Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 12 signed up so far, and room for more
 

Sure is.

Any ideas on the maps front?

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

Anything balanced with predefined locations.

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

Midgard please

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

The water is far less unbalanced than you might think. At face value, Rlyeh is technically the only sea nation in LA at all. However...

Although LA Atlantis (which I'm playing elsewhere in MP) starts on land it is every bit as good underwater as EA and MA Atlantis. (And although slightly limited without missile troops or cavalry, very handy on land too.) Not only that, but it needs to get underwater to access half its magical firepower.

Secondly, LA Mictlan is present, which has a dose of Atlantean influence. Although Mictlan can't build castles or build national units underwater, it can recruit underwater PD. Furthermore it has the nature mages to search for magic site kelp fortresses, and can supply adequate amphibious mages and sacred troops from its capital. It's weaker underwater than Rlyeh or Atlantis, but not so badly it would be a walkover.

Finally, Ermor is also present. Although strictly not a water power in any way, all its units are undead therefore (poor) amphibious, and it can grab water provinces right from the start if it wishes.

Consequently I'd argue we've effectively got 2 water nations, one halfway water nation, and one ready-access if slightly incompetent water nation.

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

I'll take Pangaea!

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

Hm. If we got some more people we might use Alexander map with predefined starting locations or maybe even AsiaTwist. However, it seemed to me that AsiaTwist contains too much water for Late Era when I looked at it.

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

Asia Twist has 37 water provinces, which does seem like a bit much when only one nation starts out in the water. Atlantis, Mictlan and Ermor notwithstanding. Not to mention a lot of them border a huge number of land provinces.

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

Hooray! More people! I'm actually really glad this is taking a while. I'm trying my best to plan a LA Ermor strat which is not the patented "dude flood" approach. If this goes well, I may even make a guide!

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

As I said, I'll switch to Man. No problem. Otherwise I take what I get with R'lyeh, even if it's only a pool of muddy water in the capitol of Ermor. I don't care about winning.

Re: Pyrothere - LA slowpace game: 13 signed up so far, and room for more
 

If map with much water is chosen and you switch to Man that means that someone among land nations with access to water (Mictlan, Atlantis, Ermor) will grab nearly all water and have a huge advantage.
So map with a lot of water is not very good at all. Alexander is better than Asia Twist, however, in the aspect that its water is very distributed.