Now leaning towards a land-only version of Migraine Dip:
http://www.dipwiki.com/index.php?title=Migraine

Thoughts welcome!

Agree that Classic dip is too much for your purpose. I think a "real" map is easier to relate to.

Ugh. Migraine's map lives up to its name. Staring at it definitely threatens to give me a migraine, and I'm not prone to them. I'm not sure it's any better than just using the Standard map with Cataclysm rules.

"Balanced by symmetry" doesn't necessarily make for a less confusing or better game. Quite the opposite.

Germany 1648?

http://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=36

But actually, I think I recommend Ancient Med, maybe, or hunting down or simply designing another 5 player variant map. One of the big reasons Standard/Classic is so damn hard is that it has seven players. Five players is probably not as difficult to handle for a group of almost entirely newbies. You also have significantly more chance of games actually finishing.

I agree that I prefer a real map - though 1648 looks very confusing! What I like about MIgraine is also that you can as player box yourself up a bit, and not talk to everybody. I think the *need* to talk to everyone at the table can be overwhelming, and it helps for people to get used to the game to initially be in a 'triangle' of relationships.

1648 is quite complicated - it has two unit types, a normal one and one that can move two provinces in a phase but can't capture certain SCs, it has neutral units, and all players start with too many units so they have to disband after the first build phase unless they capture enough SCs that phase. I don't think it's what TM is looking for.

That said, I also think part of the appeal of Dip for a new power is that you're fighting a real war in a real place. Going abstract, especially symmetrical, makes it a lot less interesting for them, IMO.

*new player

Agree...

Napoleontic Dip?

Yeah, 1648 does look like a pretty confusing map, now I look at it more, even if you did drop the knight units from the game. :-/ Drawing with "realistic" wiggly borders really doesn't help, either.

Do 150 France vs Austria's

Napoleonic sounds good although some player will complain about not having fleets.

Which Napoleonic dip variant? There appear to be several...

I really do recommend Ancient Med as a smaller variant that's still a real(ish) war in a real place type of thing.

@thorfi: the discussion yesterday was to abolish fleets as simplifying matter. I figured Napoleontic probably doesn't have fleets. I could find descriptions of two Nap variants, but no maps. Anybody have a link?

Could create maps in Powerpoint

http://www.variantbank.org/results/rules/n/napoleonic.htm

is the only one with a map I can find, and (a) it has a whole bunch of variant rules; (b) it's just the classic map with even more centres added.

Seven Years' War.

More powers, each with smaller forces. Include England by allowing movement to/from Northern France and maybe Hol/Bel.

Powers could be usual suspects, except Germany, plus
- German states
- Prussia
- Spain & Portugal
- Sweden

TMOW, i would like to copy the offer of Diplomat61. If you need anyone, i might be available.
(and considering the Dutch Open Championship , i saw it through the facebookpage)

7 year Dip could look like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68879/Misc/7%20year%20dip.pdf

Your customer is a Dutch bank, right? I'm not sure a 'historic' Diplomacy variant is a good idea, you might want to consider creating a special variant based upon something those bank employees are more familiar with.

For instance, take a map of the Netherlands (e.g.: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Coropgebieden_plain.png or perhaps a blank version of: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/2015-P08-Zuid-Holland-o.png ), assign supply centres to roughly half the areas, and make sure approximately half of the centres are neutral.
If it's a really local bank, you could also take a map of the municipality it's located in, and turn the neighbourhoods into territories.
I'd recommend 4-6 persons per board.

Good luck, and have fun :)

First to conquer Groningen is in the money.

Nescio - Something like http://vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=32?

I'd also argue that Cataclysm is a pretty familiar map to the Dutch - it's what will come about when they put their plan of reclaiming land from all the seas into action.

Sooo. Things progressed a bit, and I'll be developing a new variant. Probably based on the Dutch map, but not 100% certain yet. It seems like a good time to gather some playetesters though - anybody interested?

Play will be on vDip, assuming that variant creation is straightforward there. Last time I did this was on RealPolitik, so times probably changed :-)

Add your name!

1. TMOW
2.
3.

@Nescio: immense thanks for the idea to do the Dutch map. You're right, this resonates the most with people. The other guy I'm working with immediately said "I want to be Utrecht and conquer Amsterdam!" That is a good sign. :-)

Thanks!

1. TMOW
2. diplomat61
3.

How many players, and will you be making it full press? I would sign up for public press-only or no-press. :-) If you make it public press only, the transcript could be an interesting primer read in advance for interested players?

^ (But regardless of that do give preference to dutch players, I'd prefer to stay out of it unless you don't have enough.)

1. TMOW
2. diplomat61
3.

n. thorfi (if you don't have enough players and it's public-press (or no-press)).

We had a second discussion yesterday, and the setup will be a combination of Crowded and Cataclysm. It should be interesting. Tough part is that it'll be 11 powers, each with a team behind it. That'll be some noise.

A team? That's gonna be interesting in its own right. :-) You gonna leave it up to teams to decide who submits orders and how?