PBEM XII Map thread

[uberfish]

I think the small sea could be effectively locked down by the first player to get a significant number of cultists on boats, but this isn't necessarily imbalancing as they can still be attacked via land

[Azoth]

Yes, each of those has the guardian you suggested (and Maenalus has a turtle knight guardian). I gave each guardian the following promos: Held, Combat II, Drill IV. I figure that means they'll be clearable about the time of tier 2 units, but it will be very difficult to clear them with non-bronze warriors.

Combat II and Drill IV? Can you say "overkill"?
I'm not sure Bronze Warriors would survive the 3-6 first strikes to do any damage.
I mean, we are talking about base Strength 9 for the Wraith, here;
which comes out to 14.85 after you add +40% from Combat II and a +25% fortification bonus.
I suspect most players won't touch them until they have summons, splash damage, or immunity to first strikes.
That would mean either Priests of Winter, Ritualists, or Horse Archers.

Which might be just as well.
I would simply raise the guardians' unit level to 7, so that they won't earn even more promotions after a failed attempt.
And I would make sure the Pyre and the Sepulcher sit next to a river, so their mana is available even before they are cleared.

Yes, probably. I wanted to make it clear that 'this is a special place', but maybe I should back off to tundra, or even make it grassland and simply reveal it to the players.

Tundra might be best. Without fresh water, you could only build Workshops.
Though now that I think about it, I'm not sure players will bother with improvements at all, knowing that a single Tsunami could wipe them away.

[Mardoc]

Changes from the last build:

Added a bunch of incense. Reagents turned out to be already common.

Fixed starting techs that I forgot to do this until now...

Changed Letum Frigus island to tundra. Put a frostling here - I don't think it will matter at all from a gameplay perspective.

Deleted a bunch of goblin archers from their forts

Took away Starting Settler

Combat II and Drill IV? Can you say "overkill"?

Plugged this into Sareln's combat calculator - and no, I don't think it's overkill. Assuming only Combat I on the warriors, 50% odds are achieved with 9 normal Warriors or 6 Bronze warriors. I'll go ahead and follow your advice to make them start level 7 so they don't get nastier than this - but that ought to be quite achievable for any empire to attain, once they have tier 2 units.

As for mirroring the starts - I ran out of time, and wasn't ever 100% sure that it was worth doing in the first place given the players' insistence on 'natural'. I did remove the lakes and make sure everyone's capital was riverside, though.

And, I'm going to call it done, here. Unless someone finds something absolutely game-breaking, anyway.

If you're curious, Here's the Save.

[Selrahc]

Plugged this into Sareln's combat calculator - and no, I don't think it's overkill. Assuming only Combat I on the warriors, 50% odds are achieved with 9 normal Warriors or 6 Bronze warriors. I'll go ahead and follow your advice to make them start level 7 so they don't get nastier than this - but that ought to be quite achievable for any empire to attain, once they have tier 2 units.

So, I'm kind of curious. How do Tar Demons work? They split like water elementals... but will the split Tar Demons keep the same promotions? If so, then the tar demon will be a much tougher fight. If not then the Tar Demon will be mobile after its initial defeat.

Of course you could always make it a weak Tar Demon to remove its split chance. Add on something like poison blades or buccaneer crew if you want the same strength.