Ever since I played Settlers of Catan, I've thought off and on about a new game using some of its principles.
Last night it all came together and my wife got to enjoy an hour's worth of me explaining how it would work.
The map would look like the picture I've attached. There would essentially be one hexagon surrounded by six others. Each of those 7 hexagons would be comprised of 19 smaller hexagons, giving a total number of game spaces as 7*19 or 133, which is close to the number of game spaces in A&A.
The game could support 2-6 players. Each player would get to pick one of the six outer BIG hexagons to start in. Within that big hexagon, he could start on any of the 19 smaller hexagons within. Therefore you could have 1 player in each of the outer main hexagons
There would be 4 unit types, just as in my latest version of A&A Europe rules, Infantry, Tank, Air Wing, Fleet.
Each hex in the game would be one of 5 types of terrain:
water - perhaps as much as 50%
wasteland/desert/mountains - 20%
wheat - 15%
ore - 10%
oil - 5%
There would be two types of construction: towns and cities.
The cost of building each unit/construction would be:
inf - 2 wheat
tank - 2 wheat, 2 ore
air wing - 2 wheat, 3 ore, 1 oil
fleet - 2 wheat, 4 ore, 2 oil
town - an infantry would disband to form a town
city - 5 wheat
Each town or city would sit on the hex, as opposed to at the intersection (like in Settlers).
A town would generate one resource per turn of whatever it sat upon.
A city would generate two resources per turn of whatever it sat upon.
Each town or city can only produce 1 unit per turn. Only cities can produce tanks, fleets, or air wings.
Each player would start the game with 1 town to be placed at their discretion within their Big starting hex and 1 soldier to be placed beside the town.
Fighting would be along the lines of my latest version of A&A rules, where combined arms are important.
If you have >0 infantry, you get to roll 1 die
If you have >0 tank, you get another die
If you have >0 air wing, you get a third die
If you have >1 infantry on defense, you get an extra die to roll for the inf
If you have >1 tanks on offense, you get an extra die to roll for the tanks
All hits are on a 3 or less for the die roll.
Any units on a hex with a town get a bonus of -1 on their roll, allowing them to hit on a 4 or less.
Any units on a hex with a city get a bonus of -2 on their roll, allowing them to hit on a 5 or less.
A player must spend 1 oil per turn for every five units they have in the field that they wish to move, except for infantry which can walk 1 per turn without oil.
Infantry move 1 to attack, but can move 2 for a noncombat move if oil is being spent on their behalf.
Tanks move 2
Fleets move 3
Air wings move 4, BUT have to end their turn in a friendly town or city hex or on a fleet.
Fleets can transport 1 land or air unit
As long as an unobstructed path can be connected between two friendly cities (where all towns and cities in the path are exactly 2 hexes apart), then infinite units can be railed between them without costing any oil.
All towns have to be a minimum of 2 hexes away from another town, leaving one blank hex between the two towns.
All the resource and land hexes would be shuffled and redealt between each game.
The hexes would likely be 2" in width and would likely be made of flannel along with the game board, since flannel sticks to itself and would create a very secure map that wouldn't get messed up if someone bumped the table.
The overall game board size would be less than 3' or so in diameter, and would be roughly circular as you can see from the attached file.
Settler of Catan cards could be used as the resource cards and the towns and cities. If more towns and cities were needed, monopoly houses and hotels could be used.
A&A unit pieces would be used.