Us Vs. Them PBEM

[polarnomad]

Have not received the turn... Not in junk mailbox either.

[John-SJ]

That's odd. I just looked in my sent items folder and the email to you (polarnomad) was there.

I forwarded the original message to you just now, please let me know if you do not have it shortly.

[polarnomad]

Got your resend, thx. Wonder why I'm not receiving the in-game sends...

[polarnomad]

Ok, passed it on to Scowler. Let me know if you have trouble opening it. I'm trying out this patch and am not sure if it will affect my PBEM games. If there is a problem I will switch the old python24.dll file back in and play the turn over.

EDIT: As it turns out this should not affect the game.

[Finarfin]

I'm also using Hark's patch, just to see how it affects the game performance. I'm not going to bother with his updated dll until Firaxis puts out a new patch; in the mean time I'll just use his updated python dll, although I haven't actually seen any improved performance yet.

[polarnomad]

Where's my fix, guys?!

*twitch, twitch*

[Finarfin]

I sent it to John this morning while he was probably still asleep on the west coast. I doubt you will see it before Saturday morning Finnish time, as I'm sure you are at least 10 hours ahead of California.

Thinking of Finland makes me remember that I've been having a strong desire to play some more Crusader Kings. Too many games, too much real world interfering.

[polarnomad]

Yeah, 10 hours is about right. I guess I'll just have to be patient then...

Crusader Kings, eh? That a good one then? And why does Finland make you think of it?

[Finarfin]

Crusader Kings is fun if you like a strategy game that is all about feudalism and that requires you to, while trying to conquer the world, worry about the succession in your kingdom. You can play as a lowly Count, with only 1 territory at start, or as a Duke or King. Of course if you're lower on the food chain you often have to deal with your superiors calling out your troops when they start wars with other people. You really have to enjoy history I think to really get the most out of any of Paradox's games, and I really like medieval history and geneology, so this game is very fun for me.

The reason I think of it when I think of Finland is because I usually played as a Norwegian or a Swede, and those Finnish pagans were always a tough lot to try to bring under the sway of my king!

[polarnomad]

Pesky Finns!

When you say "have to enjoy history," does that imply being somewhat of a buff or simply taking pleasure in history? I'm thinking I can't have too many good strategy games... I tried "Knights of Honor," which was pretty fun, but it lacked some depth after a while so I got bored.

[Finarfin]

I believe that Knights of Honor is the game that gets compared most to Crusader Kings. Of course the Crusader Kings fans think that Knights of Honor is lacking, as you've stated.

As far as history interest is concerned, it helps if you have some interest in the medieval era because, as the name implies, religion and crusades play an important part in this game. But even if you are only passingly familiar with the period it can still be a lot of fun. An important aspect, as I mentioned before, is maintaining your succession. A couple of examples from games I played:

1) My lord was aging without a male heir. If I didn't get a son soon, my kingdom could end up passing to another branch of the family, meaning Game Over for me. Most of my children were either born dead or died before reaching maturity. I did have one son but I put him in command of an army when he was only 18 and he was killed in battle. So the pressure was on for me to find a fertile wife who could get me an heir. The catch is that your heir has to be at 14 or 16 (I can't remember) to be eligible for inheritance. No minor rulers.

2) Another time I married one of my sons off to a the daughter of a powerful Duke. They had a son who could inherit through his mother if there were no other male heirs. I decided that I wanted this grandson, who conceivably could end up being my heir, to inherit his other grandfather's lands, instead of his uncles, who would be the normal heirs. So I went about having my son's brothers-in-law assassinated, leaving my grandson as the only heir to the Duke's holdings.

Lots of fun!

[polarnomad]

Originally posted by Finarfin
2) Another time I married one of my sons off to a the daughter of a powerful Duke. They had a son who could inherit through his mother if there were no other male heirs. I decided that I wanted this grandson, who conceivably could end up being my heir, to inherit his other grandfather's lands, instead of his uncles, who would be the normal heirs. So I went about having my son's brothers-in-law assassinated, leaving my grandson as the only heir to the Duke's holdings.

Lots of fun!

Now that's just ruthless!!

Sounds like the game has quite alot of depth. Maybe I'll go out and pick it up for Christmas.

[John-SJ]

Speaking of ruthless: In one game my ruler was without heir and his wife was not fertile. The only way I could think to resolve the situation was to have the wife assassinated so the ruler could remarry a younger, fertile, woman. I did this because the only alternative I could see was to trust to chance that he would sire a (bastad) heir outside of marriage.

[polarnomad]

Well, as ruler you are entitled to behead one spouse at the very least!

So, do you recommend Crusader Kings too then?

[John-SJ]

Sure, I would recommend it as well, it can be quite fun and engrossing. I have to be in the proper mood to really enjoy it, but it is a very good game, IMO.

Oh, and her are even more assassinations.