It's closing day for FFH 2 Adventure 2! Please post your reports to the
Tournament Reports and Discussion subforum- you have until the end of Friday to finish playing, reports due by Monday for scoring purposes.



Late reports are of course welcome, although you won't earn any STARS

Guess I have to write something here to stop Irgy peeking in.

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Irgy, if you're reading this, then go away now. Unless the game has already finished, that is.

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There, that should do it...

First post, just to shoo away Lord Parkin. Shoo!








Apologies to everyone else for now, there's nothing more to see here yet. Should be adding some screenshots roughly 12 hours from now. I might do a small writeup of what's happening sooner than that.

An article on Kotaku that piqued my interest: http://kotaku.com/5748694/throne-togethe...ii-preview

The games that Paradox designed so far have mostly stayed under my radar, but after reading the preview I will be following the development of Crusader Kings 2 with some interest. From the looks of it, it has the potential to provide a diplomacy-focused game that has been almost completely absent from Civ 5 (and to some extent Civ 4) and could provide an interesting change of pace.

Not having played the first game (yet), I can't say whether it was any good, but perhaps someone else can share their experiences. Just throwing it out here for now (the game won't be out for another year), but I'm curious if anyone feels this type of strategy game could work, and if it has any lasting appeal.

Not sure if this is the place to ask, but it seemed as good as any other. (Mods please feel free to move this to a more appropriate place.)

Basically, Irgy and I are keen to set up a competitive FFH2 game between ourselves with some AI's in the mix, but rather than generating a random map ourselves we'd prefer if someone could check one over before we start. Nothing major, we just want to make sure we don't waste our time starting out on a random map that turns out to be grossly unbalanced.

So, if anyone is keen and has a few minutes to spare, please let us know! Here are the settings we're going with:

Quote:- Standard size with default 7 civs (5 random AI's in total)
- I will be Falamar/Lanun, Irgy will be Flauros/Calabim
- Monarch difficulty for us both
- Erebus Continent map script
- Flat world wrap, Medium sea level
- Normal speed
- Options to tick: No Vassal States, Blessings of Amathaon, Living World, All Unique Features
- Mapmaker needs to make sure our two civs are on opposite sides of the map (if not opposite corners)... simply regenerate until get something close (preferred), or just edit starts with care
- Check that both of our starts are roughly fair (doesn't really matter much about the AI)... no need to do any major changes, just ensure it's not hideously unbalanced for one of us relative to the other
- Default settings for everything else

I'm thinking either some standard BTS MP fare, perhaps starting around 10 or 11 PM GMT, or starting up a FFH Pitboss game to be completed within a couple sessions (we'd need a host though... sunrise? =) )

[EDIT: Post updated with full rules and scenario description!]

[size="4"]OSG 24 - The Guns of Sssla[/size]

For centuries, the Sakkra people of Sssla have been at peace. Their ancestors, huge lizard-like beings with massive claws and razor teeth, had battled endlessly for food and territory, and at first, even those who learned to band together for mutual strength did so in an inevitable hierarchy: The top Sakkra was the one with the toughest scales, the fastest claws, and the sharpest teeth. Sakkra nations rose and fell with the might of their warrior-kings as scientific knowledge made its slow, halting, progress toward modernity.

Until someone mixed saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur in just the right quantities.

The first general to use guns in battle - weapons that could penetrate Sakkra scales like paper from long range - simply became a new, invincible-seeming warrior-king for an unusual reason ... but a reason with deep consequences. His rule lasted only as long as his soldiers' loyalty. Strength of tooth and sinew no longer mattered for rule, and as the guns found their way into ever-more-numerous Sakkra claws, would-be warrior kings faced a grim new reality: Their might had become irrelevant. The greatest warrior in all of Sssla could be taken down by a lucky shot from a child in his tweens. While other races on other worlds considered weapons a tool for specialized warriors only, millions of years of evolution told the Sakkra that weapons were as natural to their people as hands and lips - or rather, claws and teeth. The guns became ubiquitous, and with everyone armed, constantly, the rule of the land fell to the only force that could still enforce it: The sheer numbers of the majority.

