I have too much time on my hands (IE study time), and while playing diplomacy I thought about why it wasn't expanded onto a whole world map, from in 1914. I thought i'd give it a try, and eventually, created this.
[IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/1zxa2oy.jpg[/IMG]
The main problem I came across was, obviously, balancing a variant based around empires which weren't balanced. Then I figured, that they didn't need balance. What will happen is that not all SC's will have units on at the start, which will weaken the big empires like Britain and France. I also made the Europeans powers without big colonies into powerhouses (Austria, Italy, Germany) with 4 SC's each in Europe.
The 10 countries in the variant are: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, Turkey, USA, Japan, Portugal.
It's obviously not finished yet, but I'm interested to know what thoughts (if any) you have on it. Constructive criticism, or just to laugh at me for having too much free time xD.
PS. Apologies for the map not looking great, i had to use software because my art is so bad.