Edena_of_Neith
First Post
IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ
Your Moderator has been very busy these last few days.
Which is why you have received no answers to your e-mails. You will (answers to all 31 of them, and counting.)
Also, I have not read anything on the boards in the last two days - I will.
When people began specifically stating that armies with SPECIFIC Point Values were moving to specific locations, I knew I had a problem.
This did not occur in the 1st or 2nd IR, and was never a consideration there.
However, here it was, and here it would stay.
For if a Player can move, say, 20 PL in forces to Furyondy, then he or she can:
Move 20 other armies of varying PLs to 20 other places on the map.
And there are 25 players, each of whom could move their own 20 armies (or more) to any of 20 (or more) places on the map.
Sort of like Axis and Allies, or Risk, except with not 6 people, but 26 people, and over 100 countries on the map.
My answer:
I printed out Maudlin's original map.
I taped it together.
I went to Northwest Blueprint, and enlarged it to 3 feet by 5 feet.
I created, by hand and manual writing of names, over 550 cardboard chits to represent the Players of Armies (not the armies themselves!.)
I gathered 300 pennies, to represent a value of 1 PL each, and I intend to gather 700 more.
I hand-made several hundred cardboard markers representing 5 PL, 10 PL, 20 PL, 50 PL, and 100 PL.
Now, I have the War Room set up, and I will know exactly where every army on the board is.
I will even go so far as to state, at the beginning of each Turn, after Turn 3, where all your armies are.
However, where they are during the Turn is your responsibility.
You must keep track of your armies - if you e-mail me or post to the board a question concerning where one of your armies is, I will answer it, but I do not wish several hundred of these requests coming in per Turn.
I would suggest all of you bookmark the URL of Maudlin's map (the first URL in the Lists post.)
I would even recommend you print it out, and tape it together, if possible.
This is war, and in war armies move around, and you must work with me on this - I have done a great deal of work to make sure I can represent all of your armies, their strength, where they are, and what they are doing.
Now, you must do your part and tell me what they are doing, who they are fighting, and you must attempt to keep track of where your armies are.
And, if possible, you ought to make the effort to keep track of where your enemy's armies are!
(Note - moving your armies is a public thing. It should be posted on the boards, and I will extend the Turns to allow as many posts as needed for this purpose.)
If you do not know where an enemy's armies are, and wish to know, e-mail me and I will tell you.
If this sounds messy, it is.
However, the IR was always messy.
Messy is good.
Messy is fun.
And war is always chaotic, and IRL people often did not know the whole picture, or where the Other Side's armies where.
In a massive interstellar, interplanar war such as the one you maniacs are creating, with 26 competing powers in play, such confusion would be quite normal.
Your Moderator has spent a lot of time to create a War Room where he can deal with the complexity of this IR.
Now, help me, and stick with me, and let us have ourselves a massive kick-the-rear-end interstellar war!
Oh yes, I have a new rule.
You will like the new rule.
At least, some of you will.
When armies fight, I must adjudicate who wins, right?
Well then, to be reasonable, I shall roll dice, ala Axis and Allies style.
Each of your 1 PL gets a roll on a d6, and hits on a 1, and gets a defense, and hits on a 1.
(Which means, a 90 PL army fighting a 90 PL army is going to take a lot of dice rolling on my part ...)
But there are mitigating factors involving that dice rolling I spoke of.
For every 10 PL you have gained in the Technological Arms Race, your attack goes up by 1.
For every 20 PL you have gained in the Technological Arms Race, your defense goes up by 1.
If you gain 10th level magic, your attack goes up by 2, and your defense goes up by 2.
So, if you are a Power with a PL of 8 in the technological arms race, you attack (hit) on a 1, and defend on a 1.
If your PL in the technological race is 15, you hit on a 2, and defend on a 1.
If you are able to throw 10th level magic, and have a 25 in the technological arms race, you hit on a 4, and defend on a 4.
In other words (as the above numbers show clearly) you should not take on rifles with swords.
You should not take on tanks with swords.
You should not take on B52 Flying Fortresses with swords.
You should not take on 10th level magic with normal magic (not if you can help it.)
The Lortmil Technomancy began the game with technology much more advanced than everyone else.
So did the Shadow Empire.
I am going to adjust their PL in the Technological Arms race drastically upward to account for this (by about 15 points.)
This will even take care of GnomeWorks question of what he could do with nuclear weapons.
For you see, you need a PL of about 40 in the technological arms race to have nuclear weapons.
That means, if your army attacked, it would have an attack (a roll of 1d6 for each of it's PLs) of 4, and a defense of 2.
In other words, it would hit most of the time.
Which is what nuclear weapons tend to do.
And no, GnomeWorks does not have nuclear weapons yet, and isn't even close to having them.
This is just to simulate what will happen, when he does get them.
All armies that engage in combat must go through one round of rolls, attack and defense, before they can break off (which means, in the theoretical nuclear scenario above, the army with nukes will obliterate most of the enemy army on that one round ...)
After one side or the other has lost a quarter of it's strength, I will state this on the boards, and ask if retreat is desired.
Incidentally, Planars attack on a 2, and defend on a 2 at the start (and go up from there.)
Undead attack on a 2, and defend on a 2.
Constructs attack on a 2, and defend on a 2.
Monsters attack on a 2, and defend on a 2.
These guys are just simply better at fighting than the average human, humanoid, or demihuman.
Forrester's army attacks on a 2, and defends on a 2. They are genetically modified superhumanoids.
All of the above benefit from improvements in technology (Planars with machine guns are more effective than Planars with swords), and they all benefit from 10th level magic (Undead who can melt an opponent into goo with a thought are better than slow stumbling zombies), just like everything else benefits.
I wonder if this article will get any OMGs ...
