You can find it here.

I am sorry to say that the report is not yet complete, but the conclusion page is ready.

--

Just finished this game at 11:45pm CST, am I still in time?

I'll post a proper report tomorrow, but finish date was 1929AD. I've not read any reports to be able to compare, but the key moment in my game was "Popping Another One™" - Aluminium in 1840AD!

I'll add a couple of placemarker posts & compile the report tomorrow (w/Screenies).

Phew!

Rather than make people read through a multi-page report of a game where no fighting happened, I'll summarize the strategy and key events. I launched in 1890.

With all this marble and stone around, and no military resources anyway, the only good opening strategy is to build wonders. So I went for the flashiest opening possible and built Pyramids in my first city and Oracle in the second completing both around 1000 BC (This is Prince after all, we can get away with that.) I took CS from the oracle, went to Representation/Bureaucracy and took advantage of Philo trait to run a primarily Super Specialist based strategy with one outside Academy and Shrine. I was beaten to the Great Lighthouse by 1 turn, however I was able to nail down the other wonders I really wanted such as Great Library, and Hanging Gardens + Hagia Sophia which were built primarily for Engineer points.

I didn't convert and use Pacifism as Saladin had founded Hinduism and I didn't want him to declare war on me (after all I was stuck with archers.) Instead I was planning to convert to his religion and use that. Ironically this resulted in me spending most of the game waiting for God. Unfortunately Hinduism never spread to me, so I just ended up in free religion.

As I had recently played a space game where I conquered everyone on my continent first before going to space, I decided to try the totally pacifist builder approach. Got to Education in 400 AD and Liberalism (taking astronomy) in 740 AD. I got every free GP tech first and added most of them to Berlin. I stayed in Representation, Free Market, Emancipation, Bureaucracy, Free Religion and ran a hybrid Town + Specialist economy. I did build a military deterrent of more modern units as they became available, but the game was entirely peaceful.

I finished research in 1828 AD but had somehow left Apollo until very late (I was building Three Gorges in my capital since 5 of my 7 cities had no access to power otherwise, and just plain forgot about Apollo for some reason), so embarrassingly got bottlenecked on production and took until 1890 to actually launch the spaceship. I'm not particularly proud of this result as with a couple of cities stolen from Saladin and without the Apollo snafu, I suspect a launch in the first half of the 19th century would have been achievable.

Thanks for the game, the scenario was entertaining. I smelled a rat around Iron, but didn't completely get the joke until map trading.

Hello RBCivvers. This is my first tournament report here. I became interested in the RB community after downloading and playing Adventure Four, which I enjoyed immensely and it remains my fastest Monarch Spaceship despite not knowing the Alphabet! In fact it made me question the need for Alphabet, Drama and Literature in my regular games. I didn't report because of a lack of time, but was determined to do so for the next tournament. I then went back and played the previous adventures and Epic One (Jeez Adventure 2 was hard!). Intro over, let's begin.

Adventure Five - Waiting for Godot

Who is Godot? I'm not up to scratch with my American playwrights. *Checks Wikipedia*. Oh, right.

We are Frederick of Ze Germans, who is philosophical and creative. Creative is great because I don't have to waste hammers on Stonehenge or Obelisks, and can ignore most of the religious techs in the early game. I'm not so good at exploiting the philosophical trait, as I am less confident in handling my specialists/great-people. I prefer to bash people with swordsmen and grenadiers. I settle in place. The start has many forests, so I start with a worker and Bronze Working. With the changes in the new patch, this style of start will become much rarer. The hut near to Berlin yielded The Wheel.

Early scouting allowed me to see we are on a long thin continent with Saladin. Just Saladin. Alphabet would not be so important here I think. Furthermore, Berlin is in the middle of the continent, so a city above and below it, and refusing open borders with Saladin, would secure most of the continent to myself. Saladin founded Hinduism.

