Imperium 40: Sponsor's thoughts

[Catwalk]

I'm glad the turnout was good for this one, and I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to finish it myself on time. I've had fun with my own run at it, and it's far from over yet. I'll make sure to post the shadow report later, although the report itself will probably focus mostly on the end result and the broad lines on how I got there.

I think the concept worked out mostly as I intended. It seems most players had a more violent game than usual, and those who were able to capitalize on their early advantages pulled ahead. One thing I did not anticipate was the large number of AI players who got completely stuck. This was mostly my fault, as I pulled the lazy solution of rolling up a random map in order to be able to play it myself. That's a mistake I won't be making again if I sponsor another imperium, AI placement needs to be thought out. I'd definitely also rush through a few games to see how the AI expanded, doing my best to ensure that no AIs got stunted (if at all possible). I feel the game is most fun when all rivals have at least a handful planets and are able to mount a credible threat against you.

Another mistake was allowing alliances. I should have held my ground against the voices of caution, urging me to not put too many variants into one game I'm very interested in hearing about your experience with the number of variants. Difficulty aside, did they contribute to your fun or did you feel they were in your way? Which parts did you like and which didn't you like?

[Ianus]

I think the concept worked out mostly as I intended. It seems most players had a more violent game than usual, and those who were able to capitalize on their early advantages pulled ahead.

Most players... but also most players (so far, the day isn't over yet) wound up getting crushed by a massive AI (usually Psilons). As the resident pacifist (until we hear how Ref made out) I can say that I definitely waited too long to initiate hostilities. It just took a bit longer for me to wind up in the usual Impossible catch-up position. That said, I did survive to complete the objective, so there is that.

One thing I did not anticipate was the large number of AI players who got completely stuck. This was mostly my fault, as I pulled the lazy solution of rolling up a random map in order to be able to play it myself. That's a mistake I won't be making again if I sponsor another imperium, AI placement needs to be thought out.

I agree that the AI placement was a problem here. I don't know how so many races could get stuck in a Large galaxy, but there we are. Having the Klackons and Meklars so close and also up against the Darloks really helped the runaway Psilons so many of us saw. A more equidistant start would have made the game very different, but also maybe a bit less challenging by containing the Psilons better.

Another mistake was allowing alliances. I should have held my ground against the voices of caution, urging me to not put too many variants into one game

I can see that this is aimed at me, so I'll add my two cents. Yes, I was able to use trade and council votes to avoid trouble with the Psilons. Not only that but I didn't even MEET the Silicoids, who I was voting against in all of those elections, until very late in the game, so the negative of voting against them was off the table as they couldn't get mad at me. That plus minimal interaction with the other races allowed me to overcome the Mrrshan racial bias in spite of the restrictions on diplomacy. I would definitely have lost if the Psilons had come for me, especially as I didn't have anything even close to tech equality with them, and so allowing Alliances did detract from the intended Military focus of this game, but on the other hand War wasn't the published objective here. The only requirement was to defeat the Guardian, and I like that we were still able to find more than one path to that goal.

I'm very interested in hearing about your experience with the number of variants. Difficulty aside, did they contribute to your fun or did you feel they were in your way? Which parts did you like and which didn't you like?

I had no problem with the number of variants. I really like putting weapons on scouts, and the only reason I don't play that way myself is because scout blockades are pretty much required at higher difficulties and the time lag for building armed LR ships slows down the game way too much in the early going. Being able to arm small scouts from the beginning here was great!
The colony ship variant slowed down colonization and introduced strategy by limiting how many planets we could go for which I found very enjoyable, though it did make for a much more challenging starting position. I even liked the diplomacy restrictions, mostly because I thought that they played to the character of the Mrrshans.

[Zygot]

AI placement needs to be thought out. I'd definitely also rush through a few games to see how the AI expanded, doing my best to ensure that no AIs got stunted (if at all possible). I feel the game is most fun when all rivals have at least a handful planets and are able to mount a credible threat against you.

I agree, stunted AIs are less fun unless there's some kind of specific rationale.

That said, I had a good time with this Imperium. I lost due to my own choices, and it's interesting to see how other approaches played out.

[RefSteel]

As the resident pacifist (until we hear how Ref made out) I can say that I definitely waited too long to initiate hostilities.

I never attacked an AI throughout the game and could probably have won that way in spite of runway Psilons, but ... I lost interest. Part of that is sciatic pain basically exacerbating everything - if I were healthy, I'd probably have played on and even enjoyed it anyway ... but I'm not. So no report from me on this one; sorry.

As for how my game went before I stopped ... well, if I played it right, the only way I could realistically have lost would be if random alliance cheese handed the game to the Psilons (and I could have avoided that too via last-minute transports: fight cheese with cheese...). I was friends (not allies; why would I need - or want - to be allies?) with all the AIs I'd met, and was positioned to tech and build my way to Orion. Then I realized just how many ships I'd need, or how much tech if I wanted that number to be a bit more sane, and I just didn't feel like going through with it. Not that it would even have taken that much real time - just that the gameplan was so inelegant, and so forced. Again though, I'd probably have felt differently about it without this sciatic pain....

