2nd Mercia here. The reason I was so aggressive on all fronts at the start was for one simple reason; I wanted to have 8 units by the end of year 1. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it fun? You bet. Anyways, great analysis as always, and thanks for playing :D
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for commenting, 2nd Mercia! It was a fun game, and I felt especially threatened by your performance for a while there.
@profbuffalo20282 жыл бұрын
@@floridamandiplomacy Unfortunately, so was everyone else 😅. Thankfully, Mercia has a deceptively defensible position on this map, even with enemies on all sides, so I'm just glad I made it to the end
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
@@profbuffalo2028 Well, it all speaks to how good you were at posing a threat. I hadn't seen it as a very defensible position, but you proved the truth of Mercia's strengths. My favorite thing about playing variants is discovering new features of a map I haven't played before/often.
@IlluminatiJoeCrusade2 жыл бұрын
Jorvik here! Loved the map and the power! I really enjoyed being all around the east of the map making moves while being decentralized, totally opposite of what Mercia is. Enjoyed the video!
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Same here! I'm glad you had fun. It's quite a map, isn't it? Thanks for commenting!
@sleepysnake5442 жыл бұрын
I like seeing the variant videos.
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
That's why I make 'em!
@henrylind2612 жыл бұрын
This variant was interesting! im working on my own variant right now and I know how hard it is to get it balanced. this map seemed pretty good! great video as always FloridaMan!
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
You can do it! Feel free to recruit players from my Discord for your playtest (I'm open to it as well). I agree that this map was good. I tried to give useful feedback, but it's clearly a good variant.
@henrylind2612 жыл бұрын
@@floridamandiplomacy I agree! keep up the great videos!
@doctorqulo39602 жыл бұрын
Ireland here. My worst game yet. I did some really stupid moves, but still it was really fun still
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
I don't know if your moves were so stupid, as much as you suffered a semi-irrational attack on you from early on, and that attack continued until your ostensible ally joined your enemy in attacking you. Bad luck, mainly. Very fun game, though.
@thommaddo2 жыл бұрын
as a designer of diplomacy-styled maps, I have a lot of respect for the maker of this variant here. I've always felt the British Isles are not well suited for a Diplomacy style, given the concentration of powers in certain areas meaning it is hard to naturally balance players' positions. The allocation of coastal and sea territories theoretically would mitigate this problem.... but then drawing up water territories is equally very difficult to balance effectively, especially vis-à-vis Ireland. So I think whoever designed this map did a good job at balancing the countries to meet the needs of standard diplomacy rules.
@thommaddo2 жыл бұрын
also I always enjoy watching you try out these variants, FloridaMan!
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Thanks, Thomas. I thought it was a great map too. I've mentioned my minor critiques, but I really enjoyed trying out this variant, especially getting to play as my ancestors' country of Alba. I usually seem to enjoy the variants myself, but I derive most of my motivations for trying them from the greater volume of comments I get on these, and how overwhelmingly positive they are.
@victoryfirst062 жыл бұрын
This diplomacy map looks very interesting! I would love to see more of these!
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
I will have to see about possibly joining more test games on this map, then!
@drychaf2 жыл бұрын
A note on pronounciation. The Welsh language 'dd' is pronounced as the English voiced 'th'. So the 'edd' in Gwynedd sounds like the 'eth' in whether. (A single 'd' in Welsh = as the English 'd') English Mercia is 'mer-see-a' rather than 'mersha'. Jorvik = yorvik.
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
That's very interesting. If I had looked at pronunciation more carefully, this game probably would have sounded much better to your ears. I'm guessing Gwyneth Paltrow is named after this ancient kingdom in Wales then?
