When I first joined the site to play with friends at the start of the pandemic, this was one of the first maps I played after the original world map. I have to say, it was incredible. No escalating cards means you have to figure out ways to collect bonuses. The connection between South America and Australia solves the Australia advantage that exists on the original board. The expanded country count creates a longer game that rewards long term strategic planning over aggression. And adding fog allows for bluffing and hoarding that create yet another dimension of gameplay. This is the map that got me hooked. It’s wargear’s equivalent to N64 Goldeneye or Ocarina of Time if that makes sense to anyone.
On first hindsight, this board is outstanding. The addition of Supercontinents is a good expansion of the original board, while also having a quite large number of territories that easily allow for quite fun large games. I just can't give higher than 6 stars.
The Default version of this board has a lot of flaws that many of the beginner friendly boards don't have, most particularly the card scale progression, its really bad that doesn't do this board justice. Turtling is a common strategy in it, and you can't comfortably snowball, because of the lack of additional units, which will make you an instant target. You can't really do anything until someone makes a mistake, and being very aggressive early on is quite a high risk/mid-low reward ratio that it's just not ideal. Avoid playing default.
However, most of the issues are partially mitigated with the Solar version. the card progression isn't actually bogus unlike default, which actually makes this board fun somewhat. You can even add in fog in Solar. but overall, it could be way better with a fully progressive scenario instead of clinging to only having a max of 30 troops on the highest set.
Unfortunately, even the map has its issues. The biggest problem with the map is the awful low number of chokepoints and many one way territories, most evident in the Caribbean territories, Russian Islands and most importantly, the Middle East. While it prevents snowballs by diverting resources from one territory to another, these borders feel poorly made. For a map this size, it needed more chokepoints.
Not all is bad with this map though. I do like giving credit to this board, because it synergizes absolutely well with Team games, and therefore, is a great map for team-based tournaments. The fact that you can reinforce your allies is a game changer and completely shifts the entire strategy of this board, and makes it more fun in the end. This alone saved it from being 4 stars at worst.
The small player versions of the map are not better though, Seat 1 has a gigantic advantage, a bad 69%, which means 2 thirds of all CC duels end in Seat 1's victory. I would appreciate a scenario with strategic or no neutrals.
Fantastic board, but in my opinion it's my least favorite board of this site; i barely found fun playing this map except during the ocassional team tournament. it has that issue of leaving a lot to be desired, but does not deliver to such.