Game summary: remove the most powerful EA nations from the mix and make changes to allow all players a chance at various SC summons.
Basic settings
Age: EA
Players: 8
Hosting: llamaserver
Hosting interval: 24 hours up to turn 25, 48 hours up to turn 50, 72 hours from then on
Mods: modified version of CBM 1.6 and EDM 1.1 (see changes below)
Map:
Land of Ethereal Squirrels with fixed starts
HoF: 15
All other settings default
Available nations
I've enjoyed Burnsaber's Cripple Fight series of games that include a mix of nations without a HoF victory. In this game I've focused on one era and used my own judgement rather than win/loss stats in selecting the available nations. I should note that of course this is subjective; especially for nations that were on the bubble it's not too hard to argue that nation x should have been included and nation y should have been banned. But the main point is that the nations most clearly at the top of the EA pile have been removed from play. If you think I've allowed a nation that is too powerful then I encourage you to choose it and show me and the other players the mistake I made.
So, here's the lineup of available nations (8 of 11 will be chosen):
Abysia
Agartha - ghoul31
Arcoscephale - Zeldor
C'tis - Squirrelloid
Ermor - Graeme Dice
Kailasa
Marverni - sansanjuan
Pangaea
Tir na n'Og - Valerius
Ulm - odeoderok
Yomi - 13lackGu4rd
SC changes
I've made some changes to SCs. Partly this is a rebalancing, but even more it's opening up SC options to everyone such that you'll have decent choices regardless of what type of gem income ends up being your strongest.
Tarts
The big change here is that tarts arrive as affliction free commanders. So, you *don't* need GoH or the Chalice to take advantage of them. Of course those things would be handy for healing injured tarts as well as other purposes - but they aren't necessary to summon them cost efficiently. Speaking of costs, tarts now cost 35 death gems, priced in line with other SC summons. Since they are all commanders there is no need for GoR.
With tarts being open to all players, as well as the other SC options available, I removed the nerf to their HP introduced in CBM 1.6.
Note: in order to make this work the way I wanted I had to copy one of the spells that summons a random commander from a predefined group (I ended up using Hinnom's Grigori summon). Since this spell summons from a group of 6 I had to drop one tart. I've removed the monstrum and made that a separate troop summon (tentatively Conj. 9, D6 caster, 12 gem cost). More importantly, since Grigori are unique summons each turn only six tarts can be summoned. Beyond that casters will receive a message that there was no answer to the summoning. That means this method doesn't scale well but with only 8 players and with tarts now costing 35 gems each I don't think we'll run into problems. If we occasionally do, well that's just a risk of summoning, similar to elemental royalty. Which brings us to...
Elemental royalty
I've always like the elemental royalty but felt they were somewhat underwhelming. So, I've given them boosts. First, they are non-unique. Note that this works just like the tart method described above, so each turn only 3 AQs, 3 WQs, 2 EKs, and 2 FKs can be summoned. As with tarts, the count resets each turn.
Other boosts:
AQ: HP 70, regen 10, recuperation, darkvision 100
WQ: HP 95, regen 10, recuperation, darkvision 100, Queen of Lakes has sailing
EK: HP 240, regen 20, recuperation, darkvision 100
FK: HP 120 and 160, regen 10, recuperation, darkvision 100
As you can see these changes are intended to give the elemental royalty durability and the ability to operate on equal footing with undead/demons under darkness.
Diversity summons
Only a few changes here.
Grendelkin: HP 240 --> 200, strength 38 --> 32, poor amphibian, CR 50, cost 40 --> 35 gems
Granite Cyclops: HP 80 --> 120
Ember Lord: map move 3 (technically 2 + flying)
Treant: cost 40 --> 35 gems
Misc. changes
Banned globals: Arcane Nexus, Astral Corruption, Burden of Time, Forge of the Ancients, Utterdark, Gift of Nature's Bounty
Banned sites: The Desert Eye (Ench. 50), Conjurer's Cave (Conj. 30), Mount Chaining (Blood 40), Oak of Ages (Ench. 50), Summoning Circle (Blood 60), The Blood Rock (Blood 30), The Cedar Pillars (Ench. 30), The Ebony Circle (Conj. 30), The Mountain of Power (Evo./Ench. 30), The Ultimate Gateway (Conj. 50), The Water Solstice (Ench. 50), Throne of Enlightenment (Ench. 30).
Well of Misery: moved to Evo. 8
Gift of Reason: reduced to 10 gems
Blood magic: under other circumstances I'd be inclined to nerf blood more heavily but with the nation mix here I'll go easy. Soul contract cost increased to 65B15F, lifelong protection to 40B, jade knives eliminated, vampire lords cost 100B, summon vampires 43B.