Not surprisingly, the AI's missed the memo on that whole "Pax" thing

Well, I didn't scout before sending the colony ship, so got the size 60 world (ok) instead of the UR tundra to the southeast. I parked Cryslon at 50 population, allowing me to settle that world very early, 2317 I think. A few turns later here's the map as I hit the first Sakkra scout to the north.

When I settled that Tundra a while later I was able to see that the lizards had already settled the next world north of that Jungle, and was already fairly developed (50 factories), but despite being in range there hasn't even been an unarmed colony ship yet. I was happy to see range 4 as only choice in propulsion and that came in 2334. Time for some thoughts...

One of the big challenges of the Civ4 incarnation is that it can be hard to get the civ you want to declare war on you; there was much less random violence than in Civ3 (generally better for the game, but hard when you wanted the largest civ on the other continent to DoW you!). MOO does not have that "problem", but the auto-blood-enemy upon losing a world is a very dangerous rule here; in any normal game I would be surprised if I didn't lose a world or two during the early expansion phase. Obviously the correct strategy in this game is to postpone the blood enemy decision to the last possible moment so you can pick the biggest AI civ to invade and not attack anyone else; I did well in Epic 24 with extra aggression but the per-civ penalty has been significantly ramped up here. So I want to be very careful about settling non-hostile worlds. Also, I can't get contact with the Sakkra and see their personality until I make a decision - either settle a close world, or let them have it.

Only 40 turns in and I was already starting to dread the micro - Silicoids probably have more than any other race due to the factory building going faster than the population growth.

I did decide to take that world, and the discovery was mixed news:

Their stunted expansion may give me other opportunities, but also means I am their #1 target. Not good...At least they are Pacifists, although I'm not sure how much that means they will avoid brush wars. Have also seen some Alkari scouts to the west and Klackons to the east.

A beeline on Nuclear Engines came in and it exacerbated the "settlement bomb" problem - my UR world was cranking out colony ships at a disgusting rate (sometimes 1 turn with overflow!), and wasn't even maxed out yet; although it was about 2/3 full and my only world where I wasn't sending off population over about halfway. With new worlds slow to develop, I had it build many rounds of popguns for border world defense, and eventually some reserve pumping as well. About 2346 I remembered that I should open construction for IIT9; was now done with that, nearly to sheild2, and then going to go for Hyper-X, hopefully timed about when some of the outer worlds would be able to start building a base.

Yet another picture after meeting the Klackons (Ruthless Militarist, yikes!). I don't know how they got the range to make that jump, or why they have it and are still stuck at 4 worlds.

I am more or less cut off from further moves north or east by lack of range at this point - nothing after 4 until at least 8! - but in the west (despite the appearance of a gap) there are a couple of 4-range crossing points. I was hoping for luck that at least one has not been claimed by the Alkari as I haven't scouted them yet, and got what I wanted - a few turns after snapping that picture I found Altair as circled, and open space to the west. Look at that - there is also a gap between Altair and the SW worlds, and it appeared that it just might block them long enough for me to swoop in and claim the whole lot!

Yup!

Still no contact with Alkari - great news, they don't have the range to settle or attack the SW quadrant. Looks like I will get all of it, especially now that I wield sublights allowing double-speed shipping of colonists. Fusion drives are the only way forward - ouch, still no range! You can see the Sakkra have finally started to branch out in the north; maybe I could have delayed/prevented that via LR skirmishers but I was more concerned with defending worlds I did have and moving west. The bad news is that the Klackons have just jumped all the way to Toxic, so they could soon take that Dead world between them and the Sakkra which would truly cut me off (it's also UR to boot). Also, I had purposely held off settling that Tunrda near them until getting spy visibility into their techs, not wanting to open a potentially vulnerable world, then they get the tech to attack it right after plopping down the colony ship. I have considerable resources - moving around 100 popguns, able to ship in a lot of rocks, and reserve spending - but the bugs saw their chance:

Although I have no scanner upgrades, I'm 95% certain that this is going to Celtsi. I scrapped the venerable scout1's making room for a new popgun - warp 3/speed 2, 1 laser, and reserve tanks so it could pull double duty attempting to defend the Dead gateway world once this crisis passed.

