[SPOILERS] Vampires again... It looks like a bookstore! Alexis of the Calabim

[Ichabod]

Too sick to think of something funny right now.....................

[Mardoc]

Your start:

[Ichabod]

Reserved for Calabim analysis.

[Ichabod]

Reserved for Opponent Analysys.

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 0-3:[/SIZE]

It was starting to look like I wasn't going to update this thread, wasn't it? But I don't have any intention of keeping this a deserted place. The problem is that this new game started in a though time regarding time for updates. I had some problems that delayed my Khazad game reports and I needed to do the turn 50 related updates there. But for now on, this thread will be properly updated.

This is the actual screenshot of my starting position. Mardoc made some changes in the map after posting that screenshot up there. Notice how the lizardmen lair is gone.

two important things to notice. First, the Ring of Carcer with a lot of Bridgets, outlined in red. While I'm going to be a good guy (:neenernee) and delete all but one of them, it's very nice to have an Immortal hero right at your backdoor with the only civ that can actually get it in a multiplayer game. The second thing, outlined in blue, is that Ellimist, the Doviello player, has the same score as everybody else. That means he popped a tech from a hut in the first turn, since the Doviello doesn't get a starting tech. Lucky guy !

I moved the Settler to the plains hill. If the terrain north of the settler is decent enough, I'd settle in the PH. If not, I could go back to the starting point in the same turn. This is what the Settler revealed with his huge line of sight.

Good enough and Santa Monica was settled. Settling it revealed a closer source of Marble. Hello great library - quick philosophical libraries, + a civ that likely will beeline writing (in the way to Feudalism) = Great Library! Why Santa Monica? Guess! It's easy enough to discover. Winner gets a cookie!

Production started on a worker and teching agriculture.

Warrior went to explore East. It seems that a small patch of land before the coast, so not much exploring to do. He'll dicover what's there and will go back to defend the capital. The scout head south, wanting to go west after that.

Turn 0 demographics show that no one is teching something with a prerequisite while working a commerce tile. Since the Lanun ARE beelining Fishing, they aren't working a tile with commerce. Interesting.

The game settings have some interesting things. Living world, blessing of Amatheon (which explains the Cotton bonanza near my capital). It's nice to see some green (to know what I mean, report to the Khazad spoiler thread in FFH PBEM VI).

Scout found a hut on turn 1. Got some gold out of it. 33 gold to be more exact. Not as lucky as Mist, which also popped a tech!

Scout kept exploring and he found a very nice place for a second city. Settling on the cotton is not a problem, since an aristocracy farm is better then a cotton plantation. It's close to the capital, good food, average production, lots of commerce potential -> almost perfect ! Unfortunately, the wine under the Odio's Prision cannot be used at all - cannot improve, cannot settle on top of .

If you take a closer look at the above screenshot, you'll see that bob got a hut tech and Ellimist got another hut tech! Damn, this guy is surely being compensated for the fact that he's playing the Doviello! We popped a hut with the capital borders that expanded in the end of turn. Got a map... Well, we are playing the vamps after all...

More good city sites revealed by the warrior. Fast expansion will be key to the sucess in this game.

Turn 3 exploration revealed something very, very strange. Say hello to some ice floodplains! Seriously, I cannot get a normal map in these games! At least it seems to be a 3 food tile... I wonder if I can imporve it... I'll have to make a test. There's also a barrow. Should I explore it next turn? It's distant enough from my capital...

Turn 3 demographics make me worried:

15 GNP? Seriously? My first thought was "bob popped fishing from a hut". That would be almost a game winning move, unfortunately. But, it doesn't make sense. 15 GNP, let's study it. Take 2 from culture, we have 13. If Bob got fishing, his next tech won't have prerequisite bonus. 8 commerce from palace, 1 from city center -> he'd need to be working a 4 commerce tile, without the financial bonus, which is not possible. So, someone must be working a 2 commerce tile with a prerequisite bonus tech -> 13 GNP without the culture, which is 8 commerce from the palace, 1 from the city center, 2 from a tile and 2 from the prerequisite. Now that I think of it, it's probably bob, since speeding fishing is very important for the Lanun.

The startegy plan will have to wait for a later post. I just have time for this short report.

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 4:[/SIZE]

I've decided to do a turn by turn report of this particular game. Yes, I have to recover the lurker interest after having delayed this thread so much. After all,winning the game is good, but winning the lurker interest battle is way better :neenernee!

