pamoa wrote:iancanton wrote:is the number of neutrals on the ship a bit high at 5 rather than 3? I'd certainly avoid attacking 5 neutrals unless there was no other way, so the bonus regions in Africa and Oceania can almost be regarded as not having borders with the colonial powers during the opening and midgame.oaktown wrote:That was kind of the idea - it should take a fairly strong European power to control the seas and disrupt empires abroad. Perhaps it is enough that it's a killer neutral?
The solution IS very acceptable. As I see it, the killer neutral means that if any European power does want it, it can disrupt any opponent commercial line for a while then it should be killer neutral 3 and could also happen at the beginning of the game, if someone get a good drop by example.
oaktown wrote:asl80 wrote:so far i;m thinking that you've made a good compromise with the boat ... but am leaning towards an increase in its nuetral value ... remembering the intense power that can be wielded by a bombard position ... i.e. waterloo and arms race.
The difference here is that the boat is a killer neutral - you can't stack armies there to level people at will, and any armies that you do move in will either have to be used to attack or you lose them.
although the killer neutrals are showing strong support, i'm less convinced that someone will go through 5 neutrals (and therefore lose maybe 4 armies from attacking the ship plus at least 2 armies that are needed to carry out a feeble 1v1 suicide mission against a colony) to deprive an opponent of only 4 armies next turn: +4 is the highest value of bonus in a region that contains a colony. with 5 killer neutrals, i can see the ship becoming a useful weapon only when trying to break two or more bonuses in the same turn - but perhaps that's intentional.
any chance of persia regaining its border with british india, which it hasn't had since page 1?
ian.