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[notquitethere]

Any interest still for this? I need to do a bit more work on the set up, but pretty much ready to go when we get a sixth player (unless I player one of the countries myself?)

[Kashyyk]

I'm interested still. My only suggestion is that you give everyone one turn's worth of income in their stockpile, otherwise Northumbria will be the only nation to be able to do anything.

[notquitethere]

So I'm going to set it up so people have some units to play around with at the beginning before they get their population centres up and running. I'll have a play around with different options until I get something that gives players interesting tactical choices right from the beginning.

[Evil Marahadja]

I am in. Never played anything like it though.

[lemon10]

Sweet. That's six out of six.

For those of you that have never played before:

Spoiler: Vanigo Interface Tutorial (click to show/hide)

When you start the player interface, you will see a text box asking you to paste in game XML. To go past this screen, you'll need a saved game, which the game administrator will provide. As the game progresses, the admin will produce a new save for each turn. These turns are stored in text-based XML. To load a game, copy and paste the contents of the turn file into the text box.
Once you've done this, you will be prompted to select which player you are. Once you've done so, you'll be ready to interact with the main screen:

The main screen is divided into several sections, as follows:
1: Main map. Click on tiles to select them for closer inspection. You can scroll this map by clicking on the brown frame.
2: Global buttons. The "Save Game" button produces an XML file containing your orders (more on this later). The "Players", "Resources", and "Orders" buttons brings up the player, resources and orders windows, respectively, which are described in greater detail below.
3: Basic tile information. This section of the screen shows the selected tile, its owner, and its base terrain type. To claim an unowned tile, click on the tile owner text box (which should read "Unclaimed").
4: Tile features. This section indicates the presence of rivers, roads, special resources, and tile improvements. To build a road or an improvement, click on the corresponding boxes.
5: Tile output. This box shows the expected resource output of the selected tile. This is non-interactive.
6: City information. This box shows the tile's population, and, if applicable, the name of any city present. If you want to build a city on a tile you control, click on this text box. Clicking on the box with a city already present brings up the city window (described below).
7: Army information. This box has information on any military units present in the tile, and two buttons to issue orders to your armies. Clicking on the text box brings up the armies window (described below). If you have armies present in the tile, you may order them to move around the map with the "move army" button (and then using the numpad or the on-screen arrow keys to move), and, if you have an army in an enemy's tile, you may use the "conquer" button to take it away.
8: Minimap. It's a minimap, which you are hopefully familiar with. You can click it to recenter the map.


There is little to remark on in the player window. Your total population and free population are important to keep track of, but straightforward. The lists of your cities, units, and armies are similarly self-explanatory.


This window shows your current resource stockpiles, the expected net change, and your expected stockpiles at the begining of next turn.
You can see in the lower right corner that the minimap is overlapping the resources window. This is a bug, and I'm going to fix it.


This window shows all the orders you have given for next turn. You may cancel most orders here, but army reorganization orders cannot be canceled. (This is because doing so is computationally much more difficult than you might expect.) Most reorganization orders can simply be performed in reverse, but if you order a unit or army disbanded and then change your mind, you will have to close the interface, and reload the game, so be careful with those orders.


This window is one of the most important. This is where you order units and buildings to be built. Taking things from the top, you can rename your cities by clicking on the name box, and order your cities to grow or shrink in population with the + and - buttons by the population box.
Next is the list of buildings. Every building in the game (except for a few hidden ones!) is shown here. Select them for more information on what they do and what they cost to build. Buildings in bold are currently present in the selected city, buildings in black can be built, and buildings in grey are currently unavailable because the city is too small or lacks one or more prerequisite buildings. If you want to build a building, select it from the list and click "build building".
Finally, the "raise unit" button brings up a list of units you can build at this city, and lets you select one to build.
Be aware, each city can only perform one action (raise population, lower population, build building, build unit) each turn. You can cancel the current order by clicking on it in the "current order" box.


This window is where you examine and reorganize your armies. Armies are the containers which hold your military units. You can create new empty armies with the "new army" button at any time, but they will automatically disband themselves unless you move at least one unit into them. You may have more than one army in a tile, in which case you can select one from the list of armies. You can also rename your armies by clicking on the army name box.
Armies often contain more than one unit, and the units in an army can be examined separately. After selecting a unit, you can disband it, or move it to another army in the same tile with the appropriate buttons.

After you have examined the game state, decided what you want to do, and issued the appropriate orders, click on the "save game" button on the main screen. This will bring up a text box with XML containing all the orders you have issued. Copy and paste the contents of this box into a post or PM sent to the game's administrator.

Spoiler: Basic game tutorial (click to show/hide)

If you look at a (owned) city in the admin interface, it shows you all the buildings, their cost, what they give you and what buildings/units they allow. Note that some units/buildings have more then one prerequisite.
If you create a army in the admin interface (by clicking on the box that says no armies->new army) then click on new unit, it shows you a list of all the units in the game as well as their costs (although not the buildings required to build them).

As for resources: Every tile you own produces resources each turn. A tile's resource output can be improved by building an improvement on it (which range from farms (+1 food) to mines and mana taps (which allow you to use special resources on the tile)). Improvements require that you own a city either adjacent for size 2-3 cities, or sqrt(5) of a size 4-6 city.
Land is claimed by clicking on the "Unclaimed" button (while you have at least one spare pop). Cities are built on claimed land by clicking on the "Uninhabited" button (again, while you have at least one spare pop).

