Ichabods keep out.



Someone on the internet drew the above portrait of me. An uncanny resemblance.

In honour of the Ashes being enjoyable from an Australian perspective again.

To make up for the thread title, here's a random image dump from my HD:

Hello to any and all!

Yes indeed, after almost a year of skulking around the werewolf forums, and getting schooled by Q in a duel, I have decided to join the big leagues and try a PBEM. I am sure that, put to the test, I will find reserves of strength I didn't know I had and will perform at a Mackoti-like level, but just in case I've asked Q to lend his thoughts where needed. Q is from New Zealand, and so has that off-kilter perspective on the world that might help us through the hard times.

Right now, I don't really know what is going on. I've never played a PBEM, I don't have a save, haven't seen the map, and everyone else is busy in their threads. In my darker moments I wonder if they are all actrually playing the game and have just forgotten to include me in the save cycle. But then I am filled with blazing optimism again. No doubt someone will send me a save soon...

Begone, players! You do not belong here!





























Mardoc gives mostly good advice in Sian's thread, but this:

(December 9th, 2013, 11:54)Mardoc Wrote: How does a typical Calabim game look? Start by grabbing the minimum necessary worker techs, while expanding. As soon as you can, go to Code of Laws, swap to Aristocracy/Agrarianism. Build farms absolutely everywhere, and Governor's Manors. This should put you basically first place in the demos, or at least competitive. Research up to Bronze Working, Sanitation, and grow your cities big, putting in Granaries, Smokehouses, and Breeding Pits, along with whatever happiness buildings you need. Revolt into Military State. Build or draft enough Moroi to keep yourself safe or take advantage of opportunities, while researching to Feudalism. Draft a bunch of vampires, Feast them up, and go kill everyone.

Map bait thread!

Also, looking at the player base, I'm actually struck by the thought that the newbies are better bets than the "vets" mostly. It's the Civ4 MP equivalent of a slow mule race here.

Theme is going to be Disney Tv shows, in the vein such as DuckTales, TaleSpin, Bonkers, Goof troop, and the like :D

I don't know if I need to put a bunch of useless text at the start of a thread or not since the forum move but here goes with some of my thoughts on the football (or soccer if you prefer) world cup.

Group A

Brazil
Mexico
Croatia
Cameroon

A deceptively strong group, Brazil are the clear favourites to progress but they aren't widely expected to win their home tournament after some less than stellar results over the past couple of years. I'm picking Mexico to finish runners up as they're usually a very solid team that doesn't get torn apart, with Hernandez up front they can always sneak goals. Croatia can beat anyone on their day however and shouldn't be discounted, I think they aren't working as well as a team right now though. I don't know too much about this Cameroon team but if they still have Eto'o (sp?) as their main goal threat I think they'll struggle.

Group B

Spain
Netherlands
Chile
Australia

I think anyone who's not Chilean will predict the 2 European teams topping the group, Chile are a good team though and could earn draws vs Spain and Netherlands if they stay compact and disciplined (this is the main problem for Chile IMO). Australia are unfortunately the whipping boys and will do well to get a single point. I think Spain are no longer unbeatable and the Dutch may top the group.

Group C

Colombia
Ivory Coast
Greece
Japan

One of the weakest groups, Colombia did well in qualifying but haven't done anything in a major tournament for a long time and frankly are fortunate to be so high in the world rankings. So its good for them that they avoided a strong European team and if they want to be taken seriously they need to top this group. Ivory Coast aren't the same threat as they were a few years ago with Drogba being older, but I would tip them to get slightly better results than the next 2. Greece are a solid but unspectacular team, they have no world class players but will rely on strong teamwork and a bit of luck to win or draw matches. Japan typically underachieve every tournament when they should be at least as strong as S.Korea, with one of their best players Kagawa not starting regularly at Man Utd, I don't expect them to have a happy WC.

Group D

Italy
Uruguay
England
Costa Rica

Maybe I'm just negative but as an Englishman I don't see England making it out of this group. Italy dominated England in the Euro's and although they aren't the best team themselves, I think they're good enough to get 2 wins in this group. Uruguay did well in the last WC and I wouldn't be surprised to see them replicate that performance. With some very talented individuals and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win, they could even top the group. England were unbeaten in qualification, but lost both recent friendlies at home, their main problem seems to be keeping possession and scoring goals at major tournaments and this is unlikely to change. Costa Rica might be able to scramble a 0-0 draw with England but are unlikely to achieve much more.

Group E

France
Switzerland
Ecuador
Honduras

Considering France struggled mightily to even make the tournament, they'll be delighted with the perfect draw. They won't be winning the WC but this group should be a cakewalk for them. Switzerland are bizarrely one of the highest ranked European teams (ahead of Italy and Netherlands???) but I'd expect them to have a tight game with Ecuador to decide who comes 2nd. I know very little about the Ecuador or Honduras teams.

Group F

Argentina
Bosnia
Nigeria
Iran

Easiest group to pick a winner from, if Argentina don't win all 3 group games they underachieved. After that its a tossup between Bosnia and Nigeria, I'm favouring Bosnia because they looked surprisingly good in qualifying. Expect Iran to put in a similar performance to N.Korea in the last WC. Their game with Argentina could see a lot of goals.

Group G

Germany
Portugal
USA
Ghana

Germany are my pick to win the WC so I naturally have to put them top of the group, I think they have strong individual talent backed up by the ever present German teamwork. After than its tricky to call, Portugal look to be utterly reliant on Ronaldo and that may be enough to get them into the last 16 but their game with USA might go either way. USA are solid but got a tough group, Ghana come last because I don't know anything about their current team.

Group H

Belgium
S.Korea
Russia
Algeria

Belgium are probably the most widely predicted team to fall flat on their faces this WC, they have plenty of well known players and they comfortably won their qualifying group, they've got 2 difficult games with S.Korea and Russia but you'd expect them to win 1 of them. S.Korea have a fairly good WC record and seem to have a knack of making it into the elimination rounds so I'm predicting they finish above Russia. The Russians can't be discounted but they are so unpredictable its hard to know what team will show up, they can top this group and cause major upsets if they're on their game but equally could lose to Algeria and go home with nil points. Algeria make every WC it seems and never make it out of the groups, expect more of the same from them.


My top 3 picks to win the tournament

1. Germany
2. Spain
3. Argentina

So, I am playing my first "real" FFH PBEM. It's certainly going to be a doozy.