playing ANYONE against everyone

[Gandalf Parker]

I have to admit that EA Arcos would tempt me alot. In a game with every nation, running for so long, the ability to seduce commanders from every other era/nation would be very tempting.

[Meglobob]

Errm...thinking about it abit more, would'nt the LA nations have a huge advantage at the beginning with better weapons/armour and then in the end game the EA nations should come out on top with there more powerful mages/magic.

[Gandalf Parker]

Meglobob said:
Errm...thinking about it abit more, would'nt the LA nations have a huge advantage at the beginning with better weapons/armour and then in the end game the EA nations should come out on top with there more powerful mages/magic.

That did show up abit in the tests with AI's but Im willing to hear the expert veterans claims that AI's are at best a bare minimum comparison.

Human players might make all the difference. Can a great EA player make it far enough into the game to gain ground? Can a great LA player hold what he gains when the EA nations start gaining in their research?

[Baalz]

Meglobob, that's not entirely true. Some of the best national troops are EA sacreds (Vanheim, Mictlan, Neifelheim), while some really good late game powers are LA (Ermor, Ulm).

[Meglobob]

Gandalf Parker said:

That did show up abit in the tests with AI's but Im willing to hear the expert veterans claims that AI's are at best a bare minimum comparison.

Human players might make all the difference. Can a great EA player make it far enough into the game to gain ground? Can a great LA player hold what he gains when the EA nations start gaining in their research?

This MP Gandalf, a player playing a LA nation could try to organise a early game massacre of all the EA nations. Can you imagine that, a huge alliance of LA nations slaughtering every EA nation they come across because they know such nations have a huge advantage later in the game.

EA Arco does'nt look so good now eh...as he could be public enemy no.1, would be good fun thou.

Or am I just ?

[quantum_mechani]

Meglobob said:
Errm...thinking about it abit more, would'nt the LA nations have a huge advantage at the beginning with better weapons/armour and then in the end game the EA nations should come out on top with there more powerful mages/magic.

More like EA nations would have a big advantage through the whole game. EA Vanhiem, Helhiem, Lanka, Niefelhiem could beat up almost any living LA nation, at any stage of the game. The differnce between ages isn't all it's made out to be... there are some extremely powerful nations scattered through all the eras, but EA has the biggest concentration.

[Gandalf Parker]

Actually I was thinking that a lucky position would be EA arcos landing in the corner with LA Ulm sitting in front of him and cutting one super NAP (non-aggression pact for lurkers) "protect me now and I will make it worth your while later". Im thinking that either way, NAPs will have a big impact on a game this big.

[Baalz]

Yeah, diplomacy in general would be important. Don't want to be known as a pact breaker in a game running for 2 years.

[Meglobob]

To quantum_mechani and Baalz:-

Yea, I agree with you both, some EA nations, like the ones you mentioned would be powerful from the start.

I was however, talking about the entire age as a group and generalising about overall strategy not focusing in, on a couple of nations.

[Xietor]

Do most of your mp games have diplomacy? The ones I play with my 3 friends are always everyone for himself. Diplomacy is considered cheating.