And so it begins...

[peter grimes]

I saw those comments about saber... Nothing against them, but I find it hard to think of Greekguy, Dutchfire, and (who was the last one?) as MIA; GB and Classical, on the other hand, were clearly MIA.

So far, of the 'fouding' members of MIA, only you, me, and Classical have signed up. I hope no one is thinking 'Oh - there's a lot of MIA on that Team, better watch out!', because I don't think success in the last game will translate to success in this game. Everyone who was paying attention in the last game will have learned from the mistakes, missteps, and successes; we'll all be on the lookout for the same here.

Leader: The Council
Formal:
Noun: The Administration
Adjective: Administrated
Title:

I left some blank because I don't recall exactly how they are used in the game. I remember someone posted a short sentence with blanks in it, so we could understand how "title" and "formal" &c are used.

Can anyone here open up a game, go into the editor, and look that stuff up?

 

[zyxy]

It seems we have a team of Word Smiths ... have I perchance hit a nail headon with that ??

You mean wordy?

On the subject of team names, I thought of a few. Feel free to add, edit, or discard:

Swordfish
Ploughshares to Crosshairs
The real Thang
Prime Movers
Giant Hogweeds
The Unclutchables
Apples and Oranges
Aquifer

 

[Niklas]

I really like the sound of The Council as our team name (not leader name). It has an ominous, faceless ring to it, while at the same time being very representative about how we go about doing business. I would definitely give it my vote. Leader name could be The Chairman.

 

[peter grimes]

I like unclutchables

I also like Aquifer. I prefer names that are short and easy to use - so people can easily say "The UNlcutchables", or "the Aquifers"

It's less easy to say "The Ploughshares to Crosshairs", for example

We could also go in a Biological direction:

The Insects (all unit classes would be the different orders )
The Collectors
The Assimilators (our civ would then be 100% assimilated!)
The Arachnids
The Invertebrata​

EDIT: Xpost w/ Nikodemus. I also like The Council best so far

 

[Niklas]

EDIT: Xpost w/ Nikodemus. I also like The Council best so far

Please keep track of your team mates...

 

[peter grimes]

Wow! Sorry about that

I didn't realize how similar your names are! I wonder if I'll be the first and last to make that mistake?

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I like The Council, too.

I think our color should be black and all our units should wear deep, heavily cowled robes.

 

[Aigburth]

I also like The Council, it has a certain air of mystery about it, sort of like the Freemasons.

Speaking of freemasons, I did a google image search on council shield to get some ideas for our banner, it came up with the following masonic shield which I think is great.



'Ordo Ab Chao' means 'Order out of Chaos' which is also nice. I'm not suggesting we use an actual masonic shield, just putting it up as an idea for the kind of thing we may want.

Leader: The Chairman
Formal: The Council
Noun: The Administration
Adjective: The Administered
Title: ???

 

[Niklas]

Nice shield! Too bad it's already in use, but I agree we would like something similar. Anyone good with drawing tools?

I believe that we have our first real consensus - We will be known as The Council. If anyone objects, now is the time to speak up!

I checked more thoroughly, the various attributes are used like follows:

Title Leader of the Noun
The Adjective city of XXX...

Formal is what shows up for instance on the diplomacy menu. As an example, consider the Vikings:

Leader: Ragnar Lodbrok
Formal: Scandinavia
Noun: Vikings
Adjective: Viking
Title: King

or for the Chinese

Leader: Mao
Formal: China
Noun: Chinese
Adjective: Chinese
Title: Chairman

For our purposes this would mean something like

Leader: Councilor (nameless peer among peers)
Formal: The Council
Noun: Council
Adjective: Council
Title: Elder

Adjective is not perfect, but I think it fits well with the sentences that we (and others) would see, for example

Council scientists have discovered the secrets of Computers!
The Council city of Plenum has completed the Pyramids!​

Sounds good, don't you agree?

EDIT: For the title and name, maybe we want to use Elder as name and The as title, hmm? The F4 screen would then say The Elder of The Council under our picture, might sound better than Elder Councilor of the Council.

 

[fe3333au]

I too agree with Council

The unclutchables would leave us open to the teen humour of some

An alternative suggestion ...

Leader ... Consensus
Title ... Majority

The in F4 we will be Majority Consensus of the Council

Although some of the advisor messages will read a bit strange, the Diplo Screen is what everyone sees.

 

[peter grimes]

This is great stuff here!

I will try and give some thought to ...the ADJECTIVE city of XXX solutions. There must be something clever out there.

And I must say, this distributed reasoning works very well on a team this size.

So is there a Consensus that Fe3333au will be the Council's first UN Representative? If no one objects, he's it be default.

 

[zyxy]

The Council is good ... ominous, yet neutral ...

The council shield is great. We could add our team name to the blue ribbon, and perhaps a symbol instead of the 33.

As for the team name, I like Aquifer most. It is deep, underground, life-bringing, stealthy...

 

[Niklas]

Umm, well, I'm talking about The Council as team name, not leader name, see my whole rant about adjectives and stuff.

Majority Consensus is really cool for Title + Name.

