KOTF OOC Thread

[econ21]

I am pretty happy with the RBGs and the fast expansion so far. We have to strike a balance between challenge and giving people things to do. It would be frustrating not to have an avatar and sit out several months of the game. I think people are more involved with their characters that they would be if they did not have avatars - there are so many good backstories now posted etc. And given that we do have so many avatars, it would be frustrating to have just five provinces at peace and so have most players twiddling their thumbs without the prospect of advancement. The King now has a decent number of provinces so that each Duchy can bid for them and several Knights can hope to become Counts etc.

The only issue is the level of challenge from the AI. Right now, it's kind of tense because we are over-extended. If we autoresolved our battles, we would fold. There might be a case for a GM "event" soon to bring this home - e.g. a German counter-invasion - and balance things up a little. Also, if we can continue restrain ourselves from fighting England or other factions for a while, it would be good. One war - with Germany - gives us something to do. It's if we start steamrollering everyone, then we will become a superpower and it will become less interesting. Lusted's guidelines were to only fight one faction for the first 50 turns or so, giving the rest time to build up. Germany is not a bad choice for that one faction for France to fight - HRE is big enough to take a beating and not fold immediately. With England, we are so intertwined, it will be hard to sustain a prolonged war. However, I'd like to see us try. Personally, I'd rather see this game depict a hard fought 100 year war with England than swiftly create a new Roman Empire - at least for a while. This would no doubt require some GM intervention.

[AussieGiant]

I think in the end we have come to a consensus to leave things as it is and just be mindful of the next Seneschal's time in office and further unrestrained expansion.

Tristan is a bit of a freak and in isolation it is not catastrophic to the balance of power. Although if those players currently on the bench turn out to be as good we will have ourselves a real troubling situation.

As they say in Aussie Rules.

"Fair Bump Play On It's Just A Bit Of Claret!!"

Claret = blood.

[OverKnight]

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I do feel challenged. I've got the same back against the wall feeling I had when fighting in the cataclysm. I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to prevent the Germans from crossing over the Rhine in force.

We've inflicted losses at Staufen and Dijon, but they're still going strong. There's no way I'd face them in a "fair" fight, unless I had something close to parity in numbers, which hasn't happened yet. If lose my archers I have nothing to replace them with. My only cavalry are the avatars. My best replacement troops would be town militia or peasants. Mercs are a limited and fickle option.

So, I don't think we need an event, at least on my front.

[_Tristan_]

I am pretty happy with the RBGs and the fast expansion so far. We have to strike a balance between challenge and giving people things to do. It would be frustrating not to have an avatar and sit out several months of the game. I think people are more involved with their characters that they would be if they did not have avatars - there are so many good backstories now posted etc. And given that we do have so many avatars, it would be frustrating to have just five provinces at peace and so have most players twiddling their thumbs without the prospect of advancement. The King now has a decent number of provinces so that each Duchy can bid for them and several Knights can hope to become Counts etc.

The only issue is the level of challenge from the AI. Right now, it's kind of tense because we are over-extended. If we autoresolved our battles, we would fold. There might be a case for a GM "event" soon to bring this home - e.g. a German counter-invasion - and balance things up a little. Also, if we can continue restrain ourselves from fighting England or other factions for a while, it would be good. One war - with Germany - gives us something to do. It's if we start steamrollering everyone, then we will become a superpower and it will become less interesting. Lusted's guidelines were to only fight one faction for the first 50 turns or so, giving the rest time to build up. Germany is not a bad choice for that one faction for France to fight - HRE is big enough to take a beating and not fold immediately. With England, we are so intertwined, it will be hard to sustain a prolonged war. However, I'd like to see us try. Personally, I'd rather see this game depict a hard fought 100 year war with England than swiftly create a new Roman Empire - at least for a while. This would no doubt require some GM intervention.

My thoughts on the game so far almost mirrors yours, Econ...

The reason why I laucnhed ionto the war against the HRE was :

1/ to provide some of our avatars something to do.

2/ to provide challenge by stretching our resources. We all know that the AI on the battlemaps lacks in a lot of departments but providing challenge on the Campaign map, which I hope Philippe did compensated for that.

My last moves politically also tend towards what Econ has been broaching though the 100-years war will certainly be fought against the HRE rather than against England. And we could certainly do with a "backlash" event should we continue our expansion at such a pace.

I also tried, IC, to throw every possible obstacle in our way (preventing recruitment, encouraging non-military buildings,...) while creating fun battles for myself and others I hope.

And don't you worry about land allotment, Philippe will begin the lottery soon


Maybe it would be time to make your wishlist to Santa Claus

[GeneralHankerchief]

Tristan, you besieged Franfurt with the HRE Emperor who was in it.

At ratio 3:7 against, he seems to think he has a chance against you and 2 regiments of mounted sargents.

I guess he was wrong. Happy slaughtering, it would be sporting if you could take some casualties.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...id=199&id=4992

[Vladimir]

I do love the definition of "sporting."

[OverKnight]

Isn't time for a new Conseil Session? If we want to emulate LotR, they should be every 10 turns/15 years. Of course we had one year of just RGB recruitment, but if we want to keep Conseil Sessions on years with a five or a zero, we should start one now.

IE:

1080
1095
1110
1125
1140

This would make it easier to track. Or we could have the Session at the end of this year before hitting end of turn.

Edit: Actually, starting the Session after we've all moved but before the end of turn button is pressed would be what I recommend. AG gets a full term, but we still get round numbers.

[Vladimir]

Keep in mind it's an important holiday weekend in the US.

[AussieGiant]

Based on OK post I'd like to finish off this turn and hand the save in 1096 to the next person.

That would be ten full turns under governorship as I got the save in 1081.

That might change the timing of the Council a bit.

Thoughts?