Guide: a difficult Pangaean strategy

[Gandalf Parker]

FaceLess said:
Gandanlf, I know you like to play large maps but how many nations do you put up in thoses games? Basically what is frequency of nations/provinces. If I try your tactics, I always overrun by many nations because you appear weak with having relative few provinces and low troop counts with all the stealthy high end units. I guess I put to many nations in my games (existing maps with max nations) to wreck havoc on them all to keep them in control. Is the patchwork enough to keep nations away?

Good question. I often tell people that discussing map size is not has helpful as they think. Its the province to player ratio which affects how the game will be played.

I started defining things that way on my Dom2 site. Dom2 maps


TINY less than 5 each, or less than 85 total provinces. Best done as 45 land and 8 water.

SMALL 5 each, or 85 total provinces. Best done as 75 land and 10 water.

MEDIUM 10 each, or 170 total provinces. Best done as 150 land and 20 water.

LARGE 15 each, or 255 total provinces. Best done as 225 land and 30 water.

HUGE 20 each, or 340 total provinces. Best done as 300 land and 40 water.

EPIC 25 or more each, maybe to the maximum 500 total provinces. Something like 450 land and 50 water.

But that needs redone for Dom3. In the game the devs has defined Small, Medium, Large; as 10, 15, and 20 per player. Even with all players of an age on a large map, that doesnt reach even 500 provinces.

I guess I will have to have Epic 50/player (1000 province map) and Xtreme 65/player (1500 province map)

Im sorry, I wander. To answer your question I often play up around the 50 province per player setting. Or with all the nations it would be a 1000-province map. It gives a real "wilderness" between the nations. It makes the path you travel to get there important. I also like to turn up the border mountain setting to give lots of chokepoints. Such as Tri-Mega Map
which can be downloaded here... download TriMega

Gandalf Parker

[thejeff]

Province/player is important, but so is map size (or given a set # of provinces/player, number of players)

Small map, few players, even with 20+ provinces each games will be short, ending well before the most powerful late game magic. Blitz rush strategies might not dominate, but midgame will.

Few provinces per player, but lots of players, you'll need to worry about rushes, but you'll also need a good late game strategy.