Great Wars of Italy - idea for PBEM

[Glasnost]

Hey fanatics!

I made a new map specially drafted to be 6 player PBEM located in Italy. Because I designed it to be PBEM I post it here first for commentary. The concept of the map comes from Great Wars of Italy which was series of conflicts between city-states of Italy. More can be found in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Wars

Players will be starting in a place of 6 capitals of some of the most important city-states: Kingdom of Naples, Papal States, Kingdom of Sicily, Republic of Florence, Duchy of Milan and Republic of Venice.

Atm, I am thinking that I don't want this to be prebuild scenario with customised everything (that is also build already by someone I think). Also it should be also noted that I am not aiming for full historical or geographical accuracy. Mostly I am concerned about possibilities of interesting gameplay. Size of the map is rather small because I myself dont enjoy the long expanding phase of some huge maps.

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About the game itself, I am still very open for new ideas but here are some of the original thoughts behind the map:

Only predefined or customised setting are the starting locations and names of first cities. So players are then able to choose any civ they wish and will be playing them as if this is a normal epic PBEM with some exceptions on the role of the Papal States.

Victory conditions are the standard five (with maybe some twist).

Players are able to pick the civilization and a starting location they wish but players will also be asked to ban one civilization from the game to get some of the most used and powerfull civs out of the picture. You can see the differences between the starting locations if you download the map but I will something about the possibilites of different states:
-Northern States of Milan, Florence and Venice will benefit from huge amout of BG tiles and resources of the mountains but they are located close to each others which will lead probably quicker to some problems with neigbours.
-Naples will have the biggest possibilites to expand peacefully and will have huge amounts of food in the bottom of the peninsula, but will not have the same "industrial" benefits of big amount of BG and resources.
-Sicily will benefit for the easy defence but will suffer from the limited ability to scout and expand because of island location.

Because the special position of the holy seat the Papal States will have some different rules:
1. the Papal States can never be an aggressor in a war. Holy seat can fight wars with all their skills and capture cities and such but can never be the one declaring.
2. Other states are never allowed to cross boarders of Papal States if they are not at war with him. Also If you declare war to Papal States you are not allowed to cross the boarder at the same turn.
3. All units of the Papal States are allowed to move to other states at anytime and formal (free) RoP is mandatory if the holder of holy seat so wishes. (rule #2 still aplies)
4. If some state does declares war to Papal States, pope will threaten all the other states (with eternal pain in hell) to declare war on the aggressor in the next turn. This will not affect states already in war with Papal States since they have already taken the gamble of eternal pain
-This will make joint war effort the most likely way to fight Papal States
5. Victory conditions are still same for Papal States as of any other state but because of the nature of rule 1, conquest and domination are very unlikely.

Long post but hopefully someone have the time read and commentate!

I would be very pleased with any feedback/criticism.

I will post screenshots and the actual map later.. my winrar is not working properly and its getting late at night..zzzzz

Picture of the map as gif attachment.

 

[Bowsling]

Hmm... I like this idea. I would be willing to play.

 

[Glasnost]

Biq added to the #1 post. Can you try if it works?

As I said, if you have some good ideas about improvements regarding gameplay or map I would be happy to listen.

 

[RickFGS]

I´m in...i´m interested in playing Naples...

 

[Elephantium]

I'd be interested in playing, but I'd need some assurance that turn cycles would flow a bit more quickly than they did in the other PBEM's I've played.

 

[Glasnost]

Thank you for the interest everyone!

I share your feeling Elephantium after lurking some of the games currently "active". I am thinking of "activity rules" for that could be used to guarantee minimun pace for the game . If you have ideas how they could work, please post.

I have also run couple of test runs on this map with AI and have considered couple of improvements. Atm, I am thinking everyone would start with a city, warrior, settler and worker (+scout for expansionists) to get us quicker past the slow early phase. Some of the "Pope rules" will probably need some revisiting, but not much.

I am posting a new thread for player entries after all has been clarified with the map and ruleset. This thread will work as a construction site for the time being.

EDIT: Also starting position of Sicily is probably a lot harder than others, so I am considering adding some benefits for that player (ex. one curragh + something)

 

[RickFGS]

If you want to give Sicily a chance place a river on the island at least.

 

[Glasnost]

Considering ideas by Bowsling (via pm) and RickFGS I have considered following changes:

Sicily will indeed receive a river and a curragh to aid early game problems. Also curraghs will be modified to hold 1 unit so sicily wont be locked to their island if they don't wish so.

Because of the otherwise very good possibilities of coastal blocking by sicily, archer and longbowman will be made capable of amphious attack.

To increase the tactical considerations Papal States can allow one peacefull nation to enter to the lands of papal states. This right can be withdrawn at any time and troops off that nation must exit trough shortest possible way (even to lands of another state).

About the rules for the pace of game I thought these:
1. Every player must post the save (as attachment) and a GPS post after their turn to the game thread. This will make it easier to be sure when the save is actually available for the player next in turn.
2. Next player will have certain amount of hours (24, 36, 48?) to post his own gps and save starting from the post of the last player.
3. If the player dosent respond in that time, game admin will play his turn with minimum effort (spam enter).
4. Some "vacations" are allowed but must be informed beforehand and replacement must be looked. If replacement is not found and vacation is longer that certain amount of time (72h?) admin will be play his turn with minimum effort.
5. If player continues to brake these rules, after certain amount of offences (3 or 5?), permanent replacement will be taken in and player kicked out of the game.

What do you think?

EDIT: Clarified the rule #1

-Glasnost

 

[Bowsling]

I would prefer no time restrictions and hope everyone plays in a timely manner but some of us like to take their time.

Forum post is a bit different, but I'd be fine with it that way.

 

[Glasnost]

Okey!

I have made some balancing with the map and spent plenty of time thinking how the papal states rules could be working and finally I think I am quite happy with the concept.

I will post the actual gamethread and will start taking entries today or tomorrow probably. One thing with what I would really like to hear from you is the time limit for 1 turn. I was thinking of going with 48 hours since 24 would probably be little too tight. Do you think it is too tight/easy since you all have more experience with these games than I do?

 

[RickFGS]

48h sounds good, if player thinks he will need more time, he/she must ask for it .