The setting is the North Sea Area [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea] around the year 0 CE [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_age]

The parties involved are: Norse (purple), Frisian (green), Roman (Red) and Briton (Blue) tribes. I am not aiming for historical accuracy here and a 4 player map seemed like an interesting idea.

First take a look at the map design here: http://imagebin.org/202456

Note that I've written the starting units in the SC's (A for Army, F for Fleet).

The water (blue) areas that touch the left border of the map are not territories at all and can not be entered (like Switzerland). So the Wales territory is in fact landlocked, not a coast.

The circle territory in the center of the North Sea is a special one. It is linked with the circle area in the legend/title box in the topleft corner of the map. The center of the circle in the legend box is the exact same territory as the big circle territory in the center of the North Sea. So let us call this territory Central North Sea (CNS). Confused yet? Let me go on.
The Wood, Iron and Grain neutral SC territories can be moved to from CNS, but this is a one-way street! Units in one of the territories Wood, Iron or Grain can only move and support within those three territories and can't get out (untill they are destroyed). Once inside it works a bit like the pure diplomacy variant.

If you understood that explanation you realize it's actually really simple during gameplay. And i realize that once a player manages to get two fleets inside and own all three SC's (Wood, Iron and Grain) he has a great 3-for-2 deal, but think for a bit about how many turns that would take and how stupid the other three players have to be.

tldr; So why am I posting? I need your opinions about balance and gameplay before I develop any further. I wish it to be fast, but still some complicated situations. And please show me gamebreaking stalematelines!