[AA50/Anniversary] Modular Map Overlays - Splitting Australia, the Balkans, and Sea Zones; adding Cairo, Malaya, Singapore, Rio, Cape Town, Recruitment Centers and tons more!

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UPDATE: Added an overlay that redraws the border between sea zone 37 and 38, uniting the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Strait and causing SZ 37 to border Sumatra for the first time.

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Now that my indomitable son-- lover of the color blue and therefore of France, bless his mistaken heart-- has worked his way up to playing Anniversary with me, I’m finally going to tackle the addition of France and the creation of a plausible 1940 setup. I’m reviewing our years-old now discussion about France on a middle-weight map and hope to land somewhere constructive in the end.

Objectives:

1. Placate my child and get some blue units and TTs on the map!
2. K.I.S.S. Add chioces/fun but maintain middle-weight status.
3. Maintain loose tether to historical reality.

Project has three areas of focus:

1. France-related map updates
2. France-related rules updates
3. Neutrals updates

Map updates:

• For France we need… erm… France, so:
  – Recolor & roundel France. Split France? Maybe.
  – Split off, recolor & roundel Syria
  – Split, Recolor & roundel French African colonies/protectorates
  – Recolor & roundel French Indo-China Thailand
  – New Calendonia/Hebridies for flavor?
• Other updates:
  – Japan '40 vs '41 ownership changes
  – Correct & Recolor Italy’s borders & possessions for 1940 (Border with France, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece)
  – Finally roll in Tjoek’s latest base map updates (mainly name centering, the IPC tracker, and a slight color shift.)

Rules updates:

• We need some Very Simple Rules™ for the inexorable fall of Paris and the subsequent creation of Vichy and Free France
  – I like GW36’s dieroll mechanic wherein you roll for TT + contents and individual ships to see what happens
  – “Vichy France” simply becomes German
  – For FF, UK commands like how US commands China, placing one new FF INF for every two FF TTs like China?

Neutrals updates: So many.

• Assign IPC values to relevant ‘True Neutral’ TTs
  – Sweden
  – Turkey
  – Saudi Arabia
  – Spain
  – Argentina Chile
  – Afganistan
• Create Very Simple Rules™ for Neutrals ala simplified G40/AA1914:
  – Neutrals have 2x IPC number of units defending, all INF except for 1 ART.
  – Aligned Neutrals join you, others you must attack and defeat
  – Invading True Neutrals requires paying IPC fee for each other True Neutral, or else they become enemy-aligned.
• Recolor/de-roundel Aligned Neutrals as required for 1940 setup:
  – Finland (pro-axis)
  – Bulgaria Romania (pro-axis)
  – Iraq (pro-axis)
  – Yugoslavia (pro-allies)
  – Greece (pro-allies)
  – Persia (pro-allies)

Finally, TT unit setup details and balance.

• Carve out Albania and give Italy units to occupy Balkans
• Pull German units back into Germany and give add’l units to invade & hold France
• Pull Japanese units out of FICT

For historical references I’ll use some close to hand websites:

WW2 Day by Day:
https://www.openculture.com/2022/11/watch-world-war-ii-unfold-day-by-day-an-animated-map.html

French Empire in 1945 (and 1939):
https://mapoftheday.quickworld.com/posts/the-french-colonial-empire-in-1945

French Empire Year by Year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6CV6K0qNX8

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WIP.

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Alright, my first draft map for an AA50 1940 + France Setup (v0.6) is ready to rock. G40 Lite, anybody?

Becuase this is a whole new kettle of fish I will split this one off into it’s own thread for further discussion, new rules, setup charts (oof), and of course playtesting/refinement. The idea was born and first discussed here, however, so I’ll leave the inital release preview and the link to v0.6 below.

Details for v0.6:

The French Empire, c. ~spring 1940:

• France proper split into Northern (capital) and Southern (becomes Vichy) France
• Six discrete French African colonies and protectorates
  – Morocco
  – Algeria
  – French West, Central, and Equatorial Africa (which gets RC and becomes capital of Free France)
  – Madagascar
• Syria (maybe relevant with pro-axis Iraq next door?)
• French Indochina (Frenchified; remains ahistorically merged with Thailand; no game-reason to split them)
• French Guiana (maybe relevant now that we have a VC-posessing pro-allied Brazil?)
• New Caledonia in the South Pacific …mostly for flavor/possible IPC balance

Lots of other changes to create viable 1940 setup:

• Addition of Albania
• Addition of British Guinana (Suriname)
• Splitting Iraq (2, pro-Axis) off from Trans-Jordan (0, UK)
• IPC-ifying of many “True” (or game-functionally true) Neutrals:
  – Sweden
  – Turkey
  – Saudi Arabia
  – Spain
  – Argentina Chile
  – Afganistan
  – South American amalgamations
  – Angola
  – Mozambique
• De-possessifying of various “Aligned” Neutrals:
  – Finland (pro-axis)
  – Romania Bulgaria (pro-axis)
  – Iraq (pro-axis)
  – Brazil (pro-allies; drops to 2 IPC, a Neutral VC? Whaaat?)
  – Yugoslavia (pro-allies) (no more “Balkans”)
  – Greece (pro-allies)
  – Persia (pro-allies)
  – Eire (pro-allies)

And finally, some unrelated changes that potentially improve any AA50 setup (and therefore actually belong in this thread):

• In China, split off “Jehol” (1, Japan-occupied, China Roundel) from Manchuria (3)
• Addition of “Impassible” to a few important regions:
  – Sahara
  – Himalaya
  – Mongolia (functionally)
  – Switzerland (functionally)
• …and probably many other changes I’ve forgotten.

Below are a couple preview images as well as the link to the full file.

Full Size Download (v0.6):
https://www.mediafire.com/view/l61zki2myh8b1cw/AA50_1940ed_v0.6.png/file

Discussion thread here! https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/41968

For fun, here’s a look at all of the changes that have gone into this version of the map!

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Here are the modules from the “G40 Lite” release that can be used with any AA50 map. They have also been posted to the first post in this thread.

1. Jehol (1) split off from Manchuria (3)

2. “Impassible” text added below Mongolia, Switzerland, Sahara, and Himalaya, which becomes important if playable Neutrals are used.

3. Playable IPC-ified Neutrals:
   – Sweden (2)
   – Turkey (2)
   – Saudi Arabia (2)
   – Spain (2)
   – Afganistan (1)
   – Northern South America (2)
   – Peruvian Central [South America] (1)
   – Argentina Chile (2)
   – Angola (1)
   – Mozambique (1)

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Germany/Poland/East Poland geography improvement - border connections remain the same but territories and cities are much closer to actual locations.