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Hello, In Xenonauts-1, there are 9 regions or "major powers". They are clearly assumed to not reflect any cultural, diplomatic or economical bonds, and just here to allow for a limited choice of action (where to take down an UFO, what mission to prioritize), and the possibility to gradually loose funding. However, we have the URSS (more a Eastern Block, actually), Oceania, and North America all making sense. Will this kind of arbitrary separation still be used in Xenonauts-2? As we all know, another X-COM game, UFO:AI, spends much efforts to justify a new world with several geographic blocks. But they have half a century of Sci-Fi politics to set this on (the other purpose of this is to better explain how alien tech can be harnessed, and how the initial stage of invasion is not a total disaster). If the Xenonauts-2's settings are a Second Cold War in present day, then we have to start from existing situation and then go fictional for a very short duration (say from 2010 or 2015 on). Regions (or major powers) should be more historically-sourced, and could, why not, by split between continents. "Middle East" could expand to North Africa and sub-Sahara (an Arab League?), Russia Federation would loose the Pact's countries. Europe would regain Greece, India and China wouldn't be in the same block (they would represent more than one third of the total population)... You tell: "That would come close to UFO:AI map!". Not necessarily: Mexico could stay tied to a Latin America, Russia would keep its Muslim republics and could ally with India, there could be a dispersed alliance in the Southern hemisphere (like there is a Commonwealth in UFO:AI, wherein India, Australia, and South Africa are allied). Also, the total number of regions could change upwards or downwards (UFO:AI has 7 regions instead of 9). Let's be imaginative but historically-sourced. Regions could be defined by the sum of their components or sub-regions. Not necessarily countries (except for some large geographical entities, nearly sub-continents, like India, Indonesia, China, Australia, and Brazil). For example, to begin with, Maghreb, Central America Isthmus, Western Africa, (real) Southern Africa could be candidates. To add distinctive flavors, some regions could be made of large components, while other would be made of a number of smaller components (again, without going down to country level). Moreover, regions wouldn't have to be a single geographical block, they could be split and interpenetrate (see point 1). Now, a region wouldn't succumb to the invasion as a whole, but chunk by chunk (or both way). Conversely, it would be retaken chunk by chunk. On the other hand, loosing a sub-region would be easier than loosing a whole region. The defeat condition should obviously be adapted (number of remaining sub-regions based on population, number of remaining formal regions, etc.). I think that this added level of complexity would help setting a feeling of a potential "mess" happening to the planet. More so, right at the beginning of the Campaign, several sub-regions could have already surrendered to the invaders, making it an excuse for an "imaginative", alternate, political map. Sub-regions could change their allegiance. This was already introduced in point 2 as regard to Alien subjugation. But things could be more interesting (or become less under control), as sub-regions could decide to leave their region and join another one (whatever they want, theoretically). The condition could be that a majority of the original region is too subverted (or makes wrong choices) and they want to remain free (or think differently), the neighbour region is already subverted and they opt for peace (because it looks like peace, and they suffered a lot), Xenonaut defends better a neighbour region (and they suffered a lot), or simply because of a revolution if all the neighbour sub-regions get crazy... As you can see, there's room to add a layer of strategy, without being too much unforgiving or over-complicated, as much of this would be transparent and so logical (you'd only reap the fruit of your actions, or your non-actions, plus a little bit of randomness). Perhaps, to add to the motivation of keeping defend whole regions, instead of waiting for them to disappear and seduce their remnant, there could be a flat funding bonus for each region, independently of the number of their components. As well, in a Europa Universalis way, when retaking a sub-region, you could decide to recreate a lost region or include your territorial "gain" in whatever remaining allied region (or simply let the game decide). ... (please, go on)