wanted: advice on setting up a MP game

[Zooko]

I'm planning to host a MP game after I move into my new house, Nov. 1. This will be the first time I've done this.

I don't like "house rules", such as "no playing the Vampire Queen" or "no more than 5 Clams", but I do like mods which attempt to rebalance things so that those strategies are no longer "no-brainers".

Therefore I plan to use the latest balance mods from Zen. Any other advice about balance? One idea is to request that players try a nation that they have not played before in multiplayer.

I want to do 5-player "pentagram" war, in which the win condition is to capture the capitols of the two players opposite you on the pentagram (while retaining control of your own capitol).

I find the Cradle map to be very appealing, but too big for a five-player game. Can anyone recommend a smaller map, and one that is highly connected -- i.e. not very many barriers or intervening water?

About schedule I was thinking of starting with 24 hour quickhost and switching to 48 hour quickhost whener three out of five players say they want to switch to the slower schedule.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[The Panther]

If you want a fast, wide open map, then you should go for a wraparound map. I have found Inland to be remarkably well balanced for up to 10 players. Inland also has very few barriers and chokepoints. It is a wide open killing -field. The only drawback to Inland I have found is that there are several places on the map with a cluster of low income provinces. But if you do a lot of searching, you can easily get a nice gem income to offset the gold loss. Inland even allows for one water race, even though the description says to avoid that. There is a nice cluster of 4 water provinces that allow a water race to go on land in any direction they would want. However, you don't want an aquatic pretender unless you are going imobile.

Whether or not it is required, I always do the 'new nation' rule myself since I plan to play my first 17 MP games with each of the 17 races (if I eventually play that many, that is). I think it is a great rule to get people off of playing races that they know well in which they might have a set power strategy.

[Zooko]

Thanks for the advice! I guess I'll do some solo play with Inland and with Theatre of War.

By the way, I've realized something silly about the pentagram style: being enemies with the two players opposite you makes it so that you will always collide with one of your non-enemies. That is: you attacking your enemy, and the guy next to you attacking his enemy have to go through the same middle provinces.

However, saying that you are enemies with the two people *next* to you avoids that problem while retaining the exact same diplomatic issues.

[Ironhawk]

Zooko, it seems like you would do just as well to play with Victory Points instead of the Pentagram thing. Just twiddle your victory conditions so that a player is forced to take the number of VPs that you would expect to fall under the control of two other empires. That way they will have to defeat at least two players, but you dont have to worry about how things pan out geographically.

[Zooko]

Ironhawk: That's a good point. I'll think about it.

Thanks.

[The Panther]

In fact, for a 5 player game, one can always select capitol VPs only and make a it requirment of 3 VP to win. This means you need to keep your own capitol and take two other players home provinces, giving the winner a true majority. This works because those needed capitols always contain a castle and you can't win by sneaking in and taking uncastled territory only.

[Zooko]

Where can I find this map called "Inland"?

[deccan]

Heh? "Inland" comes with the game.

[The_Tauren13]

Sounds fun. If you are planning on playing with difficult research, I would like to participate.

[Zooko]

Why difficult research?