24/09/07 - You'd think we'd know better by now than to expect a patch to come out on time. Nevertheless, we're in a bit of a bind because tournament games need to be played using the same version of the game for the results to be comparable. As a result, we've delayed opening It's a Wonderful Life (previously Adventure 23, now likely Adventure 24) and Epic Fourteen - Boudica the Great until the 3.13 patch is out. We were expecting the patch by mid-September, but unfortunately that hasn't turned out to be the case. We're sorry for the delay, but we think it's important to avoid opening games just before a new patch.

However, we didn't want to leave you hanging. Luckily, Atlas has come with what should be a speedy little adventure to help you pass the time. Adventure Twenty-three - Speedy Gonzalez opens today, and it will run for three weeks. It's also reporting day for Adventure Twenty-two - Brick by Brick, so go ahead and post your reports in the forum.

27/08/07 - Adventure Twenty-two - Brick by Brick is now open! Also, two new games have been announced- Epic Fourteen - Boudica the Great will open next week, and Adventure Twenty-three - It's a Wonderful Life will open two weeks after that. You didn't have any other plans for the month, did you?

23-08-07 - Results are up for Adventure Twenty-one - The Sky Gods, and Adventure Twenty-two - Brick by Brick has been announced. It will open this Monday.

14/08/07 - A new patch for Beyond the Sword is out, which only makes changes to the game's DirectX support. Although we usually require that tournament players don't patch until a game closes, we're making an exception this time. For Epic 13, you can play in version 3.02 or 3.03. For future patches, it is always a good idea to check in here before you patch, in case of (sometimes undocumented) gameplay issues.

Also, a new succession game has begun, exploring the "Defense" scenario from BTS.

06/08/07 - It's opening day for Epic Thirteen - Expansion Potluck. If you've already signed up, your save has been mailed! If not, you can still sign up until Monday, August 27, but we encourage you not to wait until the last minute! Please send me (Griselda) a private message on the forums if you don't receive your save within 24 hours of signing up.

Reporting has opened for Adventure Twenty-one - The Sky Gods. Did the Gods smile on your game? Post your report and let us know!

In addition, results are up for Adventure Twenty - Desert Domination and Epic Twelve - The Gauntlet, and the succession game page has been updated.

30/07/07 - It's closing day for Epic Twelve - The Gauntlet, so please post your reports in the reporting forum. We're also please to announce Epic Thirteen - Potluck Expansion, our first Beyond the Sword game and also a potluck. Signups are open now, and the first files will be mailed next week.

08/07/07 - It's opening day for Adventure Twenty-one - The Sky Gods, and reporting day for Adventure Twenty - Desert Domination. Also, results are up for Epic Eleven - Hooray for Hollywood. Enjoy!

28/06/07 - Lots of updates today! Results are now up for all tournament games that ended earlier than this week! Specifically today, we have Epic Eight - Potluck, Epic Nine - Horse Feathers, Warlords One - Impi Zisshun, Warlords Two - The Worst form of Government, Adventure Fifteen - The French Riviera, and Adventure Sixteen - Let it Snow!. Thanks to everyone who put in hard work to help make this happen.

I also made a few changes to the Game List page that will hopefully make it easier to use. Completed games are now in descending order, so that the more recent games are listed first. We have had so many games that newer ones were getting buried. Also, I added links near the top of the page so that you can jump to Adventures, Warlords, or Epics results. Hopefully that should help you get to what you're looking for more quickly.

I have also updated the Succession Games page in a similar way, with links going to the RB, RBW, and SGOTM sections. The SG page is again up-to-date, and I included links to The Real Ms. Beyond's (yes, her secret identity is out) games so that they will be easier to find.

Oh, and we now have an accurate finish date for Kodii's Adventure Fourteen game, and accolades for those who abstained from Slavery.

25/06/07- Epic Twelve - The Gauntlet is now open!

22/06/07 - Lots of updates today! First of all, information pages are up for two upcoming games - Epic Twelve - The Gauntlet, which will open this week, and Adventure Twenty-one - The Sky Gods, which will open in two weeks. Sulla has also been working on the results pages. Results are up for Adventure Thirteen - Sixth Column and Adventure Fourteen - King of India. The results pages have also been updated for Adventure Five - Waiting for Godot, and Adventure Six - The Cradle of Civilization.

18/06/07 - Results are up for Warlords Three- Wan Kon and His Minions, including Ruff_hi's nifty graph. Also, the succession games page is finally up-to-date.

11/06/07 - Lots of updates today! First of all, it's opening day for Adventure Twenty - Desert Domination, a gentle adventure. Results are also up for Adventure Nineteen - Mao's Muse and Epic Ten - Rising Sun. In addition, Sulla has provided the worldbuilder file for Adventure Nineteen, so you can experiment with different tech choices if you want.

It's also closing day for Warlords Three- Wan Kon and His Minions, so you can go ahead and post your reports. Enjoy!

21/05/07 - It's closing day for Adventure Nineteen - Mao's Muse, so you can post your reports and (finally) talk about what techs you chose. It's also opening day for Epic Eleven - Hooray for Hollywood.

15/05/07 - Results are up for Adventure Seventeen - PETA Crusaders and Adventure Eighteen - Mansa Moneybags.

14/05/07 - It's closing day for Epic Ten - Rising Sun, so post your reports on the reporting forum. Warlords Three- Wan Kon and His Minions opens today, and Epic Eleven - Hooray for Hollywood has been announced, and will open next week.

16/04/07 - It's closing day for Adventure Seventeen - PETA Crusaders. You can post your reports in the reporting forum now. We're also announcing Adventure Nineteen - Mao's Muse. Starting files will be emailed instead of uploaded to the web for this one, so if you want to start on opening day, sign up early. Enjoy!

09/04/07 - Epic Ten - Rising Sun is now open. It's an Extreme Adventure Epic, on Deity .

25/03/07 - Adventure Eighteen - Mansa Moneybags, or first Gentle Adventure of the year, is now open. Good luck!

19/03/07 - We're back! First of all, I'd like to thank Sooooo for sponsoring an informal event to keep things going. There's still a couple of weeks to play All the World's a Stage, if you're interested.

I am pleased to announce that Adventure Seventeen - PETA Crusaders opens today, and will run for four weeks. Sullla has become a second Organizer for the tournament, and he's sponsoring this one. A huge thanks to Sullla for volunteering to help out with this! Interested players can also send scenario ideas to him for consideration. Thanks, Sullla!

22/01/07 - I'm very sorry for the hiatus in games and page updates for the last little while. We don't have any tournament games currently open, but we are hoping to restart some soon. You can always visit the forums for more information (and to let us know what "flavor" of games you would prefer to see!).

20/11/06 - Out last two tournament games of the year are now open! Warlords Two - The Worst Form of Government is a gentle adventure for Warlords, featuring (what else?) the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried. Adventure Sixteen - Let it Snow! is for the core game of CIV, and it gives the competition a little twist- players will choose how to customize the scenario, and will judge each other's reports (not the games themselves) on reporting day! Of course, the more interesting the game, the easier it will be to write an interesting report.

19/11/06 - Results are up for Adventure Eleven - Divided We Fall.

Also, here are the results for Adventure Twelve - Catherine.

The succession game page is also now up-to-date. Thanks to Atlas for compiling the information!

13/11/06 Our first Warlords tournament game has opened. Warlords One - Impi Zisshun features the return of the Zulu. Enjoy!

It's also time to post your reports for Epic Nine - Horse Feathers, and you can read the results for Epic Seven - Mano y Mano.

23/10/06 - It's closing day for Adventure Fourteen - King of India. Please post your reports.

15/10/06 - Epic Nine - Horse Feathers opens today. Yes, we realize that Horse Feathers was Epic Ten in our Civ3 tournament, but it was time for something a little different.

02/10/06 - Finally! It's reporting day for Epic Eight - Potluck. Remember, the reporting procedure will be a little different for this one. Once the reporting threads have been opened, you'll need to post a link to your report in your civ's thread. If your report isn't currently up at a website, you can create a thread for it, but you still need to post a link to your report in your civ's thread. Also, remember to keep discussion in the civ threads. Hopefully, this will create a fairly organized process, and should allow for lots of opportunities for comparison.

Addition- The reporting threads are open! Happy reporting! Rome, Mali, Japan, England, Egypt, China, Arabia, America.

We are also opening two new Adventures today, Adventure Fourteen - King of India and Adventure Fifteen - The French Riviera. Hopefully between the two of them there should be something for everyone.

25/09/06 - It's closing day for Adventure Thirteen - Sixth Column.

18/09/06 - Adventure Eleven - Divided We Fall closes today, so go ahead and post your reports in the reporting forum!

11/09/06 - It's closing day for Adventure Twelve - Catherine. Please post your reports.

04/09/06 - Adventure Thirteen - Sixth Column opens today. It's an extreme adventure that will only run for three weeks, primarily geared towards those who tend to finish tournament games weeks before the closing date. If that's you, enjoy!

