Possible new variant WiTA Versailles

[super_dipsy]

Solar Flare posted a Suggestion which caught my attention and looks pretty cool. I know the War in the Americas option is popular, but the problem can be to get 10 people who want to play. The suggestion was could we perhaps have a combination of WiTA and Versailles? That is, could we have WiTA where each player plays a country major/minor pair as in Versailles where the identity of the minor is secret?

This would be a neat way to get a new 'variant' without all the effort of having to create a new map etc.. And I think it could be quite enjoyable and certainly easier to fill. The issue of course is to try to choose sensible major / minor countries.

So I would like to throw this open particularly to WiTA players for your opinions on a) the idea n general and b) possible selections for the 5 Major countries (who start with 3 units) and the 5 Minor countries (who start with 1 unit).

Not the sort of thing we usually cover in Announcements, but I'm keen to get some feedback to see if it is worth doing, because it shouldn't be too much work (famous last words). And it might be nice to have something to freshen things up in our lockdowns

[Strategus]

You could make this an eight player game, with majors as:-

USA
Mexico
Venezuela
Brazil
Argentina
New Granada
Peru
Chile

And split up the GB and Spanish centres as minors. Not sure it would be totally balanced, but it looks like it would work, without too much frigging about.

[MisterPlant]

Easy answer is not strictly Versailles,just two full power countries per player..For a true Versailles its trickier.I think you need to keep the geographical balance with 2 majors north,2 majors south and Spain in the centre.So...Mexico and Great Britain,Spain and then harder in the south to achieve balance but possibly Brazil and new Grenada?
How about some trial games to see what works best? Gunboat would surely show up any unbalanced positions.
However it happens,I’m all in favour.

[Custer]

Sign me up for gunboat trials.

Custer

[Woolgie]

6 Majors
Make Malvinas neutral and give Mexico, New Granada and Argentina an extra unit.

Britain
Halifax, Montreal, Jamaica, Trinidad

US
New York, Washington, Charlston, New Orleans

Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico City, Vera-Cruz, Yacatan

New Grenada
Cali, Cart, Bogotá, Maracaibo

Brazil
Sao Salvador, BelonHorizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo

Argentina
Córd, SFVC, Buenos Aires, Uruguay

6 Minors

Spain
Puerto Rico

Chile
Talcabuano

Peru
Lima

Nicaragua
Nicaragua

Guyana
Georgetown

Bolivia
La Paz

[VGhost]

I love WitA but hate Versailles... but this still sounds like a fun idea for a variant and I'd love to see it tested and I'm willing to help out.

[Perygl]

I'd love to help test (but I am a middling player and therefore annoying).

[super_dipsy]

Thanks for the input all. I'll give it some thought.

[Solar Flare]

I always feel like the WitA map is skewed a little bit with more countries/SCs in the south. Perhaps it COULD be a 7-player game, with Alaska among others made into 'nations', to make up 14...

[Latanst1]

Yes agreed.

Also, this could be a good chance to clean up some of the borders, etc. Even better would be lowering the top of the map in order to get rid of the historically inaccurate Northwest Passage.

I always feel like the WitA map is skewed a little bit with more countries/SCs in the south. Perhaps it COULD be a 7-player game, with Alaska among others made into 'nations', to make up 14...