The comprehensive guide to hotseat play

[Visor]

One more thing - do not lie to your fellow players. Make a distinction between "in character" replies (ie. talking as the King of Denmark) and replies of player to player (Myth talking to player X). You can keep silent or be misleading (and lie) in-character, but lying as an actual person on the forum will not be good for your reputation. Also, beware of backstabbing. Winning one game might not be worth forever losing the trust of a fellow .org player, because next time you might need their help. I can't make you follow these of course, but such are my views at least.

Just my thoughts, but I would word this a little differently. You are first making an "order"/ ruling. This is simply opinion on your part, and should be stating as such. (Not at the end anyway as you have stated that it is your opinion, but you don't need to add that if you reword the previous parts to not look like it is stated as fact/order, etc.)

I could debate with you about the lying thing, as I know you mean me, but I won't derail the thread.

[Nightbringer]

Excellent work Myth!

As to the lying thing, I agree it is good to try to draw a line between in character and out of character lying, but hat isn't always possible. Diplomacy messages often shift around in a middle ground between in character and out of character, and frankly it just wouldn't be possible to really pull off a surprise betrayal without at least doing some amount of lying / misleading out of context.

In my experience, a lot of it comes down to the nature of the game.
In some, it can cause huge arguments and even basically stop the game because some players are so upset by it. (it wasn't anyone here, so nobody need take offense)
In others, it is a great climax to a game, or a brilliant strategic move acknowledged by all.
The only thing you can really do in my experience is try to gauge how the player you are backstabbing is going to respond. Some might enjoy being completely deceived and made to look like a fool, while others may prefer you to be a little more upfront about it.
I think just blatantly stating, out of character, that you are stabbing someone in the back and explaining your reasons with complete honesty may be a good way to avoid conflict with players who do not enjoy being lied to by their friends.

[Myth]

Visor not only you. Silver Shiled for example hates being lied to and it creates a problem from one game to the other. It's a genuine issue as Nightbringer has stated.

[Mithridate]

This should be made a sticky, really gives new players a kick-start!

Quick instructions regarding how to post pics on battle reports and such could be useful, as would more information regarding spies and common rules around them.

Btw, you should add that this is a great community with people usually more than willing to help you. Ive been amazed by how well received Ive been. Thank yo you all!

Now back to waging TOTAL WAR!!!

[Myth]

The guide will be refined for sure. Spies are generally not allowed to open gates (of any kind), but they have two great uses still. One is to scout the enemy positions with their great sight range, another is to spark unrest in a city in combination with assassins sabotaging public order buildings. We generally don't require screenshots here at the .org, we're not nearly as paranoid as the TWC guys :) That being said, everyone loves pictures! I'll include part about screenshots and Fraps.

[phonicsmonkey]

Thought I'd post a few links where you can find more content to flesh out your guide.

On the auto-resolve system, there was some discussion of it in the WWC group under the heading 'mastering the autoresolve system'- see particularly the conversation around the optimal order of units (front to back) in your stack and the way that affects results. Don't think you've covered that.

Also in that group under Basic Economics there is a discussion around the merits of different building upgrades and some examples you could lift for your section. The key to understanding the cost-benefit analysis is to have a firm grasp on the assumed time-horizon. You've alluded to that but it could be expanded upon if you have time.

In your section on fought battles I would stress how valuable missile cavalry are. Horse archers are among the best value-for-money units in a hotseat game where you are allowed to use them on the battle map. They have excellent mobility, can be recruited all over the place, are cheap, can be buffed with armour upgrades, they have skirmish mode which makes them a good unit to leave in the hands of the AI (meaning they are difficult for other players to take out cheaply on the battle map) and they can simply eradicate whole stacks of expensive enemy infantry. They replenish their ammo after a battle so can be used to fight several battles in sequence. Multiple stacks can be used to reinforce one another and keep up the firing until all the enemies are dead. They are great at chasing routers. Single units can be used in place of spies to scout enemy territory. And to add to all that javelin cavalry are the deadliest general (and elephant) killers in the game. The one thing they can't do is push a ram.

In fact you could do a lot worse than to link to this guide by Doug-Thompson which taught me literally everything I know about using horse-archers in TW games. It's my bible!

On the diplomacy section I think Visor has a point. IMHO you should state upfront that there are different playstyles and that some players make a sharp distinction between IC and OOC while others don't. I have seen both styles succeed. Of course having alliances is more likely to lead you to a shared rather than an individual victory.

Actually, on this point, it would be nice to see a section on role-playing, describing how the org games tend to have more IC interactions through the diplomacy and story threads and that's what makes us unique. The Throne Room started out as a place to tell stories (through AARs) and role-playing was the driving force behind all of the early hotseats.

[Myth]

Good pointers. I'll add these things. Actually I was thinking of adding a section for the battle map with my own experience, especially for SS. I've not read a TW guide since my first time playing RTW and the guide that was posted right here.