In designing Borderlands, the Future Pastimes team at Eon Productions wanted to create a simpler and shorter version of Diplomacy, without the need for written orders or the need to leave the table for negotiations.
[1] The game is set on an abstract continent, and players represent barbaric tribes[2] who conquer territories, trade gathered resources, and construct cities, boats and weapons.
Players then place their army counters on the map with regard to capturing resources, offensive and defensive operations.
[1] The software division of Eon created the video game Lords of Conquest based on Borderlands.
"[3] Ten years later, in a retrospective article in the December 1993 edition of Dragon (issue 200), Allen Varney called Borderlands "a gripping contest of strategy, diplomacy and resource management... Intense and suspenseful.