Hub - Always War PBEM

[Nighthawk419]

Hello all - time to start up a new PBEM game! I don't like starting repetitive games with the standard model, I like to try and make all my games their own different monster. Anyway, based on a live game I had last week I came up with the idea of doing a game that will definitely be a little different than any other PBEM games.

Settings as they stand today:

Map: Hub
Players: 6 Humans
Level: Noble
Speed: Normal
Victories: Domination/Conquest only
Barbs: Normal
Huts: OFF
Events: OFF
World Wrap: Torroidal
Isthmus: 2 squares
Climate: Temperate
Resources: Balanced
Sea Level: Normal
Land Shape: Natural
Neutral Territory: Natural

Settings:
Always War!
Cities CAN flip peacefully from culture
No Tech Trades
No Advanced Start
Requires Complete Kills


I'm curious to see everyone's interest and thoughts. As you can see it would be very much a warmongering game and depending on the number of players the hub could get very interesting. The Hub map is essentially each civ starts with its own area to expand in, there are land bridges (spokes) which go into a "common space" in the middle of the map and you connect to each players area only through the hub or through the ocean. Alliances are always possible, however with the always war setting allied players can't share what would be limited squares in the hub/spoke area and ultimately there can only be one winner...

The first 7 players (and me) get in, I want no more than 8 players on a standard map. We will launch with less if interest wanes. We will attempt to get this game on www.PBEMtracker.com as well, however I won't wait for everyone to sign up to launch the game. Let me know if you want to be in and PM me with your info if I don't have it already.

Info needed:
Email addy
timezone
Hours you normally play

**GAME FILLED - LAUNCH**

Players:
Nighthawk - Ragnar of Vikings
Chasbolt - Ghandi of India
Filon - Random
Imp. Knoedel - Mansa Musa of Mali
Skellora - Random
Eclipse - Random

Turn Order:
Day 1
Filon (GMT+6)
Knoedel (GMT)
Eclipse (GMT-5)
Day 2
Skellora (GMT)
Chasbolt (GMT-5)
Nighthawk (GMT-5)

 

[sohleks]

Okay, I'll play Ragnar too.

Really though, the leader I'll actually play I'm still just deciding. Zara? Hmmm.... Suryavarman of the Khmer? Isabella? Someone Ottoman? Someone English?! How about... Gandhi! Dare I? Oh yes. I choose Gandhi.

You should already have my info Nighthawk. Plus I'm already using pbemtracker.

Game settings...

Prefer some barbarians on. Raging or not matters not to me.

Huts and events should probably be off. If they're on I don't mind.

The world wrap seems pretty important on hub maps. If flat a naval threat most likely will come from a neighbor hub. If toroidal a naval assault might come from any direction post astronomy!

 

[Nighthawk419]

I do have your info sohleks, thanks for joining!

Good thoughts too... Barbs will be on, probably not raging though, for everyone's sanity!

Huts and Events off, agreed.

world wrap is a good discussion. I think Torroidal might actually be a lot of fun, but we will see what others think!

 

[Filon]

I am interested

Leader: random
gmt+6

World Wrap: toroidal

 

[Nighthawk419]

bump bump - who else?

 

[sohleks]

I was just playing around with some map settings and decided on what I liked.

Map: Hub
Size:
- Whatever's appropriate
Climate:
- Anything but arid looks good.

Spoiler :

If tropical the central "arctic" region turns from ice into plains and arctic resources become scarce.
If cold the majority of the continents gain extra forests and deserts/floodplains become scarce as well as the tropical resources. Looks dull.
Rocky just looks like temperate but extra hilly.

Sealevel: Low

Spoiler :

- Greatly increases chances of continents sharing coastal tiles. Land area is increased.

Areas per Player: One

Land Shape: Natural

Spoiler :

- Looks best to me. Increases chances of continents sharing coastal tiles.

Neutral Territory: Varied/Natural

Spoiler :

- Doesn't matter. If natural/islands it's more varied. Pressed is most consistent. Serves its purpose either way.

Isthmus Width: Two or Three

Spoiler :

- Increases the width of the land bridges to the central continent. Two tiles is more like a chokepoint. Three tiles may increase tactical options and settlement desirability for better or worse.

World Wrap: Toroidal

Resources: Balanced

Spoiler :

- I've never played with this. After toggling to balanced it seems to increase your chance of getting iron from 7/8 to 8/8 and horses 4/8 to 8/8 in my short short experiment. Quantity of resources seem more consistent. There's still variety.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! Any thoughts about the option "Requires complete kills"? I'm supporting it.

 

[Nighthawk419]

BUMP!!! Need a few more players! I'd like to get 6 and launch?!!!?

I was just playing around with some map settings and decided on what I liked.

Map: Hub
Size:
- Whatever's appropriate
Climate:
- Anything but arid looks good.

Spoiler :

If tropical the central "arctic" region turns from ice into plains and arctic resources become scarce.
If cold the majority of the continents gain extra forests and deserts/floodplains become scarce as well as the tropical resources. Looks dull.
Rocky just looks like temperate but extra hilly.

Sealevel: Low

Spoiler :

- Greatly increases chances of continents sharing coastal tiles. Land area is increased.

Areas per Player: One

Land Shape: Natural

Spoiler :

- Looks best to me. Increases chances of continents sharing coastal tiles.

