Lord of lords, and servants of serfs

[Niklas]

This is a thread to keep track of our current cabinet, as well as discussions for replacements, rotation of turnplayers, etc. I intend to keep this first post updated with our current gallery of advisors (hence why a new thread instead of using oyzar's). I will also edit this post to be a bit flashier, once we have some nice artwork to put here.

Turnplayer:

Principe Perfeito: PurpleTurtle
Condestavél: Niklas

Cabinet:

Conselheiro da Administração Interna: Niklas
- Lesser internal advisors and spreadsheet slaves go here

Conselheiro dos Negócios Estrangeiros: We don't know anyone else yet.
- Lesser diplomats, ambassadors and other lying scum go here

Conselheiro da Informação Estratégica: We don't know anyone else yet.
- Spies, sleuths and other nosy types go here

Conselheiro das Forças Armadas: We aren't going to war yet.
- Tactical masterminds and other warlike types go here

[PurpleTurtle]

I would love supporting all four cabinet ministers. I don't believe I am qualified to sit in any one, but if I was asked I would do so gladly (assuming I would have backup). I can offer significant assistance with late game strategic and tactical military decisions.

Essentially, I suppose, I am willing to do anything I can to help this team prevail. I am a quick learner and anything I don't understand now I will after the first time it is explained to me.

As far as the other positions go: I would like a rotation of Niklas, Oyzar, Diamondeye, and Renata (and perhaps a few others) for turnplayer.

I like Oyzar as our Chief Diplomat (he seems imminently qualified and none of the other teams will trust Niklas).

Oyzar and Niklas should be involved in every phase of our planning as well.

Renata seems pretty intelligent to me, I would be delighted to work under her in the espionage/analysis cabinet position.

Aside from those suggestions I don't really know much about what everyone else wants to do. I am generally in favor of trying to fit people in where they feel they would most enjoy being, but I also would like Niklas and Oyzar to have some input as to where people would be most valuable.

[RRRaskolnikov]

Hi,

Just like Purple, I think I can learn quite fast, but I am truly unexperienced with MP play for now... so I'd like to participate in every area of the game... (yes, just that )
but I am more particularly interested in the Conselheiro dos Negócios Estrangeiros and the Conselheiro da Informação Estratégica...

I also support Oyzar as our main ambassador... He convinced a lot of players to join the "Cavaleiros", I am sure he will convince other teams to let us win...

If no one is willing to be spreadsheet slave I can help on that...
I am ready to be

Cheers,
Raskolnikov

[Niklas]

Based on the discussion in the other thread (and here), I nominate the following cabinet heads for the start of the game:

Turnplayer: whoever first says they want to play the first 10.
Backup: oyzar

Internal: Niklas
Foreign: oyzar
Intelligence: Renata
Military: Earthling

Note again that these positions come with a responsibility to give input on the matter at hand, but not necessarily any power of decision. The power lies with the people's consensus, or ultimately the turnplayer when no consensus is reached. A brief job description for each of these positions would be:

Internal: Suggest plans for tile allocations, build sequences, slider settings, research choices etc.
Foreign: Suggest drafts for letters to send to our opponents, and send them when a consensus has been reached on what to say.
Intelligence: Keep track of every tiny detail we know about our opponents.
Military: Suggest tactical and strategical plans. The former entails attack sequences and battle odds, the latter (which will require more input from everyone) entails attack paths and unit allocations.

All positions require a lot of backup, but having one person responsible in each area means we have at least someone to ensure that the information flow keeps going. And we have someone to whip if not enough happens in that department.

[Renata]

Well, intelligence will be easy enough at first.

"We don't know anybody. Ho-hum."

[Diamondeye]

I would like to assist Oyzar and Renata if it possible to be in to councils at once. If not I would probably go with Foreign.

By the way I would like to step off the turnplayer nomination, I am not nearly qualified and will most surely not have the time

[Renata]

Oh yeah, I don't think I'm really qualified to play many turns either (and will also lack time). But I would like to do it once early on before things get too complicated, just to say I did.

[PurpleTurtle]

As we have gotten through two turns and started compiling screenshot data it has come to my attention that we have information that needs analysis that didn't gracefully fall into any of the previous categories. After discussion with Oyzar, he and I think it might be best for it to be incorporated into the military department as they will have little to do til we go to war.

The data we are talking about are screenshots that reveal information about our surrounding area. Since primarily military units will be used for exploration this would seem like a military matter.

[Methos]

Currently we aren't very organized and I've been considering ways to help fix that.

