The thing you have to watch out for is the Tech Pyramids. This is a two-player set up, so the map is smaller, but the tech pyramids for each player still takes up a lot of extra space. This is even worse when playing with 4 players and you need space for 4 pyramids.
It is missing open-ended diplomacy in the 2-player game because you always have one direct opposition throughout the game. 2-player game can is also more vulnerable to ending via a Military Victory because you don't have the other players rushing to help to stop a Military Victory.
However, that being said, provided that both sides keep a close arms race, combat isn't necessary since it is a big investment/risk if your opponent seems defensible. However, if one player does not build up any military, then, yes, they will likely be quickly smashed.
The thing that makes it bad is that the landscape looks like it is supposed to continue onto another tile but then it just doesn't. The edge of the water looks nice where the art makes an edge, but the spots where a tile makes the edge look so bad.
I would be interested to see how these would look if they just had something like a simple 1/4" black border around them. That would allow your mind's gestalt to "fill in the blanks" and provide your own transitions. With the full bleeds, the complete lack of transition is even more glaring and "wrong-feeling."
I would be interested to see how these would look if they just had something like a simple 1/4" black border around them. That would allow your mind's gestalt to "fill in the blanks" and provide your own transitions. With the full bleeds, the complete lack of transition is even more glaring and "wrong-feeling."
That's a really good idea. I think some of this effect might be accomplished by keeping the tiles slightly apart on the table. Go look at the top image again, and imagine them each with a gap between them, exposing the black table beneath. It's probably not as good as actually having the borders on the tiles, but it might help a bit.
I would be interested to see how these would look if they just had something like a simple 1/4" black border around them. That would allow your mind's gestalt to "fill in the blanks" and provide your own transitions. With the full bleeds, the complete lack of transition is even more glaring and "wrong-feeling."
That's a really good idea. I think some of this effect might be accomplished by keeping the tiles slightly apart on the table. Go look at the top image again, and imagine them each with a gap between them, exposing the black table beneath. It's probably not as good as actually having the borders on the tiles, but it might help a bit.
The post above yours is a response to"carthaginian" in which he took the original image and added a black border to each tile. But as you can see his image and his post are now gone.
It really did look a ton better. I'll see if I can recreate it and post it here in a few minutes.
EDIT: Here you go. Not perfect but you get the idea:
Oddly (or maybe not so oddly) it really does look a lot better to my eyes. The false border fills in the gaps, as you suggested. It's clearly not perfect, but it is indeed a lot better -- to me at least.
In any case, I'm sure no one here was suggesting the game was unplayable because of the tile (non) transitions. But it's still nice to see that a simple visual buffer relaxes the jarring shift between the zones, at least a little bit.
A simpler solution, then, would be to leave a gap between the tiles when you lay them on your table - especially if you have a dark tablecloth as in the photo.
A simpler solution, then, would be to leave a gap between the tiles when you lay them on your table - especially if you have a dark tablecloth as in the photo.
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