Newbie Slug Fest - Mose Hansen game - ENDED

[The Panther]

OK, with the addition of Aku and Curious Cat, and with Baboune declining and Pickles AWOL, we now have ten players in the game. But no water races. I wonder the significance of that...

Anyway, it seems that the map is pretty much the only major open question left now. Options are:
1. Aduria - 153 land + 34 water = 188 total
2. Cradle - 199 land + 22 water = 221 total
3. Europe - 134 total - I could not find the tga file on the net, but the map file on Zen's site says water nations have a significant advantage, so I doubt it works for us here with likely too much water places.
4. Karan - 142 land + 20 water = 162 total
5. Inland - 149 land + 5 water = 154 total

Cradle description says that players will not start on wasteland, swamp, magic site, or swamp. But there are no #nostart provinces on the list, so they must be hardcoded into the province type. I read somewhere that this does not always work on certain dom Versions. I tested it a small amount and this seemed to work as advertised, but I have not come close to knowing for sure. Anybody know the answer to this for certain?

Arduria says the intent is to be used with VPs, but this is not necessary. Puting in a province victory condition works just fine. There are 12 land and 2 sea starting locations on the map. Only one of these starting provinces is not very good (16). The only real problem with this map is that the starting locations near the poles have fairly poor-income adjacent provinces. But good for site searching, of course.

I know that Karan has a couple of few poor starting locations too, and it might need to be edited to even this out.

As for the lack of water race, both Aduria and Cradle have water mixed throughout the map with no blocks caused by lakes or oceans, making the lack of a water nation not overly important. Karan has most of the water bunched in the south.

Other map choices???

As for selecting the number of provinces required to win, you can generally pick a number ending in 0, 4, or 7. Sometimes 1, 3, and 6 are choices too. For example, here is a list of the options from 90 - 120:
91, 94, 97, 100, 104, 107, 110, 113, 117, 120

So, in conclusion, if we want a longer game, then the choice should be Cradle. If we want a shorter one, then Inland or Karan. Aduria is kind of a medium length map with its 188 provinces.

Right now, my vote is Cradle with about 125 provinces required for victory.

[PashaDawg]

1st: Welcome, CuriousCat, to the 2nd Newbie Slugfest.

2nd: I played a little of Zen's Europe Map. It looks fun, but it sounds like it would best to play that map without water nations. (The read-me says that water nations would have an unfair advantage.) It also looks pretty, which again is a big PLUS for me!!

[PashaDawg]

Ultimately, I would vote for maps in the following order:

1. ZenEurope, because I just love playing on maps of the "OLD world" and it looks wicked PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY.

2. Adruia, while it is not quite as pretty and is not Europe, it looks wicked crazy.

3. Cradle, because it is still kinda pretty and kinda crazy and kinda zesty-spanky-pow-dunk-sassy.

The math stuff is over my head - - - so I gotta grasp at aesthetics.

[PashaDawg]

Hmmmm... I just started a practice game on the Zen Europe map, and it placed Pan in the sea (but said the province was plains) (province 9). Hmmmm.

[PashaDawg]

Double hmmmm... gosh... Cradle IS easy on the eyes.

[CuriousCat]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm so new that I have no preferences. I'll be happy with whatever you all decide.

Again, thanks.

CC

[Cainehill]

The Panther said:
Cradle description says that players will not start on wasteland, swamp, magic site, or swamp. But there are no #nostart provinces on the list, so they must be hardcoded into the province type. I read somewhere that this does not always work on certain dom Versions. I tested it a small amount and this seemed to work as advertised, but I have not come close to knowing for sure. Anybody know the answer to this for certain?

The problem with nostart being encoded into the province type is that it becomes more likely that some provinces will be mis-coded, especially if any updates are done to the map, and it's much more difficult to verify, since you can't just grep for '#nostart'. Unfortunately the map editor doesn't use '#nostart', which is apparently why most of the maps don't have it.

I haven't heard anything about the hardcoding not working with certain dominions Versions (which doesn't mean it's not possible) but in any case, all your players should be using the same, latest, Version, so that shouldn't be an issue either way.

Personally, I think you can't go wrong with the Cradle map - it's probably my favorite based both on aesthetics and gameplay, while Zen's Europe is also gorgeous and seems perfect for a smaller quicker game. (If y'all want quick and dirty, Europe might be good even without any water nations - it's recommended that you either have both or neither water nation.)

[Grim Knight]

I vote for Cradle.

Grim Knight.

[deccan]

I vote for cradle too. I already have it so I won't need to download another one. Heh. Better clarify which Version of the .map file we will be using though, as there seems to be several...

[Aku]

I am willing to switch to a water race if you want to do Europe map lol. I never used either water race in mp either.

For the map picks I have only played inland and karan. I have no idea what the other maps are so I will just let you guys decide on a map.