[Cainehill]

And more seriously, I think that the way Dominions2 "randomly" places nations is actually one of the big problems with MP games : when you have a map with 200 or so provinces, and someone still starts with another capitol just one province away ( ie, only 1 independent separating them ), essentially one of those players, or both, are going to be screwed.

Sure - some of the time the two can work something out diplomatically. But only some of the time, and if one of the nations is isolated on a peninsula and the other at the entrance to the peninsula, there's really very little chance of coexistence : the one needs to get off the peninsula in order to expand, the other is not going to give up a province next to their capitol. Heads roll.

In general, if one player starts with a greater distance between him and other nations than the others, that player has a pretty big edge - more room for expanding only against independents, more time to build up.

And yes - I've had games where someone else's capitol was just one away from mine, on a medium-large map. Others where I had half the map to expand in all by myself while 5 other players all started in the other half of the world, very close together.

Scenarios, fixed starting positions, are imo opinion the key to balanced MP games.