So since Dom 3 is being discussed

[name_here]

I hate this starting position. So very much.

Then again, where frank has shitty capital troops I have no capital troops.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Yeah, my home location is lackluster as well. I can't be arsed to check, but it's possible the map has set starting positions that are all mediocre, right?

[Akula]

Not unless there are a lot of them. I've run 4 tests in various ages with various opponents on this map. I have always had different starting positions. And so have my opponents. This map is just mostly composed of crappy places to start, as most provinces border the sea and only have 2-3 land neighbors.

[name_here]

I checked in the map editor. It seems likely every province is a valid starting location. You could theoretically start in the harbors.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Turn 1 taken.

So, originally, I was going to go with a pretty basic rainbow Great Sage. It capitalizes upon the increased site frequency, and that way I'm surely going to find some interesting spells within the first few dozen turns of research.



Then, moments before I started the game, I had a revelation. This is boring. I had already realized MA Arcoscephale was considerably duller than I had anticipated, and this pretender choice would only add to the morass of blandness. Plus, I couldn't come up with a name that didn't sound lame, and other people probably came up with the same idea.



So I made a new pretender. The concepting and actual design together almost certainly took less than 5 minutes total.



This guy has full site-searching in two paths, and should be able to make boosters for my mages with earth and fire randoms later on. I won't have as diverse a crafting base as I wanted for my Mictlan trading strategy, but I'll spend fewer gems and should be able to send people dwarven hammers once I develop a decent Earth income. Never played one of these before, and on second thought I might have benefited from him being dormant, but oh well.



As you can see, I took blandly positive scales offset with Heat 2. I remember somebody saying that Fortune Teller actually boosts positive luck events, so I avoided Misfortune scales.



The mercenaries available are terrible, but they come in a batch of 40, so I throw down a slightly-over-minimum bid for their services.



Still got enough gold to recruit enough heavy infantry to chew up the turn's resources and a cap-only mage. I prophetize my commander, send my scout out, and research with my pretender.

EDIT: I've summarized my pretender strategy and first turn in the sblock.

[name_here]

When you post things in spoiler tags in this thread, please mention what they are. People tend to put important images in spoiler tags for size, so I click on unlabeled ones instinctively and have to do my best to forget what I saw.

I'd also prefer delaying any posting of game info, including pretender creation, even in spoiler tags, until we get to turn 20 at the earliest. The only exception being score graphs.

[Akula]

As you might have gathered, Avoraciopoctules is not taking this game very seriously.

[Avoraciopoctules]

@ name_here: I understand. I'll mark my turn summaries from now on so people will see them before they open them. But people playing in this game can feel free to look at my turn summaries if they want. I don't particularly mind.

And I don't really care when other people post their summaries. I am well aware that Dom 3 is srs business to some, and if they want to keep their machinations hidden, they are welcome to do so.

[cthulhu]

My starting position is alright, my biggest concern is having someone who knows what they are doing all up in my grill at the start.

As for srs business - we have some seriously hardcore players in this, and then some complete nubs that have no idea what they are doing. If people take it super serious I don't think anyone will have fun.

[Zinegata]

I am well aware that Dom 3 is srs business to some, and if they want to keep their machinations hidden, they are welcome to do so.

I think it's less "Keep things secret" and more "Why the hell did you take a ForgeLord?"

[cthulhu]

mine doesn't appear bad.. but then again, what makes a good starting location?

[Akula]

Mostly lots of adjacent provinces. But also distance to nearest neighbor must be factored in. Right now you can basically only see neighboring provinces, so that is what we are bitching about.

[Avoraciopoctules]

As for srs business - we have some seriously hardcore players in this, and then some complete nubs that have no idea what they are doing. If people take it super serious I don't think anyone will have fun.

Hear, hear! Someone remind me to mail Ermor a magic sword at the end of year 1.

I am well aware that Dom 3 is srs business to some, and if they want to keep their machinations hidden, they are welcome to do so.

I think it's less "Keep things secret" and more "Why the hell did you take a ForgeLord?"

5 minute pretender. Besides, Hephaestus a cool cat. He has a base forge bonus of 25 and doesn't afraid of anything.

(Mainly crafting, plus I have healers to deal with my afflictions. This might be an opportunity for me to try out a gear-based subercombatant, and if nothing else, I can send cool magic items to allies.)

[K]

I got the turn file, but I think I need the map files too.

[Kaelik]

Honestly, the thing you have to understand is how people think about winning.

There are lots of different versions of winning.

There's "One person wins, everyone else is a loser." or "One person wins, but the person who was closest to preventing them is second."

There's "Last person alive is winner, second last person is second, ect."

There's "If I'm a key player in the alliance of the Winner, such that Frank would never have beaten K without my help, no matter how pathetic I am or how quickly I end up dying, I win by proxy through Frank."

So basically, someone who takes Forge Lord and specifically spells out their strategy of build things and give them to other people to encourage them to not kill me, is pretty much deciding to play under the assumptions of those second two.

[angelfromanotherpin]

I got the turn file, but I think I need the map files too.

Here 'tis

[K]

Alright, it's been too long since I've done PBEM.

I created a folder in the Savedgames directory, and dumped the map and TRN file in, and Dom still isn't recognizing it? What am I doing wrong?

[Zinegata]

Kaelik, I don't think anyone is questioning Avor's view of winning.

They're just questioning the last minute Pretender change because Pretender design is one of the most important aspects of the game. It's the kind of thing you might want to spend more than 5 minutes on, not only if you want to win, but also if you don't want your empire to come to a terrible, crashing halt by turn 3.

For instance, LA Ermor must start with an Awake Pretender, and said Pretender must have at least 2 (often more) ranks in Death Magic. Otherwise, LA Ermor literally has no way of conducting any magical research (unless they happen to conquer an independent with mages, which is a slim hope) at all.

To be fair, I dunno just how bad a ForgeLord is for The Old Kingdom, and from what I recall it's flexible enough to support different kinds of Pretenders.

So a Forge Lord probably won't make the entire empire crash by Turn 3. But I get the sense that going only Fire and Earth maybe problematic for forging purposes. That, and I feel that Av could have tweaked the scales a bit more.

[cthulhu]

Alright, it's been too long since I've done PBEM.

I created a folder in the Savedgames directory, and dumped the map and TRN file in, and Dom still isn't recognizing it? What am I doing wrong?

Your pretender?

[cthulhu]

Also seperate note: If I notice I made a mistake on my turn afterwards, is it okay to resubmit my turn?

i had a major OH SHIT moment over coffee this morning at work.

[Avoraciopoctules]

You can resend a turn file, especially if I'm still waiting for other people to send in theirs. Once I advance to the next turn, however, there's no going back.

I'd appreciate it if the email's subject heading indicated that it was a "second draft" for a particular turn.

[cthulhu]

Will do when I get home, will take me about 6 hours

Thanks!

Yeah, figured there was no going back if the next turn was up haha.

[K]

Alright, it's been too long since I've done PBEM.

I created a folder in the Savedgames directory, and dumped the map and TRN file in, and Dom still isn't recognizing it? What am I doing wrong?

Your pretender?

That's not it..... bah, this is annoying.

Ok, I actually dug out my old manual. It looks like I need the name of the game as generated by the host.

Ok, problem fixed.... not even going into the details because I feels silly.

[cthulhu]

Revised turn sent

[Orca]

I'm getting an 'Unknown error' when I try to save or open the attachment. It only displays as 64 B in size, too.