Mountains = artificial barrier?

[DaveShack]

After having seen several other manmade maps, I feel fairly confident that some of the long chains of mountains we're seeing are artificially placed to prevent too-early contact between teams. We asked for a map on which early rush tactics would not work, and it appears we got what we asked for.

If this assessment is correct, then to find another team we have to find a place where the mountain range can be crossed. Our exploration strategy might need to change to account for this possibility.

Are there any indications that other teams have met? We have only seen the wounded animal to indicate that we came fairly close to a random encounter a while back.

 

[HUSch]

1. The injured lion
Have somebody infos about healing of animals? There was only in the beginning a team who lost a warrior.
2. The chain of mountains as possibility to prevent early rushes.
I don't think that Ana will see behind the mountains any city. In my opinion every team has coastal and water-food-res.
3. Pass/gap in the mountain-chain
Ari sees a gap and 'll go into in 2200.
4. Meeting other teams
We get no info if/when another team meets a third. After we meet a team, we see how many espionage points go to us. If this is <4 the other team knows a third. I don't know other possibilities.

 

[peter grimes]

Having played several deathmatches on highlands maps, I can say that this map has all the hallmarks of that script: lots of plains, hills, and meandering ridges of mountains. It is not uncommon to encounter well-sheltered cul-de-sacs and other types of dead-ends.

Highlands maps make food resources all the more important, since it's frequently difficult to chain irrigations. But the prevalence of floodplains looks to be a nerfing of this. I've never seen so many floodplains and river basins on a highlands map.

One thing to look carefully for, as HUSch noted in #3, is mountain passes. These arise when there are two mountains on adjacent diagonal tiles. I have been caught several times by thinking a mountain redoubt secure, only to discover that there was a pass that I had overlooked, and the next thing you know there's a stack of catapults behind your defenses

But to respond to the title of this post, I'm not convinced that the mountain ranges are artificial - this map resembles a highlands script pretty closely.

 

[Tinkerbell]

I've never seen this kind of map before, but I guess it's some kind of even map. This makes me guess all teams started near the coast, and not one in the middle.

 

[Rantamplanzzz]

Yeah I agree with the above, i suggest to build a work boat and start surrounding the continent for finding the rest of civilizations.

Unles they manually placed an ocean tile adjent to land (and im not sure thats posible to do) we should be able to find every civilization doing that.

 

[topas]

I also think that these Mountains are most probably artificial. (also some of highlands/global highlands maps can have similar kinds of peaks ... but highlands usually don't have as much plain lands (esp. floods))
Also the 4-tile-freshwater-lake with the desert around in the south appears "manmade". ... somehow I expect another teams about 10 tiles south of it...

My gut feeling says, that
- every team started coastal
- the starting positions might look like a pentagram
- every team has kind of a "peaks/mountains-pocket" with 2 or more likely 3 "entrances"
- every team has to one "entrance" to its 2 closest neighbors and 1 "entrance" to some kind of "central battleground"

I know there are a lot of assumptions and feelings in it, that I cannot prove right now, but this is how the map feels right now...