New "Ancient Empires" PBEM created

[techumseh]

Can peace be secure with the Hittites threatening the entire Fertile Crescent with their too mighty armies? Do not decieve yourself, Pharoah!

[Peaster]

Everybody's watching those shifty Hittites.

If others want to keep the spawning option on, I have no objection. But they should definitely be treated like Barabrians, which means no diplomatic contact.

Fine with me. I guess if there are no objections then this is the law.

For the edification of those who may visit this thread in the future, Pharoah proposes that the secret counsels of the Great Alliance be published for all to see. There were moments of dire distres and great tales of victory, and it seems a shame for them to remain ever hidden and private.

No objection to this either, but some of our secret counsels were pretty lengthy and maybe not interesting to others. So, I guess somebody should edit them.
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Persians are quietly adjusting to the calm after the storm. Tushpa becomes the largest city in recorded Persian history, with 100,000 inhabitants. Several generals were flogged for not sharing Hittite bribes with good King Sinbad. A skirmish with barbarians in the Zagros brought new recruits to our slave labor camps.

[Peaster]

Also.... something odd happened during my turn. A Persian unit ignored a foreign unit's ZOC - just walked right by. Persia is not allied with that civ. My unit had enough move-points to retreat, so no harm was done.

Possible explanation - my unit once belonged to Babylon and has not yet been rehomed. I suppose this is a rare incident, and not likely to be abused. Do we need another rule to cover this kind of thing ?

[Straybow]

Yeah, those shifty Hitti... hey, wait a minute! grrrr

ZOC should be simply a matter of controlling civ. Envoys ignore ZOC. If a unit has the Partisans slot it might ignore ZOC.

[Peaster]

My unit was a horseman, which is in the (drum roll....) horseman slot. I checked rules.txt, and the ignore-ZOC-flag is not set for these units. The opposing unit was a skirmisher. If this is not a rehoming issue, I have no other idea what happened - never seen it before.

[Kull]

That is odd...did the "ignore ZOC" happen with a Babylonian unit (the mother country)? If so, that's probably no big deal. If it ignores ANY nations ZOC, then we'll have to discuss a rule.

Edit: In fact, I'd really like you to confirm the "Mother country only" or "Any Civ" question. Not just for purposes of this PBEM, but because it should be reported to the scenario guys. This is exactly the kind of "weird" feature they thrive upon!

[Peaster]

No. The opposing unit was not Babylonian.

I have replayed the move to check that I wasn't dreaming (same result). I also tried to pass a few other units but was stopped by ZOC of all other (non-allied) units - even ones from the SAME tribe as the skirmisher!
So, I guess something is odd about the skirmisher.

[Zedd]

Is it the skirmisher outside Dibshiya?

If so then it IS the skirmisher, I didn't apply the second barter file to un-freeze the unit and that is likely the reason as it was originally from babylon.

ST has hexed the barter file so that I can apply it this turn.

[Peaster]

Yes, that's is the one. Does this mean that frozen units don't have ZOC? Or it happened because the skirmisher (and my horse) were both homed to Babylon ?

[Zedd]

Both homed to Babylon.

[Straybow]

Yes, a dozen pages back there was a unit that was bartered from Egypt to Babs iirc, and the file was lost or something, and it had no ZOC for Egyptian units.

[Straybow]

Oh, I think kengel said in an email he wouldn't be able to play until the weekend.

[Peaster]

Hmmm... IIRC Kengel has missed the 72 hour deadline 3 out of his last 4 turns. And I am not sure Straybow's post counts as a request for more time. So, it seems reasonable to ask Sparrowhawk or Peasteress to do the N-thing. Did Kengel mention a reason why he couldn't play, or why he couldn't post something in this thread earlier ?

Any opinions from the other players ?

[Straybow]

Those Greeks are notorious slackers
Except MarkG, of course...

Hey, it's your dollar, if you're anxious to spend it...

If afterwards Zedd can wait another day I suppose kengel can post a turn.

[SlowThinker]

If kengel said it in an e-mail then we should wait ... it is a bit unusual but if you have no time then it may be faster to send an e-mail than to connect to Poly.
What was exactly in the e-mail?