Well, it turns out I was wrong about the fleet's direction and no attack came immediately. I soon realized that I could settle far-out worlds:

I think this is probably the first time I've ever intentionally used lower-tech warp drives than I have - but it makes all the difference! Due to the plodding speed I pumped reserve at Phantos (the UR at the start) and built it at a closer world. However, the Sakkra had also gotten Toxic and both races were on the move to the north - so I was probably still going to get cut off. In a normal game I would have tried to sneak more ships through but in this environment I had to guard anything within range of the AI's. The goal Dead world should be fine - size 40 + UR, just flood it with colonists and it should have lots of bases fast - but defending multiple worlds would be tough. I was still lacking a full scouting report out west after my latest settlements; maybe I would be able to do an end run around Alkari space on the far west side of the map or find a hostile-environment path through them.

Further expansion in the west triggered vote at 2390 against Klackons; I pull votes from the Alkari and everyone else abstains, allowing me to vote for the bugs, excellent. Situation repeats in 2400 although I need to watch out as the Humans are nearly equal with the Klackons in population. Map:

That (red) human world in the far west is momentarily blocking my colonization - I had started one of the slow LR ships on it but was not close when the humans got there. Probably should have drawn some LR lasers to blockade eariler, those were also on the way. But the good news is they were willing to trade me Range5 for IIT8, which finally introduced me to the rather stunted Alkari (grey). In 2400 Death Spores was finally done, which allowed me to put real engines back on the long range colony ship and suddenly I had many expansion opportunities again. My votes allowed an alliance with the Klackons also, giving me more range and a sense of security on the eastern half, so I got considerably bolder. Here's the results 25 years later:


Time for a bit of an AI rant. In some ways this game surprises and delights with better AI behavior than much more modern games, but it's inexplicable that I got all of these worlds. Neither Alkari or Psilon have higher than Dead tech, so that explains the inferno grabs but I can't believe the Psilons didn't settle the worlds along the western edge. Similarly, no one except Humans have Radiated but how did those habitables in the east get to me? And I don't even want to know how that Jungle world in the NE is still open. There appeared to be some buggy blind spot in the AI, I eventually settled it years later.

Relations are starting to get interesting; I've triggered "you're too big" warnings from everyone now except my bug buddies. But there has still been zero acts of agression against worlds I've settled; only a couple skirmishes at still open worlds. The AI's aren't hitting each other either - at one point I noticed the Klackons orbiting a fleet over a human world and taking it by invasion a few turns later; next turn the two races were allied again. Thousands of popguns are guarding my new acquisitions but I'm quite ancy as many races have had class IV shields for a while, which would make them invulnerable. Just got Graviton beams and am working on frigates to replace.

Oh, and I am furious with the blasted Sakkra, who have failed for the last 50 years to do something about the pirates at Firma, killing trade.

Well, finally some action in 2430 as the Alkari DOW. Thankfully they are the weakest AI, and I should be able to hold my own against their fleets (no good ship to ship weapons, but they do have fusion bomb). Not too worried about them, but they are allied to everyone except the Klackons so this could get ugly fast, no chance at getting any of those races to cancel their alliance. Was quiet for about 10 turns, then an AI fail alert:

Nothing more than lasers/gatlings which can't touch my bases, but they chewed up my equally obsolete fighters pretty well. This was one of the Inferno's in Alkari space, if they had gone for the other one (no bases yet, although many of the graviton corvettes) they might have done something. Alkari would stay in non-threating war for quite a while; had some luck in the other races holding off but the dogpile was fully joined soon after the 2450 vote (still me vs. Klackons and everyone else, but a solid blocking vote). The smackdown came from the Psilons:

This was at Tao on the west edge of the map. Credit the AI here; this fleet had been massing near my inferno worlds so I had gathered most ships there, but then when they went west I couldn't react fast enough. My popguns actually took most of the missile blasts, giving the handful of Merculite bases a chance to shoot down some of the fusion beams, but it wasn't quite enough. However, the Psilons also were just short of nuking the planet to oblivion, setting up a rematch next turn when my dreadnoughts could arrive:

