I wrote a build order toy that decides what a city should build next, ignoring unit production, using various weightings for the resources a city can produce; for high men, in a location with max population 16 and taxes set to 1.5g, the build order was:
Builder's Hall, Granary, Smith, Marketplace, Farmers' Market, Shrine, Library, Sawmill, Temple, Foresters' Guild, Miners' Guild, Sages' Guild, Animists' Guild, University, Bank, Mechanicians' Guild, Parthenon, Ship Wrights' Guild, Ship Yard, Merchants' Guild, Alchemists' Guild, Cathedral, Wizards' Guild (because the logic checks current population and unrest levels, order may vary slightly by race. The code will attempt to buy, though its threshold for spending money means mostly it only applies to builders hall, granary, marketplace, and farmers' market). Anyway, it might be interesting to look at cumulative statistics after 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, by race (columns: racename, turn(total production), population, production, gold, mana, research, unrest, current build target).
5 years:
Ba 60(340): 6800(+100)pop, 8p, 81(+10)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(44)
Be 60(340): 5730(+90)pop, 6p, 19(+7)$, 65(+2)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(88)
DE 60(240): 4530(+70)pop, 5p, 82(+3)$, 130(+4)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(80)
Dr 60(240): 5150(+80)pop, 6p, 96(+4)$, 58(+2)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(54)
Dw 60(340): 4710(+70)pop, 7p, 104(+15)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(58)
Gn 60(240): 5150(+80)pop, 6p, 96(+4)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(54)
Hf 60(340): 5810(+90)pop, 7p, 109(+7)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(100)
HE 60(240): 4530(+70)pop, 5p, 82(+3)$, 49(+2)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(80)
HM 60(340): 5730(+90)pop, 6p, 19(+7)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(88)
Kl 60(240): 5150(+80)pop, 8p, 67(+4)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(22)
Lz 60(340): 6270(+90)pop, 8p, 54(+10)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(64)
No 60(240): 5150(+80)pop, 6p, 110(+5)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(54)
Oc 60(340): 5730(+90)pop, 6p, 19(+7)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Farmers Market(88)
Tr 60(240): 4530(+70)pop, 5p, 82(+3)$, 0(+0)m, 0(+0)r, 0u: Marketplace(80)
10 years:
Ba 120(1700): 14300(+110)pop, 39p, 659(+13)$, 102(+3)m, 90(+2)r, 1u: Parthenon(154)
Be 120(1300): 12270(+100)pop, 28p, 506(+14)$, 383(+9)m, 76(+2)r, 0u: Miners Guild(104)
DE 120(1000): 9970(+90)pop, 24p, 259(+8)$, 549(+10)m, 68(+2)r, 0u: Temple(56)
Dr 120(1300): 11180(+90)pop, 28p, 388(+11)$, 316(+8)m, 66(+2)r, 0u: Miners Guild(194)
Dw 120(1670): 10690(+90)pop, 48p, 1290(+50)$, 91(+6)m, 98(+5)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Gn 120(1300): 11180(+90)pop, 28p, 388(+11)$, 46(+3)m, 66(+2)r, 0u: Miners Guild(194)
Hf 120(1670): 12400(+100)pop, 42p, 501(+9)$, 67(+3)m, 68(+5)r, 0u: Alchemists Guild(250)
HE 120(1000): 9970(+90)pop, 24p, 259(+8)$, 255(+5)m, 68(+2)r, 0u: Temple(56)
HM 120(1300): 12270(+100)pop, 28p, 506(+14)$, 79(+3)m, 76(+2)r, 0u: Miners Guild(104)
