hey everyone i just dont have time to play GW anymore, let alone log in. i'll be deleting it off my computer for a while, atleast until my computer is built. i didnt get any money for my b-day so that idea went down the drain. halo 3 is also coming out and that will consume most of my time. anyways. i'll be back in a couple of months probably so stay cool and dont forget about good ol tanis. later all.

As currently discussed, the Dutch had the most powerful starting position, and I wanted to use it to the fullest. Here is our starting position:



I founded on the spot and sent my two warriors scouting. I had mixed hut results. I popped Writing, Mathematics and Mysticism, but also a bunch of barbs who ended up killing my scouting warriors. I beelined to Pottery to get some tasty cottages up and running in the meantime.

My first city, Utrecht, was founded aggressively to the west of Constantinople. I had beautiful land and I had to claim it. The Hague was founded to the south at the double-gold site. Rotterdam was put in between those two locations, effectively blocking off Justinian. Nijmegen was founded south of the stone, which helped me complete the Pyramids in Utrecht. Maastricht and Middelburg were founded to the west, blocking off Pacal. The rest of my cities just filled in the spaces, my final city being Haarlem.



I was involved in two wars, where Joao and Sitting Bull declared war on me. Only a single advance was made, when I captured Angle at the border of Native America, Ethiopia and Maya.




Being financial and having loads of floodplains was fun. I sailed ahead in tech (literally), and colonized the larger of the two islands (literally). Meet Abraham Lincoln:



By now, any victory path was plausible. Being BtS, the AIs were doing a good job of keeping with my tech lead, but I still managed to rid Pacal and Justinian from the world. Things got quite messy at one point.



I ran out of time and my game is currently Incomplete at 1814AD, preceding the assult on Sury, who was beginning to surpass me technologically. Here is America and the Netherlands:

Here's something I was just playing around with last night with my ele for PvE:

OgRDo8qMSkVNNjV3gONMgAAAAA
E/N
Fire 12+1+3
Water 10 or 10+1
ES 8+1

Skills:
1 Savannah Heat (E)
2 Liquid Flame
3 Glowing Gaze
4 Necrosis (PvE Sunspear r8 = 80dmg)
5 Steam
6 Glyph of Immolation
7 [optional]
8 [optional]

Savannah Heat is there basically for AoE along with liquid flame.


Another build with no AoE:
OgRDo8qMSNN+ZjV3gONMg4gAAA
Same Setup as above

1 Liquid Flame
2 Mind Blast (E)
3 Glowing Gaze
4 Necrosis (PvE Sunspear r8 = 80dmg)
5 Steam
6 Glyph of Immolation
7 Intensity (PvE Sunspear r8 = 23% more dmg)
8 [optional]

Same idea as above, but with another energy management type of skill rather than AoE.


Start off with GoI which will last for 15s or on the next 4 targeted spells that are cast. The great thing is that GoI's burning effect starts BEFORE any damage is calculated. So GoI + Necrosis will net you the big armor ignoring damage from Necrosis. GoI + Glowing Gaze will get you the energy gain. GoI + Steam will blind and do more damage to the target than Steam alone.

In the optional slots you can take whatever you might need or to help the build out:
Res sig if you think your group is gonna die a lot.
Fire Attunement isn't needed, but you can put it in if you feel you need it.
Armor of Mist or Frigid Armor for extra defense.
Rust to slow down signet use.
Slippery Ground to KD blinded foes.
Intensity to up the power of your spells.
Any other PvE skills.
If you use intensity, use it after GoI.

The idea in either build is to get off GoI first, then Necrosis (only 2s recharge), Steam, Necrosis, GG, Necrosis, Mind Blast or Liquid Flame

The numbers represent dmg vs (60, 80, 100) AL.
GoI -> Necrosis (80) -> Steam (60,42,30) -> Necrosis (80) -> GG (53,37,26) -> Necrosis (80) -> Mind Blast (63,42,32) or Liquid Flame (119,84,60)

This build seemed to compliment two SF Eles well when I went through Nahpui with Hawk.

Anyways, play with it, tweak it. Im just having fun with GoI and I love Necrosis.

Would we like to hold an Alliance-wide meeting sometime this month? If so, let's have those most interested in attending give us an idea of when they would be available.

Things to discuss at the meeting:
1 - GVG and other PVP endeavors we would like to help each other out with.
2 - suggestions people have for Alliance "events"
3 - generally just get to know each other; a sort of greet-and-meet for newer members
4 - whatever anyone wants to discuss, of course!

I am available Friday nights and Sunday nights for now, as well as some random weekdays. My schedule is busy but flexible enough that you don't need to worry about me most likely.

I think alliance meetings should happen every two months, so if we have one in Sept our next would be in Nov. Sound good?

