I wanted to avoid the rng factor of early AI Oracle from being a deciding factor in the competition. Every team going for Oracle first would get boring. I was stunned that almost every team tried for it anyhow.
In my tests...
Spoiler :One out of about 40 tries I was able to get beakers into Priesthood. t13-14 is as late as I've seen it go. So I am biting my nails since PR are in uncharted waters.
I have NOT tested it very thoroughly, though, so let me know how it works for you.
That is one huge stack apostrophe have just found. I count 40 or so units. Leaving nappy last has its price. We faced a lot of units with Alex but all his troops were backwards and in several smaller stacks.
Your Oracle trap / ??? was one of the strong ideas on this well thought out map imo.
While i was thinking the Ironclad was too weak, with it moving away from it's blocking position.
on a well thought out map from me too.I'm glad you thought the map/scenario well thought out. About the ironclad, its hard to know what top players will find too difficult or too easy. I figured forts would play big, if you had the worker turns to spare. Really, it was a lot of thought to make Alum Corp NOT the obvious choice... when I should probably have put more effort to making sushi less appealing?
on a well thought out map from me too.
If TSR can pull off a win with Alum Corp, then I don't think Sushi being too appealing was a problem. The main problem with Alum was that nobody ever checks the corp screen. I think we were not the only team who didn't notice it until quite late (how many noticed it in the first couple of turnsets?). Of course that is really our own fault for not checking for any info available, but still I think a subtle hint somewhere in the game introduction wouldn't have been totally out of place. If everybody had known from T0 that Alum Corp is present, then we would have seen which was more appealing.
Just looking at the save again and noticed a tiny detail: Aluminium Corp has been founded already! All other Corps have not.
Since the demo screen indicates no AI cities have been founded, it must be barb property. And since Alu Corp only needs one resource (coal), I might presume this barb city has been tucked away somewhere pretty inaccessible. I was actually contemplating Alu Corp as an interesting option to go for with the presumeably few resources it would take to monopolize them all. All this seems to indicate the mapmaker might have thought the same and wanted to make this route slightly harder.
Aluminum Co already founded? Very interesting.... That opens the possibility of capturing the HQ and being able to win at Steam Power, without needing to push through to Rocketry to actually found the corporation. You may be right that the map maker will have done something tricky to prevent this from being too easy a target, but that is why exploration will be so important. We can try to find the HQ and see if it is possible to capture without ridiculous efforts. I admit I am envisioning a barb city surrounded by mountains with teleport traps, similar to the Evil Lair.
I think the big difference in going for either Sids/Alum is we knew where Sids resources were. Coal could have been anywhere.
I think at the beginning of the game Sushi and Alum would seem quite equal. It's fewer beakers to Steam Power, but on the other hand you could win on the same turn that you research Med without spending extra time hooking up missing resources.I think the big difference in going for either Sids/Alum is we knew where Sids resources were. Coal could have been anywhere.