yes, I admit I have had the tendency to be a "bleed effect player" ... as in no matter what the circumstances, if the last game I played was against an aggresive opponent then I'll be generally more aggressive, and if the last game I played was against a very passive player then I'll generally be more passive/economical.
It might be good to have some-what of a story built previously ... even if it seems some-what absurd or is cross-genre (aka when I was attempting to sim Space Marines as the Amurites ... and was ultimately defeated by the orcish tide)
Of course in the end the seeming all-or-nothing of stack-attack battles seems to take alot away from the experience (unless its some dramatic "final battle" thats been many, many turns in the making by both sides) ... which is why the hectic and eclectic random and scattered battles from casual team-games seem to have a certain draw to me. When its multiple opponents facing off multiple other opponents, its less of a giant Lego brick and more of an Organic and Overlapping Organism.
As a final remark I will say that I will make an honest attempt to be more adept at roleplaying. I know that the "strategist" might not wish to reveal their plans, and certainly for Esus users this might be a fopa .. but for people to perhaps sound off their ideas of how the game might plan out before hand could be a good thing. Cause in-game its hard to decifer between a planned piece of a story from a contrived attempt at "victory". To give an example .... pick a certain, perhaps less than common religion, could certainly be a preconcieved plan. Contrasted to a Later-made convenient alliance with an opposed race ... Contrived and rp breaking decision.
aka Fol Vamps was planned, perm alliance with elves was out of character and wrung with folly.
also, the complex path to victory is often less rewarding in results yet much more enjoyable, and rewarding for entertainment value. However say ... skipping from ROK to AV and finally to Order could seem rather pandering towards an achieved victory. However, consider that such a victory could be much more easily achieved at an earlier part of the game using more efficient results?
It can be seen as both a complete break from RP, and a complete case of metagaming, but consider this. How much more complex is that nation? what source of political turmoil could be writhing within? What sort of accusations would other nations throw at it? Would its dark past taint the credibility of the newly fanatical glorious revolution? (yes its implying that the dark practitioners were imprisoned/banished rather than executed)
Metagaming is, in some ways, a plan of what you are going to do (more or less) and its usually along the lines of gameplay mechanics. Now, are role-play games supposed to be entirely cause and effect? Or shall we the freedom to sound-off ideas pre-game in order set up our character and not cross-paths in-game in such a way which could lead to "un-sanctioned war mongering" or "rage-quits". For instance, if someone wants X religion for Y nation ... or someone thinks only they should build the Great Library. For instance, what is someone wanted to be Esus Orcs. Would there be a problem with that? thats a grey area. Also, due to the Civilopedia, the Great Library was built by Alexis in Nubia, does this mean the Calabim have more claim on the Great Library than the Sidar, Amurites, or SHieam?
Even if it doesn't SEEM to be out of the lore to you, the player, it might seem innaproppriate to Joe the opponent. Therefore we can have sound-offs, where we have "some abstract planning" to avoid the purely cause-and-effect syndrome of 'RP' games which usually lend itself to a repetitive land-grab. I think, however, we can choose to make a few preliminary rulings HERE before any of that goes down. For instance, I think we can all agree that the Luchuirp are probably not the best, lore-wise, to summon Basium, and although technically ethne summoned them, the Bannor and malakim are also likely choices.
Also, that the Elohim, and Kuriotates would not be nations to "rush" the Ashen Veil ... although if a clever Shieam later converted them, one of them might end up inadvertently summoning Hyborem ... but not of their own direct Volition.
Therfore I think this could be a forum for lore and roleplay Ideas, instead of rules, or even a combination of both. This way we can see truly when someone is trying to RP, and when they are breaking down into win-mode
if you can plug certain scenarios in advance for each of the weeks of the month then people will be able to anticipate the game and thus be more likely to want to play. Of course this would have the added flaw that the amount of players would ebb and flow as people like different scenarios better then others.
THAT is what roleplaying is all about.
