RAND2 - full, everyone send me an email

[Ygorl]

I'm going to be getting this game started. First, for any newcomers, here are the rules (courtesy of Panther, but modified a bit):

1. All nations will be randomly assigned. No one knows which player belongs to which nation. I am shooting for 17 players here.
2. No diplomacy of any kind. No in-game messages. No transferring of artifacts or gems or gold to any player. No external email allowed. I know this last item is impossible to truly enforce, so we would have to rely on the honor system here.
3. Name your deity after your nation (e.g "Jotunheim")

As for parameters:
indies 6
hard research
no renaming
Mods:
CB pretender mod (and *ONLY* the pretender mod) http://www.dominions-2.org/downloads...5separated.zip
Turin's hero mod http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...?Number=358700
graphs on
victory points equal to n/2 + 1 to win
anything not mentioned is as default

People might hate the idea of no mods; but, while I really like the idea of the CB mod, and think it's made a lot of good moves, I've yet to play a modded game where some unforseen trick or other didn't lead to a major imbalance. Sure, the base game has its imbalances too, but at least everyone's familiar with them. Besides, if Caelum starts getting too big (watch the score graphs!), attack Caelum. I am slightly negotiable on this, but I'd prefer to stick with it. I'd be pretty happy to throw in just Turin's hero mod, actually...

map will be Orania, with Panther's pre-set starting locations. This is good motivation for me to make a 17-player toroidal map, but not for this game.

The game will be TCP/IP, hosted by me. I'll manage anonymity by virtue of a little script I wrote to automatically assign the nations and email them out to the players. The other main drawbacks of TCP/IP games (that I know of) are lack of notification when things host and potential for file corruption to derail the game. The former will be handled by an email that goes out to everyone who wants it upon each hosting. The latter will (hopefully!) be solved by backups that happen each turn.

So... Who's interested?


Players:
(if you don't have an asterisk by your name, send me your email address over PM or to dig4fire at cox. (net) I will need it for the nation-choosing script. Also, if you don't want to receive turn updates over email, this would be a good time to indicate it)

*Ygorl - R'lyeh
*extramedium - Arcoscephale
*Folket - Ulm
*Jurri - Man
*WraithLord - Pangaea
*PashaDawg - Pythium
*Peacekeeper
*Tyrant - Marignon
*Shmonk - Ermor
*castigated - T'ien Ch'i
*Grizannor - Machaka
*iljah - Mictlan
*DaMilano
*shovah - Abysia
*The_Tauren13 - Caelum
*Dongwook - C'tis
*Cainehill - Vanheim

17 email addresses means a game. Nation assignments have been sent. Let me know if you decide you don't want to play, but don't tell me which nation you got!

[Folket]

I would like to join. No diplomacy seems like my stuff.

[Jurri]

I'm in!

Any comment on undead themes? There seems to be something of a trend against using them. I don't mind them myself, but their strengths are enhanced in no-diplo.

What sort of schedule? Without diplomacy turns are very fast to do until the micromanagement grind hits.

[Folket]

I think we should allow undead themes.

[Ygorl]

I think they should be fair game as well. Just, if you get Ermor, and choose Ashen Empire, be prepared for everyone around to mass priests and hit you early. Vice-versa, if you start near AE Ermor, you'd better build a lot of priests and hit them early.

The different nations unquestionably have different strengths at different times in the game; successful players will take advantage of their own strong times and abilities, and work to prevent others from doing the same.

[WraithLord]

I'm in.

I recommend in favor of the latest CB mod. IMO it fixes a lot of issues. But I'm also fine with no mods.

I'm also in favor of not banning any nation and/or strategy. Since there are score graphs dominion killing nations will be probably jumped, balancing their advantage.

[Jurri]

Well, in all of the no-diplos (all two of them ) I've played Ashen Empire Ermor wasn't jumped. (And indeed, it's usually recommended to cooperate with others to take them down, which is not as easily accomplished without communication.)

But, yes, I'm in favor of not banning anything too, upon reflection. Unmodded anything-goes sounds very fun indeed!

As for the map, I think wraparound is essential. Anyone know if there are other wraparounds available besides Orania and World map that accomodate a large number of players? (If we fall short there's Inland, any others?)