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[Il Palazzo]

So, what is it? - It's a play-by-email game of Emperor of the Fading Suns. An old-ish turn-based, hex-grid game(ca.1996?) from Holistic Design, that takes the universe of tabletop RPG "Fading Suns" as it's background(basically, a bastard child of Dune and WH40k).
It's a game of military and economic expansion(4X), but first and foremost, a game of diplomacy. At least when playing against humans.
Originally the game was(and still is) very buggy, the future patches fixed some, the Nova mod we're using fixed some more. There are still many a bug to avoid which we're trying to do with a help of "Nova house rules".
The players: 5 noble houses(playable), the Holy Church, the League(trading guild), the Vau(aliens, though passive), the Symbiots(aliens, aggressive).
The goal: to become the new Emperor.

Li Halan - mainiac
Hazat - COMPUTER FOOL
Decados - Mlittle(previously Pnx, previously Boksi)
Hawkwood - Aqizzar
al-Malik - Il Palazzo {widmac at o2 dot pl}

We're using Nova mod (web site) over patch 1.4(latest).
Important:
1.This additional rules of conduct had been proposed. They're mostly un-enforcable(is there such a word?), so it's your good will in abiding by them that we'll be counting on.
2.Use this guide to choose house traits, and post your choices here.(imagine your starting point pool to be 0)

The short history of in-game events:
turn 1 - house Li Halan declares war on the house al-Malik following the so called 'Criticorum incident'.
turn 3 - house al-Malik signed a Holy Writ.
         - the Church excomunicates Li Halan heretics
         - House Decados allies with house al-Malik
turn 10 - (due to house rules, all houses vote for themselves)
turn 12 - House Decados honours an alliance and joins the war. Clashes over Li Halan homeworld of Kish
turn 15 - an greement between houses al-Malik and Li Halan to cease fire has been reached
turn 18 - (Boksi leaves the game. Pnx joins)
turn 19 - House Hawkwood aquires the sixth scepter, disrupting the voting balance
turn 20 - Year of the first election.
turn 21 - Alexius of the House Hawkwood has been elected the new Imperial Regent, taking control of the Imperial Eye. Hyram of House Decados has been appointed the Fleet Command, while Chi Kao of the Li Halan became the new Stigmata Garrison Commander.
Rumours from Kish regarding the uncovering of the Zebulon's Spade.
turn 25 - Major space battle over Malignatus between Li Halan and al-Malik ends with a decisive victory for Li Halan
turn 26 - Decados claim to have uncovered the Prophet's Signet.
           - Fighting on Mailgnatus continues
turn 30 - Second election begins.
turn 31 - House Hawkwood retains the Regency for another term
turn 33 - House Decados declares war on their former allies, the al-Malik. (or was it the other way around?)
turn 34 - another coup'd etat sees Lord M becoming the new ruler of House Decados
turn 35 - a peace treaty is signed between houses of al-Malik and Decados
turn 36 - House Decados declares war on Li Halan. Imperial Fleet eradicates Li Halan ships blockading Istakhar.
turn 40 - Third election.
turn 41 - Il Palazzo of the house al-Malik is elected a new Regent and Garrison Commander. House Hawkwood has been put in charge of the Fleet, House Decados takes the Eye.
turn 45 - Plague outbreak on Malignatus. Imperial Fleet moves in to quarantine the planet.
turn 50 - A covert(and failed) attack by Li Halan on the al-Malik noble on Byzantium leads to a formal state of war between the two houses.
          - fourth elections.
turn 51 - Il Palazzo retains the Regency for another term. All ministries' ownerships remain unchanged.
turn 53 - Li Halan forces attack al-Malik noble on Malignatus, despite calls from other houses to allow evacuation.
turn 54 - The Hazat declares war against House Li Halan.
          - House Hawkwood executes punitive action against Li Halan on Malignatus. Formal state of war.
turn 55 - Al-Malik forces invade Malignatus.

[Servant Corps]

I know what EFS is, but when I first booted it up, it proved hard for me to play. Too much micromanging. I'll probraly think of using the tutorial providied by Wikipedia and will get defeated, but I don't think I'll have any time to play a MP game.

Good luck Il Palazzo.

[mainiac]

Ooh, I really like EFS, but I've never played anything PBEM before.  Also, I've never used the nova patch.  What does it change?

[Il Palazzo]

hey, thanks Servant Corps. Seeing how the Alpha Centauri thread goes I begin to think that luck might be necessary.