At this point I have already lost one (a different model; both are all autorepair+grav-beam, main difference is the surviving one has a repulsor, better targeting computer, and warp 4 engines). With some dancing I was able to outlast the missile-heavy fleet! I was positively euphoric that I was going to avoid having a blood enemy forced on me (although the Psilons were doing pretty well, so it definitely wasn't the worst thing in the world). Next I repulsed a smaller brain incursion in the inferno zone, then I find out that 20 of 40 Psilon marines got through at Tao (they had a planet close enough to send in one turn, so I didn't even see the invaders inbound). With only a few Silicoids still alive from the previous turn's bombardment and a gropo deficit, no chance of stopping them. So my blood enemy is set.

This one surely has the highest gameplay-to-report-length ratio of all my Imperia games thus far. The full report is in the usual place - the scoring and related notes are at the end.

The actual gameplay in this one was slightly insane; I'm pretty sure it took me longer to play any given decade between ~2370 and ~2420 than to play all three of the last centuries combined. The game was lots of fun in any number of different ways; I hope everyone else who had a chance to play enjoyed it too!

Update: Here are the current rules for an elemental team, below these are historical notes.

Meeting time: Tuesdays 9:30 PM EDT for 1-2 hours.

Concept: a team of elemental casters, with one character representing each element. Together they will prove that a balanced team of elemental nukers can in fact defeat hard mode.

Rules: Each character has an associated elemental attribute and damage type, and have some rules they must follow accordingly.

1) Must invest max points into their attribute. (Runes up to you.)
2) Must equip at least 5 skills from the attribute or at least referencing their element. (the elemental type must appear in the skill description)
3) Must use a staff or wand from their attribute or element for their weapon.
4) No consumeables!
5) Any skill outside of your attribute that references a damage type or deals it indirectly to enemies (including degen/life steal) must reference your element.
- In other words, earth mages can bring dust cloak or summon naga shaman, but not ice spikes. (even if winter is up)
- This restriction includes things such as minions, splinter weapon, and damage conversion like winter or sensitivity like the mantras.
- Damage amplification such as cracked armor or standard of honor is unrestricted.
- Skills within your attribute don't have to deal the right damage. Air eles can use Gust (and so can water), while earth eles can use obsidian flame.
- Skills with mixed damage types are eligible by one type, so for example, both water and blood can use winter's chill.


These are the 8 elemental damage types and their associated attributes;

Fire / Fire Magic
Cold / Water Magic
Lightning / Air Magic
Earth / Earth Magic
Holy / Smiting Prayers
Shadow / Blood Magic
"Light" (Direct Heals) / Healing Prayers
"Dark" (Life Steal) / Restoration Magic



---- First post follows ----


Wyrm mentioned something about starting up a new team variant and getting allies involved, and I've been playing a bit of PS2 console RPGs lately; the two got me thinking along this track, as well as the old "elemental strike team" from D2. This is still a WIP though, I could really use some input to come up with a workable variant.

As mentioned in the title, the idea is to create a team focused on the four elemental types (earth, fire, water, air). In the old days of guild wars, a horde of fire eles slaughtering everything bunched up by a tank was really common, but with hard mode and various additions such as high armor and scatter, this has mostly fallen to the wayside, and eles relegated to defenses such as blind and wards. So let's make a variant appropriate for some hard mode stretch (EotN missions?) to prove that nukers still have what it takes!

Here a few KISS variants I've thought of so far, but I'm not satisfied with any of them yet.

1) Elementalist skills only (+ rez?)

Aside from being fairly character limited, healing is a real challenge with just aura/glyph of restoration and the new elemental lord, all of which only work on ele primaries. Eles do have a wide variety of defense and shutdown skills that can be stacked, so this would positively emphasize that, but there'd possibly still be a few spots or bosses that the eles can't shut down very well. Emphasis could easily shift to an obsidian flesh tank taking most of the hits and herding into nice balls; this isn't necessarily easy in HM against most enemies without a heal source, but it could still be boring and slow paced.

