Lord Parkin
aka emperor
DMOC - I agree with the settings proposed (normal continents, regular islands, islands mixed in). That's actually exactly what I was going to suggest.
Alternatively, we could make the rule: nobody is allowed to declare war on the inexperienced players before turn 100 (375 BC). However, everyone is free to declare war on the experienced players at any time. (The difference with this scenario being that the inexperienced players can't rush each other early on.)
Disallowing the experienced players from picking Financial leaders would also be very interesting, IMHO. I'd quite like that actually, it's about time I played a game with a non-Financial leader.
How about this revision then: the experienced players are not allowed to declare war on the inexperienced players before turn 100 (375 BC). However, it's perfectly fine for the inexperienced players to declare war on anyone they choose at any time, and fine for the experienced players to war amongst themselves at any time. How's that? (I count myself, Joshua, DMOC, plako, and Elucidus as the experienced players - anyone else I'm missing?)What no risk of a pre-catapult war? Oh well whatever everyone wants.
With picking leaders maybe we should limit the financial trait to lower-level players as a handicap.
Alternatively, we could make the rule: nobody is allowed to declare war on the inexperienced players before turn 100 (375 BC). However, everyone is free to declare war on the experienced players at any time. (The difference with this scenario being that the inexperienced players can't rush each other early on.)
Disallowing the experienced players from picking Financial leaders would also be very interesting, IMHO. I'd quite like that actually, it's about time I played a game with a non-Financial leader.