Marla's world map

[anteos]

Can anyone reccomend any good tactics or starting positions for the map.

[Arrian]

Well, I've only played one game into the industrial age on that map (before giving up because the turns were taking 45 minutes each on my poor, clunky computer), but I will say this:

China's start location is AWESOME. Play as China, expand rapidly south, cut off the Indians, grab as much of SE Asia (thailand/vietnam/indonesia/etc.) as you can, and work your way to Australia. Manchuria/Korea are the only worthwhile places in the other direction, so build there.

They, if and when you're ready, your Riders can crush India (and maybe Persia and Babylon while you're at it... those two were weak as hell in my game because they were thoroughly boxed in).

I was winning handily partway through Industrial times when I gave up... the game had become known as "the monstrosity." Monarch level, btw.

-Arrian

[Harovan]

I loved to play the Egypts on Marla's, with real start positions. You have the whole N Africa for you, lots of luxury resources, with quickly growing cities in the Nile area, and a good industrial (FP) place in the subsaharan area. Don't forget to build Suez, it's a big strategic advance. You may step 2 tiles away with your initial settler to get this optimal. Strategic resources are ok too, especially horses (sell them to N America), with the exception of one... Find out what it is!

[Marquis de Sodaq]

I've played the map about 8 times. The AI always does very well as China, Egypt, Russia, and occasionally Germany or India. (I've modified the map to make Greenland, arctic Canada, and large parts of Siberia mountains - only so the AI won't waste the whole game trying to fill them will towns whose only function is to slow down my PC.)

The AI is an utter failure as the Romans, Greeks, Babylonians, English, and Japanese. So much so that I'm going to move one of the euro-civs to south america as the Inca. Japan should maybe start as the Mongols, they are pathetic as an AI.

Any civ with wide expanses into which to expand can be exploited by the player to a big advantage - Aztecs, Egypt, Zulu, or Russia (I've not played as them or China yet).

If you start in europe or africa, keep a ship around to plug the strait of gibraltar. If you let the AI out of the mediterranean, they will colonize all over africa. If you keep them locked in, it is yours to settle. Until Egypt and Zulu expand there, anyway. Any other chokepoints can be exploited in the same manner - Suez, Baltic sea, Red Sea, Panama, Indonesia, etc - to influence where the AI can go.

London is almost guaranteed a wonder or two in the early game. It requires no acqueduct and has high production. If you simply must have the colossus, play as the english.

Babylon, Persia, America, Iroquois, French, Germans, Romans, and Greeks all must scramble for space in the early game. Don't even bother with wonders or expensive improvements. Securing land/borders is the most important task in the ancient era for these civs.

In the next phase, the AI will be swarming to settle siberia.
Let them have it. South America, Indonesia, and Australia will probably still be wide open. They are loaded with resources and are well worth the trouble of settling there as early as possible.

I've had fun playing the map no matter what civ I choose. So far I've played as the Aztecs, English, French, Romans, Egyptians, Indians, and Babylonians.

[godinex]

China is the best, but if You can ein in Europe yor succes is secure.

[OJK82]

Crash!

I've had some problems with the map... it keeps crashing after I've been playing for a bit. I always play with 16 civs, is it that my computer can't cope with the huge map? (I've noticed the size of the saved game is nearly 5mb, far larger than any other saved game).

Cheers,
Ollie

[GePap]

Room to expand

First, the size of the map does lead to very slow games in the future, when all civs are big, so time concerns are an issue. As for civs, the more room to expand without serious comp[etition or physical limitations the better, Egypt and China aways end up huge, as do the French- in fact, industrious make a huge difference on this map due both to the scale (lots of improement to be made) and the fact that there are so many bonus squares in areas, that populations go throught the roof for several civs. Japan, england, persia do end up small because they get trapped by great expanding empires.

If you want a game with los of time to expand in pecae, try the aztecs alone in the Americas0 though you will fall behind in tech- but everyone will pay thought the roof for your map. If you want growth time and a little conflict, try China, which is far away so that its only competitor is india, since Japan is weak. If you want to be big and have lots of conflict, France or Egypt.

[Arrian]

Heh, that's funny, France in my game was tiny to the point of insignificance. The big boys were: China, Egypt... looong drop... India (deceased), another drop, all the rest. Of course, the scores didn't really reflect the real situation, because most of the score is territory, and the Siberian sprawl (good idea about putting mountains up there Marquis) beefs up the scores of worthless civs. But I just found it amusing that France was stong in your game and so weak in mine.

-Arrian

[reefer addict]

ive only played france and china on marlas map and had success with both. china has plenty of room to grow where france has alot of food bonuses and if you build a strong culture you can convert most of your neighbors cities.

[Harovan]

In my game the original France was quickly taken by Bismarck. By the number of cities, France was relatively big though, due to a lot of "siberian" cities.

[Thrawn05]

I don't care for Marla's map when I play a european civ. It's just too crowed half the time. I guess I'll have to find a european only map.

[sas]

I played with the following countries in one game;

England, Germany,Russia,India,China,Egypt,Zulu,America and Aztecs.

So far, that seems for me to be the best mix of counties. Everyone has some decent space to settle (except for England perhaps).

The major players in my current game with this setting is America, Russia,Germany, India (me). China was looking good untill i crushed them

-Stian-