The Choosing - 3rd Beta Comments

[mafmiller]

AM
Hmmm ... interesting.
I was just about to post that I have been wondering why anyone would want to play the AM in the same game as the SA because it seemed to me that the AM is sort of the SA-light. AM isn't as strong politically as SA and its military, although containing better archers, is overall weaker too. It does have a bit of an advantage in artifact hunting, I think. Now, after reading LT's post, I think they might be slightly better in the end game than the SA ... maybe a tiny bit more versatile. They have P5 as their max assured magic level, but they do get Dispel Dome at that level.
... some food for thought.

[Netstrider]

Druid

After reading some of the excellent posts I spent a bit more time with the rules and have the following additional comments about the Druids.

The Druids are an interesting combination of Magic kingdom with lots of companion options to allow for significant military capability. The hardest part is going to be figuring out which companion brigades to focus on. Their political capability sucks, with low influence and very poor emissary strength. Getting the extra Gov and influence as part of your customization seems almost mandatory.

Speaking of customization - Any thoughts on adding extra brigades or wizards as customizations? I could buy brigades with the cash reward, I guess, but might be interesting to get some directly.

I will be strongest in the forest for sure. Druids might be a tough nut to crack with a military attack. But a political kingdom would have an advantage.

Looking forward to raising my wizards and reading about Transform to Nazgul.

The brigade strength chart in the setup is fun to look at, but I'll still be stabbing in the dark when recruiting. And there might be some good tweaks to make. Mammoths, for example, have ranged weapon ability? Do they shoot their tusks? Seems like there should be quite a few brigade types with little to no ranged capability.

[DuPont]

No question that the Pirates look like a fun kingdom to play. I think they are set up best to try and dominate the seas. This could create some interesting conflicts as many kingdoms like to set their own capitals at sea. Perhaps the Pirates will be in a position to demand tribute for such a privilege? The regional reactions are lousy but there are a couple that can be worked with. I also like how you can survey most of the 4 seas in one turn with a combo of groups and agents. The hidden capital is nice to start with, too.

[Ry Vor]

Thanks to all the beta testers for sending in some excellent, insightful impressions on the kingdoms in play in this 3rd Cycle beta.  Well done.  I'll likely take a lot of that for an email to tell players on sabbatical what we have going on.

I'd like readers to note that in The Choosing, there is a lot more attention being paid as to who the neighbors are, what their traits and abilities are, how a player might go about exploiting their own strengths, and in general, a pronounced emphasis on strategy and evaluating strategic alternatives in the early game. 

Don't forget to start using the 3rd Cycle Commands document.  Rewriting those, lots of kudos to Mike for how the new 3rd Cycle Order Entry and Verification really cleans things up for players, particularly new players that now don't have to learn order syntax.  We've tried to reflect this in The Commands, where we aren't specifying what goes in Column A, etc, as we always had to.  Now we are just telling players the info they need, like which kingdom, which group, etc, they need to name when issuing a command. 

We've been pleased that with 100's of changes, it looks like we've gotten almost all of it right in the code here in what is most likely the final beta.  We will make a determination as to when to start the official release of The Choosing after turn 6 of this beta, and we are targeting a day or two after that, but we'll run this game through turn 12 and encourage the testers to try to accomplish their ESO by that time.  Of course, we also need to see lots of battles of all three sorts.

While I continue to labor with a complete redo of the General Rules and various odds and ends, Mike is plugging the holes and thanks to Frost Lord and Lord Diamond who are working on 3rd Cycle player aids and a touched-up Resurgent map.  We think 3rd Cycle is the time to make the map with borders shown the official version.

Let's keep the feedback coming after Turn 2 is processed tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the feedback and the positivity.  It's exciting that we may begin about two years of work in true in a couple weeks!

[mafmiller]

Thanks to all the beta testers for sending in some excellent, insightful impressions on the kingdoms in play in this 3rd Cycle beta.  Well done.  I'll likely take a lot of that for an email to tell players on sabbatical what we have going on.

I'd like readers to note that in The Choosing, there is a lot more attention being paid as to who the neighbors are, what their traits and abilities are, how a player might go about exploiting their own strengths, and in general, a pronounced emphasis on strategy and evaluating strategic alternatives in the early game. 

Don't forget to start using the 3rd Cycle Commands document.  Rewriting those, lots of kudos to Mike for how the new 3rd Cycle Order Entry and Verification really cleans things up for players, particularly new players that now don't have to learn order syntax.  We've tried to reflect this in The Commands, where we aren't specifying what goes in Column A, etc, as we always had to.  Now we are just telling players the info they need, like which kingdom, which group, etc, they need to name when issuing a command. 

We've been pleased that with 100's of changes, it looks like we've gotten almost all of it right in the code here in what is most likely the final beta.  We will make a determination as to when to start the official release of The Choosing after turn 6 of this beta, and we are targeting a day or two after that, but we'll run this game through turn 12 and encourage the testers to try to accomplish their ESO by that time.  Of course, we also need to see lots of battles of all three sorts.

While I continue to labor with a complete redo of the General Rules and various odds and ends, Mike is plugging the holes and thanks to Frost Lord and Lord Diamond who are working on 3rd Cycle player aids and a touched-up Resurgent map.  We think 3rd Cycle is the time to make the map with borders shown the official version.

Let's keep the feedback coming after Turn 2 is processed tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the feedback and the positivity.  It's exciting that we may begin about two years of work in true in a couple weeks!

Is it too soon to say ... sign me up for the first real 3rd Cycle game!!! 

[VballMichael]

Yes, that was too soon. The line starts now.

Ok, I am in for The Choosing.

[Atuan]

Same in on the first real 3rd cycle game.

[Jumpingfist]

I would guess more than one will start pretty quickly

[mafmiller]

Yes, that was too soon. The line starts now.

Ok, I am in for The Choosing.

Line jumper!

[DuPont]

Everything worked out smoothly in my opening turns. There are several different tactics you could take with the Pirate kingdom. I think the biggest drawback is the low initial regional reactions and limited number of emissaries which impacts one's ability to expand but there are targeted ways to approach that. I think it's a kingdom that really is going to want a lot of diplomacy because you are going to potentially be interacting with most of the kingdoms on the board.
I am basically taking the approach that the seas are mine and anybody who seeks to cross them without talking to me does so at their own peril. Might be that nothing happens but it's taking quite a chance unless you've got plenty of ships of your own!