My worker and Bronze Working finished, and I couldn't see any Copper. OK, better get archery for Barb protection. I build two warriors, chop 2 workers, build another warrior and then chop a settler. I research Animal Husbandry (no Horses!), Agriculture and Archery. My second city Hamburg is founded on the coast NNW of Berlin in 2200 BC in a very nice spot with 2 food (Sauerkraut and Bratwurst - yum!) and 4 hills - a production city if ever I saw one. Munich my third city is founded SSW of Berlin, also on the coast, and collects Sheep and Stone.

So let's recap:
1. We are on a continent short of hapiness resources, with few trading partners.
2. We have stone.
3. We have one very productive city.
4. We don't need to build Stonehenge.

It doesn't take Ein Genius to research Masonry and start the Pyramids in Hamburg. Pottery and Writing then come in (no Saladin, you can't have open borders), and I chop a library in Berlin and build a few cottages. Munich builds a barracks and starts pumping out archers for Barb and Arab-defense. Then I really need some metals to go and bash Saladin with, so set research to Iron Working.

Oh ... right. It's a no-strategic-resources variant!

Interesting. It looks like Saladin and Izzy (who I'd just met, and had founded Buddism) had no Copper, Iron or Horses either, so I wasn't too pannicked. The only thing I was worried about was a barbarian city appearing and not being able to capture it until catapults. Unfortunately, my barb-watch was not as good as it should have been and I spotted Zapotec at the Eastern edge of the continent. It was defended by two warriors, which would be pretty hard to remove with my one warrior fortified in a forest nearby. That's if they both stayed there. Instead, one of the two barb warriors decided it would be prudent to attack my fortified forested warrior, and dies. I promote my warrior to CR1 and take the city. From then on I had no more barb problems. After getting Alphabet, Saladin and Isabella don't have much to trade that I need, but I pick up a few religious techs for writing.

The Pyramids are completed in Hamburg, and I decide that if I can't go to war then I'd better build lots of wonders. Hamburg starts the Oracle, and with 2 turns to go and with 2 turns left to research Code Of Laws, someone builds it (it would turn out to be Mao Zedong) and takes CoL. In one turn I lose my wonder, my CS slingshot and my religion.

My Germans weren't to be dismayed though, and in between some more settlers, Hamburg builds The Great Lighthouse (from a GE in 150BC) and the Colossus (350AD); Berlin gets the Great Library (1000AD) and the Hanging Gardens (700AD) and Munich gets Chicken Itza (275 AD).

Empire in 1010AD:



With a high Wonder-fueled GDP, and the knowledge of Vorsprung Durch Technik, my aim now is to get Grenadiers before Saladin, and then go bash him about a bit. This is actually my favourite tactic at Prince level - to get the Liberalism - Steel slingshot and build cannons and grenadiers before anyone else, which are excellent against Longbows. Grenadiers are actually my favourite unit in the game, because they're good even when the AI upgrades his Longbows to Muskets or Riflemen. I nearly always start a war when I get them. Obviously there is no need for Steel here (cannons require Iron), so I take Chemistry with my free tech from Liberalism. I convert to Free Religion.

I switch to Police State and Vassalage, grenadiers and cats are built and Saladin is conquered between 1505AD and 1700AD. Longbows and Camel Archers just aren't good enough Saladin. I now control the whole continent and the small Island to the north, which has food resources to support three cities. I then "pop" a supply of Iron on my continent - a bit too late now!

My continent in 1705AD:



In the meantime I had built Caravels and met the other 3 civs - Mao Zedong (China), Huyana Capac (Inca) and Louis XIV (France) in the 9th century. They had all adopted Confucianism from Mao, and were having a big lovefest threesome over on their island. I think this is good, as despite the fact they will trade more with each other, no one civ would conquer more than their fair share of the continent and become a rival superpower to Ze Germans. All 3 civs are behind me in tech, but Mao and HC are my closest rivals. Isabella is very backward, only knows me, and doesn't particularly like me. Ahhh, Isabella, if only circumstances were different.

It was at this point that with my large population, Isabella being second in Pop and Confucianism speading to my lands, that I could easily convert to the threesome's religion and win a UN vote. That's until I looked at the Victory page. In the words of a bald yellow man: "Doh!". Spaceship it is then. As I suspected, I had no Coal, Oil or Aluminium. The only Aluminium on the map was being ground into tiny pieces and made into flour by Louis for most of the game, who was working the two sites with windmills. No need for a grindstone Louis - just use a furnace!



There was still time for a few more wonders though, and I got The Statue of Liberty, The Eiffel Tower, Broadway, Rock & Roll and The Pentagon, but missed out on the Taj Mahal and The Kremlin to HC.

Unfortunately for the reader, this was not a nail-biting come-from-behind spaceship victory. I simply had too many high-pop cities compared to Mao and HC. The Apollo Program was built in 1896AD and I beelined to Robotics, built (OK, bought) the Space Elevator (1900AD) and built the last 3 parts on the same turn in 1937AD. Ze Germans had won a spaceship victory! Mao and HC only had casings built.



In conclusion, I enjoyed this no-resources variant. I don't often play a builder game, so it was good for me to fine-tune the tech-order to get a quick spaceship. Early wonder-building was much easier knowing that you weren't going to be attacked by anything other than archers. It was the wonders that gave me a high GDP to get chemistry first, and then conquer my neighbour. This then gave me more high-Pop, high-production cities for a quick no-Al spaceship. I was fortunate about the religion-induced orgy on the other big continent. If the Incans, the only financial civ on the map, had decided to take over backwards-France then it would have been much more close. Thanks for reading, I'll be sure to tell of my tales in such adventures as: Epic 2: Eastern Gem Dealers. I'm going now to read a bit more about this Godot guy.

GNP:


Goods:


Power:

Pics will be added when I recover my RB file space password.

A fun game, and I'm interested to see how much variance there is in the play style. When the start was revealed, with all that Stone and Marble around, playing with Frederick as a philosopical leader, the strategy seemed apparent: lots of Great Wonders, lots of Great People Power. Ample food resources would also permit some massive cities.

I founded on the starting location.

With only six Civs, I thought I could get an early religion despite not being spiritual. Oops: Mysticism and Buddhism fell early (Buddhism 3680 BC, Hinduism 3560 BC). I knew that with some spiritual leaders out there, it also was unlikely that I would get Judaism. However, an early Stone-powered Stonehenge would permit the Great Person points necessary to get Christianity. Stonehenge is a fantastic wonder: get an idea of your place in the world early, border expansion everywhere (although not as needed for a Creative leader), and either an early shrine or free early religion. With the new patch retaining GPP for obsolete wonders, it's even better.

In 3000 BC I met Saladin. He was the Hindu founder, and I realized later that it would've been an interesting strategy to forgo the religion founding (instead using the early Prophet as a Super-Specialist) and simply join up with him as Hindu for the good relations. This concern grew as I discovered that I had neither Horses nor metals...but was reduced much later, upon discovering that nobody had metals. In any event, choosing the found-Christianity strategy meant that I would mean isolationism at best, rivalry and conflict at worst. (More on that later.)

The big issue in the beginning part of the game was where to locate the second city. Because of all the stone, anywhere in the south was likely to result in a monster city: but where eactly to place it? On a plains hill? On a river? On the coast? Within range of as many stone as possible? With or against the AI's suggestion? In the end, I went with one of the AI's suggestions, as it had a balance of food and stone:

(Pic to go here)

Hamburg started on a Barracks, and in addition to building a few wonders would eventually build almost my entire military during the game.

In 1760 BC, Berlin finished Stonehenge. After buildling an another Archer/Settler pair, it started the Pyramids in 1360 BC.

