Hi, earwicker. I was thinking about signing up for your game, but I wanted to confirm: are you indeed not using the conceptual balance mod (CBM)? There are obviously a lot of exploits in vanilla that us newbies might have a hard time handling.
I love your idea for a no staling record! Here is a link to a current game so you can check up on me. I'm Pangaea.
http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=FirstBlood
And here's the game thread so you can confirm that that's actually me.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=46315
Let me know about the CBM. I'll have to give this some thought if you're really going vanilla.
Thanks!