Okay, welcome to the lurker thread for PB9. Players, KEEP OUT. Next post will have the 18 random leader/civs I rolled, and it can be narrowed down to 7 fun & balanced choices from there.
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[SPOILERS] PB9 Lurker Thread
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Okay, here we go. I rolled a random Huge map with 18 unrestricted players and just copied down what I was given. Here is the full list:
Initial Group Wrote:stalin persia The goal here is to eliminate the following: 1) Combinations that are noticeably better than the rest 2) Combinations that are noticeably worse than the rest 3) Combinations that don't sound very fun At first glance, we don't really have anything amazingly overpowering. There's only 2 FIN leaders for starters. So I think most of the work here is just picking 7 that sound fun and are reasonably balanced.
So my first thought for the first 5 eliminations:
1) huayna zulu - Probably the best one here 2) sury mongolia - right there with it 3) boudica celt - Restricted leader/civ, so probably too dull 4) tokugawa russia - Hoooooorrible. 5) churchill vikings - Nobody likes playing with PRO, though I could be persuaded to change my mind if they're doing heavy water. That would leave us with picking 7 out of this 13. stalin persia caesar spain hannibal native america frederick england napoleon aztecs alexander netherlands louis rome justinian portugal brennus japan cyrus maya pericles khmer augustus inca isabella france
January 7th, 2013, 12:06
(This post was last modified: January 7th, 2013, 12:08 by regoarrarr.)
 Quote:So my first thought for the first 5 eliminations: Yeah gotta watch out for the overpowered huayna ind/fin zulu combo....  stalin agg/ind persia caesar imp/org spain hannibal chm/fin native america frederick phi/org england napoleon chm/org aztecs alexander agg/phi netherlands louis cre/ind rome justinian spi/imp portugal brennus spi/chm japan cyrus chm/imp maya pericles cre/phi khmer augustus imp/ind inca isabella exp/spi france I put in the traits there just so we have them. I know the traits for many of the (good) leaders but some of the others all run together. I think Isabella of France is pretty good. Is this RB Mod or not?
My take. I divided them into 3 categories - too good, the rest, and too bad. Conveniently that left 7 in the middle, so that woudl be my take. Subject to change if this is RB Mod.
huayna ind/fin zulu sury exp/cre mongolia isabella exp/spi france hannibal chm/fin native america louis cre/ind rome pericles cre/phi khmer justinian spi/imp portugal brennus spi/chm japan frederick phi/org england caesar imp/org spain augustus imp/ind inca boudica agg/chm celt alexander agg/phi netherlands stalin agg/ind persia cyrus chm/imp maya napoleon chm/org aztecs tokugawa agg/pro russia churchill chm/pro vikings
January 7th, 2013, 12:19
(This post was last modified: January 7th, 2013, 12:22 by slowcheetah.)
 (January 7th, 2013, 12:11)regoarrarr Wrote: My take. I divided them into 3 categories - too good, the rest, and too bad. Conveniently that left 7 in the middle, so that woudl be my take. Subject to change if this is RB Mod. I actually did the exact same thing, only difference is I switched pericles for augustus. In the middle seven Augustus gets faux CRE (Inc) and is the only IND which is probably a bit overpowered. Also I'd switch Boudica for Napoleon but that's because I'm more of a builder type.
First, I don't consider non-EXP Inca to be anywhere close to CRE, so nothing about Augustus of Inca sounds overpowering to me. However, I just don't like this suggested grouping:
Quote:justinian spi/imp portugal It's so...boring. No FIN, CRE, or EXP. Is it really THAT much more balanced than this: Quote:huayna ind/fin zulu That's regoarrarr's top group + Augustus/Inca. I actually think that's pretty okay in terms of balance. It's not perfect, but none of these is an instant win IMO. Thoughts? I get the impression that all people cared about is that people aren't running around with Pacal or India or something. The top 3 here are a notch above the rest, but only a notch. 
One thing - that middling group is also kind of a rough group of leaders for a bunch of intermediate players (ignoring Commodore). If it was a more veteran roster, I might be more likely to go for it, but it's just not.
I thought this pitboss was running along the lines of "play the hand you're dealt". Sometimes balance does need to take a back seat when the goal of the game is to have fun rather than have a competitive experience.
If we want differing strengths of combos in the game why not pick 2 combos randomly from each group (once decided) and then the last player gets a random roll on whats left? If I do random draw now (swapping boudica with napoleon in rego's list) I could come up with this using random.org to determine pick order, what quality tier combo they get and what choice they get. Cornflakes gets Augustus of Inca (Imp/Ind) 2metraninja gets Isabella of France (Exp/Spi) Twinkletoes gets Cyrus of Maya (Chm/Imp) Automated Teller gets Napoleon of Aztecs (Chm/Org) Azza gets Huayna of Zulu (Ind/Fin) Jowy gets Tokugawa of Russia (Agg/Pro) Commo/Brick gets Caesar of Spain (Imp/Org) A quick breakdown of traits 3 Imp 2 Org 2 Ind 2 Chm 1 Exp 1 Fin 1 Pro 1 Spi 1 Agg 0 Cre 0 Phi If we want a full mix of traits and don't want 2 Caesars we could meddle a bit and replace Caesar of Rome with Pericles.
"We are open to all opinions as long as they are the same as ours."
(January 7th, 2013, 12:42)scooter Wrote:Quote:huayna ind/fin zulu I like it, thinking about it, these do seem more fun to play than the middle group. |