Long Time No See, Folks ...

[Wiglaf]

I don't remember your original question or care about your most recent one, or care about you honestly, but check out Rhyes and fall of civilization As for civil service and macemen, mace are often used in official civil proceedings

Maces are rarely used today for actual combat, but a large number of government bodies (for instance the British House of Commons, the U.S. Congress), universities and other institutions have ceremonial maces and continue to display them as symbols of authority. They are often paraded in academic, parliamentary or civic rituals and processions.

[regexcellent]

Is the sergeant of arms of the house/senate/whatever allowed to beat people with it under certain circumstances? cause that would be Metal as ****.

[Wiglaf]

Yes. little known fact: he can also be deployed in warzones, under the constitution. Rumor has it when the sergeant at arms encounters taliban fighters wielding handheld weapons on the battlefield, his effectiveness with the instrument suddenly increases by precisely 50.000%.

[Dinner]

Okay, change of strategy: how is "The Sword of Islam"? It's the most polished-looking medieval scenario I've dug up with my cursory search.

It was ok but not great where as the Viking expansion for Crusader Kings 2 is absolutely ****ing epic and was enough for me to buy the game with both the expansions and all the DLC. I have to admit as a Viking I take sick pride in kidnapping the daughters of nobles, killing all of their brothers, and forcing them to be my concubines so I can breed half Viking heirs to the lands I plunder.

My latest attempt is to play Zoroastrians attempting to retake Persia and reform the Zoroastrian Persian Empire and while it is easy to expand by conquering barbarians and even to take a good chunk of Persia, sadly, it isn't long before all the Muslims are pissed off at you and the order massive Jihads against your Zoroastrian Kingdom. This is made worse because the Muslims don't seem to fragment the way the Christian and Pagan states do and instead form these huge states with massive amounts of manpower. At least if you play a Christian state you get faster tech rates and the ability to call Crusades and even the Vikings can get lots of free men to rally to their side if their leader has a good reputation for delivering plunder but as a Zoroastrian you kind of get all the negatives but none of the positives plus you're on your own without any co-religionists to help you. ****, even the schismatic Greeks can sometimes get the Catholic hordes to help them out. Where as Zoroastrian Persia is stuck on the far edge of the map between the massive Muslim kingdoms and waiting for the Mongol horde to show up and turn everything they have into ashes.

[Dinner]

Not literally, but I did move on after Civ IV didn't excite me all that much.

Did you ever play it with all the expansions and patches? I agree at launch it wasn't super exiting but even then it was a diamond in the rough with all the right design cues. The expansions improved the game so much it easily because THE civ game to beat out of the entire series. That it was designed from the ground up for multiplayer gaming was what really put it ahead and the only Civ game which even came close in terms of multiplayer fun was CTP2.

[Dinner]

Greetings! I hope all is well with you, too, Grandpa Troll!

As for Civ II, I still have it on an iMac I purchased in 1999. Both computer and Civ II still work, too!

You could be like that guy who played one civ2 game for 10 years! Of course, after he declared his saved game unwinnable and posted the save someone won a world conquest in like 50 turns making everyone realize that putz had wasted 10 years of his life.

[Elok]

Well, Dinner, given that Zoroastrian Persia was wiped off the map about two minutes after Mohammad died IRL, it's more than fair to give you an uphill battle there. Zoroastrianism was so effectively persecuted that only portions of the Avesta--their holy book--are even available today. Maybe you'd have better luck as a Paulician/Bogomil?

Buying new games isn't really in the budget ATM, but thanks for the suggestion anyway.

EDIT: Also, that ten-year-guy was pretty obviously doing something wrong. Why was he still Communist centuries after everything valuable had been researched?

[Colonâ„¢]

Started a new game with aggressive AI. First opponent I meet: Ragnar. Second: Shaka. Third: Montezuma. This is going to be fun.

[Al B. Sure!]

It was ok but not great where as the Viking expansion for Crusader Kings 2 is absolutely ****ing epic and was enough for me to buy the game with both the expansions and all the DLC. I have to admit as a Viking I take sick pride in kidnapping the daughters of nobles, killing all of their brothers, and forcing them to be my concubines so I can breed half Viking heirs to the lands I plunder.

Playing Muslim has its sick charms. You should be having 4 wives who are all trying to kill each other to be first wife, producing 12+ kids, killing your brothers, etc.

[Dinner]

Playing Muslim has its sick charms. You should be having 4 wives who are all trying to kill each other to be first wife, producing 12+ kids, killing your brothers, etc.

Yeah, and that happens a lot. It kind of sucks when you take prisoners though because normally ransoming prisoners is a great way to get extra money but as soon as you grab one of the Muslim nobles in battle the younger brother tries to usurp the title from him and he has absolutely no interest in giving you ransom money to get him back. Sometimes you get lucky but more often than not they just sit in your dungeons until they die of old age.

[molly bloom]

Well, Dinner, given that Zoroastrian Persia was wiped off the map about two minutes after Mohammad died IRL, it's more than fair to give you an uphill battle there. Zoroastrianism was so effectively persecuted that only portions of the Avesta--their holy book--are even available today. Maybe you'd have better luck as a Paulician/Bogomil?

It's fair to say that the Zoroastrian priesthood did themselves no great favours during the reigns of the last few Sassanid emperors- vigorous persecutions of anyone suspected of being a Manichaeist, and fanatical adherence to some sterile kind of orthopraxy- not exactly winning over hearts and minds.

Still tsome of their descendants helped give us Nina Wadia and Persis Khambatta, and Parsees flourished in the Raj.

[Al B. Sure!]

It's fair to say that the Zoroastrian priesthood did themselves no great favours during the reigns of the last few Sassanid emperors- vigorous persecutions of anyone suspected of being a Manichaeist, and fanatical adherence to some sterile kind of orthopraxy- not exactly winning over hearts and minds.

Still tsome of their descendants helped give us Nina Wadia and Persis Khambatta, and Parsees flourished in the Raj.

Pretty sure he's the only Zoroastrian of note:

[molly bloom]

Pretty sure he's the only Zoroastrian of note:

Yeah he was hard core Parsee.

[regexcellent]

Freddie

The GoT mod for CK2 is stupid good.

Conquering the world as Ireland is kind of crazy.

[Sava]

For some reason, I love the idea of CK2 more than playing it. Just ask me. How's CK2? It's awesome!

But do I wanna play CK2?

Meh.