TH3 archipelago high seas tropics immortal

[Sengir]

Nice finish Loki, thanks for sparing me the whack enter turns.

I can go both ways on starting TH4, a lot depends on whether we can get a couple of new players on board. Waiting untill at least Loki is back is fine with me as well (or we can start something else and get back to TH4 in september).

 

[nocho]

I can go both ways on starting TH4, a lot depends on whether we can get a couple of new players on board. Waiting untill at least Loki is back is fine with me as well (or we can start something else and get back to TH4 in september).

Maybe we should start a thread to gauge interest? At least the difficulty level must be high enough for most players out here to pose an interesting challenge... If we fail horrendously at least we can try again with some experience under our belt.

Or did you have "something else" in particular in mind?

 

[Whosit]

I'll probably be the team's albatross on Deity level, but I'd give it a try nonetheless. Though it doesn't feel right to me to start another TH game with so much of the original crew missing (says the newcomer).

 

[Sengir]

Yeah, that's my thinking as well Whosit. I'd rather wait with the deity game untill at least Loki is back.

As for "something else", I've been mulling over three options:
- Regular Emperor/Immortal game (I'm doing quite decently in solo Emperor, provided I take time to play slowly)
- AW (probably Monarch, I have no experience in AW games and I want to improve my early game warring)
- Espionage Variant. Tech to CoL & Alpha, set science slider to 0 and espionage slider to max and focus on stealing from there on. Exact rules would have to be determined, but I'm thinking about including a 'no-bombarding'-rule, meaning that we can only take down city defenses through revolts.

 

[nocho]

Ok, let's leave it for september then... Hopefully maybe even Dave has a new comp by then.

The options you mention for a new game sound interesting! Especially the espionage game, I wonder how that would work out... GW would seem obligatory. And mids for specialist-only research with slider at 0? Bulbing would be allowed?

AW can be fun, but tedious. I did a solo AW game once on prince and managed it surprisingly well, but it's a bit of grind. Therefore it's recommendable to do it in a SG and not solo...

Immortal or emperor (maybe with some small twist) sound fine too. I'd vote the 007 game though!

 

[Sengir]

I was thinking to discourage self-research, relying mostly on espionage to get techs. I don't think I want to prohibit it entirely, but it is an option (otherwise it is going to be a specialist game with some extra espionage points).

Need to think of a catchy name though

 

[nocho]

I was thinking to discourage self-research, relying mostly on espionage to get techs. I don't think I want to prohibit it entirely, but it is an option (otherwise it is going to be a specialist game with some extra espionage points).

Maybe something like for every tech researched one should be stolen?

0% research could be interesting though, battling our way through the tech tree only through stealing and specialists (and bulbing)... Don't know if it's really feasible though, but IIRC I think I have seen a game played like that.

Need to think of a catchy name though

Sengir007, The Spy Who Shagged You

 

[Whosit]

Sengir007, The Spy Who Shagged You

Maybe something a little more tasteful.

Anyway, something with a focus on espionage does sound fun. I'd be careful with rules like "no bombardment" or "no self-teching" just because those missions can really eat up Espionage Points. Then again, I guess if we're spending all our money on espionage . . . ?

Maybe the game will be an experiment in how far that can go.

 

[nocho]

Maybe something a little more tasteful.

Sengir asked for something catchy, not something tasteful!

Maybe it's a bit early still to discuss, but if we go for the espionage game, I'd suggest Roosevelt as leader. I'd shamelessly go for an industrious leader to improve chances for GW and mids, while I think in general we might be more wonder-dependent than usual anyway. And organized for setting up the cheaper courthouses as quickly as possible for spy points and specialists. And change his name slightly to Roosenberg and we're in theme.

 

[Sengir]

Preliminary rules:
- We can tech the basic worker techs & Alphabet. After that science slider must be set to zero and espionage tech must be set as high as reasonably possible.
- Espionage buildings should be build before gold/science buildings
- Spy specialists should be assigned before merchants/scientists
- Bombarding is only allowed if we don't have enough espionage points for a city revolt
- Great Spies must be used for spy-like activities (no bulbing/GA for GSpies)

Rule I'm still thinking about:
- We can only bulb/start research on techs that aren't researched allready (as far as we can know)

I think this should allow enough freedom for research and still give enough focus on espionage.

I'm also in favor of a organized leader, will look through the list later today for more candidates.

 

[nocho]

Rules sound good!

I do like the 0 science slider, with all commerce converted into spy points I think it must be possible to keep up.

Regarding the first rule, I would include CoL for self research. So as not to fall into the temptation of self researching other stuff by postponing Alpha and CoL we could say that we have to beeline Alpha and CoL after basic worker techs (no squeezing in of maths, aesth or IW for example).

The rule about only bulbing/researching techs unkwown to anyone sounds fine too! Could be tough maybe at times, but fits well into the variant I think.

Monarch difficulty? If that's too easy we can always work our way up to deity like in the TH-series...

Edit: There are no restriction to trading (stolen) techs, right?

 

[Whosit]

Edit: There are no restriction to trading (stolen) techs, right?

I should hope not. I certainly think that it's acceptably underhanded to steal one Civ's techs and sell them to another.

I guess we'll see what happens when the game starts, but I wonder if deficit spending once we hit the 0% slider point will be as effective with Espionage Points as it is with Beakers. I think we'll also have to be rather selective on who we spend EP on and I imagine we'll be adjusting specific spending fairly regularly.

Rules sound good to me, I think. If we manage to get a bunch of Great Spies, sounds like we have 3 options: Settle, build the Scotland Yard, or perform that Espionage Mission. I feel like it would be most efficient to build the Yard in our GP town (which will run as many spies as possible), and settle all future Spies there. We'd generate more EP in the long run by concentrating specialists and super specialists in one place, I think.

Are we ready to start a new thread for this?

 

[Sengir]

There will be no limit on techtrading.

Only thing left to decide are map and leader. Problem with Roosevelt is that I've just finished a game with him (PeteyP01) and I'd rather not play him this soon again. For the rest I'm open for everything.

I will open a thread later today, so we can get additional team-members and discuss the last settings there.

 

[Sengir]

To tired at the moment to think of a good/halfway decent/not too awfull name, so I will start the game tomorrow instead.

 

[Whosit]

Hmm . . .

007: We're Watching You!
007: Sneaks and Shadows
007: Agents of Victory
007: Tales of a Secret Civ
007: I Spy
007: Let's Spies it Up!

That's all I could come up with in about 30 seconds.

 

[pigswill]

Check out ungy-01. Espionage game on immortal. Research basic worker techs+ alphabet, steal everything else, no tech-trading.

 

[Sengir]

Sengir01 is up:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8169535#post8169535

Sorry Whosit, I didn't use any of your suggestions, though one of them has given me inspiration for another SG