Edena_of_Neith
Your Moderator has been very busy these last few days.
Which is why you have received no answers to your e-mails. You will (answers to all 31 of them, and counting.)
Also, I have not read anything on the boards in the last two days - I will.
When people began specifically stating that armies with SPECIFIC Point Values were moving to specific locations, I knew I had a problem.
This did not occur in the 1st or 2nd IR, and was never a consideration there.
However, here it was, and here it would stay.
For if a Player can move, say, 20 PL in forces to Furyondy, then he or she can:
Move 20 other armies of varying PLs to 20 other places on the map.
And there are 25 players, each of whom could move their own 20 armies (or more) to any of 20 (or more) places on the map.
Sort of like Axis and Allies, or Risk, except with not 6 people, but 26 people, and over 100 countries on the map.
My answer:
I printed out Maudlin's original map.
I taped it together.
I went to Northwest Blueprint, and enlarged it to 3 feet by 5 feet.
I created, by hand and manual writing of names, over 550 cardboard chits to represent the Players of Armies (not the armies themselves!.)
I gathered 300 pennies, to represent a value of 1 PL each, and I intend to gather 700 more.
I hand-made several hundred cardboard markers representing 5 PL, 10 PL, 20 PL, 50 PL, and 100 PL.
Now, I have the War Room set up, and I will know exactly where every army on the board is.
I will even go so far as to state, at the beginning of each Turn, after Turn 3, where all your armies are.
However, where they are during the Turn is your responsibility.
You must keep track of your armies - if you e-mail me or post to the board a question concerning where one of your armies is, I will answer it, but I do not wish several hundred of these requests coming in per Turn.
I would suggest all of you bookmark the URL of Maudlin's map (the first URL in the Lists post.)
I would even recommend you print it out, and tape it together, if possible.
This is war, and in war armies move around, and you must work with me on this - I have done a great deal of work to make sure I can represent all of your armies, their strength, where they are, and what they are doing.
Now, you must do your part and tell me what they are doing, who they are fighting, and you must attempt to keep track of where your armies are.
And, if possible, you ought to make the effort to keep track of where your enemy's armies are!
(Note - moving your armies is a public thing. It should be posted on the boards, and I will extend the Turns to allow as many posts as needed for this purpose.)
If you do not know where an enemy's armies are, and wish to know, e-mail me and I will tell you.
If this sounds messy, it is.
However, the IR was always messy.
Messy is good.
Messy is fun.
And war is always chaotic, and IRL people often did not know the whole picture, or where the Other Side's armies where.
In a massive interstellar, interplanar war such as the one you maniacs are creating, with 26 competing powers in play, such confusion would be quite normal.
Your Moderator has spent a lot of time to create a War Room where he can deal with the complexity of this IR.
Now, help me, and stick with me, and let us have ourselves a massive kick-the-rear-end interstellar war!
Oh yes, I have a new rule.
You will like the new rule.
At least, some of you will.
When armies fight, I must adjudicate who wins, right?
Well then, to be reasonable, I shall roll dice, ala Axis and Allies style.
Each of your 1 PL gets a roll on a d6, and hits on a 1, and gets a defense, and hits on a 1.
(Which means, a 90 PL army fighting a 90 PL army is going to take a lot of dice rolling on my part ...)
But there are mitigating factors involving that dice rolling I spoke of.
For every 10 PL you have gained in the Technological Arms Race, your attack goes up by 1.
For every 20 PL you have gained in the Technological Arms Race, your defense goes up by 1.
If you gain 10th level magic, your attack goes up by 2, and your defense goes up by 2.
So, if you are a Power with a PL of 8 in the technological arms race, you attack (hit) on a 1, and defend on a 1.
If your PL in the technological race is 15, you hit on a 2, and defend on a 1.
If you are able to throw 10th level magic, and have a 25 in the technological arms race, you hit on a 4, and defend on a 4.
In other words (as the above numbers show clearly) you should not take on rifles with swords.
You should not take on tanks with swords.
You should not take on B52 Flying Fortresses with swords.
You should not take on 10th level magic with normal magic (not if you can help it.)
The Lortmil Technomancy began the game with technology much more advanced than everyone else.
So did the Shadow Empire.
I am going to adjust their PL in the Technological Arms race drastically upward to account for this (by about 15 points.)
This will even take care of GnomeWorks question of what he could do with nuclear weapons.
For you see, you need a PL of about 40 in the technological arms race to have nuclear weapons.
That means, if your army attacked, it would have an attack (a roll of 1d6 for each of it's PLs) of 4, and a defense of 2.
In other words, it would hit most of the time.
Which is what nuclear weapons tend to do.
And no, GnomeWorks does not have nuclear weapons yet, and isn't even close to having them.
This is just to simulate what will happen, when he does get them.
All armies that engage in combat must go through one round of rolls, attack and defense, before they can break off (which means, in the theoretical nuclear scenario above, the army with nukes will obliterate most of the enemy army on that one round ...)
After one side or the other has lost a quarter of it's strength, I will state this on the boards, and ask if retreat is desired.
Incidentally, Planars attack on a 2, and defend on a 2 at the start (and go up from there.)
Undead attack on a 2, and defend on a 2.
Constructs attack on a 2, and defend on a 2.
Monsters attack on a 2, and defend on a 2.
These guys are just simply better at fighting than the average human, humanoid, or demihuman.
Forrester's army attacks on a 2, and defends on a 2. They are genetically modified superhumanoids.
All of the above benefit from improvements in technology (Planars with machine guns are more effective than Planars with swords), and they all benefit from 10th level magic (Undead who can melt an opponent into goo with a thought are better than slow stumbling zombies), just like everything else benefits.
I wonder if this article will get any OMGs ...
Edena_of_Neith
Last edited:
