Unfair galaxies?

I think unfair galaxies are the most interesting type. There are some civs that are major treats, and some that are just stepping stones on your way to the top. If everyone's evenly matched, then your first little success makes you the most powerful civ, and you've pretty much won the game.

But, if you want it as fair as possible, you should use scattered stars instead of tight clusters. This will spread the planets more evenly. A larger galaxy or fewer civs might help average things out, too.

Actually, I like the very unbalanced galaxies! It makes it more fun if you have an unfair advantage and it makes it also more fun when you have a disadvantage cos than you have to think twice as hard

It is a win-win situation!

I prefer unbalance also, it adds to the fun/challenge.

Ya i agree an unfair setup is better. Usually 1-2 of the civs won't do much anyway, so thier neighbors will do better even in a fair start.

Best is 1-2 AI's in a great setup, you close to 1-2 civs.

Best advice is to tuff it out ...
If you can turn a bad start to "back in the game"
That is one of the best feats in the game !!!!!

yep, while there are cases where your starting position is utterly impossible most of the time you have a chance. and those victories are the sweetest by far. what you need to do is find the combination of map size, difficulty, and # of opponents that you find most enjoyable. try fiddling with those setting and ctrl-n until you get a decent start to test it. when you find one you find just a little easy, but resonably fun just stick with it and lay off the ctrl-n to jack up the challenge a bit. once you settle on the size/# you can adjust the difficulty as needed.

map size has a huge impact on the pacing of the game. and i don't just mean the length of the game. larger maps give you some room for error and inefficiency in your initial colony rush where on a smaller may you can loose the game in a hurry if you miss out on just one or 2 planets. if you only have one hour a day to play the smaller maps are prob the only way to go tho. dragging a game out over a whole month just doesn't cut it for most ppl

I actually do play some of the grossly unfair maps when I am in a disadvantaged start. But I seem to be getting starts where the Korx get 40 planets and the Your get 40 more and everyone else gets 3-5. If I don't quickly eat all the little guys then I am dead. Now I might as well be playing a game with only 2 other civs. That is why I don't like them much.

I do agree (and said so I think) that bigger galaxies don't have this problem so much, but they take too long for my tastes. I don't want to spend weeks on a game, just a few nights. I will try 'scattered' stars and see how that works.

I guess the other problem is that on Crippling it is too easy to win, but Masochistic is now darn hard to win on 1.2 so I have been looking for a better game by changing other aspects of the game and playing on Crippling.

My machine isn't powerful enough to run more than a medium map with a normal amount of stars so I don't run into that problem too often.