[DrPraetorious]

I haven't just *offered* to switch starts, I have *actually done it*.

Edit Brief reply:
On the subject of multiple constraints:
I had to generate several maps before I got one that I thought I could arrange the fourteen start locations in this way, and which had all the water in the middle.

The odds that I will be able to find 14 such provinces that also have similar between-ness (which is the only way I can think of for what archaeolept says he wants to be remotely the same for different starts) are extremely low, and such maps would be hard to pick out by eye.

The only way to easily do this is to not have any mountain ranges or lakes (even small ones generate a lot of chokepoints, and large ones generate an extra "edge" on the map).

So even if I thought this property were desirable (I do not), I couldn't do it.

The second point, that one start has to fight without the support of the ally, has some validity and did concern me. But with the two starts only three provinces apart, I decided that it was less of an issue than insuring that the two positions had different independents to conquer.

End edit

I have just given you a new start which is, by your criterion, extremely strong (yes I counted routes). Since I disagree with your criterion, I'm going to take the start you regard as weak, and I cannot understand why everyone is not happy with this.

Download the new map file (I notice no-one has touched the attachment) and you will see Helheim/Marverni now start in the lower left (which used to be my start location) and I've taken the center-west start location for myself.

I've even moved the two center-west starts to the same latitude, even though I think this makes the position worse (because the immediate neighbors of the two allied starts have more overlap).

Again, I think that the center-west is better than the southwest position that I just gave you - and would have been happy to trade when I was generating the positions in the first place - but didn't, because I assigned them randomly so I was stuck with my assignment. By your criterion, if I understood it correctly, the southwest position is absolutely fantastic - lots of different routes to all over the place.

If this still doesn't satisfy you, because the *other* start locations that you didn't get are not balanced to your satisfaction, by all means, leave. But I have gone to great lengths to accomodate you so if you are leaving now, kindly refrain from joining games where I make maps in the future.