PBEM46 tech thread

[Old Harry]

I've been finding myself lying awake wondering which order to send in units in this and other games. It's not healthy...

I'd be happy to see how the war goes and get the lurkers to call the result (winner/loser/tie/nobody wins), it wouldn't feel right for someone else to take over your game when you're this close... But as Dhal says it's only a game...

[Azza]

I'm not fussed either way. My own little goals are irrelevant to the major outcome of this game unless luck was seriously on my side.

[TheHumanHydra]

I've been finding myself lying awake wondering which order to send in units in this and other games. It's not healthy...

That's been me for several months. I have nightmares about it too.

... It's cats, then cannon, then any cav, then rifles & grens. I simmed it.

I'd be happy to see how the war goes and get the lurkers to call the result (winner/loser/tie/nobody wins), it wouldn't feel right for someone else to take over your game when you're this close... But as Dhal says it's only a game...

I like this idea (in a couple turns once major combat's concluded). They should have adequate knowledge from two very well-reported threads as well as novice's tool to look at every single tile in the game. We could also give them our final saves to open up. Lurkers, would you be willing to do this?

As I've said so very often, thank-you guys for your understanding. I mean that.

[TheHumanHydra]

Oh, I almost forgot - I'm on a retreat tonight to Sunday night. Take your time.

[TheHumanHydra]

All right, I'm done. Old Harry just razed Aquanauts, my favourite city, from the fog. The double-irony of this is that I moved its newly-produced infantry out of it last turn because I "knew" it couldn't be attacked, and that I had been expecting amphibious attacks from Azza immediately he researched Astronomy, and had a wave of ironclads coming out of all my coastal cities timed to block all approaches thereto precisely the right turn. Anyway, I've conducted all pre-planned military moves, wildly expending all my promotions 'cause there's no point saving them if I'm not going to play another turn. I had all my civilian units "wait" on the tiles they were standing on, issuing no new orders (none had any outstanding). I executed all pre-planned drafts and whips (a lot), then automated all my cities 'cause I didn't feel like doing micro. This means several intended builds and growths did not occur and all my tile assignments were wiped out, if they look weedy. In short, I did everything I'd planned already and left the rest. I don't think my civ has a password, if anyone wants to look around, or you can use novice's tool. Old Harry, you can conduct whatever response you would like to my moves, such as destroying my main stack, or just leave it. Please do open the save to see my secondary attack(s). Before signing off I would like to note - as I did in advance in my thread - that I did not believe any of these attacks would be successful, either the main or the secondary, so if they are destroyed or stopped, I told you so.

I would like to say this game was fun, and while it was at some points, it has largely been an incredibly stressful, frustrating, and disappointing endeavour. Be prepared for some awful rants in my thread. That said, I am glad I at least tried Civ IV multiplayer, even if I discovered I wasn't up to it - in more ways than one. I would like to thank those who have helped me in some way or another, such as BRick, who played the first turn for me according to my instructions due to technical difficulties on my end, and NobleHelium and others who provided technical or mechanical clarifications. I would also like to thank all the lurkers who followed the game and my thread in unanticipated numbers, and who stuck with me in spite of said awful rants. I would like to thank Azza, Old Harry, Serdoa, and Dhalphir for their patience in dealing with me and my delays, and their constancy in dealing with in-game situations I created. Thank-you to BRick for the map, which was excellent, to Lego for graciously allowing me to play this game when his internet failed him, to Catwalk for trying to dedlurk me, and for everyone who urged me to go with a serious leader/civ pick at the start instead of a random one, and thereby produced the game that has unfolded. Lastly and most simply, thank-you again to the other players for the game, regardless of the outcome. If I have forgotten to thank anyone for anything, I apologize, and thank-you.

I am not sure to what extent I will be involved on this site in future. If my presence tails off, I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome to the community and say that I sincerely enjoyed your company.

I welcome questions from the lurkers and other players in my thread or here. I welcome criticism also, but if you do criticize, please land your blows softly, for I am already painfully aware of many things I did wrong in this game. I will endeavour to read the other players' threads over the next couple days, though I may not comment on anything - you will find my thread commented on most things most thoroughly, save in the earliest stages of the game.

A big thank-you to everyone again; another apology (in advance) for the negativity in my thread, and for not sticking around to finish things. I do think the game is basically over, the victory going to Old Harry save on the off-chance my secondary attack(s) would have worked. More on this in my thread. Lastly, a handshake to you guys, Old Harry, Azza, Serdoa, Dhalphir. Good game; well-played; I salute you. Talk to you later,

THH

[Dhalphir]

a full 21 gun salute for hydra, well played

[TheHumanHydra]

21 is my favourite number; how'd you know?

[Old Harry]

Thanks for playing THH, I can't wait to read your thread - if it's as well-written and entertaining as your other contributions to RB I know I'm in for a treat. I won't start until I've played this last turn, but if you're up for it I'd like to do some post-match analysis when I have.

I know what you're saying about stressful and frustrating - until the point where I gave up and just started playing for fun (I'll let you guess when that was) I was struggling with that too. I think you've done a lot to be proud of - decisively winning an offensive war against a player of Serdoa's calibre is nothing to be sniffed at! Then I got very lucky that your army was turned against Azza rather than me.

If you made anything like the number of mistakes I made in this game I'm sure you can learn a lot and come back stronger, but yeah, if it's too stressful don't do it!

I didn't realise you had Steel Dhal? Anyway thanks for filling in and I'll add my remaining cannons to that salute...

Thanks Azza for a good game - I can't wait to find out more about your Keshik attack on Serdoa and the war with Hydra. Also I wonder what you made of me gifting the MOM city back to you?

Finally thanks to Serdoa for being a good sport when I broke the rules - that's the sort of thing that can cause a lot of bitterness and you were a gent about it. I think I want to stick to pitboss from now on because of how hard it is to reliably play warfare in PBEM! I also can't wait to read about your unorthodox opening...

Edit: How could I forget thanking Cornflakes for very helpful early lurking, Fintourist for scaring the life out of me, Noble for countless clarifications, mechanics answers and tellings-off and most importantly Bigger for some brilliant support and much-needed encouragement.

[Old Harry]

By the way my password is Harry if anyone wants to have a go at my turn/look at my CIV after Dhal plays

[Dhalphir]

am I meant to be playing the turn? Not sure if we officially ended.