Where's the Challenge?

Announcements
#1

The MEG newsletter put out my Challenge a month ago and I’ve only received one worthy response. If it’s a legendary game you’re looking for, then take on my team and we’ll give you one!

I’ve put together 11 players (playing 12 nations) with some serious experience in ME. We’re flexible but prefer:

  • FAS
  • limiting agents
  • Regional draft scheme

What are you waiting for?
Hurry up and organize your team, but plan on getting your butts kicked…

#2

I might try mustering a team to take you guys on. One or two games I’m in don’t look long for this world. So with an eye on the next world, I have a few questions for you:

What exactly do you mean by “limiting agents” and “Regional draft scheme”? I have an idea, of course, but would like to know the specifics.

Cheers,

Mo.

#3

Hi Mo,

Excellent, and thanks for the interest.

“limiting agents”
Again, we’re quite flexible on this. Several attempts have been made in the past to limit the rise of agents. These include:

  • LAS, Limited Agent Scenario where two SNA’s are not allowed. +20 to 615/620, and Stealth.
  • NKA, No Kills/Kidnaps Allowed where 615/620 are prohibited.
  • MO, Military Only new variant as described by MEG.
    There was even a ‘Mandatory Ransom’ variant brought up. We plan to negotiate with our opponents to please as many players as possible.

“regional draft” scheme
Well, other than allowing MEG to assign Regions randomly, two ideas were put forward:

Flip a coin. Winner selects team A or team B.
Team A picks the Kingdom they prefer. Then Team B gets the other Kingdom and picks one region, and also chooses their allegiance. Then A gets two picks and gets the other allegiance, then B gets two, etc., until finally team A gets last pick from the two remaining regions, leaving the unpicked region empty (MEGames puts a placeholder nation in, then eliminates it or whatever.)
So the draft goes:
A(K)
B(K) B and picks allegiance (Free or Dark)
A A and gets the other allegiance
B B
A A
B B
A A
B B
A A
B B
A A
B B
A
Both sides thus have 1 Kingdom and 11 Regular nations. There are variants, but the idea here is, yes, whoever wins the coin toss has the advantage of deciding which team they want to be, if they really want a specific Kingdom then they should be A, if they really want a specific allegiance they should be B, neither side gets to pick both their favorite Kingdom and their favorite allegiance. And mostly getting to pick two regions together means as you go along you can try to pick supporting regions. There are 5 times for each team that they get to pick two regions - the first B pick doesn’t really count because the Kingdom is determined already - but B does get to pick something supporting their Kingdom if they like.

And

…offering the opposition their choice of Allegiance as an incentive. Furthermore and because of that, it was proposed that we give the opposition its choice of Region pick between:
a) 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, etc
b) 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.
It’s assumed the first pick in the draft a) will be a Kingdom, and IMO the SKingdom. Since there is no requirement to pick a Kingdom, the last pick for team b) can be it’s Kingdom. Therefore, if the Skingdom climate is not preferred for our opponents then they will have the advantage (as I see it) of picking the first TWO starting regions and knowing which Kingdom they will eventually be before we even pick one nonK region.
What’s your opinion on that? Too dangerous?
And of course, once we meet our opposition we may just scrap all this for their own ideas of a ‘draft proposal’. Maybe they don’t even care about the Allegiance either.

Those two excerpts from our group site should give you some insight into what we’re looking for. We certainly plan to work with the opposition to hash all this out to everyone’s satisfaction.

thanks Mo,
Scott

#4

Scott,

I too am in the recently deceased game 48 with Mo and would like to assist him in putting together a team to take you on. It would be helpful to know who you already have recruited onto your team. If you are not comfortable listing them here, email me at nysrc@yahoo.com.

Looking forward to a good game!

Bob Newton

#5

Thanks again for the interest, Mo and Bob.

My awesome team is:
Andy Wright
Jeremy Richman (playing two nations)
Mike Wilson
Asko Saura
Esko Saura
Jason Roberts
Heikki Vuopala
Bill Wilkerson
Chuck Baltes
Scott Baltes

You’ll notice that’s only 10 players playing 11 nations. Just this week, Brad Brunet had to drop out of our team. We’re currently working on replacing him.

Is there anyone else out there that’s even slightly interested in competing against my ‘legendary’ team ??

#6

Wow. You have three of my old school/gaming friends in your team. :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

Hey mur72,
Maybe get in contact with Mo and Bob? Battling “old school gaming friends” could lead to a legendary game. It has for me…

Hey Bob and Mo,
how’s it going with assembling your team? Unless MEG has a way to ‘magic-up’ some opposition for us, you guys are our best hope.

For everyone else,
Is the pool of ME gamers so small that there aren’t enough of you to assemble a team to take on my challenge?
Or are you intimidated by my team?
Must I boast and brag until enough of you gather together to ‘smack’ me down?
C’mon, where are the players with their foolish pride that think they can overcome my Legendary Team??

i’m waiting,

Scott

#8

Haha, no chance. I have still a lot to learn before I even venture into a normal FA game.

#9

Ah, that’s a shame mur72. Allow me to use your words “…normal FA game…” for a moment to make a few points about the FA Scenario.

