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

[Titus]

@vodot missed that one! Totally knew I’d miss something.

[Panther]

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

@Panther, would you be willing to move Titus’ post above and this reply over to my (confusingly similar) AA50 Overlays thread?

Done. :-)

[Imperious Leader]

Need to add Azores, Malta, Maldives

[vodot]

@Imperious-Leader I’ve drawn up Malta; it’s especially hard in AA50 because of geographical arrangement of the OOB board. Physical space in the Med is really tight, even on an enlarged map.

That being said, I’m working in it, and the Azores too :) Maldives I haven’t started yet.

[Titus]

@vodot I think the AA50 map is already at its limit for territories mostly. Too much more and it might as well be g40

[Argothair]

@Titus The whole premise of this project is that it’s possible and useful to add a few more carefully chosen territories to create a middle ground between AA50 and Global.

Global is very careless and generous with its placement of territories – there are dozens of territories in Siberia, western China, west Africa, the southeast Pacific, south America, etc. that essentially see zero combat and are worth either 0 or 1 IPCs each. 99.9% of games would play exactly the same if they deleted Samoa or Uruguay or Tsagaan Olom. Heck, there are even plenty of impassible territories – sometimes they split the impassible territories into two, just for fun. It would make absolutely no difference to gameplay in literally 100% of games if they merged, e.g., Sierra Leone and Liberia, because nobody is ever allowed to enter either of them.

There are literally 100 more territories in Global than in AA50. Vodot and I think it’s possible to add something like 15 extra territories to AA50 and get good results.

That said, not every request to add territories to AA50 will make sense. I personally don’t see any need for the Maldives or the Azores in a game at this scale, but Vodot is too much of a softie to tell Imperious-Leader no, so instead Vodot will just do hours of free graphic design labor and give Imperious-Leader what he wants, regardless of whether Vodot agrees with the request.

[Titus]

@Argothair I think Vodot likes making the overlays/modifications hahaha. I agree with your premise about the extra territories being useful to a point. He’s done a lot of really good ones in relevant combat zones including china, south pacific, and the med which has worked really well in actual games I’ve been playing on the map.

[barnee]

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

tell Imperious-Leader no,

lol

[vodot]

@Argothair said:

…The whole premise of this project is that it’s possible and useful to add a few more carefully chosen territories to create a middle ground between AA50 and Global.

I would say there is a part of this project that is very focused on mechanics- certainly the collaborative portion between you and I. In that sense, this is true. However I also have a lot of fun here seeing historical and ahistorical things become possible, and even more just enjoy the outlet for my creativity in the service of this community.

But along those first mechanical project lines:

That said, not every request to add territories to AA50 will make sense.

…this is certainly true.

but Vodot is too much of a softie…

Haha, this is so true that I’m doing this work with my therapist right now… Watch me equivocate in this very post!

@Titus said:

I think Vodot likes making the overlays/modifications

…and this is also definitely true :)

Regarding these changes in particular, mechanically, the Azores have been interesting as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” for axis aircraft, with Malta a corollary for the UK. But yes- both these and the Maldives are gravy. like a lot of what I’ve done in this thread. :)

[Argothair]

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

even more just enjoy the outlet for my creativity in the service of this community.

I’m really glad you’re enjoying it. I’m enjoying your outputs. :)

[Titus]

@vodot I just finished the game we started on the updated map and it went well! Besides me being too agressive and loosing germany to the uk 4 times over 5 rounds of play and eventually resigning… The map changes were great, Italy grew to a really strong power and was able to contribe a lot to the game. I will write up a post with my optional rules in depth to try to show it off. I think the game feels way better with a expanded economy.

[vodot]

@Titus I can’t wait to read the writeup!

Yes, I find Italy in particular far more fun to play with these simple changes.

I rarely find Italy able to balloon to great power status, even with these changes, but the explanation is probably in the fact that you lost Germany to the UK. It’s the UK’s job to rein in Italy, but a knockout blow to Germany is always the highest UK priority.

[vodot]

Malta, Azores, and Maldives :)

I set Maldives at the intersection of SZ 31, 32, and 35 to make them as interesting as possible. 1 IPC because I would imagine removing Ceylon as redundant.

[Imperious Leader]

@vodot Excellent!!! Azores should be within flight range of Eastern Seaboard for a Bomber. This gives a reason for axis to capture so they can SBR New York

[vodot]

@Imperious-Leader yep, smack in the middle of SZ 11 would be 3 spaces from EUS, Brazil, and ECAN. More than just SBR, it’s a good central point of threat for the Axis… on my map, transports here could drop troops at 5 different victory cities (Rio, D.C., Ottowa, London, Paris). I also make Neutrals less risky to capture with my G40 Lite rules.

Ships at SZ 32 off the Maldives, for that matter, can reach 4 VCs (Cairo, Cape Town, Calcutta, Singapore). Similar to the US getting a big force at the Carolines in a traditional AA50 game— nightmare for Japan; or either the US or Japan unconstested at Midway with some of my changes to the Pacific Coast/Hokkaido/Aleutians.

[Titus]

@vodot
I had the map printed on .04 Styrene. Turned out sweet

[vodot]

@Titus awesome!!

[Titus]

Here is the map file if you want it!

[Imperious Leader]

@barnee no means yes to me

[vodot]

Adding two new full-size maps with the latest:

v10: G40 Lite including France, aligned Neutrals, Canada, ANZAC, and all the recent additions up to 11/18/2025

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mBgt6KSM7oIE3uNmuESPSU2F1AhicYMG/view?usp=sharing

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v11: AA50 with all the recent additions up to 11/18/2025.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NIKcU-L3Hzh2jpF113TMyvAaE1GNZEQg/view?usp=drive_link