RAH's Saturday games

[rah]

do all of you have warlords or do we have to play vanilla

[Dauphin]

Got Warlords.

[Dominae]

gg yesterday guys and gals, was fun.

Above all, yesterday's game reminded me of the dominating role of diplomacy in MP when it is allowed; it becomes less about the strength of your empire, and more about who your friends are. I may have survived a 2v1 and kept playing, but a 3v1 was too much. rah's previous games did not really involve diplomacy, so I was not expecting it this time. I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, but it does force you to play in a very different way.

Until next time!

[Dominae]

As for Deity Dude, you said that you learn something every game - great! Here's a couple of things that jumped out at me:

1. Never leave a city undefended; the temptation is just too much.

2. When defending against Chariots and you can build Swordsmen, build Spearmen instead. Spears have an effective Strength of 8 versus Chariots, compared to a Swords' 6.

3. In multiplayer, put at least one Spearmen in all your (border) cities. This will mitigate double movement surprises.

[rah]

When people are playing in the same room, watch out for alliances

Yes ganging up is sometimes done but if 3 are doing it, it makes things difficult.

Sometimes it sucks to be the point leader.

never neglet defense.


All in all I liked the bigger game. It was fun. especially since I was on the end of the world with easily defended borders.

Dom, when you noticed three were ganging up, you could have asked for help.

[Snotty]

I enjoyed the game, Im gutted I didnt get to see it through to the finish. I would have liked to see Rahs empire at least so I could see what he had done with his building time

The map size seemed to work well

We didnt go into the game with the intention of being allied, I had enough room to expand away from PH so I didnt need to fight him. I like mopping the floor with the brits too much to always end up allied with them

I would think diplomacy has more of a place in the bigger games

[rah]

Yes, of a little more importance. Not a true diplo game but some of the same elements.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Dominae
I may have survived a 2v1 and kept playing, but a 3v1 was too much.

I think being a 3v1 wasn't too important, considering how little I contributed to it. Snotty's stack was easily far larger than mine and Provost's combined. I was too busy trying to expand to make sure I had some playing room, after Provost took the best spot near my empire, and building up. I'm not an expert at the game at all, with that being my first real (ie. non OCC) game, so I made a lot of newbie mistakes. But I learned a lot.

Now I just need to buy the game and see if it'll work on my (very old) PC... Hopefully in time for next weekend

[Ming]

Originally posted by Dominae
1. Never leave a city undefended; the temptation is just too much.

Good advice!

[MasterDave]

With eight players some ganging up is inevitable. I survived a Snotty-Dauphin double team, but it cost me my only elephant, and I permanently lost my tech lead and score lead due to the need to pump out a million hwachas and later crossbows and maces.

It was fun to play with so many people, but we may need to institute even a slow turn timer just to keep the game moving. With so many people, someone is bound to keep everyone else waiting every turn, and slow play gets contagious.

[Gibsie]

Hmm I wanna play next time but I may be at a wedding reception instead... what time they usually kick off?

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Drogue

I think being a 3v1 wasn't too important, considering how little I contributed to it. Snotty's stack was easily far larger than mine and Provost's combined.

It's not the number of units, but the fact that they did not have to spend units to worry about you (either striking out unilaterally or helping me out).

I've played in enough demogames and pbems to know that diplomacy rules when it is allowed.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by MasterDave
It was fun to play with so many people, but we may need to institute even a slow turn timer just to keep the game moving. With so many people, someone is bound to keep everyone else waiting every turn, and slow play gets contagious.

I seriously think we should take the plunge and try out a team game; they're faster and there's no need for diplomacy!

[MasterDave]

I would be willing to try a team game next time we get a big turnout. I think a 2v2v2v2 would have been fun in the situation we had last time. We would need to be careful about balancing the teams because there are some different levels of game experience among the people who play in our games. Also, since research goes so much faster in a team game, perhaps we could use an epic speed to avoid having units always going obsolete in the time it takes for them to get built and get to the front.

[Snotty]

I like the freeform game with the chance to allow teams to develop organically. In that game PH and I could protect our respective isthmus onto the land mass, and not have to worry about our defending our long mutual border. A mutually beneficial situation courtesy of the random map generator.

as long as players arent going into the game with regular pre formed alliances then it seems a shame to remove the diplomacy hat from the game