I don’t see how making people pick their civ before the map is revealed fixes this problem. If anything it makes the problem worse because instead of there being several sets of OP and weak civs based on the map it the choice is reduced to:
- picking the best generalist civ
- picking your preferred civ and hope the map suits their play style.
Option 1 puts us in the same place that we would be in if the civ was picked after the map was revealed but now we are playing the same civ every game instead of every time we roll a specific map.
Option 2 feels bad because the player feels they have no control over if they win or lose a game.
Therfore I think the best option is to:
- let players choose the map and civ they want to play (within reason)
- achieve a decent level of balance most civs are viable on most maps. (Recognizing that there are always going to be good and bad picks independent of map balance.)
The third option is to make the civs play so differently that the advantage you get from picking the best civ for the situation (map specific or generalist) is less than the hit you take for playing a civ you have less experince with. Based on what we’ve seen of aoe4 however this won’t be the case.