Map Types Elimination Thread

[Ellye]

Since we have finished the UA Elimination thread, I believe we can start a new one. This one is likely to end up a bit different than most Elimination threads, since it isn't really something that you can quantify in any way, it's a matter of preferences.
So, let's see what the most loved and most hated map types are.

For reference: http://wiki.2kgames.com/civ5/index.p...Map_Generators

Vote with +1 for the map you like, -3 for the one you don't. Always give a reason for your votes. Only one vote per day per user.

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15)
Four Corners (15)
Fractal (15)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (15)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (15)
Small Continents (15)
Terra (15)
TinyIslands (15)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

==================

I'll start with my votes:

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15)
Four Corners (15)
Fractal (15)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (15)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (15)
Small Continents (16) (+1)
Terra (15)
TinyIslands (12) (-3)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

Right mix of land vs naval for me, good incentives for early exploration, and still allows for the growing of a distant threat just like regular Continents.

I have nothing against islands, and in fact I like Archipelago, but this one is a bit too much. Really weird map.

[bcaiko]

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15)
Four Corners (15)
Fractal (16) +1
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (15)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (15)
Small Continents (13) -3
Terra (15)
TinyIslands (12)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

I've had a lot of fun with friends on Fractal. Interesting maps where you never quite know what to expect. Small continents never ceases to disappoint me, however; it's just not what I want. All the Citystates get stuck on a bunch of small islands and the continents are smaller than what allows for some initial Civ conflict. Can't there by a happy medium between continents (almost no smaller continents/islands) and small continents (too many)?

[Steelyglint]

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15)
Four Corners (12) -3
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (15)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (15)
Small Continents (13)
Terra (16) +1
TinyIslands (12)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

Terra's great. Civs are tightly packed, so lots of wars, and settling the new world against armies of barbs is always entertaining. Four corners is too metric for my taste. Would be fun if it were naturally shaped, but the straight coasts just irritate me all the time.

[Tabarnak]

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (13)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (12)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

(multiplayer)
Pangea offers more natural coasts and you can deal with a 2vs1 in a good position. Sometimes it shows naval invasions to be the optimal way. Best map for largest varieties of early strats.

Inland Sea is worse than a pangea because it's too much predictable and don't offer much tactics excepted heavy diplo measures.

[Ellye]

I'm going to repeat my votes from day one.

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (14) (+1)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (9) (-3)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

Right mix of land vs naval for me, good incentives for early exploration, and still allows for the growing of a distant threat just like regular Continents.

I have nothing against islands, and in fact I like Archipelago, but this one is a bit too much. Really weird map.

[Scios]

Archipelago (15)
Continents (15) (+1)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (14) (-3)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (9)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (15)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

Continents- feels realistic, don't have to deal with all cobs immediately, normally at least three zones of control.

Small continents- doesn't know what it wants to be, too little land for ground warfare and too much for naval warfare.

[Scios]

I screwed up. :small continents are now 11 and continents 16.

[Alloran]

Archipelago (16) +1
Continents (15)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (14)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (9)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12) (-3)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

I'm biased, Polynesia is my favourite civ, and Archipelago is killer for them early game. Soooo many ruins.

Donut, the one time I played on it, was wayy too predictable.

(Also, I hope I formatted this right :P)

[Ellye]

Archipelago (16)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (15)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (11)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (9)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

Not a vote, just correcting the numbers (+1 Continents, -3 Small Continents, Scios vote). Carry on.

[Noatz]

Archipelago (16)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age - 3 (12)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents + 1 (12)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (9)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (15)

Small Continents seems a rather polarising map I personally like it, combines nice overland growth (fat river cities) with the isolation factor of Archipelago.

Ice Age: I hate tundra and ice, brrr. I'm generally not a fan of any of the "unnatural" maps either (west vs east, oval etc)

[alangtknox]

Archipelago (16)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (16)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (12)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (12)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands -3 (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm +1 (16)

Really enjoy the sandstorm map. Find the need to really watch your food sources a deeper challenge. Also enjoy the fact that the usual rough terrain dominance will sometimes disappear in a sandstorm map so you have to rethink your usual promotion tendencies. Really dislike the tiny islands. Have never really enjoyed these maps when I have played on them.

