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- Oct 2, 2009
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We love our users so much we're giving you all a Valentine's Day present: a new map! And since we couldn't give everybody red roses, we're giving you the red planet!
The Mars map is my modest tribute to early Science Fiction artists, best known today for the classic cover art of such magazines as Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, and Tales of Wonder. While the map itself is made up of entirely original elements, the Brief borrows some snippets of original art from the 1930s.
The layout of the map is drawn from 19th and early 20th century maps of Mars, sketched by astronomers who believed they saw a network of canals and theorized that perceived depressions in the landscape were ancient sea beds. The region names are borrowed from naming conventions of the early 20th century as well. This is ancient Mars as it may have been imagined by astronomers - and science fiction writers and artists - of an earlier age.
As our last two new maps have been rather complex, we've gone a bit more classic with this one: 55 regions, 9 commands. There are also a number of special regions explained in the Map Brief. Two regions have airships and rockets that can cross the sea and bombard foreign enemies. Augonia and Memnonia are key sources of energy - atomic and steam - and give a bonus of +1. Acheron is a manufacturing center turning out great battle robots; one troop is auto-deployed there each round. And the shield domes around the cities of Nilus regenerate to a minimum level of 3 troops each round.
Let us know what you think. Enjoy!
The Mars map is my modest tribute to early Science Fiction artists, best known today for the classic cover art of such magazines as Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, and Tales of Wonder. While the map itself is made up of entirely original elements, the Brief borrows some snippets of original art from the 1930s.
The layout of the map is drawn from 19th and early 20th century maps of Mars, sketched by astronomers who believed they saw a network of canals and theorized that perceived depressions in the landscape were ancient sea beds. The region names are borrowed from naming conventions of the early 20th century as well. This is ancient Mars as it may have been imagined by astronomers - and science fiction writers and artists - of an earlier age.
As our last two new maps have been rather complex, we've gone a bit more classic with this one: 55 regions, 9 commands. There are also a number of special regions explained in the Map Brief. Two regions have airships and rockets that can cross the sea and bombard foreign enemies. Augonia and Memnonia are key sources of energy - atomic and steam - and give a bonus of +1. Acheron is a manufacturing center turning out great battle robots; one troop is auto-deployed there each round. And the shield domes around the cities of Nilus regenerate to a minimum level of 3 troops each round.
Let us know what you think. Enjoy!
