SP Home Rules

[MaxWilson]

I have finally gotten around to figuring out how to use SemiRandom. I've been playing out little mini-games (playing a few turns and then starting a new one) to try out new pretenders. I'll post when I have 10-20 of them.

-Max

[Gandalf Parker]

Great. I settled into my gods long ago and dont tend to experiment anymore. Particularly, I should have written a bunch of them down back when I was turning them AI and I got a feel for what the AI did and didnt do well. I do still get a giggle at old stuff like this one (the Dom2 Starter Gods project) and the puns I used to do.
http://www.dom3minions.com/~minion/starter/

I do still come up with province ideas which I really should turn in to SemiRand. They arent killer provinces like many people do (some would take all the players ganging up to take them out!) but I figure that the more variety the better. SemiRand is no good if all the placed provinces are killer.

[krpeters]

Regarding playing against "Difficult" vs. "Impossible" AIs...

...what size maps are you all playing on? I think this may be the relevant variable. I don't have the patience for a long game, so I play on 50 province maps against 5 AIs. That means by year 3 the indies are all gone and all the AIs are pounding on me... which means I usually play against "Difficult", because I get crushed by anything tougher unless I'm playing an uber-bless strategy.

If you're playing on a 200 province map against the same 5 AIs, by year 3 you probably have 100 provinces and the AIs are cowering in terror before you, so I can see how you might need to crank the difficulty up to "Impossible" for a challenging game.

Is this what is actually happening? Or is this just a story I tell myself so I don't feel so pathetic?

[MaxWilson]

Krpeters,

With Ashdod I'm playing on crowded maps (33 AIs on Glory of the Gods at the moment, about 15 provinces per player), all Impossible AIs, and SemiRandomized gods for the AIs so many of them have SCs and/or extra troops. And the BI mod of course.

There's no way I could handle this pressure with EA C'tis--I'd probably have to turtle until I researched up to Evocation 7--and even with Ashdod it's tricky.

I hope that answers your question. Don't feel pathetic because I *am* using an uber-bless strategy (E10N6 imprisoned Cyclops is pretty uber for giant nations).

-Max

[Tifone]

I must thank CBM for having solved my Cyclops addiction A dual bless is almost unviable with 80 points cost of a new path IMHO. (Not that I liked the Cyclops that much thematically, it was just a solid and always-available option to fall back to )

[Gandalf Parker]

I was early beta-tester so Ive played this game for a year or so longer than most. And I like to play RPGish. So Ive shifted to really REALLY large maps quite awhile ago. In fact, for quite awhile all of my games have either been a quick test game on the mini-map battle simulator which only has 6 provinces, or its been 1000-1500 provinces. Like these..
http://www.dom3minions.com/RandomMap...rs/keepers.htm

If you want, two are available here..
I recommend MegaMap and TriMega. Altho if you dont mind the lack of graphics then Max_oo1 has the advantage of being a wrapped map (the edges connect so no edges and corners).
http://www.dom3minions.com/maps.htm

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

With Ashdod I'm playing on crowded maps...
[snip]
There's no way I could handle this pressure with EA C'tis--I'd probably have to turtle until I researched up to Evocation 7--and even with Ashdod it's tricky.

Thanks, that does make me feel better. I probably should try more games in better conditions against "Mighty" AIs, but for now I'll continue having fun playing MA Pangaea with my War Minotaur horde stomping the Difficult AIs flat