Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Running
 

Have you ever had that feeling you can tear asunder the entire world if you just let it all go? Yes?! Then welcome to the club!

This game is a continuation of sorts to a previous one, I Need More Power!. Fraction of that player base moves to this game - slowly building over time a trusted RP group to have great times with! ^^ That isn't saying "Shoo! Go away!' at all though! If you are up to some free, on-the-fly RP in your forum posts (as you may have noticed, I don't write an awesome introductory world story even though I may have the capacity to do so; your power shall be unrestricted!), then go ahead and join us! We welcome talkative and creative people because we enjoy playing with them!

Bear in mind this is still a newbie game. I am not going to set some "played game limit" as it looks silly to me, but please do think over if your level of skill will make the game enjoyable for you as well as for others :)

On to the technical stuff:

Method: llamaserver PBEM game :)
Mods: CBM 1.92
Map: Alexander
Era: Early Age
Strength of Indies: 5
HoF: 15
renaming on
Graphs on
Picked nations
Research: Normal
Gold multiplier: 100
Resources multiplier: 100
Supply multiplier: 100
Diplomacy: Machiavellian type with a single exception of a NAP3, which you are bound to honor (namely the 3 turn period), all nations are to be hostile to each other at the start of the game. Role-Playing encouraged :)
Turn frequency: 36h, with more hours added as micromanagement rises
Game will be administrated by two people (me and jimbojones) to cover all time zones, we won't let random unfortunate stales slip if they don't happen often/regularly :smirk: If you run into any kind of trouble that will leave you unable to send your turns for a period of time, certainly make us aware of the fact so we can deal with it (proclaim holidays, find subs, you know the stuff) :)

If you have concerns about any of the settings, let your voice be heard. Contemplate on it we shall.

List of currently enrolled players: (14)

Anaconda - EA Lanka, Land of Demons
BewareTheBarnacleGoose - EA R'lyeh, Time of Aboleths
Blubbernaught - EA Sauromatia, Amazon Queens
Darlian - EA Arcoscephale, Golden Era
HoleyDooley - EA Niefelheim, Sons of Winter
jimbojones1971 - EA Ermor, New Faith
krpeters - EA Marverni, Time of Druids
Legendary League - EA Helheim, Dusk and Death
Lung Drago - EA Abysia, Children of Flame
mattyburn7 - EA C'tis, Lizard Kings
megawidget - EA Atlantis, Emergence of the Deep Ones
momfreek - EA Agartha, Pale Ones
Rejakor - EA Yomi, Oni Kings
swuu - EA Pangaea, Age of Revelry
Vanguard X - EA Caelum, Eagle Kings

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'd really love to play, but I'm not sure this would be the right game for me. With a grand total of zero under my belt, the skewed starting numbers would prob be suboptimal. I also don't RP generally. If you guys need more players, let me know though.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I would love to rejoin you guys! Count me in!

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I would like in. Preferably as the angelic Caelum order if possible. :angel

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'd like to play! Tien Chen if possible. Its my first time trying multiplayer.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'd absolutely love to pick up another MP game. I've played alot of Helheim in EA, but I'm thinking of picking up a different nation for that era.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Since I played MA Ermor last time, I think I'll take EA Ermor for a spin this time :-)

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Looks like MightyPeon is already in a lot of games, and will need to sit this one out.

Can I suggest Urraparrand as the map? It's 145 land + 35 sea provinces, and (as the name suggests) is rap-around map, so no corners.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

How do you guys feel about aquatic nations? I notice that some people dont like to play with them. If you do, I would be interested in EA R'leyh.If not, I could pick something else.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Personally I have nothing against them, we had Atlantis in our previous game... they are another layer on the strategical level; without them, water provinces are really just a landmark. It may be feasible to have 2 of them on a bigger map though.

Map boils down to how many players we end up with. I'd like to keep the recruiting phase going a little longer than before, simply because I have to wrap up few things IRL and should be ready to commit fully by the end of this week. But I agree it is a nice similar-sized map we had before.


