Just out of curriousity who would be interested in the following 4th age game.
All current playtest rules for 4th age (big improvements IMO).
The game split 10F/10D/5N, one kingdom per alligence.
The neutrals start un-aligned and must declare by turn 12. neutrals can not win the game.
Embattlement rules: the more enemies in surrounding regions, the higher your starting money for pop center upgrades (extra 4K per foe beyond the first).
In otherwords a “build your own nation” game without the 3 way conflict of 4th age.
Who knows, if enough people are interested, we could try it out.
just make all neutrals stay in their original regions. all ds in mordor “area”, though i am not sure exactly what that would be per se. and all free in free area ( North west etc etc.) meaning all borders pretty well defined. but the fog of war is pretty much fully in affect. basically no WK and DrL hanging out to dry and woodies and NM not scrambling to save their ass. Kinda like Magic the Gathering rules of 15 up 15 down. basically. most every one is safe from the get go. No mt gram or 3017 no 4217 no 2305 etc etc. only one border with 5 neuts in static spots. the free and ds can pick their spots and the neutrals are in the dark so to speak. I do not agree with the idea of neutrals not being able to win though i dont mind them having a turn limit on flipping though any good free or ds team should be able to get/force any/all neutrals to flip by then. or eliminate them.
means however that for the positions of;
harad/cors/easterlings should go ds and the rhuad/dun should go freep
unless cors/harad do a bloc ‘free’ switch
ends in a pure east V west conflict ho-hum.
though i played a couple of early 4th age games and ended up in really crap spots surrounded by enemies, searching for anyone that ‘might’ be friendly. Probably explains why i currently most enjoy the grudge formatt, at least if you are the wk you have the rhuad and drag close by and visa versa’s
The intention is not to make things “safe” just have a two team 4th age game, with a few neutrals thrown in. I have no interest in a mordor/northeast split or some such, I’m interested in a 4th age game with 2 instead of 3 teams and was wondering if anyone else would be.
Another format I think would make a good experiment would be a “fill-in” 12 v 12 grudge game, where people didn’t have to find 11 others to play with, 12 opponents, or some people willing to play multiple nations.
Then have the future teammates contact each other before the game and have the two sides “draft” their kingdoms and regions.
Usually FA games are much more like you explain. 43 is an exception. I only can speak for myself but the usual FA game seems more like you describe.
I do not wish to ‘spoil’ anyones idea of fun. I only wish to add and explore a variable which was written into the original game. The Fourth Age is unique and I celebrate that.
I love the variables and human interaction.
I apologize to any who feels they are not enjoying the current game, but come on guys.
It is only turn 1 after all.
But by all means invent any game variable you wish and enjoy.
That is after all the whole point.
Socrates, you’re definitely making it interesting.
Whatever happens in 43 happens. Its only a game, afterall.
I personally think the new changes in the 4th set-up are excellent, and that they would be excellent for variants like what Ken has proposed and for grudge variants.
I typically like a little less chaos over where nations are placed, and I think a “regional draft” could help with this. I’ve played in two such games winning a true 3-way grudge game back in the GSI days and losing in a somewhat recent 2-team grudge game. I think some of our region choices in the latter game had a big part in leading to our demise. I am, however, a big proponent of regional drafting,
There’s been some interesting draft rules for regions that I used a variant of for the draft players in the Power game. (David Ruzic’s team)
Basically each TC lists the regions they’d like for their side. I flip a coin (or they decide who goes first, usually 1st gets allegiance, 2nd gets first region). Whoever picks region first gets that region as an area (there being 25 regions in the game now) to put one of their nations in. (Each region has guaranteed safe capitals as well.) Then the 2nd team gets their first choice of region and back and fore we go.
Each time a region is picked it’s removed from future options so works very well for a strategic set-up with some variation.
Our problem is that it’s hard to field a full 12 players. I often know between 6 and 8 others who are interested in a game, but none of us are particularly enamored by the prospect of running two nations,
I think it would be OK, but I’d prefer just to see a “pick-up grudge game.” An actual 12v12, but filled with individuals and teams of 2-5, because filling standard grudge games is difficult.
I really like drafting regions before the set-up, as well. The “chaos placement” that is done in the current 4th Age test games isn’t horrible, but I prefer the idea of teams first drafting the regions and then deciding who gets what region amongst themselves. Yes, it delays the set-up time a fair amount, but it can lead to good, solid battle fronts. At least you have more control over them than you do under the set-up now, where you have to choose 4 regions. In my current game, my 3 teammates and I just went with the ANY option because we would have had to chose 16 regions between us.
In all other respects, I like the fog of war of 4th Age and I prefer it to 1650 and 2950. Knowing where everything is and what the artifact numbers are just makes those games very predictable,
What is an origonal region for a nuetral in a FA game? Kinda curious since this isn’t 1650 or 2950?
I can see some would really enjoy this format to a style closer to the other games. Yet even surrounded as I am in Game 43 with DS team. I have found everything about this game intense and edge of my seat when i read the turn reports. Even the diplo emails have be a great joy and just as intense. We just got turn 3 with the new format and no side has a clear advantage.
The new rule changes have effectively taken out the intial worry of agents camping capitols and destroying a sides ability to fight. Though complex to setup now and expierenced player can design a very effective nation to his style.
The format suggested here seems more of a grudge format with the ability to recruit some free nuetrals. I say grudge becuase FA is inheritly a 3 sided game possibilty in every standard format.
Myself I enjoy the nuetral role it’s way more challenging to becuase of all of restrictions on nuetrals. Just all the downgrades and upgrades required in the game make this my natural first choice in FA games.
Looks like we’ve not got enough interest for this. However, the normal game of 1000 is nearly full (needs 5 players) and has some interesting changes. Anyone up for that?
