I started playing wargear a couple months ago with some friends from college and really enjoy it.  I like the idea of creating a board and have read through the wiki on the process to do this.  I'd like to get some feedback on my idea before I jump into the process so I know what I'm getting into.

The board theme is a college tailgate party.  You want your tailgate party to take over the whole town.  The board is modeled on Ann Arbor MI where we all went to school.  I tried to build a board with enough choke points and boundries based off a simple map of town.  I'd like to have one territory in each region be a factory but I'm not married to that idea if integrating factories is too much for a first board.  Everything else is pretty standard (6v6 dice, no fog, simple two-way boarders).

I've played around with the regions and general board design/concept for a couple days now and think this is a solid start.  I'm sure there is a bunch of stuff I haven't given proper thought to.  I figure this is a good chance to get some feedback on my initial direction and concept, and to identify potential hurdles.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Some notes:

-black lines are traffic jams or railroad tracks that act as boundries

-the river is also a boundry

-gray bridges cross boundries

-orange dots indicate no diagonal crossing at big intersections

-60 territories, 10 regions (6 territories per region), and the region bonus goes up the closer to the stadium the region is.

-I'd like to use the map as a background but i figure that could be an issue with copyright since its from google maps.

-territory size was hard to do to be true to the spirit of the actual place. hopefully the small territories arent too small and the large ones too large.

Sounds like a fun idea for a board. I wouldn't worry about using a G-map image. You're not making any money on it so no one's coming after you. Looks like a straight ahead board; perfect for a starting project.  I think you don't need factories per se. Regular "continental bonuses should do. Technically, continental bonuses are a special type of factory that allocate bonuses such that they can be placed wherever a player wishes. Some of us call them "in-hand" bonuses.

A few of the bonuses look a bit too high. Consider that the yellow "continent" in the lower left hand corner is considerably easier to capture and hold than the orange continent in the middle of the board because the latter is bordered by many more territories.  Also consider making a few smaller continents - with maybe two or three territories worth one point so players can "build" their bases.

If you think there aren't enough choke points you could creatively turn more map space into non-territories.  E.g. there are no bars in parks, and you might not want to walk through them at night anyway. But it actually looks pretty playable as is.

Looks like a good place to start. The orange dots make me wonder if the yellow F connects to the territory to its upper left and whether the purple +5 connects to the territories to the two diagonal green territories.

I agree with M57 on bonuses. Bigger bonuses usually go with continents that are harder to get and hold. If they have more territories, more borders to other areas, and are more centrally located, then bigger bonuses. Conversely, if you have fewer territories, fewer borders to other areas, and are in a corner, then smaller bonuses.

You'll also want to consider how to make the bonus and factory labels easily visible after the territories are filled with the player colors.

+1 to everything M57 said. The only somewhat confusing part would, as Korrun alluded to, be the orange dots.

>Bigger bonuses usually go with continents that are harder to get and hold. If they have more territories, more borders to other areas, and are more centrally located, then bigger bonuses. Conversely, if you have fewer territories, fewer borders to other areas, and are in a corner, then smaller bonuses.

This is definitely the general rule, but can also be fun when broken.  Specifically I remember a map where there was a single territory continent that was worth +3.  This was disproportionate, but can be fun, as it increases the desire and therefore competition for that area.  I think your lower left area could work like that.  Yes it's clearly the best continent on the board, but then more players will attempt to get it, and so that ends up balancing that value some.

Think also Australia in the original map.   Yeah - it's the best, and everyone wants it, but if everyone knows it's the best, that helps to balance it, because there is more fighting over it.

The two biggest issues with any map IMO:

#1) Is it clear.  i.e. can players tell what borders what, what is worth what, etc.  It's hard to comment on this without seeing your final graphics, but spend some time trying to make this as clear as possible.  If you are using a black line to indicate a lack of border, then possibly a black "plus" in the intersections could also help identify those missing diagonal borders.

#2)  Does it avoid the dreaded crab game.  i.e. will 3 players relatively even in power get deadlocked into an eternal battle where none can get an edge without being dragged back down by the other two.  This is usually a problem when maps have too few choke points, but it's more subtle and complicated than that, and can also have to do with how quickly card values go up, elimination bonuses, etc.  Simplest fix is increasing fog, so players don't know each other's strengths.  Other fixes include allowing units or cards  to be kept in reserves, etc.   What I have gravitated to is having the board be set to medium fog, but having additional view borders - that might be too complicated for your first map.