by gggol » Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:06 am
Thanks for the comments.
I didn\'t intend the positions to be balanced. The north is definitely weaker. But I did try to compensate them somewhat with more temples, mines, farms, and such, and with richer cities. Some of the cities in Michigan and Ohio are poor. Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto should be the strongest starting positions. But they are also neighbors, and centrally located which is a disadvantage. Two front war, you know. I think early on, Minneapolis and Chicago will fight each other. And Detroit will fight Toronto. Next, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie may come to blows.
Montreal should be the first player in Sudbury and North Bay. I figured that gives Montreal 4 early cities, after which it\'s time to pick on Buffalo or Toronto, or maybe Sault Ste Marie. Might be nice to add Cheboygan, and possibly Indianapolis in a way that encourages Detroit and Chicago to fight over it. I wanted to keep the number of cities down, to make logistics more challenging. As to more roads, perhaps add one between Erie and Pitt. But that\'s what the lakes are about. They\'re supposed to be the best way to travel this map. Nearly every city has a nearby dock. Just Windsor (I\'ll fix the spelling later) does not, so that Toronto and Buffalo have a crack at it. Spend a tiny bit of money and build faster ships. Minneapolis is supposed to use that big river, and get to Dubuque and perhaps Rock Island before the Chicago player. Buffalo should be able to reach Erie fairly quickly, by water.