Strat Forum PBEMs

[BRC]

Realistically, that slow game would work best for me too. I'm in with Konquest and Ducki, if that is ok.

[ducki]

If I can fit into the "normal" game, that's cool.
I didn't want to steal players from the thread.

Hell, I just wanted to not overcommit, since I can't promise a turn every day.
Now I feel a bit of a heel.

[Harovan]

I will gladly participate. I can play after work (6pm-midnight GMT or 1pm-7pm Apolyton time/EST) and at weekends almost fulltime. I like fast games, have enough lame duck games running, so please don't stick me in a slow group.

I'm strongly against AIs in the games. They do only bad for MP games, whore maps and techs around and due to their weakness in the early game their presence could be a grow-and-extort bonus for one player and their absence a penalty for the other. No AIs please. It's MP.

[trickey]

Im in.

[Dominae]

I would like to propose a "soft 1/turn day" rule; basically, you try your very best to play at least 1 turn per day, and hopefully post a reason on a thread here on 'Poly why you expect to hold up for more.

I would love to have all the regulars on the strat forum involved, but the harsh reality of PBEM games is that they take forever to play. Anything less than a reasonable pace would not really be worth even the minimal effort for me.


Dominae

[ducki]

I'm willing to try to do 1 per day, and if I can't keep up, I'll retire and start a slowbie game with anyone else that can't keep up.

I also want to play with the Strat forum regulars - I'm sure I'll learn some great lessons - but am not willing to hold the game up because my schedule gets in the way.

[BRC]

I can do one turn a day, but I won't be able to sit down on the weekends and get through 10 turns on a Saturday. I usually have to work then, with school and all. But one a day is ok.

[alexman]

I too, don't want to be in a slow game. Playing three turns per day, for example, is fine by me.

The AU has never really been about competition, it has been about learning. In this spirit, I would like to have players keep a log (and screenshots) of their progress, with the intention of posting an AAR in the strategy forum. After it has ended, each game would get its own thread, and everyone would benefit from reading about the game from all players' angles. Ideally, posters in the strategy forum would comment on the lessons learned from the game.

I don't necessarily agree that all the games should be without the AI, but it's OK with me either way. Sure it's unbalancing to have an AI neighbor while others don't, but so is getting stuck on a jungle island or next to a human neighbor who wants to archer-rush you, while others have two cattle next to their capital and a cooperative trade partner. I think the AI is an integral part of Civ3 strategy.

However, if we do play without AI, I would like to see the following changes, which add strategic depth but could not be added to the standard AU mod because they handicap the AI:

1) Add wheeled ability to Tank, Panzer, Mech. Infantry, Modern Armor, Artillery, Radar Artillery. This was recently removed from the mod because it handicaps the AI (just like continents do).

2) Increase movement of radar artillery by 1. Also removed from the AU mod because the AI doesn't know how to effectively use artillery.

3) Ground Artillery units back to zero defensive strength. This was added in the SP AU mod to protect the AI from having its artillery captured.

4) Submarines and AEGIS cruisers can carry 1 Cruise Missile. The AI doesn't know to load units with the AI strategy "Cruise Missile".

5) Ironclads use 2 movement points to enter Ocean, and cost (original) 80 shields. Frigates have one extra movement point (5). So the player can choose between a fast, lightly-armed ship versus a slower, heavily-armed one. This used to be part of the AU mod, but the AI did not handle escorting duties well, so we removed it.

[Dominae]

Great suggestion about the game logs, alexman. This way, when I face my humiliating defeat, I'll get something out of it (hopefully!).

The changes you mention are all natural. Perhaps a PBEM version of the mod could be made, for use strictly with all-human games.

The artillery change would be a welcome sight, to tell you the truth. Although I agree with the reasons to do this in SP games, I'm not happy about winning defensive battles with artillery units alone. It takes quite a while for the AI to knock out 20 Artillery from an otherwise undefended city. My AU203 game is proof.


Dominae

[Harovan]

Originally posted by alexman
5) Ironclads use 2 movement points to enter Ocean, and cost (original) 80 shields. Frigates have one extra movement point (5). So the player can choose between a fast, lightly-armed ship versus a slower, heavily-armed one. This used to be part of the AU mod, but the AI did not handle escorting duties well, so we removed it.

Changes are fine with me, although there is a better solution for the galley and ironclad problem. In fact, historically both were ships for coastal regions only, none of them was designed for open seas. So why not add the wheeled attribute to both and make ocean impassable for wheeled units. This would make it completely impossible to enter ocean with galleys and ironclads.

[alexman]

If you do that to galleys, then the Great Lighthouse becomes almost useless for discovering new continents. That's historically accurate, but it's a big change, hence probably not for the AU mod.

But your suggestion is certainly an option for ironclads, although the unit in the game is meant to include early battleships (which were better at ocean crossings), especially since we moved it to later in the tech tree.

[jshelr]

Strat Forum PBEM One

Sir Ralph
Alexman
Dominae
Trickey

I've emailed these four for the first game. We will see if PBEM chokes on the AU mod or something and wait another day or so for others to respond to the first invitation, and then start game(s) with the remaining players.

If these four guys are ready, I would be happy to act as moderator for the first game and hope we get a couple of people to do this necessary function for other games. My sense is that a tiny map, with the largest land pangea setting and no AI civs, probably on Emperor, will be a good framework. Whatever players decide, however.

If each player sends all saves to the moderator, as well as to the next player, and if we start a thread to post the turns for each game, we can make the games go well. The moderator can play turns for people who are absent temporarily.

Another moderator service that helps is to examine the starting positions and advocate a restart if someone gets completely screwed. With a significant time commitment needed to complete, it is to everybody’s best interest to have a reasonably competitive start.

Game players should decide the order of play among themselves. It is a critical decision because the right order makes the game go smoothly and the wrong order makes it bog down.

To keep sensitive email addresses private, you can contact each other initially via personal message or using the email option on the tread.

[alexman]

Thanks jshelr!

I made a thread for this first game in the PBEM forum.

[Dominae]

Yep, thank jshelr! Now we need to get you involved in one of these...


Dominae

[jshelr]

As our hero's right hand man says in Gladiator, Not yet. Not yet.