Well, I've been working on this map on an off for the last 1 1/2 months. There are plenty of Europe-based diplomacy & albeit NV2's uberness I do get bored of it, so I thought it was time to make a asia-based 1939-style diplomacy. There was an earlier Asia-based diplo called Azia 2.2 but it didn't catch on & I didn't like how there were too many special units.

I've released 5 versions so far - 1.0, 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, and 2.0. Some ppl who played 1.0 & 1.1 said the game got too boring b/c the expansions took very long time, so in 1.3 I made the expansions easier and quicker.

Some unique features of this diplomacy are oil exchange, ships' sea/land divide, ports, and "sea route" portals.

At the top left corner of the map, plyrs can give oil (as well as $$) to other plyrs and buy/sell them from the common market. The price fluctuates based on supply and demand. Russia gets the most abundance of oil, thus being the prime oil seller. Its starting natural income is not very good, so it must make up for its revenue by selling its oil. China and India have lenient supply of oil, but there is not much of it in S. Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand.

One unique feature of Diplo Asia that makes it more realistic than other diplo maps is the fact that ships (bcs & carriers) cannot go over land. Due to this realistic limitation of ships' usage, the map acquires strategic points, and certain countries acquire essential roles as naval powers. By contrast, in other diplos, the navy does not exist because "battleship," naturally being the strongest air unit, is a noob choice. In Diplo Asia, bc's play the unique role of guided missile destroyers, with its yamato cannons as the long-range missiles and its overwhelming power against air units. The sea/land divide is enabled by the invincible, city-like "port" stargates on the coastlines (if ships were built from "air field" starport, the land/sea divide would not work & it wouldn't make sense). Scouts create bc's, and carriers create carriers. In version 2.0, 3 sets of 2-way "sea route" were added to ease the difficulty of navigating ships over long distance.

There are very few special units in the game (about 3~4). India, S. Korea, and Japan get slightly (~2%) stronger guided missile destroyers (bcs) called Aegis destroyers. S. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan get observers as "UAV" instead of the usual science vessel being the "spy plane." Japan gets scouts as F-15D Eagles in place of wraiths, which are generation 4.5 fighters such as Dassault Rafale, F-15K Slam Eagle, and JAS 39 Gripen. When fully upped, the scouts perform worse in all aspects against the wraiths; however, they do get much stronger starting attack against ground, which should help Japan in its early expansions. Nuke silos can be built by 3 countries - India, China, and Russia. S. Korea can acquire 1 nuke silo through its expansion north. Other countries may "purchase" nuke silos, although I doubt this will ever happen. (btw, nukes are not rigged, since all buildings and also a few units have enough hp to survive 1 nuke strike, and many units are plenty fast and maneuverable to escape.)

There are several non-special non-Terran units, of which the carrier was already mentioned. The vulture turns into dragoons, being the main battle tanks with moderate attack and strong armor. The MBTs are naturally strong against infantry and the AA goliaths, but they are weak against air units such as the fighters (wraiths or scouts) and attack helicopters or the mutalisks (from valkryries). Dropships turn into shuttles to hold principle that air travel is always faster than land travel. Since goons have the role of tanks, I enabled sieging for siege tanks as artillery.

The starting income for plyrs mostly correspond to their countries' GDP. Although Japan actually has the largest GDP in Asia and the 2nd largest in the world, China has the largest starting income. 2nd, Japan; 3rd, Russia (if its oil revenue is taken into account); 4th & 5th, India & S. Korea; 6th, Taiwan; 7th, Thailand.

If all plyrs were very good, I estimate most of the expansions should be taken before 10 min into the game. Btw, turns are 30 seconds shorter.

