Posts: 171
Threads: 5
Joined: Apr 2004
Your latter suggestion is in fact the format of this Epic. There are 8 civilizations on the map, and each player will randomly be assigned one of them, in its predefined starting place, to play. The other seven places will be played by the AI in each case. Other players will start with other Civs, but in each case all eight of the civs will be in the same locations, merely which one is human-controlled is variable.
And yes, Mali and Arabia, not Zululand and Babylon, are among the choices. This being yet another in our continuing series of Epics that reprise the Civ 3 version, the picture there is another reference to that, in which the latter pair of Civs were options.
Distributions of players amongst Civs will be according to a literal dice roll, I believe it says. I would expect more than enough players to see plenty of play for each of the eight, though, the way signups are already going. After the popularity of the Civ 3 versions, though, this is hardly a surprise to those of us who have been waiting for this one since we first found out the Epics were, at least initially, repeating those from Civ 3. Who knows how long that trend will continue? Probably only Sirian!
Garath