When FAS first came out, its allure (for me) was two main things:

  • balanced nations. In 1650 there’s a huge disparity between starting characters. The Eothraim can’t stack up against the Dk.Lts. The DS start with better characters, better abilities, and better climate. To offset that, the FP start with better armies and a huge advantage in economy. These “imbalances” in certain aspects of the game are supposed to “balance” out overall. Instead, in FAS each nation starts relatively equal in all aspects of the game. Each nation spends the same amount of points to create their armies, pcs, and characters. Climate is taken into account with additions to the northern regions. And starting aryts are limited to 1st level (+10 or +15). If you want an advantage in some certain aspect of the game, then you’ll have to work for it because you can’t start with it.
  • scrambled artys. In 1650/2950 all the artifact numbers and powers are known. Most of these games begin with both sides casting LAT on RoWind, RoCurufin, Tinculin, CotAbyss, etc. And then the first few turns see both teams battling for control of these powerful artys. In FAS, all 213 artys are randomly numbered. You can’t cast on RoWind if you don’t have its number! Furthermore, all secondary powers are random each game. And MEG took out the access to Lost Lists function. In FAS, there are no artys that give you access to Teleport, Curses, Conjure, etc. Those abilities can only be purchased as an SNA - Special Nation Ablility. FAS slows down the ‘Arty Toting Killer Squads’ and actually gives players a reason to use the 412 RA spell. You don’t get to know everything at start, and it’s different every time. Much better for re-playability.

Ok, this is starting to sound like an advertisement for MEG !

And it is…
MEG is anxiously awaiting a team of opponents worthy of taking on my Mega-Legendary Team.
Will you answer the challenge?

#10

Hi Scott!
Yes I am aware of these differences and the more equal distribution of powers. I just meant I started playing in fall 2019 and haven’t played a single FA game so far, so I’m definitely not going to join a team that tries to challenge your team. I have read your magnum opus, I have a hint of what it takes and it’s not for me yet. :wink:

#11

I sent an email to Bob two weeks ago and didn’t get a reply. After a bit of thought about my MEPBM experiences, I realized I prefer a smaller team setting. KS is still where it’s at for me. I entered a 1vs1 contest which should be a lot of fun. And we just started another KS grudge match where I get to play Tirkhor, Eldacar/Rebels. I’m in MEPBM heaven.

I hope you find opposition! Game48 kind of left a bad taste in my mouth for FAS.

Cheers!

#12

Thanks for the replies, even if they’re not what I wanted to hear.

My team is still together awaiting competition. We hope there is some effort behind the scenes to organize our future opponents. However, I can foresee my team will not wait too long. How long is too long? Well, I’m not sure…

MEG put out my challenge in January. It’s now mid-March. Eventually, my players will withdraw to join other games. I think another month or so, and then we’ll disband. So, if you’re at all interested in this upcoming game then please get motivated and start the process. It’ll be a great game!

Scott

#13

So there was some effort going on behind the scenes! Jim Sparkes is assembling players on the “44 FA Gunboat” thread.
If all possibly interested players could gather under Jim’s leadership we might have a game.
Mo, Bob, Mur72, or anyone else who’s checked this out, please go wander over to the “44 FA Gunboat” thread and consider helping Jim start up a team.
Is there anything I can do to help?
Scott

#14

And here we are; it’s April Fools Day…

Was I a fool to think we’d find competition for my FAS Grudge team?

Are the rest of you fools for not organizing a team to ‘smack’ me down?

Go ahead and fool me today by telling me you’ve got a full team of players ready !!

happy April Fools,
Scott

#15

My guess is Game 48 left a lingering bad taste in the mouth for FAS. We, as players, should have gone the route of a grudge match for that one. It’s better at keeping players in the game: less in-fighting, more engagement and effort. That being said, Kin-strife has its advantages! The games fill faster; the awkwardness of starting regions is avoided; and there’s plenty of nation customization. Also in KS, agents are not overpowered, which is a common complaint in other scenarios. FAS is my second favorite scenario at the time being. Wish you luck in filling your game!

#16

ok Scott, I’ve thrown down the gauntlet in reply. I’ve got a heavy crew of 6 ready to take you on/out (get the banter in early is my forte). Hope we can make this work.

#17

Okay Jim, lets go…

Thanks to all for your consideration,
Scott

#18

Well, the good news here is that the gauntlet that Scott threw down has been picked up. Jim Sparkes has also assembled an “awesome team”, consisting of:

Jim Sparkes
Simon Aalders
David House
Martin Svendson
Ken Hammack
Dave Holt

As soon as Scott’s team figures out how to get this started, we’re off to the races. Rules agreed upon are: No +20 K/A or Stealth Bonus SNAs and max 3 name 40Agent SNAs nations per team.

#19

Cool game is now setting up as soon as I get all the set-ups in. Should be interesting! I’ve got my “I think this team is going to win” bet on though… but I’ve been wrong before… :slight_smile:
Clint

#20

I dunno. both teams have seasoned players. The biggest advantage I see is that Jim’s team is only 6 people, while Scott’s team is 10. To my point: which team are we waiting on for setups??? hmmm??? Jim’s teams’ setups were all in within a 24 hour period. It’s been 5 days and we’re still waiting on Scott’s team. But maybe they’re trying to lull us into complacency.