NCSG2 - ideas and suggestions

[grandad1982]

Well since our first SG NCSG1-Suryavarman II! is nearly in the bag I've decided we should start to discuss our next game.

This thread is open to all comers but I esspecially welcome those who share the aims of the Nobles Club. The home thread for the Nobles club can be found here.

In brief our aims our to learn new techiques and polish our skills so that we can move upto and beyond Noble level. Also having fun is pretty important!!!

Our first SG was/is with Suryavaraman II. Hes CRE/EXP. UU is the Ballista Elephant (attacks cavalry first in a stack outside of cities (pretty lame special ability IMO)), his UB is the Baray (an aquaduct that gives +1 food).

Looks like we're about to get a domination win on a pangea map.

So thoughts for our next SG....?

EDIT: If you want to be part of the next SG then just say so and I'll try to make sure I edit this post to contain your names. That way we can see how many games we'll need to run etc....

EDIT 2: So it looks like we're going to be running two games here, so a couple of more players would be pretty sweet. If your interested just say so!

EDIT 3: We finished NCSG1-Suryavarman II! with a domination victory. Good work team!

Map type seems likely to be a 3 hemispheres map for some intercontinental war.

Are learder looks pretty set to be Lincoln. He PHI/CHA. UB is a pimped supermarket that gives an extra with each of the late game happness resourses and a 25% boost to cash. UU is marine that starts with march (I think). Starting techs are Fishing and.... Agriculture(?). I can't view the main site ATM so I can't check or confirm what I've writen.

So far the focus on the game has been suggested as espionage. Also it seems we may be running a NO COTTAGE game! Nice.

Difficulty has been suggested Monarch, but this is still open to discussion (as are all game points till the save is up!!).

Potential players so far....
Krick19
Schwartz
S.ilver
Groogaroo
Grandad1982
r_rolo1 (or are you just visiting?!)
Bleys
Pigswill
aol

These are the team suggested by Krick19
Team 1:
Krick
Silver
grandad
Bleys

Team 2:
schwartz
Groogaroo
aol
pigswill

I'm happy with these.

We need to decide on the logistics of two games. For example what will be our cross reference points (if any) between games? Team names? i.e. Kricks crackers etc etc. Should we be able to look at each others threads? You get the idea.

 

[grandad1982]

One thing we haven't done so well in our current game is leverage religion to its full potential IMO. With this in mind I'd be interested to go for a much more religious game and run a religious economy.

Leaders I'd suggest for this are:

Justinian I. Hes IMP/SPI, starting techs are Mystism and The Wheel (so good to grab an early religion or 2 if we want). UU is a stronger knight and his UB is a theatre that gives +1 with horses.

I'd like a bit of a REX with Justinian I - if the map allowed it. Cheap settlers shouldn't be waisted early on!

Either of the Eygptians. Ramesses II is SPI/IND. Hatshepsut is SPI/CRE. Starting techs are Agriculture and The Wheel. UU is a stronger chariot. UB is the Obelisk, a monument that gives the ability to run 2 priests. Hence why I chose the Eygptrians as a good religious civilization!!

These are just some initail ideas which are very much up for some evolution or even downright revolution.

Don't be shy, shout out some ideas. It could be anything (to do with our next SG before you get carried away) not just about these leaders or an RE!

 

[schwartz]

I'd like to try an espionage based game with Sitting Bull. I think it's something the team will be able to play out well and I also obviously think it'd be fun
That said, I almost always avoid founding religions because I never (almost never, at least) build the prophet wonders (stonehenge, oracle, ToA, Angkor Wat, etc) so I can't shrine the religions that I found. I like to capture holy cities with pre-built shrines

 

[Krick19]

I'm kinda bored with religion right now, but why don't we try some insane variants? One I've been thinking about would be challenging, yet fun: Every city needs a wonder.

But we should just choose leaders right now.
I've never really used Mansa-SPI-FIN, or Monty-AGG-SPI, so that's where I'm looking.

 

[grandad1982]

A bit RPC style? Yer that sounds pretty cool to me! That would give the game a nice story edge too. Every city with a wonder might be a bit to hard though IMO.

Monty. I'd be pretty into a game with him. never give him an outing really so could be nice. Also his UB great for whipping.

I also love the idea of a Sittingbull espionage game.

I'm so fickle!!!

In fact espionage could make a nice RPC angle.

Maybe we should think traits instead of leaders.

What traits do you want most?

my top 3 choices are in this order:
1. SPI
2. AGG
3. PHI

I see this as leaving Monty (AGG/SPI), Gandhi (PHI/SPI(you know you want too...)) and Linclon (CHA/PHI(CHA being a good alternative to AGG)).

 

[Krick19]

Ooh, I've never used America in BTS. Now I'm really split between Monty and Lincoln.

 

[r_rolo1]

Cha is far better than Agg......

About espionage games: they don't work that well in Noble ( in fact even in monarch the AI becomes too slow in EE games, because they start uping the slider to try to compensate the human espionage )....

And don't use Ind : Bleys need to break his wonder addiction

 

[grandad1982]

Hahahaha.... naughty Bleys!

