I was studying isocahedral map layout to make a wrap around world map that would take the shape of a D20. You can find some examples here:
The problems I have so far is that with the little amount of hex each tile, it's difficult to come up with a combination of tilable hex that makes an interesting configuration of continents.
The second problem is that it is much more complicated for the players to visualize which hexes are connected together.
So I asked my self do I really need a wrap Around world?
What are the advantage or wrap around worlds?
I think that, yes, I like wrap around worlds. Because if you take other games like twilight imperium, you get in the situation where:
- Everybody jumps at the middle of the board that I will call the Melee.
- You are limited to confront your 2 side neighbor and the melee in the middle. So there are actually players you will never engage battle with.
So I was thinking if there could be alternative ways to implement wrap around world rather than using isocahedral maps. I know that with the diamonds in the pictures above, I can come up with different map configuration where each player possess 1 tile. (Sorry, I don't have pictures to illustrate yet)
Some of these maps combination can be circular. I could either make 2 circular maps like if they were 2 emisphere. Or for example a 6 point star, where the center of the map is the north pole and the points of the stars is the south pole. (Like a d8 but with 12 faces).
With a design like this, it create a double melee area, one in each pole. So if I cannot attack the player on the other side of the table using the north pole, I could do it using the south pole.
The advantage of using a star map compared to a square map (like in old video game RPG) is that the pole around the map will have the same number of space(hex) than the north pole.
Do you think that Wrap Around map are actually better?
Do you have other suggestion of wrap around maps that can be easily played with?
Are there ways to make regular maps as interesting strategically as wrap around maps?
The map will be random. Each player will start on a tile, as they explore the map, they connect their tile to other players tile or unused tiles yet.
I know that game. It is indeed an alternative solution. BUt it's harder with a random map. I used the idea of wormhole for a space theme game that allowed you to jump 2 tiles ahead (hex tiles).
I thought about it. I know that triagle patterns can make better continent configurations. Still I will need bigger triangles since I need to fit a city token in each space. Second, it might become a bit more complicated to caculate range and distance unless grouping triangles as hex.
I also thought of playing hexagonal cities in a triangular map, giving various placement options. But the problem is that it will be complex to know which city is adjacent to another if there are gaps between cities.
True, but it's a fixed map. I can still do cheap wrap around like it's the case in old video game RPG (Dragon warrior and final fantasy. WHich mean have a square board and make each side wrap to each side.