Epic, advanced style strategy game

Hello everyone,

I am a real hardcore strategy gamer and I dont mean Axis & Allies (although it was good), I really enjoy playing epic games which involve all the other aspects that are cut out of other strategy board games. I love selecting a nation and delving into it, changing and morphing what you wish and achieve something (not nessessarily world domination as is prominant in other strategy games).

Now that I have stated that, I should state what I wish to do. I am currently devising a board game called "Atomic Empire". It has a Cold War version, beginning in 1960 and a Modern Age version, beginning in 1990 during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. So far I have written 3 pages of economic info. I know that sounds insane but it is really quite easy to understand and is very effective at portraying the real world. I devised a system where there is a dedicated player who controls the corporate world. The corporation controls various resource gathering operations, factories and civil service buildings across the world (the world is divided into provinces) whereas the government controls other items of the same type, each can buy and sell to each other.

I have developed resources, provincial infrastructure rules, manufacturing rules and transport rules so far. I am jotting down more and more ideas and I really want to make this game work and I am really enthused for it. I know I havent really described much, just given insight on it but you can be convinced this is working. The only problem I have is how to cut down and group nations properly, I need figurehead nations such as the USA, China and Russia but I also want to include chief European, Middle Eastern, African and South American nations, possible two to three nations for each continent. I know many will gasp at this but I am aiming for this game to be epic, 12 + players but also to have a cut down version where you control nations in an alliance at the same time. As both versions of the game have Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, grouped alliances are possible. Another aspect that challenges me is a possible real time version of the boardgame, meaning ultimate playability, almost like a computer game.

I know this is ambitious and I would love feedback. I would also greatly appreciate any links to rulebooks from other epic strategy games so I can get my bearings on what my target market could be and how advanced some games are out there.

Cheers,

Tim