In 1240 BC, I founded Munich on the northern Coast. One nice thing about this game is that every city was generally a mix of both commerce and production. Berlin was mostly a GPP powerhouse, and a few later cities were dedicated commerce cities, but generally speaking every city contributed hammers and taxes for the empire. As Munich was a coastal city, it was used for a few work boats but otherwise my navy was nonexistent - which, given the lack of metals, I expect was a common feature of most games. The most I built were a few exploring Galleys and Caravels for transporting a few prophets in later millenia.

Moses, my first Great Person, was born in Berlin in 875 BC. He taught the Germans Theology, after which the Hamburgers began Christianity and the empire converted. Saladin didn't like us anymore, and he wouldn't for the rest of the game. In fact, over the course of the game, almost nothing occurred between Arabia and Germany...only one trade, no open borders. But, almost nothing isn't nothing...

Berlin finished the Pyramids in 700BC, followed by a broad revolution to Representation, Slavery and Organized Religion. As I imagine it was for others, Representation was huge.

In 600BC, my notes indicate that I am concerned about getting destroyed in a war with Saladin, as I have no horses or metals. I guess I wasn't aware of the theme of this game even then...and, I stayed concerned about that destruction for a little while longer. That same year, I contacted Isabella, who was also Buddhist. As for Izzy, I only made one trade with her the whole game.

In 450 BC, I founded Cologne. (Laters pics will show this, and other city-sites.)

In 350 BC, Germany was declared the second largest Civ, and noted as having half a million people. However, I was sixth in soldiers, which necessitated more military, as a deterrent, if nothing else. (And, it really was nothing else: no metals equals no offense.)

In 125 BC, Great Engineer Imhotep was born in Berlin.
He rushes the Parthenon in Berlin, which complets in 75BC, after which Berlin starts the Hanging Gardens.

The known world of 1AD:

(pic goes here)

A quick note on my research paths: I found myself taking unusual research paths, which I'd only realize several hundreds years later by realizing: "I haven't researched [XXX] yet?!" Unfortunately, I played this game quickly, without taking notes on my research decisions, other than indicating when each tech was discovered. Generally speaking, I targeted wonder techs first, general-education type techs second, with strategic/military techs as the lowest priority.

One annoying tech-related thing was that the same turn I discovered Alphabet in 175, Izzy demanded Currency. Izzy was annoying the whole game, and if I only I had metal... As it was, I ended it up ignoring many requests and demands throughout the game - this was probably the most isolationist game I've played.

In 300, Archimedes was born in Berlin. I swapped from the Library I was building to rush-build the Sistine Chapel. Frankfurt was founded the same year.

In 425, Hamburg - which by now had a higher production than Berlin - began Chichen Itza. This would be a nice wonder to have (not just for the GPP) but for the additional defense in case Saladin got the wrong idea.

450: Essen founded.

A quick pic from 500 AD. I am curious if this is what other's border with Arabia looked like. The distance between the Empires might have made things more peaceful. Eventually I would found a city in the desert south of the Spices, and there only then did a brief conflict with Arabia begin.

(Pic here.)

In 600, Heron (the third Great Engineer) was born in Berlin. As Berlin finished its Market that year, it was an easy choice to select and rush the Great Library. The following turn, selecting National Epic was an obvious choice. Hamburg completed Chichen Itza in 680.

Berlin finished the National Epic in 800, Taoism FIDAL in 760. Hamburg finished the Heroic Epic in 820. The necessarily experienced unit came from the string of Barbarian Archers from Bactrian in the east, which would be a bit of a pain for a thousand years.

This era also included a few Great Scientists: Hypatia built an Academy in Berlin in 800, Al-Kharzami built an Academy in Munich in 980, Nicolas Copernicus built an Academy in Hamburg in 1090.

Meanwhile, the turn of the millenium (sometime between 980 and 1080, my notes don't say which year I had stopped at) saw the release of the patch.

The Empire in 1010 AD:

(pic)

Dortmund was found in the desert near the Arab border in 1080.

Philosophy was learned in 1100, followed by a revolution to Bureacracy and Pacifism. With Pacifism enabled, Berlin was earning 90GPP per turn. I don't know what it's high for the game was, but I remember a few centuries later it was in the 130s per turn.

In 1190, Ananda (Great Prophet) was born in Berlin; the Church of the Nativity followed in 1200 AD.

1270: Thespis (Great Artist) in Berlin. I had no real need for culture - the borders with Arabia were fixed, and the victory condition made culture #s irrelevant - so I decided that this Artist would stick around for a Golden Age. That same year, Berlin finished Angkor Wat.

In 1290, the outside world was (finally!) contacted as Mao discovered me. I traded Theology to Mao for Compass+10g, and then signed Open Borders for good relations. Mao would be my only real friend the whole game, as we engaged in good trading relations. China was the only nation to which I was able to export Christianity. (Although I remember that 3 out of my first 4 missionaries failed. :mad: )

In 1300, I made contact with Huyana. Louis followed in 1340 AD. Itraded Philosphy to Louis for Machinery + 20g.

In 1360, Cai Lun (Great Engineer) was born in Berlin. This was the first real GP choice I had to make: I could rush Taj Mahal (which I had just started the prior turn), and effectively get a 1-GP Golden Age, or just make him a Super Specialist. I decided on the latter, as I was fairly certain that I could build TM naturally.

In 1460, Zhang Hang (GE) was born in Berlin, and I had him join Hamburg as an Engineer. 1470: Islam FIDAL. Berlin finished the Taj Mahal in 1480 AD, and my Golden Age started.

Right around the 1500s, I decided that I really wanted to do something about the blight that was Bactrian. It was taking up some good land, a spot for a fishing village, and the Archers and Longbows it was sending were harassing my workers. I wanted to try to eliminate it before Gunpowder, so as an experiment I was curious if a pure Catapult rush could take it. Um, it couldn't. Because of the embarassment, I couldn't bring myself to take a pic. Well, Gunpowder came in about this time anyway, so I just needed to rebuild the Cats and get some Muskets. (Hamburg was building 1-turn units this entire era, so I wasn't as concerned about the losses.)

In 1515, I acquired a WM, and this was the known world:

In 1530, Rene Descartes was born in Berlin, and he combined with the Artist that had been sitting around to start a post-Mahal Golden Age.

I was beat to Liberalism in 1540.

In 1590, Ling Lun (Artist) was born in Berlin. I decided that I nice use would be to make a Great Work in Bactrian once it was finally conquered, in order to get the surrounding tiles productive quickly.

1595: Trade Mao Gunpowder for Engineering+WM, and then my Pig for his Cow. The known world:

(pic)

The WM revealed an island I had, for some unknown reason, overlooked. I made a quick attempt to colonize the available land, but missed it. I wonder if other players who had successfully made the colony did significantly better? (One thing I noticed: it has rice, and later on in the game I did have some health problems...)

Also in 1595, I revolted to Free Speech and (per my isolationist style this game) Mercantilism.

Finally, in 1625, the Eastern Army of Catapults and Muskets conquered Bactrian. I decided to keep it where it was. The conquest sufficiently increased Germany's population to 5M in 1630, and completing a Great Work in 1635 increased the borders to their appropriate size. A Pic of the Army before the attack:

(Pic)

In 1640 St. Paul was born in Hamburg. He joined Hamburg as a Super Specialist. Thanks to my wonders+Representation, he was generating 2 hammers, 5 gold, 3 science, and 2 culture.

Benjamin Franklin was born in 1670, and I decided to keep him around for a Statute of Liberty rush. Bactrian finished the Forbiddeen Palace in 1720. Following the discovery of Democracy in 1730, I revolted to Emancipation and traded Democracy+30g to Mao for Chemistry+Divine Right. I swapped Hamburg to SoL, and Franklin rushed it halfway to completion.

At this point, my soon-to-built Grenadiers suggested I could rip up Saladin if I wanted to. But I decided to keep my eyes on the stars; the Monday-deadline also influenced me to take the quicker path.

