King of the Isle (finished)

[Herode]

IndyPendant said:
Heh. Well, speaking for myself Twan? If that rather extreme 'con' case of 3CVPs somehow happened...that strikes me as one *heckuva* fun-looking game! ; )

+1

And I will try C'tis.

[Zeldor]

What is the deadline for confirmation?

[AlgaeNymph]

Twan said:
II was going to propose : "castle building on the isle not allowed", but as events may make a castle appear it's not necessarily a good/enforceable idea... so I have another proposal : I add a watchtower on the isle, and it would be destroying it to build a better castle there that will be forbidden

I wouldn't worry about castles as there are all kinds of ways to reduce their advantage. Large garrisons are vulnerable to Beckoning, Flames from the Sky, Leprosy, Lure of the Deep, and Melancholia. Essential commanders (e.g, nature mages, engineers, etc) are vulnerable to assassination spells like Earth Attack and Seeking Arrow (ask Janlm about that last spell), as well as assassination in general. All this is not to mention units and items that ease besieging a castle.

[Twan]

The problem I see with a (good) castle on the isle is more if the province is very contested (i.e 4 or 5 players owning neighbouring provinces and fighting to be the one taking the isle). In this situation, a siege can be very hard to end, as the competition between other players can help a lot the sieged one (ie : player A siege B, player C, D E try to take the province, C wins but after the 2 or 3 battles he had to fight the surviving army is too small to breach the walls, next turn same situation, etc...). An army with nature mages and good units may resist very well in this kind of situation, especially as spells cast on the province by all players but one will affect the sieging army first (iirc only the player who is sieging can affect defenders with spells, all spells cast by third parties rather affect the bessieger - but I may be wrong).

Of course diplomacy may solve the problem, but as there is only one VP I think it would be hard for all the wanabe bessiegers to find a agreement.

[mathusalem]

Hi Caelum for me

[Twan]

Finally it seems spells cast on a bessieged castle by third parties can affect the two sides (it's I think a system like for targetting with "none" priority, the chance to affect an army is probably based on its number of units compared to the other one).

About a "no castle" rule I'm after all neutral : we may consider that if someone succeed to keep the isle a sufficient number of turns to make one he desserves to have it (also as the province is mountain/forest/farm and I think only the worst castle can be built by each nation, most are only able to make an hill fort or forest rempart there). The isle owner will probably be ganged by all who can, so allowing him to make a castle isn't a too big advantage finally.

Another point I think we should discuss : do I let Pharaex as he is, nerf it a little or a lot ? (if I let Pharaex like he is currently, d6/e6/s6 with gems the encounter may be really hard for the firsts to try, and it may end in a waiting game if nobody dare to be this one).

When his generals just do their jobs (very good thugs causing lots of casualties, but killable by any large army or army with mages) it's near to be impossible to kill the sphynx without medium+ level magic, and being very lucky with an ethearal crossbow shot or similar spell (as he has good mr, base prot 36, casts luck+be usually, and eventually earth or astral mr spell), and once players have the required levels/gear, Pharaex will be able to cast a lot of destructive astral combo spells like neither darts, gift from heaven, etc. Also, even if "independants are routed" in round 20, with all the generals and crushers destroyed, they may win if Pharaex is not killed (I had a very unlucky battle in a test game in which he survived alone 20+ rounds after the message and my army was finally routed...).

So I may... suppress his gems to exhaust him faster, and/or reduce his levels or not (but if I reduce astral without suppressing it he would be too vulnerable to magic duels) or both (I think E6/D6 but no astral would make him more killable by normal armies ; or I may let him S6 but reduce or suppress earth - death is more needed as the undeads he summons are the only chaff of the encounter). "Not" may be fun too (more a challenge to win the isle) but if he is lucky in the fight may make it untakable for a very long time (would be fun anyway if he remains the only "king of the isle" up to turn 60+ -an heckuva of scenarized maps with sphynxs like indyependant would say).

[Twan]

Zeldor said:
What is the deadline for confirmation?

I continue my tests and will release the version of the map we are going to use this week end, then ask for pretenders. So it would be cool to know if we are full or search some other players around this date, and have all nation choices in the beginning of next week.

Ideally the game should start the 1/12 (so we can do several of the fast first turns in the week-end).

[IndyPendant]

I just thought I'd mention I've been taking the time until this game starts to experiment with builds for MA Ermor on the Geometry map. I haven't gotten very far in any games yet--at most, 10-20 turns, just to see how the early game plays out--but I have to say, I'm really liking this map. It appeals to my sense of symmetry. : )

A couple suggestions, though: I've become a fan of graphs off. Can we play this game without graphs? And this is probably unnecessary, but I assume we will be playing with renaming on...

[Zeldor]

Twan:

I am getting killed in 3 of 3 MP games I am in, so I am sure I will have time for that game I still don't know what nation...

One thing I would maybe add on that map are some AI garrisons with SCs that you'd need to bypass before meeting with other players.

[LDiCesare]

I think Pharaex is ok like he is now. I only tested once, but he got butchered all right. Even against the ai, though, it's going to be a bit tough to defend the isle as you can get it early but at a cost. Nice map and concept.
I'll definitely play Eriu, looks like I can manage to at least survive for a few turns with them.