Design - Jupiter positioned in the middle. Jupiter is hordes bonus and is pretty big with ~30 territories. Holding the Eye of Jupiter grants an additional +5 bonus.

To the left of Jupiter is Io, to the upper left is Europa, to the upper right is Ganymede, and to the right is Callisto. Each moon has one territory the connects to Jupiter as well as one territory that connects to its neighboring moon(s). The size of each moon is 5, 5, 8, and 6 territories respectively. Moons are not hordes but have a continent bonus of +3, +3, +4, and +6 respectively.

Seems pretty straightforward, and would be a great first map for someone... hint, hint..

I'm an ideas man 😅

The border implementation is a little strange in that the 'neighboring' moons actually revolve around Jupiter independently and at various intervals, so they don't really stay in proximity to their game-assigned Galilean moon. Of course, that's something everyone knows so I suppose it's not a big deal. It's just a game, right?

M57 wrote:The border implementation is a little strange in that the 'neighboring' moons actually revolve around Jupiter independently and at various intervals, so they don't really stay in proximity to their game-assigned Galilean moon. Of course, that's something everyone knows so I suppose it's not a big deal. It's just a game, right?

Oh, sure, we learned that in kindergarten! But honestly, sounds very similar to AstroGear 2210.

Ok hear me out: what if every moon is a factory that adds and subtracts troops to all other moons, and/or cause all other moons revert to neutral at the start of the turn; each moon’s bonus profile is different. Making the add/subtract bonuses arbitrarily large could make a map where the goal is to line up a viable pathway to Jupiter before the other players do.

Since this would be a pickle to balance well, and you’d want some variety in strategic options, probably would be good to throw in some invention-style bonuses that do artillery damage or provide vision or alter the factory bonus from default.

BTdubs wrote:Ok hear me out: what if every moon is a factory that adds and subtracts troops to all other moons, and/or cause all other moons revert to neutral at the start of the turn; each moon’s bonus profile is different. Making the add/subtract bonuses arbitrarily large could make a map where the goal is to line up a viable pathway to Jupiter before the other players do.

Meaning some kind of elim bonus for taking a moon? Or a standard continent bonus (i.e. applied pre-turn), only with wacky guidelines?

The second one.

I’ve been playing this board a bit: https://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Pern+-+The+Southern+Continent" target="_blank"> https://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Pern+-+The+Southern+Continent

It uses bonuses in some fun ways, and made me think you could construct a set of bonuses that raise and lower the number of troops on any given moon in a way that (a) simulates them being closer and further orbitally and (b) makes for fun strategic gambits.

For example, in the Pern board linked above, there are territories that are negative-six factories on self, but also receive +2 for holding neighboring territories; if you hold 3 neighboring territories the effective bonus is 0; hold 5 neighbors and it’s +4.

I’m just riffing here, but suppose every player starts with a starship that cannot be anttacked. Jupiter starts with 100 neutrals; moons start with 1-10 neutrals. Holding any single moon gives a +10 bonus to (initially) neutral Jupiter -1 to the nearest other moon, and -1 to every moon; moons revert to neutral if they reach 0 troops; some moons have 2,3,or 4 territories on them. Every territory you hold gets a -x bonus (where x is the number of players in the game) on your turn and a +1 bonus on all other players turns. Holding any 2 moons gives a -1 to Jupiter; holding any 3 gives a -10 to Jupiter. Upgrades that can only be attacked from the ships allow you to artillery-target Jupiter directly, moons directly, or other ships directly. Win condition is to take and hold Jupiter.

Numbers are just placeholders here, and this is just a mishmash of concepts to choose from. The core idea is to use bonuses creatively to generate a cyclically and/or dynamically shifting battle terrain. I’ve made zero maps but think the tools available could be shoehorned into producing this.

Just to get it straight: holding moons grants a bonus that lowers the unit count on Jupiter, plus additional bonuses like extra troops or a minus on other players?

How does this simulate orbit? Would the bonuses change from turn to turn, or am I missing something? If the former, seems super complicated. How would players keep track and strategize?

Abraham the Mage wrote:M57 wrote:The border implementation is a little strange in that the 'neighboring' moons actually revolve around Jupiter independently and at various intervals, so they don't really stay in proximity to their game-assigned Galilean moon. Of course, that's something everyone knows so I suppose it's not a big deal. It's just a game, right?

Oh, sure, we learned that in kindergarten! But honestly, sounds very similar to AstroGear 2210.

Exactly, AstroGear 2210 but more aesthetically pleasing and with some added mechanics. In addition, I love the Hordes style play of the board Africa and it would be cool if Jupiter would be able to mimic that.

The idea with the moons is to not make them too strong. I would want players to have to weigh the options of building a hordes bonus on Jupiter or going for a moon first and neither having an obvious advantage over the other.

Also, to M57's point, yes the moons orbit close to the equatorial plain and also Jupiter has somewhere around 40 moons technically. I think including just the Galilean moons in order from left to right will be accurate enough, and perhaps moons do not have connecting borders because of vicinity but because of "space ports."

BTdubs wrote:Ok hear me out: what if every moon is a factory that adds and subtracts troops to all other moons, and/or cause all other moons revert to neutral at the start of the turn; each moon’s bonus profile is different. Making the add/subtract bonuses arbitrarily large could make a map where the goal is to line up a viable pathway to Jupiter before the other players do.

Since this would be a pickle to balance well, and you’d want some variety in strategic options, probably would be good to throw in some invention-style bonuses that do artillery damage or provide vision or alter the factory bonus from default.