Here is some info about Nova mod. It seems better suited for multiplayer games as it prevents some exploits, like hiding scepters on some remote planet or building massive armies consisting only of basic artillery. It adds few units(a Vau mercenary anyone?), changes combat balance, etc. Just check out the link above.

mainiac: no worries, I'm a PBEM virgin too. Seems simple enough: the game automaticaly saves after you move, then you send the savegame file to the next guy.

Since some micromanagement is an essential part of the game, I suggest a leisurable pace, as I mentioned before. This being multiplayer, I assume the players will be ruthless and agressive, making the game relatively quick, so that the things won't get bogged down as they often do in singleplayer.

[mainiac]

Cool site.  I think I'll play.  Put me down as Li Halan.

Since we're going with the slower pace, should we turn the universal warehouse off for the extra layer of strategy?

[Il Palazzo]

Cool site.  I think I'll play.  Put me down as Li Halan.

Since we're going with the slower pace, should we turn the universal warehouse off for the extra layer of strategy?

But of course. Intercepting food shipments to Byzantium is fun.

Just let you know, I'd rather play with all houses human controled if I can. So let's try waiting a day or two for other people to (hopefuly) get interested. Should there be no response from the public(shame on you bay12 forum members!) we'll discuss substituting computer players.

[Boksi]

I'm horrible at this game, but hey whatever, I'll play Decados.

[Il Palazzo]

Just keep in mind, this game being a rather lenghty at times, that we're looking for players who can commit themselves towards doing at least one turn per day. And who doesn't get dicouraged easily(eh, what am I doing? looking for an ideal?)
Edit: I suppose that christmas-time family duties and new year's hangover can be considered a valid exception from the first rule)

Oh, and this one just came to my mind: No save scumming for better combat results, folks! I'm counting on your spirit of fair play, since there's no way to enforce it. ok? good.

[mainiac]

Any hints where I can find this?  I deleted my old copy and underdogs doesn't have it right now.

[Aqizzar]

Holy crap, I thought I was the only person who ever played this game.  I can't get it to work on my main machine anymore, but if I can get my laptop working I'll join in.  Count me up as Hawkwood, and for the Pancreator's sake, Universal Warehouse on.

I found my copy (lost the disk eons ago) a few years back on some forgotten warez site that probably doesn't exist anymore.  The .rar is 13Mb, if there's any way to spread it around.

[mainiac]

14 MB?  You could email it, host it on pretty much anything or convey it by smoke signals.  14 MB is bupkis.  If you e-mail it to theamazingjex@gmail.com, I'll host it on my google account and put a link in this thread.

[Servant Corps]

Is there any way to play the Vau, the Symboits, or the Church? Preferably the Church? I think they might need less "micromanging"...and I heard great stuff about EFS' diplomacy system.

[Il Palazzo]

14 MB?  You could email it, host it on pretty much anything or convey it by smoke signals.  14 MB is bupkis.  If you e-mail it to theamazingjex@gmail.com, I'll host it on my google account and put a link in this thread.

I've sent you my copy(illegal! illegal!). It's a self extracting rar file of 16MB - patch included(but not installed) as well as Nova mod and Hyperion mod(this one sucks, in my opinion). Spread the code.

All you guys make sure you run the .reg file after unpacking, it won't work ortherwise(maybe that's your problem, Aqizzar?).
Also, make sure you patch the game first, and then unzip the Nova.

Aqizzar: No freaking way! universal warehouse is detrimental to the gameplay!(though it reduces micromanagement, I agree)
Listen, this is good stuff: you need to provide supplies to your colonies and invasion armies which adds another layer to strategy. And if those canisters bother you, just set them to 'sentry'.
Keep in mind, there's supposedly less-of-everything in Nova, so it shouln't be that bad.

Is there any way to play the Vau, the Symboits, or the Church? Preferably the Church? I think they might need less "micromanging"...and I heard great stuff about EFS' diplomacy system.

No, there isn't.

[Il Palazzo]

One more thing: I need you guys to run the game and choose your traits and portraits. Set the difficulty to begginer - this gives you 0 poinst to spend on traits, so you need to take some negative ones if you want any positives.

Put your choices on this thread when you're done.

And mainiac: you'll have to start the multiplayer, since Li Halan are always first in taking turns.

Anyway, one more player to go.

[mainiac]

Aren't traits seriously broken?  I can take enemy in the Church, enemy in the League and Inbreeding, none of which have much effect, and get warrior ethic, rule of law and mercantile savy, all of which help enormously.

I like the house rules proposed by the site you linked too.  Shall we play by them?

http://website.lineone.net/~rwein/nova/houserules.htm

Edit: eh, I didn't get an e-mail or nuthin' from you.