by KGB » Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:13 pm
Interesting changes. I'll be curious how they play out.
The extra rivers seems like a good addition. Extra gold sites never hurt either. Removing the strength bless site reduces the value of going first/rushing that site.
Not sure the extra 2 cities are going to do much though. The bigger issue is that much of the edge area on this map is wasted because there is nothing there (cities, sites or ruins). So by default everything is crammed toward the middle and the initial rush and there is never any reason to visit the edges (like the areas between the mountains of Cyan/Black and Green/Red just begs to have a L2 ruin or a couple gold sites with 25+ gold so there is reason to go there. A port at the end of those rivers would be ideal)
One minor annoyance. The area across the river from the Cyan city where you added the new city of Ulrind contains no forest squares. In my last game I had a Ranger and wanted to lurk in the Forests. But this is the only area on the map I can't do that. All the other middle areas contain at least 1-2 forest squares. Any chance you can sprinkle one in there so players can avoid being HorseLorded to death.
KGB
P.S. I think the every other start spot for 4v4 isn't going to play well. BIG advantage to going first and crow/eagle rushing someone since they are relatively close and there are ridges to lurk on. I'd rather see White/Black/Green/Blue teamed against Cyan/Orange/Yellow/Red (opposite pair team mates).