Embark 52
Tower 52Am I correct that building a city to start will raise my base population to 2 (giving me 2 actions next turn?)
I've got no objection to the GM playing; as he already pointed out, there's no real conflict of interest barring severe ambiguity in the rules, and we can burn that bridge if/when we come to it.
I will ask, is it legal to expand multiple times in the same direction in one turn? For example, if I have 2 actions next turn and own 52, would I be able to expand to both 53 and 54, or would I be restricted to tiles adjacent to 52 at the start of my turn?
Also, what is the difference between the Builder's Deforest ability and the regular deforest action under Improve (there doesn't seem to be one; I'm not complaining, Tower is awesome, just making sure I didn't miss something.)
RE: Oceans and pop cap, I imagine staking a claim to an Ocean tile involves sending out many patrol ships to combat the horrible monsters living there, making it safe to traverse (since really, why would you claim Ocean if there's an easier way to the land on the other side?) That's why it's such a population sink to claim in the first place, unless you're Merfolk, and if you're Merfolk then you are perfectly justified in having underwater villages/cities.
As far as Aquatic Channel being underpowered, GWG, as far as I can see there's nothing in the action description saying you have to be adjacent to the border you want to channel; it's already a potent offensive power that reaches across the map. This also suggests that the non-Aquatic equivalent should specifically require you to be adjacent to the border you want to Canal, making it mostly useful for extending irrigation instead of terrain destro. I'm also assuming that turning a tile with a city on it into a lake would destroy the city unless that's your favored terrain; if that's the case, are Towers immune (since they can be built anywhere?)
As a side note, on the topic of rules lawyering the Arid heresy's Shore Up ability also doesn't specify "owned or neighboring," which may not be how the rule is intended, since it can nuke lakes from across the map.
As far as Deluge being overpowered, it's nothing that scares me as much as potential cross-map Channeling. It turns non-mountains into Lakes, yeah, which messes up fields and most likely cities, but it also gives you a slight defense buff, and it can't affect fortifications on that tile, so you get a nice little wall out of the deal. Merfolk don't ignore lake movement penalties, just ocean, so it's not like they can cheaply Deluge their way into the heart of your civ and wreck everything. A war with Aquatic involves losing your borders to lakes, at which point the borders are slow and easy to defend if your population density is comparable; hardly worse than the other aggressive heresies.