Julii PBM - out of character thread

[Caius]

Anyone interested in a Imperial Campaign of RTW?
Feel free to contact me to talk about this

========================================================================
EDIT by Econ21: so, we talked and came up with this:

The Ascent of the Julii

Settings: RTW 1.5, Julii faction, VH campaign, M battles; large unit size
Bandit & pirate spawn rate=100[1].

Player duties
Each player plays for max of 20 turns. They should take screenshots and write after action reports in a separate write-ups thread.

When their turn comes, players should post that they have picked up the savegame within 2 days. They have a max of 7 days to complete their turn. Failure to do this will lead to the next player taking the reign.

Victory conditions
The aim of the game is the usual 50 provinces + Rome victory condition.
However, players should adopt a hands-off attitude to traditional Brutii and Scipii areas of interest. Focus on Gaul, Iberia and Briton first. Leave Carthage, Greece and Macedon alone until the previously mentioned 3 factions are gone (of course, you can follow a Senate mission against them).

Houserules:
(a) max of one unit retraining per city per turn
(b) no recruitment of peasants for garrison

Play order:
Caius Flaminius
Zimfan
UltraWar
Severous
GeneralHankerchief
econ21

[econ21]

Welcome, Caius! It's good to see that junior members apparently can start new threads in here - as I suggested to you in the Entrance Hall.

I recommend you suggest a few factions you'd be particularly interested in, to try to attract people's interest. Have a look at the list of completed campaigns - you'll see we haven't done very well.

Also think about how you'll run the game - what difficulty level? how long will each player play for? will you set any characterful objectives? do you want to set any special houserules? is the emphasis on role-playing, story-telling etc?

[Zimfan]

I'd definately be interested.

[Caius]

Thank you for let me post here!
I was thinking in factions, such as Carthage or The house of Julii.

[econ21]

We've just done Carthage - Julii might be good (it was the first faction I ever played).

[Caius]

We've just done Carthage - Julii might be good (it was the first faction I ever played).

I dont like play the senate rules, but if i can destroy them okay, lets go

I'd definately be interested.

Good!

[econ21]

OK, if you are settling on Julii as a faction, I would be interested. We now have 3 players. That's a good start. We might be able to attract one or two more if we clarify some of questions I raised in post #2 above.

(1) what difficulty level?
Personally, I think VH campaign to create a challenge. The Julii does not face very powerful enemies (Gauls). The battles, I would rather avoid VH difficulty - raising the AI attack unbalances tactics a lot. I would say H or M. What do you think?

(2) how long will each player play for?
Experience suggests 20 turns each is best. You can always recycle players later on for a second go. More turns than 20 may burn out players.

(3) will you set any characterful objectives?
Knocking out Gaul & Iberia, plus invading Britain would be appropriate. Maybe a house rule not to step into Scipii and Brutii's backyard - ie leave Carthage and Greece/Macedon alone. That would allow the other Romans to be powerful leading to an exciting civil war.

(4) do you want to set any special houserules?
The ones I like best are:
(a) no extermination
(b) no retraining land units below full strength
(c) each ship can only carry one unit
(d) historical army composition - for Romans, this might be max 2 cav and 2 archers per stack; plus aiming for 1:1:1 mix of velites, hastati and principes before the reforms. Post reform may be a 1:1 mix of legionnaires and auxiliary, maybe with one ballista if desired.
(e) optional - fighting with half stacks. It could be fun to fight full stack barbarians with a small disciplined legion. If you do this, cut the cav and archers to one per stack.

(5) Is the emphasis on role-playing, story-telling etc?
Is it important that players to take screenshots and write characterful after action reports? Or that optional, with just playing the game the key thing?
Should players use generals according to their traits (e.g. cowards shun battle etc).

PS: Congratulations on becoming a full member!

[Caius]

I never do it, i never in my life tried to do a PBEM
I dont know when, but I am member now!
I never played in hard, i always do in medium
If you say, 20 turns per player
NEVER EXTERMINATE!I dont like it, always slave population or ocuppate if there are 1000 peasant or less.
Composite a historical army,yes
and
Yes, it is very important to make enphasis on role-playing and story telling

[econ21]

OK, sounds like we agree on a lot of stuff.

If you normally play on medium, I suggest we set the campaign on VH and the battles on medium. What that means is that you should be comfortable with the battles, but the AI will have a steady stream of armies for us to fight (we only get 20 turns each, so a lot of battles may not be a bad thing).

I also think it is important to reduce the bandit and pirate spawn rate - endless pathetic small rebel stacks are just boring to fight and slow things down. To do this, the first player needs to edit the file descr_strat.txt in:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\bi\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion
to change "brigand_spawn_value" to 100 and that for pirates to 100.

BTW, your mention of peasants reminded me of another houserule - don't recruit peasants (ie for garrisons). We should use real Roman soldiers for that.

