Now then, now then.
Amazing draft as commented above.
The map's graphical quality will be an appeal for players, so I'm glad you've opened up the gameplay discussion so much - let's hope we can make gameplay to match the graphics and make a hit map.
Here's my idea:Starting Position Gameplay
A popular format, here's how I see it could be applied to this map (maybe a few amendments might be needed though):The Starts
8 starts on the bottom of the map - some, or all, from boats.
The starts are invading hoards, with auto-deploys. As they would be relatively close together, they would not be able to attack each other (to prevent kills too early in the game).
So, how would the starting hoards be killed? From the canons in the top tower. As getting to the canons would be a long journey through neutrals this would be something late in the game (see below).Beaches / Battleground
Looking at the layout currently, these start positions would lead to a battleground in front of the castle. To eliminate potential advantages for different start positions due to proximity to the bridge etc, all 8 starts could be boats which can land at any of 8 landing points. In fact, each landing point could be killer-neutral quicksand.
Within the battleground there could be small bonuses available (maybe like the camps in Siege 1).Accessing the Castle
From the battleground, players would be vying to gain access to the castle at two points (drawbridge and tunnel).
This would require some changes. If we stuck at the two access points we would have a situation similar to the Danelaw map idea (now in the recycling bin) - the thinking there was that foolish players would go first and then get attacked by everyone else before they could progress far. On this map, this could create an early-game boring semi-stalemate waiting game when relatively intelligent players are playing. Therefore it is maybe worth considering additional access routes (maybe through the moat (which would have decay) or by amending the layout to have hills to the side, or a completely encircling moat with more drawbridges, maybe more, shorter tunnels etc.).Inside The Castle
Once inside the castle, players could battle over various small zonal bonuses, including significant auto-deploy bonuses for King & Queen.
The King & Queen could start with significant neutrals and be part of an objective? Maybe a third significant region could be part of an objective (great hall for example)?
For extra interest, the castle walls could bombard the battleground and landing points and maybe even within the castle (archers bombarding regions close to them, bombarding like the 'range' horses in Waterloo).The Canon Tower
Then the upper tower - could either be accessed via stairs from the wall (as shown in version 2) or by going up a steep hill / accross a swamp / more quicksand (some kind of decay / killer neutral). The upper tower canons could then bombard starting boats and maybe the battleground and maybe parts of the castle (but not the objective regions as this could create stalemate).
I think that's my idea - hope it makes sense.
I'd be happy to make some sort of diagram - stick a layer on top of the current image(s) to explain.