After playing around with tectonic islands, I've found it keeps giving me a couple of Japan-like isles and afew Cuba's, with far too much empty sea. Hard to play on standard size with 12 civ's! Earth-like 60% water seems to give me the most consistent balance that I like. If the abruptness of fertile land hard next to ice disturbs you, just take the ice option off.
Got a game going and found the tectonic feature works well for some strategic developments; though I found I could get similar results playing 'global highlands/ridgelines'.
I'm playing as Hannibal. Quickly wiped the Indians, got their holy Budda city.
Only me and Mongol mates are Budda. The noted infidels are all Hindu. The infidels are all constantly waging war on me. My Mongolian 'close friends' are allowing them to funnel through his territory to attack me with huge stacks. I repeatedly ask Ghengis to stop letting these hatemongers through, but he says they are all good religious friends (go figure!).
I can't handle constant war with basically all 4 of the Hindu zealouts. My traitorous friend won't help either, and with a vassal, is pulling away....
Then, after close map inspection, I see the enemy all have to funnel through this 1 square gap on the Mongol border. I immediately change from a passive home defence and beat them back to this vital pass. It is there I make my stand, with a stack of my best modern units on the hill, soaking up the waves and delievering me endless generals. Shame the AI has'nt bothered to bypass my hard crust and simply land troops by boat into my soft, gooey core!
But this tectonic feature shows how subtle it can influence game maps. Like in the real world, it helps shape and influence nations boundries. The odd single mountain tile can be ignored; is a waste of a productive tile to most players, or is probably a Holy Mt. But a wall of mountains, now that's another kettle of fish!
