Congratulations to [WM] dead piggy for winning Season V with a very impressive 17-3 record! It seems that 17-3 is more often than not the metric that defines a champion, as all of the seasonal winners so far have posted 17-3 records except Rubik87.
Season VI is going to be a bit of a departure from the low-luck settings of Season IV and V. Season VI will use automatic distribution instead of manual distribution. This means that you don’t pick which territories you start with, and instead are randomly assigned territories.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But Fizzer, won’t automatic distribution mean that games are determined by luck?” It’s true that luck plays a role, but here’s the way to look at it:
- Everyone will lose 15% of their games due to getting worse starting positions than their opponent.
- Everyone will win 15% of their games due to getting better starting positions than their opponent.
- It’s what you do with the other 70% of your games that determine your ladder rank.
Personally, I’m excited for it – I think it’s going to be my favorite season! This season will be great for those who are weak at the territory selection part of the game but strong at the expansion/army movement part.
The settings are the same as Strategic 1v1, except with automatic distribution, no wastelands to make bonuses more equal, and an extra blockade card is also thrown in so you can make your own wasteland. You can practice the settings with this template: multi-player single-player.
The season begins at midnight GMT on Monday! (This will be Sunday night for those in negative timezones, such as North America). If you’re a member and not already in the seasonal ladder, you can join here. Have fun!
(* 15% is an estimate, the actual number could be higher or lower. The point is that the odds of getting good territories is the same as the odds of getting bad ones and it will factor out over the course of many games.)
Hmm…These new settings should indeed prove interesting
I quit last season due to the map. This season will be using one of the best maps in the game and automatic distribution should add a nice touch 
I think HHH has to be considered the favorite for this season 
The first two games were not decided by luck. They were decided by superior play by the winner and 16% luck made a difference in my game agianst HMS. I hope the rest of the Season goes like this
I don’t really agree on the reasoning. On average, you will lose 15% and win 15% due to territory selection, but with 100 players there will be at least be one player who will win 25% and lose 5% and one player the other way around. Also, against who you lose will have a big influence too. That game between numbers 1 and 2? Practically decided by the picks…
On the other hand, if we see this season more as a risk-like game, where luck has much more influence than in the strategic template, it may be (much) more fun for every slightly above average down to truly bad tactical players.
One important remark / request though: would it be possible to have more time at the end of the season, between getting the last game and the automatic surrender when the season ends? For slow players like me, even when I put some effort in taking my turns for the seasonal games quicker, some games aren’t even halfway.
I think these settings will be very interesting; perhaps a less known player will win.