What the heck is wrong with the map?

[The Rock Doctor]

We originally made the call to shake things up a little bit - by changing world geography, we'd replace the standard group of historical major powers (and their fairly well documented strategic challenges) with a new set of kinda-to-entirely fictional major powers with unique and unusual strategic considerations.

To do that, we had to move some borders.  Historical major powers were broken up (USA, UK, Germany), downgraded in capability (Japan), or upgraded (France).  New powers (Rohan, New Switzerland, Deutcher Kaiserreich Brandenburg) were created, and a few historical failed or failing states (Austria, Gran Colombia) were propped up.

We tinkered with actual geography somewhat, too.  Some of this was considered necessary to support creation of the fictional powers like New Switzerland and Brandenburg - we needed Pacific land masses large enough to support their populations and economies.  On the other hand, some of the geographic chances were merely to add flavor, or new challenges to the strategic considerations - the African rift and the enlargement of the Chagos archipelago as examples.

(...and no, we haven't considered the climatic effects of these additional land masses or anything like that.)

Naturally, all of this has required that we amend history somewhat - so there is a history thread elsewhere in the forum that explains why Kaiser Wilhelm II lives in the southern hemisphere, why Glorious France is the world's largest power, and why elements of Tolkien appear here.