So the Sakkra democracy was formed, on the strength of its guns and rifles. Peace spread across the world because breaking it meant certain death for anyone who did. There were no innocent bystanders: Anyone and everyone at the scene of a violent crime became what another race would think of as armed police. Though recent centuries have bred a culture of peace and openness among them, the Sakkra people continue to carry guns as a matter of course, and so when they learned to cross the stars, they mounted all their starships with the Guns of Sssla, inevitably.

Race: Sakkra
Difficulty: Impossible
Galaxy Size: Large
Opponents: Five
Color: Green
Events: On
Variant Rules:
1) All Sakkra are armed. Every ship we design or build must have at least one weapon on board, even if it's only a laser. We'll scrap our initial unarmed Scouts immediately. (The initial colship will exist for so short a time that we can just pretend it's armed, since it won't encounter any alien fleets.)
2) The Sakkra are a peaceful people. We may not engage in acts of war (attacking alien colonies with fleets or transports or using "sabotage" spying) unless we are already at war with the target race. Note however that we have a free hand over neutral worlds; we're not willing to attack them, but neither will we buckle to their aggression at the sites of potential colonies. Moreover, we may never threaten to attack another race.
3) The Sakkra are a democratic people. We respect the will of the galaxy's peoples, not the tyrants who rule over them and get to vote in the galactic elections. We must abstain in all high council votes, as they are a sham of democracy. EXCEPTIONS: If we have enough votes to win single-handed (i.e. conquest victory) we may elect the Sakkra democratic process itself as "high master" and accept the victory. Also, if we as the players decide it would be more fun at any point and have the opportunity, we may "revert to our violent ancestral roots" by voting for and rejecting a leader and initiating Final War.
4) The Sakkra fight their own battles. We may not use any of the tactics forbidden in the Realms Beyond Orion exploit list. For instance, we may not ask one race to declare war on another unless we are already at war with the target race ourselves.
5) I said, all Sakkra are armed! We may send invasion transports to another race's colony when at war, as the soldiers are armed and will use their weapons in ground combat - but we may not send defenseless "colony transports" (meaning ANY TRANSPORTS AT ALL) to our own colonies.

EDIT: Game thread is up at civfanatics: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10249071

ROSTER: (In alphabetical order for now; play order to be determined by scheduling needs)
Catwalk
codehappy
jmas
Maniac Marshall
RefSteel

Hey, mods, there's a spambot loose named Ensummondem, it's already posted a whole bunch in at least the PBEM4 Tech thread.

No players allowed! Or the hippo will get you



For anyone interested in making a few guesses or commenting on the action, or for the players who are dead and want to share their thoughts.

I'm not going to be unveiling the roles until the game ends. I don't want to ruin anybody's guessing game.

It was looking like another quiet night, in a quiet week, in a quiet existence for the sleepy little village beyond the realms. But that was all to change.

The local sheriff had been called out to investigate a disturbance at the old farm just outside the village. Sounded like some wild dogs had been worrying the sheep again.

When he arrived there however, he saw that the situation was far worse. Four monstrous figures stood in the middle of butchered sheep. 3 of the figures were feasting on the corpse of the farmer and some unidentifiable other humans. It was the fourth figure that was more terrifying though. A tall and slender horned figure that seemed to radiate evil.

The sheriff screamed. Almost by instinct the figures shifted into all too familiar forms, before looking up at the Sheriff. They grinned, shifting back into monsters. The sheriff turned to run, but didn't get two steps before they were on him. That was the last thing he knew.

The next morning the villagers awoke. They saw the corpse of Sheriff Selrahc, sitting on a chair in the middle of the village square.

Written in the Sheriff's blood at his feet were the words
WE ARE HERE. WE ARE AMONGST YOU. PREPARE TO DIE.

[SIZE="3"]Day Phase 1 begins. It will end in two days, or if a clear majority is reached.[/SIZE]

Game stuff spoiler.