KOTF OOC Thread

[_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