Season I, starting December 9th – join today!

I’m pleased to announce the first season of the new Seasonal Ladder! (see the previous blog post if you missed the announcement.)

This season will begin on December 9th and run for 60 days, ending on February 7th. If you’re a member planning on joining, it’s a good idea to join it right now to ensure you’ll be in the ladder when it starts. You can join it right now via this link.

Seasons are named using roman numerals, so this season is officially titled Season I. In February we’ll start Season II, then Season III, etc.

For Season I, we’ll use the settings defined by this template. This template is based off of the Strategic 1v1 template, with the following modifications:

• Light Fog instead of Normal Fog
• In-distribution neutrals are 0 instead of 4
• Cyclic move order instead of random move order

The in-distribution neutrals controls how many neutral armies start on each territory that neither player picked. This is usually 4, which makes it more expensive to take bonuses that you didn’t start in. By changing it to 0, it means that bonuses you didn’t start in will be almost as easy to take as ones you did, which makes expansion far easier. Attacking a 0 with even just one army is a 100% success rate, so they can also provide opportunities for easy cards.

The change to Light Fog means that players can see who controls every territory on the map, while still only being able to see army counts for adjacent territories. This change means counter-picks are less effective, as you can always tell if your opponent is on the other side of that neutral.

As an added benefit of using Light Fog, this also allows you to watch other player’s in-progress games. You can’t see army numbers, but at least you can get an idea of who might be winning. There may be times where it’s fun to check up on your biggest opponent’s progress.

I’m interested in hearing your ideas for settings for future seasons! Please post them to the ladder forum.