[Omnirizon]

i hear you majuva68. I looked over this map and its gig is to give each starting postion some unusual advantage and an unusual penalty. so, tir na og is surrounded by provs with high pops, but low resource and is in middel of map. corner positions typcially have little other advantage. your position has very little income, but lots of gem producing sites around it (notably, that desert of thatoneguy that gives 2fire 2earth 2death). so each site has some notable advantages and disadvantages.

problem is, each nation has certain needs and can really benefit from one site, or really be hurt by another. when you make each site so different, even if ultimately balanced, there is a huge factor of luck now addded, which the special start positions was actually designed to reduce.

i'm gonna contact the maker of this map after our game and let him know our experience and give feedback, hopefully he can change it, or maybe make a more MP friendly version.

but yes, I totally understand your problem. One thing I found to help alliviate the issue was to be intimately aware of each starts qualities, make an SP game with all human players and indies on zero. then you can spread out and see what is where, that way you know how you should spread out. for example, with your start you have the advantage of lots of gem sites around you, but low income. however, if you knew exactly where the closest high income sites were, you could have spread that direction at the beginning to boost your income, and go back to collecting provinces around you later. really, there are some pretty close high pop provinces close to you. had you know exactly where they were, you could rush for them, and then consolidate your empire later. in fact, you are really close to lots of chokepoints, and could have rushed for a few income provinces while blocking access to the ones close to you, and go back later and get them.

just a thought.


say, how the hell is Hinnom still expanding? they must be surrounded by all those people that didn't expand much at all. what a strike.