MAP: Hardcore Strategy Map

[cassembler]

Ok, I've created a map that accentuates the strategic elements of the game. I'm not going to post a screenshot of the whole map. Sorry, get over it.

1) Each of 16 players on this SMALL map have a chunk-o-land that's ample for three to four excellent city sites.
2) Each player has 3 of the same luxury resources. Only ONE other player has access to the same resources, so trade is at a hefty price.
3) Most of the strategic resources are placed between civs, so you must expand to collect these. They are surrounded with hills and mountains for maximum combat brutality. The resources are clumped together so if you have any iron, you probably have two or three for trade.
4) The only barbarians on the map are in the island in the middle. This is the only place for uranium, but there are three or four sources (again, for trade).
5) all starting positions have been adjusted for equality several times. All players are roughly on the same playing field.

*One thing, if rules are saved with the map, then irrigation on tundras is allowed, effectively making them plains. If they're not saved, then I recommend making this change to your rules file*

Check out the screenshots.
Hare's the map:

[cassembler]

An example of a starting position:

[cassembler]

An example of a resource site:
(and yes, most of those are flood plains)

[cassembler]

The big island in the middle:
(all games I've played always have at least four different civs as shown)
Keep in mind (and I think the AI knows this) that this will eventually be the only source of uranium, as well as having other resources (like oil, etc).

[cassembler]

Startegies:

I recommend EMPEROR level for maximum challenge. It's set up where the human has enough chance to build a few cities before the AI kicks your butt.

Defend the bottlenecks.
Support your favorite civs on other continents- Only one or two civs on each continent should make it to late game.

Always settle your first city where you start. I've already picked the best sites on each chunk of land.

Go claim the resources ASAP.

Trade embargos are very effective.

Greeks have a nice early advantage with the hoplite. It's great for the many bottlenecks in the map.

Each continent has four civs and is set up like this:

X-r-X
| | |
r-R-r
| | |
X-r-X

where X is a civ and R is a clump of resources.
small r's are the early game essentials: horses, iron, etc. The big R is where the oil and aluminum are at.

HAVE FUN, GIVE FEEDBACK!!!

There are four continents like this.

[Changmai Beagle]

Xcellent

I was actually thinking about doing a map like this (although with twisty connections to the large central resource-rich area), but I haven't worked with the editor at all yet. I can hardly wait to try this one out!

[Ganja]

How do I download the map. It sounds a great challenge. i click the link but it comes up to save the attachment. When I download it, it's not the map.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Rename it as a .zip file, then decompress it as normal. Should work fine (does for me, at least).

[Ganja]

Yep it downloads now, thanks Vlad