Overlords - Game Thread. (playing)

[rdonj]

Rules:
Overlords - Overlords will start with pre-defined empires, 10 provinces large. They will also start with 2 additional forts, but will still only have the regular starting army. All overlords will also be given a gatestone at the beginning of the game. Overlords may only attack normal nation or independant provinces if their god is in the army, or if they have dominion in the province. They may not storm or siege a normal nation's capitol until either all other overlords are dead, or another nation has captured the capitol. They must still follow the god/dominion rule when capturing previously taken capitols. Overlords may attack any other overlord at any time, however.

A blood sacrificing nation can NOT be an overlord. Also, if some of the overlords have stealth preachers and others do not, a generic recruitable stealth preacher will be added to the do nots. Overlords get first dibs on nations, will choose using the ranked lists method before the normals submit their list.

Normals - Normal nations may not cast any global spells, including national globals. Other than this, they can take any action they wish. Normal nations will be chosen using the ranked lists method.

Gatestones - Gatestones will be moved down to construction 6, but will be changed to require e9s9 to forge.


Diplomacy Clarification: Diplomacy is unrestricted and NAPs should not be seen as binding for this game.

Settings:
Age - QM has suggested MA, this seems a decent starting point. Any era should work though.
Map - The map will be around 15 provinces per player, maybe a little more. Pre-set starts, a new map may have to be made for the game. We'll see.
Mods - cbm 1.6, non-unique gatestones
Gold/resource/supplies/indies - normal
Players - I am hoping to get all ma nations in this game, with 6 overlords and the rest normals. However if fewer players sign up this ratio may change.
Magic sites - 20
Renaming - on
HoF - 15
Research - difficult
All other settings default.

Hosting - 24 hours for the first 5-10 turns, 48 hours until turn 30, then 72 hours until someone starts complaining their empire is too large . Extensions will only be granted a maximum of once per turn, for no more than 4 hours until the very late stages of the game. The only exception to this is if it proves necessary to search for a sub, upon which time a reasonable delay will be given. There will be NO rollbacks, ever, unless it is absolutely necessary due to a llamaserver/game issue that requires a rollback to be resolved. A mass stale will not result in a rollback unless it is coupled with some other issue.



Victory Conditions:
Overlords - Either all other overlords must be dead and the sole surviving overlord in control of at least 5 capitols for 3 turns OR control 10 capitols for 3 turns(assuming all nations).

Normals - For a normal nation to win, they must control at least 4 capitols, plus one overlord starting fort for 3 turns(these will have VPs). These forts will be crystal citadels.

Hopefully these victory conditions will prevent the game from dragging on for too long and keep things interesting.



Notes: I will ask that players who are overlords please refrain from using their gatestone with their pretender to take provinces surrounding a normal nation's capitol within the first 10 turns as it would make the game extremely unfun for any player this happened to. After that however, feel free to do so if you like. Keep in mind that only more experienced players will be considered for overlord positions. This is for matters of balance to prevent the game from ending too quickly.




Players: (21/21)

Overlords:
Baalz - R'lyeh
Lingchih - Ashdod
atul - Marignon
DrPraetorious - Machaka
Squirreloid - T'ien Ch'i

Normals:
Kianduatha - Oceania
swapoer - Man (eliminated)
rtyffg - Pangaea
viccio - Arcoscephale
Mithras - C'tis
TwoBits - Atlantis (eliminated)
LumenPlacidum - Ermor
LupusFatalis - Vanheim
Namad - Eriu
melnorjr - Shinuyama
Domdomdom - Agartha
Hoplosternum - Abysia
sansanjuan - Caelum (eliminated)
Pyg - Pythium
Pelthin - Jotunheim
Tarrax - Bandar Log (eliminated)


Edit: Map and mod files attached. Download at your leisure.

[Kietsensei]

Hello

the concept looks very interesting. I would like to sign as an overlord.
Do I have to tell the nation I would like to play now or is it a random assignment on a pre defined list?

[rdonj]

Hi. It's my understanding that you're a fairly new player. Correct me if I'm wrong? I'm sorry but for game balance purposes I don't think it would be a good idea to have newer players in as the overlords, it would make them a target and be too easy for the other overlords to kill off. I am going to go with first come first serve for this game, with overlords getting their choice of nation when they sign up and then normal nations once all of the overlords have chosen. Unless this is just wildly unpopular. I would have no problem with the ranked lists method for example.

