Well RBC2 is over, a quick but fun win with the Phoenicians.
It demonstrated the following:
- In the Conquest scenarios, assume nothing! Lots of subtle but important changes
- In a scenario, the difficulty lvl is FAR less important than in a regular game,
as the AI doesn't get a huge jump on the player with no cities and more settlers.
Demigd is probably too easy across the board.
- In a scenario the games can be far quicker, and you're "in the action" much faster
- Being aggressive in exploration and sailing can have a huge benefit in tech/gold
We're playing Rise of Rome in a 4-way game exploring all the main civs. In my mind,
this is working great - I'm enjoying seeing the other civs perspectives, and especially
want to see how my 'locked war' foe will do in the hands of humans.
Anyway, with the players asking what's next, let's discuss that some.
(The end of post has 3 specific suggestions for those who like the bottom line.)
I would like to hold off Fall of Rome until after all Rise of Rome factions are
done. That scenario has *Elimination* as the goal (lose 8 cities to die), with
victory point scoring as well. There are eight barbarian tribes to choose from,
and all are Mil/Ind. The barb tribes have their own special research path, which
includes sacking, pillaging, and capturing those they defeat. The Roman empire is
actually two nations, East and West, each with about two dozen small cities plus capital.
Vizigoths are NE, Huns far NE, Celts NW on islands with city/settler mix, Franks N,
Vandals NNW, Anglo-Saxons far N, Ostrogoths ENE. The Sassanids (Persians, SE) are
special as they're not Barbaric, and have starting cities, not settlers. The Designer
Diary says that due to being compressed by the huns that "The Visigoths in the Fall of Rome
scenario are certainly one of the toughest start positions in the entire expansion pack."
(Anyone who knows me from Diablo knows I'm a huge fan of Goths
)
- The Middle Ages follows up this action, in the Europe of Charlemagne. The goal is to
return holy relics to Jerusalem, and there are many civs: four Christian, four Muslim,
four Vikings, and the Byzantines. Mass Regicide and reverse capture the flag.
- Mesoamerica brings the 'features' of enslavement and ritual sacrifice, with the
Aztecs, Mayans and Incans as options, among three other dying tribes. Domination and
Cultural victory are the paths. The latter is with a twist -- culture pts are gained
not only by bldgs but by ritual sacrifice of captured foes. (Not just the Mayans either)
Incans are far South, Aztecs far North, Mayans in the middles. There's a lot of jungle
but jungle with 2.1.0 and easier to road.
- The Age of Discovery brings together Europe and the Americas, with a choice to play one
of the three American tribes for a cultural victory or one of five European powers seeking
to win by victory points returning treasure back home. Portugal begins in a GA, while others
have a UU to get one.
- Sengoku in Japan stands alone, as a Regicide game with eight player choices among 18 civs.
The map, tech tree, and and richess are all extensive. Looks like a good scenario.
- Napoleonic Europe allows the player the choice of 7 nations, with France for Napoleon or
Scoring is Victory pt, or domination victory.
There are locked alliances, *France+Denmark, *Brits+Norway+Portugal+Naples, and unaligned
*Austria, *Prussia, *Spain, *Russia, *Ottomans (and non-playable Sweden). This puppy is all
about combat. Cities are well-developed with special units and few techs to research.
There's the option of modding the scenario to make a lesser nation playable, at
considerable increase to difficulty. (Especially Denmark
)
- WWII Pacific is naval combat at its best, with four sides, China and Commonwealth as
well as Japan and US. Victory pts are key to this scenario.
Some scenarios seem more suited than others for playing several teams as several
civs at once. Sengoku strikes me as a good potential RBCiv 'Epic'. The Pacific cries out
for at least two teams. Fall of Rome, Discovery, Middle Ages and Napoleon have more good
playable choices than we would have teams to field without burnout
The Rise of Rome
is unique in its 'team' appeal in that each civ has a blood rival to compare itself to.
The following come to mind for next RB game following Mesopotamia.
1) Hit scenario 4, Mesoamerica, playing as the Mayans. If there are more players with
interest, we can do a second or third civ.
2) Stay in sequence, let the Roman duo complete first, and try a regular game now
with a new civ (other than Incans, featured in RBC1). Due to the major bugs in
the current version of the game, I'm not looking to go TOO far off the deep end
in terms of variants or difficulty, especially something that would be a long
drawn out struggle and time consuming, only to fall short due to a bug.
3) Play an open SG to help folks not overcommit themselves
In the lines of Sirp's
old open SG games (Aztec jagged game, Egyptian war chariot crush) I would propose
picking a new UU that people have griped about as being too weak, or one of the worst
because of a despotic GA -- and making military action with that UU a focal point of
the game. Three-man chariot comes to mind as very solid, Endiku warriors also could
be potent, and the most doubtful of them all -- the Chasqui scout used offensively.
Sirp himself remarked: "The Chasqui scouts...uhh...I'm really dubious about. I'd
like to believe they could be really useful, but I just can't see it."
That's like waving a red flag in front of a bull!
Thoughts?
Charis
Those Hoplites have the potential to be very unbalancing in the early game in the right hands.