I'll be impressed if someone who actually got into an early war manages to win (unless their Psilons are tame for some reason) - I haven't read all the reports yet. The variants, map, and tech tree seem to me to have made early war quite a bad idea. There have been Imperia that rewarded early war in the past though - e.g. Imperium 12 and (especially) 20.

(Also, if you want to take more diplo options of the table for a future game, why not make the rule simpler? "No use of the Audience button" is much easier to remember than what we had for this game! Although combining that with settling restrictions in a large galaxy would be ... challenging. So, another alternative, almost as simple: "No diplo except peace treaties and trade agreements.")

[Catwalk]

I'm all for simpler, but I recall that particular discussion being about not making the game too difficult. As in, it's already difficult so I shouldn't punish players even further. I think that would have been the right choice in this one, the early techs did a lot to counterbalance our disadvantages. As for early warfare, the northern AIs were super easy to take down due to early tech advantages + mrrshan bonus + them having too little room for expansion. Psilons also declared on me not long after contact (not really sure why), so I think my game may turn out interesting I'm going to report the rest of it piece by piece, starting with a big report of my current turn and going from there.

I'm sorry the Imperium wasn't to your liking, but I'm glad you took a stab at it. Sorry to hear about your health issues, my wife also has chronic pains and some days are just impossible for her.

[toddestan]

I think the variant was a good idea. Essentially the colony ships were rationed out in a rather interesting way, so the usual strategy of simply cranking out colony ships couldn't be done here, and this required some thought as to which colonies to grab now, which to grab later, and which to pass over. Tying it to computers and shield tech made it even more interesting as it gave the player some control over how the colony ships get rationed, as opposed to a simpler system such as one colony ship every 25 years or something.

I just wish that I had actually thought this through a bit more before diving in. Though reading through the reports, I do see that I'm not the only one who used a colony ship on Uxmai, and in some cases that did work out for some people. What I think did a lot of people in was the idea that one could get around the colony ship rationing by expand their empire by invading the weaker opponents, which ended up starting early wars which in hindsight were probably best avoided.

The diplomacy part was okay too, though there were some things allowed that didn't seem to fit. For example in my game I went to the Psilons for a peace treaty, which seemed against the spirit of the imperium but I checked and it wasn't actually against the rules, so I went ahead and did it (I really needed the Psilons off my back ).

As for the map, I agree that the AI placement was somewhat unbalanced, allowing two of the strongest races free reign over most of a large galaxy. I seem to recall another imperium not too far back where the AI were also clumped together (the one playing the Humans with free death spores IIRC). Though as Ianus masterfully showed us, the goal was still achievable and while the Psilons were quite strong, one didn't actually need to confront them.

In any case, thanks for the hard work on this and I look forward to future imperium.

[Catwalk]

I have actually played the game without any diplomacy so far, not being quite sure what the rules ended up being

One thing I liked about the colonization rule was that it required you to go for computer and force field tech fairly early on. That shifted the research balance significantly, and indirectly encouraged early warfare as you had the means to do it. And yeah, my early wars against the Meklar and Klackons were not cost effective. I needed to build up a bit more and focus on defense, I figured I had a narrow window of opportunity with which to strike on them. It turned out that I had rather a long window, my bombers sliced through their bases like butter without putting much of a dent in my armour.

[RefSteel]

I'm sorry the Imperium wasn't to your liking, but I'm glad you took a stab at it. Sorry to hear about your health issues, my wife also has chronic pains and some days are just impossible for her.

Thanks - and I communicated very poorly here: I actually thought it was a great Imperium in spite of my failure to complete it. Certainly, my loss of connection to the game, mostly not related to gameplay, wasn't the fault of your design! There are some things I'd have suggested doing differently if I were planning the game based on what I know now, but that doesn't change the fact that it was really good as-is! Thanks for creating it!

I have actually played the game without any diplomacy so far, not being quite sure what the rules ended up being

Good luck pulling through with a victory! It sounds like you're having a really enjoyable game ... even if you did get a late enough start to forget which rules you wound up sending me!

Anyway, many thanks for sponsoring this one! I think lots of people enjoyed the game - myself included for the part I actually played - and I'd love to try another variant you come up with, no matter how crazy I might think it is! I'll ... uh ... try to be less discouraging about it next time. (Thanks also for not getting discouraged anyway!)

(On the other hand, I'd also love to try a vanilla game on a fun and unusual map; in spite of the burnout I experienced on this one, it's great to have a chance to play Imperia again!)

[Catwalk]

I'm up for coming up with another one in maybe a month or so, and I'm thinking something to do with either Final War or Espionage. Possibly both. Maybe Xenophobic Darloks who can't use diplomacy or research? I could also go in the completely opposite direction and have a builder challenge in a more peaceful galaxy, maybe setting the research of a specific technology as the goal. And I'm actually tempted to do another version of this challenge with a refined ruleset and a carefully crafted galaxy. Feel free to chip in with what you'd all be interested in playing.

[Catwalk]

Lastly, how was the overall difficulty level for this one? It looks like we had about a 50% victory rate among experienced players (RefSteel would most likely win and I have a slight chance of winning) which is pretty much what I was aiming for. If I host another one I might put up a newbie version and a veteran version, if there's a demand for that.