Kl 120(1100): 11280(+90)pop, 54p, 839(+37)$, 17(+1)m, 40(+2)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Lz 120(700): 13190(+100)pop, 20p, 921(+30)$, 101(+3)m, 84(+2)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
No 120(1300): 11080(+90)pop, 28p, 551(+16)$, 47(+3)m, 66(+2)r, 0u: Miners Guild(200)
Oc 120(1300): 12270(+100)pop, 28p, 506(+14)$, 79(+3)m, 76(+2)r, 0u: Miners Guild(104)
Tr 120(1000): 9970(+90)pop, 24p, 259(+8)$, 27(+1)m, 68(+2)r, 0u: Temple(56)
15 years:
Ba 180(2070): 19930(+80)pop, 54p, 2676(+45)$, 591(+9)m, 369(+5)r, 1u: Trade Goods(1)
Be 180(4400): 17400(+70)pop, 72p, 1118(+9)$, 1042(+17)m, 527(+10)r, 0u: Cathedral(239)
DE 180(3050): 14660(+70)pop, 62p, 826(+7)$, 1438(+17)m, 471(+10)r, 0u: Ship Wrights Gui(38)
Dr 180(3900): 16050(+70)pop, 54p, 1093(+31)$, 873(+14)m, 533(+10)r, 0u: Parthenon(400)
Dw 180(1670): 15190(+60)pop, 63p, 5140(+76)$, 451(+6)m, 398(+5)r, 1u: Trade Goods(1)
Gn 180(1300): 16050(+70)pop, 44p, 2218(+40)$, 226(+3)m, 186(+2)r, 1u: Trade Goods(1)
Hf 180(2870): 17490(+70)pop, 58p, 1747(+40)$, 656(+13)m, 368(+5)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
HE 180(3050): 14660(+70)pop, 62p, 826(+7)$, 773(+10)m, 471(+10)r, 0u: Ship Wrights Gui(38)
HM 180(4250): 17400(+70)pop, 72p, 1118(+9)$, 295(+6)m, 527(+10)r, 0u: Merchants Guild(106)
Kl 180(1100): 16120(+70)pop, 69p, 3610(+57)$, 77(+1)m, 160(+2)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Lz 180(700): 18590(+80)pop, 22p, 2945(+39)$, 281(+3)m, 204(+2)r, 2u: Trade Goods(1)
No 180(3850): 15970(+70)pop, 62p, 1613(+16)$, 227(+3)m, 525(+10)r, 0u: Merchants Guild(352)
Oc 180(4250): 17400(+70)pop, 72p, 1118(+9)$, 295(+6)m, 527(+10)r, 0u: Merchants Guild(106)
Tr 180(2580): 14660(+70)pop, 38p, 887(+24)$, 376(+10)m, 188(+2)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
20 years:
Ba 240(2070): 21050(+0)pop, 54p, 5396(+46)$, 1131(+9)m, 669(+5)r, 2u: Trade Goods(1)
Be 240(5400): 21050(+0)pop, 85p, 3313(+55)$, 2231(+20)m, 1463(+18)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
DE 240(5500): 18100(+50)pop, 75p, 2596(+64)$, 2739(+24)m, 1215(+18)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Dr 240(5700): 19660(+50)pop, 65p, 3526(+63)$, 1986(+19)m, 1293(+18)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Dw 240(1670): 18500(+50)pop, 65p, 9980(+86)$, 811(+6)m, 698(+5)r, 2u: Trade Goods(1)
Gn 240(1300): 19660(+50)pop, 50p, 4786(+48)$, 406(+3)m, 306(+2)r, 2u: Trade Goods(1)
Hf 240(2870): 21010(+0)pop, 65p, 4489(+51)$, 1436(+13)m, 668(+5)r, 1u: Trade Goods(1)
HE 240(5100): 18100(+50)pop, 70p, 2742(+59)$, 1461(+12)m, 1263(+18)r, 1u: Trade Goods(1)
HM 240(6300): 21050(+0)pop, 85p, 4140(+78)$, 899(+10)m, 1367(+18)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Kl 240(1100): 19710(+50)pop, 84p, 7455(+71)$, 137(+1)m, 280(+2)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Lz 240(700): 21030(+0)pop, 23p, 5485(+44)$, 461(+3)m, 324(+2)r, 3u: Trade Goods(1)
No 240(5300): 19600(+50)pop, 80p, 5163(+85)$, 811(+13)m, 1125(+10)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Oc 240(6300): 21050(+0)pop, 85p, 4140(+78)$, 899(+10)m, 1367(+18)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)
Tr 240(2580): 18100(+50)pop, 46p, 2681(+38)$, 976(+10)m, 308(+2)r, 0u: Trade Goods(1)

