Hi all,
For my next game I thought I'd try posting my progress on here, as I figure having you lot pointing out my mistakes is probably the best way for me to learn and improve
To that end, I thought I'd start asking for opinions from the very beginning.
Goals:
I want to run a specialist economy - this is probably the only "must" I have. Its also something I've read a lot about, never tried before.
I tend towards fighting rather than diplomacy in most of my games, so a warmonger approach would be good.
I'd prefer land wars to naval wars - I've just finished a game as Vikings, and I took almost every city with an amphibious assault, so you could say I'm a bit sea sick at the moment.
I quite fancy playing as either English or Roman, for the UU more than anything, but if anyone can make a decent argument for any other, I'm happy to switch.
I prefer to play on the Marathon setting - it makes the wars more interesting, and your units aren't out of date by the end of each skirmish.
So, with that in mind, which initial settings should I choose?
Map size: standard or large? Standard would presumably be quicker, but perhaps less interesting? Is there a point where the map is too large for a conquest/domination victory to be plausible?
Map type: I like the look of the "hemispheres" or "big and small" maps, or anything that doesn't look too artificial.
Difficulty: My last game was on Warlord and was too easy, so Noble is a minimum. Would any advice I get from the forums be enough to justify jumping up to prince level?
Leader: Anything anyone can make a good argument for! Amenable to a specialist economy is obviously important, as is someone suitably warmongering, but neither of these place particularly strong restraints on the chosen leader. I'd quite like someone from an older era as I'd like to write up the game in the "voice" of the leader (something I've seen used very effectively in Rome:Total War write-ups), and its probably easier to get started like that with an older era leader. I suppose the real question is who are the best leaders for teaching the specialist economy?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
For my next game I thought I'd try posting my progress on here, as I figure having you lot pointing out my mistakes is probably the best way for me to learn and improve

Goals:
I want to run a specialist economy - this is probably the only "must" I have. Its also something I've read a lot about, never tried before.
I tend towards fighting rather than diplomacy in most of my games, so a warmonger approach would be good.
I'd prefer land wars to naval wars - I've just finished a game as Vikings, and I took almost every city with an amphibious assault, so you could say I'm a bit sea sick at the moment.

I quite fancy playing as either English or Roman, for the UU more than anything, but if anyone can make a decent argument for any other, I'm happy to switch.
I prefer to play on the Marathon setting - it makes the wars more interesting, and your units aren't out of date by the end of each skirmish.
So, with that in mind, which initial settings should I choose?
Map size: standard or large? Standard would presumably be quicker, but perhaps less interesting? Is there a point where the map is too large for a conquest/domination victory to be plausible?
Map type: I like the look of the "hemispheres" or "big and small" maps, or anything that doesn't look too artificial.
Difficulty: My last game was on Warlord and was too easy, so Noble is a minimum. Would any advice I get from the forums be enough to justify jumping up to prince level?
Leader: Anything anyone can make a good argument for! Amenable to a specialist economy is obviously important, as is someone suitably warmongering, but neither of these place particularly strong restraints on the chosen leader. I'd quite like someone from an older era as I'd like to write up the game in the "voice" of the leader (something I've seen used very effectively in Rome:Total War write-ups), and its probably easier to get started like that with an older era leader. I suppose the real question is who are the best leaders for teaching the specialist economy?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions