New FFH/EITB PBEM?

[Mardoc]

Bans: Mercurians

...

Basium human: Yes

Am I missing something here? How can Basium be both banned and human?

[NobleHelium]

He's voting for a preference for banning the Mercurians, but if they aren't banned then he prefers them to be human.

[Ellimist]

He's voting for a preference for banning the Mercurians, but if they aren't banned then he prefers them to be human.

This.


And none of that silliness where Basium can't talk to his summoner either.

[Yell0w]

My votes:

Diplo: Full Diplo (after players met each other naturally)
Huts: Off. I think lairs provide what huts do, but for a cost, having both is overkill imho
Lairs: On
Unique Features: Mapmaker's discretion (but I like them)
FFH/EitB: EitB (v10 if possible)
Bans: Keelyn (unless we play a new version of EitB and she's been nerfed).
Mapmaker's discretion on Lanun/Clan/etc

Would like Tower of Mastery victory off, I think. It's noticably easier to get than the other victories.


Other things:
Compact enforced. Why? Because merc simply too stronk, but I think you should still be able to build the building for it's benefits to make religious tech tree not that bad. You get the wonder, but you don't get the mercs, same for infernals.

I don't care about builder or cramped start, but I'd like to know which it's gonna be up front.

[Mardoc]

Oh. Yeah, that should have been more obvious to me. Need to think about Basium, on the one hand I'm not convinced he's OP, on the other I don't particularly want to be the victim of proof that he is . Nor do I really want Ellimist to feel like his strategy is forced by game settings. I'd rather err on the side of excessive bans, I think.

I've sent Selrahc and Yell0w a little poke e-mail to see if they're back from holiday yet, maybe we'll see their opinions soon. Told them no rush, though, so really I only expect to see them if they're bored and hadn't noticed this thread is active.
Edit: Hah, nice crosspost Yell0w . You must have been already here and writing by the time I sent that e-mail

Also, play order - I've got a first guess, that it should be:
Selrahc
Yell0w
Mardoc (0000-0500 GMT)
HidingKneel
Ellimist

Just based on what I know of time zones and schedules. It seems quite possible that Selrahc and Yell0w might want to switch, and the same with HK and Ellimist, but I'm sure Selrahc and Yell0w as Europeans should go ahead of me, and that Elli and HK's availability is after mine. And the only way Selrahc or Yell0w might fit in between me and Elli/HK is if they prefer to play in the morning.

I believe I actually have everyone's e-mail, not that we need it just yet.

[HidingKneel]

My feeling on the Mercurians is the same as Mardoc. I'm not convinced they're overpowered (especially with double towers banned): they were summoned in four recent games, and the summoners only won two of them. But I've no objection to banning them. I'd prefer not to ban Hyborem, though, since I'm pretty sure he's not overpowered (and is very flavorful).
For that reason I vote against Compact Enforced (I don't know why you'd want to build the Mercurian Gate with no Mercurians. A 400 hammer building for a small reduction in war weariness?)

Also fine with banning the Tower victory.

Ban on Stasis sounds right. I'd also propose offering compensation if someone wants to play as the Illians with no stasis. Like they get a free worker and worker tech to start off, which is roughly the kind of lead they'd secure by firing the worldspell on turn 0 (seems to me that the Illians are balanced based on having an awesome worldspell... agnostic is a huge penalty).

As for the play order: I was after Ellimist in XX, which was occasionally problematic. Right now I'm on the west coast and playing after Ellimist definitely makes sense. But in the summer I'll be moving back to the east coast, at which point we might have occasional trouble again (but I'm not sure we'd have any less trouble if we put Ellimist after me).

[Ellimist]

My vote to ban the Mercurians isn't a strong preference, but I do think they have a high enough power level to deserve it.


I don't think banning stasis requires any additional compensations. Nobody is being forced to pick them.

[Yell0w]

I don't think banning stasis requires any additional compensations. Nobody is being forced to pick them.

Yeah, and with stasis baned no one will pick them. If we want to keep Illians in the pool (as a viable pick) we should get them some buff if we ban stasis. I however have no interest in picking Illians whatsoever.

I'm not feeling strong about compact enforced.

But please think about No Huts, Lairs are enough!

[Qgqqqqq]

You could try having the mapmaker play out the game for 10(?) turns as illian (with the players instructions) and only then give the save to the first player.

[Merovech]

You could try having the mapmaker play out the game for 10(?) turns as illian (with the players instructions) and only then give the save to the first player.

I have no problem with doing this, hypothetically speaking, but I am not sure this would work, because the other players still have possibly scouting/possibly defending units to control. It's probably not fair to let the mapmaker scout for anyone.