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<- It's a 55 We Stirling Engine. In case you were wondering...
Thanks TygerDave for shrinking the gif.

General_Death: The most courageous of warriors, no matter his mood or level of intoxication. :D
Jeye: Fellow strategist, and I miss our strategy sessions (he's very busy in real life).

Maps I'll probably never play again with pro units:
http://weewar.com/map/2 Botanic Troubles in the hands of any player, especially a good player or one that has figured out the patterns to this game can dictate to red how red will lose position or material or both. The blue advantage is too big.

You can read below, but it's just there until I can summarize it all and decide what to keep in the profile.

Map Making:

Stirling's Europe 4.02 BRP vs YGW. It isn't exactly WWII, but it works. Purple has lots of income early, but can find it difficult to land an invasion force and sustain it, so there is the challenge for purple of attacking through France or Scandanavia. White has the challenge of the two front war, but has the income or should have the income to handle it. White also needs to use every unit in the game to do well. Red also has a two front war but with enough infantry neither yellow nor white will be able to make progress against red and since red is Russia, having lots of infantry is "natural" for the Russian style of play (lots of raiders early helps a lot too). Add in heavy infantry and a couple raiders and aa guns and enemy aircraft won't be able to penetrate Russia's defenses so easily. Eventually red can put up a DFA to secure bases from a distance and a minimum of effort. Russia can make progress against white. The red yellow front is generally a stalemate unless the red player doesn't think like a Russian. Yellow can try to dig into the Ukraine , which is easier to do in early moves, or provoke and challenge red while sending units to Tunis to help green attack blue. Yellow will have more success against red with each increase in the number of infantry sent to Ukraine per turn. Green vs Blue was always a great matchup although I've shifted that war considerably in version 4.02. The entire battle of green vs blue used to come down to who controlled the southern French harbor at 11,17. Green and blue have to decide how to fight each other and blue also has to decide if and how it can support the war against white in France.

For FFA it all changes. White and green should understand that they can't attack each other and still hold off the other positions. The play also becomes more opportunistic and there still aren't a lot of quick kills. Based on terrain and typical player dynamics the map lends itself to a self balancing situation. As soon as one player grows strong in a given region, the others attack it and the weaker players recover. If the weaker players get attacked, then eventually the stronger players attack each other to fight for future dominance. But there is enough income on the map that allows the weaker player to recover and survive if they can play well.

There are a lot of different ways to win, the terrain is diverse and creates restrictions, dominance isn't easy to gain, recovery from errors or bad luck or too many attackers is possible

1) There should be enough room between player core positions so that there won't be any quick kills, which gives a flexibility to potentially save a team member or recover on your own. Decide how many bases each player is going to start with or near (such as 7 core bases), then decide the income. Then add 25% to 30% more bases a little away from those bases (such as 2 or 3 extended bases), but still closer to the player's starting positions. And either no bases or 1 extra base per 10 bases on the map roughly halfway between players (prize bases). The result is that each player gets a certain amount of income and if terrain is equitable then the map should be balanced except for turn order.

2) Playtest the game until all bases are activated. Ask each player to specify how many credits they have (or keep track on your own as the game progresses). Look at all of the positions and determine which positions are always in trouble. Look at bases, existing army, and battlefield advantages and disadvantages. Then modify until each position is roughly equal to all others. You can even playtest the map with double or triple the income. The higher the income the easier it is to find the bad positions and the imbalances in the map.

The total income from all turns played to all-bases-captured should be slightly in favor of the last player and slightly out of favor for blue: Yellow total income 2400, Purple total income 2200, Red total income 2000, Blue total income 1800. This might be supposing that each player ends up with 400 income per turn. If the income per turn is higher, then the total incomes until all bases are captured should likewise be separated by more income.

3) Playtest the game with noobs and a group where every player is really good at the game.

5) The distance between positions and the variety of terrain should provide a lot of different ways to win and the more ways to win the more likely the map will be fun and interesting. Sometimes terrain limits attacks and sometimes it limits defense. You've played maps that are hard to defend and easy to defend. You know what I'm talking about.

6) Most maps eliminate toa (turn order advantages) by adding infantry and letting the later colors gain the next bases first. This method is ok, but does not eliminate toa, especially on maps with bases in the middle and on high income maps. Players moving first are going to get there first. Follow rule #2.

7) Starting positions. How many different starting positions are there? A player can own the base. A player can have a unit on top of the base but not own it. A player can have a capturing unit within 2 moves of a base. Try different combinations and you'll be able to speed up or slow down a particular player starting position. On 4.02 purple has a lot of bases close together and can activate them all very quickly, but after they are all activated purple has to travel far to gain more income. White has 2 bases and 6 starting capturing units and needs it all when the game is FFA. You can also add non-capturing units. If one position is doing really well and another is doing really poorly, then switch the turn order of the two colors and see if that evens out the game.

Chess is pretty balanced. Same units, same starting positions, no income. The balance is broken when 1 player moves first and the other second. So given an even start the most unbalancing factor is player skill and a mapmaker can only do so much to balance player skill. I actively consider poor players in the design of my maps. I arrange the starting set up to give players hints about how to begin the game. Beyond that there is only so much you can do to balance player skill.

The size of the map should fit the income.

Historical maps. Make them. Make them as they were. Then make a playable version of it and put a link in the description to the historical version and vice versa.