2) Elemental damage only

This broadens the skill criteria by allowing non-eles to contribute more. Necros could weaken armor and provide anti-melee, mesmers could augment FC elemental damage with inspiration interrupts, etc. Technically physical classes could just equip an elemental weapon and use a regular bar, but that's no fun, so we'd stipulate that all the +damage attack skills don't count as "elemental" damage. Physicals would instead focus on equipping conjure element and attacking as fast as possible, along with support such as knockdowns or interrupts; dervishes with their crazy enchant stack abilities would be favored.

What I don't like about this one is that defenses can be done any way you want, which includes imbagons, curses, ether renewal prot spirit spam, and the like. I fear this would just pass by all the great defensive options elementalists have.

3) Non-elementalist skill restrictions

Allowing other skills from every class, but with severe limitations that favors the elementalists. This still lets every class make their own unique contribution. There are several ways to do this, but this is my thought so far on allowed non-elementalist skills:

Primary attribute skills are allowed, as are non-attribute skills and skills from these lines:

Motivation
Healing
Wilderness Survival
Inspiration
Blood
Deadly Arts
Restoration
Earth and Wind Prayers
Tactics

Additionally, any skill referencing an element is also allowed.

You can still spend points on forbidden attributes (e.g. invest in scythe mastery), just can't take any skills.


Instead of going by attribute line, we could instead ban non-elementalist skills by type:

attack skills
rituals
hexes
enchantments
corpse-exploiting
condition-causing
PvE

The intent of these approaches is to put the primary focus on elemental damage and defenses, leaving the rest for support such as healing, interrupts, and energy management.


4) Assigned party roles

This approach was really popular in some D2 variants, but it depended both on reliable players every week and the ability to play characters on someone else's account. Still it could work with heroes and some flexibility about primary. Something like:

4 Eles (secondary OK), each fully representing one element (max attribute & 5+ skills from the line)
1 flexible or "prismatic" ele (master of magic, signet of illusions, at least one skill from each element)
3 completely non-elemental defensive support characters (self/ally/party targeting skills only; heal/prot/emanage/tank/etc.) - perhaps allowing another ele if extra support isn't needed.

Fairly simple and flavorful, but not that accomodating to random guests dropping in and out who may only have or want to use X character. It also doesn't let you play as much to enemies weak to a specific element.

Anyway could use some input, even if it's just picking your favorite number from these ideas.

This is my first Imperium. We'll see how it goes. It's a shadow report, because I used threats three times that fell under the "exploit" list, but I never expected to win, anyways. There aren't any screen shots, which will at least make the report smaller.
I have won on impossible, but only with the Psilons, Klackons, and Humans, but I wasn't worried about losing the game at hard, even with the variant restrictions. Frankly, I've avoided playing a Silicoid game to completion because the pop MM in the early going was just painful.

So I start.
2300: Hm. Only 2 stars in range. Red 3 parsecs to the SE, White 2 to the north. What to do? Clearly, a scout's going to one, and the Colony to the other.
I really want a world of at least pop 80, so that with IT+10 I can get 2 pop/turn out of it. Also, if I send the colony to the white, I won't know what the red is. But if I send it to the red, I'll already know how good the white is, and can send the colony ship back, if it's a big difference. So I send my colony ship to the red, a scout to the white, and I don't remember where the other scout went.
Redesigns: "Rock Solo" for my new scouts, "Rock Band" for the new colony ships.

2301: Scout Rayden. 60 Arid. Did I make the wrong decision?
2302: No, I did not make the wrong decision. Phantos is...uh...WOW. 75 Ultra Rich! Tundra, too, so if I wasn't the silicoids my colony ship would be taking a long road north to the white. Sulla, are you sure this map wasn't edited? Cryslon has 44 pop, and 42 factories. With 22 transports sent to Phantos, Cryslon's already at full employment.

2305: Build 3 Rock Solos, to stay at 0 maintenance. Cryslon starts a Rock Band.
2308: Phantos outpaces Cryslon in production: 72BCs of factories to 68BCs of Ship and Factory at Cryslon.
2312: Phantos starts working on its Rock Band. This is ridiculous.

