PBEM: A Soaring Spirit

[Prof. Garfield]

Nothing of note for the Etruscans or the Athenians.

No World Events.

Could I propose the house rule of not occupying colony sites with military units? This will prevent a land grab with units acquired from goody huts. Colonies must be founded on a first come, first served basis. What do you guy's think? By all means, lay claim to certain areas or sites as I have done with Euboea, but just plopping military units on all the prime sites, years in advance of any colonists becoming available to settle them just seems unrealistic to me.

I'm opposed to this rule, but I'll go along with it if Northerner agrees.

The unrealistic thing is that you can recruit large armies from huts without having any substantial nearby presence. Diplomacy will prevent a land grab. If someone has claimed dozens of colony sites that they can't possibly colonize, are they going to risk a full scale war because someone killed a hoplite somewhere they weren't about to colonize? Probably only if they want a war anyway. Which party looks more dangerous to outsiders under these circumstances?

Does anyone object if I check to make sure the fix to allow us to build wonders was successful? I'll use the first modified save, so I'm the only one who has played anything at that point.

 

[Northerner]

Oh I think the abundance of villages is the only drawback this otherwise amazing scenario has. A single player can, potentially, start a sort of domino village popping effect and benefit immensely from traipsing hoplites through the Carpathians. It's madness. And it'll be a sort of madness if every colony spot is taken up by a field of mercenary hoplites and thessalian cavalry. Personally, playing as the Spartans, I'd probably let the men fight on the coast and see who wins the spoils. As the Phoenicians I'd see about diplomacy.

I abstain on the issue.

But do go ahead and see if the rule file worked. I sure hope it did.

 

[McMonkey]

CORINTHIANS
Sicyon conquered

IONIANS
The colony of Therma founded

@Prof. Garfield
Please feel free to check the fix.

With regards to the colony placeholder units.It looks like Ingvar has the casting vote here. I will go with whatever he chooses. I'm certainly not saying this to gain personal; advantage as I probably have the most units best placed to explot this tactic, though as you point out - doing so may well make me a target.

 

[McMonkey]

It looks like we will go on with the current house rules then.

I don't see the villages as being a drawback. To me it is a good reason to go exploring and plundering, something the ancient Greeks were renowned for. It also adds an element of randomness to the game as you never know if you're going to get a nice colonist (new city), a military unit, a measly 25 gold or a nasty old barbarian. The fact that there are so many huts and so few starting units means that every player has space to exploit.

If one nation gets the best luck in this early plundering stage and appears too powerful it is likely that the other human players will ally against them. That is the joy of PBEMs for me. A bit like the board game 'Risk' with ever shifting alliances to balance the power.

 

[McMonkey]

The other big factor in this scenario will be trade. That is providing we haven't wiped each other out before getting to that technology

 

[Prof. Garfield]

The wonder fix does seem to have worked. The Athenians were able to research amphora and start the colossus. Lydians started Long Wall.

 

[McMonkey]

Great. Thanks for that. I dare say you currently know more about the mechanics of this scenario than I do. It seems a long time ago that I made this. The thing I'm most pleased with is the visual appearance. Despite it being MGE the graphics work great.

 

[Northerner]

A winterlong siege of the temple city of Olympia ends when the valiant if futile defenders give up. The Gerousia still maintains that the Olympic gamesare accessible to all, even to those at war with Sparta.

The cowards of Elis show far less spirit than the defenders of Olympia, as Elis falls to Spartans still unrested from the siege of Olympia.

All of Elis is now under Spartan hegemony.

News in the West:

Royal envoys manage to convince the residents of a small village outside of Carthage that better livelihood can be found in a place far away. The work of sending the villagers off to a new place begins.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Had to add back the players before playing...

No news from the Etruscans.

In world events, A new Strategos has risen to lead the Corinthians to victory.

No news from the Athenians.

 

[McMonkey]

CORINTHIANS
Aegium conquered and Patrae under siege (we respectfully ask for our Hellenic neighbours not to intervene in this battle)

Apollo Mygdonia founded.

IONIANS
That horrible moment when your mouse slips and your Trireme ends up out to sea instead of by land. Got away with it on this occasion

Contact made with the Phoenicians (Acragas). Ionian explorers are headed back east on the island of Sicily, out of Phoenician territory.