[Tabarnak]

Archipelago (17)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (13)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (12)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (12)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

(multiplayer)
Archipelago is a nice map to play against humans. You can be completely alone or have a sinuous natural road to other civs. Adapt your strategy and have fun.

Fractal is better played with low sea level to be decent. Otherwise, you can see in less than 5 turns that you are boxed between 3 civs(well it always happened to me on small maps). It seems that it generates too much useless islands and let main continents with fewer tiles to develop.

[bcaiko]

Archipelago (17)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14) +1
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (12)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (9) -3
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

Fractal makes fun, unexpected maps that are unique but playable. I just played a game with Small Continents and utterly hated it; being stuck on an island continent of all tundra with no way to get off may have soured me on the idea.

[Man vs Civ AI]

Archipelago (14) -3
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (12)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (17) +1
Small Continents (9)
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

Pangea makes for a faster game where you can meet all opponent civs quickly. Archipelago seems to take much longer to play due to the small landmasses available.

[Cheeseisgood]

Archipelago (14)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (13) +1
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (17)
Small Continents (9)
Terra (13) -3
TinyIslands (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

Played Ice Age earlier, it was actually very fun, especially with Sparse Resources. Reduced map size on an already small map makes for interesting gameplay.

Terra annoys me, none of the AI ever seem to make an effort to reach the new land, most of the city states spawn there, and it feels like Pangea, but even more packed.

[marblearch0]

Archipelago (14)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (16) +1
Ice Age (13)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (17)
Small Continents (9)
Terra (10) -3
TinyIslands (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

I usually play a rather defensive game so the Highlands map suits me well. Inca on Highlands rocks .

Terra is the biggest disappointment of all the maps in my opinion. As Cheeseisgood stated above the "New World" rarely gets any attention and it's basicaly a more crowded version of Pangea.

[Ellye]

Still repeating my votes:

Archipelago (14)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (16)
Ice Age (13)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (17)
Small Continents (10) (+1)
Terra (10)
TinyIslands (3) (-3)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

Right mix of land vs naval for me, good incentives for early exploration, and still allows for the growing of a distant threat just like regular Continents.

I have nothing against islands, and in fact I like Archipelago, but this one is a bit too much. Really weird map.

[Noatz]

Originally Posted by bcaiko

Archipelago (17)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14) +1
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (15)
Ice Age (12)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (16)
Small Continents (9) -3
Terra (16)
TinyIslands (6)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (16)

Fractal makes fun, unexpected maps that are unique but playable. I just played a game with Small Continents and utterly hated it; being stuck on an island continent of all tundra with no way to get off may have soured me on the idea.

You should probably reroll if that happens I had a game similar which I would have rerolled but then I discovered El Dorado first and was able to quite easily take the adjoined continent held by Japan for myself.

[Ellye]

Archipelago (14)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (12)
Fractal (14)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (16)
Ice Age (13)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (17)
Small Continents (10)
Terra (10)
TinyIslands (0) (-3) (eliminated)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (15)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (17) (+1)

Tried Sandstorm for the first time this weekend, and I think I have a new favorite map. Really fun, forcing everyone to always build alongside rivers and fight for fertile land.

I have nothing against islands, and in fact I like Archipelago, but this one is a bit too much. Really weird map. See you, Tiny Islands.

[Ginman]

Archipelago (14)
Continents (16)
Four Corners (9) (-3)
Fractal (14)
Great Plains (15)
Highlands (16)
Ice Age (13)
Inland Sea (12)
Lakes (15)
North vs South (15)
Oval (15)
Pangea (17)
Small Continents (10)
Terra (10)
West vs East (15)
Amazon (15)
Continents Plus (16) (+1)
Donut (12)
Pangea Plus (15)
Sandstorm (17)

Continents Plus: Good mixture. Continents Plus combines big land masses (enable early conflicts) with wide seas (explorers feeling) and small islands (the icing on the cake). IMHO this map is the most realistic one.

Four Corners: Unrealistic map -> no fun for me.