Hi everyone,

We're looking for someone to settle a problem in our PBEM. City trading is off, but one of my cities has revolted to Dreylin and he wants to know if he can keep it or if he has to raze it (he has already accepted to disband the free infantry he got with the city).

Does anyone use these? Because I don't (unless my army needs +1 resistance really badly - but not for the melding ability).

-I feel it's inadequate protection for my nodes - yes, there is a 80% chance it will prevent melding attempts but at the rate AI players send spirits that won't save the node. Being able to hold it a year more is of course nice but I don't plan for losing nodes - I rather put garrison on it so I have a 100% chance of keeping the node.
-It's also inadequate protection for the AI's nodes - to begin with, they garrison all nodes anyway (albeit some might have week garrisons), and once the garrison is defeated, taking the node away is just a matter of turns - summoning some additional spirits until one works.
-Despite being unless, it manages to be extremely annoying, when your 12th spirit fails to meld a node it's hard not to think "this is the most retarded game mechanic ever".
-Also, it's a random chance based spell in Life of all things, not Chaos.

There are plenty of things that could be done with this unit instead...

A. The node cannot be melded, period. However Disenchant Area can remove this effect just like Warp Node. (this would probably be bad for game balance and AI)
B. Other Guardian Spirits have a 100% chance to meld a node with a Guardian Spirit
C. Drop the melding ability altogether and come up with something more interesting, or just leave it as is for the resistance bonus.
D. Add "This creature can be summoned in combat when defending your cities only" as a new, more interesting ability.
E. At the end of every turn when there is a node with a Guardian Spirit with an enemy unit standing on the tile, materialize a Guardian Spirit unit and engage the army as the defender, allowing the wizard to cast spells to protect the node. (don't think I can do this one but might be worth a try)
F. something else?

So I wrote a module for Pathfinder/3.5. It's designed using the one-page-dungeon concept to build a complete beginning campaign module in a big sprawling sandbox of a peninsula. If you like D&D, tabletop RPGs, fantasy, or even if you've enjoyed my writing in my reports...download it and check it out. Whole thing's free.

I've overhauled the LBXManager utility that I wrote several years ago so that the code are more clean and has more comments.  I revamped the user interface so it should be more friendly and less buggy.  Unfortunately, importing bitmaps into LBX (aka modding) still don't work as I haven't had time to figure that out yet.  If you want to check it out, I've created a git repository over here: https://github.com/Zeraan/MoO1LBXManager

If any of you want to help out with figuring out the importing of bitmaps into LBX, feel free to do so (and make pull requests if you actually get it working!)  I'm not sure when I will revisit this again.

This is the first map I rolled using our agreed upon parameters:
Race: Psilon
Difficulty: Impossible
Galaxy Size: Medium
Races: 5
Variants: None

I’ll attach the starting save along with the Turn 20 save below.

Spoiler’d for length.

2300:
And here we go, off to the races!

Our starting neighborhood looks promising with lots of friendly star colors visible.

The only star in range is this one, so I send our colony ship there.

Our scouts depart for the two stars I deem to be most in danger of enemy encroachment.  I will hold off on building more scouts until our colony ship is used up and our production improves.

Here is the galactic map.  And look who we get to share the game with, a veritable  who’s who of MoO powerhouses.  Klackons to rush into a dominant position early, Sakkra to grow massive population numbers and battle for the council, Silicoids to settle every available piece of real estate on the map, Bulrathi to… have lots of picnics and look silly, and Darloks to mess up everyone’s diplomacy.  In truth I don’t have a lot of respect for the Bulrathi unless they are invading my planets looking for new picnic spots, but I’m confident that we can avoid that.  Otherwise this game looks to be decently challenging, particularly looking at the distribution of yellow stars.  Unless someone gets smashed into that corner directly above us all races should have plenty of room to expand.  We shall see how that plays out.
As far as infrastructure builds I toy with the idea of starting trickle research into Range 4 (hopefully) on the first turn, but Mentar can only produce 34RP, and that would slow down our factory construction more than I like, so for now I leave things as they are.  It looks like we could have a nice little core of 4 worlds south of Mentar reachable without increased range anyway, and Hydrogen Fuel Cells are really cheap anyway.

