World War

[CUnknown]

Due to my impending doom in InvisSwarm4, I am tossing around the idea of hosting another game. I guess I'm in the mood for some beat-down, because I'm thinking about a team game (2 teams), no diplomacy, 9 province start, let's get it on style.

Sound good to anyone else?

The conditions would be something like the following:

9 province start
difficult research
50 magic sites
2 teams of 3-7 players each
Map size depending on # of players

[shovah]

pbem or server?

[Cainehill]

No diplomacy? Can't talk to your allies? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[DrPraetorious]

Sounds interesting.

[jeffr]

Yeah, sounds cool. Anyone need a Pangean looney? (although I can make a very nice neighbor as well) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[GriffinOfBuerrig]

What about Starting positions? Do you want to mod them?

Do you really think Orania is a good idea, maybee Cradle of dominion?

[DrPraetorious]

I want to be Jotunheim, Machaka or Pythium (whichever of the three is last to be claimed.)

I think that assignment to teams should be random - choose (or alter) a map to have start locations = number of players, and assign each start location to one team or another.

[shovah]

if its server im in as caelum, pbem is just more confusing 2 me

[CUnknown]

Server, definitely.

As far as modding starting positions, I'm not sure. I can see an advantage to that, but a) I am lazy, and b) I think that random positions would be fun, too. Scouting would be more important.

If we play on a wrap-a-round map, I think random start locations might not be so bad.

[shovah]

caelum shall be mine! mwahahahaha (if someone really wants caelum i may be willing to change)

[Truper]

A couple of suggestions:

Random start positions and a wrap-around map are imo vital, as otherwise feeder/fighter strategies will make for a strange game. I once played in a team game where my side was a collecion of cooperating nations, and the other side was a team organized to feed gold to a dual-blessed Vanheim. It was no contest, and not much fun for anybody.

I'd also suggest that if there are any water nations, that there be both, and that they be on seperate teams.

There's been some talk on the IRC channel about putting together a team to challenge the other posters on this thread - we'll see if anything comes of it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[CUnknown]

Hmm.. yeah, I guess I was sort of thinking more of a collection of nations against a collection of nations. I'm not sure how I could 'legislate' that, though. Perhaps having random teams would help to make sure people didn't come up with team strategies beforehand. Definitely random starts, I think you're right, Truper.

[shovah]

if you think feeding vanheim is bad try feeding undead ermor a ton of death gems and watch his/her mages and priests skyrocket (not to mention he could go utterdark)

[CUnknown]

Hey, I just had an idea. Maybe we should have no teams at all for the first 10 turns, then at that point we'll take the person with the most provinces and team him with the person with the least. Then the person with the 2nd most and 2nd least join team 2. And so on.. (score graphs can be on for this game, I think).

I don't know if that's a good idea or not, but it might help to balance the teams against random early game difficulties and so forth. Also, it would make it very difficult to plan a team strategy since you won't know who's on your team until turn 10.

[shovah]

then some people could deliberatly slow down expansion to gain the help of stronger players

[Catquiet]

I want in as Jotunheim.

[Zapmeister]

I'll play as anything, um, except Ermor.

[BillPaxton]

I want in as Abysia please.

[Mark the Merciful]

I've had fun with team games. I'd like a go as Marignon.

[Dimaz]

I'll take Mictlan if possible.

[DrPraetorious]

Every time I see a post by catquiet I am reminded that I cannot hope to have an avatar that awesome.

DrPraetorious Pythium or Machaka
Jeffr Pangaea
Shovah Caelum
Catquiet Jotunheim
Zapmeister Not Ermor
BillPaxton Abyssia
Mark the Merciful Marignon
Dimaz Mictlan
Cuknown Unknown

Unless Truper, GriffinOfBuerrig or Cainehill is playing, this immediately suggests three teams of three. This is easy enough with cradle (teams are south, north and east). Does that meet with the approval of y’all? I'll put three blue dots, three green dots and three red dots on the map, fix those as the only legal start locations, and we can start any time.

