Have a look at this thread. The first thing to have in hand is a map - apparently the rest is not too hard and Oli will help...

http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?threadID=587856

I like the idea. I hardly know anything about the history of that period though. Presumably there will be very little naval side to it - perhaps it would need other features to add variety and keep it from being too chess-like, but I'm not sure what.

Perhaps instead of fleets, you could have two kinds of land unit, and two kinds of land territory - say mounted units instead of fleets. These could work like fleets i.e. can convoy, restricted to certain areas (plains, rather than coasts), and the plains territories could be larger to simulate faster movement - but only infantry units would be able to reach the more mountainous or swampy areas.

I don't know if you can have different unit pictures though, so the mounted units may look like boats on land..heh

You could create a river system like in the holland map. I remember that one of the problems Cao Cao had at Red Cliff was that his soldiers weren't used to water, and the large lake/river made them sea sick.

As for learning about the history, play Dynasty Warriors (Samurai Warriors actually helped me with the Sengoku period)!

thanks guys, good ideas. i'll check more into it when i get back from china ;) lol

comment: Unless I'm misinterpreting, this game would have three people.

Diplomacy games with less than 5 aren't as interesting because of the low variety of alliances one can make. 4-P SAmerica is pushing the limit, in my opinion, and the "Hundred-Years War" map is a very quick game with high levels of luck involved (not the way to play, again in my opinion).
I'd say make it six person (two people per kingdom? something.) Also, don't add other types of units, because that will bother semi-conservative people like me who don't want to learn how they work.

But, I like the idea.

i know what you're saying, but i'd make it with more than three. if you've played dynasty warriors you know what i'm talking about

@red - Kinda agree on Hundred. I liked it at first, but it seems whoever starts off 2nd best wins!
@thread: Making it as a diplomacy map is very very simple to do, but do consider whether you're actually going to play it enough (or indeed if the map is fair enough) before putting too much effort into it. That said, its not hard to add/remove borders from the map, even after you've created it, so things can be improved