secondly, another mistake in the xml: the neutral tags for amos and loe are missing, so they are failing to start neutral and some players are starting with the calypso kings or kiwi beige brigade bonuses.
the majority of games on this map are 1v1 games. i've checked 25 1v1 games with the bowler coded as neutral that have actually finished. of these, player 1 has won 16 and player 2 has won 9, therefore there is a reasonable advantage gained by going first (skewed by 5 games where someone started with the bonuses mentioned above). the bowler was conquered in 15 games and ignored in 10; the latter was not the intention when this map was designed. only one singles bonus was held in the 25 games.
to satisfy both the principles that player 1 does not start with a bonus and that the bowler is active from a very early stage, i suggest that the bowler starting neutral is reduced from n3 to n1, with the PC3 starting neutral being removed if the number of starting regions falls below 69 (not sure if it does). to encourage play on the field rather than among the spectators, i further suggest that all of the singles start as n2 instead of n3, since no-one ever seems to want them; the same might be done with the fours, which are also rarely held, while the batter 1 neutrals might reduce from n4 to n3 (but consider the last one carefully, in case it tips the balance too much).
ian.
