By the way, the only picks that I am aware of is Commodore's De Gaulle/France which obviously is not biased towards a particular strat resource, so I'm making these comments without being influenced by civs.
1) Is two iron at the capital intentional?
2) My gut is that settling towards the water with the stone/marble is by far the best choice here. I'd like to see the horse in the opposite direction like the copper, such that players who rush that water to get a wonder doubler are punished by playing dangerously without strat resources and/or are forced to tech IW. In this case the correct decision is no doubt to settle the coast, connect horse for defense, then settle a marble/stone island to get wonders.
3) Going by player 1 (Alex/Rome), the land to the southwest is pretty devoid of food. The only food is the cow/copper/banana are which theoretically the other player will want. Maybe a corn in that grassland? This is also why the water is so ideal - you can get a corn/horse/double seafood spot for your first city or... there's nothing close to that in land quality. Even the floodplains region is pretty weak - I could see that being upgraded. I'd just suggest sprinkling some food elsewhere and moving the horse so that there are real options besides the stone/marble coast. As of right now, going for a fast second city on that coast is the only option, and anyone not doing it will fall behind.
Okay, I definitely don't want to make there only be one option. I think I will probably add a wheat or a rice instead of a corn (since there are none of those two currently on the map). I was actually thinking of making those plain hills in the floodplain region floodplain desert hills (2/1/1 before improvements), but I wasn't sure if that would be considered too gimmicky, since floodplains don't naturally occur on hills. Edit: Actually, with a mine those are really strong tiles. Maybe I will make one half of the hills that and keep the others as plains hills.
I will almost certainly move the horse and might also spread out the seafood.
The two irons are intentional, so that they don't affect whether or not moving 1NE is a good option. I don't actually think anyone will settle 1NE (nobody chose a civ that starts with fishing), but it seems to me that it was at least considered by Commodore and probably the others, which is good.
Revised map should be up soon.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Revised map is up. I made a few small changes (a grassland tile to a plains tile, a grassland hill to a tundra hill, etc.) to avoid strengthening the area around gold the too much, and moved the horses to near the gold, and added a dry, but easily irrigateable, plains wheat near there as well. I also changed half of the plains hills to floodplains/desert hills. Hopefully there are more options now! I don't think I'll be able to completely avoid super cities since the map is so small, but there's nothing like the double seafood/wet corn/grassland horse city locations now.
Resources I left off the map: Pigs, rice, sugar, dye, fur, gems, wine, and spices.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
As long as they didn't pick Arabia, like they thought about doing.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Yikes, really? Haven't read anything outside Commodore's thread. But anyways, the point is this map is tailor-built for Knights being a great time to attack (see: 34s), and Cataphracts are obviously insane. Some clever bulbing with PHI and well-promoted with CHM and yeah, you'll crush some fools.
I think it was their second choice, after Inca. I am also surprised nobody picked Byzantium, although either Sian or slowcheetah (I forget) had Lincoln as his second choice.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Cossacks would actually be surprisingly decent here, but I wouldn't pick Russia. I'd pick it over Willem of Inca though. Agg Rome is actually awesome here, but I think people are too afraid of picking it after it was chosen and played in so many games where it's not good.
