This is the IT and Tech Issues Thread for Realms Beyond Pitboss 7, a casual Always War game created by Plako and administered by Mist. The planning thread can be found here.

The game is now live. If this is your first time connecting please read this entire post carefully. Text in Red will be of interest to veterans.

Access the game via DirectIP connection to sunrise089.dyndns.org:2061. No password is needed (nor will one permit a successful connection) when connecting to the game. Make 100% sure there are no spaces in the field or you'll get an error. Spaces love to crop up unexpectedly, so please double-check this before posting that you can't connect.

The first time you log in to the game you will be asked to set and confirm a password. This is non-trivial to change, so please make sure you know what it is, can remember it, etc.

In-game you can play as normal. This game has a simple double-move rule, but otherwise you can queue unit actions and builds like normal, even after you end turn. I get asked almost every game, so I'll note you press TAB to chat in-game, though that should be very rarely used in this game (perhaps to flag my attention for a tech issue). When you're done playing please log out via Exit to Main Menu, not Exit to Desktop (it creates connectivity/lag issues).

This game features a nominal 24-hour timer. The first turn has a 36 hour timer in case we have any technical issues, but please try to end turn when you can. In the future the timer will be tweaked to roll at or near the same time each day.

This game uses Civstats to track the turns and other info. Our game is here. If you want to register via Civstats and claim your civ the password for each civ is "sirian."

From now on, please let me know if you have any technical concerns in this thread. I can be reached infrequently via forum PM and in-game, and easily via email at sunrise089 at gmail dot com and IM at sunrise089 on either AIM or Gchat. Remember, all general player chat (which in this case is all chat for the game) goes in this thread.

Game Rules:

Diplomacy: Public player thread allowed right from the beginning. No any other format of diplomacy. "Deals" made are not binding.

Double moves: Allowed. Only if you’re last to end turn or didn’t end turn at all you’re not allowed to do anything during the first 2h of the turn.

Bans:
* All trades and gifts
* Nukes
* War elephants except from Khmers
* Civic/religion switch spy missions
* All AP and UN resolutions

Victory conditions:
Conquest, Domination, Culture and Space

Special Diplo victory condition:
At any point player can suggest in a public player thread of declaring someone as winner or totally ending the game without winner. If 3/4 of alive players support it, game ends and winner is declared or game ends without a winner.

I am looking for some advice with FFH2 (no EitB mod-mod, just the basic mod). I have played a couple games in the past, and have followed some of the FFH PBEM games here at RB. But I am still mostly a noob.

I recently started a game to try to learn a bit more about the mod. I am playing as the Ljosalfar, with Theesa (sp? the Expansive/Arcane leader). Normal speed, low-ish difficulty (Prince I think, I didn't want to face anything too rough until I get my feet under me), fractal map, large size with 1 fewer AI than normal to leave a bit more space for early expansion. No Acheron, all unique features, otherwise default settings.

The hopes for more space early were for naught, as the Amurites under Valledia founded their capital close enough our borders touched after the first pops. I really dislike this when you have a large map, but it seems to be pretty common in FFH. I would destroy the Amurites early with a warrior rush, helped by having the Mirror of Heaven in my BFC to allow vision on their capital. Managed to steal a worker in the process, so I don't think this set back my development too much.

What did slow me down significantly was a lack of food. My best food tile was a plains cow. Should have wandered with the settler perhaps, but Dragon Bones and Mirror of Heaven in the BFC was too tempting, and some incense was also nice. Of course I was very short on food to work those tiles until I got some farms up, and grew very slowly even after.

Anyway, on to the current situation (and my questions!). It is around T130 and I have expanded to 7 cities. There is still a fair bit of open land although it is starting to go quickly. I am in the northern part of a landmass with Perpentach, Os-Gabella, Tasunke, and Jonas Endain. (What fun neighbors! ) I just finished Mining tech (yes, I know, T130 and all....) and of course there is no copper anywhere near me. In fact, the only sources I can see (and I have pretty good exploration of the continent, having managed to get one warrior south of the AIs and somehow survive) are both on the border with Perpentach. I can probably push out a settler and grab one, although either will be ugly cities: one has no food at all, the other is buried in jungle. But it may provoke a war with the clowns.

