Is growth scale must in a long game?

[Treebeard]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I never take misfortune 3 if I don't absolutely have to, as I don't want the really bad events to have any chance of happening. The most destructive ones only happen at misfortune 3, so I simply remove the possibility altogether by never going over 2.

What are those? I certainly get hit by a bunch of nasty effects with lucky 3...

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Treebeard:
What are those? I certainly get hit by a bunch of nasty effects with lucky 3... [/QB]

They are ones that can cause the loss of a quarter of the population in one turn and so on.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Treebeard:
What are those? I certainly get hit by a bunch of nasty effects with lucky 3...

They are ones that can cause the loss of a quarter of the population in one turn and so on. [/QB]

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I seem to have had my fair share of these playing turmoil luck races with luck at +3. The problem might be that your dominion spreads unevenly and the turmoil scale produces alot of catastrophic events. On the other hand playing order3, misfortune3 has seemed the way to go for avoiding bad events. The problem is you don't get your national hero's. I do enjoy getting hero's with luck races.

Cheers

Keir

[Keir Maxwell]

The key to long games is death3. Abysia doesn't get supply problems from death so Abysia death3 is a good choice for along game.

I have always found the biggest problem with a long PBEM game is how long they go. If you are doing well you reach a terrifying point when you realise you are incapable of getting your turn in on time without:

a) lose your job, partner and access to the kids.
b) play like a moron and having to manage a life while the game slowly falls to bits.
c) ask for an extention in the time between turns.

After trying c) a couple of times someone goes on holiday. when they get back 15 days later you can just remember enough to get your turn done but it seems someone else lost track and by the time their move is in its been over 4 weeks between turns and you are faced with horror of having trying an make sense of what was going on in your huge empire with all its myriads of armies, mages, assasins and spys. Basically its a choice of a) or b) or the new c) try and persuade everyone the game is a dead duck and its time to move on.

So this should make it blindingly obvious ( )why the best approach to pop management in a long game is death3 - kill the buggers! All of them! Expand like a berserk monstrosity and pummel your opponents into submistion before micro-management tedium kills the fun.

A good game is quick game!



Keir

[ December 17, 2003, 04:07: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[ywl]

Originally posted by Jasper:
Growth +3 will give you a significant income boost in a long game all other things being usefull, but it's slow enough that spending those 120 points on something usefull early is probably at least as good.

Growth +3 is certainly no where near as mandatory as Order +3 and Misfortune +3, which is both more powerfull and cheaper.

I don't use this combo. I'll see how bad I'll do in my game.

[Jasper]

Originally posted by ywl:

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper:
Growth +3 is certainly no where near as mandatory as Order +3 and Misfortune +3, which is both more powerfull and cheaper.

I don't use this combo. I'll see how bad I'll do in my game.

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I'm curious to hear the outcome, but there are so many other factors involved in multiplayer (e.g. opponent skill, faction mathup, multiplayer dynamics, etc.) that it will be difficult to tell what effect anyone particular thing has had on how well you do, especially since you can't easily try the same scenario with a different Pretender.

IMHO the relative benefits of scales are much more easily compared in single player games, where you can more carefully control the environment.

For me it was as simple as comparing Order 3 + Misfortune 3 Pangaea, vs. the same Pretender with Turmoil 3 + Luck 3. This should be biased towards T+L, as Pangaea gets extra beneft from both, but for my test O+M was far more effective.

L+T in my experience can keep up with O+M, but only if you get extraordinarily lucky.

[ December 17, 2003, 05:28: Message edited by: Jasper ]

[Pocus]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper:
Growth +3 is certainly no where near as mandatory as Order +3 and Misfortune +3, which is both more powerfull and cheaper.

I never take misfortune 3 if I don't absolutely have to, as I don't want the really bad events to have any chance of happening. The most destructive ones only happen at misfortune 3, so I simply remove the possibility altogether by never going over 2. [/QB]

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I suggest you make some tests and see if it is as unbearable as you think. Order 3 luck -3 give you only 5% chance a turn of getting an event.