Ok, I've added text to the screenshots in the previous post.
I'd like to take this opportunity to give my thoughts about Pitboss 3 so far.
If I had known how much time and effort needed to be put in this game, I'm not sure I would have signed up. It was absolute madness to organise a Tech Trading game with 17 teams spread over three different time zones. The diplomacy in the early stages of the game was so time consuming, there were moments I wasn't really enjoying myself.
After the first tech alliance was set up (and I was the prime recruiter, having met most of the potential candidates), things got a little easier. Lots of players were also losing interest because the game was just too unwieldly, with lots of pauses and disputes. So there was a lot less diplomacy to handle.
For the curious, the first tech alliance was built around Krill's Egypt, India, HRE and Ottoman. Krill was able to plan a very early Oracle and took Alphabet as free technology. Aztec, Carthage, England and Portugal were later added to the grouping, with France added in extremis. Egypt, England and HRE then decided to take out France, because we felt they weren't pulling their weight and made a nice target. After that war and the first exchange of technologies, new alliances were formed: PAT, containing Egypt, England, Mali, Babylon, Maya and Carthage and CUDDLE, containing the remaining teams
In the end I'm glad I participated, because I'd like to think I learned a lot about Civilization gameplay I wouldn't been aware of otherwise.
There were a couple of weedy moves on my part, but all in all I think I did pretty well for a first time player.
Weedy move n° 1 was moving a warrior/settler pair on a forest next to a Lion. Now, this was to be our third city, and we felt that we couldn't wait for the Lion to move away. (the forest we moved the pair on was the settler spot, if only the forest hadn't growed on that tile!). So we took the chance and moved, and the frickin' lion killed the warrior at 5% odds... I'd probably do the same thing if I ever end up in the same situation, but boy that was quite a blow to a 2 city empire!
Weedy move n° 2 was about the same situation. I absolutely wanted to claim a spot, so I moved a settler to the designated spot, with only a horse archer as escort. I founded the city, only to find two barbarian axemen appear next to the city the following turn... I tried to take out the first barb, with decent odds, but lost, again...
As for the game now, it's pretty boring actually. There is a border skirmish going on between India and Ottoman on one side, and Egypt, Carthage and England on the other side. So far, I think only one small Carthage border city got razed, but was refounded soon after.
For the rest the researchers are researching, and the funders are funding. Things might heat up as we're expecting an attack by Mali on either Aztec or Inca. Allthough I don't really have to, I plan to build/draft/whip an expeditionary force to help them out, and frankly because I haven't had a lot of warfare going on in this game so far. As long as the warring doesn't happen on my territory, I plan on just having fun...
I'd like to take this opportunity to give my thoughts about Pitboss 3 so far.
If I had known how much time and effort needed to be put in this game, I'm not sure I would have signed up. It was absolute madness to organise a Tech Trading game with 17 teams spread over three different time zones. The diplomacy in the early stages of the game was so time consuming, there were moments I wasn't really enjoying myself.
After the first tech alliance was set up (and I was the prime recruiter, having met most of the potential candidates), things got a little easier. Lots of players were also losing interest because the game was just too unwieldly, with lots of pauses and disputes. So there was a lot less diplomacy to handle.
For the curious, the first tech alliance was built around Krill's Egypt, India, HRE and Ottoman. Krill was able to plan a very early Oracle and took Alphabet as free technology. Aztec, Carthage, England and Portugal were later added to the grouping, with France added in extremis. Egypt, England and HRE then decided to take out France, because we felt they weren't pulling their weight and made a nice target. After that war and the first exchange of technologies, new alliances were formed: PAT, containing Egypt, England, Mali, Babylon, Maya and Carthage and CUDDLE, containing the remaining teams
In the end I'm glad I participated, because I'd like to think I learned a lot about Civilization gameplay I wouldn't been aware of otherwise.
There were a couple of weedy moves on my part, but all in all I think I did pretty well for a first time player.
Weedy move n° 1 was moving a warrior/settler pair on a forest next to a Lion. Now, this was to be our third city, and we felt that we couldn't wait for the Lion to move away. (the forest we moved the pair on was the settler spot, if only the forest hadn't growed on that tile!). So we took the chance and moved, and the frickin' lion killed the warrior at 5% odds... I'd probably do the same thing if I ever end up in the same situation, but boy that was quite a blow to a 2 city empire!
Weedy move n° 2 was about the same situation. I absolutely wanted to claim a spot, so I moved a settler to the designated spot, with only a horse archer as escort. I founded the city, only to find two barbarian axemen appear next to the city the following turn... I tried to take out the first barb, with decent odds, but lost, again...
As for the game now, it's pretty boring actually. There is a border skirmish going on between India and Ottoman on one side, and Egypt, Carthage and England on the other side. So far, I think only one small Carthage border city got razed, but was refounded soon after.
For the rest the researchers are researching, and the funders are funding. Things might heat up as we're expecting an attack by Mali on either Aztec or Inca. Allthough I don't really have to, I plan to build/draft/whip an expeditionary force to help them out, and frankly because I haven't had a lot of warfare going on in this game so far. As long as the warring doesn't happen on my territory, I plan on just having fun...