East Indies

It's looking cool. The southeast part of the map seems a bit labyrinthine though. But I like the unified Maluku region. There are thousands of possibility for regional partition and sea connections and maybe still needs to be manipulated a bit.

The title can also be simply Indonesia (or Indonesian Area), as it is the main country represented here. Conventionally this area is part of Asia, but it's more like a convention because the truth is it is an area that it's hard to define what continent belong to.

Shame on me! The Kimberley-Bali connection only makes the 2 stacks change of place. Now the same effect is achieved with stacks in Bali and N. Maluku...

I guess there is nothing like the original Luzon-Sorong...

The frame is a new addition naathim. i was trying to go for a game board looking effect for the frame but it ended up looking like a wall mounted map as aero says, i still like how it looks though too but i will try and dabble with it maybe give it a non wood look and more of a cardboard feel.. but I think getting the connections and gameplay to be sorted. here's a map without connections/values that u can use to help. Bishop had actually sent me one of his vision (malaysia/kalimantan region), just before I posted this.

I was thinking that also East Indies can be a nice title, especially it would be cool if we are going to have also a West Indies map, but that one seems to be suspended.
As a matter of fact Southeast Asia sounds like the most consistent name.

I didn't notice maybe there was a wordplay in the shorten version, being S.E.Asia the main maritime part of Asia. (maritime = something referring to the sea) But maybe it was just a case. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_Southeast_Asia

As for the special bonus, I think in case you want it you can include something like:
*** INDEPENDENT STATES
Singapore, Brunei, Timor-Leste
+1 for holding all 3

But I don't think it's the case to got such an accurate geopolitical representation of these small states when you have greater countries, like Malaysia, that are divided in 2.

EDIT: thanks Hoodlum, I would have liked a blank version to play with but I was shy to ask!

haha feel free to ask for anything..ill even upload the (current) pdn file to anyone that wishes to help out with their expertise . it's a group project as i see it

Maybe like this one:

Hmmm.. with a layout like the one Bishop proposed the one owning Malaysia has 2/3 small countries.

Also, remember that the formula of region bonus doesn't work very well with regions with a lot of borders. Maybe the Bishop's Malaysia should get a 5 for its 7/5. Specially when Java and its 7/3 also get a 4.

Why Tanimbar-Arnhem? It seems like a pretty arbitrary way of adding a border in Maluku... I think that Merauke-Arnhem is better, or at least Aru-Arnhem.

We should be deleting some of the smallest islands, specially those who interfere with the connections.

Late edit: I also made a connection draft, based on the one that Bishop posted before me. Please take a look to the Ceram-Aru connection, which would connect better the Maluku region.

I am not sure Hoodlum was intending keeping Malaysia as two separate areas due to the problem of extra connection requirement, so perhaps it would be worth settling on which version should be uploaded blank for connection suggestion?

(Edit): The version Hoodlum put up has the east Malaysia area as part of Kalimantan (green region)

it's ok, i have made sure I made two versions as you advised on an earlier post aero, im glad i did now lol, and i have been editing them simultaneously as I go when i make edits. so it's not a big hassle, and I am leaning towards keeping malaysia real now if these suggestions seem like they will work, which I will leave to the experienced cartographers. I have made the new connections as Bishop has suggested before I read psymons post.. i'll see what the discussion becomes overall and will take on the favourable compromises.

ps: bishop had at the same time sent me his version in PM as I was about to upload a blank map, he had just re-did it on the map i uploaded

Dang, my post just fell in the wind! I'm going to re-write now...

As I said in the PM to Hoodlum, he is free to take what he likes and refuse what he doesn't, I tried to show how I would have done myself regions and connections because there are so many possibility and everyone can have a different vision.

I would like Malaysia region to incorporate also the Eastern part of the State.

I prefer Kuantan--Sarawak rather then Singapore--Sarawak, looking geopolitically more correct, and also in case we are going for the special small-countries bonus I prefer to have Singapore and Brunei a bit more far each other.

I'm not a fan of Thailand--Aceh because it allows the player holding the Western Malaysia to push from Penang to Thailand being geographically a bit absurd. Maybe Aceh--Penang can ba a compromise.

I feel like it is good for Singapore to be connected to Sumatra being an independent state it is more realistic if it can trade and be connected with both the major countries of the area (Malaysia and Indonesia).

Defensibility of the regions is an important features. But I don't think it's mandatory to have all the regions well defensible. Some regions can also stay a bit harder compared to the others. This can provide a low interest area that if not conquered it's a useful passage way from one region to the others or a recovering area.

