Next AU course

[Rhothaerill]

So...AU502 was a great course and many people have played it, but it seems to be waning in interest now. Time to start discussion about a new course.

Burning Questions:
1. What kind of game do we want to play?
2. Who will design the course?
3. Are there going to be more updates to the AU mod before we play?

Let's get the discussion going.

[Rhothaerill]

Here is the link to a bunch of ideas that were suggested back when I created AU210 UN Peacekeepers.

AU course suggestions

[Dominae]

Sort of esoteric, but: "Psychotic Wonder Building" (named after one of Aeson's thread).

The goal would be to hard build as many Great Wonders as possible yourself. Sort of like in Mesopotamia, but with the standard game and without VPs.


Dominae

[alexman]

I would like to see a course with the Sumerians, to study the following:

• Agricultural civ without a fresh water start: how will you overcome it? Can you make the most of the food increase after you exit Despotism?
• The Enkidu Warrior in SP. Is it too powerful?

Of course a Sumerian game without a fresh water start could be combined with another theme as well.

There are a few things that need to be settled in the AU mod before we start (balance of governments and AI Armies being the most important).

I would be happy to design AU 503. My time available for playing has temporarily decreased, and I still have AU 502 to finish.

[Jawa Jocky]

I should finish 502 this weekend so I'll be ready

1) I always push for an idea that loses out to another one. So I'll vote for Total War Forever since I'd never play that.

2) Not me. I takes me over a month to play a game so designing one would take 1/2 a year.

3) I always play stock because I can never keep the rule changes straight in my head

[ducki]

Alexman, I'm not sure your idea needs anything else - I think it could even be called The (True) Power of Agricultural.
As I said in one of the AU502 threads, I think I tried to have too many themes in 502, making it less focused on learning and more of a survey.

Either way, I'm looking forward to a new game, though I would like to see at least the Army/MilAcad and the Government Balance issues addressed, especially since one of the reasons for putting off the Army change was the potential for a fix in 1.20/1.22, which diidn't materialize.

New course! New course! Wheeeeeeeee!!!

[Aqualung71]

How many of you like to play as Korea, that honourable civ with the rudely-named leader?

What about testing out the power of the Korean UU, the Hwach'a? Its only advantage over Cannon is that it doesn't need Iron....but wait, it also has lethal bombardment! How much of a tactical advantage does that provide? What if we are presented with a map with no Iron within easy reach? Our only offensive units woud be Archers and Horsemen, and the much maligned Longbowman, until Cavalry appear. Can we use these units to mount a strong enough early offensive against our defensively strong neighbours Carthage, Greece and possible Rome, to capture their Iron, or must we wait until we have Cavalry and then use our UU in large numbers to obliterate all resistance? Can we even last that long, with only Spearmen as our primary defensive unit until we get Gunpowder? Does the 3 defence value of the wonder enabled Crusaders now look more attractive? Must diplomacy be Korea's primary defensive weapon until its scientists are able to unlock the secrets of the Hwath'a and its generals can use it to unleash an Industrial age GA? Will we divert from the upper "powerhouse economy" tech branch in the Middle Ages to secure our defences with Musketmen and then beeline for the all-powerful Metallurgy/Military Tradition? Or should we take a chance and hope that our Universities will give us enough research power to get to the the Industrial age quickly, and the RNG will be kind enough to give us Nationalism as our free tech? Do we bypass the Democracy opportunity and out of military necessity push on towards Communism and take over the world? Are we North Koreans or South Koreans?

Is the Korean UU completely useless? Does it make Korea the one civ that everybody avoids? Or does it have some hidden power that most players do not yet realise? Can we turn the trait combination of Commerical/Scientific to our advantage in the meantime? Do you all turn your nose up when you read this? If so, why?

I'm also interested in Alexman's Sumerian idea, although we played an Agricultural civ in AU502 so perhaps we should have something different this time.

[Krill]

The past two AU courses were based around the civ traits. I think we should continue along this line, so I propose that we check a industrial civ next. Check out how the nerf helps to bring it back into line with the other traits. Maybe Carthage, or the Maya, since both have on of the new traits. If we pick the Maya we can (hopefully) resolve the issue of the javelin thrower.

[Risa]

Another idea:
We all arguing about resources scarcity huits builder as they can't get enough resources to construct spaceship without war. So in next course let's play the builder's way - No taking or razing AI's cities by force. Cutural flipping and propaganda are allowed. No other limits. We shall see if it is possible to launch spaceship in that way.

[alexman]

Combining ideas from several suggestions in this thread, how about this:

• Play as Maya without a fresh water start.
• Build as many Wonders as you can.
• Try to use the Javelin Thrower to harass the AI and/or harvest barbarian slaves, but no taking or razing AI cities.
• Win by spaceship

[Krill]

That would be evil, especially on Emperor+ (for us mere humans, Alexman)

The first three points are fare, but one clarification: can we take cities with other units? Or, as is suggested above, no taking AI cities FULL STOP?

[Nor Me]

For those conditions, I'd far prefer Sumeria.

Enkidu harassment sounds perfect for no taking cities. I wouldn't like to be without Religious or Scientific either.

We certainly wouldn't get a good handle on Industrious from a game like that.

[Krill]

What are the targets for the next game? I'd rather aim at a single one (Resource scarcity/ Power of Industriousness (sp?)/ or the javelin thrower) than lump threm all in to one game.

It makes sense to keep the aims separate, so pick one point from above, not all four.

[Tall Stranger]

I tend to agree with Krill. The game is starting to sound like a complicated bet ("Win while playing underwater, using only your left hand and balancing a stack of 20 dinner plates on your head.")

Remember that the point is to learn something about the game. I have no idea what we could point to as a lesson from that complicated a game.

[alexman]

Is it that hard to see the builder theme here?

Don't conquer cities, build as many Wonders as you can, and try to win by spaceship, to show how much the luxury shortage affects that style of play.

The fact that you are an Agricultural civ far from fresh water, and taking advantage of your UU are not artificial restrictions, and merely add interest to the early game.