NEWB Questions

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by K

4. Most of the players on the forums have been playing for years and use CBM and other mods as a way to relearn the game and keep it fresh. I have yet to see any evidence that this particular mod actually "balances" anything or even improves the game.

That being said, every time I set up a game without mods I get players to sign up super quick, so don't feel required to learn the game twice.

I'm not convinced CBM does as much to balance the game between nations as it could. What it does do is make a lot of useless options from the base game playable, and nerfs some strategies that were far too good (and therefore dominant) so that the realized playing field is a lot more diverse. So you can think of it as balancing available options from a given nation's perspective.

(E.g., Gorgon, PoD, and Cyclops have all been nerfed relative to the base game because they saw far too much play due to their being far better than other equivalent options. The VQ, on the other hand, *might* actually be playable in CBM, and a number of other options are appealing that would never even be considered before).