(I really wish I'd taking a screen shot of this)
2316: Completed Ships: Rock Band (2). I don't think my second world has ever come close to getting a Colony ship out this early. By "close", I mean "by 20 years, and that was with a Klackon UR world".
Research: IIT9, IT+10, Range 4. No flexibility. Ah, the simplicity of being poor in 5 fields...

2318: Rayden colonized. Cryslon will stay at 40 pop/turn, growing 2 every turn, for a long time. Phantos gets its maximum natural growth, 0.9, at up to 46 pop, so I keep it at 46 pop for quite some time.

2326: Range 4 -> Nuclear Engines. Phantos switches off of a placeholder.

2328: Rock Solo @ Guradas chases away a Sakkra colony ship. Already have a Rock Band en route. Please, please, let the Sakkra be a runaway AI so I can Blood Enemy them, and take lots of worlds which have had Atm Terraforming and Adv Soil.
Research: Start BC II (skipping ECM I), and Hand Lasers.

The contacts just keep coming. 2329: Klackons retreat a scout @ Celtsi, NE of Cryslon. As a Tundra 30, it's only a high priority because it's a springboard farther out.
Research: IT+10 -> Death Spores (No IT+20? Eh, not a big loss. +30 comes soon enough). I do NOT enlarge Cryslon. Why? Because right now I'm getting 2 pop/turn out of Cryslon, every turn (+1.2 natural growth, clearly +0.8/turn from the fractional bonus). If I grow Cryslon to 110, I won't be able to keep that 0.8 remainder doubling every turn. And I badly need pop in all of my worlds.

2330: IIT9-> IIT8 (No Duralloy? Darn.) Groupies, small laser fighters, get sent to Guradas.
2337: I scout Kulthos. It's in that far SE corner, SIZE 120! 75 points, if I can get Range 6 or LR Cols there in time.
2338: I colonize Guradas. The Pacifistic Ecologist Sakkra are allied with the just-NW Alkari. Hm. Looks like the Sakkra won't be a runaway, with 6 worlds now, and I'm blocking their south, east, and soon their SW, and the Alkari have to be blocking a lot of the rest. I don't recall how much we started trading.

2342: Research: Hand Lasers -> Hyper-X. Competent Missile Bases take priority over guns. And I'm running a near-farmer's gambit, here, just trying to plant my flag as widely as possible, since we can take back worlds we colonize first later.
2343: I retreat a scout from Kholdan. I can't mess with THAT fleet. Please, please, let me get Kulthos in time! Some weird gold robot says that we've reached 13 systems. Huh.

2352: Tau Cygni, a Dead 40 UR world, gets a visit from a Large Alkari Warbird. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! And the Sakkra seem to think that I have a large fleet on their border. I have a couple dozen of the small Groupies, and a few Rock Solos floating around. They're enjoying the AI's Pungent Weed, I see.
'53: Nuclear Engines -> Sublights. Design Groupies II (Medium, lasers & shields), and Rock Band IIs.
'57: Find Humans at Talas, an 80 Poor. I think my land grab won't be easy everywhere forever.
'59: I get Tau Cygni, after the Alkari leave, and Pollus. 18 worlds so far.
'60: DS II -> Personal Deflector.
The First Decadal Census Is Announced:
Pop: 549. Factories: 872. Worlds: 18.
The Sakkra have only 420 pop (5 of 6 lizard worlds scouted, Sssla inferred to have 110 pop). That's...just not right.
'65: Klackons run me out of Anraq, the 1st of the 3 habitables in the far SE corner. As soon as a design slot frees up...I have a plan.
'66-67: Colonize 5 worlds, now up to 24 (only one in the previous 5 turns). Humans make contact. As Honorable Diplomats, I start 400BC of trade. They've got a tech edge, but I HAVE A FLEET STRENGTH EDGE. With 3 colony ships, 9 Groupies II (Mediums), and 85 small ships, 2/3 of which are armed, that doesn't seem right. I could flip them Nuclear Engines for DSS, but I decline. Not a good trade, but it's my only option.
My last Rock Band Is have landed, so I scrap the design. And replace it with...UberBand. Which is a HUGE LR colony ship. Never did this before, but with Phantos right there, it's quick, and I only need one to get 2 really nice worlds.

