History, Colors, & Custom Units
For the upcoming 10-player map War in the Americas (WITA), I've created a custom set of hex-and-sail units similar to those provided for Hundred. This will be the default set of units for WITA (except when playing Escalation, where they are unavailable). I've also created sets of the standard unit types as well.
- Custom unit set available for War in the Americas, shown at higher resolution
- wita custom units 20190530.png (266.88 KiB) Viewed 2480 times
The above image shows an army, fleet, retreating army, and retreating fleet for each of the ten powers. It was rendered at a higher resolution than how they will appear in the game itself.
WITA is set circa 1840, with the starting year being 1841. The map is not entirely geographically accurate, as many of the canals provided for gameplay purposes were not yet built (one has never been built!). However, some attention was paid to the colors of the units so that they would reflect either the flags, seals, military uniforms, or insignia of the countries during that period in history. Below you can read some of the background for each country.
Argentina: Purple
This shade of purple is similar to the one found in the Flag of Argentina from 1835. The unit design is a simplified version of that flag, removing the phrygian caps (not present prior to 1835 or after 1861).
Brazil: Bright Green
The color and units are based on the flag of the Empire of Brazil. The emblem in the middle is lifted from the flag's central seal and placed on a bright green background.
Chile: Red-Orange Rusty Brown
The color and units are based on the current flag of Chile, which was made official in 1817. As is the case any time I try to come up with historically relevant colors for a Diplomacy variant, I had multiple countries where red was the only color that made sense. To ensure distinctness between Chile, Peru, and Spain, I shifted the hue of the color to red-orange and lowered its saturation a bit.
Update 07/15: After player feedback found Chile and Peru to still be too similar in color, we updated Chile's color to be a more rusty brown.
Great Britain: Navy / Vivid Blue
Great Britain is a vivid tint of Navy Blue; it is also intended to represent the ubiquitous navy blue uniforms of the Royal Navy. A darker shade that more closely matches the UK's flag was originally used, but during preliminary testing it proved impractical for reading details on the final map.
Mexico: Jewel Green
The color and units are intended to resemble the Flag of Mexico as it was in 1840.
New Granada: Mustard Yellow
The original WITA variant listed Colombia as one of the ten powers; however, Colombia did not exist until 1863. In its place was the Republic of New Granada. The color and units are intended to resemble that nation's flag, with the color shifted slightly toward a more mustard-like orange-yellow color to better distinguish it from Venezuela's (which had a very similar flag at that time).
Peru: Crimson
The Peruvian flag used as a source for inspiration was the one from 1825, which by 1840 had returned to usage after the end of the short-lived Peru-Bolivian Confederation. As described above for Chile, Peru was one of several countries where red was the only color to make sense. For gameplay purposes, its color was shifted a bit toward maroon or crimson. For further distinction, when using a unit set other than the custom units, they will show up as magenta.
Spain: Pink
The Spanish units are based on the Cross of Burgundy, a flag that differed from Spain's national flag at the time but was in wide use in its colonial possessions. Because white is used for UI elements and text highlighting, it turns out to be a problematic color for country coloring in an online environment. I toyed with using an off-white but realized I needed to stick with a shade of red instead. To distinguish it from Chile & Peru, Spain's color in WITA is a pale pink. I imagine that this would be the color of the Cross of Burgundy flag were it thrown into the wash on a hot cycle.
United States: Sky Blue
I wanted to use some shade of red or blue for the USA. I settled on sky blue / baby blue, as it was employed in their military uniforms starting circa 1832. The units were designed after the US flag, albeit with the colors faded to match the color of blue selected.
Venezuela: Lemon Yellow
Venezuela's flag went through multiple changes in the 19th century. With blues and reds already spoken for, I needed to make Venezuela yellow (albeit a different yellow from New Granada). Because its actual flag from the period closely resembles the flag of New Granada, I tried a few alternative designs. Initially I used the coat of arms above a yellow background, but based on feedback I eventually settled on an anachronistic mashup. The units have a solid yellow background, and they are decorated with the seven stars of the Venezuelan flag of 1863 (shown above), colored blue to make them more visible.
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