and revised the map with three ship icons and a bit of text just so I could see how it looked. It's not horrible but I'm going to resist the change unless your suggestion is seconded and thirded by other experienced players. I recognize that gameplay may be enhanced by your suggestion, and possibly all sorts of additional enhancements are possible. But to me keeping this map as simple as possible also has great value. Doodle Earth and Luxembourg are both maximally simple and I think that's part of their attraction. Malta has 42 terts and without the sea connections would have a one-tert-wide chokepoint. The situation here is quite different and the need for sea connection(s) much less critical. But I admit the connections might enhance gameplay so I'll keep an open mind. However, my mantra for this map is "small and simple - small and simple" and I'll need to be forcibly divorced from that.
Your comment about the initial drop made me realize how ignorant I am about the rules governing this. I searched the forum and found a starting drop spreadsheet
https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=649&t=151306 but it starts at 24 terts. I also found a long discussion about how to make XML accommodate various drop preferences but it's mostly incomprehensible to me. I've searched hard but can't find a rule that confirms what you said about each player getting a third of remaining terts in a 1v1 game. I don't doubt you, but I'd sure like to learn more about all this. Can you point me to where all these drop rules are explained?
Regarding the southern bonus and bonuses generally: as I said what you see on the map is completely tentative and I intend to run the spreadsheet later. But your concern is still valid and I'm concerned about the following scenario: imagine two bonus regions that are fairly different; the spreadsheet results are 1.6 for one region and 2.4 for the other; both round out to 2 but one is a much easier 2 than the other. As a mapmaker one should ideally strive to get bonus regions that calculate out very close to their integer so as to avoid this.
So I just ran the spreadsheet...
North 3.92
Sahara 2.58
West 2.75
South 1.83
Rabat .58
This isn't bad except for Sahara. I don't mind that Rabat gets rounded up so much since it's the capitol. If we want to reduce its impact we can make it an autodeploy instead of a troop bonus. (Limits where the one new troop can start.) South is close to an exact 2 so I think we're good there. But it would be nice if we could make Sahara a more solid 3. If I added a 17th tert there but made it non-defending (touching only other Saharan terts) that would raise the spreadsheet result from 2.58 to 2.83. Seems like a plan! It solves your drop issue.
Regarding Rabat starting neutral or not. I strongly believe it should start neutral. First, its 0.58 rating means it's a weak 1 and therefore should be made harder to capture. Second, I HATE the thought of someone starting with ownership of even a small bonus and then getting to go first. On a small map like this that's deadly. That player would (all else being equal) win 80% or more of games. And if it doesn't start neutral it will get owned on the drop way too often.
