unbalance, micromanagement due to all-vs-all

[Alneyan]

If you are seeking a format for warmongering, something like King of the Hill could work too (the Dom 2 game, not the Space Empires tournament in my link). Put a central province, and add a victory condition like "hold the Hill ten turns, and you win".

A shorter number of turns needed to win should result in less "high-end" means, while creating the challenge of keeping a province against several foes. If you *need* to hold that province for two turns, wouldn't you use everything you have at your disposal? Likewise, if you *must* retake that province in two turns, every single spell you have would become extremely valuable.

Such games are fun to oversee too: I was quite entertained by the King of the Hill game, where Machaka, T'ien Ch'i and Broken Empire fought it out (T'ien Ch'i eventually snatched the victory, but Broken Empire ended a single turn away from victory, after having successfully defended the Hill against several determined assaults).

[The_Tauren13]

Speaking of King of the Hill, any chance youd be interested in hosting a second one? I really enjoyed that game

[Alneyan]

I have been considering hosting the sequel to KOTH. If all goes according to the plan, I should create a game thread for KOTH2 later today.

[Gandalf Parker]

As an alternative to the "war mongering" (just thought Id toss it in) it can be fun to do something along the line of my WEvsTHEM campaign. Boost a number of AI's as much as you feel they need. Make their gods, give them extra castles, spells, troops, a 10 turn head start, whatever you feel will give them the advantage. Then create a players alliance to try and defeat it.

An alternative to that, which I was considering, was to play many games up to the point that I feel I was the winner. Then instead of quiting the game as I usually do, turn it to AI and save it at that point so that I can play against it later.
There are some things to iron out in that concept but it has possibilities.

Gandalf Parker