I Have an Adventure Idea

[LexiSilva]

I'm really not sure if it has been done before in the time between it not being posted on the RB site and me joining, but here is an idea:

"Get On Your High Horse!"

The only military you can build is Mounted Units (Horse Archers, Knights, Cavalry, etc.)

I'm not sure if this is possible (or a good idea), but who knows!

[Whosit]

Is the player forbidden from building Warriors before they get access to Horses? Would Barbarians be on? What happens when the players enter the post-cavalry period? I know Knights and beyond can be very strong, but Chariots can be pretty hard-countered by spears, right? I know mounted assaults can be very strong in MP, but does it rate as well in SP with the way AI tends to stuff their cities and build walls/castles everywhere?

[LexiSilva]

It was a quick idea. Let me think:

EITHER Barbs on, no warrior aside from start, or no barbs and you do get warriors.
Post cavs, work with what you have.

And i'm sure its fun to work with a disadvantage! I haven't played enough to know whether or not defenders will attack out of cities to combat pillaging or not.

And it'll be either Prince or Monarch, cause of the disadvantage. And cause I should be able to win my own shadow game.

[Whosit]

If Barbarians are turned on, isn't that setting where Warriors would be allowed?

[LexiSilva]

Yeah. Sorry... ;-;

[GermanJoey]

thats funny you mention that, I've actually been chewing on a very similar idea the last couple of weeks. My idea was Catherine (naturally ) on a great plains map; the way scoring would work would be like this:

Scoring done at three time periods:

• 2000 BC - 3 points for every promotion on a chariot.
  
• 1 AD - 2 points for every promotion on a horse archer or knight.
  
• 1000 AD - 1 point for every promotion on a cuirassier or cavalry.
  

At each scoring period, you also get 1 point for every visible horse inside your borders and 1 additional point for every horse resource you control. (so a controlled, pastured horse is worth 2 points)

+10 points for a win.

The game ends when you achieve 100 points, tiebreakers based on finish date and then overflow points.

What do you think?

[LexiSilva]

thats funny you mention that, I've actually been chewing on a very similar idea the last couple of weeks. My idea was Catherine (naturally ) on a great plains map; the way scoring would work would be like this:

Scoring done at three time periods:

• 2000 BC - 3 points for every promotion on a chariot.
  
• 1 AD - 2 points for every promotion on a horse archer or knight.
  
• 1000 AD - 1 point for every promotion on a cuirassier or cavalry.
  

At each scoring period, you also get 1 point for every visible horse inside your borders and 1 additional point for every horse resource you control. (so a controlled, pastured horse is worth 2 points)

+10 points for a win.

The game ends when you achieve 100 points, tiebreakers based on finish date and then overflow points.

What do you think?

Sounds great! Though I was thinking about having it be based on city conquest: the # of points per city is the cultural defence. And having it be Elizabeth of England (turning it into Canada) based on the Mounties :D

[T-hawk]

Here's approximately how the process for proposing an Adventure or Epic works.

The answer to "is there potential in this idea?" is always yes. The devil is in the details. What makes something like "build only mounted units" compelling? What goals will make that an interesting but not onerous restriction? What scoring criteria will accurately measure performance of these goals while not being vulnerable to gamey manipulation? Where are there interesting paths for different players to take and compare results later? What in-game details like civilization and map type and options like barbarians, and why?

All of this needs to come together to produce a quality event worth the hundreds of player-hours that it asks for.

A committed sponsor will work out a full writeup for a proposed adventure. Working through that page of writing will help you organize your own thoughts and bring it all together. Look at past events for the format and an idea of points to cover. Once you have such a full proposal, I'm happy to work through it with a potential sponsor until we hammer it together into good shape for a scenario worthy of Realms Beyond.

We did do something similar to this idea a long time ago in Epic 9 Horse Feathers. But I think a pre-BTS epic from 2006 is no constraint on doing it again.

[LexiSilva]

Alright, thank you so much. c:

[Lord Parkin]

Interesting proposals.

I think with Lexi's idea the optimal strategy is likely to be to wait until Knights and then start rolling over everyone. I don't know if it'd be possible to take over early AI opponents with just Chariots and Horse Archers (at least on the higher difficulties), unless they lack metal. Spears are very nasty against an all-mounted army and the AI builds plenty of them. Even if you disconnect their metal that won't remove the Spears they already have.

I think GermanJoey's idea is good, though I'm slightly confused about the endgame - if everyone gets +10 points for winning but the game stops at 100 points and victor is determined based on victory date, then the +10 points make no difference. Probably best to either make it based on victory date with no extra points, or else scale points based on victory date (e.g. +20 before 1 AD, +10 before 1000 AD, etc). But otherwise I think it's got potential.