Neutral Territory: Varied/Natural

Spoiler :

- Doesn't matter. If natural/islands it's more varied. Pressed is most consistent. Serves its purpose either way.

Isthmus Width: Two or Three

Spoiler :

- Increases the width of the land bridges to the central continent. Two tiles is more like a chokepoint. Three tiles may increase tactical options and settlement desirability for better or worse.

World Wrap: Toroidal

Resources: Balanced

Spoiler :

- I've never played with this. After toggling to balanced it seems to increase your chance of getting iron from 7/8 to 8/8 and horses 4/8 to 8/8 in my short short experiment. Quantity of resources seem more consistent. There's still variety.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! Any thoughts about the option "Requires complete kills"? I'm supporting it.

My thoughts:

Climate - I was just thinking temperate, didn't plan on changing that setting at all.

Sea level - I was also thinking "standard" or "middle" or whatever... even before Optics you'll be able to sail to your neighbors easy enough, no need to make it THAT easy.

Land shape - agreed on Natural... we want everything relatively balanced, but still a little different for each land mass for some spice!

Neutral territory - again, natural is my vote. I want an all-natural standard hub map for this one!

Isthmus - My vote is for 2 squares. 1 is just way too easy to set up a city as your chokepoint and defend it to all hell. With 2 you can still theoretically march past the gateway city but its a tight squeeze and there's tactical advantages/disadvantages for doing that as both defender and attacker. 3 squares is just way too wide and anyone can just march into your homelands. 2 squares seems best to me.

Resources - balanced, yes. We definitely don't want someone getting screwed and not having horses or iron on their section of the map in an "always war" game (ie. that means no resources trading or anything at all, even if you wanted to)

And lastly, yes, I am good with "require complete kills" for this game. Just because you lose your cities, I could see a scenario where you have a massive army marching on someone else and be able to take their city and continue to survive. Or have a "survival agreement" of some sort with another player to be allowed to take one of their cities and survive. In this game its war and you need to kill every last man to wipe someone out!

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Awesome, I´m in! I read somewhere that you don´t get any marble if you choose Balanced Resources though, so Nighthawk can´t steal mine again like last time.

Interesting and exceptional idea, clearly different from the whole standard stuff you see everywhere. Appropriately I should choose an unusual leader I have no experience whatsoever with.

Therefore, I choose... Gilgamesh of Sumeria!

Nah, I think I´ll give Mansa Musa of Mali a try, a resource-less early UU never hurts in a warlike game like this.

I think you already got all of my Info.

Cheers.

 

[Nighthawk419]

Welcome Knoedel! I look forward to wiping you off the map and stealing your resources as soon as possible!

 

[Skellora]

I'm up for this if you still have space.
Random Leader
GMT

Hope that's all good

 

[Nighthawk419]

Skellora you are in, thanks for joining!

 

[Eclipse4449]

Please add me, are we choosing leaders yet?

NightHawk I don't mean to be difficult but I'd like to be Ghengis Khan but thats only if everyone chooses aggressive type leaders

Like Skellora I like Random leaders as well but not if people are picking Ancient destroyers

 

[Nighthawk419]

Please add me, are we choosing leaders yet?

NightHawk I don't mean to be difficult but I'd like to be Ghengis Khan but thats only if everyone chooses aggressive type leaders

Like Skellora I like Random leaders as well but not if people are picking Ancient destroyers

Yes leaders are first come, first serve... however it seems to be a nice mix, not all ancient destroyers/aggressive types. You let me know what you want.

 

[Nighthawk419]

Everyone - Here is what we are going to do with launching this game. I have a long-weekend-vacation coming up (out of town Thurs 7/24 to Sun 7/27) so I am going to leave "registration" open for this game through the weekend. Once I return I will launch on Monday evening with whoever has signed up. We currently have 6 and are capped at 8 players (to control speed) so if we get two more over the weekend they will be in. It will be first come, first serve with those last two spots.

 

[Nighthawk419]

Oh also Filon and Skellora, I will need your email addresses. YOu can just PM them to me. Thanks

 

[Eclipse4449]

Random for me sir
Thank you

 

[sohleks]

Glad to have ya'll aboard. Currently we're 6/8 for a pretty Hub map.

By the way, I was just thinking of this device. They call it Pbemtracker.

 

[Nighthawk419]

We will get going in PBEM tracker, but lets launch the game first.

i am catching up from vacation so will most likely be able to launch this game tomorrow. i need to get the turn order together and launch email, etc. I'll send the first turn tomorrow evening.

 

[Nighthawk419]

Ok everyone - I've set up the turn order and will be launching the game tonight with the 6 of us. Along with the launch I will also send out an email with all the info you need to keep the game moving. I will also get us set up on PBEM tracker too. Rather than going for a 6 man rotation daily (which tends to break down) I went for a 3 man rotation for 1 full turn every 2 days. Turn order is as follows:

Day 1
Filon (GMT+6)
Knoedel (GMT)
Eclipse (GMT-5)
Day 2
Skellora (GMT)
Sohleks (GMT-5)
Nighthawk (GMT-5)

Since I am launching the game in the evening, Filon will have the turn in his inbox for the start of it all tomorrow morning.

 

[Nighthawk419]

PBEM tracker game created - everyone please join!

http://www.pbemtracker.com/game.php?gameID=139

game is called "Hub Always War" and the password is "hub"