Hello fellow M2TW enthusiasts!
I wish to announce a contest that will allow you to show your creativity and love for the Total War series and the unique gameplay experience they offer us, both for single player and especially for the hotseat mode, which lets us compete amongst one another as the Kings and generals of the Medieval era!
The contest is organized and run by me, with support from our good @phonicsmonkey and one of our administrators, @Andres
Arena of Kings is dubbed so, because the Throne Room here at the .org is a virtual arena and battlefield for us to wage war and diplomacy amongst one another, while at the head of a mighty faction which has made an impact in the era of 1066-1500 in Europe and the Middle East. The contest is aimed to spur innovation and ultimately add to the pleasure and fun of participating in a Throne Room game.
What is required of each participant, is the suggestion of a game scenario, victory conditions, set up and any other interesting details, that will create a unique hotseat experience for the Throne Room warlords. Something like the idea for fixed team battles with target cities like CoG!, or one strong faction versus the rest as in WotK2, or the specific victory conditions like in GA, or the roleplay/victory conditions model like in EI.
I aim to bring out the best in you, so that we have new, unique and interesting ways to play hotseat M2TW. Below, you will find a FAQ and a format to use when submitting:
Q: Who can enter this contest?
A: Any registered user of the .org!
Q: How many entries can a single participant submit?
A: As many as his imagination allows!
Q: If two users have the same idea, who gets credit for it?
A: Whomever posts it first. If there are variations, or the refinement of a concept, they may be viewed as a shared submition or even as separate ones.
Q: When is the cut off date for submissions?
A: I will accept submissions until July 1st, 2012. Afterwards, the polls will be created and voting will commence.
Q: What kind of rewards can we expect?
A: A badge for your profile, similar to the HOF awards badge, first choice of faction for the game as well as a unique bonus that can be used once for any upcoming Throne Room game. The winner may chose out of the following:
- A fullstack of random quality units spawned at a requested location via admin console.
- Double starting gold for a new game OR a 15,000 florin cash injection at any point in the game.
- Two turns of immunity from enemy hostilities for the player's faction.
These bonuses are applied once, upon player request, and cannot be applied to games in progress unless the game's administrator agrees to it.
Q: What kind of game, victory conditions or mods can we suggest?
A: Any combination that you think is unique, interesting and motivating. It could be anything from wars, economy style games, diplomacy style games, RPGs or anything else you can think of. Any mod that we can get and install is fine. If you actually make a mod for this contest and your game idea you will get a bonus!
Q: Who will judge the entries?
A: Myself, Phonicsmonkey and Zim will decide which entries to accept as unique and post for voting. The actual picking of the winning game will be done by you guys via poll.
Q: How many winners can there be?
A: One winner and two runner-ups. The winner gets all the aformentioned prizes. The runner ups will receive honourable mentions and a signature.
Now, here is the format you can use. To get the forum code, quote my message and copy the text below:
Name: Princes, Kings and Emperors
Mod: SS 7.0 Early Era, forwarded for 30 turns + admin intervention
Number of players: 2 - 11
Victory Conditions: Become the first faction to establish it's empire.
Details: The players take on one of the following factions: England, Spain, France, HRE, Sicilly, Venice, ERE, Seljuk Sultanate, Fatamid Caliphate, Moorish Caliphate. Each faction starts as a Princedom - with a few well developed regions but with few armies, low income and with strong rebel provinces around them (created via admin console). The factions start with a different number of provinces and population (though not overly imbalanced), but each one has a different end-game goal to aspire to. Each of these factions can establish an Empire, but for that purpose must obtain specific settlements and reach different objectives. Such as:
England: Must expand to conquer provinces in France, Scotland, Ireland and Spain. Must achieve level 3 Ports and trading docks.
France: Must expand into England, HRE and Spain. Must achieve level 3 stables.
Spain: Must expand into England, Sicilly and Moorish territories. Must have two Cathedrals.
HRE: Must expand into France, Venice, Sicilly, ERE. Must have at least 8 castles with stone walls.
ERE: Must expand into Sicilly, Venice and Seljuk territory. Must have at least two provinces with Highways.
So on and so forth. The details of the actual objectives for each faction in terms of actual cities and buildings required are open for debate. There are three stages for a faction. It starts as a Princedom. When it reaches a set number of it's required territories OR it gets it's target buildings it becomes a Kingdom. This is announced IC, and is a hallmark moment of a faction's history. The transition is marked with a en economical and military boost, but as a counter, all of the "natural enemies" of that faction get a minor economical boost to compete.
The second stage is when a faction becomes an Empire (achieves all it's goals). It is then rewarded with a free full stack of the best quality units it can recruit in the following format:
7 infantry, 6 cavalry, 5 archers, 2 siege weapons.
Everyone else gets a cash injection and a countdown begins. If a faction can retain it's status as an Empire for 5 consecutive turns, it wins the game.
Rules: As per CoG! but Crusades and Jihads are banned.
This is an example but I would actually like us to play it if there are people who like it I made it up now, on the fly, but you can see how easily we can empower innovative thinking especially if we start writing down our ideas.
Good luck to everyone and God save the Throne Room!
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