I think I'll say Lincoln is my choice ATM. I like idea of a late UU and UB. With CHA, the UB and some late wonders or trades for the right resourses we can have some huge cities. I like big cities! Lots of versatility.

 

[schwartz]

rolo:
I was pulling for Monarch in our next SG.. At Noble or Prince we'll win so easily it won't even be funny (see current game for proof ). In my experience, EE can work at Monarch up to a point, but it's not at its best until Emperor/Immortal.
Lincoln would be fun, but we'd need to make up a good variant as IMO he's the best leader in the game, using him is like moving down a level almost.. (I've won one game, ever, on Emperor, with Lincoln. It wasn't even close )
Now I'm trying to think of some variant rules that we could use.....

 

[S.ilver]

I'm game for whatever variant that the team wants. We should definitely work on something that most people are not as familiar with, so we can learn as much as possible from the game.

I'd also like to see us pick a strategy and stick to it. We made some decisions in NCSG1, like the UoS, my fault there, I pushed for it thinking we'd use our religion more. Since we ran lots of specs in that game, something like Sistine would've been a better choice. I'm not sure about more skilled players, but I haven't had much success when mixing strategies too much.

NCSG1 was basically dominated by economic development strategy and planning, because we put the SE (or perhaps more of a hybrid economy) to good use. Perhaps we can have a variant that's not strictly based on an economic faculty (although espionage is something I definitely need more work on too).

 

[grandad1982]

I was thinking monarch also. I've started to play at that level in my on and offline games.

With Lincoln I'd suggest one theme being no use of slavery.

I've been toying with the idea of a super rich state recently and wondering about running mainly merchants and then settling all the GMs in my wall street city - apart from GMs for Sid's or Ceral corps founding. I want to see how much GPT its possibel to get!
This would work well with a cottaged empire for the science and a couple of GM farms IMO! Come the end, universal sufferage would buy you what ever you want! Ummm late game conquest.....

Every time I try this offline though something happens and I get distracted from my goal. In an SG the focus might just remain....

 

[Groogaroo]

I'm up for the next NobleClub SG, I'm not too bothered about the level, I've never played monarch but it should be okay as its an SG and there will be plenty of people to cover up any mistakes I make, so either Prince or Monarch is fine by me.

I'd like to see some kind of varient rules too, although I can't think of anything interesting off the top of my head? Maybe once we have a definite choice of leader it might be easier to come with ideas for that.

Cool! Looking forward to it!

 

[S.ilver]

I'm ok with any of the listed difficulties, because the SG format helps you concentrate and play good turns, not to mention that potential damage is limited by the turnsets .

I have heard though, if we want to play an espionage economy game, it's like stepping up a difficulty, so we should keep that in mind if we go with that variant. I have little experience in that field, so I would welcome something like that, but perhaps there are other areas that people would like practice in (my other serious weakness is tech pathing, but since that differs with different strategy, I guess my actual weakness is grand strategy itself O.o)

 

[grandad1982]

Yer I klnow what your saying about tech focus. The first time I played the NC Hannible game I missed the GLH as I wasn't focusing my research on it. The second time I just went for what I wanted and needed for my plan.

I think an espionage game would be a good way to practice teching. You'd need to really go for your tech targets and then fill in from stealing. After all stealing tech means your probalby behind if its a large part of your stratagy.

If we do go for an espionage varient then I still like Lincoln as his PHI trait will be great for GSpys. Fred might be a good chioce with cheap courthouses from ORG.

 

[Bleys]

Good ideas by all. I am up for whatever, but I would like to shrink the teams to 4 or 5 players each, so we get more rounds per game. 7 was too many. I would love to see a "same game, 2 teams" thing, with NO PEEKING at the other teams strats and such, then we compare at a mid-point, say Liberalism, and see where we both are, then again at Tanks, maybe.

I am most interested in a more pure SE than an EE though. I love Lincoln, hes very solid. And I promise no pushing Wonderspam other than the "standard" SE line up, Mids, Parth, GW maybe (if we want to play an EE heavy type of SE). For conditions, we could go with "No cottages", thats always fun, and we have to farm-workshot-watermill over AI cottages we conquer. Should be doable with Lincoln at Monarch.

I am pretty wide open though, no worries at all, I dont have any strong convictions or reservations. Sign me up.

 

[Krick19]

Hmm, I'd rather only go up to Prince, and then Monarch, but you know me, I'm a wuss. I think I'll be fine with advice.

 

[grandad1982]

Well it seems like Lincoln is gaining momentum here. Or is it just me as I keep talking about him?!

If we play two games then we might want to attract a couple more players for at least 4 per team (since I'm fairly sure rolo won't play (could be wrong)).

Maybe we should stick a notice in the NC Brennus tread to atract some more players?

 

[grandad1982]

@ krick

If we go 2 games we can have a prince and a monarch thread. IMO you would suprise yourself and do pretty well at monarch!!

 

[Groogaroo]

Well it seems like Lincoln is gaining momentum here. Or is it just me as I keep talking about him?!

Forgot to say actually I'm keen on Lincoln, I've never played with him but he has great traits and he shares my birthday! So he gets my approval.

 

[pigswill]

Looking for players?