[Squirrelloid]

Tentatively interested, although I'm also hoping some of my other games will resolve soon... (doubt I qualify for Overlord, so i'll hop in the trenches).

I am a little worried that requiring the normal nations to capture an overlord capitol will make it near-impossible for a normal nation to win. Even assuming some normal nation managed to come close to capturing one, nothing stops another overlord from swooping down on their weakened rivals capitol and taking it, and having miraculously beaten one overlord it is highly unlikely the normal nation could handle the armies of a second one.

Effectively, the premium on overlord capitols means that to take a single overlord capitol a normal nation has to not only beat one overlord, but then fend off the other four. (first, because eliminating overlords makes it easier for overlords to win, and second, because Overlords will quickly run out of targets they can take other than the territories of other overlords).

It might be better to simply require 5 capitols for 3 turns for normal nations, and make the overlords need to meddle in normal nation diplomacy to prevent such a thing from happening. (I believe this was the original proposal).

I'm also slightly worried that the game settings require an awake dom10 pretender, because the game places an extra premium on spreading dominion.

[Kietsensei]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Hi. It's my understanding that you're a fairly new player. Correct me if I'm wrong? I'm sorry but for game balance purposes I don't think it would be a good idea to have newer players in as the overlords, it would make them a target and be too easy for the other overlords to kill off. I am going to go with first come first serve for this game, with overlords getting their choice of nation when they sign up and then normal nations once all of the overlords have chosen. Unless this is just wildly unpopular. I would have no problem with the ranked lists method for example.

Well yes and no. I am kinda new as I have less than 5 MP games on internet using the llamaserver. But I have been playing this game for more than 1 year now on hotseat with friends. Playing on internet allowed me to play with different players that's it but I guess the winning tactics and strategy remain the same.

It is up to you to decide as it is your game. If you think I am not experienced enough then I will drop without any hard feeling

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Tentatively interested, although I'm also hoping some of my other games will resolve soon... (doubt I qualify for Overlord, so i'll hop in the trenches).

I am a little worried that requiring the normal nations to capture an overlord capitol will make it near-impossible for a normal nation to win. Even assuming some normal nation managed to come close to capturing one, nothing stops another overlord from swooping down on their weakened rivals capitol and taking it, and having miraculously beaten one overlord it is highly unlikely the normal nation could handle the armies of a second one.

Effectively, the premium on overlord capitols means that to take a single overlord capitol a normal nation has to not only beat one overlord, but then fend off the other four. (first, because eliminating overlords makes it easier for overlords to win, and second, because Overlords will quickly run out of targets they can take other than the territories of other overlords).

It might be better to simply require 5 capitols for 3 turns for normal nations, and make the overlords need to meddle in normal nation diplomacy to prevent such a thing from happening. (I believe this was the original proposal).

I'm also slightly worried that the game settings require an awake dom10 pretender, because the game places an extra premium on spreading dominion.

You make some good points squirrel. I want to force the normals to have to face the overlords eventually though. Theoretically, the normal is "winning" by becoming an overlord. And becoming an overlord without ever fighting one feels wrong to me. So we're going to compromise here. Instead of having to control a capitol, you have to control one of an overlord's starting forts. These will have VPs in them, but VPs will not be used to determine a winner, they'll just be there as a reference.


I wouldn't say an awake dom10 pretender is absolutely necessary, but it's certainly not a bad idea. It is a safe bet though that most players would decide to go with a dom10 awake pretender to keep out overlord dominion.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by Kietsensei

Well yes and no. I am kinda new as I have less than 5 MP games on internet using the llamaserver. But I have been playing this game for more than 1 year now on hotseat with friends. Playing on internet allowed me to play with different players that's it but I guess the winning tactics and strategy remain the same.

It is up to you to decide as it is your game. If you think I am not experienced enough then I will drop without any hard feeling

Yeah, I would prefer someone with more mp experience than that play as the overlords. Otherwise you will just be crushed mercilessly by all the other overlords... it's unavoidable. You would be perceived as weak even if you aren't, ganged up on and it would not be pretty.

[namad]

i'll play as long as one or two of the irc regulars do

but you seem to be actively recruiting on irc anyways

[rdonj]

Yep. I think there will be a few from irc.

[kianduatha]

I'd love to play as a normal nation. I noticed that you didn't mention anything about the blood nations being banned in this thread. If that's true, I'd love to play Abysia. Otherwise maybe Ulm.