KotW #9 Pregame Thread

What do you think of the KotW #9 changes?

  • No. Absolutely not.

    Votes: 16 15.7%
  • Eh. I'm not thrilled with it, but you can do it for a one-shot.

    Votes: 30 29.4%
  • Do what you want. It's your game. I'll follow it.

    Votes: 21 20.6%
  • Go for it. Sounds like fun.

    Votes: 28 27.5%
  • I am thrilled with this concept and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

    Votes: 7 6.9%

  • Total voters
    102
I'm with the anti- camp. A side-thread named something like "DI -- Gods of the World" would be fun, but keep KotW pure. Move up a level if things feel too easy or boring.

EDIT: or, try something like starting yourself in Australia as a handicap if you're so intent at proving terrain doesn't make a difference. :D
 
I'll take Judaism if no one else has yet (if someone else has, I'll take anything else:D). I would agree, perhaps don't make it an official KoTW, but still do it.

On another note, I think all of the gods should agree to keep to subtle changes. The game will be most interesting when the focus remains on Neal's play, with just subtle changes to the other civs.
 
Wow. The symmetry of the poll so far is stunning.

With an even mix of people for it and people against it, I'm having second thoughts. I still want to do a DI game on the Earth map eventually, but probably probably not as a "proper" KotW. And I don't think enough time has passed since mad's game, anyway.

That said, things are feeling kind of stale. Maybe KotW #9 could be a Rome OCC? Depopulating Europe with Praets and declaring it off-limits to settlement could be fun. Or maybe run Rome as a naval power, playing nice with Europe and sending Galleys full of Praetorians against Africa and the Middle East. I dunno. What do you all think?
 
I think that you should establish the DI game as a seperate King of the World series as I said and do KotW 9 as a normal 18 earth map civilization, unless you don't want to. If you decide to do another 34 earth map civ, changes have to be made to make it a balanced game such as getting rid of the Sumer, Portugual, and the Byzantines(or Ottomans and move the Constantinoble site over there) and either moving the Irish (celts) to Ireland or deleting them total.
 
You have to remember the poll options - there are 72 people okay with it, as long as it doesn't become more than a diversion, vs. six completely against it. Even if you don't count the second object as in the "for it" camp, that leaves 48 vs. 31, which is still a pretty hefty majority.

That said, I already called Judaism. :p
 
You have to remember the poll options - there are 72 people okay with it, as long as it doesn't become more than a diversion, vs. six completely against it. Even if you don't count the second object as in the "for it" camp, that leaves 48 vs. 31, which is still a pretty hefty majority.

That said, I already called Judaism. :p
Huh? Where do you come up with this count? There are 31 against and 29 for. Another 19 say that Neil should do what he want.

In other news, why do you think you have the right to "call" anything? This is his game, not yours. I don't like the idea but if he chooses to play it through, he should definitely choose the Gods. Folks with creativity and a talent for story-telling should be favoured. Those who have the arrogance to "call" a religion, and you're not the only one, should be summarily dismissed.

One problem with this whole scenario, far from the only one, is choosing the Gods.
 
Huh? Where do you come up with this count? There are 31 against and 29 for. Another 19 say that Neil should do what he want.

In other news, why do you think you have the right to "call" anything? This is his game, not yours. I don't like the idea but if he chooses to play it through, he should definitely choose the Gods. Folks with creativity and a talent for story-telling should be favoured. Those who have the arrogance to "call" a religion, and you're not the only one, should be summarily dismissed.

One problem with this whole scenario, far from the only one, is choosing the Gods.

I agree, as said above, it needs to be done carefully, making sure that the "gods" are mature players, who won't just start essentially warring with each other, and ramping up the redicularity (I doubt that's a word) of the interventions, I find that the best ones are subtle but clever.

That said, if Neal is only going to do this once to get it off his belt, there is no need to make a seperate series, Personally I don't think there is any incentive to maintain some semblance of "purity" within the series, and to think so seems to me rediculous.
 
Wow. The symmetry of the poll so far is stunning.

With an even mix of people for it and people against it, I'm having second thoughts. I still want to do a DI game on the Earth map eventually, but probably probably not as a "proper" KotW. And I don't think enough time has passed since mad's game, anyway.

That said, things are feeling kind of stale. Maybe KotW #9 could be a Rome OCC? Depopulating Europe with Praets and declaring it off-limits to settlement could be fun. Or maybe run Rome as a naval power, playing nice with Europe and sending Galleys full of Praetorians against Africa and the Middle East. I dunno. What do you all think?
If you're gonna do OCC, I like Nappy. It would be awesome to see London disappear up in French smoke.
 
maybe then a group of people can act as a single god, discussing and coordinating their actions in a separate thread?
that would definitely add reason and moderateness to gods' actions.
 
Neal, depending on how you want the gods to act you should choose your level. You're able to handle Emperor, so if you go Monarch (and with Rome of all civs) you should prepare for some divine smiting. After all, if you're playing beneath your level - and with divine help - it will be too easy.

Then again, if you're playing DI prepare to throw all strategy out the window as gods will try and mess with your every action.
 
How about you set a limit to what specialists and civics you can run, and notch the level up to emperor?

