Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Mods are the most touted means of altering the mechanics of the game to achieve a different play balance, but they are not the only possibility. Voluntary restrictions or themes adopted by a player can reshape the game in any number of ways without touching the code at all. Succession games themselves are one such example.
One of the greatest weaknesses of the AI programming comes in its inability to deal with the blitzkrieg, either offensively, or defensively. Certainly one of the strongest elements of the military game is the retreat option on fast units, which lets you sustain a campaign with minimal losses up until the AI's get hold of mech infantry. So it occurred to me to wonder, how would the game play if I voluntarily shunned all the fast units? What would the game demand of me if I tried to wage a conquest scenerio under this restriction?
I've already got such a game roaring along in single player, and it seems viable, so I'm ready to host a succession game for this Variant. I call it the Infantry Variant, and here are the rules:
* Conquest is the only enabled victory condition (and of course, Score, if no victory is won by 2050).
* Chariots, Horsemen, Knights, Cavalry, Tanks, and Modern Armor are forbidden. They may not be built at any time for any reason.
* Mechanized Infantry are allowed, but MAY NOT ATTACK. They cannot even attack noncombatants, such as workers. They may only defend.
* Unique Units with two movement, which are equivalent to otherwise legal units (Jaguar Warriors and Impi) are legal, if the applicable civs are chosen, but may not attack, as per the rules for mech infantry. Other fast UU's are forbidden, including War Chariots, Iro Mounteds, Riders, Samurai, Elephants, Cossacks, and Panzers.
* Scouts are legal for Expansionist Civs. Explorers are legal for all civs.
* All ships, airplanes and missiles are legal.
With conquest required for victory, this means waging a combined arms war against the entire world, with only single-move units, plus ships and planes. It should be challenging.
For this succession game, I have chosen the following settings:
Difficulty: Monarch
Civ: English
Map Size: Standard
Land Mass: Small
Land Form: Archipelago
Opponents: French, Romans, Chinese, Indians, Babylonians
Climate: Arid, Temperate
Mountains: Standard
Turn Length: 10 turns
Time Alloted: 24 hrs to acknowledge, 48 to play.
Reloading: Disallowed. Plan accordingly. (The Autosave in particular may not be used, because of the trade bug it induces, so save the game every so often -- more often, in the latter stages -- in case of crash/power-outage/etc).
I'm looking for three, perhaps four, seasoned players who have played and met with success on Monarch, perhaps even Emperor difficulty, and are willing to agree to all the rules posted. I intend for us to start isolated, or at most with one neighbor, and not to be starting on a river, but rather something a little more impoverished. The reason for this is that I am looking for something more than an endless whipping despotic swordsman factory on a small pangaea, but rather a campaign that will require a more comprehensive effort and most likely to last into the modern era, if not longer.
Once I have accepted a team, I will play an initial number of turns to get us started, and to ensure that the scenerio matches my criteria, then post the saved game and the ten turn rotation will begin.
So... is anybody interested in this challenge?
- Sirian
One of the greatest weaknesses of the AI programming comes in its inability to deal with the blitzkrieg, either offensively, or defensively. Certainly one of the strongest elements of the military game is the retreat option on fast units, which lets you sustain a campaign with minimal losses up until the AI's get hold of mech infantry. So it occurred to me to wonder, how would the game play if I voluntarily shunned all the fast units? What would the game demand of me if I tried to wage a conquest scenerio under this restriction?
I've already got such a game roaring along in single player, and it seems viable, so I'm ready to host a succession game for this Variant. I call it the Infantry Variant, and here are the rules:
* Conquest is the only enabled victory condition (and of course, Score, if no victory is won by 2050).
* Chariots, Horsemen, Knights, Cavalry, Tanks, and Modern Armor are forbidden. They may not be built at any time for any reason.
* Mechanized Infantry are allowed, but MAY NOT ATTACK. They cannot even attack noncombatants, such as workers. They may only defend.
* Unique Units with two movement, which are equivalent to otherwise legal units (Jaguar Warriors and Impi) are legal, if the applicable civs are chosen, but may not attack, as per the rules for mech infantry. Other fast UU's are forbidden, including War Chariots, Iro Mounteds, Riders, Samurai, Elephants, Cossacks, and Panzers.
* Scouts are legal for Expansionist Civs. Explorers are legal for all civs.
* All ships, airplanes and missiles are legal.
With conquest required for victory, this means waging a combined arms war against the entire world, with only single-move units, plus ships and planes. It should be challenging.
For this succession game, I have chosen the following settings:
Difficulty: Monarch
Civ: English
Map Size: Standard
Land Mass: Small
Land Form: Archipelago
Opponents: French, Romans, Chinese, Indians, Babylonians
Climate: Arid, Temperate
Mountains: Standard
Turn Length: 10 turns
Time Alloted: 24 hrs to acknowledge, 48 to play.
Reloading: Disallowed. Plan accordingly. (The Autosave in particular may not be used, because of the trade bug it induces, so save the game every so often -- more often, in the latter stages -- in case of crash/power-outage/etc).
I'm looking for three, perhaps four, seasoned players who have played and met with success on Monarch, perhaps even Emperor difficulty, and are willing to agree to all the rules posted. I intend for us to start isolated, or at most with one neighbor, and not to be starting on a river, but rather something a little more impoverished. The reason for this is that I am looking for something more than an endless whipping despotic swordsman factory on a small pangaea, but rather a campaign that will require a more comprehensive effort and most likely to last into the modern era, if not longer.
Once I have accepted a team, I will play an initial number of turns to get us started, and to ensure that the scenerio matches my criteria, then post the saved game and the ten turn rotation will begin.
So... is anybody interested in this challenge?
- Sirian