Comms 
Recently, we played a multiplayer game with four players + 1 novice AI player. It was a randomly generated map, with wrap turned off. This means there would be corners and edges to the map. Having edges to the map is nice because it means players don't have to worry about being attacked from certain directions. On the other hand, if you're unlucky enough not to be backed-up against a map-edge, you don't have the advantage that other players do.The map was not visible, so, except for the immediate surroundings, it appeared as a black mass of "unknown" to everyone. Using the Game Viewer (which is only available once a game has ended), I pulled up a complete map - showing you what none of us knew at the beginning of the game:
Brit: Playing under the American flag
Moon: Playing under the EU flag
Steve: Playing under the Nazi flag
NormalDude: Playing under the Pirate flag
Yamamoto (novice AI): Playing under the Japanese War flag
This map's size was 1400x1200. For comparison, the smallest map size is 800x800 (40% the area of this map), and the largest map is 4000x3200 (7.5x the area of this map).
I started-off slightly towards the middle of the map. This made me a little nervous because I was afraid I might be accessible to several other players - who might gang up against me. I also worried that someone was located to the northwest, cutting off my ability to back my nation up against the edge of the map. For anyone to my northwest, I was the natural target.
We all started with the normal game units: one transport, one zeppelin, and two infantry.
I started off sending one infantry around my island, capturing the resources there. At the same time, I sent my zeppelin out exploring, put my remaining infantry on the transport, and sent it out looking for new lands to capture. I sent my transport to the northwest. I wanted to find out if any players were up there, and eliminate them from the game as soon as possible.
By turn 15, I had discovered and captured the island north of me, and discovered and partially-invaded the island to my northeast. There were three other small islands to my southeast and southwest. I had also researched the "factory" and "biplane" technology advancements, allowing me to build faster and explore territories around me faster. I was still unsure if there was another player to my northwest, so I was sending my biplane out to find any enemy units. Unfortunately, biplanes don't have very good range.
The game on turn 15:
I was keeping an eye on my northeast, as well. I knew it was only a matter of time before some player would be moving into that area. I needed to capture those oil and fish resources in the northeast before another player did. By capturing those resource, I also wanted to to establish a perimeter that would define the area as "mine".
On turn 23, I discovered Moon's oil resource in the northeast. He had captured it much earlier in the game - on turn 6, but he hadn't pushed any further west. Now, I knew who was to my northeast. Around the same time, the AI player was squeezed against the map by Steve. The AI started pushing north, and decided to declare war on me. So far, I had been pretty lucky; I had been winning all my battles with the militias in the neutral cities.
The game on turn 30:
There were a few tense turns around turn 35 when the AI was moving along my home-island with a fully-loaded transport. To make matters worse, I had moved a lot of my military off the island to capture other territories. Was the AI going to invade my most valuable island while it was vulnerable? I was trying desperately to churn-out ground units for defense. Then, for completely unknown reasons, the AI's transport suddenly turned around and left. It was inexplicable at the time, but (looking at the turn replay) it turns out that Steve had started invading one of the AI's important islands at that very moment. The AI seemed to be turning back to reinforce his own territory. Had Steve waited a few more turns, things would've gone very differently.
Between turns 30 and 45, Steve and the AI were fighting it out. Steve had captured one of the AI's islands - containing Boston and a Gold Mine. The AI responded by invading one of Steve's valuable islands.
I had figured out by this point that there simply wasn't enough room to my northwest for another player to be up there, so I was happily capturing neutral territory. Eager to discover more land, I started building an airfield on the island to my southeast. This would extend the range of my airforce.
I could see that we were running out of areas to expand into. I started thinking about who I wanted to attack. Moon was to my east. Steve was to my south. The AI was to my southwest. And, I still hadn't seen any of NormalDude's territory.
The game on turn 45:
Over the next five turns, the AI had captured a great deal of Steve's island. The AI was also pushing hard to recapture Boston and the gold mine - territories Steve had taken 15 turns earlier. I knew by this point that NormalDude was helping Steve with the AI's invasion. NormalDude was sending over ships and troops to fight-back the AI.
The game on turn 50:
On turn 50, Moon and I formed an alliance. We agreed to continually share maps. This meant that we could not only see the geography each other had discovered, but all of our units and all future unit-movements were fully visible to each other. If he saw another player's aircraft flying around, I could see it, too. We also began exchanging technology - which helped accelerate the pace of our technology research. We could tell that the two of us controlled slightly more than half of the map.
