firstly, let me apologise for not having posted here for a while, the main reason being that, almost every time i try to study this map in detail, my head starts to hurt.
cairnswk wrote:if an Emperor gets a God, then that is another two armies at the Emperor's disposal.
I think 5 is a good number for these Emperors because of this factor, and look at Julius Caesar....he's got two easy bonuses attached and a third easy one if you get Julia.
Let's keep it at 5, and make these Emperors worth a decent fight to get/
5 neutrals for emperors is good. however, julius caesar isn't an emperor and cannot access the gods directly, so 3 neutrals for him is better.
the number of starting territories is 45, a bad number for two-player games, since player 1 can reduce player 2's deployment by winning only one territory from him on turn 1. there is only one single-child family without neutrals, so i propose that we put 3 neutrals on julia major to avoid anyone gaining this bonus from the drop, with the beneficial side-effect that the number of starting territories comes down to 44.
at the moment, the bonuses are heavily weighted toward the gods, with childless families being worth relatively more than families with children.
the marcus v agrippa with julia the elder bonus can be doubled from +4 to +8: it's undoubtedly the most difficult bonus to hold, as 6 members of that family are vulnerable to poison.
the drusus with antonia bonus can also be doubled, this time from +3 to +6: it's a lot more connected than any other bonus.
i'd further like to see the agrippina with germanicus bonus upgraded from +5 to +7, with all of the 2-child families being increased to +3, so that it's possible to counter someone who has lucky dice when attacking an emperor and thus has sole access to the gods.
ian.