Recently, there have been many discussions regarding how the map can be fixed. I present to you my opinion and an alternative to the current map layout that corrects its biggest faults.
Designed by Master DS
An all-time issue
The map issues are ones that did not appear this year. They have been present for a long time and have not been definitively solved so far. The economy system addition brought some more life to the map and probably helped prolong its lifespan a bit more. The recent economy updates helped forge an intense war between Fire Vikings and the Shadow Legionaries. The community’s interest in the economy system was best shown during the community-based Operation: Winterstorm, with up to 220 individuals joining it from all armies.
Former administrations tried several approaches to figure out a way to keep the map active consistently. Various approaches were chosen, usually either opening more land to the armies or resetting the map if it had become stagnant. One time, a more creative approach was considered: adding tiered land and no-allies zones, which ended up not working as intended since armies did not use those features much, despite voting for them. There was a sign that things needed to change, and thus the Mapping the Map summit took place in 2025, along with Army Board discussions to add an economy system to the map, which was unanimously supported. Through the summit, many changes were decided that aimed at making it easier for armies to wage war and raid.
The Current Map
Currently, there is the first large-scale (in terms of the number of battles) war of the year between FV and SL. Before that, the previous significant war was between the Templars and the Dark Warriors, about a month ago. Overall, the map saw higher activity in September, which was unexpected given the popular “September drop” theory. However, despite the activity, the map still has pieces of freeland, about 9 months after its launch. Generally, major army wars have been lacking this year, with TCP being involved in all of them, while declaring all the map ones. The Small Medium community has seen more activity compared to the Majors, with most SMs holding or having held land on the map. The SM part of the community as a whole has seen far more wars compared to the Major side, counting both on- and off-map.
It appears that there is an issue with the major armies, now more than ever, given their activity. The Rebel Penguin Federation currently only holds 1 land, for example. The Help Force has 2 pieces of land after invading the Boxmen of Boxland capital, with the latter starting the war. At the same time, the Aliens and the Fire Warriors haven’t even participated in the map.
The map about a week ago
Current Community Issues
Unlike some years ago, though, the issue is now even more “intense”. In previous years, armies would also hold many wars off the map when the map was stagnant. This year, we have seen a lack of off-map wars as well, with the last (actual) one having been in early June against an army that was not even open yet, with 0 battles taking place. The most notable off-map war for the year was the one between the Army of Club Penguin and TCP, which also had raids taking place in Club Penguin Journey. This shows that there is a general community issue with wars and armies not being willing to participate in them. Many times in recent years, off-map wars have been ignored by the defender. This means that an army that is not on the map could attempt to fully isolate itself from wars.
The community’s lack of “villain” armies, as some people call them, has also killed warfare for this year. A “villain” army is one that has a more aggressive approach to the map/ warfare and often engages in wars. Examples of armies like that would be the Doritos of Club Penguin and the Void Troops in 2025, the Elite Guardians of Club Penguin in 2024, the ACP, the Dark Vikings in 2023, and TCP in 2022. All those armies produced many intense wars in their respective years, along with some other armies that did so on a smaller scale. This year, the greatest example would be TCP for the Major division and SL for the SM one. TCP may be a strong army, but it can’t compete with ACP and RPF, which are on their own level and can produce the largest-scale wars, but their multiple army alliances haven’t allowed that yet. This will be discussed more analytically in a different OpEd, though.
At the same time, the map has the best design, user interface, and fastest update times ever. Through the success of the OP: WS tournament, it was shown that people want to take part in the current map. Even at an army level, both the Summer Blitz (S/M map tourney in August 2025) and the Blood Bowl (map tourney in October 2024) were mostly successful and had many armies participating in them. This leads me to believe that armies prefer short-lasting maps compared to a map that goes on with rare resets.
Blood Bowl map October 12, 2024
The Ideal Map
As decided on October 8, 2025, the current “seasonal” map resets each year, which means the current one will reset around February 2027. However, I believe that such long-lasting “seasons” only make the map worse and less competitive. Proof of that is everything mentioned earlier in the first paragraphs. In an ideal scenario, the map would last 2-5 weeks, like the 3 map tournaments mentioned before. There are many strengths that come with that, as opposed to the current system.
Equal Start
First of all, with the map resetting that often, new armies can enter the map more easily. Currently, it is tough for armies that are not on the map to enter it, as they start at an economic and land disadvantage. With the balance cap implication, this has been made easier, but it can still be an issue. In a short-lasting map, armies would register on it at the beginning of the season. That way, any armies that are interested in participating on the map will begin with the same power. After that, it will be purely about who is the strongest and best strategically. With the map resetting every few weeks and the new map season starting every few months, new armies will be able to participate in it more easily.
Freeland Distribution
Another great advantage of short season maps would be the freeland distribution. Most of the land could be distributed right after the capital draft. The current map has 86 servers, 43 per continent. If 11 armies participate in the map, then 77 servers could be pre-distributed at the map launch, with 9 remaining as freeland for them to invade later on. This will remove armies’ week-long freeland invasions. Freeland invasions have been simplified anyway lately so as not to put more weight on the judging organisations and the judges, while making it easier to verify.