We began constructing a plan to capture the valuable island near the middle of the map. On turn 50, I already had a transport on my way to capture the unowned island, but unbeknownst to me, NormalDude also had a transport en-route to the same island. We both made landfall on the exact same turn. I had two units: an artillery and an infantry, and he had three: a tank and two infantry. We both frantically tried to capture the unowned cities and resources. Moon and I discussed the fact that we we needed to go to war soon - there was very little free territory left on the map, and now might as well be a good time to do it. Unfortunately, I was outgunned on the island.
To be continued ...
Brit: Playing under the American flag
Moon: Playing under the EU flag
Steve: Playing under the Nazi flag
NormalDude: Playing under the Pirate flag
Yamamoto (novice AI): Playing under the Japanese War flag
This map's size was 1400x1200. For comparison, the smallest map size is 800x800 (40% the area of this map), and the largest map is 4000x3200 (7.5x the area of this map).
I started-off slightly towards the middle of the map. This made me a little nervous because I was afraid I might be accessible to several other players - who might gang up against me. I also worried that someone was located to the northwest, cutting off my ability to back my nation up against the edge of the map. For anyone to my northwest, I was the natural target.
We all started with the normal game units: one transport, one zeppelin, and two infantry.
I started off sending one infantry around my island, capturing the resources there. At the same time, I sent my zeppelin out exploring, put my remaining infantry on the transport, and sent it out looking for new lands to capture. I sent my transport to the northwest. I wanted to find out if any players were up there, and eliminate them from the game as soon as possible.
By turn 15, I had discovered and captured the island north of me, and discovered and partially-invaded the island to my northeast. There were three other small islands to my southeast and southwest. I had also researched the "factory" and "biplane" technology advancements, allowing me to build faster and explore territories around me faster. I was still unsure if there was another player to my northwest, so I was sending my biplane out to find any enemy units. Unfortunately, biplanes don't have very good range.
The game on turn 15:
I was keeping an eye on my northeast, as well. I knew it was only a matter of time before some player would be moving into that area. I needed to capture those oil and fish resources in the northeast before another player did. By capturing those resource, I also wanted to to establish a perimeter that would define the area as "mine".
On turn 23, I discovered Moon's oil resource in the northeast. He had captured it much earlier in the game - on turn 6, but he hadn't pushed any further west. Now, I knew who was to my northeast. Around the same time, the AI player was squeezed against the map by Steve. The AI started pushing north, and decided to declare war on me. So far, I had been pretty lucky; I had been winning all my battles with the militias in the neutral cities.
The game on turn 30:
There were a few tense turns around turn 35 when the AI was moving along my home-island with a fully-loaded transport. To make matters worse, I had moved a lot of my military off the island to capture other territories. Was the AI going to invade my most valuable island while it was vulnerable? I was trying desperately to churn-out ground units for defense. Then, for completely unknown reasons, the AI's transport suddenly turned around and left. It was inexplicable at the time, but (looking at the turn replay) it turns out that Steve had started invading one of the AI's important islands at that very moment. The AI seemed to be turning back to reinforce his own territory. Had Steve waited a few more turns, things would've gone very differently.
Between turns 30 and 45, Steve and the AI were fighting it out. Steve had captured one of the AI's islands - containing Boston and a Gold Mine. The AI responded by invading one of Steve's valuable islands.
I had figured out by this point that there simply wasn't enough room to my northwest for another player to be up there, so I was happily capturing neutral territory. Eager to discover more land, I started building an airfield on the island to my southeast. This would extend the range of my airforce.
I could see that we were running out of areas to expand into. I started thinking about who I wanted to attack. Moon was to my east. Steve was to my south. The AI was to my southwest. And, I still hadn't seen any of NormalDude's territory.
The game on turn 45:
Over the next five turns, the AI had captured a great deal of Steve's island. The AI was also pushing hard to recapture Boston and the gold mine - territories Steve had taken 15 turns earlier. I knew by this point that NormalDude was helping Steve with the AI's invasion. NormalDude was sending over ships and troops to fight-back the AI.
The game on turn 50:
On turn 50, Moon and I formed an alliance. We agreed to continually share maps. This meant that we could not only see the geography each other had discovered, but all of our units and all future unit-movements were fully visible to each other. If he saw another player's aircraft flying around, I could see it, too. We also began exchanging technology - which helped accelerate the pace of our technology research. We could tell that the two of us controlled slightly more than half of the map.
We began constructing a plan to capture the valuable island near the middle of the map. On turn 50, I already had a transport on my way to capture the unowned island, but unbeknownst to me, NormalDude also had a transport en-route to the same island. We both made landfall on the exact same turn. I had two units: an artillery and an infantry, and he had three: a tank and two infantry. We both frantically tried to capture the unowned cities and resources. Moon and I discussed the fact that we we needed to go to war soon - there was very little free territory left on the map, and now might as well be a good time to do it. Unfortunately, I was outgunned on the island.
To be continued ...