I have been wandering around the tech tree without much of a plan, not being familiar enough with FFH to know what is important to prioritize. Just grabbing whatever looks shiny at the moment, really. I have founded Fellowship of Leaves and the ancient forests are starting to help my food problems in my capital and a couple other food-poor cities. Hidden Paths and the Guardian of Nature civic look attractive to resolve happiness issues and start growing my cities larger. But I need better units: Archery looks good with the dextrous boost, plus Silveric, or I could go for Swordsmen although without metal they are just much more expensive bronze warrior equivalents. I do have horses, although no deer for Fyr-whatevers despite all the tundra and ice to my north. Priesthood would be cool for Priests of Leaves and Bloom, and of course with arcane trait I should get around to KoE at some point. But my palace mana sources have meh tier 1 spells and I only have 1 mana node in my borders. There are a couple more I can grab, although they will be horrible city sites otherwise so I keep putting them off.

I guess I am looking for advice on what to prioritize. Os-Gabella has pyre zombies, and Jonas Endain has founded OO and could come wandering up the coastline. Tasunke could send raiding horsemen, and who knows what the clowns might try. I think I will need more military strength sometime soon, but where to get it? I do get dextrous archers, maybe pursue Bowyers? Try to grab the copper and go for Swordsmen? Focus on adepts and mages? Priests?

There are all sorts of useful possibilities, but I have no real idea which way to go to actually turn some of them into reality. Some advice for this noob would be greatly appreciated!

Not a knight? Please go!

Fresh off a weekend of gambling in New Orleans, Mao is ready to apply the lessons he learned at the craps tables to his opponents in the field of battle:

Lesson 1: learn to love the RNG.
2: if you believe hard enough you will succeed beyond measure.
3: if the pitboss is looking at you suspiciously it is time to find a new table, or possibly a new casino (related to civ this one probably means to be wary of your opponents)
4: it pays off to do things the hard way.
5: know your enemy and when to walk away from the table
6: cold dice or bad luck are the casino's second best friends.
8: never say the number I've skipped (civ corrolary: never mention the RNG when attacking or it will betray you).
9: never forget to play your safe bets.
10: an incompetent player is easy money and the casino's best friend. Don't be that guy.

These are a few things I learned this weekend in my first trip to a casino. Rule # 11 is to leave while you're up but civ has no corrolary because in civ you sometimes have to fight it out to the bitter end. If you do that in the casino you'll end up calling the addiction hotline, so it's not applicable here.

Any degenerate gamblers lurking out there, what other lessons from the craps tables can Mao use in PB7, Winning The Hard Way? (Oh, and maybe this one goes without saying...don't go all in on a horn bet!)

Why don't we have a thread yet?!

Well, I guess my name goes first, then! :neenernee

Please report your games in the Tournaments subforum.

Since this is an unscored game, feel free to report a day or so late as long as you stay unspoiled.

Below is a direct copy of the original post from the tech thread.

I thought it might be fun to name all of the awards and add a few more. As someone who's lurked pretty comprehensively, I democratically elected myself for this duty.

Hopefully anyone who has a "negative" award named after them takes it in the fun spirit its intended.

• The Tatan Award (PBEM4g, PBEM10) - Making the most of your position in the game, good or bad, and showing good spirits.
  
• The plako Award - Not abusing the turn timer, even trying specifically to not abuse it, as though you were roleplaying some sort of perfect turn timer gentleman.
  
• The Ilios Award (FFH2)- Fighting honorably and fiercely until the bitter end, never trying to throw the game or be spiteful, and keeping all the enmity in-game.
  
• The SevenSpirits Award (PBEM19, PBEM23)- Showing innovative play and an enthusiasm for making the game fun and exciting.
  