04/09/06 - It's reporting day for Epic Seven - Mano y Mano. Because this is a holiday weekend in the USA, posters have until Wednesday to post your reports. You still need to finish playing by Monday night, your local time.

30/08/06 - Results are up for Adventure Nine - Stagnation and Adventure Ten - Legionnaire. In addition, more information was added to the results pages for Epic Four - Rome vs. the Barbarians, Epic Five - The Covenant of the Sea, and Adventure Seven - The Warlords.

28/08/06 - A big day today! Saves for Epic Eight - Potluck have been emailed, but you can still sign up here until Sept. 18. It's also closing day for our first Always War event for Civ4, Epic Six.

24/08/06 - Signups are open for Epic Eight - Potluck. The save file for this Epic will not be posted on the site until after the game closes! If you want to play, you will need to sign up here and receive your file by email.

07/08/06 - Three games open today! Epic Seven - Mano y Mano has been announced for some time, and it finally opens today. In addition, we have an Extreme Adventure, Adventure Eleven - Divided We Fall, and a Gentle Adventure, Adventure Twelve - Catherine opening up. It's also reporting day for Adventure Ten - Legionnaire. I hope you've cleared room on your schedules!

29/07/06 - Looking for something to play while waiting for Epic Seven to open? Adventure Eleven - Tedium Incarnate, will open Monday, July 31.

25/07/06 - Results are up for Epic Four - Rome vs. the Barbarians. There are 29 reports listed in the results, and 5 Epic Heroes! Also, Results are up for Epic Five - The Covenant of the Sea!

24/07/06 - Results are up for Adventure Seven - The Warlords and Adventure Eight - The French Revolution. Congratulations to all of our participants!

17/07/06 - It's War! Epic Six - Always War opens today, as well as Adventure Ten - Legionnaire open today. It's also closing day for Epic Five - The Covenant of the Sea.

10/07/06 - Adventure Ten - Legionnaire has been announced, and will open next week. Also, it's reporting day for Epic Four - Rome vs. the Barbarians!

03/07/06 - Adventure Nine - Stagnation is now open!

28/06/06 - The Succession Game page has been updated.

27/06/06 - Adventure Nine - Stagnation has been announced. Please keep in mind that this is NOT a gentle adventure, even though everyone gets to start with Sirian's opening moves for this one.

Results are up for Adventure Six - The Cradle of Civilization. As this was an unscored event, they are listed in alphabetical order. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Results are up for Epic Three - Rise of the Incans. Thanks to mostly_harmless for compiling them. I've also included a link to pling's graphed results for easy reference.

26/06/06 - Epic Five - The Covenant of the Sea is now open! Please make sure you have seen the updated variant rules. Also, it's closing day for Adventure Eight - The French Revolution. If you haven't finished your game yet, you'll just have to eat cake.

24/06/06 - Results are up for Epic Two - Eastern Gem Dealers. Thanks to Kylearan for compiling the results, and congratulations to our Epic Heroes Kylearan and Sulla!

The variant rules have been updated for Epic Five - The Covenant of the Sea, which opens on Monday. Please make sure you reload the page when you check the rules, to make sure that you're up to date before you play.

12/06/06 - It's closing day for Epic Three - Rise of the Incans! Please post your reports in our reporting forum. We have also announced details for Epic Five - The Covenant of the Sea, Epic Six - Always War, and Epic Seven - Mano y Mano. Enjoy!

29/05/06 - Our first Deity Epic for Civ 4, Epic Four - Rome vs. the Barbarians, opens today. Remember, come back with your shield, or on it!

28/05/06 - Hello everybody, we're back online. We had a problem with the FTP, which is why the site hasn't been updated in a few weeks. I hope that you checked the forums, because they were up and running the entire time, and we have been updating the tournament from the forums.

Two games have opened in the mean time, Epic Three - Rise of the Incans and Adventure Eight - The French Revolution. In addition, two have closed: Epic Two - Eastern Gem Dealers and Adventure Six - The Cradle of Civilization. The results have been compiled for those games, and are available on the forums. I will have them up on the site later. For now, I wanted to get the tournament pages up-to-date.

The full game information has been posted for Epic Four - Rome vs. the Barbarians, and that will open tomorrow!

Sorry for the delay, but I hope that you have a good time getting caught up!

01/05/06 - Adventure Seven - The Warlords opens today. We've also announced Epic Three - Rise of the Incans, which will open next week, and Epic Four - Rome vs. the Barbarians.

Since I'm posting this on May Day, I have a perfect excuse to post my favorite May Day picture. I don't know why I like it so much. Whatever you're up to today, please don't get as rowdy as the girls in this photo!

Or, for the politically minded, here's a fun sign.

24/04/06 - Our second "Gentle Adventure" is now open! Adventure Six - The Cradle of Civilization opens today, and will run for four weeks. Good luck!

17/04/06 - It's been a while, but the patch for CIV is finally out! As such, Epic Two - Eastern Gem Dealers opens today. We're sorry for the wait, but we hope that you enjoy the game anyway. If you read the rules that Sirian posted on the forums a few days ago, please take the time to re-read them before playing. There have been some changes made to the final version.

It's also reporting day for Adventure Five - Waiting for Godot. Yes, in our version, Godot actually arrived. This was somewhat of a quasi-adventure as Didi and Gogo were never really clear on what they wanted to accomplish before Godot arrived (read- game information was never posted, accidentally on purpose). But, if you played, go ahead and post about what happened in our reporting forum.

I'm having difficulty with the upload server at the moment. Screenshots that were posted previously should show up, but right now nobody can log in to upload additional pictures. I'm really sorry about this, and am working on it, but I'm also running short on ideas about what could be going wrong. I'll let you know when it is working again.

Also, congratulations to the SG teams from RB5 - Rome, Emperor, Lakes, Just Win and RB16 - The Renny Teamer on their wins!

05/03/06 - Congratulations to the team of RB 10 - Elitist Hegemony for their victorious game!

25/02/06 - Waiting on a patch does have its advantages. Results are up for Adventure Two - The Frozen Jungle. Congrats to all Azteskimos who stuck it out through that one!

21/02/06 - Results are up for Adventure Four - Hatshepsut's Hieroglyphics and Adventure One - Brave New World. Since there was no scoring for Adventure One, results are listed in alphabetical order by the player's name. The succession game page is also up to date.

20/02/06 - Results are up for Adventure Three - Binding of the Three. Thanks to Kylearan for compiling the results!

13/02/06 - Arathorn has closed Adventure Four - Hatshepsut's Hieroglyphics. You can post your reports in the reporting forum. Bonus points if you can do it without using the alphabet!

06/02/06 - It's reporting day for Adventure Three - Binding of the Three. There's a sticky thread in the forum where you can ask questions about the scoring of your game if you need to (since the game is closed, you can finally use specifics in your questions!). Hopefully that will help us reply to everyone in a timely manner.

23/01/06 - It's reporting day for Adventure One - Brave New World. If you have questions about the reporting process, there is a sticky thread in the reporting forum that should have the information you're looking for.

21/01/06 - The deadline for Adventure Four - Hatshepsut's Hieroglyphics has been extended, so that it closes a week later than Adventure Three. Also, two new succession games have opened- RB11 - Gandhi, the Silent Aggressor and RB12 - Roadkill.

16/01/06 - It's reporting day for Adventure Two - The Frozen Jungle. If you're still playing, you have until the end of Monday, your local time, to finish playing. You can post your reports in our Reporting Forum. Also, Adventure Four - Hatshepsut's Hieroglyphics is now open!

14/01/06 - Have you ever imagined doing rocket science using hieroglyphics? Arathorn is sponsoring the next game in our Extreme Adventures series. Adventure Four - Hatshepsut's Hieroglyphics will open on Monday, January 16.

09/01/06 - Two new succession games have opened. RB 9 - Cottage Cheese will feature - you guessed it - cottages galore. RB 10 - Elitist Hegemony (which still has some open slots, by the way!) prohibits self-built workers. Good luck to both teams!

02/01/06 - The Epics are on hiatus. They will be back after the next Civ4 patch. Fortunately, we have the Adventures, and Adventure Three - Binding of the Three opens today!

29/12/05 - Our first succession game of CIV, RB1 - Cuban Isolationists, has ended. If you haven't checked it out before, it's a classic, with many memorable features such as the "Spain on the Lake" strategy and the "Hydra". It's quite a read! Congratulations, guys!

28/12/05 - Snaproll has started RB8 - Multiplayer Madness. This is a 2 v 2 v 2 multiplayer succession game. Each round will be played by a team of two players, playing against two AI teams of 2 civs each. Sound interesting? There's still a slot open for one more human team!

26/12/05 - Adventure One - Brave New World and Adventure Two - The Frozen Jungle are now open. Enjoy!

