A Request For the Counsel of Respected Peers

[tootall_2012]

Hi Patine,

It's not entirely clear to me, do you plan on having the WRE and ERE as separate powers? If so, may I recommend that you have both the West and East represented as one power/player. You could have specific units for each faction. With TNO's "Landmark" feature you could easily draw a border between the West and Eastern Empires and establish strict house rules about were each sides units can be operate and be built.

Otherwise, if you you are only able to control the Western Empire's forces, for example, than it seems as though you would only end up playing on smaller portion of the map.If you get to play both parts of the Empire, East and West, it would make the game more interesting in my humble opinion.

 

[Patine]

Hi Patine,

It's not entirely clear to me, do you plan on having the WRE and ERE as separate powers? If so, may I recommend that you have both the West and East represented as one power/player. You could have specific units for each faction. With TNO's "Landmark" feature you could easily draw a border between the West and Eastern Empires and establish strict house rules about were each sides units can be operate and be built.

Otherwise, if you you are only able to control the Western Empire's forces, for example, than it seems as though you would only end up playing on smaller portion of the map.If you get to play both parts of the Empire, East and West, it would make the game more interesting in my humble opinion.

I do think this wisdom has definite advantages, but it has, as I've considered things, three big drawbacks:
-There are a few Wonders I'm currently seriously considering including (most of which, in the ones I'm referring, built at the start) that ideally, due to socio-political and DEFINITELY religious divides, I wouldn't ideally want benefiting both empires at once. However, my included list of Wonders is not firmly set.
-The back and forth struggles between Rome and Constantinople, each very often in that period with a different Emperor resident, and often (though not always) backed by the Pope and Eastern Patriarch, respectively, would be a challenge to otherwise replicate, even though they rarely came to a full war footing with each other, or even really close. However, periods of effectively one Emperor (such as Jovian, for instance) did also happen in that era.
-And, the biggest one, the degeneration and collapse was much more profound and much faster in every way in the West than in the East, as the Eastern Empire lasted more than 800 years longer as a political entity, and, in this scenario, would the West be struggling harder, and that would be difficult (though maybe not impossible) to replicate.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Patine,

Yes, I understand the logic behind your arguments. Like you say, it also depends from what point of time your scenario begins... there would clearly be a different approach for a scenario starting in 230 AD as opposed to 375 AD for example.