1. City Spreadsheets: Currently Renata is doing them all and I don't believe that's fair to Renata. I was thinking that each city should be given to one person. A single city shouldn't demand too much time and it lightens Renata's load. Obviously this is on a volunteer basis. I wouldn't suggest forcing it on anyone.
2. Intelligence/Demographics: Unfortunately this one requires the individual to work with all nations. I was hoping, assuming she doesn't mind, that Renata continue to be in charge of this.
3. Threads: I'm thinking we need more threads. Currently everything is in just a few threads and appears harder to keep track of. Things get forgotten, or left behind, due to large traffic. Maybe add a thread for worker discussion, individual cities, new or possible strategy options, etc.

I'm currently at work, so not complete with my ideas, but figured I might as well get these posted for now. Please, tell me if you like them or think they stink and add any others you may have.

[Earthling]

Individual cities: the problem is we don't have enough active players right now - but it is a good idea and something great for people to get into though. The important thing about this role will be to keep up to date on internal affairs as a whole to know what a city is doing. But it certainly would make things easier on the turnplayer for someone else to keep track of, say, how much food is needed to growth so we don't end up with mistakes like being one down.

Intelligence/Demo - I'd like to propose that we're somewhat at a point of diminishing returns - it's true that whatever we do can only help us, however at some point if people simply don't have the time I'd be ok with dropping a lot of it. We'll have multiple important avenues opened up soon enough:
1) diplomacy - simply ask the other teams which GNP and all they are.
2) espionage, actual graphs, and tech screens - should become much easier to simply determine power, what techs they have, etc...
My point is I don't think it's necessary to figure out exactly what every city of theirs is building and all (again when we get maps this is also less important) - it can't hurt but I don't want anybody wasting huge amounts of time.

Threads - the other teams all say they have more threads - one thing we haven't done much at all is actual "votes" on what we're doing. I think we're still doing a lot more chat than anyone else, but I agree it's not bad to open up threads on anything that comes up.

[Methos]

Originally Posted by Earthling

The important thing about this role will be to keep up to date on internal affairs as a whole to know what a city is doing.

Agree. This was one of the reasons I proposed this idea. By taking control of the MM for one city, you are thereby becoming more involved and therefore able to contribute more. For instance, unless anyone else wants us, I was going to volunteer as the spreadsheet tracker for the wine city.

Intelligence/Demo - I'd like to propose that we're somewhat at a point of diminishing returns

I agree that this is going to get less and less useful. Once we know where everyone is and have maps, it won't be as useful. At least, what we're currently tracking won't be. At that point units, unit movement, and possibly others will replace current items were watching.

Threads - the other teams all say they have more threads

My proposal wasn't in regards to what other teams are saying about their number of threads, but was in regards to threads about more specific topics. For instance, my recently created thread on what tile to settle the wine city on. The thread serves one purpose and therefore focuses the discussion more. Some of our current threads are rather broad and things can easily get left behind.

[RRRaskolnikov]

@Methos: all good points imo... i am quite busy in this moment, but I agree it's not fair with Renata to let her do all the hard spreadsheet work... so I volunteer too for the MM issues of one city... perhaps Cimeira?

Cheers

[Diamondeye]

I can't say I've got either time, surplus or the knowhow to run a city's MM, but I would gladly officially take the title of "Scapegoat", should we make a faux pas or need an excuse when we backstab someone, if the team needs some sacrifice

[KingMorgan]

Put me down for a few cities. I can make time.

[Methos]

Originally Posted by KingMorgan

Put me down for a few cities. I can make time.

Pick the cities you prefer. So far I've stated I'll take the Winery city (the new one), Rask mentioned Cimeira, so take one of the others. Just mention them by name so no two people are working on the same city.

[oyzar]

Well the worker actions of each city is connected to the MM and the worker action of different cities is often connected to each other... Maybe we should start a thread on each city? or is that a bit much?

[Methos]

Originally Posted by oyzar

Maybe we should start a thread on each city? or is that a bit much?

I considered this too, but like you just asked, I was afraid it was too many threads. Therefore I went with the worker thread hoping that the city mm people could request their service there.

I like the idea of having a thread for each city, but as this game progresses, that's going to be a lot of threads! We could try it I guess. Would make discussion easier regarding their builds and future.

[KingMorgan]

I'll have sombra then.

[Methos]

Looks like Serpent and Ohlo are the only cities not chosen atm. For those who have taken a city to MM or just curious, you can get the "old" spreadsheet here. Note, this is from turn 48, so it is way behind. You can either used the played turns thread to catch it up, or start from this point. I guess whichever you feel comfortable with.

Anyone want Serpente or Ohlo?

[Niklas]

I could take a city, though my overall plan has been to get back into the seat to relieve Renata of having to do double, both administration and espionage. But for now I could take Olho.