24/12/05 - Our first two Adventures have been announced, and will open on Monday! Adventure One - Brave New World is a Warlord-difficulty game featuring the Terra map script. Adventure Two - The Frozen Jungle is the first in our line of Extreme Adventures. Extreme adventures are designed to be significantly more challenging than other Adventures. In this case, that should be apparent after one look at your starting position.

Both games will open this Monday, but please note that Adventure Two actually closes the week before Adventure One does. Enjoy!

22/12/05 - I've updated our succession game page. Congratulations to the RB2 A and B teams, who have won the first two completed RB succession games of Civilization IV!

21/12/05 - Ack! I was concentrating so hard on the technical side of getting ready for Epic One reports that I completely messed up my usual routine, which is to post notice of when it's reporting time more or less simultaneously with the reporting thread on the forum. So, Epic One - The Honorable French has closed, but the discussion is just beginning. Participation for this Epic is much higher than for past Epics, but I'm happy to say that the reports seem to be written very well, and I am looking forward to getting to know our new players and each of their reporting styles!

Because participation is so high, we created a subforum just for Tournament reports. That way, players can create an entire thread for their game report, and it will be easy to keep track of replies. General tournament discussion, as well as other discussion about Civilization can still go in the main Civ forum, of course. :)

We also have some upload space available for members to upload files for use on our forums. To find about more about this, see this thread.

28/11/05 - Epic One - The Honorable French is now open! Before playing, please take some time to visit the game's announcement thread. A game's announcement thread is where players ask questions if they need clarification on a rule, so that's always where you can find the most up-to-date information. Feel free to ask if you're unsure about anything. We hope you enjoy the game!

Also, our links page has been updated. If you're a member of the RB community, and would like for your site to be included, please send a private message to me (Griselda).

27/11/05 - Our Civilization IV tournament is underway! Epic One - The Honorable French opens tomorrow and will run for three weeks. If you think the name looks familiar, our very first Epic (for Civ3) had the same name and a similar premise.

Special Invitation - Players who participated in and reported for the opening game of the Civ3 Epics tournament are hereby cordially invited to join us for the first Civ4 Epic and be showered with flowers and affection! You will be enshrined as Epic Heroes for being an integral part of building the future. (If none of you had showed up way back there in 2002, there wouldn't have been an Epic Two, much less a Civ4 Epics tournament!) Come and join us as the new era dawns. We would love to see you all again!

Of course, you know that CIV patch 1.09 is out by now. Please remember that you will need to patch before you can play Epic One!

31/10/05 - Apolyton has published the first in a series of CIV interviews, and this one is featuring Sirian! Only Part One is available today, but they will be releasing a section a week until the interview is complete. Apolyton will be interviewing several people who were involved in the development of the game. You can keep track of all the interviews by visiting their "Four Times the Charm" page.

30/10/05 - RB Succession Games are underway! I have updated the list to help you quickly reference the thread you're looking for if you're not in the habit of keeping up with the succession games forum at CFC.

Interested in the mechanics of combat in CIV? In this thread, over at Apolyton, Solver, DeepO, and alexman lay it out for us. You may want to look it over before you get yourself into any fierce battles. If the numbers are too much for you, the important concept to keep in mind is that any difference in the comparative strength of fighting units will be applied several times during the combat calculations. As in Civ3, it will be used to determine the winner of each round. But, unlike Civ3, it will also be used to determine how much damage will be done! So, a weaker unit would need to win more total combat rounds to win the battle, unlike in Civ3 where it just had to be lucky 3 or 4 times. It's also important to remember that you *really* want your units to be full strength, and that you will need to factor in a unit type's weakness (think rock, paper, scissors) and the terrain to make the most out of combat.

28/10/05 - Map scripts! Choosing your map will be one of the first decisions that you have to make when your copy of CIV arrives, but this can be overwhelming as there are lots of new maps available with the game. Luckily, our own Sirian was Lead Map Designer for the game, and he's written a reference guide that will help you make an informed decision. It contains a text file with information about each type of map, a graphical sample of each map, plus a discussion of maps that are particularly geared towards Single- or Multi-player. You can find it here at Civfanatics.

27/10/05 - Graphics Card Fix! Many players with ATI cards are having trouble with CIV. This appears to be due to a problem with two versions of DirectX9c and some video card drivers. However, there is a fix available!

If you haven't installed the game yet, you can probably prevent the problem from happening at all by following these steps-

• Make sure that you install the DirectX version that came on your game CD, even if you already have DirectX 9c!
• You will also need to install the latest Catalyst drivers (5.10)

If you've already installed the game, and are having problems, there is a fix available! 2K Games has a walkthrough on their site that's pretty specific. The fix is only part of 2K's support site, which you might want to keep in mind if you have other issues as well (French tech tree, anyone?).

24/10/05 - It's been kind of slow here lately, right? Actually, we've been pretty busy! Our Civilization IV section opens today, and we have some goodies for you!

You see, there's a reason we've been somewhat inattentive to Civilization III for the past year and a half or so- many of us have been working on Civilization IV for quite some time! For more information, please read our updated Welcome Page.

In addition , we are thrilled to announce our Civilization IV Tournament. We can't just call it the Epics anymore, because it's bigger than that! We will be hosting "Epics" and "Adventures" tournaments for CIV. For more information, please visit the main CIV Tournament Page.

Welcome to Realms Beyond Civilization IV! We hope you enjoy your time here.

01/08/05 - Epic Fifty: Wine, Women, and Song! closes today, so you can post your reports to this thread.

27/06/05 - Sing us a song, Hammurabi-man, sing us a song tonight. 'Cause we're all in the mood for EPIC FIFTY , and it's got us feeling all right. That's right, folks, Epic Fifty: Wine, Women, and Song! opens tonight. I can hardly believe we've had fifty Epics, but here we are. I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have.

It's also reporting day for Epic Forty-nine: Domination Dilemma. Enjoy!

23/05/05 - Ready to take over the world? Epic Forty-nine: Domination Dilemma opens today, and will run for five weeks. It's also our first Epic sponsored by Kodi. Enjoy!

04/04/05 - Oh, sorry, I didn't hear you come in. I've been working on a project, you see, and, well, I need to get back to it...

You're still here? Well, go ahead and take this, and let me know how you get on with it. I need to get back to my work. Here- Epic Forty-eight: The Absent-Minded Professor.

Yes, Epic Forty-eight is open, and we hope you enjoy the change of pace!

24/01/05 - Sirian has sponsored Epic Forty-seven: You've Got to be Kidding Me, and it even comes with a money-back guarantee! What a deal!

17/01/05 - It's closing day for Epic Forty-six: The Two Towers. That means that you have until midnight tonight (Monday) to complete your game, and until midnight on Tuesday to post your report. You can post your report to this thread in our forums.

20/12/04 - Epic Forty-six: The Two Towers opens today. It's our first Epic to be sponsored by microbe, and our last Epic for 2004. Enjoy!

17/10/04 - Epic Forty-four: Denial of the Nile closes today, and you can post your reports to this thread.

We have new forums! If you haven't visited our forums lately, you can find them at http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/, because we're now able to host them right here on our own server! :) If you were registered at our old forums, you should have received an email with an explanation of how to log into the new forums. If you're having trouble, please email me.

27/09/04 - It's here, folks. The first Always War Epic that will be run on Emperor difficulty. It's Epic Forty-five: The X Factor! But, don't think that you will be able to use Conquests armies and lethal bombard on this one folks- it's not an expansion game. It will be run on un-expanded Civ3- version 1.29f. You will have eight weeks, though, which should give you plenty of time to slog it out until whatever end. Good luck!

15/09/04 - Denial is not a river in Egypt (sorry ). In this case, the Nile isn't in Egypt either. Welcome to Epic Forty-four: Denial of the Nile, which opens today and will run for just over four weeks. Enjoy!

14/09/04 - It's been *far* to long without an update. Sorry about that! Epic Forty-three: Ports Your Goal closed last week, and I hope to have the results up shortly. Thanks to some prodding by Dwip, I got the succession games page updated. There have been 54 completed "RBC" games! That's amazing considering that there were only 19 games completed in the original "RBD" SG series. It's great that there are so many players who have participated in an RB succession game. Things have slowed down a bit this fall, but there are still 4 open RBC games. I will do my best to keep the SG page up-to-date so that it is easy to find current SG's and track down those old threads.

30/07/04 - The summer Epics continue with their watery theme - Epic Forty-three: Ports Your Goal opens today, and will run until Labor Day. Good luck!

26/07/04 - Summer's not over yet, but Epic Forty-two: Summer Breeze is. You can post your results to this thread.

28/06/04 - The Epics are heading to the islands for the summer! Epic Forty-two: Summer Breeze opens today. It's sponsored by T-hawk and is set in the Caribbean. Please note that this will be the first Epic using the Conquests 1.22 patch.

Also, results are up for Epic Forty-one: Balance of Power. Congratulations to all players!

21/06/04 - It's reporting day for Epic Forty-one: Balance of Power. Get out of your milk baths and post your results!

