Anyone up for a BC PBM?

[Zim]

Hello. I've been thinking of starting a PBM for the Broken Crescent Mod (works for owners of Kingdoms or just 1.3), either now or when the next patch for it comes out. It would be a regular succession game, probably with 20 turns per player.

Any fellow BC players interested?

Tentative faction choice: Georgia

Tentative play list: Zim, EF, and Ramses.

[Ferret]

depends on the faction...

[Ramses II CP]

As Zim already knows, I'm in for this.

If you haven't tried BC, it's pretty frickin' good. We're thinking to pick a faction that gets to go heads up with the Mongols once they show up. Expect some good battles, and maybe even to lose some cities.

[Zim]

Which factions would interest you? I'm pretty flexible, with my only priorities being to try one with a hard starting position or one close to the Mongols, to make it harder.

depends on the faction...

[Ferret]

well I'll join so long as I don't have to do a massive writeup, I still haven't done the Scottish one :(

[Zim]

I don't think you have to worry about the Scottish one this late.

I'd like writeups for everybody's turn, but they don't have to be long. A short paragraph and a pic of the country at the start and end of a reign would be enough to give some idea of how one's turn went.

Do you have any faction preferences? Ramses and I were thinking maybe Georgia or Oman, as they have difficult starting positions, or maybe the Kwarezhm Shah, since they have to face down the Mongols.

Hadn't thought of it before, but the Kypchaks might also be hard, since they are horsearcher based, yet have generally weaker horsearchers than a lot of the more eastern factions.

well I'll join so long as I don't have to do a massive writeup, I still haven't done the Scottish one :(

[Ferret]

I found the Omans quite boring as it is mainly treks across the desert to just face rebels. Georgia is my preference as there are many options in where to expand to. Will there be limits on conquest or can the first player blitz the entire map

[Zim]

That depends on whether anyone's willingness to play is dependent on being allowed to blitz.

I'd say go a little slow at first to make the game more challenging, but that's just my preference. I could take the first turn (most people who start PBMs seem to do this anyway) if noone wanted the dullness of fighting only rebels.

I found the Omans quite boring as it is mainly treks across the desert to just face rebels. Georgia is my preference as there are many options in where to expand to. Will there be limits on conquest or can the first player blitz the entire map

[phonicsmonkey]

Georgia will be tough as you'll get constantly nailed by horse-archers all the way through - the Seljuks will have a pop, then the Turks from the other side, then the Kypchaks from the North

then the Mongols will show up..lordy

I think Armenia would be even harder...I also hear the Malikate of Sindh has a tough time of it

I wish I could join you guys but I don't have enough time...

[Ferret]

do you have enough time to check your inbox

[Zim]

Part of the argument for me and Ramses to pick Georgia was the difficulty.

Don't the Mongols show up pretty far east of Georgia, in Kwarezhm? I'd think by the time they reached Georgia they'd have lost their early superstacks.

[phonicsmonkey]

I assumed you'd be trying to meet them there...

EF, I have responded at last

[Zim]

phonicsmonkey I suppose that will depend on whether all the other horsearcher factions kick our butt so we can't expand that fast or not.

We've got at least 3 players so I suppose we can start considering a few things like rules.

I was thinking 20 turns per "reign" and H/VH difficulty. I'm not sure about houserules, though. Anyone have any ideas?

Another thing is whether to start now or wait until patch 1.1. On the one hand the patch seems to be almost done from posts in the BC forums over at TWC. On the other, I recall the first release being almost done a quarter of a year before it came out.

[Ferret]

yeah by the time the mongols show up we could have expanded that far anyway, I'm bordering the Sha in my KoJ campaign and haven't seen any mongols yet (or events about them)

thanks for the reply

[Ramses II CP]

Mongols are around 1320 I think. My idea would be to ally with the ERE and possibly with the Armenians and KoJ, so we're essentially forced to expand eastward. I rather like the idea of having trouble with the horse archers, that's about as realistic as it can get. In 1.05 the quantity of mercenary HA will help, but it's supposed to be turned down in 1.1. We'll see.

I'm also happy to take one of the early, less interesting reigns. Given that we'll probably have just a few total participants I'm betting we'll all get a shot at the later years too.

[Zim]

What do you guys think about the patch thing? Will it come out soon enough to wait for it?

I seem to recall people thiking it was a week away a week or two ago, but I can't help but think that if we started today it would come out tomorrow (conversely, if we wait it will come out in 3 months or something. ).

[Ramses II CP]

I think that if we go ahead, and the patch is save game incompatible, as seems inevitable, that we'll either have to start over or it'll die. Then again, as you say, if we wait it'll probably be months and we'll all have forgotten by then. Such are the fortunes of war.

[Zim]

So shall I flip a coin then?

[phonicsmonkey]

I rather like the idea of having trouble with the horse archers, that's about as realistic as it can get.

I believe Georgia can recruit their own horse archers from castles - I am fighting them as the Seljuks right now and coming up against a few Georgian Horse Archers.

If you want to avoid the temptation to spam HA, maybe you should go with Armenia, who I believe cannot...

[Ramses II CP]

Re: coin and Armenia, both work just fine with me.

[Zim]

So everybody is ok with Armenia instead?

They do get one medium horsearcher, but nothing special, whereas the faction guide for Georgia says they get several HAs, including heavy ones.

[Zim]

Well, I flipped a coin (2,000 year old Roman one, seemed appropriate, although perhaps a bit too old. ). I am a little disappointed to say it came up tails (why did you betray me Octavius!) so we wait until the patch comes out or I get bored and do another coin toss.

[phonicsmonkey]

I love disregarding the outcome of coin tosses

[Zim]

Me, too, but I'd have to know if the other players were ok with it.

I love disregarding the outcome of coin tosses

[Ferret]

I'm happy to start now, the game has no major bugs stopping you playing so there is no real need for a patch. If you're desperate you can install two copies. I vote we start now as Armenia or Georgia or whoever.

[Zim]

Ok then. I'm in a hotseat game at twcenter anyway, so I couldn't update until that finishes anyway. If everyone is ok with it we could start as soon as today. I take it we'll just go in order of who posted here? Me, Ramses, EF?

Any particular rules we should consider?

[Ramses II CP]

Hmm, I think as far as rules we should stick the the fairly obvious, like don't abuse assassins (Say a limit of 5-10 active ones? They can be very powerful in BC because more provinces = more training facilities. Think about pumping out 25-30 assassins every turn.) or be too manipulative with the diplomacy. The AI is pretty smart about choosing it's battles, but it's still pretty dumb about the true value of provinces.

Other than basic rules about the mechanics of the game, I wouldn't be too worried. I think our position will give us enough trouble, and if we decide in the late game to cap the number of provinces we can take then that'll make sense.

[Zim]

Hey guys. I finished the first reign and started an official thread for the game. Will get a writeup done tomorrow and create a special thread for them.