A few words about the South Africa map... | Importing the Age of Industry to...the BoardGameGeek Store! (2024)

1-Introduction...
2-Thanks for being so clumsy!
3-Two thumps up to Ludofact!
4-Your original message I received, unfortunately. Calculation you send in the 18th week.
5-A few words about the USSR map – Part I
6-Preorder Campaign Quick Facts
7-A few words about the USSR map…Part II
8-Are you crazy?
9-Back in Black

The South Africa map is the third one I designed and it went through a totally different process than the USSR map. With the latter, I had something very specific in mind which was to develop a map in Soviet Union during the communism era. For the South Africa map, it was less precise. I wanted to design a map where players would develop a territory starting from the coast then to the hinterland (this kind of concept exists in Steam in one of the Eastern U.S. map). I wanted a kind of EXPLORATION theme where players would develop a territory which was not as develop as Europe and Eastern U.S. in terms of industry and transportation.

With this idea in mind, I looked for a place in the world where this concept could be used. Of course, this territory should be out of Europe and North America and be rich in coal and iron. So I started by looking for the most important coal and iron producers in the world. There was some interesting options like Brazil and Australia. But I finally chose South Africa. Why? Plenty of coal and iron, a transportation not well developed at the end of the 19th century and the presence of important ports as well as gold and diamond mines!! I know most of those criteria also apply to Brazil and Australia, but for an unknown reason, it was just natural to develop the map using the South African territory.

Contrary to the USSR Map, where many different mechanics were implemented, tested and removed, the two mains mechanics I implemented for this map stayed about the same from the start to the end of the development. The main challenge came from the fine tuning of those rules! Ensuring a good balance of the economic system was essential. After many playtest with this map and the Belgium one, I can tell you that basic economic system was well balanced by Martin, so changing it was risky. So at the end of the day, it wasn't necessarily shorter to develop this map...

This first mechanisms is directly inspired by the theme I was trying to implement which was “Exploration and Development of a new territory.” So in the game, all players must start in establishing coastal cities and developing the hinterland from there. The trick is that at the end of each player's turn, all counters on the board must be connected (directly or indirectly) by rail to at least one port counter.

I think the basic idea was good and would help distinguish this map from the previous ones. The fact that all players had to start at a location located not too far from each other was good because it meant interaction between players. A player couldn't stay in his area alone for long. However, I quickly realized there was a lot of blocking because all players were also developing in the same direction (through the Hinterland) and the game was stalling because quite often, players had only a few or no interesting options.

I had to implement three changes to ensure the game would go smoothly.

First,contrary to the other maps, locations of a same colors are not located in the same area. I tried to design the map using the same pattern (same color locations in the same area) than the other maps but it just didn't work. If a player wanted to develop a specific area, it was very difficult to use 2 or 3 cards of the same color. I think the mixing of colors gives more flexibility in that case.

Second, I added a little bit of flexibility regarding the connection to a port. Player's counter wouldn't have to be connected to a port counter when built, but only at the end of the player's turn. That difference is important because a player could use his first action to build an unconnected counter using a color card and his second action to build a railway counter in order to connect that new counter to a counter connected to a port or directly to a port.

The third change is the most important one (and the last I implemented). Unlike the standard rules, a player can build an industry counter using an industry card in a location that is not immediately connected to an existing industry or railway counter belonging to that player. So a player can now use an industry card to build a counter using other players rail links. For each other player's railway used, the building player must pay £ 2 to the railway's owner.

Some players might feel a little bit uncomfortable with those changes, especially the third change I described. Maybe you won't think about that possibility at first, but if you use it at the right moment, it could open interesting opportunities for you. Especially to reach quickly a Diamond or a Gold mine. This brings me to the second important mechanism I implemented..

2)Development of Gold and Diamond mines

I don't really remember when and where exactly I thought about the gold and diamond mines mechanism. I remember I thought that the production of a gold or a diamond mine should give its owner a good profit. However, the owner would have to commit himself and provide a significant investment. I also wanted to provide to those mine a different status than the coal mine or the ironworks.

Here is what I proposed :

Each gold and diamond mine shows 1 to 3 symbols besides its location. Those symbols represent the full production of the mine (and its level). Each round, all active (or built) mines produce 1 gold (orange)/ 1 diamond (black) cube which is placed on one of the symbol. Production of a mine can only be sold when all spaces are filled with cubes.

Coal Mine/Ironworks counters are used - upside down - when building Diamond/Gold Mines.

To increase the difficulty, gold and diamond production cannot be sold by themselves because their volume is too small (and they have to be hidden from potential pirates on the sea!!). They have to be sold at the same time as a cotton mill or a factory production, using a single port.

So players have to decide when is the best time to invest in a gold or a diamond mine considering the investment necessary to build the mine, which is more than the other counters, the number of rounds needed to reach the full production, the possibility to sell a cotton mill/factory production at the same time and of course, the possibility that an opponent build the mine before! I don't need to tell you that a good timing is necessary to be successful! But it might be worth it because of the money the owner will get, but also taking in consideration the bonus received at the end of the game when building multiple mines of the same kind.

The main difficulty in implementing this rule was to find the good cost/profit ratio. It was difficult because if the ratio is too high in favour of the profit, the game will be easier and the only way to win the game will be the build gold/diamond mines. If the ratio is too low for the profit, nobody will build those mines so the game is not interesting anymore.

I wanted the option of building a gold or a diamond mine to be very attractive and interesting without being the only way to win the game. Investing in natural resources like coal and iron might also be a very good strategy. I wanted to force players taking risks, with the possibility to earn more money than with another kind of counter.

To conclude this post, here is an overview of the designing process. This apply to all maps!

More about the South Africa Map next week in a post called "Houston, We Have a Problem!"

To be continued...

K