Results have also been posted for Epic Thirty-nine: Division of Labor. Thanks for your patience, and thanks to T-hawk for compiling the results and for the helpful reminder. :)

24/05/04 - Epic Forty-one: Balance of Power is now open. Good luck!

Just when you thought it was never going to happen, results have been posted for Epic Forty: The Hittite Cosmonauts. Congratulations to all players!

23/05/04 - Epic Forty-one: Balance of Power, our first Epic sponsored by Bihary, will open on Monday. This Epic is primarily characterized by the scoring. Your goal is to maintain balance among the world's powers, rather than to drown them in your milk bath. Enjoy!

03/05/04 - It's reporting day for Epic Forty: The Hittite Cosmonauts. Please post your reports to this thread.

05/04/04 - Epic Forty: The Hittite Cosmonauts is now open! Good luck to all participants!

03/04/04 - Epic Forty: The Hittite Cosmonauts has been announced, and will open Monday, April 5. Epic Forty will feature a new Conquests Civ, but will be revisiting an older variant to see how things play out in Conquests. Please note that this Epic will be played in Conquests version 1.15 (the beta patch), although a newer patch is available. This is a small-map Epic, and I hope that will give many players an opportunity to play and complete the game early before patching.

28/03/04 - It's closing day for Epic Thirty-nine: Division of Labor. Post your reports to this thread.

07/03/04 - Rome Everlasting, a Conquests scenario, is now available for playtesting! This scenario is a variant of Fall of Rome, in which the player can choose to play as either the Eastern or Western Roman Empire. Several aspects of the scenario have been changed to help the AI give Rome a proper threat:

- Update the scenario name and description
- Change which civs are human playable
- Add locked alliance of Sassanids vs. Rome
- Add locked alliance of Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vandals vs. Rome
- Add locked alliance of Huns vs. Rome
- Allow colonies in desert
- Change War Weariness from High to Low for the Imperialism Government
- Military police to 1 in Imperialism
- Harbor and Walls for Constantinople
- Harbor for Alexandria

Thanks to Gobi Bear of BreakAway Games, we now have Rome Everlasting hosted here for players who are interested in testing the scenario. You can find it in the files section. Please post any questions, comments, or other feedback about the scenario in this thread.

If you'd like to read more about this scenario, but aren't interested in playing it yourself, you can follow along with the succession game teams. RBC12I features the Western Roman Empire, and RBC12J the East. Enjoy!

In other succession game news, two more teams finished up their Fall of Rome games- the Huns, and the Anglo-Saxons. Congratulations!

01/03/04 - Epic Thirty-nine: Division of Labor is now open! This Epic, sponsored by T-hawk, features a variant ruleset that should encourage the use of specialists. Enjoy!

29/02/04 - Results have been posted for Epic Thirty-eight: Slavetrader Mayan ECC. Thirteen games are included in the official results, and several other players participated but missed the reporting deadline. It's interesting to see what a wide variety of approaches players had to this game- from OCC Culture to Always War! While this variation makes comparison more difficult, I find it fascinating to see what is possible in a single map and variant. Congratulations to all who played!

Several players have asked when the next Epic will be starting. Check back on Monday! :)

Over on the succession game front, several games have been completed. RBC9 - Hittite Charioteers has come to an end, along with several RBC12 games- RBC12A - Fall of Rome - Vizigoths, RBC12B - Fall of Rome - Celts, RBC12D - Fall of Rome - Vandals, RBC12F - Fall of Rome - Ostrogoths, and RBC12G - Fall of Rome - Sassanids. Congratulations to all players!

23/02/04 - It's closing day for Epic Thirty-eight: Slavetrader Mayan ECC! You can post your reports, or read others' reports, in this thread.

20/02/04 - Updated the succession games page with a link to RBC 12C, the Huns version of Fall of Rome.

15/02/04 - The RBC1 SG team has finally finished their game! Also, the RBC12 game has started. Eight teams will be taking a crack at the Fall of Rome Conquest, representing each of the scenario's civilizations across a variety of difficulty levels. There's still open seats in a few games, so don't hesitate to sign up if you'd like to be a part of this endeavor!

05/02/04 - The succession games page has been updated. RBC3C - Ancient Mediterranean Mayhem - Roma is now complete, along with RBC6 - Scrappy Scientific Sumerians and RBC7 - Austrian Fascists. Two new games have opened- RBC10 - Cultured Communist Comrades and RBC11 - Cultured Communist Comrades variant. With all of the Rise of Rome games now complete, and some other recent closures, I'd expect some more games to be starting up soon- Fall of Rome, perhaps? The nice thing about Fall of Rome is that with several teams there should be room for lots of interested players, so there's probably still time to state your interest in this thread.

31/01/04 - Whew! I have site access again, and there's lots of new things to report! First off, Epic Thirty-eight: Slavetrader Mayan ECC opened last week, and will remain open for three more weeks. So, there's still time to jump in on that one if you haven't already.

The results page for Epic Thirty-seven is now up on the site.

Also, there continues to be strong participation in Conquests succession games. The succession games page has been updated. I haven't added RBC10 - Cultured Communist Comrades to the list just yet, because I think the game (and maybe RBC11 too) will start in a new thread. RBC3a - Ancient Mediterranean Mayhem - Carthago is now complete, and the Roma team is within a few turns of completion. RB4b - The Bloody Incas Mesoamerica Conquest and RBC4c - Mesoamerican Aztecs have been completed, finishing up the Mesoamerican games. Also, the open succession game, RBC5 - Feudalistic Mongols is now complete.

The new "RBC" succession games that have opened since the last site update are RBC8 - Revenge of the North Koreans and RBC9 - Hittite Charioteers. I haven't added RBC10 - Cultured Communist Comrades to the list just yet, because I think the game (and maybe RBC11 too) will start in a new thread.

02/01/04 - Happy New Year! With no open Epics, there is a lot of activity in the RBC series of succession games! First of all, I did not realize that the Macedonian team of RBC3 was not yet listed on the succession games page. Not only has that game started, it's complete! Congratulations to the Macedonian team on what's turned out to be a very tough scenario.

Two new succession games have started. The first is RBC6 - Scrappy Scientific Sumerians, a game that continues to explore "defiance" as a variant rule, and encourages self-research at Demigod. The second is RBC7 - Austrian Fascists, unlocking the "hidden" civ of Austria, and exploring fascism. In the RBC Discussion Thread, Charis proposes several other succession game ideas, and is seeking participants for the Fall of Rome Conquest.

31/12/03 - When I updated the succession games page, somehow I missed RBC5 - Feudalistic Mongols. This is an open game, so there is no set roster. After each player, the game is "open" for another player who has some spare time to play the next ten turns. So, if you're not sure that you'd have the time to commit to a full succession game, but would like to play, jump on in and play a round or two!

Also today, the RBC4a - Mesoamerican Mayans team has completed their game. Congratulations!

26/12/03 - As you can see, it's been a while since the page has been updated, although the RBCiv community has continued to explore Conquests. First of all, Epic Thirty-Seven: Ditchdigger is now closed. You can read the reports here, and the results page should be up on the site before too long.

I've updated the succession games page. RBC2 - Phoenicians of Mesopotamia is complete, and the RBC3b team (the Persians) have also completed their game. Congratulations to both teams! The Carthago and Roman RBC3 teams are nearing the end of their games, and both teams appear to be headed for a close finish. RBC4 is now open, playing the Mesoamerica conquest. There are three teams, each playing through the Conquest in a different way. Good luck!

There is a beta patch out for Conquests, which addresses the major Conquests bugs and fixes the gold-per-turn bug. The Forbidden Palace appears to work differently in the beta patch than in Play the World or in unpatched Conquests. It will be interesting to see how this is implemented in the final version of the patch. You can download the beta patch from Atari or from Civfanatics.

28/11/03 - Epic Thirty-seven: Ditchdigger is now open! How far can you dig yourself out?

26/11/03 - Results are up for Epic Thirty-six: Pax Americana. Nine players survived this 540-turn Epic. Congratulations!

18/11/03 - Over at Civfanatics, alexman has released some tests related to corrption in Conquests. It seems that some of the fixes for recent exploits have rather extreme consequences. Read more about it in this thread. We're hoping that these issues will be dealt with via patch relatively quickly. While we do have Conquests Epics planned, the Epics will be on hold until we learn more about this bug.

In the mean time, the succession games page has been updated to include the current RBC (Realms Beyond Conquests) succession games. The plan is to play through the set of Conquests as succession games. While each game has its own thread, interested players can keep track of upcoming games and suggest ideas here.

29/10/03 - The Epic Thirty-six reporting thread is open (and has been for a couple of days, sorry for the delay). You can post completed reports here. If you haven't completed your report, but have submitted your scoring summary (like me), there's still three days left!

27/10/03 - The Epic Epic, number Thirty-six, is closing today! Unless you've been granted an extension, you have until tonight to finish playing, and until November 1 to complete your report. If your game is completed but not your report, email your scoring summary to Griselda or Sirian to verify that you finished on time. Then, you can post your summary and your report when they are completed (on or before November 1, that is). If you're done with your game and your report, look for the reporting thread, which should open this evening. I'll put a link up when the thread is open.