A merchant/priest based Roman economy which will always use the slavery civic might be fun to see.
 
another idea... since this seems to be turning into a fist fight, run one more KotW as Jules (maybe on diety) since you want to play Rome so badly, and make KotW X be the DI one. It'd leave you some time to get it organized and figure out who will be the Gods, get a system of coordination up, etc etc...
 
With Shaka proving that Africa, despite its crappy terrain, can support thriving culture and blossom into the envy of the world, it's time for us to look into the future.

I've got some controversial ideas for King of the World #9, and so I figured I'd see how much dissent I would stir up before I went ahead and started it up. I think it would be a lot of fun, and it would be a temporary experiment, so anyone not interested would only have one game to sit out of. Here's the ideas:

1) I want to play as Rome. Yes, yes, they're three-cheese pizza with extra mozzarella, but I feel like we're going to need to cover all the bases eventually, and I think now's the time to do it.

2) I want to, with this game at least, return to the Earth18 map. All sorts of weirdness is bound to happen in this game, and I'd like to be a little more familiar with the baseline than I am with the 34 Civs map. I'm even considering backsliding to Monarch difficulty.

3) This is the big one. I want to run this as a Divine Intervention game, with a twist. I'd like to have seven regular Gods, each tied to one of the seven faiths in the game. These Gods would cultivate "their flocks," granting them aid and defending them from their enemies. Within reason, of course.

I feel that tying the Gods to the game's faiths would grant a little more order and stability than allowing a free-for-all of changes after every single round. This would necessitate the selection of seven "mods" willing to check in and play along regularly (though those tied to Islam and Taoism can obviously come in late).

That said, I know that DI games aren't considered "real" games, so I'm going to put it to a vote. What're your thoughts?

I'd have to say you play at least one more game on 34 as Sitting Bull or that '' Cramped Pacal ''. Elizabeth would be a good choice too. The ''divine'' part is pretty interesting... Rome? Way too powerful. I mean, Impis weren't the best uu's for the Zulu game, but Praetorians? The best uu? I also say that America would be able to expand, but not too far before Bull expands his empire. So America would be an exellent choice also. Maybe... Diplomatic next time?
 
Wow. The symmetry of the poll so far is stunning.

With an even mix of people for it and people against it, I'm having second thoughts. I still want to do a DI game on the Earth map eventually, but probably probably not as a "proper" KotW. And I don't think enough time has passed since mad's game, anyway.

That said, things are feeling kind of stale. Maybe KotW #9 could be a Rome OCC? Depopulating Europe with Praets and declaring it off-limits to settlement could be fun. Or maybe run Rome as a naval power, playing nice with Europe and sending Galleys full of Praetorians against Africa and the Middle East. I dunno. What do you all think?

I don't think that an OCC game would be fun though. KOTW is a game to show people ways to win on the Earth maps in Civ 4. An OCC game just doesn't make me think of you managing to stop that marauding Hannibal or whoever is on one of these Earth maps...
 
I like the KotW series because, with the exception of this past game, it has been about repeated play on the same map, with the same civs, and the only change being what civ you play. But the variability from game-to-game also arises from pseudo-random aspects of the program, not just from differences in the way you play. Though I say the "same map", I still think that small, controlled terrain changes (as made before the Saladin game), tested over the course of a few games, are very valuable and interesting from the perspective of moving towards balanced play.

I also have liked the emphasis on solid play as opposed to role-playing, and the advance formulation of strategy that knowledge of initial surroundings affords. The extreme nature of these initial surroundings is really interesting, I think -- from cramped Europe to isolated South America to food-poor africa.

While I like following Divine Intervention and Role Playing Games, I think they are not in the spirit of the KotW series, and don't belong under that mantle. If you want to play a DI/RPC game with Caesar, then I'll watch -- but I'd prefer to simply see Caesar played in the KotW series on the E18 map at Deity, normal speed.
 
All right. Enough dithering. I'm itching to get back into a game.

The DI idea is out the window. They seem like fun, and I'd like to do one someday, but they don't really belong in this series. The outcome depends more on the whims of the Gods than on the strategy of the player, and the KotW games are, ultimately, about strategy. Not necessarily good strategy, mind you (as my appalling lack of micromanagement will attest), but strategy.

That said, I am feeling a little homesick for the 18 Civ map. I am willing to be shouted down on this, but I don't feel like we've exhausted Old Reliable just yet. And, as Ultimocrat said, the beauty of this series is the continuity of the map.

So okay. The next game will be, as before, Epic Speed, on Emperor. I don't want to junk up the front page with another preliminary poll, so I'll lay out my finalists here:

A) Earth18, Rome, Praet rush, with Aggressive AI turned on.

B) Earth18, Mongolia, try to get a Keshik rush off the ground, stock settings.

C) Earth18, China, Oracle/Great Engineer Cho-Ko-Nu slingshot, stock settings.

D) Earth34, Vikings, clean up the map a bit in WorldBuilder, settle the Fjordlands and run a pillaging economy centered around Berserkers and pumped up Galleys.

E) Earth34, Byzantium, clean up the map a bit in WorldBuilder, try for a Priest Economy complete with the University of Sankore and the Spiral Minaret, hang back and then make a push for the lead with the advent of Guilds.

So what do you all think?
 
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