My report for Epic 25 can be found here .

I can't quite finish playing tonight, but can tomorrow. Result will be a conquest victory in the middle 1700s. I'm avoiding reading any reports till I can finish, and reporting the scoring stuff now.

Honorable mention categories:
Odeon constructed in 500 BC
~35 XP on a Phalanx (still going, but I'm sure others got way more)
8 or 9 GGs by 1500 AD (need to go back and check a save)
~10 XP on a naval unit
1 tech stolen via espionage

After watching the movie 300 once again i thought about a melee team variant based upon it, battling monster hordes with might and tactics not magic. For those who don't know the movie: it's based on the true event of spartan king Leonidas fighting the persians at the battle of Thermopylae in ancient greek 480 BC.

Several limits with some being really rough have to be set with the Spartan theme for style, abilities and behavior.


1) Equipment

Weapons:
primary: one-handed spears (all kinds of javelins)
secondary: short sword or war sword
Shield: large shield type only, must be used at all times

Head gear: full helm type only
Body armor: hard leather, studded leather, breast plate, light plate and any other armor without sleeves. Shoulder pads are allowed.

Gloves: none
Boots: light plated boots or greaves
Belts: sash or light belt

Amulet: any
Rings: none

As long as the base requirements are met anything goes; runewords included.
Of course exceptional and elite item versions are allowed too.

Note: body armor restrictions were taken from historic Spartan warriors. Going with the movie it would be no body armor and no boots at all!

All Spartans start with the so-called agoge, an initial solo training in the wilderness. The agoge's purpose is to prepare a Spartan to his life as a soldier. It's done in the early areas of Act 1. Usage of any found gear is allowed also completing the Den of Evil quest.

Important: Returning to town is NOT allowed before the training is finished! All level up stat points must be assigned to strength! The agoge is finished once a Spartan reaches 50 strength.

After the initial training is complete the Spartan receives this basic set of gear:
javelins, short sword, large shield
full helm, hard leather armor, light plated boots, sash

This gear can be shopped from any vendor in the game as long as it's white (normal non-magical). Now if your Spartan is able to find(!) superior or none-white parts of the basic gear set during his agoge he can - of course - keep them!


2) Character Class

To become a Spartan a character class must have at least one weapon specific combat skill, be it spear, sword or shield-related. This limits the choice to the Amazon, the Barbarian and the Paladin.

Note: by this class limit the team can play in both Classic and LoD mode.

Nit: I'm aware of the fact that back in ancient Sparta women could not join the army.Yet the D2 game designers build the Amazon class with greek mythology in mind so it would be most unfair to exclude her.

With minimum strength 50 required to equip the Spartan basic gear no character will start at level 1. Amazons have to be at least lvl 7, Barbarians at least lvl 5 and Paladins at least lvl 6 to meet the strength requirement.

Along with the class limit go three required roles that must be set:

King Leonidas (Barbarian)
- is the only one allowed to use Battle Cry
- leads the party
- can assign the command to his captian
- can send out his captain with a sub-party to do specific tasks

Captain Artemis (Barbarian)
- is the only one allowed to use Battle Orders
- leads the party by king's command or if the king gets MIA/KIA
- makes Berserk his primary combat skill if his son Astinos gets KIA

Both king and captain are the only ones allowed to use Battle Command

Dilios the bard (Barbarian)
- is the only one allowed to use Taunt and Shout
- returns home if the king gets KIA (due to king's order)


Here a number of optional roles which can be choosen:

Astinos and Stelios (both Barbarians)
- love to show off as a Dance of Death Tag team
- always belong to Artemis sub-party

Arkadian leader Daxos (Paladin)
- is the only one allowed to use Concentration
- can give orders to other Paladins, but not override the kings orders
- returns home if the king gets KIA (due to loosing his faith)

Queen Gorgo (Amazon)
- is the only one allowed to use Charged Strike
- returns home if the king gets KIA (to bring her husband's body home)

The Oracle (Amazon)
- is the only one allowed to use Slow Missiles (like predicting the future)
- is not allowed to wear or use items with "Half Freeze Length", "Cannot be Frozen", "Poison Length Reduce" or IAS

Of course more roles can be designed, having both Pro and Con.