And I don't mind seeing Fe as UN rep if he wants the job.

 

[zyxy]

Umm, well, I'm talking about The Council as team name, not leader name, see my whole rant about adjectives and stuff.

Majority Consensus is really cool for Title + Name.

And I don't mind seeing Fe as UN rep if he wants the job.

Well, we have a civ name and a team name - they are not necessarily the same...

But it doesn't matter a lot really...

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Fe3333au is the rep! Let us appoint him by consensus, nay acclamation!!

 

[fe3333au]

I didn't read this before I posted on the Method of Choosing a Civ poll.

I shall be acting UN Rep until we formalise our Team Internal Structure.

 

[Niklas]

Well, we have a civ name and a team name - they are not necessarily the same...

But it doesn't matter a lot really...

Gee, this is the second time in the same day that I post an ironic remark only to have it snap back at me. You are right of course, there is a difference between team and civ names, and we could have different names if we wanted.

But do we?

 

[fe3333au]

No, have them both the same

So at the moment

Leader: Consensus, Councilor, Elder
Formal: Council, Aquifier
Noun: Council, Aquifier
Adjective: Council, Aquifier
Title: Majority, Elder, The

ie.
The/Majority/Elder Consensus/Councilor/Elder of the Council/Aquifier

Any others ???

EDIT
Verbose Linguist of the WordSmiths

 

[peter grimes]

I may have thought of an adjective, but I'm not certain it will work well:

Well-run

So we'd read "The Well-run town of Horseville has produced a barracks"

Thoughts?

 

[zyxy]

Just to get back to the subject of civ choice: it seems we get to choose our own civ after all, and I think our top picks were:
Ottomans, France, Sumeria, Greece, Iroquois.

Here are my thoughts on them:

Ottomans
Industrious and Scientific.
techs: BW & Masonry
UU: Sipahi. This is a cav replacement with attack 8 instead of 6, and cost 100 instead of 80.

This is strong research civ, with cheap libs and quick workers. As scoutsout notes, there may be a choice to make in the MA between unis and MT - but this may not be much of a problem if we have a research partner. Sipahi are a good UU, but expensive and a bit late. In an MP game, its biggest problem is that makes your intentions abundantly clear, and humans will probably not wait for their rival to get this UU.
The starting techs are ok-ish, but BW will have little or no trade value.

France
Industrious and Commercial
techs: Masonry and Alpha
UU: Musketeer, a musket replacement with an extra defense point and a (low) bombard rating, for the same price.

Another good research civ, with lower corruption and more gold output instead of cheap buildings and free techs.
The starting techs are among the most expensive, and alpha is very useful if the map is continents or archipel. It also gives a decent shot at the Philosophy free tech (but Pott and some military techs may be needed first).
The UU is the best defense against cavalry that you can get until the IA, and if someone decides to attack you, you get a conveniently timed GA.
Otherwise, the GA has to be wonder triggered. In the AA and MA there are the following options:
Commercial: Colossus, Light, Magellan, Smith
Industrious: Pyr, Wall, Gardens

Sumeria
Agricultural and Scientific
techs: BW & Pott
UU: enkidu, a warrior replacement that fights like a spear and upgrades to a pike. Sumeria does not get spears.

A good civ for rapid expansion and city growth. Once the empire is fully expanded, libraries will help to create a research power house. The starting techs are very cheap. The UU is a cheap safekeeper and will help to control a sprawling empire at low cost, but it prevents the warrior-sword upgrade and invites an early spoiler attack. Barring spoiler attacks the GA probably has to be wonder started and in the AA and MA the following wonders are available:
Agricultural: Gardens, Pyr
Scientific: Library, Mausollos, Newton

Greece
Scientific and Commercial
techs: BW and Alphabet
UU: the hoplite is a pike for the price and at the time of a spear.

Well, they won last time, so what can I say?
Seriously: a strong research civ, but (like the other non-agri civs) probably slow to start. The starting techs are good: BW has little trade value but allows the hoplite right away, and alpha is just the best. This civ has a good shot at the Philo free tech because the military side is covered right from the start. The hoplite easily keeps you safe until the mid-MA and this gives ample time to build up the infrastructure. The GA likely has to be wonder started:
Scientific: Library, Mausollos, Newton
Commercial: Colossus, Light, Magellan, Smith

Iroquois
Agri and Commercial
techs: Pott and Alphabet
UU: the mounty is a horse with an extra attack point.

Another fast expander, and the commercial trait makes a large empire productive. The starting techs are valuable and useful, and there is a good chance of a Philo free tech. The mounty is a great AA attacker, its the main drawbacks are that a post-republic attack could easily face pikes, and that mounties may come a little too early for a decisive attack (depending on the map size).

My choices:
I don't like Greeks or Iro, because we had them last game (otherwise I would choose Iro).
I think the Ottomans are an invitation to a dogpile - nobody else will want to see a human player with Sipahi.
France and Sumeria are the most interesting to me. I think Sumeria will have the fastest start, but France will catch up later with the Commercial trait. And of course France gets the better UU and the better starting techs.