Thanks for explanations, chris & Septimius. Having both them makes it so much more clear.
As for balance, yes, trying to reach
the perfect balance can consume too much time to too little effect. But to reach
some balance is possible and I think this game's teams were balanced enough for it to matter. 3 teams had Death, Blood & Astral, respectively, while the 4th one had the best forging capability together with some good SC, etc. possibilities in Ashdod & Mictlan (summons). It's completely
mea culpa that we used what we had so poorly.
Of course, if we have a way to make it more balanced without going into the Quest for the Perfect Balance, we should use it. That's why we had pre-game discussion before this game and are having this discussion now. What in particular do you mean, chrispedersen, by teams offered for the 3rd game being not balanced? I think that in some cases we may agree with you...
And could you say what do you offer with "bid system" in more detail?
A map, of course, could be better. I hope it would be for the next game.
As for the random sites, etc. I think that restricting them makes sense for competitive chess-like games, but not for theme based ones. Everyone has a chance for something cool. It's in how you use cards you are dealt where skills are shown. Of course, chance still plays its part and it's especially impoortant when skills are near even. But so it goes.
Theoretically, we can include some important sites in the map, add heavy defense (and make them appropriately beautified in the map picture
), then exclude them from the random generation. But I'm not sure it is necessary. If someone wants to draw a special map, he/she may keep this idea in mind...