I do enjoy a more complicated map here and there, but for me the ideal risk map is close to the original game, mechanics-wise, with a couple added elements. I feel like having continents and hordes has some complexity, but not too much where anyone could join a game and figure it out pretty quickly. This is just my preference though, and I respect those uber strategic thinkers out there that soak up those super complex maps that are so dissimilar that they are almost their own new game.

Abishai wrote:Abraham the Mage wrote:M57 wrote:The border implementation is a little strange in that the 'neighboring' moons actually revolve around Jupiter independently and at various intervals, so they don't really stay in proximity to their game-assigned Galilean moon. Of course, that's something everyone knows so I suppose it's not a big deal. It's just a game, right?

Oh, sure, we learned that in kindergarten! But honestly, sounds very similar to AstroGear 2210.

Exactly, AstroGear 2210 but more aesthetically pleasing and with some added mechanics. In addition, I love the Hordes style play of the board Africa and it would be cool if Jupiter would be able to mimic that.

The idea with the moons is to not make them too strong. I would want players to have to weigh the options of building a hordes bonus on Jupiter or going for a moon first and neither having an obvious advantage over the other.

Also, to M57's point, yes the moons orbit close to the equatorial plain and also Jupiter has somewhere around 40 moons technically. I think including just the Galilean moons in order from left to right will be accurate enough, and perhaps moons do not have connecting borders because of vicinity but because of "space ports."

I will clearly have to try astrogear — haven’t played it. Would not be surprised if one of the fiendish board designers has already come up with and implemented what I’m envisioning.

Abraham the Mage wrote:Just to get it straight: holding moons grants a bonus that lowers the unit count on Jupiter, plus additional bonuses like extra troops or a minus on other players?

How does this simulate orbit? Would the bonuses change from turn to turn, or am I missing something? If the former, seems super complicated. How would players keep track and strategize?

I have in my head how orbits can be simulated and it’s way easier to draw than to write out but here goes.

draw a pizza and cut it into slices.

now draw concentric rings. the outer ring is the crust. (this is where the cyclical/ orbital action will happen.)

The inner ring/slice bits are territories you can conquer.

Players start outside of the pizza and want to get to the middle.

On your turn, a factory generates -10 on the crust slice in front of you and +10 on the crust slice in front of the previous player. Set the attack/defend dice such that it’s impossible to conquer a defended crust slice.

this should generate a circle of crust segments with exactly one gap that troops can pass through.

implementation would be complex, but gameplay would be intuitive: on any given turn, there’s only one spot where troops can pass, but the location of that spot would change depending on whose turn it is.

for explanatory purposes I made it the crust of the pizza. But what if the rotating softer or harder section is placed in between two zones that are more conventional continents? What if there is more than one rotating soft or hard section?

BTdubs wrote:Abraham the Mage wrote:J

I have in my head how orbits can be simulated and it’s way easier to draw than to write out but here goes.

+1 for the rotating pizza idea.. There are lots of ways to go depending on the mechanic you envision. Some may not be too difficult to execute ..like the one @Abraham describes. But there are others that come to mind which would likely involve off-board territories, etc.

I think Riskyback has a board design where the dark side of the earth moves across the board as the earth spins - or something like that. Unfortunately, gone are the days (Flash) when you can open the Designer for any board and see how it was created.

BTdubs wrote:Abraham the Mage wrote:Just to get it straight: holding moons grants a bonus that lowers the unit count on Jupiter, plus additional bonuses like extra troops or a minus on other players?

How does this simulate orbit? Would the bonuses change from turn to turn, or am I missing something? If the former, seems super complicated. How would players keep track and strategize?

I have in my head how orbits can be simulated and it’s way easier to draw than to write out but here goes.

draw a pizza and cut it into slices.

now draw concentric rings. the outer ring is the crust. (this is where the cyclical/ orbital action will happen.)

The inner ring/slice bits are territories you can conquer.

Players start outside of the pizza and want to get to the middle.

On your turn, a factory generates -10 on the crust slice in front of you and +10 on the crust slice in front of the previous player. Set the attack/defend dice such that it’s impossible to conquer a defended crust slice.

this should generate a circle of crust segments with exactly one gap that troops can pass through.

implementation would be complex, but gameplay would be intuitive: on any given turn, there’s only one spot where troops can pass, but the location of that spot would change depending on whose turn it is.

for explanatory purposes I made it the crust of the pizza. But what if the rotating softer or harder section is placed in between two zones that are more conventional continents? What if there is more than one rotating soft or hard section?

Can we get this as a board of its own? Say, a pizza based on this description, with the toppings as additional territories/bonuses?

For example, pepperoni, with each piece being a -1, but all of them on a slice being a +, and all the toppings being a bigger +. Extra toppings could be different bonuses (plus/minus to you/opponent).

BTdubs wrote:Can we get this as a board of its own? Say, a pizza based on this description, with the toppings as additional territories/bonuses?

For example, pepperoni, with each piece being a -1, but all of them on a slice being a +, and all the toppings being a bigger +. Extra toppings could be different bonuses (plus/minus to you/opponent).

I would make the players the toppings. Red is pepperoni, white is Mushroom, yellow is pinnapple,etc, and the slices are continents. From there, I can imagine a number of interesting win conditions. E.g, capture the crust and your representative slice to win.

Or make the players different styles? Deep-dish, Sicilian, etc.?