[Jasper]

Originally posted by apoger:
It is my personal opinion that the Ermor [ashen empire/soul gate] should be Banned from multi-player. Not because they are potent, but becuase they are unfair to the players that start adjacent. Nations starting next to such Ermors are at a huge disadvantage since they are near a population "dead zone". They end up with much less resource in the world near them, not due to anything they did, but due to the bad luck of their starting position. It's such a glaring disadvantage that I'd rather not see these Ermor's in multiplay at all.

IMHO it is often an advantage to be next to Ermor. The Ashen dominion typically only hurts if you're looking at annexing Ermor's lands. As Ermor seems to be always starved for allies, in my experience it's not hard to ally with them, and work the situation to considerable advantage.

True, it sucks to be next to a Dominion 10 Ermor who just won't negotiate -- but that's not any worse than any other crazy neighbor who doesn't seem to care about winning.