Lydian Hoplite killed in battle with Ionian Hoplites near Miletus.

 

[Northerner]

Few news from the Peloponnese.

Fewer still from Carthage.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

No news from the Etruscans.

In World Events, A new Strategos has risen to lead the Athenians to victory.

Under the direction of their new Strategos, the Athenians capture the island of Aegina.

 

[McMonkey]

CORINTHIANS
Patrae & Oeniadae conquered

IONIANS
No news

Without wishing to jinx things I just wanted to say how pleased I am that we seem to have got a good rythum going with this game. I'm in Wales and I believe Ingvar is still in Iceland. Are you by any chance from the Americas Prof. Garfield?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Yes, I live in Canada. I'm in the same time zone as New York City.

 

[McMonkey]

I just noticed your location says Ontario. Thought I was the next Sherlock Holmes for a while there.

That works out well. If Ingvar and I manage to get our turns in last thing of an evening you can play while we are asleep and we can squeeze in another turn in the morning

 

[Northerner]

Methone claimed by Sparta.

In Carthage a great construction, one designed to cause awe and wonder all through the mediterranean, rises fast what with the the deep coffers of the state being opened in order to facilitate the work.

...

I should be able to play a turn most if not all mornings. I, too, quite like the pace of the game.

Therefore I'm very, very unhappy to inform you I just realized that since I'm going on a two week trip to Morocco beginning next weekend, I might not be able to play at all for two whole weeks. I'm flying through England, and because of rules recently put in place in Britain I cannot take any electronic devices, except a cell phone, on the trip. (Flying to Morocco, or any other nortthern African/middle eastern nation with electronic devices is forbidden.) I will take a USB with the relevant files along, but I very much doubt I'll be able to play much.

I remember over at civforums there were so many players, during peak activity, that one could often find a substitute player. I don't think I'll be so lucky now.

 

[McMonkey]

We can wait for you, no problems. The game is well established now and with only three of us we should be able to pick up again easily enough when you're back. Notified breaks are not a problem. The frustration comes when people disappear for days or weeks without a word and then come back with some BS excuse. I think that's what killed of Civ Webring in the end. Perhaps we could contact a few of the old crew and see if they would be interested in one or two more games. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed PBEMs. Always much more challenging to figure out what a human player is planning over the blunt tool of the AI.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

No news from the Etruscans.

No world events.

Exploring Psiloi find Sybaris. We apologize if they disturbed the city.

Athenian explorers find a small city and convince the inhabitants to move to a more desirable location.

If you find an advanced tribe, do you create the colonist immediately, and disband the colonist that is built to disband the city, or do you use the colonist that is created when the city is disbanded? I created the colonist immediately in this case. The ship it got onto was almost out of movement points, so it doesn't really matter in this case (except that I would have to wait a turn before building a new city with it).

 

[Prof. Garfield]

We can wait for you, no problems. The game is well established now and with only three of us we should be able to pick up again easily enough when you're back. Notified breaks are not a problem. The frustration comes when people disappear for days or weeks without a word and then come back with some BS excuse. I think that's what killed of Civ Webring in the end. Perhaps we could contact a few of the old crew and see if they would be interested in one or two more games. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed PBEMs. Always much more challenging to figure out what a human player is planning over the blunt tool of the AI.

Perhaps the solution is to have a team for each civ. If two (or possibly three) people are together controlling the civ (perhaps playing 5-10 turns before alternating in succession game style), then it is less likely that they both disappear without notice. Of course, this means you need many more people to play, but the commitment from each player is smaller, so it might be easier to recruit.

 

[McMonkey]

I use the cheat menu to disband the city (shift+d) then use cheat menu to create a colonist. This is not as neat a method as I would like but it allows a limited number of new cities from goody huts but not in random locations (IE non-colony sites). You can move this colonist straight away once discovered or found a city if a colony site is within reach. If you have spent any gold in building these colonists please feel free to use the cheat menu to reimburse your treasury. In an ideal world the 'Found new city' reward would be replaced by the 'Wandering tribe of Nomads' one with the Nomads being Colonists.

With regards to the team game, that's not a bad idea, but I think the numbers we can muster today are too limited for that. The most important thing is reliability and trust. A two-week break is not a problem if we all know about it in advance. A two-week absence is a pain in the posterior when it is unannounced and you keep checking to see if the prodigal son has returned.