knife fight in a phone booth

[Vorkosigan]

My buddy and I are looking to try a "knife fight in a phone booth" game: small map (like Aran), with us plus a dozen AI on impossible.

Does anyone have any other map suggestions besides Aran? I can't seem to access the Illwinter site at the moment. I have the Cradle of Zen map but am missing the .tga file for it.

Any thoughts on a good race for that type of game? My buddy is going to take Abysia because he knows them best. I'm leaning towards Vanheim. I'd rather be disembowelled with an ice cream scoop than take Ulm. C'tis is out as I just finished a game as C'tis/miasma.

As an aside, I may never play miasma again. Vinemen, vine ogres, banefire archers, mandragoras, undead horsemen, hoards of skeletons, ghost riders, tartarians..... I felt like an NFL linebacker taking on a 6 year old.

[Cainehill]

Urgaea or Cirlani might be good for that, particularly if you lowered the number of AIs for Urgaea. Another one that might be interesting would be the Ringworld map - perhaps not what you want though, as it almost guarantees that you'd be going against a maximum of 2 nations at any given time, and you may want more of a chaotic brawl.

Abysia, Vanheim, Jotunheim, perhaps Man, Pythium, or even Ulm (I hate that nation too), anything with one or two very solid troop types might be good for the game.

[PvK]

"The Sundering" is nice and small...