Setting & History:
It's the iron age in northwestern europe. The Expansion of the Roman Republic/Empire is about to hit the Channel. And with sea levels on the rise there is a lot of pressure on the inhabitants of the British Isles and the Low Countries. Meanwhile the people of Scandinavia are seperated from this conflict by some distance, but their trading interests will soon draw them in.
Historical accuracy: The four tribes (Britons, Romans, Frysians and Norse) are not accurate depictions of all the peoples that were living in this area. I wanted to make a fun fast four player variant so here we are.

Special rule: Central North Sea and trading SC's
You might have noticed the legend (the inset topleft) has some territories on it as well. To gain control of the wood, iron or grains supply centers you will first need to occupy the Central North Sea. So, how does it work? First take a look at the big circular territory at the center of the map called Central North Sea (acces to trading supply centers). When a fleet moves there it shows up in the small circular CNS territory on the legend. From there it could move back out on the main map to the Upper, Lower, East or West North Sea. But it could also move from CNS to any of the three trading SC's.
However, once a unit has moved to iron, wood or grains it can not go back to CNS or the main map. The three trading SC's do border each other and units can move freely between them. In a sense these territories work like a miniature pure-diplomacy map.

Notes on unit movement

• Jutland has an east and west coast.
• Dark blue water is not passable (This means Cymru can not be entered by fleets)
• Sealand is a coastal territory and armies can go across.

The rest of the normal diplomacy rules apply.

Notes on variant creation and strategy
For small maps it's easy to get the balance between the positioning and the amount of coast/land/sea territories wrong. In classic dip there is a huge continent smack in the middle and it splits the areas where armies and fleets can move. In this map I tried to do something like it with the Denmark area and the artifciallly landlocked Cymru.

The Frysians play a bit like Austria in classic diplomacy. The Norse have easy entrance to the sea. The Britons have to watch for convoys and the Romans have to most landlocked territory as starting SC.
Games can turn around in no time and in most situations you can plan a very efficient stab. I feel this (and the position of the Frysians) makes the variant less suitable for gunboat. We shall see.

Every player has starts near a neutral SC. The Britons and Norse can secure a build the first year, but the Frysians and Romans will have to make a deal or get some help.
There are not many different opening moves, but I tried to create at least some options for each player. I made it impossible to get any of the three trading SC's in the first year. Players do start at the same distance from Central North Sea so the "race" is on!
If you manage to control wood, iron and grains with two units you're golden. You are then able to infinitely hold those three SC's with just two units and your surival is guaranteed. Even though it might not win you the game, especially if you leave your home SC's open to attack.
I've searched for stalemate positions and I was unable to find any, if you do please let me know.

I use the GIMP when drawing maps. I highly recommended it: free, easy to learn and has all the tools you need. I adapted the map from this file: map source
Thanks to Oli for helping out with coding the special rules. You're doing a great job!