PBEM 24 Thread for Gifted Lurkers

[SevenSpirits]

I just want to clarify that I consider this map to be somewhat dubious, and probably different from what some of the players wanted or expected. But hey, they OK'd Bob as the mapmaker so that's their problem. There are definitely some interesting things going on.

[Bobchillingworth]

I always want to call Mack "Manicotti".



And don't worry Seven, if this map bombs I'll be sure to tell everyone that you weren't culpable in any way



I did take some "liberties" with the design. Gaspar at least expects me to have done so, and Commodore and TT both seemed to want something a little bit out of the ordinary, so I think (hope) the final product won't shock anyone too badly. It has a sea which is inner, it isn't islands, what more could you ask for?

[Shoot the Moon]

what more could you ask for?

Pictures of the map?

[Bobchillingworth]

UGH FINE.



I have placed the pictures into spoilers so that you'll know you're about to be spoiled by the spoilers about the inestimable brilliance of my creation.



Yeah so here it is:

[Everything is mirrored, so use you imagination about what everyone's area looks like. Well everything except for a few resources which players have exclusive or semi-exclusive monopolies on. Mack's exclusive resource are the dyes, for instance. And only one other player has the same capital grain resource.]


[Starting Area]




[Detail of some resources whose icons don't show in the first image]




[E/W Midpoint Area]




[N/S Midpoint Area]




[Middle of the Map]

Comments welcome =) It's too late to save the players now, anyway!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

So, conflict is probably going to come down to Commodore vs TT and Gaspar vs Mackoti. Between CRE, starting techs and the skill level, I entirely expect Mackoti to plonk a plains hill front city with 2 plains sheep, 2 dry rice, and gold there so he can culturally dominate the entire area. Dunno if the dry rice is deliberate, it's quite hard to irrigate them. Same with the horizontals, I can see someone planting on the hill and again dominating the area.

I mean, I like the conflict over the middle regions, but it seems awfully unstable and it's going to collapse to a lower energy state of one or two people owning them all. Let's see how this plays out.

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, this game was always going to have problems with balance though. The skills levels of the players involved aren't anywhere near equal. I was going to make sure that Mackoti didn't border TT, but in the end I decide it would be more fair to use a random number generator to order the starts (which is also where I ended up getting the turn order from). I fully expect Mackoti to run away with this game. That said, TT does have Imp, so maybe he won't far quite so badly in the land grab stage and can make a competitive play for land at both fronts.


Edit: Wait, Commodore vs. Mackoti? I think Gaspar is the player right above Mackoti, which probably works best since I think they're the most equal in skill level.

[Bobchillingworth]

I love reading your updates mackoti.

Seriously. Mackoti is my favorite poster on RB. His posts are hilarious in the same way that Turkish Star Wars is a great comedy. Also he's pretty awesome at civ =)

[Nicolae Carpathia]

And unlike locke he's the real deal.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Aaaannnd like that Mackoti put himself into a winning position. This is what you get for not scouting and not sentrying.

[Bobchillingworth]

Sigh, yeah. Well, aside from the gold the middle N/S territory isn't all that great, so hopefully Mack's domination of it doesn't give him an utterly crushing edge on its own, but he'll easily chew up TT, and without any help from Gaspar I seriously doubt that Commodore will be able to slow him down. Gaspar's excessive expansion strategy was obviously a bad idea, especially since it's not like the immediate starting area exactly abounds with "must settle now!" locations. Also, intentionally not hooking up copper was really just asking for trouble. Since Mack indicated that he'd have been willing to accept a modified deal, Gaspar probably should have just asked for a really long NAP instead, so that he could at least menace the Mayans with destroyers and transports or whatever in the distant future.