Back in the early days things were even less random than they are now. In
the original 1650 games run by GSI, for quite a while, starting characters
were ALWAYS in the same locations, in command of the same armies -- and the
morale and training of the troops in an army were indeed equal to the command
rank of the commander in charge. As a result of much discussion between the
players and the game designers, GSI randomized the starting situations for each
nation as follows:
(A) Army commanders remained army commanders but they got randomized as to
which armies they were in command of, while the armies still kept their
original morale and training, so now you might have a character with C20 rank in
charge of an army that originally had a C50 in command and vice versa, so the
C20's army would have 50 morale and troop training while the C50's army would
have 20 morale and troop training. Anyway, that made it tougher for some DS
agent to move to a specific location and scout and follow a major army
commander on turn 1 and assassinate him on turn 2 -- some work now has to go into
figuring out which commander is where, or else agents have to settle for less
important targets or arrange an ambush at a likely interception point like
3120 or whatever. And non-army commanders would also be randomized as to where
they started, except that the same number of characters start in each
location, so for example one Dark Lieutenants character always starts at the town
on the north flank of Mordor, 3621 IIRC, but it was originally always the same
dark lady, Miruimor, but now it could be any of the Dk Lts
non-army-commander characters...
(B) Each nation now got a special ability on one character at random. If
the nation has either stealth or challenge rank as a nation ability, then the
special ability was automatically that, otherwise standard random special
ability applied. So at least was now some small amount of uncertainty as to what
you might face with a given enemy character -- the Woodmen for instance with
both nation abilities would have one character get either challenge rank or
stealth bonus, so you would have to be at least a little concerned as a
Dragon Lord or Witch-king that maybe the Woodmen character you were facing might
have a challenge bonus. Admittedly, not worried very much at the start --
both Dragon Lord and Witch-king have plenty of high ranks and artifacts and tend
not to worry about challenges much, they are more likely to offer them than
not. Similarly, one random Cloud Lord guy would get stealth, so even if most
CLs retire an A30 in order to name an A40 replacement, some CLs might find
that A30 has some stealth and hold onto him. But getting a single random
ability on a single character at the start really isn't THAT much of a change --
it can be ignored as flavor for the most part. Actually changing ranks on
multiple characters would be a much more significant type of change.
(C) Artifact powers for those with skill rank bonuses were made to be
randomized, could be the same as they were originally, or +5, or -5. So that was
something to eagerly review once the turn 0 arrived -- check all those
starting artifacts vs the base values and see if you got lucky (with a total + to
the values) or unlucky (with a total - to the values). This added to the
character randomization for nations with multiple skill artifacts, such as the
Witch-king, Dragon Lord, Noldo Elves and so on. You could no longer assume Bain
I had X for a challenge rank (within a few points) as his two command
artifacts could both have gotten a +5, say, or both gotten a -5... So challenges
became a little scarier for anyone who thought they should have an advantage.
All in all the change had a decent impact on the immediate starting plans at
that time -- sometimes significantly, such as Khamul being able to name
decent characters on turn 1 when he starts at 2715 and NOT being able to do so
when he starts at 3822... But players soon adjusted, and simply developed
plans slightly differently so that it matter less who was where.
Now, if instead of the army commanders swapping around but the armies stayed
behind, you might have the armies AND the commanders being swapped around --
while still starting with armies in the same places -- then some nations
become a lot harder to predict while others don't. The BS and CL armies would
be in the same place every game, but the Easterlings and Long Rider and the
Gondors and so on, nations with armies of varying sizes and strengths in
multiple locations, would really be different from game to game.
Would that be a good thing? It would certainly make opening moves a lot
less predictable -- what if the LR starts with his largest and strongest cavalry
army at the camp in SW Mordor? Bad news for the Gondors. But what if he
starts with that army on the island at 4215? Bad news for the LR -- he cannot
even ferry it all across the Sea of Rhun in one trip, and unlike the mixed
infantry army that normally starts there, it would be a pretty bad idea to just
disband it... It would certainly make every game different, but in some
ways, it would be an unbalancing difference -- in some games, army placement
would result in bad news for the FP as their best armies might be out of
position and the best armies of the DS might be in position to stomp several major
pop centers right away, while in other games the opposite would be true. Some
nations would be affected hardly at all, while others would be highly
randomized...
Artifact randomization, in my view, would be less unbalancing. Sure, Curses
is the primary counter to agents, and it takes the Spirit Mastery items to
truly enable that -- but at the same time, part of the fearsomeness of agents
is the ability to pump them up with multiple agent and stealth artifacts.
Slowing down the immediate locating and gathering of the major agent and mage
artifacts would place greater emphasis on the starting ranks of the mages and
agents on both sides. It would still randomize things, and that can
unbalance any given game -- if one side gets several VC artifact numbers for things
like Tinculin and the Ring of Wind, and the other side does not, then that
will be a big advantage for that side, IF they do indeed take advantage of the
information. Neutrals would gain a bit more bargaining power, as they would
have VC artifact number info to trade -- most of the Neutrals, even those with
some mage power, do not have the locating and gathering resources of some of
the big mage nations of the FP and DS. And low-ranking mages would
definitely have an important part to play -- Research Artifact spells would no longer
be just for checking for weak random special abilities, but asin 4th Age,
would be vital for building a list of artifact numbers and finding the numbers
for the crucial mage and agent/stealth artifacts that power the character
war... But the point is, greater difficulty in artifact collection would
require both sides to put more effort into it, so although it MIGHT hurt one side
more than the other, at least it WOULD slow down both sides to a decent extent.
Personally, I play very few 1650 games these days, but every once in a while
I will, as I enjoy the "huge armies" aspect of that scenario -- it is just
that I played it so many times under GSI and Deft that I have played almost
every nation, some of them multuple times... I don't play 2950 (played it 5
times, sampling the nations of all three allegiances) as I prefer 4th Age if I
am gonna be hampered economically but ave tough characters. 1650 with more
randomized army locations and randomized artifacts would be interesting to me,
but I am not sure it would be enough to get me playing it consistently
again. When I want randomization yet with overall game balance (theoretically) I
play 4th Age -- 1650 is, for me, more classic strategy like chess, everyone
knows most of the pieces, more or less where they start and what they can do,
and it is the interaction of slight variations on the standard themes (and
the results of actions being successes or failures) along with the variety of
player styles that make each game unique. So although I would certainly try a
1650 game or two with greater randomization, I am not sure the game needs it.
Whew! -- Ernie III
In a message dated 10/30/2004 7:20:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
g0th@bol.com.br writes:
Some stuff can be changed every game so that less certainties arise. Its
like the first Diablo : The game was essentially the same each time u played it,
but the quests differed....
Randomization of artifact numbers, or even a greater variation of their
numeric powers ( Such as the possibility of EoW coming as a + 25 artifact )
could help achieve this. Maybe a minor customization of characters at game start
could also improve this.
I believe that messing around with the characteristics that permeate most of
the initial strategies, like artifact numbers and army placement, could do a
lot to end the predictability of the first 4 turns.
Rodrigo Maia
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