What maps don't have a ton of space on large?

[Leathaface]

I have tried Asia and Mediterreanean recently. Large map size, plus I added another Civ manually to make 11 Civ's in total for both maps. I did this so there wouldn't be a lot of spare space.

With Asia, I started in between a bunch of mountains. I had a massive expansive desert to my north east which had zero Civs. I had space north of me with no Civ. Brazil was to my west, they expanded 2 cities west of their capital, and still had loads of space.

With the mediterreanean I started on the coast in grassland with some mountains. To my west was sea, many tiles south east of me I encountered Austria, then Myans furthers south east. Montezuma to my east but many tiles apart. He could expand 3 cities towards me yet i'd still have plenty of space.

What are some of the maps only viewable under "Advanced setup" which don't have a load of spare space to expand, even after you manually add an extra Civ. I have used Pangea many many times and would like a different flavour for a bit.

 

[Redaxe]

Let me understand what you mean, you want a map that doesn't favor wide expansion? You should try setting the sea level to high as that should shrink that amount of land available. You could try continents plus that usually has interesting landforms. On a large map you can usually safely add about 3-4 extra civs and it still won't be too cramped, not sure with high sea levels though.

 

[Kintara]

Continents+ puts all the CSs on islands, which actually increases the amount of land you can expand into.

Personally, I'd just add more civs. Is staying at Large a requirement? If so, why?

 

[Redaxe]

Continents+ puts all the CSs on islands, which actually increases the amount of land you can expand into.

Personally, I'd just add more civs. Is staying at Large a requirement? If so, why?

Ahh ok I didn't realise that so maybe stick with continents. But yeah adding more Civs is the way to go. You can usually safely fit an extra 4 in.

 

[Leathaface]

Continents+ puts all the CSs on islands, which actually increases the amount of land you can expand into.

Personally, I'd just add more civs. Is staying at Large a requirement? If so, why?

I've put 380 hours into the game so far, but I haven't played many large maps. It was around the 300 hours mark I started my first large map.

I'd just like a different size map than standard.

 

[Leathaface]

Are there maps that fit my criteria other than continents.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Continents+ puts all the CSs on islands, which actually increases the amount of land you can expand into.

I think that is a bit misleading. The island masses they spawn on can be large enough to sustain other cities and there can be a few CS's on the one island mass. So while they do spawn on an island, it is not always a tiny island.


(I would also add Australia is an island with no shortage of room).

 

[Seabastian Civ]

I've become enamored with Large Europe, 14 civs/18 city states. Everyone has room for 3 cities, then theres some no mans land for additional cities. Venice is your neighbor? Awesome. Iroquois or Poland, you better hit that bottom half of the tech tree because war and forward settling is coming.

I turn start bias off and random personalities on when I play this configuration. I set my civ to random for kicks

Check it out, tell me what you think.

 

[Kintara]

I think that is a bit misleading. The island masses they spawn on can be large enough to sustain other cities and there can be a few CS's on the one island mass. So while they do spawn on an island, it is not always a tiny island.


(I would also add Australia is an island with no shortage of room).

Putting all or most of the CSs on islands means that more of their tiles are likely to be projected into the ocean instead of the land.

 

[Matoro]

Use really any of "default maps" (continents, pangaea, terra, fractal, archipelago) and throw in a couple of additional civs.

 

[Matthew.]

If playing a large map, just add 13 Civs/26 CS's. This will get you a similar amount of space compared to default standard maps. If you want something in between, you could try setting water level to high and go with something like 11/22.

I find 16/16 on large maps enjoyable. I think having too many CS's on the map ends up breaking the game. I still set water level to low for more space, because I prefer a little more breathing room and I find it helps the AI.

 

[erisiamk]

"Terra" maps always have less space than the other maps I've tried out for expansion; it's quite similar to playing a Continents map where all of the civs start on a single continent. I'd highly suggest that if you want things to feel cramped without adding more civs than you're comfortable with.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Putting all or most of the CSs on islands means that more of their tiles are likely to be projected into the ocean instead of the land.

I am playing continents plus at the moment and of the map I have discovered, 8 of the CS's are on continents with other Civilizations Included are two that have no ocean access.

To say all are on islands is wrong. I don't think anymore are on islands than you would find in a similar type map such as small continents.

 

[Kintara]

I am playing continents plus at the moment and of the map I have discovered, 8 of the CS's are on continents with other Civilizations Included are two that have no ocean access.

To say all are on islands is wrong. I don't think anymore are on islands than you would find in a similar type map such as small continents.

Not my experience, but so be it.

Edit: Easy way to get a feel for the maps is to just start a game, play one turn, then retire and check out the map replay.

 

[Nifttyyy]

I've found that Fractal generally decreases the amount of land that civs have to expand.. Although it is totally random, most of the snaky continents are either narrow or small in different ways. Fractal is, in my opinion, the best map-type to play on.. Not sure about anyone else though. Lots of inland seas and large lakes on fractal too adding for some really interesting games. I once had to build 2 channel cities just to get into an inland sea so I could kill Korea before he built the spaceship. 75 turns of blitzkrieg warfare, 3 civs and 10 cities later it had been done. Then the Ottomans built the Spaceship before I could get to them but yeah I'd try fractal for an interesting game.