2301:
Nothing major to report.  Pop grows by 2, 2 factories built, ships move 1 parsec each.

2302:
All quiet.  Pop and factories increase by 3 and our colony ship will arrive next turn.  I decide that I can’t wait anymore and dump 42RP into Propulsion.

2303:

This move pays off as Range 4 is the only tech available.  

Well, I guess I can settle for this world if I have to.  As I expected the red and green stars to the south are both 3 parsecs away from Tauri, so I will start building more scouts, along with trickling 3RP into our research.  I should have four or 5 new Scouts next turn to start playing around with.  Mentar is currently at 47 population, and I will hold of on sending transports to Tauri until next turn so that it can reach an even 50 and I can be sure that the population won’t fluctuate as I start sending transports.

2304:

Incedius is a very nice world, and at only 4 parsecs I am already glad that I have started researching increased range.  I also have 4 new Scouts that I fan out to every star in range that isn’t the two directly south of Tauri.  I’ll build one more to check those two out.  Mentar grew to 51 pop, so I send 4 off to Tauri.  Even after our discussion during OSG-27 I find that I don’t understand population growth very well.  I guess that I just can’t get my head around those formulas.

2305:
Three more pop sent to Tauri, and our Propulsion lightbulb is almost 1/3 full already.  Trickle research is awesome!

2306:

Well this will be a nice world in about 100 years when it finishes building factories.  I hope very much that this corner is uninhabited which would allow us to grab the entire eastern edge of the map.  Fingers crossed!  I haven’t seen a single enemy ship yet so I hope that we are alone over here.
Tauri grew a pop point all by itself, and four more are due to arrive next turn.

2307:
Tauri has 8 pop already with more incoming.  I plan to send ~30 total before I let Mentar finish building so I can start my colonization push.  More scouting reports should start coming in next turn, and I hope that we get more good news!  I can see that we will need 4 more Scouts once Range 4 is discovered, and I all start building them in a few turns as our tech bulb fills more.  Mentar still only has 44 factories so I deem factory construction a higher priority for now.

2308:

Wow, these planets!  We are 4 for 4 on habitability so far with more worlds still to discover.  Yay!

2309:
Range 4 is ~3/4 full so I will start building a Scout per turn until I have enough for exploration.  Then we will need more colony ships to expand range further.

2310:

Well they can’t all be winners, but at least that one can’t be poached by the rocks.  And Kulthos is still a really solid planet.  We are going to be building colony ships for a really long time!  The other bit of positive news from this is that I have an extra Scout available, and already in place to explore the blue star directly north of the Obaca asteroid field once our research finishes.  That cuts down on my scout builds by a turn.

And at the halfway point of my turn set here is the galaxy so far.  Looking awfully green around here!
I send three more colonists toward Tauri, and that should do it for Tauri.  Counting those three Tauri has 29 pop either on board or incoming, and with natural pop growth it should be right around 1/3 full in about 3 turns, just where I want it.

2311:

Well I guess I need an extra scout after all…
I always like to check for the Guardian’s 10,000hp just to reassure myself that I am playing on Impossible.

Propulsion research should hit the percentages next turn and all scouts will be in position in 5 turns.  Just about perfect!

2312:

Ok, can we at least make this a BIT of a challenge?  At this rate we won’t need to research ANY planetology tech for a long time.  Range 4 is already at 9%.  I wish that I had kept a running tally of exactly how much RP I actually invested, but I didn’t think of it.  Colony ships are still 12 turns to build, so we have a way to go yet.

2313:
The last population transport arrives at Tauri bringing the population total to 37/95.  I definitely could have sent at least three fewer and been fine which slows down Mentar’s development by a bit, but we are going to need a LOT of transports in the near future for all of these big worlds.

