by KGB » Thu Mar 07, 2013 3:00 pm
I hadn't noticed the change until you mentioned it.
The map is now a Barbarians paradise. By the time he reaches L3 he can walk over lots of those neutrals on his own while flying. And there are plenty of single units defending ruins/gold sites to get him that experience. More importantly, there are no flying units in the production for 90% of the cities so he can easily lurk on water/mountains and raid enemy cities with no fear of an Assassin killing him. If you aren't taking the Barbarian you pretty much need the Assassin to kill those strong defenders. All other heroes are totally wrong for this map.
I agree that there is now too many defenders and it's too restrictive in production. The 2 extra cities in each start area should be easy to take instead of having +2 defenders in them. That gives 5 cities to each player. After that I'd reduce the island city defenders as no one will go there now as the game will be over by the time you get enough men to attack.
The one place you should *always* be able to make all units is your capitol. Otherwise players can get cut off from a needed unit too easily.
KGB