Lizardmen, because they max out so fast, do surprisingly well (I suspect my build logic is insufficiently interested in trade goods), and no attempt is made to account for terrain bonuses, including road/shore/river gold, though nomads get their bonus. Overall, though, unless you're looking at 20% or higher racial unrest, building colonies of one of the four cost-60 settlers (Ba, HM, No, Oc) looks pretty consistently like your best choice, assuming you have any options.

Been thinking about trying to attempt to start another D&D campaign around these parts of the woods, after Mardocs sadly crashed and burned back last spring ...

I would like to have between 4-6 players, very much preferring to have players that know the way around a dice so I'd thank no to more than 1 or 2 interests from those that have never seen a 20 sided dice before.

(At least partially since i guess that it was at least part of the reason why Mardoc's crashed; unexperienced players going in all directions, even before the game got going.)

My intention is to unearth one of the Campaigns that i once played (from Dungeon Magazine), to be exact 'Savage Tide' so those knowing it inside out ... ... well, those knowing it already probably knows so much about D&D that they should be able to play well enough that to act like as if they don't know

-----

The City of Sasserine have been perched on the edge of the known world since it was founded, on the western edge of the hot and humid Amedio Jungle, and acts as a trading hub between the civilized world and expeditions into the Jungle or to the numerous fortified trading encampments along the coast of the Jungle, trading in nearly anything they have access to from said Jungle, including timber, exotic plants and dangerous animals, and quite a few Plantations have been established in the vicinity of the city which grows a multitude of exotic foods and spices. rest of the city's income comes from its venerable fleet of fishing/whaling ships. Nearly all trade happens across the sea, as overland routes are fraught with peril, and the only such route goes to the neighboring city of Cauldron (in the remains of an exhausted volcano, laying between the Jungle and the rough mountains to the West), being the only 'safe' overland route from either of the cities.

-----

Q&A

What system?
3.5 with everything accepted, but pending review by me.

Setting?
Greyhawk, although the only thing you need to read is Players Handbook and the booklet 'players guide' thats downloadable here

Where/How to make sheets?
Make them on Myth-Weavers (register and log-in and go to sheets->New Sheet ->pick D&D 3.5 and name it something, letting it stay public), and post a link for them here

Starting Level?
Level 1, with a free bonus feat consisting of a district feat from the booklet players guide, has to start in the city played in

Alignment restrictions?
No Evil, no Chaotic Neutral

Map?
Spreadsheet on docs.google, with a safe copy in case of vandalism

EDIT:

As mentioned in another thread, I'm kinda sorta back! (Ouch. Note to self: Please stop mentioning that "b" word.) If there's interest in a new Imperium, I'd be happy to get one started. (I even have a weird map mostly-built, though it needs some final tweaking, which might take an hour or two or might take weeks.)

Moreover, if so, as always, I would be delighted to see other players come up with Imperium games. If you have been reluctant to do so, let me try to convince you! All you have to do is save your game in 2300 when you start a regular single-player game of Orion, keep that save intact, and send it to me if the game turns out to be especially fun and interesting! Suggesting a variant or scenario would be great, but isn't necessary.

- "But I don't keep my starting save files!" Why not though? It's easy. Just save in a different slot before you make your first move than you will through the rest of the game.

- "But I don't know a good variant!" We can certainly play an Imperium without variant rules. They're meant to liven up the game, not to replace normal gameplay permanently. So send something in anyway! (If after playing through the map, you think, "This would have been even more fun if I'd done it without building missile bases!" or something, we can also tack on a variant with which you didn't originally play.)

- "But I don't always follow RB's exploit rules when I'm playing solo games!" You totally should, by the way. It makes the game more fun and challenging (in my opinion). But even if you don't, you can still submit a game. Your report for that Imperium (if you post one) would be a Sponsor's Shadow anyway, and the only penalty for breaking the exploit rules is ... turning it into a shadow game.

