http://vdiplomacy.com/board.php?
gameID=20562I agree with some of the statements made, not with others.
"Some" conclusions can certainly be made with what we have learned so far but we can make no conclusive statements just yet so (my opinion) this is being discussed too early. But since it has been asked and plenty of opinions are already being given let's address them:
Sea lanes will absolutely have a profound impact on stalemate lines, while we have not yet reached that point, it has already been noted how defense is indeed crippled in a serious way. Suggesting this is not the case simply ignores the facts and examples already learned.
Suggesting the land spaces are somehow okay regarding stalemates is ignoring the obvious and in every single area we have stalemates develop on land. The standard game almost always sets up stalemate lines (they may not always be the same, if you have an area that always develops a certain way, that is a big problem that needs fixing but every game will see stalemate lines form as they should see. Defense and blocking others is an important part of the game that can not simply be ignored. Sure, those who are marching to victory don't like them, but that is how we stop those powers, solos are to be stopped! This claim that only sea spaces face this dilemma is simply ignorant of the facts. Again, stalemates that always seem to form in the same spaces, those should indeed be tweaked and maybe some of these sea spaces do have that problem but to simply try to do away with them is not doing the game any favors.
This idea has some fun twists, I am not attempting to be negative only, we can take this idea and tweak it I'm sure. But defending these spaces is frankly near impossible, defense is generally for those who are not growing as rapidly (if at all) as those trying to break through that defense, to cover all the holes requires more units than anyone in defensive mode will have available while the attacker will generally have more units to throw to the action, the result is obvious, defense is gone!
This said, I think the sea lanes as they are have not been applied equally to all areas.
Look at the coasts of Europe, China and Eastern North America (not to mention the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico) then compare them to the rest of the world. Centers in some areas are safe and easy to protect as always before while the others face the problem of sea lanes. When the final reviews come in, you will have all these wild different observations. The player in the USA will have a completely different view than would the player in Brazil. At the very least we know it was not applied evenly across the map. Let all see how insane it is to defend against sea lanes, in my own limited experience I have seen them work for me, I have seen them work against me but in both situations, they both heavily favored the offense in very unbalanced ways!