Given the listed roles are choosen the worst case would be the king dying with Dilios, Daxos and Gorgo leaving which cuts the team down to half it's size. Debatable.


3) Skills

Barbarian:
Leap, Leap Attack, Whirlwind
Bash, Stun, Concentrate, Berserk
Sword Mastery, Increased Stamina, Increased Speed
Throwing Mastery
Spear mastery, Iron Skin, Natural Resistance
Howl
Find Potion, Find Item, Grim Ward

All Barbarians must learn either sword or spear mastery.
Warcries beside Howl, Find Potion, Find Item and Grim Ward are restricted to roles defined above.


Paladin:
Sacrifice, Zeal, Vengeance
Smite, Charge, Holy Shield
Might (see below), Blessed Aim, Concentration (see below), Fanatism
Cleansing
Defiance, Redemption

All Paladins must learn Holy Shield.
Might and Concentration (special, see Daxos above) are valid by Highest Aura First rule only:
- to keep Concentration active Fanatism has to be in use by another Paladin.
- to keep Might active Concentration has to be in use by Daxos.

Holy Fire, Holy Freeze, Holy Shock, Sanctuary and Conviction are never allowed, not even within a specific role design.


Amazon:
Jab, Impale, Fend
Powerstrike
Dodge, Avoid, Evade
Critical Strike, Penetrate, Pierce

All Amazons must learn Jab.
All Amazon magic skills are restricted to roles defined above.

All classes can place points into any synergy and passive skill effects but using them is verboten.


4) Battle tactics and dealing damage

The Spartans primary battle technic used was the Phalanx formation. Simply said it's several stacked rows of man forming a wall with their shields and attacking from behind their shield with spears.

Transfered to the game this could be 3+ chars fighting alongside with Bash, Jab and even Charge or Whirlwind! Feel free to experiment and develop more.

The teams main attacks deal physical damage. Now D2/LoD also has physical immunes and there will be no Necromancer around with Amplify Damage or Decrepify curse to break this immunity. So Amazons should have Powerstrike, Barbarians should have Berserk and Paladins should have Vengeance ready for these encounters.


5) Minions and Mercenaries

None at all. They don't meet the melee spear/shield or melee sword/shield requirement.


6) Softcore vs. Hardcore

Goal of the game is of course to defeat Xerxes who is represented by hell Diablo in Classic D2 and hell Baal in LoD.

Softcore team:
Killed charakters wait in town until the remaining party has finished adventuring in the current game area and is ready to enter the next one.
Now if the king died this has to be tougher .. any suggestions?

Hardcore team:
This team is under strict Last Man Standing rule. No rebuilds at all!
Now if the king died and at least Dilios survived all charakters who had to return home are allowed to join(!) a new follow-up team which will be lead by Dilios.


Input welcome

Dr. Disaster

RB Epic 25

Part I

(This is my first game played with the new patch. Hopefully all goes well.)

This … is … Sparta! An always war game is a given. The variant is a very simple one: no pillaging. I’m not certain this will actually hurt the player all that much – except in the very early going when metal pillaging is powerful.

The listed difficulty is Prince, which should be fairly manageable on a regular map. (Edited: This is NOT a regular map, but has been highly customized for this scenario, with stunning results.)

- No barbs or random events
- Unrestricted leaders

Sparta (ie the Greeks) will be under the peace loving guidance of Genghis Khan himself (Agg, Imp). I like the Agg trait for AW since we will be fighting numerous early battles where the extra combat promotion should shine. Imperialistic is less impressive, but at least it means we will have plenty of great generals. Lacking economic traits means that extra care will be needed to keep the Spartan economy from stagnating in the mid-game.

I decided to open with a work boat build in Athens. While a little risky, I hoped that the forested plains hill tile would allow a panic warrior to be built quickly if needed. Luckily this worked just fine. On the research front I decided to go Mining->Bronze Working for early chopping, slavery, and the important reveal of copper (needed to build the Spartan Phalanx). In the meantime first contact was made:



There is a nice forested choke point to hold enemy warriors from entering the capital and eastern peninsula (where my second city would go to claim copper, sheep and wines).

Early scouting reveals that Sparta is not a rich land with commerce tiles in particular short supply. At least we have easy access to copper and horses. Over the next few turns we meet most of our enemies (Mansa and Darius where the last to reveal themselves later in the game).