Joseph Marie Jacquard was born in 1760 and he joined the capital as an Engineer.

In 1795, Saladin decided he wanted to get ripped to shreds, and he declared war on me. Although his incursion was able to destroy a plantation, I demolished his invading army. I started building some more units (other than just relying on Hamburg to build my defenses when it wasn't building something else; as Hamburg was working on SoL, I needed some other cities on the job) and in 1804 revolted to Theocracy. I began sieging Kufah, in the north, which was adjacent to my borders.

Hamburg finished SoL in 1810, and started some units for the attack. I decided that to attack Kufah would be problematic: it was on a hill and had a number of promoted Longbows. Najran, to the south, was on flat ground and its defenses had fewer promotions. This pic shows the Army which conquered Najran in 1826, with minimal losses (a few suicide Cats and a Rifle):

(pic)

Conquering Najran brought Saladin to the bargaining table. I could've pressed the assault further into Arabia, but again I was mindful of the game's goal and deadline. I accepted peace for 300G+WM. I revolted to Organized Religion, as there were some unbuilt buildlings and I felt that Pacifism's GP madness wasn't as necessary anymore.

Darwin was born in 1834; he built an Academy in Cologne.

In 1838, Arabia captured Pamplona. I hadn't even realized that Spain and Arabia were at war. This was generally peaceful, but I did fight the war with Arabia; there was the Spanish-Arab war; and a few conflicts in which cities exchanged hands on the Northeast Continent. I rejected all requests to join any of these fights.

At this point, the game became a matter of outbuildling, out-teching, and out-GPing the opposition. Other than selecting the right techs - getting Apollo Program done, beelining to Robotics for The Space Elevator - there wasn't much left that needed to be done.

In 1840, Berlin finished Oxford University. In 1842, Stuttgart finished Globe Theater. Earlier in the game, I had used the whip a lot in Stuttgart. It grew quickly from all the flood plains, but was usually too small to take advantage of the Representation happiness bonus. Globe Theater helped that problem.

Munich finished Hermitage in 1866. I hadn't really needed to build it anywhere, of course, but I thought if it was going to go anywhere it could go in a city on the border with Arabia. That year, Marie Curie was born in Frankfurt, and she founded an Academy in Stuttgart. Hamburg finished Wall Street in 1884. Heisenberg in 1896; kept around for a GA.

Berlin finished the Kremlin in 1914. My treasury was starting to increase, and I thought a swap to Universal Suffrage for a Space Elevator rush was a fine idea. Narak (Prophet) born in Munich in 1918, and I decided that he'd wait around to join with a third person for my third GA.

1922: Not relevant to victory, but Berlin gained Legendary culture.

1929: Bactrian finished Scotland Yard, but I never trained any spies. 20M Germans.

Vasco de Garma (Merchant) born in Bactrian in 1931; and the third Golden Age begins.

1940: Naranya Guru born in Berlin. He becomes a super-specialist in Hamburg.

In 1942 and 1943, Huyana and me - in that order - finished our Apollo Programs. The Race is On! Some other Programs were finished in later years...at first, it seemed like the Space Race would be close, but I quickly accelerated past the competition.

Columbus was born in 1949, and I sent him to Guangzhou (a size 17 Chinese city) for a trade mission. He finished that mission in 1957, for 2700 gold. That bonus took me to a treasury of nearly 10,000 gold. I finished the Eiffel Tower in Munich in 1960. When Robotics was learned in 1967, I revolted to Universal Suffrage. After the revolution, I rushed the Elevator and what needed to be finished on the Three Gorges Dam.

With those wonders complete, it was little more than a waiting game: I got a few more great people (including the Engineer from Fusion), popped a silver (the only time I ever popped anything this game), noticed that - for some reason - Louis had two Aluminums, built the Internet (just for fun...the techs - Flight, HBR, Mass Media, and Fascism - were irrelevant), and built the Life Support to finish the Spaceship in 2016!

