[Spoilers] Fun & Games [Lurker Thread]

[Bobchillingworth]

I was going to name this "Generic Lurker Thread", but apparently I used that one back in 2015


Anyway, players, begone!

[Bobchillingworth]

Knowing Bob I expect only minor comments will be needed.

So, uh, how much do you regret this comment currently?  


In case anyone is curious, I generated a small size Tropical map, heavily modified the capitals so that they're all mostly equal and extraordinarily lush (partially to make up for the land around them being mostly jungle), and tried (and probably failed) to roughly equally distribute the natural lake / mountain chokepoints and barriers between players.  Also moved the mana nodes around some. Tried to attach the WB file to this post, but that apparently doesn't work.

[Bobchillingworth]

Looking at the picks, Cairo is food; not due to any particular lack of skill, but because his Civ blooms (heh) too late with this field.


Not sure what the optimal strategy is for Jim's Grigori, since they're picked so rarely. An early rush using the first Adventurer upgraded into a super Warrior is almost guaranteed to kill an AI in SP, but it won't work so well against human players who aren't content to cower in their cities, awaiting death as their units are gradually picked off. Best move might be to just generate as many great people as possible; Adventurers become super units, Sages bulb to Sorcery, and everyone else gets invested in the Golden Age bank. Probably going to see a switch to Raiders if his opponents get complacent with their road networks and forget Cassiel is Adaptive.


Dave will probably throw a pile of cheaply upgraded shock Axes at someone; Kandros is quite good at that. The map might end up favoring him since his Workers will clear jungle more quickly and his WS will turn part of the expanses of grasslands into valuable hills. I selected the script before I knew anyone's picks though, and generated the starts without players in mind.


Mack will destroy everyone. Or get preemptively rushed. Or dogpiled. One of those three.


Auro will either run into a crushing production bottleneck trying to get his Witches and Succubi out on the field in sufficient numbers, or figure out a way to make it work (probably either Slavery or massed workshops). Or he'll just mass Adepts and upgrade to Mages.

[Mardoc]

So, uh, how much do you regret this comment currently?  

[Brian Shanahan]

Mack will destroy everyone.  Or get preemptively rushed.  Or dogpiled.  One of those three.  

Probably all three, to be honest.

[Bobchillingworth]

Thank you Mardoc for reviewing the map- I tried to implement all of your suggested changes.



For any curious, it's a small tropical map. I didn't move the player starts, but generated around 40 maps before finding one that looked reasonably balanced in terms of starting locations and essential geography. I shifted some mountains and tiny lakes around to ensure everyone had about equal access to land, and edited about half the resources (interestingly the map didn't spawn with any wheat and only one corn; I added several wheat, and deleted the corn). All of the starts are similar in terms of hills, tile types, # of forests, resources, and # of riverside grasslands. They're all based of what became the Grigori start, which was by far the best the map generated. I generated the map with a bunch of AI civs and edited in the players after I had their picks.


Hopefully all the jungle and chokepoints keep the game from ending too quickly with T1 / T2 rushes, while the abundant underlying grassland provides a canvass for a variety of viable economies.

[Bobchillingworth]

I am deeply concerned that Cairo will lose his capital to a wandering Scout, if he went exploring with both of his. All the jungle should slow exploring units down, but the map is small enough that a lucky player could reach his capital before he can get a Warrior in there, since he's going Worker first.

[Zed-F]

Looks to me like Cairo is making a warrior...

[Bobchillingworth]

Yup- and Cairo is a nicer person than I, and refused to burn Jim's capital, so looks like everyone will survive the first couple dozen turns, at least.

[Bobchillingworth]

I think the map is off to a good start, maybe. Possibly should have generated a Standard-sized one, but then there'd be 30-city empires and probably minimal conflict for the first 150 turns... I think players tend to get bored with that.


Superjim's Worker -> Worker start strikes me as a poor choice, his capital isn't going to grow so quickly that he needs two of them right out the gate for his improved tiles to keep pace with his city. He's also remarkably trusting of Cairo.


Mack's complaints were anticipated. Very bad, no chanse, map was designed specifically to torment him, whatever.


The others seem to be doing okay, although I'm surprised none have recognized it's the rainforest script.