unfair starting positions

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at indiegamedesign dot com>]

Ok, I've RSOTFM, and also searched some of the archives, but it's 4:30
am and I'm tired.  I've played a number of games of standard Xconq the
past 2 days, typically with 11 players.  I haven't finished any games
because I keep getting bored.  Mainly this is due to the Unfair Starting
Positions.  For instance:

- I am plopped down next to lotsa independent cities.  I take 'em over
and make lotsa infantry.  I crush everything around me.  This is pretty
unfair to the AIs, they don't stand a chance when I'm given so many
cities as starting resources.  Boredom sets in when I've got too many
units to push around.

- Some AI gets that same initial benefit and I don't.  I get crushed.

- One time half of my cities were on one island, and half of my cities
on another, with a 1 hex strip of water separating them.  One AI with a
full set of concentrated cities quickly crushed me in the north.  A
second AI with a full set of concentrated cities crushed me a little
less quickly in the south.  I could have linked the two halves with a
transport, but I seriously doubt it would have mattered.

- One time I was on a continent, very far away from 2 enemies on the
same continent, and very far by water from anything else.  The 2 enemies
consolidated into 1 enemy before I could get there.  I got a toehold on
an independent city he hadn't conquered yet, but he showed up with a
gazillion units.

- One time I had a large ocean to the west of my starting locations, and
no coastal cities whatsoever.  I didn't play that game out, but I'm
thinking that an enemy could make unimpeded landings on that flank, I'd
never be able to defend navally against them.  There is of course air
power, but the situation seems really dumb.

I'm realizing this is very unlike the Civ drill, where you actually
build your own empire and can vouch for its quality to some degree.
So... is standard Xconq a representative sample of starting position
problems?  Or has some other game package solved these issues?
Regardless, what are people's thoughts about these issues?


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

Taking risk where others will not.