PBEM Game: King of the Hill 2 (Closed)

[Alneyan]

There has been interest in a sequel to the King of the Hill game, so here it is! The settings of the first game have been pasted at the end of this post.

The only change I would consider is to make the choice of nations on a "top 3" basis: every player gives three nations (in order of preference), and nations claimed by more than one player are assigned according to the rule of Dice (or by agreement). With only six players, there shouldn't be a lot of trouble picking nations though.

I have been thinking of joining the game as a player this time; if I do play, I will use "regular" means to check who is holding the Hill (spying and Astral Window). The "rankings every five turns" setting would also become "full values given every five turns": being the only one knowing the exact number of provinces/forts... all nations have would be unbalancing.

Current roster:
- Cainehill: ?
- Griffin: Ermor
- Izaqyos: Pythium
- Oversway: Machaka
- Tauren: Pangaea
- Alneyan: T'ien Ch'i

Settings of King of the Hill 2:
- Map: Theater of War (weights 6 mo), can be downloaded from here.
- Number of players: 6 players.
- Independent Strength of 6.
- Difficult magic research.
- Zen's Pretender mod 2.01, and Scales mod 1.2 (both are attached to this post).
- 15 Hall of Fame entries.
- Special starting locations are switched on, and will be more or less identical.
- Graphs are off, but you will be given the rankings (and only the rankings) of all nations every five turns.

The victory condition is to hold a central province, called the Hill, and to keep it under your control for 20 turns, not necessarily in a row. This condition starts from turn 10 onwards. Note that you will have to be in actual control of the province, or to be besieging it; being besieged does not count towards the victory condition.

[The_Tauren13]

Im definitely in. Gotta have some time to decide on Nations, though.

I guess in case we decide not to do your 'top 3' idea (which I think is a good idea and I vote for), Ill go ahead and claim Pangaea.

[The Panther]

I will offer to host this game so Alneyan can play.

Of course, I would appreciate if he were to send me the map file so I don't have to create it myself.


Panther

[Alneyan]

File attached for PBW. Please disregard.

Having an outside the game host isn't as important here as for other games, but an independent host is always better than a host-player combo. Thanks for the offer Panther! I will send you the modified map file (and it will be uploaded on this thread if we play with the same map file). Does any of the players in KOTH1 have comments about the changes made to the maps? Those include different starting positions, some changes in province types (fewer plains in what was Ermor's isle, fewer deserts and wastes in Machaka's isle, and a sea province converted into land), and a change in the mainland connection on Ermor's isle. My top three is as follow (though I am not too sure of the order yet): T'ien Ch'i, Man, Ulm. Edited for clarity/emphasis.

[Oversway]

Sounds like fun.

Machaka, Marignon, ?

Let me think about the 3rd choice. Hopefully I'll get one of my first two.

[Cainehill]

I'd enjoy another KoTH game

Pangaea, Marignon, Jotunheim

[The_Tauren13]

Alneyan said:
- Zen's Pretender mod 1.81.

I assume were updating to pretenders 2.0?

And are we going to use 2.15 or 2.16?

[Alneyan]

The very latest version is 2.01, attached to this post. We should be using this one for the sake of simplicity (I don't think there are a lot of differences with vanilla 2.0). The latest version of the Scales mod (1.2) is also attached to the post; unless someone objects, both these mods will be used.

I am none too sure about the version; to the best of my knowledge, there have been no problems with 2.16, so this version should be fine. I can run either 2.15 or 2.16 though (or any version between 2.08 and 2.16 for this matter).

[Cainehill]

There's been some posting regarding some fairly serious bugs in 2.16 (astral magic duels and whatnot - 6+ astral magic difference and the lesser mage wins and survives)...

Hmm. Was really hoping for Pangaea - any objections if I look at the 2.01 pretender mod and choose from the remaining nations, or shall I stick to Marignon / Jotuns as I'd posted?

[Alneyan]

I believe the Magic Duel problem does not come from 2.16; if memory serves, Jurri and Tuidjy had such experiences before 2.16. I will run a little test under 2.15 though.

I wouldn't object if you pick another of the available nations.