Tensions, Tactical Importance and Loopholes
In those types of maps, tactical intelligence is more valued and can even win over sizes sometimes. This was shown a lot in Blood Bowl with armies, especially the S/M ones, using the various mechanics to remain on the map for as long as possible. The Winged Hussars‘ win in the S/M division was another characteristic of strategic planning, having to go through Major armies in order to achieve that. All 3 of the map tournaments that were mentioned have been very intense, much more than both normal tournaments and long-lasting maps. A serious tactical mistake in one of those maps can lead to defeat or a strategic disadvantage. The armies’ placement on the map, their invasion choices, and enemy selection all have a big effect on the winner. Armies may also attempt to use proxies and colonies to gain more advantage, which makes the entire game more interesting. Of course, armies may be able to find loopholes, but that is something that can take place in long-term maps too. In the latter ones especially, it can be more damaging and may require a rule to be adjusted. Map rules will be better defined, and will all be explained in one post, which could make it easier for people to follow them.
Summer Blitz map on August 23, 2025
Alliances and Force Treaties
Additionally, in short-term maps, armies are forced to battle their own allies at some point if they want to prevail. This makes alliances useless in the long term, which is a good thing in the current army landscape, where most armies have many allies. Armies will be placed in a tough position where they will have to choose which allies they will keep and which they will attack. Once again in the Blood Bowl, we saw brother armies, the ACP and the Help Force, fighting each other. In the Summer Blitz, we saw S/M armies engaging in a full free-for-all.
Force treaties also become useless. They have been something that has troubled the army community a lot in the past. But in this case, as the map only lasts for a few weeks, they can be fully disabled. When an army loses, they usually fully eliminated, so it cannot return to the map. This is technically an indirect force treaty, but it only lasts as long as the map is running.
The Freedom to Use Special Rules
One of the biggest advantages of this system is the ability to use more complex and unusual map mechanics. This will keep the map more interesting and engaging, compared to the original (pre-economy system) map that was always the same. New map mechanics will test armies to the maximum, and they will have to figure out ways to use them to their advantage. There have been many creative map mechanics ideas that cannot be used because the map resets only once per year, currently. In each map iteration, there can be different mechanics being used, sometimes potentially multiple of them all together. A map, for example, could have 5 rooms of 5 minutes in the battles instead of 3 of 10 minutes. Another iteration could use Rowan’s portal idea, which is similar to the current planes and hotspot server ideas. The possibilities of this system are basically endless. An example to make things even more competitive would be that armies that are eliminated could then fight each other to rejoin the map. Thus, in the example with the 11 armies having 7 pieces of land each, the 9 freeland could be locked and kept for rejoining armies. The grace period of each iteration could also be adjusted based on the map rules each time. Rules like the 1 versus 1 war term could also be edited on each map.
Apart from all that, the map allows for separate division maps, which has been an idea floating around for years. This means that a continent could be used for Major armies and one for SMs. The disadvantages of a separate map for each division disappear when it only lasts for a few weeks, as it would be similar to armies joining a divided (between Major and SM) tournament.
The Final WinterStorm map – after Team Black lost
Burnout Controls
In order to avoid burnout, the map could have some extra special rules. For example, Blood Bowl had a rule limiting each army to a maximum of 1 scheduled invasion. Depending on the length of the map, this could be adjusted to meet the needs. Additionally, the maps could have a period of peace in between them. For example, there could be a Valentine’s Day-themed map that runs through late January and early February, then a pause for the March tournament, before a new map starts again around April. In the meantime, armies could schedule off-map battles and wars if they feel the need to war, though this seems to be rare nowadays. Even the number of servers used in the maps could be adjustable based on the number of participating armies. If there is a need to make the map even more intense and quick, there could be less land opened.
Rewards system
Currently, the map lasts for so long that some armies shut down before it gets reset. Others get wiped out several times in its duration. With a quick season format, rewards would also make more sense. There could be a trophy for the first, or the top three armies that perform the best. The metric that could decide the best army could just be the number of land owned, or something completely different, perhaps even a points system similar to the Army Index, but made purely for the map. There could also be trinkets or stamps for armies that fulfill some requirements. Such as “successfully invade another army’s land”, which could be integrated into GaryBot. That way, the armies could track their performance. Those rewards could remain even when the map resets to serve as an archive for the armies, and could also be featured in website posts and pages or in the GaryBot itself.
The Idea Issues
Like most ideas, this also has some flaws. Firstly, it fully takes away the natural element of war. In this system, wars are more forced on the armies, compared to the current one, with the armies being rewarded more for winning. It has a more esports approach rather than the classic natural army element, which some people may take some time to get used to. It is also more similar to the tournament format and could feel like another tournament to the army leaders, when it is much more than that. Also, during the peaceful period, armies will only have the option to wage war outside of the map, as it will be frozen. Lastly, historically, short-term maps put much pressure on the judging organisations, as most armies actively participate in them (with OP: WS totally crashing Club Penguin Army Judges), but the Army Judging Board seems to be able to handle the pressure just fine so far and has restored the hype to judging.
The map system could also be tied to the League Divisions idea, which is similar to real-life football leagues (like Premier League, Championship, League 1, etc.) and was brought up again during this year’s summit, however, this is an extra step and one that the army community may not be ready to take. The short-term seasonal maps can be a radical change on their own, and they will allow the Army Board and the Administration to paint on the empty canvas (the map) with the map rules. I would like to ask the army leaders to rethink this map option once again, as it can be necessary to revert the current army war landscape and bring wars back to the army community. What do you think of this idea? Do you agree with what is said in the post? Can the map be improved that way, or is it doomed no matter what?
JojoTeri
Chief Executive Producer
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Professional Club Penguin player