riadsala

I think I come down on Cory's side of the arguement. I like games where the factions, and their associated stratgies, aren't all preset. There should be scope within the game for me to pave my own path. In a 4x game, a civilisations strengths and weaknesses should be emergent properties, depending on geography, interactions with neighbours, and the success of failure of my actions. For example, the English didn't have a great navy because they were English. They had one cause they were on an island (plus a load of other contributing factors). Having too much backstory forces the game into having to play out in a certain way. Which is fine for some games (scenario based games). but hardly ideal if you're wanting "sim-space faring empire" 4x type of thing.

Hello, as we don't have a mod thread for strategy games on the thread yet, I figured I'd make one. So do people have recommendations for mods for strat games? Either extra campaigns, total conversions, minor tweaks, etc. Motivation for post: I have just bought a new shiney PC, which means I can play some new shiney games. As i have a few unplayed titles in my steam library, I figured I'd start with them. One such game is Empire Total War. Which I know was broken on release, but given the strong mod community, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some worthwhile mods out there. So, to start of with: a couple of old CivIV mods that I like a lot. CivIV: Fall from Heaven 2: everybody probably already knows about this. But from experience, a lot of people haven't actually tried it. If you haven't, and you like fantasy and strategy games, you really should give it a try at least once. You just have to poke around the civlopedia to see the amount of attention to detail. I've been writting up a couple of AARs on my blog. Also see the more naval AI mod for FfH2 which polishes out a few wrinkles. CivIV: Legends of the Revolution: this is much more of a vanilla mod. The authors aimed to make something akin to a 3rd expansion pack for CivIV, and I thinki they did a pretty good job. Main features is the introduction of a revolution mechanic, which can lead to civil wars etc. While such systems are often avoided, as designers believe that they're not fun, in practise, I think it works really well as a catch up mechanic: don't worry if you're way behind the superpowers... there's a good chance Rome will fall and descend into civil war.

I'd stay away from Paradox games for the time being. I bounced right off EUIII...seemed far to complicated and fiddly (and I'm talking as somebody who has played Dwarf Fortress). I'd suggest one of the Anno games, or perhaps Settlers 2?

New fixtures are up now. Thanks for your patience https://sites.google.com/site/bloodbowlcupofteacup/home-1/season4day2

yeah. And I like having a slower pace which allows for people who are too busy for the "one game a week" leagues. Anyway, the last game of the current round of fixtures is currently underway. So I'll pop back later this evening and kick things over to the next set of matches. With a bit of luck, we'll get through these a little faster

Yeah. Sorry it's been taking so long. Sorbicol (who's in the outstanding match) has a 4 month old baby daughter, has been looking (and starting) a new job, etc. He's a (virtual) friend though, so I'm happy to wait for him. I think the game should (touchwood) be played next weekend as he's away for the long weekend. Then hopefully we can get through the next round of matches a little faster before the holiday season kicks in. But if not, we'll get there in the end.

yes and no. One of the coaches from the previous two seasons.... he was umming and ahhing about continuing, and I didn't wait for him to get back to me. Makes no real difference as he hadn't played a game yet. The only slight downside is Heliocentric has to play against some experiences teams with his new team. But then again, it shouldn't be too bad, as he's jumping into the bottom division (not counting the two "new teams" divisions)

Which hopefully means that it won't be *that* long til the next round. Once Helio get's his game played, there are just the three left... all involving the "irregular regulars"... But that's fine, as I know who the slow coaches are, and they're all people I'm happy to wait on.

Just a quick update: I think there are only three games left to be played this round. So hopefully we can move onto the second "day" in a week or so. My first game was a classic: a hard fought 1-1 draw against amazons. I had a good few chances to get a few more goals, but was always a lucky die roll short!

Quite possibly. I you thought Blood Bowl interface was bad, well, the league admin interface is several times worse. Really really worse.

The matches need to be validated by one of the admins. It's a pain having to wait, but it means we can reset matches if need be (dealing with disconnections on turn 1 etc)

ah great. he's meant to be in the league Although it looks like I maybe miscounted places and the Last Baron has missed out? If so, please accept my apologise... I was busy with a conference for work last week and failed to keep track of things. This will be a very short season, so hopefully you can join us in a month or so

in that case, I messed up a little. Doh. I will go find out.... it's probably somebody from gamesblogchatterbox...

I assumed he was the Last Baron.... ? If not, I'll track down who it is...

And we're off. fixtures for this forum: TroyG v Etimmeh Avatar111x v Orvidos Derstin v Zryden Full list here. good luck people!

great. Touchwood and I'll be back this evening with the first round of fixtures

I have dismissed your team, so you are now free to join with a new one

Hello guys, sorry for not being around much this week.. I've been very busy with work. Should be sorting out hte league over the weekend The team changes are noted and will be fine. Gwardinen--- this Season is going to be very short (only 3 games for each team) so you shouldn't have to wait to long at all. And I'll put you top of the list for if a space comes up

Hello, new poster here, joined via the TMA podcast. I'm looking for a couple of players for a long playing Sins game. I think it would be fun to play out a game over several sessions and write up and epic AAR. I was doing something similar with a 5 player game of Sword to the Stars, but the game has stalled. I'd be looking for get at least an hour's session in once a week. Three players in total (one per race), and it would be good if the other players were also interested in writing an AAR. I haven't played mp Sins before, so ideally it would be good to find some other first-timers Riadsala

Good choice, (I'm also playing skaven, although after coming second in season1, it's been a steady downhill slope). It's looking like a pretty agile selection of teams in this division, which is fun. Hopefully the league will kick off sometime next week.

Great: the high elf v wood elf game should be interesting. So I'm just waiting for the Last Baron for this division. I believe the following races are now no longer available: Amazons Lizardmen High Elves If you have created your team, you can apply to join the league. My username is Riadsala, and the league is called "The Blood Bowl Cup of Tea" (or something similar, I'm on a mac just now so can't double check: sorry) The password is "Pootle" I will try and get Zryden (the 4th member of your division) to come and introduce himself. He's a guy I know from RPS forums. Also, there's a Steam group, called "The Blood Bowl Cup If Tea" (yes, I know, stupid spelling mistake).

No, you got me wrong, I'm not quite that harsh! The rule is no MORE than 2 players can play the same team. It gets boring playing against orcs, chaos and dwarves all the time! [which is what happened in the last league I was in] We have quite a nice diverse selection of teams! Anyhoo, I'll put you down as Wood Elves... good choice. It will be interesting to see how well the sole elf teams copes in the fairly bashy top division! Will we eventually see all the bashy teams rise to the top?

A multi-player, long-form game (Neptune's Pride, Dominions3, Solium Infernium, etc) game which allows for some interesting player interactions. All the above games are fun, but sadly, the "can only be one" win conditions means that all alliances eventually get broken, and the only thing you can trust your allies to do is to eventually stab you in the back. There must be some way to allow for alliances to be an interesting game mechanic.

Yes, ogres are terrible.. although they are almost worth it for that one game where they work as an effective force and demolish the other team A season takes as long as it takes. I'd guess around two months is realistic: some folk can only play at weekends, and might be away/busy with family, etc. Keep an eye on the link I posted above and I'll fill in the other team selections as we go.

ok people, here is the league for Season 4 of my Blood Bowl Cup of Tea: https://sites.google.com/site/bloodbowlcupofteacup/home-1/season4divisions Please let me know which race you'd like to go, it'll be on a first come, first served basis. I'm hoping somebody will go Goblins or Ogres [When I eventually give up with my crippled skaven team, I think I'll go one of the weaker races, they should be fun in the lower divisions] Riad