[CUnknown]

I really only want 2 teams, so there's no diplomacy.

I am still undecided on how to choose teams, too.. I think I would like to do the "wait 10 turns and then pair least provinces with most provinces" thing. Or perhaps we could "wait 10 turns and then choose the 2 with the most provinces to be team captains."

What do people think?

Oh, by the way, I will be Man or Ulm.

[Zapmeister]

I'll drop out, and leave you with two teams of 4.

[Dimaz]

I think 2 teams are better because otherwise it will be still 2 teams, but one of them is 2 times larger http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Ironhawk]

Truper said:
I once played in a team game where my side was a collecion of cooperating nations, and the other side was a team organized to feed gold to a dual-blessed Vanheim. It was no contest, and not much fun for anybody.




Hahahah, yeah we reamed you Trup http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Tho in truth our strategy was staged, not feeder/fighter per se. You all just only saw stage 1.

[DrPraetorious]

I hate to be contrarian, but if Stage 1 is "crush them utterly", you do not have a multiple stage plan.

2. "Laugh at them while they cry."
3. "Profit!"

Most/least at turn 10 is better than pre-arranged teams, but it would make for some WEIRD decisions.

Like, do I hold off on this guy (very vulnerable) so that I don't end up stuck with him on my team - or, worse yet - we're both in strong positions, take some of my lousy territories so we end as team-mates, etc.

It's also kind of complicated, and province strength at turn 10 may not be a good indicator of real power anyway.

I think two random teams is more fair, I agree that three teams of three could devolve into 6vs3 quickly. Of course, I secretly *like* diplomacy, but everyone else is keen to avoid that, that's cool.

Two completely random teams of four seems fairer to me - which map do we want? I'm happy to do the modding.

[shovah]

what about mods?

[CUnknown]

Sorry guys, I may or may not actually be able to play in/host this game. I've got some..um...life issues that are springing up lately. Good life issues! But, life issues nonetheless. I might be able to do this thing in like 2 weeks or so, if people want to wait.

If someone else wants to host, go ahead and start it without me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Like, I said, I'm not sure if I will be able to play or not.

If people want to wait for me, that's cool. If people want to forget about this one and start another game, that's cool, too.

Again, I'm sorry about this.

[YellowCactus]

Chris got a girlfriend!
No more taking yourself out to dinner! Congratz man!
-yc

[Zapmeister]

I guess I'm back in, then. I'll take C'tis if we can find a host.

[Ironhawk]

I can host your game on Sheap's machine if you like. Someone just has to send me all pertinent maps and mods.

[Zapmeister]

Zapmeister said:
I guess I'm back in, then. I'll take C'tis if we can find a host.



Strike that, I might try Vanheim. They seem pretty darn buff, and I've never played them MP before.

[Catquiet]

Can we hold off starting for a little while? My power is still out due to hurricane damage and I'm not sure how reliably I can get gas for my generator.

[DrPraetorious]

I'm in no hurry.

I vote: no mods. There are many mods I like but you don't need thme and they're too much trouble to coordinate.

Once we're sure that we have two teams of four I'll post a modded .map and .tga file here? The map will have eight start locations - four of them with red symbols (team one), and four of them with blue symbols (team two.)

Last call for which map people want? Cradle of dominion, unless anyone objects?

[Zapmeister]

If it's going to be Cradle, I think Zen's version is a significant improvement over the original.

[jeffr]

I think the Zen/Quantum Conceptual Balance mod is essential. I was thinking of bailing anyway, so I'll use this as an excuse to bow out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Good luck with the game and post how it goes.

[Catquiet]

My power seems to be back, I'm ready to start when you guys are.

[DrPraetorious]

Do we still have eight people?

Which version of Cradle is Zen's version of cradle? Post a link and I'll grab that one and move the dots over. This'll only take five minutes for me to do again but I want to make sure I post the map people actually want to play with.

Everyone can open a zip-file?