I've seen some players post that they prefer to choose a map size one level smaller than is recommended for the number of factions. I like to play with all eight factions included and the game recommends a large or huge map for eight players. Would it ever be good to play on a normal sized map (recommend for 6 players) while playing with eight? Some have suggested that this makes the end game more exciting and cuts down on late game micromanagement. What do you think?



Thanks in advance.



also: do you prefer playing on a pangea map or a 2 continents map? Thanks in advance.

I have yet to finish a damn game and I'm 27 hours in! Ahhh I'm so OCD (I'm not OCD)! But I'd also want to try this...perhaps 3 or 4 territories per person until the wars wage.

I'm a big proponent of this. IMHO, the "recommended" size maps are way too large and allow too much solo/land grab play before you start to interact with your neighbors. It also makes the game longer, adds management and heavily favors the factions that can expand effectively.



For example this beast of a multiplayer game we played last month -> http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/entry.php?687-Tuesday-Night-Fights-After-Action-Report-8-5-2014. I was the Orange Player and didn't even meet the Blue (Vaulter) player until the last quarter of the game. I had very little interaction with most of the other Empires. It took ~10 turns just to get half-way around the map. The entire game took ~9 hours (on Fast). The game has changed a lot since then though.



~5 Regions per player is the sweet spot. Some players love huge maps and sandbox game play, but if you want a tighter, more balanced, game it is best to play on smaller maps.

I prefer the map to have harsh terrain and difficult navigation.

So I like to play 8 random factions on a map for 8 players with 3-4 continents, many islands and chaotic terrain. The water percentage is around 50%. This way, you will share a continent with 1 or 2 other rivals, but you still have the chance to go naval and settle other continents and isolated islands while you fight the rivals on YOUR continent. Meanwhile, trying to be diplomatic with far away factions. This setup allows for multiple approaches to victory... cuz I don't like being at war for too long



A little naval exploration makes you feel like an exploring pirate or something. Highly recommended! (still hoping for naval battles in future add-ons though)

I'll play with 6-8 factions on the appropriate map size, but I'll set all my landmass generation settings to chaotic, add lots of rivers, set lake size to random and choose 2 continents. What this will do is add varying sized lakes to the land mass, also making the edges of the land mass very jagged making the actual continent have less land and in turn less regions. However when I play on a small map with 4 factions I will select tiny regions as it helps give every faction about 4-6 regions to grab during expansion, regular sized regions on a small map are too few imo.