I'll try to put up an AAR of my game:
When I joined the game one of the big reasons was that I needed to see through at least one PBEM game to know what features a multiplayer remake really needs. On the other hand, I have never been a big fan of pvp myself so I was worried I might not like a PBEM very much.
As the game progressed I found that I did not dislike the pvp here, much more interesting than playing against the EFS1.4 AI. But my turns were getting longer as the game progressed, too much planning, micromanagement and constipation in general, compounded by the lack of management support in EFS1.4, the fact that you start with major assets on four planets in this mod and the need to discover new strategies to deal with live opponents. Maybe fast PBEM is not my cup of tea.
What I'm wondering about, is whether my electoral deal with Li Halan worked - I lent them my 10 scepters on the eve of elections in exchange for them taking the Regency and me keeping the Eye - not that the latter was much more than those stealth ships at this time, but I figured: anything to keep my antagonists' greedy hands away from the spoils.
In other reflections, the League is a hugely unbalancing faction in this mod. It's got huge amounts of capturable units and ships, including gold generating ones. It can't defend for shit, and as we've all seen, its fleet likes to get stuck on Byzantium. On the other hand, if not for that fleet just waiting for combat restrictions to be lifted, I might have tried claiming the throne...
The scepter loaning deal worked as agreed, as Li Halan I tried to honor all deals. Also, in this mod the Hazat are squeezed between the League and the Church with only three starting planets, so basically it is just a question of which one you should attack. IIRC Vertab Nukks said he tried to make the starting situation of the mod historically correct but from play balance point of view some houses (al-Malik and especially Hazat) may be too tightly squeezed in the beginning.
I always felt that joulupunikki was studying our natural behaviors, as if studying lower forms of primates, rather than being directly involved in the emperor wars. I'm sure there was some grand vision for him to take over, but I just couldn't tell when he was or wasn't seeing Palazzo as the great demon that he is.
I was too worried about missing some important PBEM strategies and being quickly overrun to properly enjoy studying the behaviour of
lower forms of primates my cousins. For research my strategy was to acquire important, expensive technologies quickly and then offer those technologies to several others on the same turn for less expensive technologies. The dirtiest deal was when the scepter war started and I immediately tried to sell Advanced Assault Gun (which allows space fighters) to everyone
Not everyone agreed, but I still got more research points than I gave.
Reagarding waging major wars, Li Halan had room to expand so I was more concerned with building defences like large numbers of star fighters. When the scepter war started I thought the coalition would knock Hazat out quickly and I would not be needed anyway ... surprise, surprise.
That's why I'm hoping in the EFS remake we'll be able to create more formidable AI. Holy Terra/Leagueheim are jewels as it is, thanks to scepters and spoils of war, so they shouldn't be conquerable so early in the game, at least not by one player. The Vau seem to serve little to no purpose.
I dare not make much projections regarding the AI, it's the part of the remake with the least concrete results on the table. But as my first PBEM is now over I may be bold enough to suggest a PBEM test game using Phoenix remake. Reckon one should start with something quick and simple, such as quickly playing thru the first year of a game, just to figure out what needs to be done to make the remake a serious contender for EFS.EXE replacement in PBEM games. For a short and simple test game like this getting five players is not necessary, three should be enough, but the more the merrier. Maybe I should start a new thread on the subject.
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Topic: EOTFS: Emperor Wars Mod 2nd Game - Game Over. (Read 57474 times)