Malaysia is in my draught a hard to defend 7-territories region with 5 borders (7/5) that the formula gives a +4 bonus. The other +4 regions actually have 8 territories and 3 borders (8/3) including also the Java region. But Malaysia - as said also by Psymon - contains 2 of the 3 small countries that we can assign a +1 special bonus (or maybe even a +2) so giving a bit of compensation.

Even in case the idea of the whole unified Malaysia is refused I would keep the connections as I proposed. Then I would simply swap the bonuses giving +2 to the (reduced) Malaysia and +4 to the (enlarged) Kalimantan, or call it Borneo if you want.

Maluku is a though cookie, as I feel that the more you draw connection lines inside it, the more it looks like a crazy map. Since I tried to reduce them to the minimal, mostly following the vicinity of the islands that is also the reason of the Tanimbar--Arnhem connection. I don't mind how disconnected and unconquerable that region would result as it is just realistic being a province of Indonesia formed by small islands really so far each other.

I could get Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua more defensible than that but then I had to assign them +2, +4 and +2 bonuses. I avoided that, preferring them to stay with +3, +5, +3 bonuses otherwise the North-western part of the map would have been much richer compared to the South-eastern.

I forgot to draw the Lampung--Banten connection in my draught - sorry - but that was logically supposed to be there. And also I am not sure if I have intentionally forgot Sorong--Fakfak.

(Saved on notepad before posting - LOL)

I haven't said much in this thread. Mainly because some other ppl are helping you out really well (and with very long posts ).

I wanted to say two things though:
1. The name - it very much confuses me with our East Asia map (at least, I think that's what the other North-East Asia map is called).
It's maybe a precise name for the location but it's confusing in the other way as that we already have a map with such a name.
2. It looks quite pretty, nicely done

The other map is called "Eastern Asia".
If there is too much similarity or confusion, there have been other suggestions, but too specific to one of the locations on the map, which I feel is unfair to the other regions.
This is a complicated one because it touches on so many regions and continents.
The suggestion of "East Indies" was a good one which I think might solve the title dilemma.

Please read The_Bishop's post above as I feel I am overshadowing it with this title discussion.

I like/don't mind most of the things that Bishop implemented instead of those I proposed. Still I want to make a couple of comments.

On the Malaysia bonus: As I told before, the formula tends to give low bonuses for hard to defend regions. The formula yields 4.33. There are a few examples of equivalent regions worth 5 (Serbia & Kosovo in Balkan) and 7/4 regions giving 5 (Chugoku in Korea-Japan, theoretically 3.93).

Plus, switching Tanimbar-Arnhem to Aru-Arnhem or Merauke-Arnhem we obtain two equivalent regions, Maluku and Malaysia.

I want to say too that I like the lack of internal connectivity in Maluku. It is very similar to the one in Malaysia.

Also, did you forget to draw Luzon-E. Visayas?

Been house sitting with no internet connection, but it gives me time to clean up my computer and play around with the map some more.
I'm saving all the current posts from the last time I read them and will do the connections up next from what i interpret.,
Up until my last edit I had made a few changes addressing everything mentioned graphically in the meantime.

I added some extra texture to australia (naathim)

Some of the land was sitting on the frame which i deleted and probably made australia and myanmar cuts look off (psymon)better?

I took the grainy noise off the shoreline and just went with a drop shadow as for shoreline, inland and border lines. something V98 mentioned.

I added the color in Kalimantan for the malaysian regions.

I experimented with making it board like (aero) rather than a wall mount map by adding a double fold creases and and adding some risk board game features. then while making those cards I had randomly wrote locations and 2 of them ended up being the independent states, so thought that the cards could be used as a legend of some sort as an option for special game play as mentioned by naathim/bishop. still toying around with it, but will scrap it if it seems too much, too cheesy or distracting.
i'll have a go at finding images for the cards and also some to put next to their locations maybe..

From the quick read of recent posts, I saw and like the alternative East Indies and did a quicky edit.

Wow is looking cool! I think cannon, footsoldier and knight can be added on the cards (possibly avoiding to take images from Hasbro that are surely copyrighted).

Title and dice seem to be too much attached to the playing area. Especially the dice seem to be very distracting from the map itself. I don't know.

Maybe Sumatra colour and Australia colour should be diversified a little more. I was thinking Sumatra may be turned a bit more like grey-lightblue.

And.. yes, I forgot in my connection example, not only Lampung--Banten, but also Luzon--E.Visayas as remarked but Psymon.