Tokugawa of the Native Americans – Our nearest neighbour and a nasty defensive threat (more on this in a bit).

Shaka of the Sumerians – Aggressive vultures! Ouch!

Montezuma of the Romans – Aggressive Praetorians! Yikes!

Mana Musa of the English – Technology engine and recoats. Would be great to take down early …

Darius of the Dutch – Another technologist with access to dikes to become a late game industrial powerhouse. Also would be good to take down early …

So Sullla has clearly set the deck against the human player, fun times! At this point all I know is that I only have room for 4-5 average cities without taking lands from Tokugawa’s grasp. I would prefer to kill him early since eliminating enemies is a big help in Always War games. I’m planning an attack with Aggressive Phalanx squads, hoping for some easy fights… No such luck:



Hmmm. Toku already has aggressive + shock Dog Soldiers defending his cities. It may be possible to rush anyways, but I think the losses would pile up too quickly, especially since we need to fend off attacks of the other AIs. Maybe a chariot rush would have been better.

So it’s a defensive stance for now:



I need Catapults and I need an economy. Weighing the two I think it’s more important to get some commerce flowing for our long term survival. So a little building is in order:



We get a double happiness boost from Monarchy; wineries and hereditary rule. In addition I set up Athens as a commerce heavy hybrid city, and two out of my first three expansions as pure commerce cities.

The first dangerous enemy stack approaches:



Those aggressive UUs are a problem as I can’t kill them without taking heavy losses myself. For the most part I try to get the AI to attack Phalanxes with combat and woodsman promotions, but sometimes I needed to attack stacks (especially those heavy with City Raider units – something the AI seems increasingly fond of).

A sign that our economy is doing ok:



Getting a religion is also nice since none will spread naturally in an AW game.

Finally I’m ready to move out with a small stack of offensive troops:



While I still take losses (especially sacrificial cats) the war goes well as Cahokia falls:



Pushing a little farther we get some good news:



Great! One civilization is defeated fairly early in the game. I think this is critical to success in this scenario as the AIs seem to be playing quite well. Darius is well ahead in score despite my conquests, so without more lands early I think players could be in big trouble.

I haven’t scouted well yet, but I know Shaka has been sending stacks from the East, while Monty is somewhere to the West. I decided on targeting Feudalism early since Longbowmen are such fierce city defenders in the early medieval era. After some turns of defense (with plenty of losses on both sides) I became increasingly annoyed with the Roman leader:



Those aggressive Praetorians are a pain (even for Combat III + Shock Phalanxes). So I went on a path of attrition to burn down Rome:



Without pillaging tiles this “vacant” land will be nice to claim soon, since new cities will have many improvements in place already. I reached maces within a few turns of Mansa and Monty so new reinforcements allowed for more progress into Roman lands. War Wariness is becoming a problem for the first time:



After sacrificing most of my troops (this is becoming a recurring theme) the next big milestone is reached:



Great! I’m beginning to think I have a good chance of winning this game. I’ve been defending against Shaka and Darius around Cahokia. Darius is much stronger of the two despite the fact that I haven’t entered either of their lands yet.

In the west Mansa and I have been in a cold blooded stand-off for hundreds of years. Here is my stack (on a jungle tile):



Meanwhile a bit of luck shines on Athens (apparently this is not turned off with events, a little odd):



And I built my first Odeon at an unimpressive date:

Retired around 1000AD when an enemy got Liberalism and I didn't have maces.

I rushed the nearest AI hard with horse archers, and conquered him easily. I didn't pay close attention to just how far away those cities were, and my economy never recovered. I held off each AI stack, but it was clear I was falling too far behind in tech and had no chance of victory.

My first always war game! And with an aggressive AI as well and Sullla mixing UUs with "bad" traits.
Needless to say, I had a few "Aaaaahhhhhh " moments while playing.

Every time I was feeling that I could go onto a little offensive, a new stack of doom was approaching.

I managed to keep the Sioux reigned in pretty good, even capturing one of their cities early on.
Then for most of the game I had to defend on the northern front (two cities just south of Cahokia) while slowly filling up the gaps in my dotmap to actually get some tech going.
I managed to land the Oracle, Colossus, Great Lighthouse, Great Library and the Hanging Gardens and also founded Confucianism.

