Byzantine players, please post your report links in this thread. (Either linking to your own site, or to your RB thread report here in the forum.)

REMEMBER: All discussions are supposed to take place in the sticky threads, not attached to any reports. We are asking everyone to use the "Threaded" display option to help organize responses to individual games. Thanks!

Babylon players, please post your report links in this thread. (Either linking to your own site, or to your RB thread report here in the forum.)

REMEMBER: All discussions are supposed to take place in the sticky threads, not attached to any reports. We are asking everyone to use the "Threaded" display option to help organize responses to individual games. Thanks!

Hi everyone ^.^ sorry for not coming here a lot >.>
I do have it on my lovely firefox bookmark tool bar, I swear on my Tiger Plushie ^.~

Anyways, I've always like to imagine certain stories but I've never really put them on paper but recently due to the insistence of someone I've written up a little something that you will see below soon...I'm thinking of continuing it as a collection of short stories/fan fiction (that I will now name Dual Strike Chronicles, well, in honor of the person who convinced me to have it on paper). Hope you enjoy ^.^ (Layers will be chapters basically, it's a cool term to use, me thinks)

Layer One: Chase
Malicious shadows danced across the moon, casting themselves on the land below, casting what looks like blight in the canopy below. In their shadow, the once magnificent trees of the Maguuma Jungle looks like aspects of torment and agony, reaching out to all that would dare to venture within their grasp and toil with their physical beings until they were broken and left to rot. Suddenly, the lush grass that hasn't been tainted moves swiftly as if a breeze has been set upon them.

What moved them was no breeze it was an ancient creature of madness, moving swiftly on it's many tentacles stalking it's prey. The fiendish eyes of this moving nightmare did not need light to see as it moved through a patch of shadow cast by the lush canopy, it could sense the movement of what it was hunting, every shift in the air that comes from short breaths, the sent of fear, and most of all the need for survival. Even in it's mind of limitless chaos and lust for destruction it knew, that need and want for life that was in these stubborn and pathetic little creatures; whose actions sealed away it's lord into a realm of nothing. These thoughts burned in it's mind, fueling the creature to dive faster into it's chase; and at the end, it would end.

Images of the violence and hopelessness played themselves over and over again in the assassin's mind. He was still in shock from watching the unimaginably horrible creatures come and his guild mates go. For he had only gotten the news of a new find in the jungle that promised fame and rare gemstones, when his fellow guild members had already found that old forgotten tomb. When he got there it was too late, the warrior of the party leading the expedition had broken the seal and then came nightmare. As he raced through the jungle his mind could not make sense of all the images it saw. Most of all, he was so confused and in fear of what will happen if the creature behind him was to catch up. He could not think, just as he could do nothing as his dear friend was killed. Now only the most basic instinct was left now: run and survive.

He ran and ran, time seemed to be going longer then what if was supposed to be. The assassin did not know where he was or how close he was to help, he didn't even know what time it was anymore. One thing was for certain he was getting tired and soon he would not be able to run anymore.
The living creature of madness behind him was still fast in pursuit, it seemed to not need rest for the more it chased the faster it became. Then the assassin spotted a structure near him, it was a rock formation that looked as if it soared into the sky like a hawk talking wing. As he approached this monument the thick canopy around him thinned. Then he knew where he was, near the edge of the jungle and getting close to where he would find the entrance to the area that held Ventari's Refuge.

He tripped.

Horrid thoughts raced though his head as the pain in his legs shot up to his brain. The injury was not deadly or harmful, but it would certainly forbid him to run at the speed at which he was before. He had no choice now. There was only two options left to him: fight or die. Doubts swarmed through his mind. What if I lose? What if I die? What is to happen with me? He knew that if he was to survive that these thoughts had to perish and he quickly cleansed him self of this swarm; he would need a plan.

The creature was getting close. Oh, how it delighted to see it's prey trip and fall to the ground. Such an easy catch and soon it was be upon it. These thoughts delighted themselves in it's mind as it approached with even more vigor as before. It soon stood almost above the assassin. Then blinding pain came up it's tentacles. Giving a yell of pain it then looked at the assassin, he was no longer near under it, but about 100ft away. Furious at the deception the creature gave what seemed to be an angered look at the direction of the assassin. Who now seemed to be doing something to the ground, the creature didn't care, how dare this impudent weakling do something like this.