Unfortunately, there's not too much to report. The most interesting thing was exploring the barrow with the scout. The result wasn't nice, but it's not the end of the world. The scout got the crazed promotion, which gives a chance to the unit get enraged. Enraged units get +1 movement and +20% strenght, but they are controlled by the AI and play in a very agressive way. Of course, there's a goblin fort full of fortified goblin archers just in sight, very convinient! Well, maybe I luck out and the die roll goes my way. According to the manual, the chances of getting enraged are only 3%, so maybe the scout will live some more turns.

Here's my crazy litle scout:

I popped the barrow, despite being a risky move, for a couple of reasons. First, barrows spawn skeletons and skeletons are annoying, especially when you are getting yourself set to do a very big farmers gambit. Yup, vampire farmers for the win. Don't tell the Doviello, though ! Hah, if the techs the Doviello popped from huts were crafting and Mining... Well, there will be blood, that's for sure... Hopefully Lanun blood :neenernee! Of course, the statistics shows that there's a very high possibility of the dwarves being rushed. Guess everyone knows why that is .

Ah, I was talking about why to pop the barrow. It was far enough from the capital that any nasties wouldn't be a sure kill. It wasn't the most prudent move, but at least it worked out remotely well.

The demographics:

Nothing very special. I forgot to comment on the high soldiers number. It's the doviello with their hero Lucian. A strenght 4 axeman with bonus against melee, if I remember correctly. While he's a nice early bonus, it's very risky to have him wandering outside the borders, since a gripphon or a spider could mean his demise.

Our beautiful capital. No one wants to guess why I anmed it Santa Monica? C'mon, lurkers! This thread definetely needs some love!

I just discovered that having the pool of tears in a city BFC gives a +1 happiness for it. That's certainly nice, meaning a very early size 6 second city. I'm pretty excited with this game! That's why I'm trying to schedule a blitz session. Lots of fun times ahead, that's for sure!

[Selrahc]

Our beautiful capital. No one wants to guess why I anmed it Santa Monica? C'mon, lurkers! This thread definetely needs some love!

Starting location in Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines?

[Ichabod]

Starting location in Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines?

Yes, you are right! I told it was going to be easy.

Here's your pize:



So, anyone here played Vampire the Masquarede: Bloodlines? I recently finished it and I enjoyed playing it. This kind of RPGs are always the same thing (everybody has some unfinished business that needs to be taken care of, the quests are all very similar), so it's not that incredible of a game, but it's certainly nice to play and the story/different clans add a good amount of depth to it.

I played with a toreador. After I finished, i started a game with a Malkavian, played like half hour and it seemed to be a lot funny. Maybe I'll do it some day.

[Selrahc]

So, anyone here played Vampire the Masquarede: Bloodlines? I recently finished it and I enjoyed playing it. This kind of RPGs are always the same thing (everybody has some unfinished business that needs to be taken care of, the quests are all very similar), so it's not that incredible of a game, but it's certainly nice to play and the story/different clans add a good amount of depth to it.

Yeah.

Very nice setting, interesting characters, some fun missions. Some boring missions and a pretty bad game engine as well, so it's a mixed bag. I'm always a little sad about it, because I think it had a lot of potential that didn't quite get fully played out. The opening third of the game was superb, but it doesn't quite develop beyond a few flashes.

Playing as a Malkavian is a unique experience. Give it a try some time. Watch out for the TV or the stop signs.

[Ichabod]

Yeah.

Very nice setting, interesting characters, some fun missions. Some boring missions and a pretty bad game engine as well, so it's a mixed bag. I'm always a little sad about it, because I think it had a lot of potential that didn't quite get fully played out. The opening third of the game was superb, but it doesn't quite develop beyond a few flashes.

Playing as a Malkavian is a unique experience. Give it a try some time. Watch out for the TV or the stop signs.

I played with some unofficial patches, so I haven't suffered that much with bugs. It seemed to be a very bad problem in the early days of the game.

But I agree. The game had a lot of potential, but he didn't fulfill all of it. This seems to be a recurrent problem in the game industry. Small companies try to do good games, but they get owned by lack of resources/time. On the other hand, big companies don't care about doing good games, only games that sell.

I have been having a lot of difficulty to have fun playing single player games these days. Multiplayer is still fun, since human opponents always add a lot to the game and the fun factor.