LotR Series...

Kylearan said:

I'd like to sign up! Never played on Great Plains before, so that will be interesting.

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Be prepared to see a TON of cattle. AH is a really important tech.

If you set it up with the default map it is a square. Now you have to hope to roll a corner position to limit the length of your front.

Arathorn said:

1. Well, we will have horses around, one way or another. Just...gotta. I'll probably have a friend generate maps until we get one with horses within a city's length.

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I have to agree there. Since you variant doesn't even allow for a warrior, horses within two rings in mandatory. Without it you could repeat the false start I had with the LK series AW game where an AI warrior took the capitol before I could even build a warrior.

Arathorn said:

A counterpoint is that we'll spend less time in enemy territory, since we can hit fast and hard, instead of plodding in with melee units, so our WW might not climb as high as fast. I have no idea which is accurate.

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As understand the WW formula number of dead units in enemy territory is key item. Now if you can get a lot of horses to retreat, that would help.

I *will* be lurking this one. I hope to see the Great Wall in your hands, as spy points will be critical to take out the AI.

AH seems an obvious first choice for tech as the corralling of horsies is the key. I also think Bronze Working and other worker techs determined the starting position and then straight to Horseback Riding for a Keshik rush. The problem might be that Great Plains is a largeish map, so the nearest neighbour might be aways away. HBR also allows our UB, the Ger. A barracks/Ger combo gives 6xp out of the gate!

Interesting point about the spy economy for city revolts. Great Wall seems a good investement given that (use the Great Spy for Scotland Yard?). Might be able to chop out quickly at the start.

My experience on Great Plains is that a mootastic start makes the game a bit easy. If we are going to have a friend generate the save I'd almost suggest we avoid that. Really, the choice of leader/civ can't be any better for the variant. Keshiks are nice but the Ger is the key with the Mongols. Charismatic/Organized is my favorite trait combo for Domination.

There is a part of me that would like to try a mootastic start on Immortal, especially with this roster .

Darrell

darrelljs said:

There is a part of me that would like to try a mootastic start on Immortal, especially with this roster .

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I think Emporer will be a challenge enough

Lurkers Comment:

Ozbenno said:

I think Emporer will be a challenge enough

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You might be right. Coincidentally, i just played a very similar off-line game some weeks ago. With Khan himself tho, so AGG+IMP. I felt it was quite challenging...

I.e. the Industrial Ages felt very tough - the gap between Cavalry and Tanks is quite long, while the enemies had Rifles, Cannon, Infantery. And since everyone was was generally with me because of "Previous Events" mischief i felt really uncomfy for a while... Airships did help a tiny bit.

LotR26 started at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=6554443#post6554443 -- looking for thoughts on opening moves.

Arathorn

Jabah said:

According to the 'rules', we don't really need modile artillery: if we manage to get there, we should be able to have bombers for 'softening' city/stacks.

Our better defending units might well be explorers for a while (if they DO receive defending bonus ?), they are quite cheap, but I am afraid they don't count for Military Protection (from the population view).

Keshik rush, bahhh.. we should start with charriot rush (if horse in capital of course)

Jabah

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I don't think bombers would be allowed. AFAIK they have a strength rating, and they definitely don't have a movement of 2.

Arathorn said:

All boats and planes are OK, though.

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They ARE allowed, it seems.

Good luck to the team, I'll be lurking!

OK, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve hosted an SG, so I should probably go over my “rules” again:
- 24/72 hrs to play (24 to claim, then 72 from claim to play), with added flexibility over the holidays if needed
- We play the game all the way out to win/loss, regardless of how good/bad the situation
- I roll ONE start we play it, if it’s got 3 cows and a gold hill or if it’s a frozen tundra
- Report style is important. An auto-log is NOT a report. Tactics/strategy and WHY are much more important than just WHAT.
- Spirited discussion is great, but focus on the gameplay and not the players.
- Don’t abuse the game. No bad exploits (not that I’m sure what even falls into that category in Civ4).

LotR27 Science-Scorning Spacists
Difficulty Level: Emperor (or Monarch if everybody else is as out-of-shape as I am)
Map size: Standard
Map: Leaning towards custom continents (3) with low water
Civ and Leader: Huayna Capac of the Incas
Traits: Financial and Industrious
Game Speed: Standard
Most other things: Default settings
Opponents: Mansa Musa, Hannibal, Victoria, Catherine, Joao II, Pericles
Win Condition(s): All enabled – our win target is space – anything else is a loss
Variant: Science-scorning*

* -- Science-scorning has a few rules that I’m still working on.
1. We may never build any science-boosting building (no library, observatory, university, monasteries, laboratory, academy, Oxford, etc.)
2. We may never be in Representation (so no science-boosted specialists)
3. We may not build any wonder which gives scientist GPPs (University of Sankore, Great Library, Space Elevator, National Park, Oxford University, Red Cross)

General guideline for victory:
Espionage! (see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252496)
Trading!
Out-produce AIs on the final few parts (without space elevator or laboratories, too)
Diplomacy to keep the AIs from killing each other until they research all the techs we need to launch

Roster:
Arathorn
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If you have any questions, just ask.

Oy! Look what surprises an old thread subscription can bring you... Arathorn is posting and playing again!

This is not a signup, as unfortunately I have absolutely no time for playing CIV at the moment - I just wanted to say hi.

I will lurk this. Have fun with this game! Hopefully not on Monarch though, as the rustiness will surely go away quickly.

-Kylearan

Hi, Ky! Great to see you. I don't have any time for CIV either, but I'm playing a bit again. My 10-year-old is really into Civ right now, so I'm dusting off some old skills. And missing some of the old community. Thanks for dropping in!

I'll sign up, if you'll have me.

What is your intention for the game? It looks like it is to make it harder to do our own research - have you considered the possibility to build Research? It's quite possible to ride that into the endgame, although it takes some work to set up.

Welcome back to an old face.


Not a sign up: My civ playing time is very limited, and only playing a single SG at this point.

ZPV -- you're in.

Lee -- howdy!

Building research? No. I'll make that an official rule -- no building research.

I specifically didn't prohibit scientists because I want us to be able to run Caste System without inordinate amounts of micromanagement, but I don't want to have any scientists either (honor system).

Kylearan said:

Oy! Look what surprises an old thread subscription can bring you...

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Agree. I'd forgotten I was even subscribed to this thread.

I'm a bit rusty myself, but this does look interesting. I'm in.

Current roster:
Arathorn
ZPV
Methos
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I'd be interested in this, if you'll have me. Though I'm very rusty myself and could benefit from some advice from the group now and then all the damned time.

Count me in as well if you'll have me, enjoyed the last LotR game!

Hello again (I know there is always a good reason not to unsubscribe to very old inactive threads).

I will definitively lurk (from work) but as a few oldtimers, I have almost no time to play (and certainly no guarantee on when I am able to play)

Jabah

Roster is full!
Arathorn
ZPV
Methos
Rex Tyrannus (uhhh...yeah, I'll ask questions about WHY but even my rust has rust)
Ozbenno

Jabah -- glad it wasn't a sign-up. I'm weird in that I strongly prefer 5-man rosters to 6. Not sure why. But it's nice to see other oldtimers still around.

I should start the game and get a pic (I'll have to relearn/remember how to do that) of our starting position up tonight. We should have some interesting decisions to make. Thanks for signing up!

Arathorn