Using a shadow step was brilliant on the part of the assassin. Firstly he gave a little distance between him and the creature and secondly he now had a little thinking time as the creature was still in some sort of perverse shock from what happened. Even more then that, the skill that he used would cripple the creature for at least a few seconds. Quickly using the skills that his ranger master had taught him he took out a few vials of poison and poured them into the ground, then using beastly magics he animated them into snakes that dug deeply into the ground; these snakes would then attack anything that came into their vicinity and poison them. The creature seemed to be shaken out of it's shock now, it slowly approached the assassin now, more vicious then ever before. He knew that if his plan was the succeed he would need the creature to be even more angry.

In a stride, or what you would call a stride, the creature began on it's tentacles. It had been in shock before, but now it wanted it's prey: bad. Though crippled the creature moved towards to where the assassin was. Three fourth of the way there the cripple had been healed and it gave into a run towards the assassin. Not noticing the ground below it had shifted as if some makeshift burrower was under it, the creature moved closer still. Just as it came within some where nearby the assassin the ground burst with vipers that jumped up and bit the creature. This time it howled in pain. Some sort of strange poison flowed through it's veins now, draining the creature of vigor. It could feel itself begin to weaken and succumb to the hidden assault. With a mind of anger and rage it charged at the assassin once more.

The assassin felt a weight has been lifted from his as the creature once again fell into one of his traps, it was now time to put his plan into it's final phase. His injured leg felt a little better but it would not last, though this renewed vigor would suffice for the task at hand. The assassin dashed towards the Hawk rock formation with all his might and the creature followed.

Now mindless the creature followed the assassin as fast and furious as it can. It chased him all the way to a strange looking rock formation. It had the assassin cornered now, oh how deeply it pleasured to finally see it's prey where no where else to run and no more space for puny parlor tricks that bite. It would assault him until the assassin was on near fringes of death and then it would have it's way with him.

The assassin stopped so that the rock wall was tight behind him and waited for the creature to come towards him. Quickly he drew the shadows cast by the rock near him, renewing him with vigor in it's shadowy refuge. The creature came close and then it started to attack.

It was a furious battle. The assassin's blades first dug jaggedly into the creature's flesh causing it to bleed and then swung wildly to any part of the creature's body the blades could find. All the while the creature was casing some sort of enchantment upon itself making it strong enough to penetrate armor. The assassin then went into a formation that flowered slices of death upon the creature, but something went wrong the mere instant before the creature cast another enchantment and instead of being hurt significantly by the assassin's assault it took minor damage; pain shook though the assassin as if he was hurt by his own attack. The creature seemed to delight in this and gathered up it's tentacles for a final blow. Near the edge of the vigor the assassin knew it was time and quickly, like before, shadow stepped away from the creature while crippling it. The creature's strong blow stuck the rock behind the assassin like a giant siege creature. The strike dug into rock and the whole formation shook. Looking for the assassin once again, the creature found him smiling, it then looked around quickly to see if there was more these impudent humans around it.

It saw none.

Then it looked up and knew. The rocks above crumbled. The creature thought of it's lord, knelt and prayed, it's mind dove deep into the madness as the giant rocks above it crushed what was below.

The assassin felt relived that the battle was over, the creature had been a fierce force. He didn't even know that he could survive that encounter, even with weakening the creature with the trap that he laid. The part of the battle where he was damaged by his own attack left him drained. He knew that he needed to warn people of his findings and that more of creatures like the one he fought still roamed out there, but for now, for this time he could rest, he could live.

The rocks shifted.

The assassin's eyes looked at the direction of the giant rock slide and his face resulted in horror.

A giant shadow rose from the rocks and charged at the assassin. It's tentacles grabbing each limb making sure that it's prey could no longer move or do anything else. It could still feel the spirit of it's fellow kind calling it in the darkness, dragging it into the physical plane and feeding it malice and contempt for a certain prey which it now had in it's tentacles.

Struggling in the tight hold the assassin tried his best to escape, but he could not he was out of energy. He felt the thing slowing move him up towards it's deformed mouth, until he could feel it's tainted breath brushing over his head. Still closer it moved the assassin to it's mouth. The assassin prepared for the inevitable, he closed his eyes and waited to be consumed and ripped apart.

There was a whisper in his ear.