2314: A quiet turn.

2315:

And there it is, hitting at 19% odds.  Wonderful!  Inertial Stabilizer is our only option forward which means that we are going to have to grab all of these worlds at warp 1.  Nuts!

Other good news is that this yellow star which is 7 parsecs from our core does not hold a home world, otherwise we would be in contact right now.  So we should have a really strong claim to most of this edge of the galaxy.  Now lets just hold onto it!  I still haven’t seen a single enemy ship yet.

In terms of research we are still a long way away from devoting ourselves to a strong research effort, so I split research equally between Construction and Planetology and give them both a decent shot of RP.  It isn’t anywhere near what I could give, but I don’t have a lot of spare production to devote to research right now, so I want to trickle enough to get our first tiers finished in a reasonable amount of time.  Thats my thinking anyway.

2316:

I take IIT9 over Reduced Waste 80% simply based on cost (280 vs 800).  It might be worth getting both since we lack Improved Eco.  Since we have no need for Controlled Barren I take IT10.

We also discover the worst planet so far, and even that one will be a good world whenever it finally finishes building its factories.

2317:
Nothing to report this turn.  The only thing that I will say is that Mentar has 68 pop and only 76 factories.  This is the single drawback to all of the extra spending I have been doing, although having to send all of those colonists off to Tauri didn’t help matters either.  Still colony ships are still a 10 turn build, so no colonization yet.

2318:

It looks like someone got a little carried away with a Stellar Converter during the fall of the Orion Empire up in this sector of space.

2319:

Well this is terrible news!  A well established Bear Den right next door.  That puts Incedius under intense pressure!  Looks like laser fighters are the order of the day!

Sadly I can only build 5 at a time at Mentar, but I will start building up a fleet to protect Incedius, and our next emperor can decide how far to take our build-up.  At this rate Tauri might be a better option to build colony ships…
I send the Scout at Toranor up to the Obaca asteroid field for lack of better options.  Best not to poke sleeping bears, at least until we have a bigger stick.

2320:
And so ends the benevolent reign of Ianus the first, first ruler of what will hopefully come to be known as the Psilon Empire.  I took the liberty of rerouting our newly produced Bear Spray fighters over to Incedius.  Of course that can be changed, but there really isn’t anything else to do with them.  Other than that we are still building infrastructure, and our trickle research is trickling along.  I’m ashamed that I didn’t manage to scout every single planet in range, but the last two scouting reports are due next turn.

Attached Files

  OSG-28_2300.GAM (Size: 57.65 KB / Downloads: 9)
  OSG-28_2320.GAM (Size: 57.65 KB / Downloads: 3)

Did you guys have a chance to try this? Craig Jones, the hero of arguably the most famous Magic: the Gathering video, has been speaking very highly about Faeria on Facebook the last few days. I tried it myself, and it seems impressive so far

Faeria is a CCG which is played on a hexagonal board, which is empty at the start, and players shape it by placing lands for their creatures. This adds a unique strategic layer unlike any other CCG I had experience with. Unlike many other games, mana doesn't disappear between turns, so unlike Magic or Hearthstone, you don't have to curve out - in fact, you're encouraged to hold on to your cards until they can have an immediate impact on the board

The game is free to play, and seems to be very generous - think I got a good dozen packs for free just for running through solo missions (and I'm not done with them yet!). For ladder mode (the structure of which is pretty much the same as in Hearthstone), tI had concerns that matchmaking would take a while, as the game is relatively new (just came out of beta), and doesn't have that many players. But I haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds so far

If you're in a mood to try a new CCG, I highly recommend this one You can name me if recruiter if you want - this would give benefits to you as well as to me (at the very least setting up a recruiter gives you 3 packs upon reaching level 15 - that's what I know about you do need to specify your recruiter before reaching level 15 you want that). Or at least add me as friend player name is yuris125

Official page: https://www.faeria.com/
Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/397060/Faeria/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/faeria/

It's been a few months since we led the Lumbering Rocks to their slow-but-inexhorable victory, and with a new player or two arriving recently, I thought it would be a good time to start up a new SG! We could try an easier game if we get enough less-experienced players (or if vets want a chance to try out some crazy gambits and unlikely strategies) or just go full trial-by-fire and see how we do on Impossible with a mixed roster and a variant! What do you guys think?

