[Gandalf Parker]

OK maybe that was unclear. I keep forgetting how much stuff was so deeply discussed already in the newsGroups.

Some variations Ive tried are.....

Each province gets 1 extra commander randomly selected from the entire set of units, monsters, summons, and pretenders. There is also a random number such as 4-9 troops assigned to that commander. The troops are selected randomly but very close to the numeric of the commander so that chances are high of getting different but the same "kind" of unit as the commander. Random magic equipment is also assigned to the commander. NOTE: this includes the players home province so the early announcements of prophets are VERY interesting to read. And sometimes you REALLY luck out on what you get to start turn 1 with.

A variation is the same as above but with an effort to create 2 different ways of doing the random assignment. An initial random decides if the entire set including summons and pretenders is used, or a smaller set of units which include fairly standard independent units. This way the really big surprises are more rare.

Another variation included the above PLUS created special provinces all over the map. The province gained a randomly selected special race such as woodsman, lizardman, raptor. Then a random number decided whether to give the province a temple, lab, random type of castle, or any combination including a possibility for all 3.

Yet another variation included all of the above and created a special opponent. In this case I took Man and made him the "King of Independents". Half of the special provinces that were placed were given to Man to own right from the start of the game. To balance that he was given a deity which would die instantly and pretty much stay dead the whole game. Also his special home sites were deleted so he received none of the special Avalon units. This left him with a large adequate selection of units but none that were much different than the independent province units.

After forgetting what I had done and accidentally selecting Man to play on that map, I decided it was kindof fun to start out that way. Now a new variant is to have each race start with randomly selected special provinces all over the map. I havent tried it yet but Im considering 6-12 provinces. Possibly being even as far as how many have castles, how many have temples and labs. On a small or medium map this could be referred to as a "fast start" random game.

Further variant can, as I mentioned, include names for each province that are pronouncable and not duplicated.

Comments now?

[ October 10, 2003, 01:21: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]