Some NKA thoughts

mepbmlist
#1

Unworkable.

Would you pick a quadrant, then a capital? How many
capital choices per quadrant ? Or how many quad's?

Besides, emmy's are only foiled by "enemy" armies, are
they not? If relations haven't been downgraded, I can
take your town with 10,000 HC, if you like (though, I'm
sure not to keep it for long....)

Also, if your capital is far from the action, is that
not by design? Again, never played (will soon...!) but
I would assume that the nations would generally
gravitate towards the center of the map, between the
Twin Kingdoms....no? Just can't see someone chosing
4434 or whatever, and then complaining that there are
no easy military targets.........

And, while some people complain that "everyone" starts
with 60 emissaries, it sounds like it would be real
easy to stick your capital in some far off corner, and
build another complete nation somewhere else entirely.

Besides, FA is a creation "based" on ME PBM, with the
same game-play, etc. The similarities are supposed to
stop with the mechanics of the orders....no?

Regards,

Brad Brunet

···

On Sun, 07 January 2001, "Marc Pinsonneault" wrote:

Hello. I'm in the first NKA, which does have an interesting and
different feel. There is one thing that I would very, very strongly
recommend for future versions of this type: geographic balance.
I would divide up the map into four sections, for example the Misties
and Northwest; Mirkwood, Sea of Rhun, Rhovannion; Mordor and the SE
hills/rough; south Dunland, Gondor, Corsairs and SW hill/rough.
Two dark/free alliance capitals in each quadrant, one neutral each in
NK/SK turf, 3 neutrals in each of the other two quadrants and one
neutral in any area.

The reason is simple. In a normal game characters have a lot of
reach, so even if they are in some godforsaken corner you can hit them
with assassins/emmys in a few turns. In NKA, there is *nothing* but
an army that can take a pop center with 100 men at arms and a
commander. This is fine if the nations start out close enough that
this is possible. I'm afraid that NKA#1 has the potential to turn
into a dreary exercise given that the free and dark set up very far
away; I can say that the neutrals have potential boredom as one big
consideration in choosing alliances, which is not entirely a good
thing. This isn't a fatal flaw, but it is a real concern.

I also happen to think this would give a faster and more interesting
early game and cut down on abuses in the setups. It would be fairly
straightforward in a first come/first served setup; fill positions by
alliance and sector.

cheers,

Marc Pinsonneault

--- In mepbmlist@egroups.com, JeremyRichman@c... wrote:
> --- In mepbmlist@egroups.com, ditletang@c... wrote:
> > I prefer the NKA vs LAS. It is really the kidnap/ass
> > at +20 that is unbalanced. How many of those silly
> > horror stories do people have regarding double scouting?
> > Without the k/a, scout all you want.....without the k/a,
> > who will want it anyway - let the market decide....!
> >
> > Brad Brunet
>
> Hi Brad,
>
> I might not have been clear about NKA.
> With NKA, the kidnap and assassination orders
> are not allowed. So not only do you not
> kidnap or assassinate at +20 -- you don't do
> either order at all, no matter what your rank!
> Both 615 and 620 are verboten. Because of that,
> the +20 SNA is not allowed, but that is just
> to prevent confusion. If you were allowed to
> put 12K of your SNA's into it, the 12K would
> be wasted because you can't use the orders.
>
> Jeremy Richman

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#2

Unworkable.

Would you pick a quadrant, then a capital? How many
capital choices per quadrant ? Or how many quad's?

NKA and LAS are both special, in that Jeremy gets 25 interested people
first and folks only send in their setups once the game is filled.

It would work like a variant of what Harlequin does now for startups.
There are four defined sections of the map, and at start there are
two slots for dark servants/free people in each section. They fill up
as first come-first served (the DGE equivalent would be putting in
first, second, third, fourth choice.) The neutrals have the NK and
one other in the NW, the SK and one other in the SW, and three nations
each in the NE and SE sections; the neutrals get one overflow nation
anywhere. Once the game is filled, people then put in their nation
designs with their capitals in the designated areas.

Besides, emmy's are only foiled by "enemy" armies, are
they not? If relations haven't been downgraded, I can
take your town with 10,000 HC, if you like (though, I'm
sure not to keep it for long....)

With no 615s to worry about, this is likely to happen early since
everyone knows that this makes their nation population centers
completely safe from characters. (Except weakness - which requires
five or six 60+ mages per character per turn. Count me as a
persuadable skeptic.)

Also, the kingdoms do know where all of the capitals are at the start
of the game in fourth age (if not the complete setups) and the
dark/free do start disliked with one another.

Also, if your capital is far from the action, is that
not by design? Again, never played (will soon...!) but
I would assume that the nations would generally
gravitate towards the center of the map, between the
Twin Kingdoms....no? Just can't see someone chosing
4434 or whatever, and then complaining that there are
no easy military targets.........

The problem comes in when you get lots of nations that do this and
they are really far apart. If you knew the capital distribution that
we have in NKA#1 you'd see the problem. I am the North Kingdom, and
my capital is four moves with heavy cav and food from the nearest free
population center. There is only one dark servant in free country and
one free nation in dark country. Knock these two nations out and the
next nearest starting free and dark pop centers are three cavalry
moves apart. And this is, by design, a military-heavy game. I don't
see this as a general problem because character actions are effective
in ME PBM, it is peculiar to the NKA restrictions.

And, while some people complain that "everyone" starts
with 60 emissaries, it sounds like it would be real
easy to stick your capital in some far off corner, and
build another complete nation somewhere else entirely.

Hard to do when the camp limit is hit on turn 4-5 :0

cheers,

Marc

···

--- In mepbmlist@egroups.com, ditletang@c... wrote:

Besides, FA is a creation "based" on ME PBM, with the
same game-play, etc. The similarities are supposed to
stop with the mechanics of the orders....no?

Regards,

Brad Brunet