I noticed Severous expressed an interest. IIRC, he's an exceptionally good player. I guess people can to some extent determine their own style of play. Strong players may want to fight with half stacks, less confident ones may not. I might try getting my generals to do lots of characterful and political things that are not always in the best interest of the faction - sort of like play out on the campaign map the bickering you see in the Will of the Senate deliberations!

In terms of logistics, we need a play list and ideally someone to oversee the campaign. I know you are new to PBM, Cauis, but it would be good if you could commit to overseeing the PBM. What that essentially involves is making sure the show goes on - don't allow people to run away with the savegame and chase up players to make sure things are progressing. If you don't want to do it, I can. But it's your baby, so it would be good if you did.

As the proposer of the PBM, you can pick which turn you want to take. Often it's good for the proposer to take the first 20 turns to set the character of the PBM. But if you think that would be too dull and you'd rather take a later turn, that would be fine.

I suggest the following order:

Caius Flaminius
Zimfan
Severous TBC
.... any other volunteers...
econ21 filling in if there is a gap
....
then recycle through the players.

Let me know what you think and when you'd like to start, if you want to go first.

If you like I can summarise the houserules etc for you to confirm and as a reference for other players just before you start.

[UltraWar]

I'm intrested as the Julii are my favourite Roman Family!

[econ21]

OK, provisional campaign arrangements so far:

Settings: RTW 1.5, Julii faction, VH campaign, M battles; large unit size
Low rebel spawn rate[1].

[1]To do this, the first player needs to edit the file descr_strat.txt in:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\bi\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion
to change "brigand_spawn_value" to 100 and that for pirates to 100.


Player duties
Each player plays for 20 turns. They should take screenshots[2] and write characterful after action reports in a separate write-ups thread.

When their turn comes, players should post that they have picked up the savegame within 2 days. After that, they should post their progress every 7 days. Failure to do this will lead to the next player taking the reign.

[2]For how to take and upload screenshots, read the end of the following post:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...91&postcount=2


Victory conditions
The aim of the game is the usual 50 provinces + Rome victory condition.
However, players should adopt a hands-off attitude to traditional Brutii and Scipii areas of interest. Focus on Gaul, Iberia and Briton first. Leave Carthage, Greece and Macedon alone until the previously mentioned 3 factions are gone (of course, you can follow a Senate mission against them).


Houserules:
(a) no extermination
(b) no retraining land units below full strength except First Cohorts
(c) each ship can only carry one unit
(d) historical army composition - for Romans, max 2 cav (excluding generals)and 2 archers/slingers per full stack. Pre-reform aim for 1:1:1 mix of velites, hastati and principes before the reforms. Post-reform aim for a 1:1 mix of legionnaires and auxiliaries, maybe with one ballista if desired.
(e) no recruitment of peasants
(f) optional - fight with half stacks (10 units per stack, not 20).

Play order:
Caius Flaminius
Zimfan
UltraWar
Severous TBC
.... any other volunteers...
econ21 filling in if there is a gap
....
then recycle through the players.

[Caius]

How is the campaign in RTW 1.5 econ21 ?

[1]To do this, the first player needs to edit the file descr_strat.txt in:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\bi\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion
to change "brigand_spawn_value" to 100 and that for pirates to 100.
And optional - fight with half stacks?Whats that

[econ21]

Hi Caius - are you happy with the above or do you want to change any of it? Would you like to be the first player?

[1]To do this, the first player needs to edit the file descr_strat.txt in:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\bi\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion
to change "brigand_spawn_value" to 100 and that for pirates to 100.

The descr_strat file gives lots of details about the campaign. It is only read once, at the start of a game, so only the first player need worry about it. With 1.5 RTW, they introduced a couple of lines early on in the file specfying the "brigand_spawn_value" and the "pirate_spawn_value". If you raise the values of these two things to about 100, you will see bandits and pirates pop up much less frequently.

If you want, I can load a savegame for turn 1 with the settings we agree and then the first player can just download it without worrying about the above.

And optional - fight with half stacks?Whats that

I meant with 10 units in a stack rather than 20. I just meant this to optional for players who want a greater challenge.

BTW, I think we should play on large unit size if that's ok with people.

[Severous]

Hi.

Yep im interested.

A counter proposal if I may.

Settings: RTW 1.5, Julii faction, VH campaign, M battles; large unit size
Low rebel spawn rate[1]. Agreed

Player duties
Each player plays for max of 20 turns. They should take screenshots and write after action reports in a separate write-ups thread.

When their turn comes, players should post that they have picked up the savegame within 2 days. They have a max of 7 days to complete their turn. Failure to do this will lead to the next player taking the reign.