The assassin's eyes flung wide open, he was dropped to the ground. Perhaps by some holy intervention he was saved and someone, and the creature would be stuck down. Wild hope ran through him; maybe he could survive. He would then be able to warn his guild and the people. Then perhaps this threat would be vanquished and he would finally be able to accomplish his childhood dream of being a ship captain. After all, coming to find the tomb was all for that, if he could even touch a little bit of those riches, he would at least be able to buy a tiny ship to start of from. As a boy he was a dreamer just as he was as a man, together they dreamed of the sea and it's many wonders. The root of why he even started to be an adventurer was to accomplish his dreams. His sweet dear dreams that he held so near, that he was so close to accomplishing. He even had a plan, he had saved and saved and just needed a little more to top it off. Even if he didn't get treasure from the tomb in a few weeks he would have enough. He had it all planned out quit the guild and start off being a ferry man and slowly build up to bigger and better things.

But the creature was there, looking, staring at him. His hopes, his dreams where crushed.

He then felt it, that whisper of forbidden words. It coursed through him his entire being. The assassin felt unbelievable pain as his body shifted. He squirmed and wiggled. The images before entered his mind again and he knew. In those moments he knew what had happened to his fellow guild members, they had not only been killed and tormented they had transformed into fellow kinsmen of these darkened creatures. Then he remembered once more that somehow the eyes of the warrior that released the seal had looked the same color as the creatures. The assassin cursed himself in his anguish, how could he not have noticed before, it was that warrior that told of the tomb.

The warrior was a new member of the guild, they found him with fresh scars and broken armor on one of their expeditions into the jungle, and in their kindness took him in. None would ever suggest that he was evil for the few days that he was in the guild, he was the most helpful, cleaver, and hardworking person ever. Most beneficial of all was his knowledge of history, especially ancient texts. None questioned the warrior, and that was their greatest fault.

Pain now surged even more the assassin could feel his form wither and change. Claws surged out of his body piercing his human flesh. Giant ones spouted out of his back and his legs morphed into monstrosities. It was a very painful affair as his body morphed more and more. Skin became hard and his face more deformed. Until he looked of torment.

The assassin's mind in this newly formed body was filled with anguish, it charged at the creature that whispered the forbidden whisper. The assassin stumbled for the mind no longer knew how to work the limbs but it focused on one thing: destruction. This new creature, no longer an assassin, but a n embodiment of lost dreams. Dashed and finally reaching it's target it struck like the golden fox from assassin lore, then hitting the skull with enough force to daze the mightiest of heroes, finally this creature finished up the job with dual strikes that both invigorated it and were of critical power.

The mind of this new creature knew not what it was doing any longer, the soul had been filled to the brim with madness, pain, and torment. If it felt conscious during the assault it showed no emotion. No longer will it ever feel fear, happiness, pride, hope, desire, pity, or regret for it's acts. Most important of all it would no longer dream of the dreams it once did. Now this creature only dreamed of one thing, to destroy dreams.

Thus the Ravager of Dreams came to be.

Fin


Cheesy ending no? Really wierd placement of character developement too hehehe >.> I did manage to put in some Guild Wars puns and relations ^.^ for those who thought some of the wording was wierd. Anyways, hope to all that have read enjoyed it...I think I'll add to it on some sort of weird schedule (meaning no schedule at all >.<).

I swear this isn't a crack post.

I left our BTS cd1 on the table last night and this morning it's a gnarly chewed up mess. Does anyone know if there's a warranty for this type of thing? I'm heading down to the games shop tomorrow to see but thought I'd check first. I hope that if I show them the old CD it'll prove I really bought it etc. etc.

I'll end up buying another copy if needed (it's both my and my son's favorite game) but I'd rather not learn a $30 lesson.

as a permanent ally to the alliance

Please take a moment and take care of some stuff here. TIA

KoP

Cottage Notes 2007:

The water level in Lake Huron remains low. In fact, it is even lower than last year. The joy of boat ownership has diminished considerably now that we have had a few years of having the dock not even touch the water. There is none of the spontaneous joy of grabbing the P.F.D.’s and jumping into the boat for a ride out to play in the waves. We have to drag the boat about a hundred metres, then tow the boat another hundred metres before we can put the motor down to the highest pin and putt along for a while until the water is deep enough to re-adjust the motor and actually get going. I fear that it isn’t going to improve next year either, given that Lake Superior went down a foot this year and is at its lowest point since levels have been recorded.

