Darwin's Zorro: The Battle For Antilarium-started

[Jazzepi]

Omnirizon said:
sandbagging: when a player purposefully chooses an easier level of competition than their skill level usually calls for. classic example being when a bicycle racer races at a lower class than they usually would, in order to place on the podium to attract sponsorship.

or it is when a player deliberately portrays themselves as a lower skill or weaker player in order to deceive others. classic example being a poker player 'limping' in to a hand when they in fact have a strong hand; the inverse of bluffing.


i'm mostly just playing around though. so no worries.

i will say this much though, i'm never allowing hinnom in another one of my games.

Personally I think this map has some serious issues. I've always hated maps that have really small chokepoints, and a lot of them.

Jazzepi

[konming]

Hinnom was among the first to be eliminated in Kingmaker, also in the game I subbed - beer, Hinnom was on the verge of extinction in the first year. I will admit that Hinnom can be very powerful IF played correctly, as Baalz pointed out in his very thoughtful guide.

Omnirizon: I do understand what sandbagging means, and there is dictionary.com even if I did not. Hinnom's position in this game really came from our great peaceful relations with all our neighbors.

Dragar: Being Hinnom already shows its downside. My offer for 15N hammer was never answered. This should tell you something. Besides, you would rather attack peaceful and honorable Hinnom rather than Mictlan?

Jazzepi: IMHO choke points are OK, it just favors a more defensive style instead of being rushed everywhere. However, the map is not close to be balanced. We will see this more clearly when VPs are taken.

[Jazzepi]

konming said:
Hinnom was among the first to be eliminated in Kingmaker, also in the game I subbed - beer, Hinnom was on the verge of extinction in the first year. I will admit that Hinnom can be very powerful IF played correctly, as Baalz pointed out in his very thoughtful guide.

Omnirizon: I do understand what sandbagging means, and there is dictionary.com even if I did not. Hinnom's position in this game really came from our great peaceful relations with all our neighbors.

Dragar: Being Hinnom already shows its downside. My offer for 15N hammer was never answered. This should tell you something. Besides, you would rather attack peaceful and honorable Hinnom rather than Mictlan?

Jazzepi: IMHO choke points are OK, it just favors a more defensive style instead of being rushed everywhere. However, the map is not close to be balanced. We will see this more clearly when VPs are taken.

I just wish there wasn't a VP right next to my capital divesting me of valuable resources that could have been used since turn 1.

Jazzepi

[Omnirizon]

i like the chokepoints, however this map needs to be wraparound to solve some of its particularly glaring problems that arise from having so many chokepoints.

the starting positions also need to be a bit more standardized. your position is heavy in income, jazzepi, but low in resources. giving each position unique qualities completely undermines the point of starting postions to begin with.

konming: didn't mean to insult your intelligence by posting a definition to sandbagging. your reply was just a bit ambiguous and hard to read, couldn't tell if you knew what it meant. i don't deny at all that your position came from peaceful relations. that's just the problem with hinnom; if no one starts a war with them, they win. you could easily sit back with what you have now, start no wars, and win in the end. in fact, that's what you're planning to do. that's why i'm trying to get a conversation started on the topic.

[Dragar]

Yep there's a lot of luck involved. In my other antilarium game, Beer, I'm playing abysia and have pathetic starting resources..

Scarily I'm about to join another antilarium game - I wonder why its so popular?

[konming]

Beer is based on Alexander map.

[Omnirizon]

a) its a nice looking map.

b) special starts and VP placements. even if not balanced yet, that is the first step to balance. the creator of the map can improve it using feedback gained from these games.

c) significant number of contiguous water provinces and a fair amount of chokepoints are considered favorable to strategically interesting MP play.

d) special VP provinces adds a nice twist and makes things interesting, even if not yet balanced.

e) everyone is tired of playing on cradle, glory, and alexandria.

[Dragar]

Bah, they both suck

konming, Fomoria would much rather the peacloving Hinnom as neighbours than Mictlan, but what can you do?! And had I any N gems I would happily have taken you up on the offer.

[namad]

is the hosting time set to 48hours on purpose? or on accident?

[Jazzepi]

Omnirizon said:
c) significant number of contiguous water provinces and a fair amount of chokepoints are considered favorable to strategically interesting MP play.

The problem is the entire map is made of single-line chokepoints. It's not interesting MP play when the only way you can progress towards an enemy capital is 4 different provinces in a row with no deviation. A small amount of choke points adds flavor, too many takes away choice. When you take away choice, the game becomes /less/ interesting.

Personally, I think this map is poop. I vastly prefer maps with lots of provinces connected together and a sprinkling of choke points. It makes for more interesting strategic decisions concerning moving armies, instead of this gar-bage (said as though french) where you just send your armies charging down a single file corridor.

Jazzepi