Looks like a good map airborne.

I like it.

No starting fleet for Poland?

I like it, I've been wanting to see a variant for that era

I thought that Army Ghansk might be better for the Poles but, fleet Ghansk looks superior to help the Poles except with Silesia

it depends on whether you want the Poles to be able support themselves into Memel or Silesia

looks pretty legit

Good idea and very nice map historically accurated (perhaps Minden wasn't already Prussian in 1700?). Has it been tested?
I just looked only at Venice. I wonder how could Venice develop, with a fleet that looks stuck in Tri and the other one that could bounce with Nap into Ionian forever. Further, if Austria opens to Tyrolia, Venice could get no gains the first year. France's army in Mars makes things even harder because, even if Venice bounces Austria's unsupported unit into Tyr, in fall French Army in Swi could bounce Venice off Milan. In short, Venice needs 1 or 2 good allies among France, Spain & Austria. And he needs them since the very first turn. But...why should they ally with Venice? or, why since the first turn, blindly? Just my two cents, airborne. Good work.

Britain has Amsterdam but not Hanover?

Poland should probably have a SC in Saxony over Gdansk.

-Minden was part of Prussia for over 50 years by the time of gamestart, Prussia earned Minden and Halberstadt after the Treaty of Westphalia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg-Prussia#Map)
-Hanover was not in personal union with England till 1714-1837
-And what of ports for Poland-Lithunania? Ghansk is an important Batlic sea port during this period

During 1701
-The War of the Spanish Successions is starting and would not end for 13 years
-The Ottomans have been soundly beaten by at Vienna in 1683 and the Holy League that came after, the North African vassals were de facto independent.
-Great Northern War in progress,

Fantastic map! Thanks for the link. But, actually, Minden is green and it says "green/yellow: under Frederick William I" who was king from 1713 to 1740.
@ Gopher. King of England in 1700 was William III of ORANGE.

@Guariz look under year of acquisition
There are many Fredericks in history, this Frederick William was the Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Prussia ("Brandenburg-Prussia") from 1640 until his death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_I,_Elector_of_Brandenburg
Not Frederick the Great, more like Frederick the Very Good but, not Great

You're right......I was thinking of the Hanoverian Georges for some reason. I did not realize that William lived that long. Since the War of the Spanish Succession is Queen Anne's War, I would have thought that Anne of 17 dead babies was Queen by 1700.

But do Minden and Cleves really merit a SC? I don't think of Brandenburg-Prussia circa 1700 being a power on par with Poland or Sweden. Plus I'll repeat that Saxony was pretty important.

Oddly, I know a fair amount about the Great Northern War and then quite a bit about Anne and the rise of the Tories and the emergence of Walpole, but everything between the founding of the Bank of England and the creation of the South Seas Company is a bit of a blur. I honestly know more about Eugene than about John Churchill.

(Blinks) someone supporting the Poles and against Prussia even during a certain period of time in history is a bit of an oddity (if your not a Pole)
The problem with Saxony as an SC is just having a home SC by two powers home SC, no chance for the Poles to support it thus Saxony would be more of a hinderence than an assest diplomatically and in miltary terms. Perhaps, a Polish army in Saxony or a de facto neutral SC under Polish colours?

The Prussians a few years back won the Scanian Wars, just that year Frederick III was crowned king, again the Prussian state is a very organized state, with a good, experience army and has surprised the other nations of Europe several times during this time period. Is Prussia the superpower of the late 1800s and early 1900s? No but, they are a very respectable power.
In the same arguement we can say Italy and the Ottomans should not be powers in standard both being very weak powers, Italy hopelessly dependent on foreign capital and British coal and the Ottoman, "sick man of Europe"

I just did some checking and the 1700s was the century that saw the rise of Prussia as a powerful state, albeit with some setbacks during the Napoleonic wars, whereas Poland-Lithuania didn't exist by the end of the century being mostly absorbed by Russia in 1795

@ airborne. You're right. I've always messed up the Hoenzollern. They're all "Frederick", "William" or "Frederick William" LOL.
About the playability of the map, did you read my comment about Venice? Is there anything you can change to make Venice playable?

I made a few, mostly I took out Naples as a Spanish Home SC since this is the War of Spanish Succession, made Mar a fleet, and made Ionian Sea more important, which Venice should usually have control of it early on

Ok, it looks many changes indeed. Now Venice is really playable. And, yes, although Venice's star was at the sunset in 18th century, she used to have an absolute control on many seas. Look at the "yellow" seas on this map:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Repubblica_di_Venezia.png
Adriatic and Aegean were basically Venetian lakes.

1701 looks great.

it looks like modern dipomacy II with a more balanced Africa.

I really like the additions on to the usual Europe map.

It looks really intriguing. I'd love to get in on any games of these new variants, like Medieval or 1701, particularly if they start around the end of September or later.

Yeah, as soon as I get back from Germany a PBEM and/or start programming a map

Cool. Out of curiosity, what program do you use to design the variants?

Paint :)

do you use the older version or the newer version of paint?

newer and sometimes older at my school (annoying as hell)

Looks good. I much prefer it over the other 18th Century stuff I've seen. I feel a bit odd about leaving the Spanish have virtually no chance of securing their hold in the Lowlands.

I'd also love if I could see a 7 Years War variant. Whether world wide or just european.