[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Cainehill:
Someone, either Zen or Gandalf, had mentioned doing games where each person designed a pretender for a nation, but then the nations were randomly assigned. Thus, no-one builds the uber-setup they think would be capable of winning, but rather one that someone else would be hard pressed to win with - everyone gets a sub-optimal pretender.

That's just a reversal of designing the most effective pretender, like with Nagot's game: You wanted to design the most crippled and useless pretender possible, since you wouldn't be playing it.

But maybe if you did a lottery to see who gets first choice of nations, who gets 2nd, etc? Everyone has a fair chance of getting something decent - the 1st person gets a primo nation, sure. But the next to Last and Last get to make a choice with the knowledge of just what nations are going to be in the game, which might even it out a little bit.

That's essentially what happens: In the event of a collision, there's a random toss to see who gets it, and who gets to pick something else. Even if it was strictly "dibs", first come first serve, being the first to choose is not necessarily an advantage: Yes, you get the nation you like most, but everyone knows this before they even have to decide, and you're making your choice blind: You have to be fairly confident in your ability to play that nation to do this. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the late entry, where many nations are taken....but you know what you're up against, and if a nation YOU want is still open....great! If not, at least you know it's not, and can move on. Picking in the middle of the pack, on the other hand, lets you glance at some of your opposition, while still being able to snag one of your choice nations. It's all a tradeoff, either way: Randomly assigned nations is really a good thing, as most people don't have adequate playing experience with every single nation out there.

(This actually goes with what I think is wrong with tournaments like Napoleon is doing - certain people, with certain nations, are going to dominate. But giving them a random nation, or maybe even better, a random setup - ie, the Pretender is already designed - makes it more of an even playing field, imo.)

Not everyone is suited to play every nation, and finding and designing one's setup of choice *IS* an integral part of the Dominions II experience. Besides, who wants somebody else's crippled, useless pretender?

[ July 25, 2004, 00:26: Message edited by: Norfleet ]