Victory conditions
The aim of the game is the usual 50 provinces + Rome victory condition.
However, players should adopt a hands-off attitude to traditional Brutii and Scipii areas of interest. Focus on Gaul, Iberia and Briton first. Leave Carthage, Greece and Macedon alone until the previously mentioned 3 factions are gone (of course, you can follow a Senate mission against them).Agreed


Houserules:
(a) extermination allowed. But not deliberate move out>rebel> recapture>exterminate
(b) max of one unit retraining per city per turn
(c) each ship can carry what they want
(d) Optional - historical army composition - for Romans, max 2 cav (excluding generals)and 2 archers/slingers per full stack. Pre-reform aim for 1:1:1 mix of velites, hastati and principes before the reforms. Post-reform aim for a 1:1 mix of legionnaires and auxiliaries, maybe with one ballista if desired.
(e) no recruitment of peasants for garrison. Only used for population movement.
(f) optional - fight with stacks of any size you want
(g) Mercenaries. Can use all and any that are available.

[econ21]

I'm ok with Severous's counter-proposal: the main changes seems to be:
(a) that each player should hold onto the game for only one week - this is good in that it will keep things moving along.
(b) and that there are no houserules except only retrain one unit per city - I'm fine with this, players can do their own thing in terms of houserules.

Cauis, what do you think on the rules? Do you want to take responsibility for this PBM and oversee it? Do you want to start it off?

[Caius]

Can I delete the historical army composition?
Remember, here we are going to play and we make the rules, not me only.
I agree with Severius too, i'd like to have mercenaries in my troops.
I am starting now this campaign, so we must create a post of the story telling

[Severous]

No peasants as garrison is a house rule. Its a departure for me. I normally use them as garrisons as they are very cost effective. Many players use peasants, many dont. I thought I would leave that in as originally proposed. Go with the flow.

That retraining limit slows you down a bit. It was used in a sucession campaign before. After a big battle it would take a few turns to get all the units back to full strength. Understrength units might be left behind by your advancing army. Retrained over a few turns they might stay behind as garrison or march after the main army.

The thing I like about swapping a game around like this is you get a game in flow. Takes a while to work out whats going on and what to do. Mix of troops and buildings might not be what you are used to, cash flow etc different.

[Caius]

How can i start the story?.
In a far far far galaxy
whoops, thats the Star Wars introduction!

[GeneralHankerchief]

Excellent, I return from vacation with a Julii PBM waiting for me!

Count me in.

[Zimfan]

How can i start the story?.
In a far far far galaxy
whoops, thats the Star Wars introduction!

A somewhat longish time ago, in a galaxy, well, right here...nah.

In my only writeup so far, I started with screenshots of my factions family members. But then, my writing skills are somewhat underwhelming.

For better examples, I'd reccomend reading the writeups from other campaigns. General Hankerchief's and Econ21's are excellents, as well as those of many others whose names I emarrassingly can't remember right now.

[Caius]

Great!Other player to make The house of Julii more stronger!
Welcome back to the org.!
We must create a name for the campaign for ex. "The Domination of the julii"

[econ21]

OK, I've summarised what I think we have agreed in the first post of this thread. Caius can edit it to change it as he is in charge.

Let's use this thread for all out of character stuff. When Caius has done his 20 turns, he can start a new thread for the posting of write-ups only.

In terms of the title, I was wondering about "The Ascent of the Julii", but domination would be an alternative.

[Caius]

In the write offs, Have i write what happened in each battle?
And the troops?Small, Normal, Large or huge?

[econ21]

I think large is best. Some people's computers struggle with huge.

In terms of write-ups, personally, I think it is best to try to tell a story rather than document every detail. So there's no need to write-up every battle - just focus on the exciting or important ones.

[Caius]

Ok.
Im logging out.
i have 7 days.
Starting right now!

[GeneralHankerchief]

The one problem I have with the rules is the 7-day thing. Mainly, the later players are going to have to be stuck running a bona-fide empire, and they not only have to run it but document the major important events, take notes, and provide screenshots.

Maybe this is just the way I play, but could we perhaps make the later players' limit 14 days?

[econ21]

I agree - 2 weeks for later games (20+ provinces?) sounds reasonable.

[Severous]

Caius...look after our archers. It will be a while before we can retrain or recruit any more.

If Caius has ever modded the game is there a possibility it will not load for the following players? If so send an early save to me (vanilla/no mods) just to check compatability/mods?

Germany. They were the faction I had trouble with in my first campaign many months ago. Our house rules suggest we do not attack them until Gaul/Spain/Briton are ours. We will be attacked by Germany early on..if they start a war then we are free to finish it?

Good luck Caius

[Caius]

Thank you,Severus.
Two weeks.Sounds razonable, some people have to work and they can be busy. I'm studying but always im playing RTW 1.5 without mods installed.
One time i installed Spqr Total War, but I uninstalled tthe mod and reinstalled RTW, i dont believe in any type of problems can make unplayable this campaign

I agree - 2 weeks for later games (20+ provinces?) sounds reasonable.

20 provinces? I am slow in the campaign.Yesterday i was playing and I captured Segesta(obviously),Mediolanium and Narbo Martius . I am going to capture Patavium and luvavum, for make a good fronteer agains the gauls.
We must nt gain too many enemies at the same time, this can be dangerous

[econ21]

The 20 provinces thing was just an attempt to define when the faction would be so big we would want to allow players 2 weeks rather than 1 week.

Good luck with your reign.