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[Culise]

There's plenty of new people here (me, USEC_OFFICER, and I messaged one other). You can't learn unless you play, right?
Basic expansion against independents and some scripting gets you far and that doesn't take long. If you're unsure you can take an SC pretender to help with early expansion.

I've read somewhere that (average) 1 province per turn is a good starting point for first year. In my current game at 401 I botched that up with some silly scripting mistakes on my part. Lost most of my army. 25 turns into the game and at worst I'm the fourth player to be killed. At worst. The game is far from over for me and I was at <10 provinces at the end of year 1.
There's plenty of things I did wrong, both in-game and meta. Now I know a wee bit better. I plan to learn more with this round.

The most important thing is to doodle a bit. Pick a nation, play some games of the first ~10-20 turns. Vary your pretender design, vary your expansion army compositions. See what works, what doesn't. SP won't teach you what's good midgame versus humans so I'll leave that to online games.

And don't fret about pretender design. I'm not wholly satisfied with my 4.01 pretender, I could have done her a lot better but she's done what I wanted her to. Not as effectively and some things are out of her reach due to bad design on my part. Live and learn.

Yeah, I've played only singleplayer for a while (since Dom2, though that was only a little bit; most of my game experience is with 3 and 4).  I'm just really, really bad at it; I've maybe beat the AI a handful of times, and that only on normal (without the extra cheat bonuses the AI gets).  Still, I look forward to playing with everyone; if nothing else, it'll be a learning experience to see how other players handle the game, and maybe improve my own skills from observation. ^_^

[Hugehead]

I'd like to join, I'll be in as Man.

[Delta Foxtrot]

My idea of a Dominions game done BAY12STYLE is:
1)Make thread
2)Waffle for three weeks
3)Maybe start game
4)Gay old time

So the tentative plan is for me to create the game on llamaserver saturday 4th so that people can submit their pretenders. Hopefully all get their pretenders in on sunday so we can start this by monday 6th. Last minute delaying wafflings allowed.

This would mean no more sign-ups after friday 3th. I think we'll have decent enough showing by then.

In the meantime, I'll be divying up my time between learning how to Jomon and looking for some 5-7 player maps, preferably with some water. If anyone has any suggestions, be they default or custom maps, I'm all ears. I'm looking for about 90+ land provinces and some water, give or take.

fakeedit:
Culise, then that's more than I've played, barring round 4:01 here. I only got on board with Dom4 and I mostly play early game (years 1-3 in-game) to learn how to get a nation going. I figure any more and it won't prepare me for human opponents, so why bother.
If I want dominion-esque singleplayer, I play either Conquest of Elysium or Master of Magic.

realedit:
Biddyn (84+9) would give us 14 land provinces per player and a few puddles for Jomon/Mictlan/Patala to scuffle over. Picture in spoiler:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd prefer not to go too much over 15 provinces/player.
Any comments? I'd particularly want to hear about Boksi (and Karlito) regarding the water provinces.

[Karlito]

I have to relearn how to Mictlan for Dominions 4, but I always treated the Atlantian troops as a neat auxiliary, useful if there's a water nation to fight, but otherwise there's not much reason for Mictlan to enter the seas. They can't build or bloodhunt there, so I wouldn't mind if there were no ocean provinces at all.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Map I suggested has 9 provinces divided into two puddles and some. Not really water nation friendly but enough for three+ nations to scuffle about. Good choice, yes?

[Karlito]

Yes, it is also really pretty, as has been previously mentioned.

Good news everyone! I'm pretty sure it's still possible to build up a mountain of Blood slaves and drown the world in a Rain of hyper-blessed jaguar warriors in Dominions 4.

[lijacote]

I'd like to join as well, but I haven't thought of a nation I'd like to play in LA. I'll have to take a look at the map. If it has proper caves, I'd very much like to try out Agartha. Humans, necromancers and ancient, looted halls of waning glory. Shut-in otakus who used to play with dolls.

For anyone not familiar with me, this would be my... fourth game of multiplayer, so not really a seasoned veteran.

[Delta Foxtrot]

As long as it's not Lemuria

Welcome aboard, I'll peg you as Agartha for now.
The current map of choice (liable to change as dissenters voice out) has 4 cave provinces. It's not Valanis but it's something. Are Agarthans guaranteed to start with caves? I don't play them much in SP but when I do they always start in one.

edit: I edited some of the game settings. They're still quite negotiable. Thrones in particular caused some disagreements for round 401 pre-game. I put my preferred ratios up there but, again, jagged jaws of democracy and all that.

[Culise]

For thrones, I've always been fond of an even distribution (point-wise) between tier 1 and tiers 2+3, which also gives a decent distribution of power levels.  For 18 points in total, that would be a 9/3/1 distribution.  I'm perfectly fine with 0/9/0 as well, though; it has the benefit of being even. 

And since we have LA Man, I'll go with LA Pangaea.  It should be quite fun. ^_^

[E. Albright]

I'll have to take a look at the map. If it has proper caves, I'd very much like to try out Agartha.

Whether or not it has "proper" caves is debatable. It's got four non-contiguous cave provinces out of 84+9 provinces. However, of Argatha's three eras, Ktonian Dead is the least tied to the underground; they've got no explicitly subterranean spells or recruitment.

[Margrave]

Good news everyone! I'm pretty sure it's still possible to build up a mountain of Blood slaves and drown the world in a Rain of hyper-blessed jaguar warriors in Dominions 4.

Boy I wish I had known that didn't work MA Mictlan. I may not have made the nation but I'm stuck with it now. And we all know how that's going to turn out soon...

So what better time to sign up. If you're still looking for players, I'd like to pick Marignon.

[E. Albright]

Are Agarthans guaranteed to start with caves? I don't play them much in SP but when I do they always start in one.

Not guaranteed per se, but it's their preferred terrain, so all other things being equal the nation placement routine will place them in a cave if possible.

[Delta Foxtrot]

So what better time to sign up. If you're still looking for players, I'd like to pick Marignon.

I'll peg you in.

Unfortunately that puts us at 10,5 land provinces per player. 11,6 for land+water. Playable, but quite small. I'll be looking for something a bit bigger on the assumption that most people prefer 15/player to 10/player.

Peliwyr (127+18) - same style as Biddyn
15 land provinces per player. 18 for land+water. Medium-big, workable map. I'll check its cave content after posting. Water amount and distribution should sate Boksi.

edit:
@lijacote:
There's five caves, three are connected to each other. Should be enough for a not really cave dependant nation I think.

[Margrave]

Thanks, but you will soon regret it! For I have already waffled and would like to pick Abysia instead (as long as no one else minds). Never played them, what could go wrong?

And Peliwyr looks just fine.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Just in case it's unclear, I'll create the game at about friday/saturday 3th/4th. I take it that silent majority accepts my chosen settings in the OP if no-one has any ideas to the contrary before then.

I increased the number of thrones to 1 per 10 provinces. 0/14/0. 10 thrones wins the game.
Culise suggested a more balanced number of different level thrones so I came up with is 8/4/2. x/22p needed to win. If we're going that route I'd probably go with either 16/22 or 14/22 needed to win.