[No Players] Casual Commentary: 28 Lurkers Later

[GermanJoey]

Charlie of Inca is insane, definitely my top pick too. I like all the Imp picks, actually... Imp seems very strong on this map. Borsche's pick of Zara of Germany is interesting... the new Assembly Plant seems like a very strong UB, even though it comes late. Half-priced factories at Steam Power means that he'll have his factories built by the time AL finishes, and can instantly get started on the coal plants. He'll be industrialized faster than players that save a GA specifically for AL!

[GermanJoey]

It's a pretty even field, which should make for an interesting game, but I think I'd back wetbandit to win. Charlie of Inca doesn't hurt either.

I'd mostly agree, but he's going to abut probably the next best player in Borsche, so that's fun. Dreylin can make some noise if he pushes his two land neighbors well, although those two less-aggressive teams are piloting Genghis and Boadicea, so...concur, interesting game.

...which now needs a map, which has received little comment and less downloads. Here's the NovTool-view:

Clearly, islands are unfinishes/unbalanced. The continents are balanced-enough overland, and I'm happy with the #landtiles.

I asked if you wanted anyone to look it over for balance, and you said nothing... I'll take a look a bit later.

[Commodore]

I asked if you wanted anyone to look it over for balance, and you said nothing... I'll take a look a bit later.

Cool, I missed that bit...I'm happy doing the RtR conversion when I splice in the combos, so I wasn't worried there. I'm not looking to make something perfectly balanced, mostly just want to ensure nobody is severely skunked on island access...I already can see the centermost island needs enbiggening. Another thing to check is to ensure nobody has direct pre-Astro continent-to-continent access; dat's why we hav de islands, mon!

[Commodore]

And agreed about the Imp combos all being very solid, but honestly what I think I'd have the most fun with here would be the restricted Mao of China...chucklenaughts *without* Pro are already very very nice.

Whosit could kill a whole lot of dudes with a determined Jag rush.

[Ichabod]

Jowy has improved a lot and I think he has a chance in this field. But it seems he's not very familiar with the mod, which is a big disadvantage.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Jowy has improved a lot and I think he has a chance in this field. But it seems he's not very familiar with the mod, which is a big disadvantage.

Jowy has to focus his efforts on waging peace before going frivolously to war. He's shown himself lately to be a capable tactician and able to make progress if left alone. It's being able to deal rationally with the inevitable setback that has been a problem. He can't let a speed bump become an insurmountable obstacle. I think he enjoys punishing his opponent for a "wrong" a little too much to be a contender for the win. Maybe he'll prove me wrong on this point in this game.

[Ichabod]

Jowy has improved a lot and I think he has a chance in this field. But it seems he's not very familiar with the mod, which is a big disadvantage.

Jowy has to focus his efforts on waging peace before going frivolously to war. He's shown himself lately to be a capable tactician and able to make progress if left alone. It's being able to deal rationally with the inevitable setback that has been a problem. He can't let a speed bump become an insurmountable obstacle. I think he enjoys punishing his opponent for a "wrong" a little too much to be a contender for the win. Maybe he'll prove me wrong on this point in this game.

Perhaps Bob can help him with this. Albeit a little prone to anger with other stuff, when it's about games, Bob knows how to be blasé (and a bit too much at it, sometimes).

I should be playing in this game... I know it's the "I haven't seen an EitB 42 save in 5 days" me talking, but I have the feeling this would be the perfect game for me.

[GermanJoey]

Running through the same checklist I used for PBEM68:

fresh water check: check, all capitals are river-adjacent.
start balance: check, the capitals are nigh-mirrored.
strategic resource check: check, copper/iron/horses are present for each player.

strategic resource availablity check: check, each player's copper/iron/horses are near food and there's little chance of them screwing themselves by accidentally isolating their resources before they are revealed. ivory is not present on the map.

wonder resource check: stone and marble are not present on the map!

industrial strategic resource check: every player has a coal, oil, land oil, aluminum, and uranium available in a similar way. London is missing its land-based oil, however

luxuries: every player has a fur, silver, spices, wine, and silk near their start on the main island. two islands have a pair of sugars, while another island has a solitary dyes. brutal yet balanced... the starts are biased towards markets (fur + silks) more than forges (just silver) but it turns out that there's are no Ind players so who cares. Two market resources being available is perfectly fine for Exp. London, Thebes, and Paris (the three "bottom triangle" civs) are each missing their wine.

river check: check, seem about evenly spread throughout the map.

health check: the only corn and rice is present on the large-ish island-pairs between the players. again, brutal yet balanced. each player has access to all three harbor resources and all the livestock resources.

Distance check: not perfectly balanced, but its ok I think, because of the triangle structure of the islands. For reference:

constantinople/khmer: 16 horizontal
london/constantinople: 14, diagonal
london/khmer: 14, less diagonal

aztec/celts: 17 horizontal
egypt/celts: 13 diagonal
egypt/aztec: 16 vertical

istanbul/uruk: 14 horizontal (would be better spread 1 more tile apart but not a big deal)
istanbul/paris: 14 vertical
paris/uruk: 13 diagonal

ICTR check: check, each player has a pair of small 2-tile islands near their start

land-check: land seems to be very evenly distributed because of the triangle structure of the continents

food check: the islands are pretty sparse, but the main continents are very lush.

Overall: This map has a few serious curveballs (no marble/stone, the health resource thing) but they are handled in a very balanced way, IMHO. Very nice job. The only suggestions I have would be to flesh the islands out a bit more, as those are something special players should want to compete for - e.g. gold, gems, whales, bananas (for health) are major missing resources you could add, or else just more seafood - and to add the missing resources somewhere for London (wine + land oil), Thebes (wine), and Paris (wine).

[spacetyrantxenu]

Jowy has to focus his efforts on waging peace before going frivolously to war. He's shown himself lately to be a capable tactician and able to make progress if left alone. It's being able to deal rationally with the inevitable setback that has been a problem. He can't let a speed bump become an insurmountable obstacle. I think he enjoys punishing his opponent for a "wrong" a little too much to be a contender for the win. Maybe he'll prove me wrong on this point in this game.

You couldn't know this from reading his thread since you haven't been eliminated in PB18 yet, but it turns out Jowy was trying to be a reformed Civver and not do his former Ready, Fire, Aim routine to attack the first person that looked at him wrong. HAK didn't cooperate though and choked the life out of him early on. Other than that it seems like his intent was to build and be more selective about when to go to war. Maybe he'll have an opportunity to show that game plan this time. I hope I won't have to eat my words in six or nine months, but I like Jowy's chances here, stated as a player evaluation (not considering who he selected or neighbors because I don't remember those right now). There are good players in this game but Jowy has shown himself to be very capable, barring usually one or two egregious strategic errors per game. I think in PB18 he had a better plan to succeed, but your neighbor declaring ancient age war (successfully or not) tends to diminish your opportunity to succeed, nevermind the geographical deficit he would have had to overcome. If his luck is better in this game, I think he'll do well for himself.

[GermanJoey]

Could someone else look over the map too? This map looks like it took a lot of work, and I'm sure Com would appreciate the feedback.