Post has been edited 10 time(s), last time on Aug 24 2009, 4:06 pm by cosmicagent.

guide for Japan (yellow // plyr 4): complete in

1) start infantry weapons upgrade ; move bc's & scouts south to the easternmost waters north of the Philippines ; load all bunkers ; load 2 shuttles with remaining rines & gols & 1 shuttle with 2 scvs.
2) fire 4 yamato cannons with 2 bcs on the turret east of the city of Naga, then attack with scouts & bc's ; drop gols & rines & destroy the remaining turrets ; meanwhile, load & scv & build a barrack ; move bc's & scouts around the Philippines to the South China Sea ; lift barrack and approach a nearby gas deposit without getting in range of an enemy missile turret.
3) Lift factory & send to gas deposit in sea of Japan in case S. Korea fails to claim it.
4) Create 1 wraith/scout; Infantry armor up
5) Build barrack, lift, move & get income for Naga; move down & claim gas Buy gas; build armory near Naga.
6) Move fleet to South China Sea; yamato the enemy siege tank if Taiwan fails to do so; do not kill the turret on that isle.
7) Save up for carrier & build, build interceptors. Build few medics.

Continue upgrading the infantry. Repeat process of conquering other isles. Drop infantry first, goliaths 2nd. Beware of hidden ground turrets.
.... ...
guide for s. korea (orange // plyr 5): complete in 9.5 min (not too long?)

1) start infantry weapons upgrade ; lift topmost barrack and move to vespene gas @ Sea of Japan ; move northermost infantry div southeast, middle div north then south east, and goons' cavalry div to 36th parallel & hold position ; start protoss ground attack & armor upgrades.
2) move bcs north, & kill 2 enemy siege tanks with 2 sets of yamato cannons ; move bcs south to korea strait then west & position them north at the yellow sea.
3) use remaining money on infantry (marines & medics) & future infantry & goon upgrades.
4) when bc's energy reaches 150, kill the final n. korean siege tank behind the 36th parallel. Move bc's back to Sea of Japan.
5) when upgrades complete, attack n. korea with marines & goons behind. Move marines about along the parallel to clear away hidden mines.
6) Don't kill the nuke silo & move back ; use bc's yamato cannons & lasers to destroy the bunker @ northeastern coast, outside its range of fire ; sent bc's back to the yellow sea.
7) Load marines in dropships ; hotkey ur goons & dropships. Send dropships across Yellow Sea into Chinese territory, then cut eastward and drop at the northern hill of N. Korea, away from range of enemy siege tanks ; charge with marines north & goons south.
8) Clear the enemy bunker at northwestern korea-china border with yamato cannons & lasers outside enemy range of fire.
9) Lift command center then move to Pyeongyang & claim the nuke silo. Lift a factory or science facility to Seoul to reclaim the southern capital.

guide for Taiwan (Teal // plyr 6):

Move science facility to the gas deposit in the East China Sea.
Load shuttles. Move fleet to South China Sea & fire yamato’s to destroy enemy bunker on the main Philippine isle. Drop shuttles outside range of enemy turrets.
Continuously upgrade infantry & build bc’s in stargate & infantry in barracks.
Deploy tanks in siege mode to destroy the 2nd enemy bunker outside of its range. Claim the capital and the adjacent city separately with 2 supply depots.
Without destroying the comsat station, build a command center to claim it; with tanks in siege mode, destroy the remaining 3rd bunker outside of its range; unsiege after its elimination and move away to avoid destroying the comsat station.
Use bc’s yamato cannons to destroy the enemy siege tank in the nearby island south.
If Japan does not claim the gas deposit within the Philippine isles, bring siege tanks south, siege, destroy the turret in the southern isle, build barrack in the main isle, lift south, and claim.

Drop siege tanks in the southern isle, destroy turrets in the isle to the south;

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Aug 27 2009, 2:30 pm by cosmicagent.

I played this map, and it was GREAT! But one problem that I found, (purely opinional,) about navy units, was that the gen-4.5 fighters had more hps than the missile destroyers. I assumed that Navy would mean that these would be shore-pummeling artillery boats, and while the trigs to keep them grounded to water are superb, and the Yamato effect still worth using, they had low hps, and relatively low starting defence. Would it be possible to, slightly, increase the HP and armor of naval units? And I also had an idea for a bomber unit, if you are interested.

I don't see Zombies Europa or Zombie Civilization