Another aspect of low water that is somewhat unnerving is the fact that all the shoals we knew and were careful to avoid have become islands, and we now have to worry about new shoals that were previously deep enough to cruise over with impunity. :o

That brings me to another point – the mixed blessing of droughts. The news this summer was full of news of floods – floods in Asia, floods in Europe, floods in New York City, floods in the American Mid-West. We, on the other hand, have experienced a drought. The entire month of July had one rainfall, and it was the wrong kind of rain for the health of gardens and forest. It rained two inches in two hours, which caused considerable excitement as it ran down the property, into the back door of my brother-in-law’s cottage and out the front door. But it did run off fast, and didn’t soak into the soil at all. Worse yet, it was localized, which means it didn’t make a whit of difference to the general level of the Lake. At the end of August, we finally got two days of rain and it was of the ‘right sort’ – an all-day gentle rain that the land could absorb. And, Hooray! We didn't get any forest fires, despite an 'Extreme Hazard' rating virtually all summer. :w00t:

Civic duty is a Good Thing™ in general. Being a contributing member of one’s community is its own reward. But it can be daunting. I attended the Pike Bay Community Association meeting in May, where the general planning for the annual Pike Bay Pig Roast takes place. One woman spoke up to say that after 30 years of contribution in organizing the event, she needed to step back from the task. I looked around the room and realized that I was the youngest person there and that there really was no one else who could take over the task. So I volunteered to apprentice myself to her and learn how to organize a meal for 350 people. It was an education, to put it mildly. :blink:

Only one skunk needed slaying this summer. I seem to have become the resident skunk slayer of Stewart’s Point. :blushing: I do try to avoid the task – generally I co-exist well with wildlife. However, my husband is seriously skunk-phobic. So if one has the temerity and foolhardiness to take up residence in a place that sends them near him, I have the grim task of dispatching them. Another did show up on Labour Day weekend, but one of our neighbour’s dogs managed to find it before my husband did. (It was a bit hard on the neighbour, who was caught in the cross-fire and got sprayed too.)

We have a new foreign invader to add to the roster of new residents who impact the environment in new and unwanted ways. The Goby has come to Pike Bay, and in amazing numbers. Last year, there were none at all. This year, there were many – in all sizes from minnow size in the creek (and our minnow traps) to full grown ones in the Lake. The are problematic because of a spine in their back that makes them difficult for other fish to prey on them. So, while the Zebra Mussels that invaded in the nineties have subsided to mere nuisance from the full blown health hazard they were initially, we now have a new problem.

We had a theft that troubles and annoys me. :uhh: For years now, a bright green plastic child figure with the word “SLOW” on it has guarded the road on Stewart’s Point, to remind drivers (mainly delivery trucks and tradesmen who are focussed on their destination) to slow down. He was affectionately known as Franklin after the children’s book character he resembled. He performed a valuable service reminding drivers that there are many children on the Point. He went missing in mid-July and hasn’t been seen since. Why anyone would steal him is beyond me, and it is particularly annoying because our newest resident on the Point has a two-year-old and a four-year-old who like to go visiting their many relatives on the Point.

I *think* I have finally finished the saga of the boat launch improvement! It may well be a moot point, since there isn’t much point in launching boats these days, but even so, I am thrilled to have this done. My husband started a project last summer that went terribly awry. He thought that we might have bedrock of the same angle and rock type as some neighbours a few doors down. To make a very long story short, we don’t. Every attempt to salvage the project made the boat launch worse. We pried rocks, broke rocks, re-arranged rocks, removed rocks. Finally we were down to one last piece, a triangle about two metres a side that would not break. I hired a man with a back hoe to come and get the damn thing out of the way (enough with the do-it-yourself trip!) and we can now go back to using the boat launch and give our energy to other projects (like finishing putting new siding on the cottage).

All in all, despite the above, it was good summer. I hope all of you had a good one too. And I am glad to be back among y'all.

Well, we finished the Defense! scenario in RBTS2, time to move on to the next one, eh?

I would like to run another succession game where we do the same thing with the Charlemagne scenario, exploring (and hopefully dominating it) on a one-time run. Since the previous game went so well, my succession game teammates (Zeviz, scooter, sunrise, and Ruff_Hi) are all invited back if they are interested. Any open spots can be filled through signups here, or if there is an excess of interest, someone else can captain a "B" team exploring the same scenario. We'll play it by ear and see what happens.