Added the rest of you to the Grand List of Honor. :D Welcome aboard.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Glory of the Gods (MP) is always a nice, large map, for lots of fun. :p

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I would like to join in as Van.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

put me in and I will be the cursed giant: Fomoria

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'm in! I'm not sure what race to play yet.. will try some things

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Neifelheim thanks.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

i am a pretty good role player but just a terrible player in general(2 MP lifetime, pretty miserably failing in both).

can i ask why you jacked up all the resourced gold? makes scale creation kinda redundant, doesn't it? also, with EA, there should be plenty of magic sights anyway...

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Couldn't agree more parone.

I have played quite a few MP game snow and am still to get past mid game. All my scales (now) revolve around maxing out income as much as possible whilst still having some use for my pretender other than to hang my hat on when I get home.

This is an extraordinary game, but no game is perfect. Would certainly like to see income scales reduced in effectiveness. Having said that, I haven't been round a long time, so maybe my thinking is wrong on this point.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'm in... picking Pangaea. I would also to see the scales set to standard in order to let me learn the game better.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

i guess im saying if you jack up resources/gold, then there are few advantages to taking good scales. and since EA has lots of magic sights(it says that in the book, anyway) why would you increase those?

i'd love to join, as i am really bad at the game and this seems more my speed, but i kinda think jacking up the initial gold resources would make for an odd gaming experience

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

parone...are you trying to get me flamed!!!!!! LOL.

Mate I am a 3 1/2 month noob to the game. But this is how I see it anyway.

Higher income allows you the ability to purchase more units and at the start and hire mercenaries. This translates in usually more provinces captured early which usually translates into purchasing more units, which usually translates...etc etc.

Thus you can build castles quicker and hire more mages to help your research etc etc.

Now being a noob, I am sure an experienced player would refute what I am saying and build scales not abundant with income and kick my butt. In general though this is how I see the games progress.

Hey, I am sure there are others with thoughts on this.

My noobish thoughts from experiences to date...and a lot to learn still.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'd like to jump in as C'Tis

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Now that I think about it, your concerns about the multipliers are actually valid. While I wouldn't look at it like it screws up scaling of scales (it does not, with scales, you simply crank up even more troops from a single fort), what it does in general is speed up the game, especially the early phase. It does have few other noob-friendly quirks about it, for example if you screw up your initial expansion and get owned by independents it's easier and quicker to boot yourself back up.
But as I think about it now, it can have unpleasant effects too. What actually came to my mind and is a good example, are nations that have capitol-only good researchers. A nation than has recruit-anywhere option gets significantly bigger advantage from these multipliers than a nation relying only on it's capitol... This "issue" is of course always there, but a resource/gold multiplier easily makes the gap bigger and out of bounds.
And a very valid point is that usually, multipliers are left on default for most games and that's something we are/need to be accustomed to.

So, changing all multipliers to default values is sensible. If no one has any objections, let's set them on default.

Regarding the magic sites mentioned, to be honest, I copy pasted the settings from our previous game but color me blind, I don't see magic site multiplier changed. I don't recall changing that in the previous game ever, this is supposed to be default.

Also, let me welcome more new players! My current plan is keeping this game open to join 'till Friday or until we reach, say, 18 players, which ever comes first. I enjoy long games with plenty of space to expand, but there are extremes on both sides and a game with 400+ land provinces would be simply insane :D

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'm interested in this one! Been hoping to find an EA game to jump in where being an incompetent n00b isn't an automatic death sentence.

EA Sauromatia is my choice to try this time.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

if you guys are switching the scales to default, i'd like to get in. but if you don't, that's ok too.

i have never really played EA(well, i have only played 2 games to be honest with you). i have no idea who to take. ok if i get back to you in a day or so(i know a lot will be taken by then, that's ok)

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Is there still room for another? A game with this many players ought to be very noob friendly :) I'd like to jump in as Marveni if it's still open.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Yeah, think I'm going to stick with Helheim. I think my gameplay style is markedly different from it (more like MA Ulm, for example), but it works for me.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I never played Dominions 3 multiplayer -- and I'm sure I am mediocre at single player -- but I'm somewhat inclined to join, if you need more players. I would also prefer default multipliers and indie strength though.

