Seeking a 3 faction duel

[Flubber]

I am looking for an opponent for a duel in which we each play THREE factions. I am looking for a generally fast player with the understanding that there will be vacations etc on both sides ( I will be away for 2 weeks in August for instance). But generally you must be able to play once or twice a day.

I am pretty flexible on rules but I was thinking that all factions would be allowed (SMAX) and we do a draft system where player A picks 1st 4th and 5th while B picks 2nd, 3rd and 6th. (I had one game where we picked our OPPONENTS FACTION-- we could do that too) -- I am totally flexible on which factions are permitted and how we pick so the above are just suggestions

Rules:

Random computer generated start ( with 3 factions each they should balance out hopefully)-- either player can call a restart in the first 10 years if they think it is unfair

teams could communicate, pact and trade within the team from year 1 ( this really speeds development and makes for a quicker game-- it also eliminates any unfairness if one team grabs the pirates or happens to be placed close together)-- The one AI would be a random faction.

Large or HUGE map -- to balance all the things that will speed development and make building matter
All other settings Average /middle
Stockpile energy ALLOWED
Upgrades in Design Worksop Allowed at any time
All other rules as per the standard poly set

So does anyone think this would be fun ??

[Curiosity]

This does sound pretty fun! It should make for a very fast game, too. I should be able to play multiple turns/day, thanks to an almost total lack of RL commitments for the next few months.


Btw, I'm a settler, but not quite a newbie to PBEM.

[Flubber]

ok--

if all the rules and settings are ok with you, there is just the matter of faction selection. Do you wish to choose first??

[Curiosity]

Great, well if we're having no faction restrictions then I'll take the Userpers (sp? never played them before! ) as no. 1.

[Flubber]

Well-- this could get interesting-- I actually don't mind the aliens since a pact with them garners no trade income and make them less imposing



With picks 2 and 3, I choose the university and the drones

[Mongoose]

Early odds went from 9:2 Flubber to 12:1 Flubber owing to C's disastrous choice of faction.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Curiosity

Btw, I'm a settler, but not quite a newbie to PBEM.

I never assume ANYTHING about a players skills by their "settler" or other status. You could be one of the best players from another board or just someone who honed their skills in other ways.

I've played a fair number of PBEMs and know that "settler", "prince", or "emporer" are irrelevant. There are good, bad and great players at all those levels.

The only true indicqtor of skill come from playing others and on that account I am probably somewhere in ther middle of the Apolyton Smac community. I win some games but there are some folks on here whose knowledge and abilities far exceed mine

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Mongoose
Early odds went from 9:2 Flubber to 12:1 Flubber owing to C's disastrous choice of faction.

wow mongoose-- I should get some money down on curiousity ( through an anonymous proxy of course)

[Curiosity]

Ah, Aliens don't get trade, eh? *dredges memory* And they don't get council votes either...
Well, hey, I might as well at least give Flubber a chance, right?

Sorry for taking a while, I did some playtesting after that gaffe... I'll stick to the good old SMAC factions for now, and take lal and morgan as my other two.

My e-mail is moughanj@tcd.ie, and I guess you can start the game once you've picked the remaining faction.

[Curiosity]

Actually, on second thoughts - the heck with that. I'll take Lal and the Caretakers, and trade be damned. These guys are way more powerful than I even dreamed.

Mongoose, rack up the odds.

[Mongoose]

20 : 1

[Flubber]

Interesting choices but once you took one alien, I figured you might as well take the other. I believe that their vendetta is hard-coded however so you will not be able to trade techs from one to the other directly, they will all have to go through Lal. ( I played an all alien game set up by googlie and the Usurpers could not trade anything even with the other Usurper faction in the game). Knowing this, if you are still happy with your choices, I will set up the game tonight. If you are not happy then we could restart the draft from scratch (although I am intrigued by the idea of trying to beat 2 alien factions in human hands, I want to make sure we are both happy with our choices before we start)

My final choice would be the morganites

Ahh council-- might I make two related suggestions

1. I will not call planetary elections for governor-- Lal can never keep up with my 3 factions in votes so it would be unfairly easy for me to get the governorship fairly early ( I only have to find Lal and the AI)-- (I don't know how to disable elections so I don't think I can prevent the AI from calling them but I could look into this ),

2. We should agree that the empath guild is forbidden--

Both suggestions are designed so that there will be a purpose to trying to work to infiltrate each other. What do you think ?? Otherwise, infiltration by probing is almost taken out of the game

If you agree with these suggestions I will message googlie to find out if there is an easy way to disable the guild and the governorship. If you wish to leave both features in, I'm ok with that as well

[Curiosity]

You're right, I can't trade tech directly, but it's a relatively minor inconvenience. The only problem is if you kill Lal, but I could fall back on probing as a method of trading tech.

This could end up being a really surreal game...


As for removing infiltration from the game... Aliens aren't infiltrated by the council, so even though you should get the governorship you will still need to infiltrate them. If you also get the EG, then I still have to infiltrate you. If I get the EG then Lal has x3 votes, and I have an even shot at governor, which would help me rather more than you, in some ways. The only way infiltration can be completely removed is if *you* get the EG, and *I* get the governorship - which is highly unlikely, unless I'm on the verge of victory. And that's apparently a 20:1 shot.

So, I personally have no particular problems with either the council or EG being active, either in gameplay or fairness terms. I do suggest not activating the council until we've actually encountered all of the opposing players, as per standard rules. If the AI does it, then so be it.

However, I'm perfectly willing to do this, if you still feel it will improve the game. I believe that both effects can be achieved, but the game will have to be set up as a scenario to allow this, which will require a good CMN. You probably know better than me who's good at that, these days.

So, set up the game how you like, basically.

[Flubber]

OK in that case, I will leave things as normal. I was just offering . .. my theory is that 3 way trade and cooperation should counter-balance the aliens advantages.

Oh and I don't believe mongoose's odds for a second-- That conquest victory in 2234 over in the March challenge looks pretty darn good

One last question-- Any preference as to what the AI faction should be-- I'll set it at random unless you say something different

[Curiosity]

Thanks, so you're the one who's been downloading those files! Checking out the competition. Yeah, I was thinking of that game when I chose Usurpers. They look pretty similar to Spartans. Only, I suspect, 20-30 turns quicker for the same initial rush, in this instance.
Of course, I might just be saying that to make you all paranoid about defence..

No preference for the AI, the poor thing isn't going to be doing much. Random sounds good.