hey cairns... I'm coming back to this map having not had time to look at it for a while, and my initial reaction is that I like where it is going visually.
But as I try to work out how it plays, it's not coming to me as quickly as the previous Egypt maps. Here's what I get from the legends, as if this is my first time sitting down to play:
• dows allow attacks across rivers, though I think you've said that more clearly in the previous maps
• cataracts, um, don't really do anything. You can't cross there, so they're really just markers for where the regions begin and end.
• there are four regions, which are color-coded. One is a one-territory region which gives a +1... hmm...
• Nobo-wa is geographically in a region, but isn't actually a part of the bonus because it is a different color.
• roads also connect some territories, though I'd like to see the roads stand out a bit more prominently.
• There are 12 gold mines. If you hold at least 7 you get a bonus of +1 per mine that you hold. Somehow this can be made more clear.
Gold mine language comment: 4 start neutral, 8 start with "1 player each" -this sounds awkward, as no territory can ever start with more than one player.
You probably mention it somewhere in the thread, but it's not in the first post so rather than troll the entire topic I'll just ask... how are you going to code the starts? Is anything other than the four gold mines going to start neutral? The +1 single territories? And the other eight gold mines - are they going to be open starts which means somebody could start with four or five?
Well of Ramses: auto deploy or straight bonus? I haven't read anything to suggest it is auto-deploy, but I thought I'd double-check.