I don't know which race I'd like to play yet, though I'm leaning towards Yomi assuming they were made to suck less in CBM. But I can just pick one of the remaining races and then complain to everyone about my choice. That's OK right? :re:

If you're full, I'm thinking of trying to organize a complete newbie game for the overflow players and whoever else would be willing join.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Also, I would move to turn off score graphs. It would make keeping a large spy network (as well as a network of informing play-, I mean, birds) more important.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Actually, if I count well, you may have just taken the 18th spot, megawidget. Congratulations :D
So many people pouring in I am scratching my head now. I remember when I first started dominions 3 and grew fond of it, I thought "Yet another game no one ever plays." Boy, I was apparently wrong.

Not everyone has a nation picked yet, but I'm OK with it. We have now some breathing space to discuss the map. Since we amount to 18 players, we need a somewhat bigger map indeed. So, what lands shall host our epic carnage?
Cradle of Dominion and Glory of the Gods both seem appealing to me. There's also Westeros, but that map is...unique and would certainly make for an..interesting game indeed. Thoughts?

Oh also I noticed Anaconda didn't post here yet. Since he comes from our previous game and voiced the rematch, it may just be he missed this game. Will PM later this day. It's a possible 1 slot open, though.

EDIT: Regarding score graphs suggestion above: I don't consider graphs off as a newbie friendly option. It sure is more...realistic, but you do have uses for spies even with graphs on. Not to mention llamaserver has it's own graphs anyway, these aren't turned off I think?

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Cradle seems to be too crowded, though it's certainly an option. ~12ish provinces per player definitely sounds like a challenge, though some bless-rush nations will do a good job messing up late game nations if they're map positioned poorly. Orania (with the special sites turned off, via llamaserver), or Glory of the Gods (the MP version) offer much more room for players (though since Orania has much larger fronts, chokepoints are rare: GotG seems to me a happy medium between the two maps). But that's my vote. :p

To the second, they turn off if you turn off score graphs. That's what happened with the BSoD game I've been running (and really, the diplomacy and intel sharing has, thus far, been quite dynamic [at least from what I've experienced). To the first, that's one way of looking at it. Another is that it means players need to interact and communicate more (thus room for more RP!), and it doesn't necessarily punish someone for doing well. I understand entirely of course if you'd prefer to leave it on, it just seems to be more interesting. :)

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'd like score graphs on, if only to keep track of my own incompetence!

Since I'm not yet decided on Yomi (looks like they might suck only slightly less in CBM compared to vanilla), I could play as Atlantis if it looks like the maps you're choosing from have too many water provinces for just R'lyeh. Otherwise I'm also considering Mictlanka, just to try my hand at blood magic -- something I haven't played around with yet.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Ah blood magic.:D

Both Lanka and Mictlan were effectively nerfed this CBM with the removal of SDR (they rely on hordes of cheap B1 hunters with SDRs to accumulate masses of slaves). LA, in my opinion, is a better age to try out blood (also much fiercer competition: Ulm, Bogarus, Abysia, Marignon, Midgard, Utgard, and Mictlan [Patala to an extent] all compete for the same summons). Though Mictlanka are still definitely really good (blood is just...an awesome tree to get into. Especially when combined with Astral. How many send horrors do you need to cast till you send out a Doom horror, you think? ;) )

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I've read that blood magic is incredibly powerful. But yes, I've noticed that they effectively got nerfed in CBM. On the upside though sabbaths no longer use blood slaves, so that might make up for it. Slightly.
If we go with Cradle of Dominion, I think I'm going to go for Mictlan instead of Yomi and see how I do -- it'll be a bit tight I guess at 11.7 land provinces per land player, but probably quite manageable. If we go with Glory of the Gods MP though, I think I should be Atlantis to make sure R'lyeh doesn't hoard all the water. :smirk:

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Doesn't really matter too much. Blood really needed the nerfbat, have to say. When someone with absolutely no blood access (MA Ulm, for example) can blood hunt and empower someone to start up a moderate blood economy (to get blood stones), something's broken. Still an amazingly powerful school though. Claws of Inferno/Cocytos is amazing against SCs, and combining horror marking with send/call horrors (or the occasional Hellpower suicide sabbaths) can be extremely difficult to deal with.

