What are the options for making the map for a 2-player game?
On the balanced maps, the standard layout given in the rulebook might be called "bottom to bottom", with one ocean in the upper-left and one in the bottom-right. But you can put together the maps any way they fit, with some variation in the game dynamics and (slightly) overall difficulty.
Some examples: if you put the boards together "top to top", with one ocean in the bottom-left and one in the upper-right, the difficulty will be slightly increased, since you lose the potential backcourts to clear of Invaders around land #8 on each board, and the corners around land #3 become hazards for Blight cascades - though land #1 on each board does become less dangerous in that regard. If you put the boards together "end to end", with oceans on the far left and far right (as in the thematic 2-player setup), the difficulty will be slightly decreased since it is easier to clear out the center of the board, which more than compensates for both land #1 and #3 having fewer adjacencies to cascade Blight to.
The difficulty change from these dynamics is fairly minor relative to, e.g., the Difficulty boost of Adversaries and Scenarios.
