M57 wrote:

Babbalouie wrote:

Enough said. Why would anyone want to make any changes to the most played, most popular board on the site? It should remain untouched! When you start messing with this perhaps it would not be as popular. 

I agree - it is THE classic; to change the WGWF board would be a mistake, if only because that is the expectation of the masses.

But this doesn't change the fact that 'the classic' is a good design at best.  It is certainly not "Superb" or "Perfect."  If it had never been designed before and someone were to design a similar board (and rules) from scratch on this site, they would certainly create different territories with different borders and better choke points, etc..  Maybe giving a card to the second player or only give the first player 1 bonus unit to start.

I would have liked to see the chart (graphs) for two-player games on the WGWF board, because I suspect they are pretty far out of line ..probably approaching 57/43 with the advantage to the player that moves first.  That's pretty unfair.  I do everything I can in my designs to avoid numbers like that, and if they are unavoidable, I would likely restrict play to 3+ players.

Out of curiosity, what specific changes to territories and borders would you make?

I would probably change Australia in some way.   It's a little bit too good of an area for my tastes.  Maybe connect New Guinea to Japan or China, or Indonesia to India.

I also think that Africa should be better.  Either disconnect Eastern Africa from the Middle East, or make it worth +4.

Also, Asia is such a wasteland, I'd probably make Japan a separate continent, worth +1 by itself.

erastus25 wrote:

M57 wrote:

But this doesn't change the fact that 'the classic' is a good design at best.  It is certainly not "Superb" or "Perfect."  If it had never been designed before and someone were to design a similar board (and rules) from scratch on this site, they would certainly create different territories with different borders and better choke points, etc..  Maybe giving a card to the second player or only give the first player 1 bonus unit to start.

Out of curiosity, what specific changes to territories and borders would you make?

If commissioned to design a "Classic" world map, I think I would design one where the number of territories would fall in between those of Colossal Crusade and Risk.  I might solve the Australia problem by creating South Sea island territories, and then connect them to both Japan and New Zealand - and maybe even Hawaii. One of the advantages of having more territories in general is that the Australia problem solves itself.  For starters, there could be two entry points from the mainland.

Ozyman wrote:

I would probably change Australia in some way.   It's a little bit too good of an area for my tastes.  Maybe connect New Guinea to Japan or China, or Indonesia to India.

I also think that Africa should be better.  Either disconnect Eastern Africa from the Middle East, or make it worth +4.

Also, Asia is such a wasteland, I'd probably make Japan a separate continent, worth +1 by itself.

IMO, Australia is fairly corrected in the board War : http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/War

This board was very popular some time ago but has become forgotten. 

I think we might consider that Australia is fine the way it is and is not a problem.  I will grant the  bonus / border ration is excellent - however the reason it is so easy to protect is what gives it a disadvantage in some sense.  In general, with any continent, there is a negative to having the bonus - you need to protect it.  So, if you have SA, you will get a bonus, but you may need to keep 6 to 8 troops or more in place to protect the bonus.  Over the long term you will make out but it may take 3 rounds or more to break even.  With Australia, not only do you need to keep troops out of the action to protect the bonus, but when you can bring them into play they are as far away as possible to being helpful.  So, I don't think Australia is a better continent that the others or of a higher value.

Good points SG, but one can build up in Siam if they have an open border, thus protecting the bonus and building for a takeout move.