The map is the playing field of the game. It's only required feature is to determine which communities are neighbors to each other.
The game was conceived using a hex grid for its map – where each hex represents a single community. Thus, each community would have exactly six neighbors. However, more complex maps in any configuration could be used.
Three of the characteristics are defined by the map: Land, Resources, and Defense.
A variant rule would be to assign different Defense values for each entry point into the sector. (For a hex grid, this would usually mean six different values).