A staple of the Shared Worlds Forum, “Mosaic Earth” or “Mosaic World” style games have carved a niche in the forum. They were/are some of the earliest AH-themed play-by-post games in AH.com's history, their origins going back as far as the days of the Old Board. Generally organized by Ward, Mosaic Earth games have been in slow decline since 2006.

A Mosaic Earth, or Mosaic World game generally undergoes the following phases:

1. Idea - This is the development phase of the ME. The most vital piece of information, the ISOT date, is agreed upon.
2. Claims - You pick a country you wish to play. You may already have an idea what the country should be, but it is always advisable to claim as much territory as possible.
3. History write-up - This is the alternate history part of the game. Write a timeline, just as you would write one in the main AH.com forum. Just remember - the expectations here are low: you can write one sentence or an encyclopedia, an ASB scenario or perfect realism. I suggest the former, because no-one will be able to say that you're playing unrealistically or out-of character.
4. Military write-up - You will be requested to write up a military for your country, as ME nations suffer occasional warfare. No matter what, create the largest military you can imagine. And remember, if your military is not rejected by the moderators, you haven't made it large enough.
5. Gameplay
   1. Pre-ISOT - Sometimes, ME games have a pre-ISOT phase. This phase is short and not important, so I suggest you ignore it.
   2. ISOT - The first week after the official gameplay threads are posted, start writing about how everything in your nation is in chaos due to the ISOT. On the diplomatic scene, post “we would like to establish trade and normal diplomatic relations” adressed to every other nation. Not only will other players realize that you are courteous, but there is also a secret scoring system based on the number of times you repeat that.
   3. Post-ISOT - Even by the end of the first week, you will realize that the only way to entertain yourself in the game is to invade other countries. If you have followed my write-up advice, you should be playing the strongest country in the region. Concentrate mainly on the War thread, posting your military movements and conflicts in need of resolution. However, I suggest that you hurry, or else the players who ISOTed smaller countries are already kicking themselves and trying to quit.
6. Post-gameplay - After two weeks of gameplay, everything that could have been accomplished in the ME is accomplished. You should remember to drink, eat and shave while you wait in anticipation for the game to proceed at 3 in-game days to 1 real day. The War thread should now have more unresolved conflicts than resolved ones, and the Gameplay thread should have degenerated into retconning past events. By this point, you can quietly drop out, but I suggest you post an idea for a new ME game.

From its infancy on the Old Board (currently being charted), Mosaic Earth and its spin-offs have created a niche on the AH.com board. It survived the migration to the New Board, spewing a chaos of threads during the first year of existence. By 2005, the games became more organized, and this superior bureaucracy gave birth to Mosaic Earth 7, consider by many the pinnacle of Shared Worlds. In its wake came the well-patterned games of Late '05 and First Quarter 2006. However, the quality of the games soon started to decline, part to the competition presented from Feudal Lands, A Little Trip and their spin-offs. Mosaic World games, organized exclusively by Ward, have faired extremely poorly, with the exception of the 1st and 4th installments. However, the majority of the oldest ME-players abandoned the game in 2006.

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