This was a fun game, and really allowed for some serious wonder and great person power. It would've also been interesting if cultural victory had been enabled; it might have been interesting to try a cultural game having founded only one religion. (Possibly two, as I might've had Islam if I made it a priority.) Moreover, founding a religion in this game wasn't really a big deal - it did help out my finances, but not to ridiculous extremes. It also closed off some diplomatic options that might've been helpful, if I had waited to let religion spread to me.

The GP Scorecard:
Prophets: 6
Engineers: 8
Merchants: 3
Scientists: 7
Artists: 2

End Game Demographics:

(pic)

Final Score: 7058, Henry VIII.

Here's my report, and for those who've already read the introduction, straight to the game.

In summary, I launched my spaceship in 1935AD despite at least one very foolish error earlier.

As it's my first report, I'd appreciate any views on what I should do to make my reports better. Too much information on my tech path in the mid game? Too much reporting of what happened rather than what I was thinking? Report finished too quickly? Let me know.

Anyone out there in the RB world play this game? I got it a few weeks ago on the reccomendation of a friend, and it's a lot of fun. Only problem is it seems like it would be more fun grouped up, but my friend and I almost never have time to play at the same time....thus this post.

I could see some fun variants, but for now I'm just looking for some people to play with while I learn the game more. I've come to the point with each of the two characters I've played seriously that I just can't seem to get any further. All the quests are too hard for me to solo (and good luck finding a random group!).

Anyway, if anyone out there plays, and might want to attempt to play together, let me know!

Result: Loss (Mao wins space race in 1980).

Full Report

We did it again.

We spent Easter at the cottage, and took a break from brush clearing to have some fun with Easter Eggs.




The brush clearing was heartbreaking, btw. We lost 23 trees , not counting the poplar that we actually did want to lose. And there are at least two more that really do have to go, and another two that will probably die in the next year or so, but which we have spared for the nonce. My privacy has gone away. Once we get the stumps pulled, I can start re-planting and, with the fullness of time, maybe my grandchildren will have trees and privacy there again.

Well I messed around with straight oblivion and came away empty. The game as is punishes you far too much for just playing the game. Instead, you really need to min max your skillups to get decent stats on level up.

All that ruined the feel of the game for me before I got past first step in the main quest.

To that ordeal, I'm replaying the game (as the dreaded astronach birth sign!) on max difficulty with 2 mods...

AFLeveling and Oscuro's Overhaul.

What AF leveling does is give you several different ways to choose how your character developes. Some setups are based on skill improvements while others are determined by the stats you gain while skilling up.

The common theme is that the AF leveling system allows one to just pick what you want as a class and play it as you wish with the stats following as if you played the bonus game with several options given for how luck is handled as well.

Oscuro's mod really is an overhaul in that it combines too many thing to count.

Birthsigns from morrowind are added and stat based signs allow one to go over the 100 cap. Others (like astronarch) get boosted to better balance them.

Races as well are tweaked

the progressive leveling system is gone (YAY!) you'll never see level 35 super bandits in glass armor but then you'll never see level 1 vampires. Very possible for one to get stuck trapped inside a portal relying on autosave and realizing that one is over their head in terms of the denizens of oblivion.

Other niffty additions are little details like adding a storage chest to the mage and fight guilds. Those chests are static and can be used to store items safely.

too many changes to list so I'll leave you with the links..

If the system for oblivion just irks you in terms of superbandits and countint to 10 on raising conjuration to max out willpower..... give these two mods a try.

Needless to say the moment I stepped out of the sewer and turned up difficulty to max, that mud crab killed me in two hits hehehe.

AF leveling mod
http://fuzionmedia.com/oblivion/

Oscuro's wiki page
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/...n_Overhaul

Both mods are working with eachother to maintain compatibility and are constantly updated.

incidentally that wiki is a very good source of info on the various mods.

I plan to hit both of these mods on a super hard game in about a month.

Cheers!
-Liq