Finally, I do hope that all players will stick around over the next week or two to participate in the discussion. This Epic will be a little bit different because the reports won't all be coming in at once, but there certainly is a lot to talk about! Personally, looking forward to the discussion and comparison was what kept me going through those last turns of end-game.

09/20/03 - When Epic 36 closes, participants will have extra time to gather their reports, but a scoring summary will be required within the usual two-day deadline. Sirian has provided this text file scorecard to streamline summary reporting. Fill in the statistics and paste to the forum when Closing Day arrives.

T-hawk has provided scenario files for the PTW Epics that he's sponsored. So, if you're interested in trying another helping of Epic 35, or playing a modified version of Epics 24 or 29, you can download the files from the game's main page.

Results are up for Epic Thirty-five: Gourmet Menu. Congratulations to all!

15/09/03 - A review of Epic Thirty-five: Gourmet Menu is underway, and it's time for the restaurant critics to report on their meals.

07/09/03 - Results are up for Epic Thirty-four: Dance of the Feathered Serpent. I apologize for the delay in updating the page; I was out of town. Thanks to Bam-Bam for compiling the results while I was away! This was an interesting Epic because the relatively open scenario allowed players to take additional risks if they chose. The hand-drawn map also served to make the game unique. Congratulations to all who played!

20/08/03 - Results are up for Epic Thirty-two: Falsfire's Folly. Eight players were victorious, three by domination and five by histogram. Congratulations to all!

18/08/03 - Epic Thirty-six: Pax Americana is now open! Good luck! It's also reporting day for Epic Thirty-two: Falsfire's Folly.

15/08/03 - Sirian has made a small clarification to the Epic 36 rules. Use of Propaganda will be considered an "invasion" for scoring purposes. Cultural flips will not.

14/08/03 - Believe it or not, the Huge Map Epic has finally arrived! Epic Thirty-six: Pax Americana will open this coming Monday, August 18, 2003. If you have any questions on the scoring, you can ask in this thread.

Results are up for Epic Thirty-three: The Tortoise and the Hare. We had 11 tortoises, and 8 hares in the race! Now, excuse me while I finish cooking these noodles...

11/08/03 - It's reporting day for Epic Thirty-three: The Tortoise and the Hare. Remember, if you signed up, you need to report your results to avoid becoming a hare!

Epic Thirty-five: Gourmet Menu is now open. Bon Appetit!

10/08/03 - Epic Thirty-five: Gourmet Menu will open tomorrow. This Epic allows you to choose your own flavor, and features T-hawk in the kitchen! I'm sure you can find something that on the menu that you will enjoy!

Please note that Epic Thirty-five should be played using PTW version 1.27f. The patch should now be available for all versions of PTW. Keep in mind that Epics Thirty-two and Thirty-three need to be played with version 1.21f! This will help to ensure consistency between reports. Epic Thirty-four can be played using versions 1.21f or 1.27f, but it would be helpful if you make a note of if you patched, and when, in your report.

03/08/03 - The RBP11b - We, the People team has completed their game. Congratulations! This is the first time since I began updating the succession games page that there have been no current succession games carrying the "RB" name. Of course, there's still a vibrant and active succession game community. For example, Sirian has sponsored four new succession games using his new mod, Sirian's Tweaks. LKendter has started the 52nd game in his LK series, and Hotrod and Arathorn's succession game series have both moved into their seventh games! There's lots of other stuff happening in the succession games community, so for the most up-to-date information, it's a good idea to check out the succession games forum over at Civfanatics.

28/07/03 - Epic Thirty-four: Dance of the Feathered Serpent opens today. Good luck!

27/07/03 - Somehow I missed the conclusion of RBP7 - Defiant Nationalists of China. The team won their game about a month ago, staging an incredible comeback from a position that, at one point, seemed like certain loss.

More recently, the RBP11 - We, the People team won their game as well. Congrats to both teams! RBP11b is still in progress.

21/07/03 - Lots of updates today. Epic Thirty-four: Dance of the Feathered Serpent has been announced, and it will open next Monday, July 28.

Team B of RBP10: The Spanish Explorers completed their game, which was the last active RBP10 team. It was interesting to see how the game played out with different teams!

Scenario files have been uploaded for Epics 22: War Paint, 26: Mystery Meatloaf, 27: The Ming Dynasty, 28: Mistress of the Sun, 30: Shogun's Challenge (just the rule set, because it was a random map), and 31: Potluck Brunch! You can use these files to play through the Epics on a different difficulty, change your starting Civ, or even tweak the game's rules. Each scenario is linked on the Epic's main page. Enjoy!

Epic Thirty-three: The Tortoise and the Hare opens today, and there's still time to sign up. Would be tortoises and hares can post their name and email addresses in this thread.

Finally, results are up for Epic Thirty: Shogun's Challenge, and Epic Thirty-one: Potluck Brunch. Congratulations to all who played, and thanks to everyone who took the time to report, win or loss.

14/07/03 - RULES CLARIFICATION! Sirian recently posted some thoughts on legit play and Epics enforcement on the Civ forum. The post was addressed to all players, and it was suggested that we put it up on the site where it would be more visible. We've edited it a bit for the web, and it can now be found following the rules page, or right here.

During this process, I took another look at our Epics rules, and noticed that one of them was quite vague. It said:

* Sponsors asking for earlier save files is permitted, though not standard for every event. This information will be provided when each game is announced. Sponsors may choose to require saves at particular points in the game. Earlier saves can enhance discussion, by marking the same point in each player's game for further comparisons.

You'll notice that the mention of earlier save files implies but doesn't specifically mention that players should be keeping their final save files. This was mentioned on the forums when we began, but somehow didn't make it into the rules. So, I wanted to clarify. The rule now reads:

* Players should keep their game's final save file. Although file submission is not standard for Epics games, the game's Sponsor or an Epics organizer may request files from players for verification purposes. In addition to the final saves, players may want to keep save files from earlier points in the game to enhance discussion. Sponsors may choose to require saves at particular points in the game, although this is not standard for every event. If earlier saves are necessary, this information will be provided when the game is announced.

Epic Thirty-three: The Tortoise and the Hare has been announced. You'll need to sign up for this Epic, but it's not a potluck. Confused? You'll have to visit the Epic's page to find out!

It's also reporting day for Epic Thirty-One: Potluck Brunch. You have until the end of the day to complete your game, and until Tuesday night to post your report (or synopsis). I hope you enjoyed your meal, and have some room left for dinner!

07/07/03 - Epic Thirty-two: Falsfire's Folly opens today, and will be run under PTW 1.21f. Also, it's reporting day for Epic Thirty: Shogun's Challenge.

Results are up for Epic Twenty-nine: The Five Pillars. Congratulations to all players, and thanks to T-hawk for compiling the results!

22/06/03 - Tomorrow is closing day for Epic Twenty-nine: The Five Pillars, and opening day for Epic Thirty-one: Potluck Brunch. I'll be out of town from now until July 1, so the site won't be updated in that time, and Sirian will be mailing out the potluck start files (I have a copy of the saves already, for verification purposes).

My attbi.com email address might be changing while I'm gone, so if you want to be sure I get your mail, use griselda@lurkerlounge.com.

19/06/03 - What the (bleep) happened to the resources? Sirian is sponsoring our first Epic to feature a player's name in the title- Epic Thirty-two: Falsfire's Folly. This Epic feature's a hand-drawn map with plenty of surprises in store. The map has already been drawn, but we're holding off on a release date at the moment, just in case a patch or something else comes up before opening date. There is a shot of the opener on the start page, though, if you want to take a peek.

T-hawk has started RBP11 - We, the People, and RBP11b - We, the People - Emperor Team. Both games use the same modified scenario that allows each civ to start with Democracy (without the tech), but they will be using separate maps. Good luck, teams!

17/06/03 - It's been a while since we've had a page update, so there's quite a few things going up today. Epic Thirty-one: Potluck Brunch has been announced. Signups will open today, and the game itself will open Monday, June 23.

Results are finally up for Epic Twenty-eight: Mistress of the Sun. Ra must be quite proud of his children!

I've updated the succession games page, because the RBP8 - Culture Conquerers team has emerged victorious! Congratulations! The RBP10A team has completed its game, and is looking forward to comparing notes with Team B and Team C, whose games are ongoing.

09/06/03 - Epic Thirty: Shogun's Challenge opens today, and Epic Twenty-eight: Mistress of the Sun closes. I'm looking forward to seeing how other games went!

02/06/03 - Epic 29: The Five Pillars is now open. Good luck!

01/06/03 - Two new Epics will be opening shortly. Epic Twenty-nine: The Five Pillars is on a small map, and is sponsored by T-hawk. It will open tomorrow, June 2. The screenshot of the starting location will be added to the page when the Epic opens. Also, Sirian is sponsoring Epic Thirty: Shogun's Challenge. That one's on Deity, but with a twist. It will open next week, on Monday, June 9. Enjoy!

