aCK-1 Behaving Ourselves

[S.ilver]

So, in the last little bit, Liq and S.ilver have been noticing an influx of people rushing into the SG forums, including some newer players. At the same time, we've been able to chain together enough turnsets to push out 2 and 1/2 Boff-0 games in that time.

Bafflingly, people have apparently been lurking these games and learning something from the Questionable Play (TM) and Novel-Length Reports. Yet lurkers seem a bit reluctant to join in on the fun, for all manner of reasons.

Well, since Liq and S.ilver are big believers in learning by doing, here we seek to make a more "accessible" SG. That's right, the disastrous duo somehow feels we are qualified to teach in a learning SG.


Anyways, for our first rendition, we'll take on 3 or 4 people and go from there. All settings will be decided by whoever joins this game; obviously the objective is to learn something, so it's pointless to impose our own directives. (One caveat though; Liq and S.ilver are not qualified to teach anything about cultural victories...)


Some rules applying to this SG spoilered below, because for some reason people like to spoiler rules.

Spoiler :

1. For a learning SG, the report is even more important than usual. If we cannot follow what you are doing, it is difficult to comment. Of course, since this is a Liq and S.ilver production, you may be able to learn some report writing styles as well...

2. There is no hard and fast turn limit. Typical is 20-30 turns early and 15ish later on, but the idea to is play objective based turnsets. If you have played 20 turns and we are 2 turns from Iron Working, please find out where the iron is first!

3. Always think for yourself and follow along in discussion. Discussion is the tool for learning Civ in these kinds of formats.

 

[Diamondeye]

Looks like we're on it again guys. If you have nothing against it, I would like to be on the team.

I would like us to play Monarch or Emperor. I have no idea about mapscripts, but please roll a map where we aren't boxed in like in Boff-05

I need my REXing repolished - and who'd be better at that than Cathy ?

 

[Loki Strikes]

May I join? Always wanted to play an SG never have, I have lurked, I am an emperor player but I could play immortal alright (about 40% win rate on immortal atm but getting there)

 

[dualmaster]

I'd be interested in an emporer+ level game.

No particular strategy/style is important to me. I think I read somewhere that you should "play the map" .

 

[S.ilver]

Hmm... Ok, maybe S.ilver lacks the clarity of words (or just plain bluntness) of Liq...

If you want an Emp+ level game, well the Boff-0 series is shaping up to be that way (along with new, painful ways to play that no sane HoFer would ever look at). Boff-05 should be wrapping up soonish, so look for Boff-06 (will be another painful Ice Age map with possible expanded roster depending on interest).

The idea behind launching more Questionable Play (TM) under a new name is that we're going to step down the difficulty a notch or two (read: down to monarch or even Prince) in order to attract lower level players; those who enjoy the Boff-0 novelization format but felt too intimidated by the difficultly level to join up.

 

[Liquidated]

yeah what silver said... a while ago we hijacked akk-1 (wtfever it was called) and out of the ashes of that comedy of gandhi gone bonkers.. came grover!!

The boff series is playing emp level and silver and liq are obviously not of the level of "pushing immortal" to be brutally honest.

So really this is a game centered around newer people that do not understand what..

SE vs CE vs TE Economy's are all about (EE's are not the scope of this sg)

Want to better understand City Specialization and how it pays to earmark towns for their role before they are even settled.

Need help understanding a balanced city and how it relates to the town plots around it.

Fun with aggressive settling and passive aggression.

Playing the diplomacy cards one is dealt (and not dealing with say Monty the way you would deal with Gandhi)

Above all, this isn;t just another Boff-0 series disaster. This is aimed at helping the many new princeish (though they may be loathe to admit it) level players that have been visiting the boards lately.

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[goblinmarine]

ok... so I'm very comfortable at noble, haven't tried any higher difficulties but I tend to do well until my attention flags. Don't seem to have the attention span to finish out a game on my own. Read most of the Boff-0 series... somewhere in the midst of Boff-05 right now. As proof I'll simply say I love the exploding elephants and pony rides at Damascus. Very entertaining. Would definitely like a crack at this game if i'm not too low level a player. I think I'll do fine as long as I pay attention and have team backup for a plan. But hey, if I screw up the worst I can do is gimp silver into a slightly more challenging war or and up making liq's Questionable Play (TM liq and silver) look perfectly sane and well thought out
oh, and never done an SG before but read quite a few.

 

[silk1976]

deleted..

originally posted due to enthusiasm, which unfortunately did not include enough brains. With the daylight savings and longer days, I'll have less time for Civ - not more!

