CIV VI Gathering Storm new PBEM

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

IIRC Chevalier is civless and would not be able to create a map.  Woden might be able to serve as mapmaker if he's willing.

Not strictly true - I have to go to a PC room in order to play, which means I can't really be flexible with turns. I'd have to go every day at 5 pm or something, which is a huge PITA. But for mapmaking and one-off things like that, I can make it work.

All moot, anyway, since Woden is mapmaking. Leaves me free to maybe dedlurk again, eh?

[Ichabod]

It’s best if I withdraw, since Civ with all expansions and DLCs is not something I can afford right now. Even with the discounts, it’s too much in Reais. I’ll stick to lurking.

[TheArchduke]

Players:

Alhambram
Cornflakes
Kaiser
Pindicator
Scooter
Suboptimal
TheArchduke

Dedlurkers:

Chevalier
Ichabod

Mapmaker:

Woden

BANS:

- VA
- Scythia
- Hungary (Yeah, I gotta agree there)
- Maori (makes a map very whacky)
- Religious Settlements Pantheon
- No pillaging CS except for farms and fishing.
- Nan Madol


No Bans, but use common sense:

- No tactical dows on Australia

Input needed

Continents is fine for everyone? I would leave it to the mapmaker if he connects them pre-navigation or not.
Else I suggest Pangea.
I have no other map preferences really.

I dislike Snake picks and I like the random draw as it forces one out of his comfort zone. I can volunteer to go last in the turn order.

Not suprisingly, I am not a huge fan of the only CS conquest over suzerain, and it seems there are no strong feelings this way. If a majority wants it, fine by me.

I also would love to have a dedlurker once again and I promise exhausting reports and communication in exchange.

[williams482]

I'd love to dedlurk Archduke for this game.

[Alhambram]

7 players now, maybe someone last minute join to make it 8 players. 7-8 players this PBEM.

I would add Sumeria with ban list. War Cart is ridiculous, just build it from start and buy 2nd around turn 20. Then with two War Carts eliminate nearest neighbor at turn 30 and have 2 strong cities and a lot room to expand.

I am not favorable of Continents because it leads towards predictable outcome, namely who manages to conquer its own continent first, wins. So it is basically 3 or 4 players against each other and players at other continent don't really matter.
With Pangea all players are pitted against each other and it can lead to interesting diplomatic situations. It is also depending upon how map is designed by mapmakers, there may some choke points or not.
Other possible map types are Lakes and 7 seas.
Lakes map type do remind me a lot of highlands map from civilization 4, land is connected at west-east axis however. A lot land with some lakes or small inland seas mixed in. Not recommend to pick naval based civs for example Indonesia for this map type.
7 seas map is similiar as Lakes, only there is more and bigger seas. Lands are always connected in west-east axis, seas can create some choke points however, validating presence of naval civs.
The problem of Lakes and 7 seas maps is that random generator somehow always makes it unbalanced. With map maker it should be fixed.

About turn order, Suboptimal's idea is interesting. However we need to decide turn order by timeslots too. Only after this, mapmaker can roll who comes in first.
Also person getting first turn has advantage of knowing what all remaining players has picked and can adjust his choice based upon other players (for example if 6/7 other players did pick non-religious civ, last player pick religious civ and gains huge advantage over religious gameplay in this PBEM).
Random draw assigned by mapmaker or lurker seems better option here for me.

I don't mind rule about CS conquest, same feeling as TheArchduke if majority wants it, we do it.

Dedlurkers are always welcome.

[Cornflakes]

I prefer being able to declare war/capture CS without the suzerainty restriction, pillaging CS banned except for farms and fishing, plus the following ***Map maker directive: locate city states without fresh water (coastal or dry) but add a mountain if necessary to provide at least one valid aqueduct site*** (in order to limit CS capture value early but still provide the option to players). Not a deal breaker though if the Suzerain rule is majority.

I agree with the other bans
Continents is fine ... can we convince an 8th player to sign up to make it an even 4/4?

[MJW (ya that one)]

Someone picked Sumer in an earlier game and the war cart was too slow to do anything. Our handcrafted maps (not allowing you to start that close) nerfed Sumer compared to NoQuitters but maybe Sumer just played horribly and they should be on the banned list.

I would be willing to wire Ichabod up to $100 so he can play. Brazil cannot be that bad, that it goes over 100?

Edit: Now that we have 8 i'm not willing to pay 100$.

[The Black Sword]

I'll sign up. I'm not familiar enough with GS to have an opinion on settings, happy to go with whatever you come up with.

[suboptimal]

I dislike Snake picks and I like the random draw as it forces one out of his comfort zone. I can volunteer to go last in the turn order.

About turn order, Suboptimal's idea is interesting. However we need to decide turn order by timeslots too. Only after this, mapmaker can roll who comes in first.
Also person getting first turn has advantage of knowing what all remaining players has picked and can adjust his choice based upon other players (for example if 6/7 other players did pick non-religious civ, last player pick religious civ and gains huge advantage over religious gameplay in this PBEM).
Random draw assigned by mapmaker or lurker seems better option here for me.

Given that we have 8 players and 39 available civs I think a straight random draw off a 4-civ list might be too narrow as it leaves a chance for a "meh" list.  However, Alhambram has a good point about strategic picking.  How does this sound:

- The mapmaker/lurkers generate a list of civs for each player to pick from and posts the list to the player's thread.  For example, 2 from each expansion, 2 from vanilla and 1-2 from the non-expansion DLC.
- The players make their picks in reverse turn order.  If they pick a civ that's already been chosen the mapmaker tells them to choose again.  This removes some of the strategic picking issue and gives the people at the bottom of the order first choice of civs. It also livens things up since players don't know the other players' lists.

Of course, we could also go with duplicate leaders/civs and see what happens.

[Woden]

Another option would be to create 9 groups of 4 random civs and then do a reverse order draft to pick a group. I say 9 groups so the last player at least has a choice. Then you pick from the group you drafted.