Next AU course

[conmcb25]

Ok so when do we decide and who makes the decision?

Im almost done with my SECOND replay of 502.

Time to try something new

[Conqueror]

Anything goes as long as it can be played with C3C version 1.22

Space win sounds interesting, havent done that since CFC gotm 21 (ha traitorous behaviour, playing other forums games )

[Jawa Jocky]

If we pillage our neighbors they may not let us play peacefully later on. Just a thought.

Hey I just had another one.

The late game pillage challenge (not a requirement, and not a course theme. Just extra credit). Your goal would be to pillage the capital of any civ that starts building a spaceship.

[Jawa Jocky]

I'm on a roll now. I could potientially even come up with an idea somebody likes.

Pillage, Pillage, Pillage.

Pillage in the early game.
Pillage a Wonder city in the middle ages. Something that would severly wound an AI.
Pillage durning the space race. Well to prevent the race really.

[ducki]

I typically separate "raze" from "pillage".
Just so we don't misunderstand each other, I've been meaning "pillage" literally - as in "destroy tile improvements".

I'm not sure if that's what you mean, JJ, or not. Could go either way.

[Aeson]

Don't forget the Zulu. Although they might be a bit over the top in this application.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Jawa Jocky

Pillage a Wonder city in the middle ages. Something that would severly wound an AI.
Pillage durning the space race. Well to prevent the race really.

How about, "Look for other situations later in the game where pillaging would be useful, such as..."? I don't like the idea of setting up specific pillaging goals beyond the early part of the game because they may or may not make sense depending on how the game unfolds. But encouraging players to look for opportunities would provide a potential for learning without pushing players to do anything that they don't think makes sense given whatever situation they find themselves in.

Nathan

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Aeson
Don't forget the Zulu. Although they might be a bit over the top in this application.

What do you mean, "over the top?" I'd say the Zulus should definitely be included if we want to see the game's best pillaging UUs in action.

[Aeson]

I just meant that Impi are a more effective (or maybe I should say eaiser to use) unit for pillaging. Impi can defend well and move well, which makes them perfect pillagers. The other units benefit from either one or the other of those categories.

[Theseus]

I'm with Nathan... pillaging as the theme, period. The fun part will be seeing the creativity of everyone's different application of the theme!!

/me is still in *awe* of Aeson's example.

[Risa]

Good points, ducki.

However, there're already some courses that determine play style, for example, AU203, AU208 and AU210, and they provide great fun as well.

The point is, not everyone has many experiences to every play style. To some people, certain styles don't even make sense in terms of strategy, thus they never had planned to try them out. If there's no such restriction, we'll probably never get their real opinion (that draws from actual play experiences) about those styles.

In my eyes, pure builder style (such as Sir Ralph) certainly fits that category. We have played enough conquests games, yet no one can convince the other side about resources scarcity. So let's all sample his pain, play in such style, and see how painful it actually is. Then we could hopefully draw some conclusions that is agreed by majority.

[Jawa Jocky]

Originally posted by ducki
I typically separate "raze" from "pillage".

[JimiD]

Probably a bit late now, the pillaging idea has developed too far, but how about trying out some of the ideas for getting the AI to use Armies (to see if they are worth using to generate AI armies in C3C in an AU Mod, ie make the decision after the game, see it as a diversion from the development of the AU Mod).

Antrine (over in the Conquests forum) has a game set up and is seeing lots of AI armies in the field, and finding some interesting challenges along the way (summary of my understanding of his mod: palace spits armies every 15 turns, and no doubt some other tweaks).

While we can all get hold of his game and try it out, it would be interesting to have many different opinions on the topic at the same time.

Just to level the field, give the AI two armies to start with, they appear to sit on defensive duty in the capital anyway, and so the AI gets an aggresive army at the same time as we do. Makes taking capitals hard, but hey you are going to have a lot of armies to do it.

A bit extreme? but fun: the whole of the AU debating how to deal with lots of AI armies.


Oh yeah. They pillage too.

(i am struggling to get the energy up to finish AU502, as I had to reinstall C3C, and need a game with a little 'sparkle' in it to get interested again. - got everyone off the continent and islands, suicide galleys are just that, the RNG is paying me pack for a good war, so while everyone else, so while waiting for viable seaworthy ships I have a lot of tile improvement management to catch up on....)

[alexman]

Pirate, we already have a solution for AI Armies in the AU mod, althout not as drastic as what you suggest. Let's see how that works.

Anyway, the popular choice for AU 503 seems to be a pillaging theme.

Unfortunately, activity in the AU is not exactly at its peak, so I think it's best if everyone plays the same civilization. We won't learn much if there are only one or two people who submut DARs for a civilization. This is a comparison game, after all, and comparisons work best if everyone plays the same civ.

I will set up a poll to decide the civ choice between Incas, Sumerians, Greeks, Aztecs, and Zulu.

[nbarclay]

Even if we only had one person playing each civ, I think we would learn more playing different civs than playing the same one. If we play different civs, we can learn about using our own civ's UU for pillaging in our own game and about using other civs' UUs for pillaging from other people's games. But if we all play the same civ, we'll only really learn about using one civ's UU to pillage. Further, since the Jag and Chasqui have rather different pillaging styles from the Enkidu and Hoplite, we would only learn about one of the two major styles. (Or, if we played the Zulus with their Impi, we would be able to borrow from either style, which would undermine our learning about the purer forms of either style.)

In regard to the comparison game issue, I think we'll be able to figure out what differences are due to playing different civs and what are due to other factors. Indeed, the discussion of which are which could itself be instructive for less experienced players.

If we were inclined to play a pillaging game with each UU, it would probably make more sense to all play the same civ in each game. But since this is probably going to be our only AU game with a heavy emphasis on early pillaging, I'd like to explore as much of the pillaging issue as we can from it. I'd like for us all to get at least second-hand experience with the capabilities of and strategies for using all of the UUs with special early pillaging potential.

One other factor worth considering is that if we offer a choice of civs, some players may want to play at least the early part of the game with more than one. That would provide an entire additional dimension to our exploring and comparing the pillaging capabilities of the various UUs.

Nathan