'68: Hyper-X -> Mass Driver. That weird gold robot shows up again. An unknown race, the "Psilons", suffered a viral attack on their computer networks. Their research is now DOOMED, I tell you, DOOMED! They lost ONE RESEARCH POINT! They will NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS TRAGEDY! (Actually, the robot says "1 research points". Small hole in the grammar check, chief.)
Mayday: Alkari Warbird en route to somewhere in the west. Defenses cannot reach in time. Mayday.

'69: The Alkari make contact. Far-flung 4PE. Must've discovered a range tech. Xenophobic Industrialists. Fun. Allied with the Sakkra. They can only trade 125BC. Wow. And no tech trades are even possible. I have Hyper-X on them, they have nothing that it can get me. Pollus is clearly their Warbird's target. It's Radiated.

'70: RCIII -> BC IV. Add 2 more worlds, including Dunatis, which is UR.
Pollus gets bombarded. One factory destroyed. Officially, this is a war crime. However, it's fairly minor. And I don't want the weakling Alkari as a Blood Enemy. So I threaten them, and they retreat.
Pollus wasn't even close to getting a missile base, so this was an illegal threat. Now, since they couldn't kill my pop, or invade, I don't think they'd have become my blood enemy, but they did give me a tech.
Second Decadal Census:
Pop: 693, +26% from last time. Factories: 1418, +63%. Worlds: 26.

'71: I visit Ryoun, which is Alkari. Hm. They have an Artifacts world.
AI World count: Alkari have 7, Humans 10, Sakkra the same 6. Klackons have between 2-4. Psilons have at most 16 worlds, since no votes yet. But they've got a TON of open space in the NW. Put some espionage ticks into the Alkari. I need a range tech.

'72: IIT8 -> ARS. Gienah is founded by the Huge LR "UberBand". I now have 1/4 of the galaxy (Thanks, Gold Bot). No Klackon contact. They must have only range 4. Start making Medium 5-rack Hyper-X Missile Boats.
'73: Alkari have 2 techs that I want: Dotomite Crystals, and Fusion Bombs, and 5 first-tier techs that I don't.
'74: ARRGH! Klackons beat my to Kulthos by 4 turns. They're Ruthless Militarists, but still agree to 300BC full trade.
'77: Rock Solo @ Antares runs away from an armed Psilon Colony ship. Joy.
'78: Research: Personal Deflector -> DS IV. I refuse a non-agg pact w/ the Klackons (don't want them to just show up at the hostile worlds near their space). Retreat from 2 NE hostile worlds b/c of the Psilons. They're everywhere.
'79: Thrax colonized. I get a visit from an armed Human colony ship. I threaten (worried that they'd make me declare Blood Feud, when the Psilons are bigger, see below. Note: I have not officially contacted them yet), and they retreat and give me DSS. Oh, and my first election:
Humans are the opponents.
Sakkra abstain w/ 4 votes, I abstain w/ 10.
Humans: Humans (7), Klackons (3), Psilons (5), Alkari (2). 2? With 8 systems? That's REALLY pathetic.
Alkari have 8 systems, Klackons 5, Humans 11, Sakkra 7. I have 29. The Psilons should have 12 systems, then.

'80:
Third Decadal Census shows:
31 Worlds. +5 from last time.
947 Pop. +254, or +38%.
2175 Factories, +757 or +53%.
2090 is my maximum population, so 45% of pop capacity, and I average 77% employment.

