I've got a Poke In The Eye game going. It has been very fun and interesting, though there are some silly things, but that's ok. I got stuck in a very long Man vs. Soul Gate war of attrition. I have two independent castles which I have not been able to spare the forces to capture, so they just contribute half taxes while their forts remain full of scary random units. Some invading AI armies have also come and tried to siege them, but failed. That's actually rather amusing. Also amusing is I started with a cadre of undead units that Man usually wouldn't have. Some vampires which only my Pretender (druid) is capable of leading around, and some mummies which I got to learn the hard way would disease my own troops in battle (so I had some commanders with regeration items waiting around for me to research Gift of Health, which is always amusing in an SP game
). I think it adds some spice, and not too much nonsense. The starting magic items were amusing too.
Room for improvement would be if you can limit it so that random forts don't appear in the wrong type for their terrain (land forts underwater), and it might be a good idea not to overwrite the nation's capital fort, though I guess that might be ok. My Man started out with something that looks and acts like an Emorian citadel, but has no name.
In general though, I'd recommend giving Poke a try. It's interesting and provides some unusual combinations and circumstances, and some tough independents.
I too didn't realize that more random Versions were available all the time.
A variant of Poke where the changes weren't entirely random, could be good, too. Something with random placement and specifics, but with more controlled and perhaps thematic units and items instead of pure random. "Dragon Sprinkle", for example.
Or how about "After the Vampire Wars" (All the provinces start out with bunches of extra priests, friars, Just Man's Crosses, Herald Lances, enchanted swords, Flambeaux, Angels, lifeless constructs... remainders of a need for everyone do develop anti-vampire equipment. Of course, it would have the amusing side-effect of discouraging people from taking undead nations and pretenders... might be popular amongst MP folks wanting to avoid having to deal with VQ's.
).
PvK
[ May 07, 2004, 20:25: Message edited by: PvK ]