28/05/03 - Bam-Bam has compiled the results for Epic Twenty-seven: The Ming Dynasty, and they're now up on the site. There were five winning games and seven losses, which, I believe, is the most losing games we've had since Epic Twelve: The Gauntlet. I'm glad that so many players took up the challenge, and played it through until the conlcusion!

Also, I've updated the succession games page, because RBP9: Old School Deity is now complete! That team was looking for a fast paced game, and it sounds like they found it. Congratulations!

12/05/03 - Epic Twenty-seven: The Ming Dynasty closes today, so you have until the end of Monday to complete your game, and until the end of Tuesday to post your report.

09/05/03 - I've updated the succession games page to include RBP10 - The Spanish Explorers. Three teams of relatively new Deity players (including myself, yay!) are playing from the same start file. The goal is to gain Deity experience within a relatively friendly team environment. Also the teams hope to meet and compare their games once they've finished. :)

05/05/03 - Epic Twenty-eight: Mistress of the Sun is now open. Good luck!

01/05/03 - Our first "Lesser Demigod" difficulty Epic has been announced. Epic Twenty-eight: Mistress of the Sun will open this Monday, May 5!

27/04/03 - Sullla has opened RBP9 - Old School Deity. This game features a steeply discounted tech price combined with a higher AI to AI trade factor, in order to recreate the pre-1.29f tech pace.

24/04/03 - You'd think, since I even plugged the RBP7 game on the front page, that I'd have remembered to include it on the succession games page. But, you'd be wrong! A big thanks to Dwip for pointing that out, and also for the heads up on the correct URLs for his Epics reports.

19/04/03 - Results are up from Epic Twenty-six: Mystery Meatloaf. Although there were only four games included in the official results, there were several more "unofficial" games, and quite an interesting discussion. Thanks to all who participated.

I wanted to point out the ongoing succession game- RBP7- Defiant Nationalists of China. Just over a week ago, the game looked like a certain loss, and most of the discussion in the thread consisted in planning for the next Deity Defiant Nationalist attempt. But, the team has pulled together, and may have managed to turn things around. It's definitely a game that's worth keeping an eye on!

14/04/03 - It's reporting day for Epic Twenty-six: Mystery Meatloaf. We hope you enjoyed your meal!

12/04/03 - The official results page for Epic Twenty-five: Numismatic Numidians is now available. Congratulations to all who played, and thanks to T-hawk for compiling the results!

31/03/03 - A new Always War Epic opens today- Epic Twenty-seven: The Ming Dynasty. Also, it's reporting day for Epic Twenty-five: Numismatic Numidians!

A new succession game has also begun- RBP8 - Culture Conquerors.

30/03/03 - It's WAR! Your chance to take the Ming Dynasty to glory starts tomorrow, with Epic Twenty-seven.

29/03/03 - Congratulations to the RBP6 - MOW! Ottoman Deity SG team!

17/03/03 - Epic Twenty-six is now open. Enjoy your meal!

15/03/03 - Sirian has cooked us up a new Epic! Epic Twenty-six: Mystery Meat will open on Monday, March 17. Will it be a pot of gold, or a pot of roadkill? You'll have to play to find out!

Results are now available for Epic Twenty-three: Prince of Persia, and Epic Twenty-four: Speed Racer. Enjoy!

10/03/03 - It's reporting day for Epic Twenty-three: Prince of Persia, and Epic Twenty-four: Speed Racer! You have until today to play, and until Tuesday night to report at least a summary of your games (full reports accepted any time!).

08/03/03 - The Succession Games page has been updated to show the victories in RBD19 - The Return of Big Brother and RBE6 - The Naked Vikings. Congratulations!

03/03/03 - Charis has sponsored our newest Epic, Epic Twenty-five: Numismatic Numidians, which opens today and will run for four weeks.

Patch Info - Because we like to emphasize the comparison between players' games and strategies, all Epics games must be played using the version listed on that game's info page. Usually, this is self-explanatory, but it gets a bit confusing when a patch is released. Epic Twenty-four: Speed Racer is a PTW version 1.14f Epic, and it must be played using 1.14f. If you're not finished with Epic Twenty-four, but can't wait to patch your game, you'll need to retire your game and report on the progress made before the patch was released. Epic Twenty-five: Numismatic Numidians is a PTW v1.21f game, so you need to have patched PTW before you begin Epic Twenty-five. We are sorry for any confusion that this might cause (really!).

21/02/03 - Once again, the succession games page has been updated! Today, RBP3 - Living by Faith, and RBP5 - Defiant Nationalists of Japan were completed. Charis has started a new game, RBP6 - MOW! Ottoman Deity SG. MOW stands for mounted oscillating war, and the specific details are in the game's thread.

Some people have reported having trouble opening the Epics .zip files. It turns out that the file extraction software that comes with Windows will sometimes show an empty folder. Most players have been able to fix this problem by using WinZip to extract the files. You can download an evaluation version for free at their site.

20/02/03 - We know you're out there, lurking! That's fine, and you're welcome to play any and all of the Epics even if you're unable to report. But, I would like to encourage more players to report at least the basic details of their games (those relevant to the Epic's scoring; sometimes just the ending date of your game, and how it ended). Naturally, we'd love to get a more detailed report. But, we also want to hear about your games, so that we'll have as many points of comparison as possible. :)

I've updated the succession games page, as promised. The only game that has opened since the last update is RBD19 - The Return of big Brother, and that's already well underway. RBP2 - Asian Rumble and RBP4 - The Roman Menagerie are now complete.

18/02/03 - I've uploaded results for Epic Twenty-one: Jack Frost and Epic Twenty-two: War Paint. Congratulations to everyone who participated in these Epics!

I apologize for letting the succession games get a bit out of date. It's such a quick update to make that I've been telling myself I'd do it along with these results pages when they were ready. Now, I've got the results pages up, but I'm feeling the need to do a bit of "what is RB" soul-searching. That's a good mental exercise once in a while, right? I hope to have the page updated soon, but in the mean time, you can visit the CivFanatics Succession Games forum.

17/02/03 - Epic Twenty-four is now open. Good luck!

16/02/03 - Go Speed Racer, go! T-hawk is sponsoring Epic Twenty-four: Speed Racer, which opens tomorrow.

10/02/03 - Has it really been a week already? Epic Twenty-two: War Paint closes today. I'm really looking forward to the discussion, so I guess that means I need to hurry up and finish today!

03/02/03 - Epic Twenty-one: Jack Frost closes today, and the reporting has begun!

27/01/03 - Epic Twenty-three: Prince of Persia opens today. It's a Civ3 version 1.29f Epic, and it will run for six weeks.

24/01/03 - Want to see a Viking get naked? Perhaps not, but you might want to read about RBE6 - The Naked Vikings. This game will feature Scandinavia, but without civ traits or unique units. Also, RBE5 - The Defiant Nationalists of Japan should be starting shortly. I think there's a few open slots for interested players.

20/01/03 - Epic Twenty-two: War Paint is now open!

19/01/03 - Hungry for a midwinter snack? Thirsty for an ancient era bloodbath? Epic Twenty-two: War Paint should fit the bill nicely. It will open tomorrow, and will run for three weeks. Sirian has designed this to be a quick game, so don't let the short length of this one scare you away!

Today is also the last day to sign up for Epic Twenty-one: Jack Frost.

13/01/03 - Reports indicate that the Sea, harshest of all mistresses, has been tamed. Congratulations to the RBE5 team!

The adventures of Charis Braveheart, a Deity Five-City-Challenge Conquest game, have been added to the Strategy section. The complete version was posted to Civfanatics, in this thread.

06/01/03 - It's opening day for Epic Twenty-one: Jack Frost! Start files have been mailed out to everyone who has already signed up. The Epic will be open for four weeks, and signups will be open until January 19.

02/01/03 - Happy new year! We're opening the new Epics Season with Epic Twenty-one: Jack Frost, and we're confident that this will be the "coolest" Epic ever! This is a potluck Epic for Play the World, and you'll need to sign up in this thread if you want to play. Sign-ups are open now, and the game will open this coming Monday, January 6. Jack Frost will be able to nip at your nose for four weeks, and sign-ups will be open for the first two weeks.

Sirian has information that a new patch may be arriving shortly. Those of you who were around when 1.29f was released remember that Epics games are to be played using the version with which they were created. So, Epic Twenty-one will be played in 1.14f even if a new patch comes out while the game is still open. We are hesitant to open additional Epics when a patch may be just around the corner, so Epic Twenty-one will be our only open game for the time being. For more information, please see Sirian's post titled The New Season.

We'd like to know how many Epics players own Play the World, and whether players would prefer PTW or non-expansion Civ3 Epics. Everyone who intends to play upcoming Epics is encouraged to let us know by answering two poll questions here. Thanks!