(Let's not dwell on the process of all this too much; mostly just help figure out a time to get together. Also start thinking about whether you have anything you want to share and work on making it succinct ^_^ )

As of last night, me (Foxhound3857) and Attica finished our 2-man Relaxed Fit game with a warr/rogue combo. I know it's nothing to really be proud of, but it marks my first victory in Ironman and I have finally reached Ironman Champion status. Now I can tackle future games with a lot more confidence, knowing that I've done it once before and can do it again.

Warrior: Fox_IronBlade
Rogue: Attikal

This is the story.

First session: Tuesday, September 4th, 2007.

Town purchases: Small Shield-6 and 2 half reds (no ID's available).

Floor 1.
Enemies: Usual enemies.
Important drops: Rags-2, Buckler-4, Club (magic), Cap-1, ID, Res.
Shrines: None.

As floor 1 is so easy, we entered together and romped freely. Attikal held back while I fought and tried to accumulate experience for later. There weren't even enough enemies to reach clvl4; I was short by almost 2k. It sucked.

Floor 2.
Enemies: Skeleton Archers, Fallen Scimitars, Zombies, Fiends.
Important drops: Rainbow Cloak, ID x2, heal scroll, book HO, cap-2, blade (magic), spiked club (magic), Executioners Blade, Falchion (magic), Scimitar.
Shrines: Eerie, Secluded, Spooky.

We loved seeing the Eerie shrine; it brought the HO book into range for Attikal without a stat commitment. Uneventful clear, but I got stung a few times due to the archers. No potion quaffing though. Butcher was stair-trapped by Attikal. We decided to save the Spooky Shrine for another day.

Floor 3.
Enemies: Skeleton Archer, Corpse Bow, Scavenger, Shadow Beasts, Blinks.
Important drops: ID x3, Heal scroll x2, Lightning scroll, Long Sword (magic), morning star (magic), book HB, ring, Buckler-5.
Shrines: None.

Careful teamwork due to two types of archers, and the fact that Shadow Beasts and Blinks could do a number to us. Attikal brought all shadow beasts to our set, and then let me charge archers when there was little risk of getting swarmed. I reached clvl8 by the time we encountered Leo; we got into Rogue-Shotgun formation and trashed him at the door he was behind. I got hit a few times, but still managed not to drink. Floor goes just fine after that.

Floor 4.
Enemies: Glooms, Horror Captains, Blinks, Burning Captains, Burning Dead, Dark One Scimitars.
Important drops: Heal scroll x4, ammy, morning star (magic), book-HO, ID scroll.
Shrines: Glimmering (!)

That glimmering shrine meant a lot to us, but we had to save it for later. No archers meant I could've solo'd this floor, but the Horror Captains were pretty nasty, so we used standard teamwork. No incidents, but a close call where I almost die due to discspin. Still avoided drinking though, and was able to fight my way free of the Horror Cap when my game normalized.

End of first session.

The change list can be seen here.

EDIT: Just realised that sooooo has already posted about this in another thread.

Our digital camera crapped out on us this summer, and I'm looking to buy a replacement. Thing is, my wife got the camera as a gift; neither of us have shopped such things in years. We're looking for a decent camera we can easily take travelling overseas. So here's my question to the camera gurus here:

*What performance factors are the most important in choosing a camera? I remember hearing somewhere that the current "megapixel" craze actually bottoms out somewhere.

*Any specific cameras you can recommend?

*Any good sites that compare cameras?

Thanks in advance!
dathon

This can of worms got opened in the Native American thread (where I was complaining about my (Native American) start and I thought the topic deserved its very own thread, so here they are (in no particular order)

Native Americans



Mayans



Byzantines



Portugual



Babylon



Ethiopia



Khmer



Netherlands




I hope people don't mind that I grabbed these shots from their reports, but it was the easiest way to make these comparisons.

So, I'm looking at buying a new computer in the next month or so (hopefully) and I'm thinking I'd prefer a laptop, partly because I've just recently started college, am rarely ever at home, and am probably going to be doing a bit of traveling in the coming months.

Of course, I really don't have the money to throw out on a laptop and then a higher end gaming desktop, so I'm aiming for a gaming laptop. The ones I've looked at seem like they're pretty decent, at least.

At the moment, the ASUS GXS (or here) look like the best bet for what I can afford (about $2000cdn, give or take a couple hundred). Unfortunately being from Canada there are a lot of sites I can't order from (like newegg). So, yeah.. a lot of stuff is a bit harder to come by.

I see there are sites you can customize a laptop, but they seem generally more expensive... and how would you know if the computer has any upgrade potential?

I'd be grateful if anyone can give me any advice, sites to look at, recommend a better computer, or whatever.

Thanks!

This seemed to me to be a question of more general interest, so I've separated it from the other traffic.

Do the reports that we have from these games suggest that the 120 turn war throttle is effective? That is, does it meet its objective?


Likewise, did we discover elements in BTS that may call for new game controls?