Inland sea maps

[jdstacey]

I accidentally played this map type recently, and it turned out that I really like it.

Plusses:
You pretty much will always have 2 neighbors - no isolation
You won't get horribly boxed in.
There's not so much awful land near the poles.
No runaway AI's on other continents
Plenty of trading partners
Good access to religions
Balance of land is pretty good

Minuses:
On medium sea level, it's a LOT of land (I've changed to high)
Barbs are in general worse than pangea or fractal

Does anybody else play this map? I'd be interested to hear some other opinions. I never see it discussed.

 

[ShengWuLien]

I like Inland Sea, and just started one myself. It's like Pan but a bit more interesting. There's often a lot of riverside land, which lends itself to cottage spam if you're that way inclined. But, yeah, the barbs can be ugly.

 

[RD-BH]

I used to play/love inland sea and also ring maps 8)

 

[Manco Capac]

Inland sea mapscript is, I think, the new love around here because of its natural fairness in distribution of land amongst AI. Even better than pangaea which my derive on some occasions with slight unbalance.

The particularity of this mapscript is indeed many rivers as Sheng noted and gold resources are slightly more abundant.

 

[shakabrade]

It is the easiest map type, simply because you can count on decent land. And if both of your neighbours don't settle in your direction, some large peaceful empires are possible and that abundant gold eases rex a lot.

 

[TiglathPileser]

Fun mapscript, great for financial cottage spam. Only problem is the surplus land which you can counter by adding more AI's. I didn't know this when taking on Deity the other week, and couldn't contend with both Sury and Justinian grabbing 20 cities and vassals while I was busy taking down Monty.

 

[strijder20]

I won my first Prince game on that mapscript. Yes, I like it very much

It's easy, because you know a lot about the lay of the land, and it's sometimes possible to block off the AI with just a few cities.

 

[Habitus]

It is the easiest map type, simply because you can count on decent land. And if both of your neighbours don't settle in your direction, some large peaceful empires are possible and that abundant gold eases rex a lot.

Starting at the single side location at standard size with standard number of AI is often bad too, the only case where with standard number of AIs you can actually get boxed in like a Pangaea at higher levels.

Inland Sea is one of the better maps to learn on as well since it teachs you Barb defense, something that on pangaea you can get skip somewhat atleast some of the time.

 

[shakabrade]

Starting at the single side location at standard size with standard number of AI is often bad too, the only case where with standard number of AIs you can actually get boxed in like a Pangaea at higher levels.

Inland Sea is one of the better maps to learn on as well since it teachs you Barb defense, something that on pangaea you can get skip somewhat atleast some of the time.

Could you please clarify that ''single side location''? You mean coast and that there's only one side you can expand to?

Barb defense is very intense indeed. You really start to appreciate jungled/forested hills and archers. There is usually so much fogbusting involved that I use the term fogbusting micro. I even use city dotmaps to help myself with fogbusting. Black color is used (although black is not a color).

 

[Habitus]

With the standard 7 (you + 6 AIs) there are 3 North Starts, 3 South Starts and a single East or West Start. The East/West start in general (but not always) is close enough to a North and South start that you can actually get boxed in.