Do you play archipelago, pangaea. or continents?

[stwils]

Which do you like to play? archipelago, pangaea, or continents?

And how much water coverage? 80%, 70%, or 60%?

And what about how old a world you choose? I know 5 billion years probably gives you more good things, but I somehow love the young world and all its wildness.

If you were setting up a game for a beginner, what would you choose?

(I'm not going to ask about the size of the map, because I know most of you play huge. I still hang around tiny to standard because I like shorter games.)

Any thoughts on which are the easier map settings would be appreciated. And any thoughts on which are the most fun map settings would be equally appreciated.

stwils

 

[Curufinwe]

Pangaea because I hate boats (so sue me) and as much land as possible. good for builder games, and still fun for a military divergence on occasion.

 

[Knightblade pDM]

Personally, neither. I always go Random instead of picking one over the other two. I like naval battles but yet I like total land warfare, so if I had to pick one for the heck of it...Pangaea

 

[WarlordMatt]

I like continents, not too big, not too small.

 

[stwils]

Originally posted by Knightblade pDM
Personally, neither. I always go Random instead of picking one over the other two.

I have not done Random. I guess I am not willing yet to devote 8 hours of game play on a map that overwhelms me. However, I think your choosing Random is really in the spirit of the game and in the spirit of taking a chance and going for it.

stwils

 

[Frog Propaganda]

I like naval battles, but Pangaea is good fun every once in a while. Archipelago's with medium water content is the way to go though in the long run. Makes for good politics.

 

[Knightblade pDM]

Stwils,

Yeah to me that is the spirit of the game, the unknown. My civ is random, the enemies are random. Everything down to the barbarian aggression is random. And for map size, I go eenie meenie miney mo LOL. Sounds corny yes but it makes for a heck of a game. Playing in an unknown world where anything is possible..there's no better way

 

[Klasanov]

Continets, 60% water.

It seems if I go 70% water I usually end up getting stuck on some island. Happened with Babylon. I played through to the industrial age on a small "island" (I absoultely refuse to call that stupid piece of land a continent), and then happened on regent with the Germans (I want to do something other than the Japanese all day. Something new, something different, otherwise it gets boring). Both times as the Babs and the Germans, I selected 70% water for continents, and got stuck on some stupid island both times. The first time (as the Babs) was fine, as I had my own island. The second time, I got stuck with the Greeks, and so, needing to push them off for a landgrab, attacked them.

I can tell you that did not go very well at all. I usually play 60% water, and continents though.

 

[smallstepforman]

Lately I enjoy Archipelago maps more than Pangrea. You can encounter backward AI's, similar to what the English encountered in Australia, and the Europeans encountered in the Americas. Its fun to use Infantry and Tanks when attacking Pikemen and Knights.

 

[erix]

I like to play on pangaea with %80 water coverage.
The reason; Less space, no ships, more fun!

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

70% water, continents (strange things can happen - archipelagoes, 4 civs on each continent, pangaeas, 4 on one continent, 3 on another, 1 on another, etc) 4 billion years

Can make for an easy or hard game, and you never know which one you got until the middle ages

 

[trader/warrior]

i mostly use 70%water continents its really fun when you have faught land battles for a long time and suddently have to do a oversea invasion.

 

[stwils]

So what would you say is the easiest type map, water %, age, and all? Seriously. I am having a hard time winning.

Then what would you say was the most fun? (Winning aside.)

stwils[dance]

 

[MAS]

I used to go 5 bilion continens 70% water temporate. america (expand/industrius) few civs on large map.

But about a month ago i was setting up a game and though: what the heck, lets do it all random, i'll never learn how its like to have other settings otherwise!

i've been doing all random ever since, and play standart map not setting any civ sloth to "none". And i love it, i should have done it way before.
I hate firaxis for giving me the option to chose in the 1th place.

 

[Carver]

Continents, 60-70% water, large.

I like it all. A large map with continents gives you room for nice land battles as well as plenty of ocean for your navy to conquer the seas. Standard maps and smaller usually don't allow for the massive ground combat I like, and there's not enough room for early expansion. Plus, I always love trading for my first map of the other continent... seeing a whole new world just pop up is amazing.

 

[RoddyVR]

i dont have a standard set i play cause i been just barely having enough time to play the tournament games, but i realy liked the setting we had in 1-2
it was archipelago with minimal water (60% i gues), it was almost all one long island with like 3 or 4 bottlenecks,
i REALY like that kind of set up.

i am still trying to figure out what the world age thing does.
the manuel is useless for explaining it, could some one explain it to me.
if you do 2 maps with everythign the same except the age, whats the difference you will get?

 

[Graeme the mad]

70% continent of course - anything else is silly

As I understnad it the age thing is how lumped together the groups of terrain are - so old worlds have lots of big lumps of the smae terrain. Young world however have just a few squares of the same terrain together in most parts (though there will be some lumps which is very good)

 

[Bamspeedy]

i am still trying to figure out what the world age thing does.

Graeme got this right for the most part. The new worlds (3 billion) does clump terrain features together more. But also, with 3 billion you have many more mountains and hills (about 3 times as much). So on a 3 billion year map you may have vast mountain ranges where you you can't put any cities, or the cities will be very limited in size. On a 5 billion year map, you get the odd mountain here and there (like 1 hill in the middle of grassland, for example).

 

[wohmongarinf00l]

used to be continents, 60% water, default age.

now i play pangea, 5 billion, warm and wet for long conquer and build games.

 

[Moonsinger]

I have always played the random continent maps (except my current game which is on a pangaea map)