22/12/02 - Results have been posted for Epic Nineteen: The Lamb and the Wolves, and Epic Twenty: Food For Thought. Congratulations to all who played! I hope that everyone enjoys their holiday of choice (or lack thereof ;), and I look forward to reading your reports in the new year!

21/12/02 - The succession game page has been updated once again, with the opening of RBP4 - Menagerie. This game has all the Unique Units available to all the civs. Also, the rules for RBP3- Living by Faith have been streamlined. RBP3 is an "open" game, so anyone jump on in and grab a turn if they have some time available!

16/12/02 - It's closing day for the year's last two Epics- Epic Nineteen: The Lamb and the Wolves, and Epic Twenty: Food for Thought. Although there are no new Epics opening today, we expect to open a new Epic just after the first of the year.

The succession game page has been updated again, as the RBP1 crew was victorious!

15/12/02 - Charis has opened two new succession games in the RBP series. The first, RBP2 - Asian Rumble: Warmongering Koreans, is a Deity level game featuring the Koreans as a warmongering civ. The second, RBP3 - Living by Faith, is emperor, and features the Arabs in pursuit of a 100K cultural victory on a large map. As with any Charis SG, each has some variant restrictions to give the game it's own unique "flavor". RBP2 is an "open" SG, meaning that anyone with time available can post "got it" and play the next turn. In this case, Charis plans to have a set roster for the first round of turns, and the game will become fully open after the first turns. Both games have space currently available, so visit the game's thread if you're interested in playing.

13/12/02 - Your one-stop customizable potluck scenario shop is now open! Sirian has sent in the scenario file for both Epic 18 games. Using the scenario files, you can change the difficulty level, pick the civ you want to play (or see if you can "randomly" draw the Aztecs as often as Sirian did), change your leader's name, and even modify available victory conditions. You can download them here. Enjoy!

Epic 18 results have also been posted. Each civ was represented several times over a total of 24 reports! Congratulations to all who played. :)

The succession games page has been updated, because the RBE SG4 players were victorious!

02/12/02 - Epic Eighteen: Potluck Duet closes today! It has been a holiday weekend for players from the USA, so everyone will have until Wednesday to post their reports. But, you need to finish playing by Monday night. Remember, if your game is incomplete, you can make a save at the end of Monday, and report on your game's progress up to that point. If necessary, a summary will serve as a placeholder until you are able to write a more detailed report, but please make sure to include any relevant scoring details (if you've finished one game but not the other, for example).

There will be a large number of players posting reports for six different civilizations, so there is a separate thread for each civilization. Of course, everyone is encouraged to read and discuss reports from any civ. Have fun!

29/11/02 - The results page is up for Epic Seventeen: The Middle East. There were twelve reporting players, and six honorable victories! Congratulations to all who participated, and thanks to T-hawk for compiling these results!

19/11/02 - I've updated the Succession Games page to include many more completed games, and the newly started RBE DSG5 - The Sea is a Harsh Mistress.

18/11/02 - Epic Seventeen: The Middle East closes today. Epic Nineteen: The Lamb and the Wolves and Epic Twenty: Food for Thought open.

15/11/02 - The last Epic of the season, Epic Twenty: Food For Thought, has been announced. It will open this Monday, November 18.

We have also made some layout changes! The side navigation bar is now the same for Epics and non-Epics pages, for easier navigation. The "mods" section has become the "files" section, but Carbon's RBDers mod is still available there, as is Zed's Deity OCC Challenge start file. I have also decided to keep an index page of "RB" succession games, whether they are being played via our forums or over at civfanatics. There is a lot of useful strategy and information in those game threads, and I hope that this list will help ensure that the information is readily accessible. The succession games list is currently incomplete, but I do have the DSG's up, as well as the current expansion pack SG. I hope to expand this list over the next few days. Enjoy!

06/11/02 - Zed has created a start file for a Deity OCC challenge game. This is a non-competition game, but it sounds like it should provide quite a challenge for those looking to add some spice to their Deity play!

04/11/02 - No new Epics open this week, but there are still six days left to sign up for Epic Eighteen: Potluck Duet if you'd like to play. The results page for Epic Fourteen: Alexander the Great is now online. All of the scoring data is available in table form, so it should be easy to compare the different results "by the numbers".

03/11/02 - It's about time! I've updated the links page to include Epics players' Civ3 sites. I've tried to be as thorough as possible, but if you feel that I missed your site, please let me know.

Play the World has been released! Please remember that Epics 17-20 will be for Civ III version 1.29f. We are taking some time to familiarize ourselves with the expansion before we make a final decision about future Epics.

Results have been posted for Epic Sixteen: The Church of England. I'm also in the process of getting the results up for Epic Fourteen: Alexander the Great. In the mean time, T-hawk has compiled all the scores, which can be seen here. Congratulations to all who played, and a huge thanks for T-hawk for collecting all the scoring information!

28/10/02 - Two Epics close today, and one "duet Epic" opens. It's closing day for Epic Fourteen: Alexander the Great, and Epic Sixteen: The Church of England. If you've already signed up for Epic Eighteen: Potluck Duet, you should be receiving your start files today. If you haven't, signups will be open until November 10.

27/10/02 - Sirian has updated his Evaluation of Moves to version 1.2. Changes have been made to three areas: "Seed Corn" worker buy exploit has been added. Shipping issues have been separated into their own category and clarified, including the new "suicide galleys are dastardly" rule. Changes have also been made to nuclear weapons use, with honorable and dastardly usages redefined and clarified. These changes will take effect for Epic Eighteen and after, but not apply to Epic Seventeen and earlier, as those games are already in progress. The tactics evaluation is available here at the site, or downloadable in MS Word and Rich Text format.

26/10/02 - We've had some excellent games lately that haven't been quite complete by the reporting day. We know that pesky Real Life often takes priority over Epics games, and how frustrating this can be after putting so much time and energy into an Epic. While we encourage players to post complete reports for the Epics, we understand that this is not always possible. In this case, players may post a brief summary of their achievements, including any information vital to the scoring, as well as data such as finish date, win/loss, and whatever details they can include in the available time. If the game itself is incomplete, the player should save their game no later than the game's closing date, and post a summary of the game by the end of the reporting period. These games will be included in the official results as "retired" games, and will be eligible for scoring based upon the status of the game at the end of the closing date. Completed games are eligible for full scoring so long as a sufficient summary is posted. Full reports can be added later, if the player elects to complete a detailed report. The community will be interested in full reports even if they are late, but both playing activity and game summaries need to be completed on time. Players are also welcome to complete their "retired" games after the closing date and write about the "overtime" results, but can only be scored through the portion completed before the play deadline.

Also, players who will be unavailable to post their reports or summaries in the reporting window may have someone else do it for them. One way is to email the game sponsor and/or RBCiv staff and ask them to hold the report to be posted on Closing Day.

Results have been posted for Epic Fifteen: Soyuz. There were thirteen games included in the official results!

21/10/02 - Epic Seventeen: The Middle East opens today, and Epic Fifteen: Soyuz closes.

17/10/02 - Epic Nineteen: The Lamb and the Wolves has been announced. This is an Emperor difficulty variant Epic, sponsored by Rowan deWolf.

11/10/02 - Results have been posted for Epic Eleven: Hooray for Hollywood and Epic Thirteen: Passive Aggression. Congratulations to all who played!

07/10/02 - Information has been posted about two upcoming Epics. Epic Seventeen: The Middle East is our newest Deity Epic, and Epic Eighteen: Potluck Duet is (as the name suggests) another potluck game, this time with a twist.

Because we have so many games running concurrently, it can be difficult to keep track of all the different opening and closing dates. I thought it might be worthwhile to point out that we do keep an up-to-date gamelist. I'm not sure how many of you have already visited that page from the Epics sidebar, but I thought I'd point it out for those who haven't seen it yet.

30/09/02 - Epic Thirteen: Passive Aggression closes, and Epic Sixteen: The Church of England is now open.

25/09/02 - Sirian's optional Epic 14 scorecard is now available here. This is not required, but it may be helpful if you're keeping score as you play.

24/09/02 - Until today, we haven't had a clear policy about the use of 3rd party "bean counter" programs such as Apollo and Mapstat in Epics games. However, once the discussion came up on the forum this week, it became clear that the time had come to make a decision. So, effective immediately, the use of Mapstat and Apollo is prohibited in Epics games. The use of any bean counter, trainer, or other program designed to give you an advantage or some information not otherwise available in the game is prohibited. For the most part, you'll be on your honor on this one, but isn't that why you're here in the first place? To help things run more smoothly, we're also asking players not to use "hand counting" to produce similar results. Try to leave yourself some leeway if you're trying for one particular type of victory.

Results have been compiled for Epic Twelve: The Gauntlet. Out of ten reports, there was only one winning game, Urugharakh's. Kudos to everyone who took a run through the Gauntlet!

23/09/02 - Epic Eleven: Hooray for Hollywood closes today, and Epic Fifteen: Soyuz opens.