You gain 1 population by consuming Population/2 food, and each population eats two food per turn (so if every population you have makes 3 food, you get 2 more population per turn, but if your average is 2 each, then you gain none). It is because of this that having higher food income is very important. E: If you have more food you grow faster and can support larger cities, which allows you a significant advantage. This is why you probably want to start near the river (since it will result in you having a faster initial growth).

Building anything requires labor, which is gained based on the size of your cities. Size: 2,3,4,5,6 cities produce 0,1,1,2,3 labor (size 6 cities require a special building to build however). Since everything requires labor, the more labor you have, the more total production you have. More labor is also extremely important. The person with the most labor will probably win, since they are able to grow the fastest (due to having the most production), and build the most and strongest troops.

[notquitethere]

Good to have you aboard, Evil Marahadja. I'm going to have another balance overview over the starting positions and look to start this some time in the next 24 hours.

[lemon10]

It would be nice to start with a spare pop (or two) so that I have something to do in the first turn besides completely pass.

[notquitethere]

Yeah, everyone will start with something so they have options at game start.

[notquitethere]

OK, so the current version is here.

As it currently stands:

- Ireland has one unit and almost no territory, but almost no immediate enemies
- Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria have King units (swordsmen, in this case) and one spear unit each. Mercia and Northumbria have gold stocks and debts, Wessex has no gold stocks, debt, but has an additional city (though, less territory).
- Wales and Pictland have three units each, but no cities to begin with. Pictland has loads of territory and scope for growth, to compensate, Wales starts with 2 pop, allowing the creation of a city at the choice of location from the first turn. Pictland has a weaker King unit (an axeman).

The idea here is to give each player distinct advantages and disadvantages. Let me know if anyone thinks they have a wincon that is unachievable. If all are okay, I'll officially start a bit later today.

[lemon10]

Ehh, might as well start it up. Seems fairly balanced to me, at least from first impressions.
I would rather like to start with a single free pop (which would balance out my pop gains and allow me a (tiny) action this turn and in two turns (since otherwise in two turns I would have 0 free pop))).

[Rolepgeek]

Question: How is Ireland supposed to pay the upkeep for their unit?

[notquitethere]

TURN 1: 615 AD

The Anglo-Saxon empires squabble for supremacy, while the Celts in the hinterlands muster and march; across the narrow Irish sea a new High King is crowned.

Player interface
Admin Interface

New players, let me know if you have any difficulties. Remember, you're free to PM other player and arrange allegiances. If you'd like me to clarify any aspect of your wincon, let me know.

Spoiler: Win Conditions (click to show/hide)

For the wincons below: a nation is considered defeated if it has no cities and no units and no reasonable chance of completing its wincon. Ireland is considered 'taken over' if 95% of its tiles are owned by one player.

Irish Kingdom: Take over the whole of Ireland 
Mercia: Defeat the Anglo-Saxon nations (Northumbria, Wessex) OR Defeat the Britons (Picts/Welsh/Irish).
Wessex: Hold Winchester until the Danes come. You can lose and retake it, but if it's ever destroyed or if it's owned by a foreign nation in 665AD, you'll lose.
Wales: Survive until the Danes come. This means 'have at least one Welsh territory and one Welsh unit alive' in 665 AD.
Pictland: Defeat the Anglo-Saxon Nations OR take over Ireland
Northumberland: Defeat the Picts OR take over Ireland

The game can end prematurely if one faction wipes out all other factions, which is also considered a win. Win conditions are only checked in 665 AD and you only can win if you're not defeated.

Mercia - Rolepg
Wessex - Varee
Northumbria - Evil Marahadja
Wales - Zanz
Ireland - Lemon10
Pictland - Kashyyk

Question: How is Ireland supposed to pay the upkeep for their unit?

They start with 10 money, as do Mercia and Northumbria.

[lemon10]

I feel its important to note that both your player and admin interface links actually link the admin interface.

I would also like: My color to be changed to dark green (since my current color is pretty close to the green of the plains tiles) and my player name ingame to be changed to Lemon10.

Spoiler: Turn 1 (click to show/hide)

<playerturn player="Irish">
  <tileorders>
    <tileorder type="tClaim" x="7" y="24"/>
  </tileorders>
  <cityorders/>
  <armyorgorders/>
  <armyorders/>
</playerturn>

Spoiler: Turn 2 (click to show/hide)

<playerturn player="Irish">
  <tileorders>
    <tileorder type="tClaim" x="6" y="25"/>
    <tileorder type="tClaim" x="8" y="22"/>
  </tileorders>
  <cityorders/>
  <armyorgorders/>
  <armyorders/>
</playerturn>

Spoiler: Turn 3 (click to show/hide)

<playerturn player="Irish">
  <tileorders>
    <tileorder type="tClaim" x="9" y="21"/>
  </tileorders>
  <cityorders/>
  <armyorgorders/>
  <armyorders/>
</playerturn>

[notquitethere]

OK, fixed. Also, I was unable to mod the changes to the game, as I believe the rule have to be in the same directory as the game, it wouldn't work pointing to an externally hosted version of the ruleset xml.

[lemon10]

OK, fixed. Also, I was unable to mod the changes to the game, as I believe the rule have to be in the same directory as the game, it wouldn't work pointing to an externally hosted version of the ruleset xml.

Dark Age turn 1 with modded ruleset