Archipelago Maps = Very Unbalanced

[dankok8]

I think this is kind of a trend with Archipelago. Anyways I haven't played one of these in ages so I decided to fire one up as Roosevelt. Immortal/NH/NE as usual. He's not a Fin leader which feels too easy but Ind could be useful for building wonders and Org is a nice all-around trait. Anyways... I'm actually somehow on the way to winning the map thanks in part to GLH and Colossus which kept my economy roaring but it's incredibly unbalanced.

I'm sharing an island that fits 8 cities with Mehmed. And the only reason I could settle 5 cities is because I settled my second city aggressively right next to him. The island has one source of Horses near his capital and no metals. Only two other island chains are reachable by galleys. One is snow-bound and basically devoid of resources and on the other side is Ghengis with a nice capital but all other cities tundra. Far up in the snow, there is one site that has Iron and I had to settle it. Otherwise no metal. No Stone or Marble anywhere and just one happy resource with Calendar which is Spices. Meanwhile Hannibal has a huge island all to himself with room for 11 cities, has 3 happy resi, Iron of course and Stone. All good land too. Unlucky for him I'm beelining Fission and workshopped a couple of cities so he's gonna suffer! The other AI's also got better starts but not as crazy as Hannibal. I conquered both Khan and pushed Mehmed off my island which gave me some more land to work with.

Anyways I learned what to expect from Archipelago:

1) It may be very unbalanced.

2) AI sucks at amphibious invasions and defending island chains. Warfare is easier.

3) Production is always a weaknesses so food heavy sites are essential to abuse Slavery.

 

[Pangaea]

Big and Small is better for the purpose, but you could go to space with a Sushi-boosted empire.

But yeah, it's unbalanced. Probably many maps are. Which I suppose is why so many prefer to use Pangaea or Fractal.

 

[ArchGhost]

I've found that the less terrestrial the map the worse the AIs do on it. Not keen enough to abuse whipping as much as needed, spam GPPs with the seafood, or to purpose the greater commerce from boosted trade routes into a tech advantage.

And the AI just sucks at anything naval besides being annoying and pillaging fishing boats.

I won't play on Archopelago by choice any more. It's too boring and I find the need for boats for travel and countering barb galleys especially tedious. GLH also changes from an easier time on another map type into a slam dunk on it, so it's easy to get frustrated by it (either by getting beaten to it or never having a chance because of a crap civ + start).

While I mostly play Pangaea or Terra, I usually have the script set to shuffle and find the most difficult games (where the AI is hardest to stop) are Fractal/Continents type maps. You can be completely dominant or struggle mightily on your own continent with your own neighbors, while half a world away Mansa is racing to Culture happily ignoring all of you, or a massive zealot has cowed a whole continent and immediately starts to plot with all his aligned powers against...you, the heathen he just met.

The combination of contact with each other but not with the player lends to them getting out of control, especially how I find the diplomacy of the game tends to drive human/AI relations toward the negative while AIs have no such handicap (instead it's supplanted by Peace Weight and the RNG dice roll of initial attitudes).

And I hate intercontinental invasions, as I am always quick to complain about, so they get an extra buffer against interference.

 

[elmurcis]

My favorite map type because of same reasons - never know what to expect and has looooot of Fish resources. Nothing else matters

 

[Orion Pax]

I think this is kind of a trend with Archipelago. Anyways I haven't played one of these in ages so I decided to fire one up as Roosevelt. Immortal/NH/NE as usual. He's not a Fin leader which feels too easy but Ind could be useful for building wonders and Org is a nice all-around trait. Anyways... I'm actually somehow on the way to winning the map thanks in part to GLH and Colossus which kept my economy roaring but it's incredibly unbalanced.

I'm sharing an island that fits 8 cities with Mehmed. And the only reason I could settle 5 cities is because I settled my second city aggressively right next to him. The island has one source of Horses near his capital and no metals. Only two other island chains are reachable by galleys. One is snow-bound and basically devoid of resources and on the other side is Ghengis with a nice capital but all other cities tundra. Far up in the snow, there is one site that has Iron and I had to settle it. Otherwise no metal. No Stone or Marble anywhere and just one happy resource with Calendar which is Spices. Meanwhile Hannibal has a huge island all to himself with room for 11 cities, has 3 happy resi, Iron of course and Stone. All good land too. Unlucky for him I'm beelining Fission and workshopped a couple of cities so he's gonna suffer! The other AI's also got better starts but not as crazy as Hannibal. I conquered both Khan and pushed Mehmed off my island which gave me some more land to work with.

Anyways I learned what to expect from Archipelago:

1) It may be very unbalanced.

2) AI sucks at amphibious invasions and defending island chains. Warfare is easier.

3) Production is always a weaknesses so food heavy sites are essential to abuse Slavery.

Ah yes to basically all of this. It's like you want it to be a fun map cuz it's water or something. But really it's just limiting in most ways, as you detail. Ways that makes it less interesting. To counter, yeah, you could pick a financial civ or an organized civ (or just Darius) or the Dutch, but that feels like a cheesy exploit. If you don't pick those then it's still unbalanced for whichever AI/players do get those civs. Lots moreso than with land variation.

And totally agree with @Pangaea - Big & Small has proved excellent in providing the waterworld I think many of us want. Large landmasses (you can pick "massive continents" if you want), but there are lots of smaller landmasses and many islands. More than just a one-tile nothing. It's been noted that there is lots more land per player though, so usually good to adjust your settings to your liking: more AI, smaller map, etc.

I like the randomness of Fractal, but in honesty I really do want naval exploration (i.e., to uninhabited land) to be a factor in most games, so it's a big let down much of the time when fractal gives none or little of that. Big & Small offers that pretty well I'd say.

 

[elitetroops]

Normal archipelago feels just weird. Very unbalanced, as you said. With snaky continents, especially low sea level and snaky continents, it gets a lot more of a fractal feel. So I guess if you want to play a fractal type map but don't want everyone to start on the same landmass, this could be an option.

For a really wacky water map try hemispheres, low sea level, tiny islands, 6 snaky continents. Not sure what it's good for, but at least you get to do a lot of naval exploring and can usually meet all AI pre optics. And it's very much a go GLH or go home kind of map.