21/09/02 - Information has been uploaded about Epic Sixteen: The Church of England. Your goal is to rescue the kingdom, and spread the teachings of the Church of England throughout the land!

16/09/02 - Our second always war game, Epic Fourteen: Alexander the Great, opens today. Epic Twelve: The Gauntlet closes.

14/09/02 - "When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer." Epic Fourteen: Alexander the Great has been announced, and will open Monday, September 16.

10/09/02 - Oops! Two games were omitted from the Epic Nine: Rising Sun results page. This has been corrected, so Jester and T-hawk are now included in the "official" Epic Nine results. I've also added a link to T-hawk's report, which covers his official game and its completion a few days after the deadline.

08/09/02 - Results have been posted for Epic Nine: Rising Sun. There were two BIG victories, and five retired games! Congratulations to all who played.

06/09/02 - Epic Eleven: Hooray for Hollywood has been extended by one week! The new closing date for this Epic is Monday, September 23 (one week later than it was previously).

Epic Fifteen: Soyuz has been announced. This is a monarch difficulty variant game, sponsored by Sirian. Epic Fourteen information is not quite ready for the web, but will be announced soon.

I've uploaded the Epic Eight scenario file, so everyone can experiment with playing different civs in that game if they wish.

02/09/02 - Today is closing day for Epic Nine: Rising Sun, and opening day for Epic Thirteen: Passive Aggression. Because of the holiday weekend in the USA, reports will be accepted through Wednesday, September 4.

30/08/02 - Arathorn has sent in official game information for Epic Thirteen: Passive Aggression, which will open this Monday.

29/08/02 - Time to get caught up with the Epics results pages. I've uploaded the results for Epic Six: Always War, and Epic Ten: Horse Feathers. Congratulations to all who participated!

The rules for Epics games are slightly different than for other games, and it's possible to use an exploit such as the "phony peace treaty" unintentionally. So, I've put the RBCiv Epics Evaluation of Moves up on the site in a MS Word and a Rich Text format. I hope it will be helpful to have this available as a reference while you play. Also, please remember that unless the particular Epic's rules state that Dastardly tactics are not allowed, you are free to use Honorable or Dastardly tactics in your game. Exploitative tactics are never allowed in Epics games.

26/08/02 - Today is closing day for Epic Ten: Horse Feathers, and opening day for Epic Twelve: The Gauntlet. Also, I've uploaded the results page for Epic Eight: Potluck.

22/08/02 - The Gauntlet has been cast. Epic Twelve: The Gauntlet has been announced, and it will open Monday, August 26. This will be our first variant Deity Epic, and it will explore some of the game balance issues that have come up in Epics discussion threads. Win or lose, take a run through The Gauntlet!

19/08/02 - "That's it! Prepare for WAR!" Epic Six: Always War is closed, and it's time to post your reports! If all that war has put you in the mood for something a bit more cultured, Epic Eleven: Hooray for Hollywood opens today.

13/08/02 - Thanks for bearing with us as the site changed servers over the weekend. For those of you who didn't have the URL to access the forums directly, the deadline for reporting on Epic Eight: Potluck has been extended, so there's still time to post your reports. Please see the reporting thread for more details.

Also, Epic Ten: Horse Feathers opened Monday. It's only open until August 26, but the game should play fairly quickly, judging by the fact that a few participants have already finished their games. So, there's plenty of time to jump in on this one!

10/08/02 - Results have been posted for Epic Seven: Mano y Mano. Congratulations to all who played!

05/08/02 - The Tactics Evaluation has been updated. There have been quite a few changes, and all apply immediately to Epics games in progress, so please take some time to review the entire document. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please email us or post on the Civilization forum.

Yesterday was the last day to sign up for Epic Eight: Potluck. The start file was requested by 29 different players, so it should be an interesting discussion! Today, Epic Seven: Mano y Mano closes, and Epic Nine: Rising Sun opens.

03/08/02 - Sirian has created Epic Ten: Horse Feathers and Epic Eleven: Hooray for Hollywood. Epic Ten features the Iroquois, and looks to be a speedy little game. Epic Eleven, on the other hand, is a four-week Epic on a hand-drawn map. Enjoy!

01/08/02 - Game information is now available for Epic Nine: Rising Sun. This is a Deity level Epic, but conquest is the only victory condition enabled. It's also the first Epic sponsored by Arathorn. Signups are still open for Epic Eight: Potluck, but only until Sunday, August 4. Also, although Epic Six: Always War will be open until August 19, remember that Epic Seven: Mano y Mano will be closing this Monday, August 5.

25/07/02 - Uploaded Epic Four Results and Epic Five Results.

21/07/02 - Epic Eight: Potluck is our first post-patch Epic. Each player will be issued a random start file, so in order to play, please sign up. Signups will be open until the last week of the game, and signing up does *not* obligate you to report!

18/07/02 - Patch 1.29f has been released today, which can be a bit tricky for "games in progress" such as the Epics. Because each patch introduces balance changes, it is important that the Epics are played using the same version of the game that the original save file was created in. So, Epics players will need to choose one of the following three options:

1) Complete all Epics in which you are participating, before you patch, or
2) Retire all Epics in which you are unfinished, and record whatever may be appropriate (and write your reports) BEFORE you patch. (You can also just quit, but I would hope you would report your partial results), or
3) You can flop back and forth between the patches, being extremely careful never to load your Epic games while you have the new patch active. (This is a real load of work, patching and repatching and perhaps even reinstalling, but it's a viable option for those with SG commitments who don't want to give up on their current games in either arena).

14/07/02 - The results have been compiled for Epic Three: The Rise of the Incans. Our top scorers were T-hawk, J-J Wilks, and Dredd. Congratulations to all who played!

08/07/02 - Epic Six: Always War is now available for download, and it's reporting day for Epic Three: The Rise of the Incans.

07/07/02 - More special snaek-previews for those of you who check the site itself as well as the forum! Epic Seven will open on July 22, but you can take a look at the starting position and rules now.

06/07/02 - Part of playing in a tournament like the Epics is to take risks, and to keep trying in a situation which others might consider to be impossible. Here's what Sirian had to say about Jester's report: "He stuck it out through absolutely brutal setbacks and the darkest of times and still pulled out a winning game! That's the sort of determination it takes to beat this game on its highest level regularly, and it also somewhat embodies the variant spirit itself." If you haven't seen Jester's report on the forum, you can now read it here on-site.

05/07/02 - The results page from Epic Two has been uploaded. Reminder: Epic Three reports are due this Monday!

01/07/02 - One Epic closes, and one opens! Post your reports for Epic Two: Eastern Gem Dealers to this thread. Also, you can now download the start file for Epic Five: The Covenant of the Sea.

28/06/02 - Epic Five: The Covenant of the Sea, and Epic Six: Always War have been uploaded today. They're not open yet, but you can look them over now before it's time to play. The save file will be uploaded to the server when the game opens.

23/06/02 - Updated the links section to include Sulla's Civ 3 page. Sulla is posting his Epics reports there (after closing date, of course!), as well as some reports on GOTM's and other Civ3 games.

22/06/02 - I've opened the results section for Epic 1. As the Epics continue, I hope that this will help ensure that the results, reports, and discussion of the games are easy to find and to refer to.

21/06/02 - Epic Four: Rome vs. the Barbarians opens today and runs for one month. Reminder: Epic Two closes just over a week from now!

11/06/02 - Epic Three: The Rise of the Incans opens today. This is a Monarch difficulty Epic that runs for four weeks. Also, Epic One closed yesterday. Check out the reports and discussion in the Civilization forum!

27/05/02 - Epic Two: Eastern Gem Dealers opens today. Epic two will be open for 5 weeks, and the scoring system is quite different than that of Epic one. Enjoy!

20/05/02 - Epic One: The Honorable French is now open for play!

19/05/02 - We are pleased to announce the opening of Epics, a Civilization III tournament. Epic 1 is scheduled to begin tomorrow. In the mean time, you can find out more about Epics here.

27/03/02 - Charis' Guide to Civ3 Micromanagement is now available in the Strategy Section! Also, check out his Welcome Message, with notes to those new to Realms Beyond, and RB'ers new to Civ 3.

11/03/02 - The first article on this site(!) takes you behind the scenes - by KoP

28/02/02 - Welcome! We are unofficially open :) While the site is functional for the time being it's still under construction - just some minor tweaks here and there. The only active links ATM:
Home - Takes you back to this page for news and updates.
Realms Beyond - The gfx on top of the menu bar takes you to the Realms Beyond front page where you can find the other game sites we host.
Forum - Takes you to the Realms Beyond general forum.
Modpacks - Takes you to the mods section.
Cleopatra - She will be happy for a shot at the top ;p

Carbon Copy wins the prize to be the first (and the only, ATM) mod hosted. His RBDers mod is based on the game Diablo and friends from Realms Beyond Diablo. Full detail and download is available in the Modpacks section, check it out.

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