There's a map variant that's been floating around on this website as a suggestion
http://www.diplom.org/Online/maps/world-v2.gif
It doesn't seem like it can be implemented on this website anytime soon, but we can still play it with a Human Game Manager (GM) - moves submitted and displayed entirely through this forum infrastructure. It's large, 17 players. But we have enough regular people posting now as part of our community. Plus with a larger game there will be different social dynamics and new strategy-tactics with a new map. It will take a week to set up and a month to play, at the very least.
I volunteer to be the GM, or the human judge. But someone else will have to do the map-making, or teach me how. Thoughts?