• The Pocketbeetle Award (FFH1)- Most entertaining thread updater
  
• The Oledavy Award (PBEM17)- Most interesting thread updater (note, not the same thing)
  
• The Athlete4Life Award (PB2) - Sneakiest back stab gold star
  
• The Sandover Award (PBEM3) - Mostest with the Leastest award for crap land award
  
• The Adlain Award (PB4) - Leastest with mostest award for really good land frittered away
  
• The WarlordDr Award (PB4) - Warmonger of the year award for least infrastructure
  
• The FFH7 Clowns Award Warmonger of the year award for most military (important distinction there)
  
• The novice Award (PBEM13, 17, 23) - for most insanely thorough spreadsheet MM plan
  
• The "Krills' 12 steps to greatness" award (See all Krill games) from most retarded drunken behaviour
  
• The "WTF Darrell" award (FFH2 I think is the best example) for greatest WTF moment of the game (Always a goody)
  
• The "bloody sunrise" award for most crippling early game strike
  
• The regoarrarr award (PB1) - For most disappointing moment
  
• The Lewwyn award (PBEM14) - For most ill-advised rush
  
• The Commodore award (PBEM19, 24) - For most convincing desperate victory attempt
  
• The Lord Parkin award (PB4) - For most 1t techs in a row
  
• The mackoti award (many) - For the team that builds the Pyramids
  
• The Ruff Award - For best naming-scheme
  
• The Bobchillingworth award (FFH11) - For best military action devised solely for metagame reasons
  
• The Jowy Award (PBEM6) - For worst leveraging of traits (i.e. never going to war with Boudica of Rome)
  
• The Whosit Award (PB2) - For biggest misuse of military units
  
• The Gaspar Award (Pretty much every game) - For most war plans composed but not enacted.
  
• The Sareln Award (Um, every game) - For first player eliminated in a rush
  
• The TMIT's Speed civving award - For being shortest time logged in to the game.
  
• The Kuro Slow civving award - For being longest time logged in to the game.
  
• The Thoth Award (Pretty much every game) - For most youtube links posted in thread.
  
• The Catwalk Award (Pretty much every game) - For most headscratching thread spam.
  
• The Munro Award (PB1) - For Biggest Upset
  
• The Cyneheard Award (Every game) - For the biggest bridesmaid
  
• The Locke Award (PB4) - For most effective personality change
  
• The Serdoa Award (PBEM10, PBEM25) - For biggest wonderwhore
  
• The DrNomadic Award (PB2) - For most inane lurker comment
  
• The MJW Award (All) - For most confusing lurker behavior
  
• The Dazedroyalty Award (PBEM7) - For most impressive dogged defense
  
• The Sulla Award (Demogame) - For best pink dot
  
• The Speaker Award (PB2, PB6) - For most impressive military tactics
  
• The Twinkletoes89 Award (All) - For surviving against impossible odds
  
• The Iskender Award (FFH5) (All) - For best performance with a lesser Civ/Leader pairing
  
• The Exploit Award (PB1, PB3) (All) - For poorest performance with a stronger Civ/Leader pairing.
  
• The Kyan Award (PBEM4g) - For most consecutive turns in a Golden Age
  
• The Mist Award (PB7) - For the player who annoys the game admin the most
  
• The Uberfish Award (FFH2) - For best sneaky good game position
  
• The Amelia Award (FFH2) - For most damage on a single turn
  
• The spacemanmf Award (PBEM13) - For best war turn report (single turn) [rego already has an award before anyone mentions PBEM8]
  
• The Selrahc Award (FFH6) - For longest delay to settle first city
  
• The Washington, Mongolia Award (sunrise089 - all PBs) - For worst power/internet situation for someone who purportedly does not live in a 3rd world country.
  
• The pindicator Award (PBEM26) - For cheesiest yet deserved success
  
• The yuris125 Award (PBEM20, PBEM26) - For player who swings the balance of game most while having no actual benefit to his own empire
  
• The Mortius Award (PB2) - For allowing someone to walk into your undefended capital
  

Now this is an indie pick, Montezuma of the HRE. I'm going for the culture win full-bore this time!

The likelihood of me actually updating this thread regularly:

Not so much.

Placeholder, thanks for reading!