- "But what if other people hate it?" Don't worry. It won't be the worst Imperium ever, nor the worst-atteneded. (One Imperium was played out and reported by zero people, including the sponsor -- and the sponsor was me!) I do my best, but it's hard to know in advance just how a game will play out, as we're all aware.

- "But if it's terrible, people will blame me!" First of all, no they won't. I'll just be grateful for your help, and I'll still be responsible for selecting it, so the right thing for everyone else to do will be to blame me. If you really are worried about this, we've had Imperia with anonymous sponsors or co-sponsors before. If you want, we can have one again!

- "But nobody even responded to this thread; there's obviously no interest in another Imperium anyway!" Well, if that's the case, I have no counter-argument, but we'll see!

For anyone who's interested, I'm planning on Livestreaming my attempt at Adventure 59 tomorrow (Saturday, December 28) starting at noon EST (9:00am PST / 1700 GMT) and running until the game either finishes or I'm too tired to continue. We'll have the Twitch chat on screen to let anyone watching make comments and suggestions, hopefully it should make for a fun time. Here's the link to the Twitch Livestream: http://www.twitch.tv/lcsullla/

Note that this will obviously contain game-destroying spoilers for Adventure 59, so if you're in the middle of your own game, you probably shouldn't watch.

I love my tight rotational mirrors, and it seems other people have enjoyed them. I've got another little map here, anyone interested in playing it? I have recommended rulesets if interested, but people can certain beg to differ. I see no reasons why RBmod or Tides of War couldn't be used either, entirely up to the players. It's a very refreshingly different way of play, making trait and civ values rather different, and it tends to be a good deal less of a time drain than bigger sprawl games with empires maxing out at ~10 cities or so.

The stats:
Emperor Difficulty
24x24 Toroid
Raging Barbarians
Always War
Primarily land map, mirrored/rotated starts a la 34, 42, 44 (salt water but no naval size seas)
Start with two CG3 archers (or equivalent UUs) in addition to your settler and warrior or scout.
MAP (final)

Standard bans:
War Elephants
SoZ
Great Artist bombs
Nukes
Spies

Players, turn order:
Ruff- Elizabeth of China (ruff.hi)
Commodore- Napoleon of Native America (commodore.rb)
Queeg- Ramses of India (hawk2370)
Oxyphenbutanane- Fredrick of Sumer (rbpbemoxy)

Tracker:
http://mistbinder.org/tracker/tracker.php?game=bts57

Or whatever you celebrate.

(or just get drunk to cope with it like I'm doing)

TL;DR -- Any interest in a top-rated card-driven strategy game of global domination? (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333...t-struggle)

In the aftermath of the Second World War, United States did successfully drown Europe in Marshall Plan aid, but it was the Soviet commissars who got to the Nazi science elite first, capturing them even in the last minutes of preparation for a westwards getaway. The GULAG can have an amazing effect on the productivity of a most reticent and ideologically opposed inmate and the Red space program was off to a thundering start. Stalin threw out the ridiculous plans for a prohibition on the testing of nuclear weapons, and successfully supported a Tudeh coup against the unstable regime of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, causing the American to switch their attention from the nascent Atlantic military alliance to bolster the discredited shah. Alas, their efforts were for naught, the Marxists were entrenched enough that the desperate attempt of the army to seize key installations ran into mass popular riots, and the soldiers quickly turned their guns onto the CIA-sponsored generals. The successes of 'the people' in throwing off the shackles of a Western-imposed monarchy became a rallying point for decolonization movements worldwide, with the red flag raised up in Malaysia, Burma, Botswana and Morocco.

