Demon, yeah I was thinking of 2 water nations for the noobs and 1 for the vets using a 24 nations (1 mod nation if needed) that would even out to about 16:8 . 2 or those slots could be interchangable though depending on actual signups. so it could be 18:6 (slightly a bit more than 2:1) but still reasonable. I'll likely use a slot system for both starting nations and alternates. If all available slots cannot be filled we'd of course have to start with fewer.
To combat any expansion issues, I'll likely break up the noob team into informal groups of say 4 a piece, Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western noobs. More spread out and arrange geographically.
Hmm, how can we enable the noobs to expand at the same rate as the vets (nation selection aside)?
My first thought was droping indy strengh all the way down, that way both sides could expand equally fast (though it would shorten the time before initial contact).
Another idea, and one that ties in with the large armies the noobs are supposed to be able to field, would be say to give the noobs favorable cap locations that would result in an initial bonus in terms of gold, resources, supplies etc. I think that prov neighbors has something to do with it (since the cap is a fortress). But other things such as farm provinces may effect this as well? Anyone know what province terrain types yield more resources, supplies, gold? This would enable the noobs to field larger initial armies and thus ease their expansions woes a bit.
AOM Ogre map which is built for 24 has some interesting placement possibilities and is rather symetrical. Cleveland's maps has fewer provinces and works well with 24 nations too. But I suppose actual player signups would determine which map we finally use. If we can get the full 24 then the aforemention maps might work very well, if not well a smaller map with a symertrical design will work fine too. I am definately shooting for the 24. Even if we've got to do alot of invites and advertising.
AOM Ogre has the benefit of being able to put a bit of water in between teams. In a game without water nations, that would I believe slow up the initial contact a bit.
AOM would be 24/416 = avg. 17 or so provinces per player.
Rorschacht would be 24/375 = 15 or so provinces per player.
Comments?