That being said, blood does have counters. Wishing armageddons hurts blood economies really badly, for example, and unrest raising remotes/thug raiding also hurts them. Spies too, for that matter. It's also so micro intensive, esp. Mictlan (who need to constantly blood sac to maintain dominion).

But yeah, try it out. Blood summons are awesome (get em before I do, because the 'heim's also have blood hunting potential through Vanjarls [got buffed so they have 50% chance for B2, so they're better hunters without SDR].

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Testing them out in SP.

Egad, CBM's changes make mages do truly idiotic things. I just had my solitary mictlan priest cast sabbath master and sabbath slave after the scripting expired. :doh:
That... didn't go too well.

It's still better than Agartha inflicting battle fright on all of own troops after the enemy routs. :banghead:

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I'll go with Agartha if they're still free

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I am happy with either the defaults, or the multipliers - either way produces different outcomes, which can be good.

I've played with score graphs on and off. On, they let you see when someone is pulling ahead. Off, they add some surprise to the game (and reward scouting and diplomacy). So I'm happy with either.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

So far I think it is leaning towards Glory of the Gods MP version. It has much more interesting water provinces and if it is succedeed by an Atlantis pick, we have a counterpart against R'lyeh in our nation line up. We don't want unchallenged super powered Rlyeh, do we? :)
As far as score graphs are concerned, I'll wait for more input. I cannot make up my mind :sick:

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

i guess i could take a water power. i'll get killed, but it might make it more challenging for the ry'leh player

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Er, well, if we play a map with more water I called dibs on Atlantis. :)

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I don't really care on score graphs one way or the other. Having multipliers up would be an interesting change from my current MP games.

Glory of the Gods MP gets my vote.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Having written a comparably well received guide on MA Ulm, and generally awnsering more question than I am asking, I also would not feel very "at home" in a Newbie game.
I hope someone else takes up Ulms great Quest of Magical communism!

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I don't know if we're still debating the score graphs, but I prefer to leave them on -- they warn me who I need to gang up on.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Well, my previous EA Ermor pretender is named the Trouser Snake, so I think it may be time to introduce the Passion Python this time!

When can I unleash Passion Python upon an unwitting world?

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

I am neutral on the graphs. As for the map, I favor a large one.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Lung- I don't think I'm up for a 18 person game for my first MP experience, I'm sorry but I didn't realize you were recruiting such a large game... I hope you don't mind but I'd like to drop out. Sorry.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Recruit
 

Sorry to hear that Adam, but I understand. It's going to be a carnage in 16 players none the less. Yes, 16, as there is no word from Anaconda yet.

The game is created on llamaserver. Map being Glory of the Gods MP version. Score graphs remain on, HoF on 15, everything else is default. Send your pretenders in, whatever Ero-Sennin names they might have :D

EDIT: Got a friend of mine a last-minute join, all hail Arcoscephale in our nation line up! :P Has to yet register and get approved though.

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Prepari
 

Seconding (thirding? fourthing?) Glory of the Gods MP!

I hope we can restart though if either I or R'lyeh end up in the lakes -- it would be vastly unfair since the other would have uncontested claims to so many water provinces. Unless, of course, R'lyeh is happy to go for early land conquest! :p

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Prepari
 

i don't think im gonna end up in this game, but i do think it is awesome that lung changed my handle from parone to parole. one letter can mean so much...

Re: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Prepari
 

If it is not too late, its fairly simple to edit the map to designate the lakes as being out of bounds for starting locations.