I used my first GGs on units, but was disgusted at GG phalanxes dying at good odds, so I switched to settling the GGS as instructors. (9 in Athens at the end)

I held on to one cavalry (former HA) unit that I managed to get up to 122XP (only one GG used, the rest through battles). Not quite as high as some players got their Cossacks in an earlier Epic, I believe.

A couple of attempts to break out to the NorthWest around 1650AD resulted in capturing a couple of cities in those hills, but ultimately were thwarted by the enemy.

1730AD was the year, I finally managed to stomp the enemies. Marching westward and totally conquering that half of the world by 1921. Here I was fighting almost on the same tech level as the AI (they had better airforce though). In the mean time I managed to chew up half of the Babylonian empire, but had to retreat from all gains (all the way back to Cahokia) from the Dutch, who had a big tech lead and were fielding superior units. I had to wait for my veterans from the Western Campaign to help out and push East again.
This was the first time I remember seeing mobile SAM and mobile artillery being used in a CIV game.
I made good use of the whip and later the draft throughout the game and sacrificed huge amounts of cats, cannons and artillery against enemy SoDs.

Towards the end I hassled the Dutch with Viking style attacks on their coastal cities. Amphibious suicide assaults resulting in lots of coastal core cities being razed.
This was later helped by nuking Dutch core cities. (Manhattan finished by me in 1949 while Dutch SDI was only online in 1962.) Altogether I successfully fired 10 tac and 2 strategic nukes against the Dutch.

Harassing the Dutch coast and eating through the Babylonians resulted in triggering the Domination threshold in 1965.

A nice game, taht kpt me on the edge of my chair for 24hours gaming time. Not quite a wild ride like the Epic 4, but still a very good game. Thanks to the sponsor.

mh


Summary:
Domination Victory Jan-1965.

First Odeon: It was there 380AD (a bit earlier actually, but I failed to record the exact year)
Highest XP on a Phalanx: ~45XP I think (lost some GG Phalanx at good odds)
# GG @ 1500AD: 6 (15 in whole game)
Highest XP on Naval Unit: 22XP (Can't remember, lost some good BBs at the end. 22XP is basically 9 Instructores + Drydock at Athens)
# techs stolen by Espionage: 0

Epic Twenty-Five is now open for reporting. Please post your reports in the Tournament Discussion subforum.

I saw on Apolyton a mention of CivCon '09. August 7-9. Links for the event and the Poly discussion thread:

http://civcon09.eventbrite.com/

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=297826

Hunt Valley, MD is right in Sullla's backyard. Is there going to be a Realms Beyond presence there? I'm free that weekend and could go, though it wouldn't be cheap between travel from NJ and hotel and the con itself.

I keep meaning to post this (and keep forgetting).

After reclaiming their video game rights for the likes of Shadowrun and BattleTech (from Microsoft) in 2007, Smith and Tinker (the new face of what was FASA) have finally announced the big reboot that BattleTech fans have been wanting for years.

MechWarrior is announced to make a comeback!

It's a complete reboot set in 3015 - Hey, was that a jubilant noise emanating from Sirian? - when the Tech is hard to come by. "Kill the meat. Save the 'Mech." They are just sticking with the name "MechWarrior" instead of "MechWarrior 5" and referring to it as a completely fresh reboot.

Q&A Interview after the announcement

There are links to the teaser trailer and an analysis video of the teaser beyond that link. I recommending BattleTech fans of old watch those in that order before diving through the interview.

I'm hyped.
And here is a dancing banana:

I was playing in RBD 1 tonight, just after my Summoner Druid Buffalo Chip died to Diablo. He was avenged by Fireball/Meteor sorcie Fallen Balls, who then hit Act V.

A green amulet dropped. Normal Diff. Tal's Amulet. Yes, a clvl req 67, +2 sorcie skills amulet, is sitting in my stash out of NOrmal Diff.

I am of the understanding that this violated item level generation rules. Act V Normal DIff, a char of lvl 27, killed something with a Meteor summoned from an ethereal Leaf Rune Word Staff. Merc was Act II, unremarkable pike, defensive aura IIRC.

WTF is going on?

Occhi