Can anyone give me some general advice about when I should start spending money on my military?

How much should I spend?

What size ships should I build and how should I outfit them?

I'm playing the Darloks on hard in a large galaxy.

Lee Valley Tools is one of my favourite stores.

Among other things, they collect information about old tool use and the owner has an amazing collection of old tools.

This month's newsletter has an interesting write-up about the business of ice, circa 1869.

Just thought I would share, for the fun of it.

just a random comment from an occasional lurker at RB (found you from CFC a while back).

i spent a (much too late) night and this morning reading thru the successful and some not-so-successful Epic 4 results. all i can say is WOW. ok i fibbed, i rarely say that little.

that is amazing stuff. seeing the different strategies, the completely different ways the AI situations turned out (depending on founding religions among other things), the different approaches of the players, was so interesting to this never-even-tried-emperor (and only raging barbs when i think i can get the great wall in warlords!) player.

i really wanted to post a thank you for the entertainment and education i got from that. fascinating learning from your stuff, and i so appreciate the time that sirian spent setting up the event, and that you guys spent writing up your reports. i know you're going thru (an understandable) lull atm and just wanted to show appreciation, and let you know that some folks lurk even during these times and get useful and fun stuff from it.

wow, fascinating, empathy for incredible frustration, astonishment at the persistence of some players, and "oh wow great idea even i can apply to my much lower, very different games" all ran thru my head so often.

so, here is a completely random thank you.

Kylearan -- I'm trying to reply to your PM but it says your box is full. Thanks

I was watching the latest episode of Heroes (Distractions) and Hero Nakimora's father is in this episode. The character is played by George Takei ...



... who everyone remembers played Sulu in Star Trek: TOS. Well, the episode ended with Mr Nakimora getting into a car with his daughter ... here is the screen shot of her getting in the car ...

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in a succession-like game on Immortal difficulty level. The point would be to learn about how to play at that level. Rather than the standard succession game format wherein players take turns in sequence, I'm thinking we could try a "best ball" (from golf) format. Everyone runs some small number of turns from the last accepted save, then we compare turnsets and see which one we like best and use that as the next accepted save.

For the first turnset, maybe we'd run until the turn before discovering Bronzeworking or Animal Husbandry so that we're still "in the dark" about what resources are where before accepting a turnset.

The point is learning, so replaying from a misclick or to switch to a civic a turn or two before we actually remembered to change it is fine, but no reloading to change the outcome of a battle or to try scouting in a different direction.

Yes, there will be a little bit of spoiler info from comparing the save points, but to the extent possible, I'm interested in choosing between different turnsets based on strategic thinking rather than outcomes.

At some point, it may become clear that we've either won or lost, in which case we could discontinue. Maybe even start again if there's any interest. Or, we may get to the point (around 1AD or so) where it would be more interesting to continue as a succession game rather than this best ball format.

Also, using this format, anyone would be able to jump in at any time and play a few turns, then submit it for comparison.

I know the usual "beyond" in Realms Beyond indicates some sort of variant, but in this case, maybe it would mean beyond a usual, comfortable level of play. Also, I tend to learn a lot while playing succession games

The settings I'm thinking of would be a randomly rolled game: Vanilla 1.61, random leader, continents, standard size, normal speed, temperate climate, medium sea level.

Does this sound interesting to anyone?

Quote:The Canthan New Year's Festival event begins at Noon PST (20:00 GMT) on Friday, February 16, 2007 and will run all weekend, ending at Noon PST (20:00 GMT) on Monday, February 19, 2007. On Sunday, February 18, the Celestial Pig will drop from the sky into Shing Jea Monastery every three hours to sample Canthan delicacies. The feast culminates in dancing, fireworks, and the showering of the populace with gifts...but only if the celestial enjoys its meal.

Well, after handily defeating the gauntlet I threw down, who wants to come up with the next challenge? I have always been interested in Death Spores, and would love to explore their use through a variant. The problem is, I've never really used them, so I'm not quite sure what is possible/viable. So my idea to throw out there is to make a variant where Spores are a key component. This will undoubtedly require somebody to play-test a map until it is confirmed that Spores are in the tree. I would also recommend we take the Sakkra -- we haven't done them in awhile, um, I not even sure we've done them at all, actually. Being excellent in Planetology, the presence of Spores and the advanced version are more likely. Plus, everybody will already hate us anyway, so the diplomatic penalties are irrelevant

Thoughts? Suggestions? Better ideas?

dathon

Hello Everybody,

I just started this thread to get suggestions/proposals for the next succession game.

In that vein of thought, I recently ran across a start that may prove interesting. It is small, impossible, 3 opponents. We are Darloks vs Psilon, Silicoid, and Meklar (perfect anti-darlok draw as these are the 3 best races at computer research). There is one planet at Range 3, 2 at range 5, and 1 at range 6. When this start looked, I took the liberty of glancing at these 6 planets but I will not give any details other than the range 3 is habitable.

I do not know if we want another straight come from behind like last game, but we can always add a variant (if the start does not prove too difficult to make this feasible).

I just thought I would get the discussion started.

StuporMan

So, I just came across this. Any comments beyond the pablum I've been reading about it being Diablo III in disguise?