Emboldened by the failures of the West to protect its interests, the Egyptian government nationalized the country's greatest single asset, the Suez Canal. In an attempt to rebuild its collapsing credibility, the US joined in with the Soviet demands to repudiate the Israeli attempts, backed by France and Britain both, to seize the 'international' property back — this earned the desired points with the regimes of Jordan and Lebanon, but embarrassed and toppled the Western governments, as well turning Israel away from Washington. Unbeknownst to the American press, which widely saw the resolution of the Suez crisis a failure, US policy towards Egypt forced the Soviets to scrap their plans for promotion of a pan-Arab military intervention against Israel, instead turning to use their support base in Malaysia to organise a massive expansion of the Communist activities in Thailand, forcing the king to come to the table in Moscow in fear of losing the country altogether. In the meantime, the US took care to deal with the fallout of the Suez fiasco in the UK and engaged in deeper talks with Britain's North American Dominion in pursuit of a long-term strategic goal of establishing a continent-wide air defense system...

Just half a turn from this excellent boardgame, only slightly spiced up and made to fit a story. For those who don't know it, TS is a legendary card-driven strategy game of competition in superpower influence from the Second World War to the dusk of Gorbachev's reign. The gameplay goes soundly against the dominant 'everything should be fun' paradigm with about half the actions you take doing some very real damage to your position — the player's major choices are when to face that damage and what to do about it. The closest analogy I can think of is playing with a Magic deck randomly stuffed full of cards carrying mandatory life and sacrifice costs, which you are forced to play when drawn (only one card is carried from turn to turn and the hand is replenished full of lovely, lovely events every turn). The game has a variety of online implementations, from the stripped down to the visual. I don't think it's ever been discussed on RB, but TS strikes me as something that would work perfectly for these forums -- the strategy is quite deep (of course, you have to know the deck, but there isn't that much of it to know), the reasoning behind the choices made by the opposition is very fun to read post factum, and the thematic content just screams to be crafted into a narrative. There are, no doubt veterans of TS here (I'm not), but this is something that could played for fun and written about at any level. I'm not gonna lie, even a prospect of an RB demogame for TS and accompanying reportage makes me disconcertingly happy — that's probably unrealistics, but if anyone wants to play, I'd be happy to.

More here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFfVqRmDLkI

And some appropriate reviews:

"This game has no right being number 1. This game feels like I'm repeatedly punishing myself for choosing to play it. I'm not into that, I play games to enjoy myself. I can handle games where bad things happen to you when they are your own damn fault like Trajan or Dungeon Petz, however this is just a bad thing that happens to you and never lets up. Better off avoiding altogether."

"Brilliant theme and beautiful map, but too strategic and difficult for me. Also, don't think it's fun if you have to memorise cards to be able to play better. I didn't finish a single game."

"One of the few games that left me actually feeling angry about the game itself after playing."

(Also, Brass. Much less fun to report, though.)

Adventure Fifty-Nine: Christmas Potluck
Sponsor: T-hawk
Opening Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Duration: Four Weeks
Map Script: Big and Small
Map Size: Small
Game Speed: Normal
Difficulty: Emperor
Civilization: Potluck
Leader: Potluck
Opponents: 4
Victory: Any
Options: No Technology Trading, No Vassal States, No Random Events

Scenario: This is a Potluck game. Each player plays a random civilization of the five on the map. To sign up, notify T-hawk by forum private message to receive a link to your randomly assigned starting save. The idea is to compare your experience with other players of your same civilization.

   

The leaders are Asoka, Hatshepsut, Isabella, Justinian, and Mansa Musa. Everybody is in for a Spiritual holiday season.

   

You will notice a number of Christmas trees on the map with unusual decorations. If you like, you can compete with other players of your civilization to find and acquire the most of these. A Christmas tree is a forest tile with something that cannot occur normally from the map generator. Look very closely!

To receive credit for a tree:
- You must own the tile with the tree and its decoration at some point during the game.
- No previous owner of the tile lost it by conquest or cessation. Taking ownership by culture is OK as long as the tree is still there.
- It's OK to cut down the tree once you've recorded your ownership with a screenshot.


Closing Date: Monday, January 13, 2013. Reports due by the end of Jan 14, your local time.

First post






Zero content

Thought the title fit the mod name.

Nothing else here at the moment.