I meant to post this up a long time ago but I never get around to it. These days I don't play much but when I do it's old diplomacy/strategic war over teamspeak - and it's a lot of fun.

I used Blood & Iron: Europe 1870 as a base map, originally just trying to fix some bugs and firelag, and ended up finishing the map around June 2011. I still update it from time to time (maybe because SCMDrafting is a favorite pastime) and add things like issuing bonds/debt.



Here's a quick rundown of the map:

-It's an open ended (no victory conditions) diplomacy set during the preamble to WW1 (if any of you remember history this was when everybody was striking alliances left and right and ultimately resulted in the great alliances of the Great War).
-Wars/conflicts are designed to play out like games of Strategic War, wherein you must allocate your resources (money, defenses, army, or navy) strategically in order to earn a swift capitulation from your opponent and ultimately expand your influence over Europe.
-It's important to set up alliances with other players and counter alliances not unlike what the empires of Europe did during this period (unfortunately Brood War limits me to 7 playable nations and you may have an odd man out or uneven sides)
--Usually though the game can be divided up into relatively equal alliances in terms of strength and capability and this can be measured via the scoreboard in the diplomacy panel here:

-Money comes in steadily from Cities, Factories (Industry), Natural Resources or Important Locations (Iron, Coal, Oil, Suez Canal, etc), and Shipping Lanes (which are captured with Naval Forces), one can also receive resources via war reparations (when one play surrenders to another), issuing bonds and receiving tribute from other nations.
-The current playable nations include Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire (I would've loved to include unified Sweden/Norway and Italy but Brood War limits you in some respects)
-The map is a meta-history so somethings aren't entirely accurate - the Ottoman Empire has already lost the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 and so no longer controls the Balkans, Germany is unified despite the Franco-Prussian War not necessarily occurring, and various areas are neutral despite being under a certain empire's influence (Malta, Cyprus, Crete, Finland, etc).
-Upgrades are at the top right of the map, at the bottom of the console
--Upgrades are extremely minimal and expensive but also significant - a +1 advantage in a large battle can translate to hundreds of damage more per shot, it is important to weigh when you need to upgrade and when you cannot afford it though
-Armies are capped according to how many Cities you control up to 30, so it is important to expand your empire's territory just as it's important to industrialize (building factories) and securing trade routes (naval expansion)

National Strengths/Weaknesses:

Great Britain:
-Superior Riflemen
-Superior Artillery
-Superior Battleships
-Strongest Starting Navy
-Excellent Defensive Position
-Excellent Industry
-Wealthiest Empire
-Transports allow for expansion anywhere/major mobility
-At odds with Ottoman Empire (Egypt) and Spain (Gibralter)

France:
-Superior Cavalry
-Superior MGs
-Superior Mortars
-Excellent Starting Military
-Second Strongest Starting Navy
-Excellent Industry
-Open Expansion into Italy/Mediterranean
-At odds with Germany/Spain

Spain:
-Superior Mortars
-Few National Borders
-Excellent Defensive Position
-Mediocre Industry
-Weakest Starting Military
-Open Expansion into Africa/Mediterranean
-At odds with Britain/France

Germany:
-Superior Riflemen
-Superior MGs
-Superior Artillery
-Superior Mortars
-Strongest Starting Military
-Largest Industry
-Open Expansion into Low Countries/Scandinavia
-At odds with France, Austria, and Russia

Ottoman Empire:
-Superior Cavalry
-Superior Mortars
-Second Largest Empire
-Mediocre Starting Military
-Weak Industry
-Difficult to defend
-Open Expansion into Balkans/Mediterranean/Asia
-At Odds with Russia, Britain and Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary:
-Superior Cavalry
-Superior MGs
-Superior Artillery
-Excellent Industry
-Difficult to defend
-Mediocre Starting Military
-Open Expansion into Italy/Balkans
-At odds with Russia, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire

Russia:
-Superior Cavalry
-Largest Starting Military
-Largest Empire (thus largest starting army caps)
-Weakest Industry
-Wealthy
-Difficult to defend
-Open Expansion into Georgia/Scandinavia
-At odds with Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany

Tips/Tricks:

-The optimal military make up depends on circumstance but generally you want Riflemen (Ghosts) to be your bread and butter
--Important support units are Cavalry (Zealots) which are fast and excellent for flanking, and Field Artillery (Siege Tanks) which give excellent cover fire and are only weak to Cavalry
--Machine Guns (Marines built from Factory's Vulture) are very useful for defensive entrenchment (e.g. 1-2 bunkers filled with marines)
--Mortars (Dragoons built from Factory's Goliath) are the only hard counter to defensive entrenchments (buildings and bunkers) but are weak to field artillery
--Armies, especially combined with transports are especially mobile but capturing a region is no easy feat - especially in the Rhineland
--Navies are extremely simplified into single BattleCruisers which represent a flotilla, they are a self counter
-Your
-By default the computer (white) is unallied to players, you can however pay a small fee over time in order to ally the computer by bringing your selector to the Rights of Passage in the top rights of the map/console
-You can take some very nestled cities more quickly from the computer by buying Rights of Passage in the top right of the console, surrounding the city with your troops and then removing Rights of Passage, this is especially helpful in areas like Switzerland or islands
-Try to establish strong (loyal) alliances in order to diplomatically advance yourself - caveat: in my experience the most fun games are not the ones you're certain to win but rather those you were sure to lose yet triumph.
-Lastly, it's not wise to attack a fortified area (e.g. Fortress Egypt which Britain sometimes creates) when you can inflict an equivalent amount of economic havoc on your enemy elsewhere (e.g. Libya)
--Essentially you want to maximize the damage done to your enemy while minimizing the cost, it should go without saying but it's an important rule of thumb to keep in mind whenever you or an ally are at a stalemate on a certain front - it just means you need to apply pressure elsewhere
-You can stop an enemy from landing troops right on the front lines by targeting dropships


I'll try to update this later with more pictures but unfortunately my internet is kind of spotty right now, cheers. Here's a basic idea of what the layout looks like though:

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