'81: Death Spores -> IT+30.
'83: Psilon contact. I trade them IIT8 for Deuterium. They already have Duralloy, and IIT9, so it won't accelerate them up the tech tree a whole lot. But Deuterium gives me some extra range that I DESPERATELY need. Gets me a few more worlds, at least.
'85: Sublight -> Fusion Drives. STILL no new range tech. Rock Solos get scrapped for Rock Solo 3s. Rock Solo 2s have been buzzing around for a while.
'88: "Contact was broken with the Psilon Empire". Oops. The Alkari annexed a world.
'89: Breakthrough on the Alkari. But Propulsion isn't an option, so my bet is I can only either get ECM I or Gatling for "useful" stuff. I take ECM I, and frame the Sakkra for it. Can't let AI alliances stand forever, can I?
'90: Mass Driver -> Antimatter Bomb. I accept a NAP with the Sakkra. The Psilons beat me by a turn to Iranha. I curse my pungent weed for letting the colony ship sit in orbit before I sent it on to Iranha. I make my third and final illegal threat, being rather angry with the Psilons, because I want them to become my Blood Enemy. They gift me Ion Cannons.
New rule: Ion Cannons will not be used by any of my ships, ever, because their "purchase" was illegal.
4th Decadal Census:
36 Worlds, +5.
Pop: 1263, +316 & 33%
Factories: 3617, +1442 & 66% (NICE!)
My maximum pop is now 2230, so I'm at 57% of that, with nearly-full employment.

'91-92: Found 4 more worlds, get the "40-systems" visit from GoldBot @ GNN. The Alkari helpfully let me steal Fusion Bombs. And I leave some Lizard Tracks at the scene of the crime.
'93: ECMII stolen from the Psilons. They're down to Discord. They've got some nice Construction (Zortium, Duralloy, IIT7), Force Fields (PS V, Repulsor), and Propulsion (Dotomite) stuff. Boost trade w/ Sakkra.

'94: The Sakkra think I've grown too much. I direct them to the shark-infested Complaint Station.
'95: ARS -> IIT6. If only I had a better gun than Mass Drivers that I could use (they're so bulky).
'96: The Alkari ask, and receive, a NAP.
'97: BC IV -> ECM IV; DS IV -> Repulsor
'99: Steal Psilons' Duralloy. "The humans did it, I swear!" "Oh, ok, then". I colonize 3 more worlds.

2400: I test my new Medium Rock Drivers (Of the "mass" variety) against an armed Sakkra colony ship. Rocks 1, Lizards 0.
Election: 48 total votes.
Sakkra abstain again (6). I abstain w/ 17, and IT+30 is in the percentages. I'm sitting pretty for a veto.
5th Decadal Census:
43 worlds (+7)
1652 pop / 2380 max (69%)
4586 factories (+969, and average 92% employment).
Budget cuts (I knew I never should've given Judd Gregg control of my census) force the next census to be the semi-semi-centennial census, scheduled for 2425.

Imperium Nineteen is now open for reporting. Please post your reports in the Tournament Discussion subforum.

Raziel Wrote:You are all cordially invited to the Alliance Pool Party...

Day/Date: Friday, 22nd May 2009
Time: 11P EST / 10P CST / 8P PST
Where: Noble Honor [NH] Guild Hall

We have left the water taps running for the event and shall have a nice waterlogged area to enjoy. In addition... the Party Raffle is back... with bigger prizes... and you just might win something special. So, mark your calendars and re-schedule your appointments... it is time to party!

So, basically I'm thinking that since we're not using the guild hall for GvG anymore we might as well switch it back to Solitude, or one of the others that's more aesthetic. In any case, feel free to chime in.

I still like Wurms, btw.

Edit: in case anyone's interested, the other halls in the alliance are:
NH - Uncharted
AUS - Meditation
Free - Wizard's
Nite - Corrupted
NERV - Imperial
SOR - Burning
CT - Warrior's
DRM - Hunter's

Hello all,

I thought it might be fun for us lurkers to have our own thread to discuss the ongoing PBEM game. That way we can share our comments on strategies without having to be paranoid about spoilers.

My first though: 2 huts popped Masonry...I wonder if every civ has been granted that free tech via a hut. Is that even possible?

Hey everyone,

You'll notice a change when you open up the guild roster - Wyrm is now Guild Leader. Not that that means a whole lot to our egalitarian little band!

