Most crowded small continent?

[Siegmund]

How many civs have you seen the AI park on the same continent on a random map?

Playing a game this week with parameters set to small landmass, normal climate, 3 billion years, I got placed on oneof those long stringy continents, max dimensions about 30 squares EW and 12 squares NS, but only 3 to 5 squares wide at any given point.

When I have played "small landmass" random maps, I've never had more than one neighbor who could reach me by land. But this time, I was trapped between France on the west and Russia on the east -- and as soon as I wiped out the French, I wished I hadn't -- because Paris, built on a 2-square-wide bottleneck, had been shielding me from the Mongols, who ALSO were crowded onto this continent! To my further dismay the southern half of my continent was liberally sprinkled with tundra.

Playing on King level, it was one of the most challenging maps I had ever faced. It took me several tries to figure out how to cope with this before I had a game that was worth playing more than the first 1000 years.

The Americans and Babylonians, lucky devils, got nice big continents at better latitudes with no competition.

Does anyone else recall playing a map that was so stacked against you?

 

[Wil]

Is small landmass the default?
I always use the default options, random maps, and your chances of winning depend much on the size of your continent and who's there with you.
It happens that 3 civs are on a relatively small continent, and that can be a curse or a blessing. Sure thing is you must conquer them all!

 

[Siegmund]

No, the default is "regular landmass," or something like that ... on default settings 2 or 3 civs per continent on about 3 continents is normal.

On "small landmass" you typically have a continent to yourself with room for 6-8 cities, or shared with one other civ with room for 8-10. The seven civs are rarely on fewer than 5 continents. That was why it seemed so odd to me to have 4 of us all packed into one island.

 

[Wil]

Is your score somehow reduced if choose this option, or has it nothing to do? Because, it is an advantage if you know you have a continent for yourself from the beginning.

 

[Siegmund]

Choice of climate, age, and landmass doesn't affect the scoring. Civ1 score is simple: count up citizens, count up wonders, count up years of world peace, count up spaceship.

This is fair, really -- since everyone on the planet is affected similarly. If you have a good chance of starting on a small continent by yourself, most of the AI civs will also get to have a continent to themselves.

 

[Brainly]

There is a way it affects your score. Not directly, but if you have more land you can have more cities and more people don't you think?

 

[covok48]

I can see the horror to many civs crowded in one small place.

Try having me and the capitals of four rivals within two squares of each other.