World · 2026
197 countries begin with their existing territories and real capitals on an Equal Earth map, an equal-area projection, so land share is fair. The map is centred on 11°E and cut through the Bering Strait; Antarctica and the far south are omitted. Terrain colours, deserts, tundra and mountain ranges are illustrative, not a survey.
Starting borders: internationally recognized outlines (Natural Earth, UK point of view), consistent with Europe 2026. Dependencies and overseas territories belong to the state that governs them. Kosovo, Taiwan and Palestine are separately playable with their status noted. Somaliland is part of Somalia and Northern Cyprus part of Cyprus. Western Sahara and Bir Tawil start unclaimed and can be settled.
Map scale: one combat cell is roughly 95 km across. Exact source vectors are shown before play; small island states get a single island cell.
Flags: current national flags from Wikimedia Commons via Wikidata, almost all public domain. Authors and licences: flags/SOURCES.md.
Sources: Natural Earth 5.1.1, 1:10m public-domain cartography and populated places. Period flags for 1920 and 1940 also come from Wikimedia Commons; two are CC BY-SA (South Africa 1912, Mongolia 1940). The Europe 1250 territories are read from Mitteleuropa zur Zeit der Staufer by Alphathon (CC BY-SA 4.0), after Droysen’s Allgemeiner Historischer Handatlas (1886); the game’s adapted grid is shared under the same licence. Its banners of arms are drawn for the game.
Provenance: data/world-2026-sources.md.
Europe · 2026
51 European and transcontinental countries begin with their existing territories and real capitals. Terrain is fictional and regenerated from the terrain seed: vegetation, mountains and sand do not represent real European geography. The map starts paused. Choose a country and press Play to begin a fictional sandbox war.
Starting borders: internationally recognized national outlines are used, including Ukraine's Crimea and Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Kosovo is separately playable with disputed status. Cyprus includes the north; British sovereign bases remain associated with the UK. Gold dashed outlines identify selected disputed-status areas, not military front lines.
Map scale: exact source vectors are shown before play. Combat uses a coarser grid; microstates have command cells and markers. The regional extent omits overseas territories and the high Arctic, and crops Russia and Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan's national capital, Astana, is outside the map; its marker is a regional HQ. Nearby countries are non-playable geographic context. Associated dependencies are grouped for gameplay.
Flags: SVG artwork from Wikimedia Commons, mostly public domain; four historical flags are CC BY-SA. Authors and licences: flags/SOURCES.md.
Sources: Natural Earth 5.1.1, 1:10m public-domain cartography, normalized for this scenario; UN: Ukraine's internationally recognized borders (2026); EU status note on Kosovo (2026). This is a 2026 scenario using generalized cartography, not a new 2026 boundary survey.