Epic Three: Rome Versus The Barbarians

Sponsor: Sullla
Opening Date: Friday, April 28
Duration: Five Weeks



Map Script: Inland Sea
Game Speed: Normal
Difficulty: Deity
Civilization & Leader: Trajan of Rome
World Size: Small
Opponents: Four
City States: Six (standard number is nine)
Rules: Standard
Victory: Any
Version: Fourth Patch (including Aztecs)

We return to one of our classic Epic scenarios from Civ3 and Civ4, playing as Rome on Deity difficulty. You are up against a smaller than normal assortment of AI opponents, leaving vast tracts of land open for barbarian spawns. This is a bleak world of cold, arid terrain with few hills and scarce resources. You are tasked with leading Rome to build an empire and defend civilization from the depradations of the barbarians. Good luck - you'll need it.

Custom Scoring:

None. This is going to be a rough ride. Play it out, no retirements, no matter how bleak things may appear. Where there is life, there is hope. Scratch, claw, and hang on to the last man. Give it your best shot and see what happens.



Closing Date: Monday, June 5. Game results must be posted within 48 hours of the game's closing date. Note that this is an official Epics event, which means NO SPOILERS about your game while playing. Do not post information about your game while it is in play, or afterwards until the finish date. The time to post reports will be on the closing day, where everyone will share the results of their individual games. The Epics are Single Player events, and we take the no spoilers rule seriously. Good luck!

Starting Savegame File

The results for the Adventure Four game have been added to the ongoing Google Docs spreadsheet of Epics/Adventures for Civ6. Thank you very much to everyone who took place in this game, and special congratulations to timmy827 who blew the competition away with his staggering 130 Great People recruited! I still have a lot to learn from that result...

Feel free to discuss the results in this thread: what seemed to be most effective for recruiting lots of Great People, what new tricks you learned, and so on. I'm putting together the next Epic game right now, which I hope to open tomorrow.

Been out of the country for a couple of days so the following is late but oh well.

After lurking through Realms Beyond for a long time (originally read through all of Sulla's Civ 4 reports back in the day...) I decided to finally participate in one of my own!

I didn't take super detailed notes so I don't have anything resembling a turn-by-turn account but I would like to go over my general thought process going into and through the adventure.

Having recently read through much of the Civ 6 PBEM 1 thread a couple of things really stood out to me about Civ 6. 

First I wholehearted agreed with the idea that the most important resource was production, in this game in particular it seemed very important to try to maximize production. Ultimately this was an adventurewhere the goal was getting GP, not a game where you're trying to win via culture. 

Second, Civ 6 does not seem to penalize going wide by very much. Sure you spread your resource amenities out a bit more thinly, but honestly the amenity penalty/bonuses are pretty small in comparison to getting additional cities.

Finally I've heard lots of talk about how poor the AI is at military... and given the restrictions on settler placement, the increasing settler cost and having a pretty early UU it seemed like this would be a ripe opportunity to take over LOTS of enemy civs.

With all that in mind I played through the very early game expanding as quickly as possible. Sooner than I would have hoped I was looking at a declaration of war from Spain that prompted me to shift quickly to military. Thankfully between a couple of warriors, cheap upgrades, and this Civ's UU I was able to easily crush Spain.

After having the military units I was able to pretty quickly snowball into taking over Vikings, Germany, and then the Aztecs. At this point I was primarily concerned about accidently winning so I didn't take over too much India. At this point (Turn ~150?) I just focused on disctrict building, prioritizing industrial districts and theatre districts.

By the end I was able to get 84 GP.

I have some screenshots but they're over the forum limit, if someone has a suggestion for where a good location to post them would be I'll upload them.