Set amidst the early-1800's Maori arms race known as the Musket Wars, this variant depicts 6 Maori iwi (tribes) battling against each other for domination of the North and South Islands of New Zealand, called "Aotearoa" (the land of the long white cloud) by the Maori.

Rules:

1. Standard rules and win conditions apply.
2. Nga Puhi is the only territory with a north and south coast. It works like Spain in Classic.
3. Tai is a canal territory. It works like Kiel in Classic.
4. The unnamed lake bordering Haua is not a territory, so Haua cannot build fleets.
5. This variant contains Sealanes. Special rules apply; see below.

Notes:

• Many tribes (and therefore many territory names would) begin with "Ngati", "Ngai", or "Nga", but these prefixes have been dropped for clarity except for player tribe names. Similarly, many water body names have prefixes of "Te" or "Te Tai", which have also been dropped.
• This map is not build anywhere -- in the Musket Wars, captured slaves from conquered tribes would be sent back to the conquering tribe's homeland to work the fields and free up more of the tribespeople to fight.

Background:

The last major landmass to be settled by humans, the islands now called New Zealand began hosting inhabitants around 1300 AD when Polynesians moved from other parts of the Pacific Ocean. These settlers spread throughout the North and South Islands and developed the rich Maori culture. As Europeans started to frequent New Zealand from the late 18th century into the 19th, they traded muskets for Maori crops and other items, especially flax. The Maori initially used these muskets for hunting, but employed them for warfare for the first time in the 1807 battle of Moremonui, commencing the Musket Wars. Muskets became more and more important in intertribal warfare until the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, making New Zealand a British colony and mostly putting an end to battles between tribes. However, the tactical and fortbuilding knowledge that the Maori learned during the Musket Wars proved useful during the New Zealand Wars against British colonizers in 1845-1872.

In more modern times, although unfortunately positioned in a bottom corner of the Mercator projection and thus occasionally forgotten by amateur cartographers, New Zealand has made important contributions to the world stage: it became the first country to implement a minimum wage and recognize universal women's suffrage, supported Britain's efforts in WWI and WWII with over 100,000 troops in each conflict, and helped found the United Nations. Today, New Zealand is the largest exporter of both sheep meat and dairy, as well as a popular tourist destination.

Sealanes:

Sealanes are an addition to the map designed to bring coastal states into contact with more neighbors and prevent stalemate lines.

1. Oceans and seas are divided into Sea Regions, which are further subdivided into Overseer Zones (OZs) and Sealanes (SLs). Sea Regions are represented by a bold line around multiple sea territories that share the same 3-letter abbreviation surrounding a bolded box.

2. OZs are designated with a bold box around their abbreviations. OZs are adjacent to any OZs in adjacent Sea Regions, all SLs in their own Sea Region, any SLs directly adjacent to their Sea Region, and any normal territories adjacent to their Sea Region.

MOA is adjacent to:

OZs: RAW, REH

Internal SLs: MOA n, MOA w, MOA se

External SLs: RAW s, RAW w, REH sw

Normal Land Territories: Mor, Ngai Tahu, Wat, Tim, Oam, Owaka, Ota, Rka

Normal Sea Territories: Marokura, Moana Raukawa

3. Sealanes are adjacent to their OZ, all other SLs in their Sea Region, any OZs in directly adjacent Sea Regions, any directly adjacent SLs, and any adjacent normal territories.

MOA n is adjacent to:

MOA, MOA se, MOA w, Mor, RAW, RAW s, RAW w, Moana Raukawa, Ngai Tahu, Marokura, Wat

4. All territories within a Sea Region are separate and each may be occupied by a fleet, regardless of its nationality. Keep in mind that new routes for convoys and retreats now exist.

Sealanes were first implemented by kaner406, so the credit for the idea goes to him.