Although I appreciate all the love and support from my fellow guildies, and am grateful that you were willing to have me in that role, I've been itching for quite some time to pass it on. Mostly because every summer my family takes off for a month and a half, during which time I don't have regular access to the internet, and therefore can't play GW on anything like a regular schedule. I have never been comfortable with the fact that if something came up that needed to be acted on in a timely fashion, I wouldn't be around to do it.

Recently, with the interest in joining an active alliance, (although I'm totally on board with joining a good one!) it's been clear to me that I'm not the best person in the GL position. Since Wyrm has been taking the lead on finding potential new alliances, and doing the footwork of making contacts, and because he indicated to me that he's finally ready to take on the responsibility (such as it is), he was the natural choice to take on the GL role.

I don't think that much is going to change under the new regime - except for expanded opportunities for co-op play!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know what was behind the change. I'm not going anywhere, and I don't think this represents a big break with the way things have been. I'm glad that Wyrm was willing to step up and serve the guild as it deserves!

Congrats (or condolences? ) Wyrm! :2dance: :factionL:

Well we're off and running...well crawling. It is a PBEM of course. This is meant to be a log for my thoughts and notes so I can remember what I plan on doing 6 months from now but maybe just maybe others can draw some enjoyment from reading this. If anybody wants to post replies to anything that is mentioned here by all means do so however please respect the other players privacy and try not to mention anything they might be planning/thinking/doing within their game.

So my initial thoughts to joining up for the PBEM was that yes finally I get to play an MP game with players who I don't expect will quit at some point; even if it takes 2 years to complete. I'm stoked about being part of this. Next was to size up my competition and I'm pretty sure I'm way out of my league but I expect I'll have plenty of fun trying to keep up. I set a couple preliminary goals and they were:

1) To survive to the end.
2) To win by any means.
2b) if winning is not possible to not be last in ingame scoring.
3) Don't piss anybody off too much.

I don't have any serious MP experience and my track record in sp isn't quite as stellar as everybody else's which is why I would rate myself as an underdog. I officially have 2 victory's under my belt. A sp game on noble that was a backdoor Diplo victory (non-rb event) and a cultural victory on monarch in ADV 34. Keeping this in mind I figured I'd try for something I've done and I doubt I can get any human to vote for me so cultural victory it is with a secondary victory type of space.

Now remembering my last (and only) cultural victory it seems like all I did was build temples so Spiritual seemed like a good trait to have and keeping in line with my first goal (military has always been a weakness) I took protective, thus I'm the arabian known as Saladin. After seeing the notes from Sulla stating everybody has an early metal and 2 of my 4 opponents also starting with Mysticism I was disappointed with my selection but I'll keep my same gameplan. I decide I'll aim for meditation for budhism and hopefully beat anybody else to it and start on worker techs after. Ideally I'm looking for an oracle slingshot to Feudalism for my Protective Longbows early on and get the religions I need after that.

That's my early plan so working it out I essentially need a bare minimum of 7 techs I think is what I counted to pull it off. I would think that's doable in MP but I expect I'll have to take a couple more before the Oracle completes. I have no idea just how quickly somebody else might be able to grab it. There's not really anything else I'm aiming for in particular though early writing for my Madrassa and landing Monotheism first would be nice as well. I've never played with no tech brokering before either so I expect being able to oracle an expensive tech like Feudalism early on will open some doors in that area. After that I have no clear intentions so I will be constantly reevaluating and pondering my chances of survival.

So I decided to settle in place. I moved my warrior SE prior to it and contemplated moving but on a small map, quick speed and in an MP environment I didn't want to waste any turns so I put my trust in Sulla. I would guess one of those plains hills pops a metal so the starting spot looks pretty decent.

*** As soon as I figure how to load an image to RB I'll post the screenshot. ***

If anybody can help me with the following let me know please. I've also posted this under the General-->General Forum-->Upload server now working Thread.

When clicking on the link to http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/index.php I get a new web page opening up saying:
Access denied for user 'rb'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

How do I get this fixed so I can upload my images for reporting to RB?

In the mean time I'll use imageshack.