The first thing to determine for this game is our civ choice. The Charlemagne scenario comes with five playable leaders:

1) Charlemagne (yellow): Imperialistic, Protective
2) Eleanor (red): Aggressive, Financial
3) Alboin (purple): Charismatic, Expansive
4) Gundobad (orange): Organized, Spiritual
5) Chilperic (blue): Creative, Philosophical

I've listed the civs in the order of how strong their positions seem to be; Charlemagne is definitely the easiest to play, while Chilperic and Gundobad stink pretty bad. I included the colors so that you can tell which civ is which on the following map:



Charlemagne uses the Advanced Start feature added in Beyond the Sword. You place cities, units, improvements, and so on directly on the map at the outset of the game. The picture above shows where each civ is allowed to place cities; it should be obvious that Charlemagne has vastly more territory available at the start of the game, as well as more resources too. Eleanor can expand into Spain uncontested, and Alboin can move to the east to a certain extent, but Gundobad and Chilperic really have nowhere to go except through someone else. Keep this in mind when thinking about who to play.

Now, the other issue is what difficulty to pick (yes, you get a choice in this scenario!) I played through this scenario with Eleanor on Emperor, and it was pretty easy, for a couple of reasons. First of all, you win the scenario by accumulating "papal favor" points, which the AI is pretty clueless about accomplishing. Secondly, the Advanced Start allows the human to get a huge leg up on the AIs, who don't handle it well at all. Look at this idiocy:



The AI wastes all its starting Advanced Start points on building these huge cities, which immediately begin starving because there isn't enough happiness to feed everyone! Finally, the short tech tree in this game (and the fact that many of the most advanced techs are pretty much useless) means that falling behind technologically doesn't pose nearly as many problems as in a normal game. The AI cannot simply out-tech you and race to space, which removes much of the difficulty.

In short, we can play a much higher difficulty level than usual with an excellent chance of success. Personally, my recommendation is that we select Charlemagne and go for broke by playing the scenario on Deity. I'm extremely confident that we can win under those conditions, as long as we can avoid an early AI pile-on. If that's too much for the group consensus, then I'd take one of the weaker civs and try a run at Immortal difficulty instead. But I'm willing to listen to what others have to say as well.

I'll do a more elaborate introduction to the scenario (like I did for Defense!) once we pick a team and decide what settings we want to try.

Here is a ZIP file of my Templates folder, containing over 250 different PvP/PvE builds - browse and enjoy

This mp3 posted at the guru - Starting off the 27-minute .mp3 is none other than Tricia Gray. TG=The PR chick

Only the first few minutes of it is about HGL so you can shut it off after that if you are not interested in the other stuff. The main thing to note are:

1/ Preorder comes with a Beta Key - I speculate this is more or less a sneak peek weekend ala GW.

2/ For people who choose the Elite option right away would only have to start paying monthly fee after the first patch. I would guess you will get at least one month free, or else there be huge uproar.

3/ Flagship Studios has no class, imo. Some swearing in this audio tho not as bad as the interview they did for the Basin Podcast. You can pretend you are a bunch of cool guys many other ways. Swearing constantly and acting like a bunch of drunken clowns has no place in an audio interview intended for a wide audience, in business. If that podcast was made for me, I will be damn insulted, nevermind publishing this crap.

KoP

Hey everyone,

Random idea for an Alliance "event" - actually, more of a marathon. One of the new things introduced with EotN is the Black Moa Chick miniature that you can hatch. The little guy is beyond adorable, and I think it would be most excellent if we could invade a town and deploy a whole flock of moa chicks to the astonishment of the PuG populace!

The issue with the Black Moa Chick is that it requires a pretty extensive series of steps, across all three campaigns, in order to assemble the materials and hatch it. Full details can be found here.

Maybe I'm the only one in the Alliance , but I haven't been everywhere that's required with all my characters. In fact, I disliked Factions so much that I haven't been to either of the necessary places with any character!

How about we make it a long-term (sort of) event to assemble all the components for anyone that wants to join in? Some of the things are easier to assemble than others, but we could make the tedium of farming more fun by doing it together. And we could get together to run to the necessary locations. I would suggest doing one "component" for two weekend sessions, then moving on to the next. That way, if someone is gone for one particular weekend, they won't miss out completely.

Any takers?