 

[Diamondeye]

I was thinking something like that. Emperor is hard to me, Monarch or Prince suits me way better for some elbowroom to try out things I don't know inside out yet. What we call Questionable Play (TM)

 

[S.ilver]

@ goblinmarine. Glad to have you onboard. You're actually of the same mindset as both myself and Liq. We cannot play long SP games due to degenerating into whack-enter fests. The reports keep you sharp and make you ask yourself why you are doing certain things.

@ silk1976. No problem, real life always comes first. I will say though, with a 5 or 6 person roster that we are planning for this game, most of it will be discussion and reading posts; since Liq and I won't be able to chain turns, it won't go too fast, anticipating a turnset a week.

@ DE. Alright mate, you're onboard. I still think you're an overall better player than me . And hey, if you're in, we can have an alternating veteran presence.


Since this is going to be an SG that's aimed at not scaring anyone off, we'll run it at the lowest common difficulty, which is shaping up to be Prince. No pressure at all to boost it, as it's a learning game.

Anyone want to throw out some leaders that may be of interest, and map types?

 

[Diamondeye]

I need my REXing repolished - and who'd be better at that than Cathy ?

'Nuff said

 

[Outshined]

Yeah, I'd love to stop lurking and join some succession games, but I have two insurmountable problems preventing this:

1) I only own Vanilla, and most games are BtS.

2) My computer recently died a horrible death, meaning I can't play PC games at all! (This post typed from an archaic computer that doesn't belong to me. I'd be lucky to run Civ 2 on this thing =P.)

Otherwise I'd be all for it.

 

[sturick]

I'm down for some "Questionable Learning"????

I just won my first Monarch level game on my own but it was a small map using Shaka and I had some pretty easy opponents so it might not have been my stellar play that won the game.

This would be only my second SG and my first just started a week ago...maybe it's cuz I'm at the the back end of the roster but it seems to be dragging and I need more action!

Planning ahead in general is my weakness whether its city placement/mgmt or tech treeing so I think this should help...well it can't hurt can it

 

[S.ilver]

Welcome aboard sturick!

Ok, so a 5 person roster is more than enough to start. If we get one more later, great, if not, we can still manage. Let's get some game parameters set and we'll roll some starts to choose from.

DE wants to run Cathy, any preferences from goblinmarine or sturick? We'll run this game at Prince, so it should be forgiving.

Map type wise, I'm thinking either continents or terra, as it allows for some good AI dynamics (and diplomacy is obviously a very important factor). We can try another map script type though, but we're not looking for an isolation game (skimps on military and diplomacy).

Epic is a preferable speed for SG pacing, allowing more turnsets, but normal is well... normal... Marathon and Quick are generally agreed to have different dynamics, so we won't be running those speeds.

 

[goblinmarine]

I don't have a strong opinion on leader or map type. Cathy's fine. I really prefer epic for speed though, marathon just bores me to death and anything faster just seems too fast for me, especially come war time.

 

[cripp7]

Welcome aboard sturick!

Ok, so a 5 person roster is more than enough to start. If we get one more later, great, if not, we can still manage. Let's get some game parameters set and we'll roll some starts to choose from.

Don't forget about the ones that go awol.

Epic is a preferable speed for SG pacing, allowing more turnsets, but normal is well... normal... Marathon and Quick are generally agreed to have different dynamics, so we won't be running those speeds.

I also agree with too. I still have a hard time with normal/quick in my offline games which I usually play at epic/marathon.

 

[Diamondeye]

Epic is fine by all means.

 

[sturick]

I was hoping to play with a leader that has some Uniques that factor into the gameplay...but for the purposes of a learning game maybe its best to keep things simple.

Epic speed is where i play so that works.

Terra sounds fine to me as far as a map goes as I usually play continents so Terra would be my vote to play something different for me personally without getting too crazy.

 

[PeteyP]

Hey if you guys have room for one more I'd be happy to join. I'm a noble player who is looking to get better...

 

[S.ilver]

We'd be glad to have you aboard PeteyP. I guess that closes up our roster for now, so time to roll some starts.

It looks like the consensus speed is epic, so we'll roll with that. Cathy as leader is also a good idea, as her traits aren't amazingly powerful and broken (like running Darius or something silly), and the UU and UB are not overpowered. Heck, the UU and UB are actually kind of weak, so we'll be set up decently for a fairly balanced game.

So penciling in the roster as follows...

1. S.ilver
2. goblinmarine
3. Diamondeye
4. sturick
5. Liquidated
6. PeteyP

Will roll saves in a second and post it in a new post.