@drychaf2 жыл бұрын
@@floridamandiplomacy It does seem to be a variation, and certainly it derives from Welsh. The 'th' here though is the non-voiced one (as in 'thin'), so it doesn't help with the pronounciation of the 'dd' in Gwynedd (explained above). Things evolve, and English pronounciations of Welsh names can wander quite far from the original - Floyd for example is the English attempt at saying Llwyd. I'm not going to get into how to say 'll' in Welsh (though it's easier than people think), but it's a sound that only two or three other languages use. I find these things interesting! Over-indulgence alert!... Jorvik is Skandinavian, and those languages say the 'y' sound but spell it as 'j'. However, the name is only another variation of peoples trying to pronounce the original, pre-Roman, Welsh (Brittonic) name 'Eboracum'', after the pre-Scandi English had tried 'Eoforwīc'. Today, the English say 'York', but to this day we Welsh say 'Efrog' (pr: evrog), which is still close to the 2000yr old version when the Welsh lived there as 'Britons'. Can you guess what we refer to when we say Efrog Newydd? It's a city I've enjoyed visiting a number of times. New York. I'll stop now!
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
@@drychaf That was definitely overindulgent, but nevertheless enjoyable. Thank you for your educational words. I probably will not use them for anything, but I hope I will remember to refer to them if (let's be real, more like when!) I have to describe locations in Britain in future.
@squashywand0102 жыл бұрын
...last mercia (I thought I was the second, maybe I was the third, I think) here? Anyways, neat video. I think its always more interesting to play/see content on variants rather than boring old classic, keep it up!
@profbuffalo20282 жыл бұрын
There were only two Mercias, I believe you were Northumbria
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Yes, Professor Buffalo is right. You were the new Northumbria. I tend to enjoy the variant content a lot myself. Always interesting to analyze a new map.
@theevilsandwitch85202 жыл бұрын
Game goes hard. Definitely going to draw this map to add to my collection
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Draw this map? Does that mean you're planning to run your own game?
@theevilsandwitch85202 жыл бұрын
@@floridamandiplomacy somehow i have like 13 friends in real life arpund my state, we all get together from time to time and duke it out
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Wow. What region is this?
@theevilsandwitch85202 жыл бұрын
@@floridamandiplomacy California, Sacramento metro area. I taught all my coworkers how to play at summer camp, which has the added benefit of letting you play games with full day turns, on account of us all living together for 2 months
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
@@theevilsandwitch8520 Very nice. Well done spreading the religion of Diplomacy.
@guntherbedson97612 жыл бұрын
I enjoyed this commentary FloridaMan. How would you rate the balance of this map in comparison to the very similar Heptarchy variant?
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for commenting, Gun! I haven't played Heptarchy, but I've just gone and looked at the map on VDiplomacy, and it looks a little better balanced, albeit possibly even worse for Ireland in my opinion. What do you think?
@shieck31782 жыл бұрын
Very interesting. I'm curious how much you play variants. What has your experience been with playtesting?
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Well, almost all of the variants I've played have made some appearance on this channel unless I'm currently playing them. It might be a lot to some, or not very many to others. I think playtesting is pretty fun, and I enjoy variants quite a bit.
@Sploack2 жыл бұрын
At 26:05 you were going to say Munich, weren't you? ^^
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
We really needed some kind of a written guide as to what each of these abbreviations meant... I've never spent any time walking around Ireland. For all I know, there's a Munich there!
@mateibebu65922 жыл бұрын
This comment is written as an offering to the almighty algorithm, which will hopefully recommend this video further.
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Did you just hear a weird voice say, *I accept this offering, mortal* and then cackle evilly? Or was that only on my end?
@Cappy-Bara2 жыл бұрын
Comment for the algorithm
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
Well, look at that, I just got a new subscriber...
@shieck31782 жыл бұрын
The algorithm acts in mysterious ways.
@floridamandiplomacy2 жыл бұрын
@@shieck3178 It does seem to giveth and taketh away without clear rhyme or reason.
@shilohmagic7173 Жыл бұрын
pffft Nice restart.
@floridamandiplomacy Жыл бұрын
Restart does not always mean make a new strategy, haha
@shilohmagic7173 Жыл бұрын
@@floridamandiplomacy Hey, if it's the same people and you haven't soured them on you yet, why not?
@GwynforJamesEricPritchard3 ай бұрын
I’m so sorry but you butchered every power name except Northumbria and Wessex and Ireland and Alba. Gwynedd is pronounced Gwyneth (th as in the) Jorvik is pronounced Yorvik Mercia is pronounced Mer see uh. Sorry But it pained me.