[SPOILERS] Map and lurker thread

[plako]

Go team Lurkers.

[plako]

Here is preliminary ideas concerning the leaders. Here is non-comprehensive list of leaders and nations that I think are rarely used (I skipped most of the protective leaders):
Ramesses II (Spi/Ind)
Stalin (Agr/Ind)
Alexander (Agr/Phi)
Lincoln (Phi/Cha)
Napoleon (Org/Cha)
Augustus Caesar (Ind/Imp)
Cyrus (Imp/Cha)
Genghis (Agr/Imp)
Frederick (Phi/Org)
Mao (Exp/Pro)

These nations are not used often :
Celts(Mystisicm+Hunting), Ethiopia(Hunting+Mining), Japan(Fishing+Wheel), Spain(Fishing+Mystisicm), Arabia(Mystisicm+Wheel), America, Russia,

Russia and America are pretty much out, since uniques come too late for this setup.

Concerning players GE is almost certainly the weakest. Ceiliazul calls himself newbie, but he has done vey good job in the games I have followed so I would say he is competitive enough with the rest of the crowd.

Best leaders from above group are probably Ramesses and Augustus, but they doesn't suit for GE, because he has already played Imp and Ind. He has also played Aggressive that rules out several leaders from the list leaving me only too weak options. So I decided to start looking leaders out from it and ended up that Wang (Fin+Pro) of Celts might be a decent match for him.

All the rest I just randomly connected leaders and nations together so that they would't get any duplicates with previous game and ended up to these

* Commodore: Stalin (Agr/Ind) + Japan (Fishing+Wheel)
* Dazed: Lincoln (Phi/Cha) + Arabia (Mysti+Wheel)
* Kyan: Napoleon (Org/Cha) + Spain (Fishing+Mysti)
* Celiazul: Genghis (Agr/Imp) + Ethiopia (hunting+mining)

Difficulty level should probably be Prince+Toroidial or Monarch+Cylindrical/flat to make Org and Imp to have a bit better balance.

Starting places would have at least Fish and Deer so that everyone has a food tech they can immediately improve and Org gets a little boost for their cheap Lighthouse.

I'll be mostly out for the next 24h so please comment about the leaders before I continue.

[plako]

Kyans list - he has Napoleon too for himself

Ceiliazul: Shaka of Inca (EXP/AGG)
Gingereagle: Willem of India (FIN/CRE)
Dazedroyalty: Suleiman of China (PHI/IMP)
Commodore: Ramesses of Maya (SPI/IND)
Kyan: Napoleon of Persia (ORG/CHA)

[SevenSpirits]

Well are you trying to give people equally powerful leader/civs? Or would you like to do a little bit of the player-balancing that Kyan did a lot of?

IMO skill levels are Kyan > ... >> GE

For me the most relevant traits strategically are FIN/PHI/SPI/IND; they heavily affect how you structure your economy. (Other traits give mostly military or general production bonuses.) So my goal would be to give all the players one of these that pulls them in a direction they haven't played before.

[plako]

I was looking for roughly balanced and something that would keep GE alive . But I can see your point too and GE could probably use also Willem.

[Sian]

going from Plako's suggestions in op ... (ranked as per strength of player)

* Kyan: Saladin (Pro/Spi) + Native America (Fishing+Argiculture)
* Commodore: Genghis (Agr/Imp) + Japan (Fishing+Wheel)
* Dazed: Cyrus (Imp/Cha) + Arabia (Mysti+Wheel)
* Celiazul: Stalin (Agr/Ind) + Ethiopia (hunting+mining)
* GingerEagle : Sury (Exp/Cre) + India (mysti+mining)

[Gaspar]

I gave this some thought before the game, and I think building in handicaps for GE and Kyan on either end is reasonable. The other 3 players are pretty equal. I think Kyan posted that list in fact to let everyone know he was okay with that.

I also agree with Seven that giving everyone one of the econ traits: Spi/Phi/Fin/Exp is ideal.

I think what I thought of was:

GE: Willem of India
Dazed: Joao of Arabia
Commodore: Ramses of Ethiopia
Ceiliazul: Alexander of Spain
Kyan: Napoleon of Japan

I dunno that its any better or worse than anyone elses list though.

[Krill]

You know I hope GE doesn't take those picks "badly".

[SevenSpirits]

Gaspar, I actually put IND in there not EXP. I think EXP is good with any economic strategy.

[Sian]

an idea could be to give GE a leader just as we're giving the others, but give him a handicap in terms of extra units (i'm thinking in the lines as of what a vanilla ai gets on Emperor level (1 settler, 2 archers, 1 scout and 1 worker + a few techs)