Fog:Emp multiplayer 2 -- BARBARIANS ARISE (game 2 running)

[Tuna]

...there's a rebel Spain on an east coast??

Mental note to go looking for that next time I'm in!

My other left!

[MetalDog]

Belgae has stalled with a crappy army.  The upshot is, I am one Progress Token away from becoming Glorious.  The downside is, I can't successfully expand.  So I am hoping to lay low and pick off some of my direct neighbors.

I was just going to head out for Rebel Spain on the East Coast, I can come to your country and beat up people if you want?

That's a nice offer, but, I think I can handle it.  The military buildings I have been getting in my capitol are fixing the experience problem which will, in turn, fix my attacking problem.  Go enjoy your Spanish adventure.  It'd be nice if somebody did something about Britonae.  Huw's legacy has declared war on me while being allied with Brigantes and Arverni.  It's more of a nuisance right now, but, it could become dangerous to me soon or late.

[Barthheart]

Belgae has stalled with a crappy army.  The upshot is, I am one Progress Token away from becoming Glorious.  The downside is, I can't successfully expand.  So I am hoping to lay low and pick off some of my direct neighbors.

I was just going to head out for Rebel Spain on the East Coast, I can come to your country and beat up people if you want?

That's a nice offer, but, I think I can handle it.  The military buildings I have been getting in my capitol are fixing the experience problem which will, in turn, fix my attacking problem.  Go enjoy your Spanish adventure.  It'd be nice if somebody did something about Britonae.  Huw's legacy has declared war on me while being allied with Brigantes and Arverni.  It's more of a nuisance right now, but, it could become dangerous to me soon or late.

Would love to take them on but I can't even take out the Picts.... 

[Tuna]

Belgae has stalled with a crappy army.  The upshot is, I am one Progress Token away from becoming Glorious.  The downside is, I can't successfully expand.  So I am hoping to lay low and pick off some of my direct neighbors.

I was just going to head out for Rebel Spain on the East Coast, I can come to your country and beat up people if you want?

That's a nice offer, but, I think I can handle it.  The military buildings I have been getting in my capitol are fixing the experience problem which will, in turn, fix my attacking problem.  Go enjoy your Spanish adventure.  It'd be nice if somebody did something about Britonae.  Huw's legacy has declared war on me while being allied with Brigantes and Arverni.  It's more of a nuisance right now, but, it could become dangerous to me soon or late.

Would love to take them on but I can't even take out the Picts.... 

Okay I'll head South (to make JP happy) and take out Britonne!

[Blucher]

Jason I managed to declare Abyssinia minor a province. How can I get good tokens?

[MetalDog]

Positive Progress Tokens can only be gotten in two ways that I know of:

1) Capture Objectives

or

2) Be in the top third of CDR.  Then, each turn that you are, there is a 35% chance you will receive one just for being in the top third of CDR.

CDR is the difference between how much Culture you are generating as opposed to how much Decadence you are generating.  It is expressed as a percentage.  For instance, if you are generating 100 Culture and 100 Decadence then your percentage is 1.  If you are generating 100 Culture and 300 Decadence, then your percentage is .33.  Whatever your percentage is is then compared to all the other players on the board and your Rank is determined.  If you are in the bottom third, you will have a 35% chance per turn to lose a Progress Token.  If you are in the middle third, you will neither gain nor lose a Progress Token due to your placement in the CDR table.  And if you are in the top third, there is a 35% per turn of gaining a Progress Token.  The CDR table is shown at the beginning of every turn.  It is color coded, orange is the bottom third, white is middle and green is top. 

You can also access the CDR table by going to your Tables screen (it's called something else but its proper name escapes me at the moment).  You will find it on your play screen at the very top, directly to the right of the icon that represents your country.  If that doesn't make sense, once your game loads and you are able to take your turn, just look at the top of the screen and press buttons until you find it.

[Tuna]

I don't think it's always 35.. sometimes I think I've seen 20 and 25.. not sure how the chance is figured. Maybe number of players affects (since some can be knocked out)

[JasonPratt]

At this point in the game I regard generating culture to be more important than gold.  O0

Still, gotta keep that material progress going, too. Here in the desert we tend to run short on metal a lot, which can only be rectified by earning enough gold to buy metal in bulk every once in a while.

I've recently shifted my general progress strategy (in all three running games) to focus on infrastructure-gaining properties if I'm ever at 0 or less without workers in that slot; and then as long as I'm positive there then whatever costs me the least time to make, or takes up zero slots, or produces the most food out of ties. But I never build anything that generates decadence.


Edited to add: another key point I sometimes forget (nice to have a lot of cats to juggle!) is that "red" properties, for the military, help contribute to experience and elite status of all units, regardless of what the property may otherwise be. So having a high percentage of those will help your crew be more butt-kicky across the board!

[MetalDog]

I tend to concentrate my Military (Red) buildings in the Capitol of my Province.  Honestly, I am not sure if Military buildings built in other Regions of your Province contribute to your troops abilities when built.  I do know that the Region they are produced out of for the Province will receive that Regions bonuses from Military buildings.  Hence, my concentration.  I will build the Military (Epona, and maybe Cocidius) Shrines in any Region though.  Horses are usually plentiful and the Shrines provide Culture bonuses that are boosted if you have Horses in that Region, naturally through buildings or through trade.

[JasonPratt]

That's all true, but I was thinking more about the overall average of such buildings throughout your realm. See "military experience" under the nation traits tab of your national panel, over in the right of the two columns. Ideally you want more than 1 military building per region for your whole nation; and having four per region or more will open up major bonuses. The increase in this proportion helps your garrison spawns be better quality and number, too.

[Blucher]

Started investing in cultural buildings hopefully this helps get rid of some of the decadence.

Guys I will be flying out to the USA on Thursday the 13th for a week. Meeting up with my old boardgaming group and we have a bunch of games planned. So hopefully the AI doesn't mess up
too much while I am gone.

[JasonPratt]

We'll... uh, hm. Gosh, we'll need to settle your war to get your capital back I guess?

No, on second thought it might be better to re-ally with each other before you leave, if possible, so that the AI doesn't do weird things to us while you're gone, and save the war for returning your capital region until you return.

I did kick out your rebels, but it was a hard fight. I came in with an estimated 145 pow, against I think around 75pow (if I recall correctly), and I feel grateful I eked out a win! All they had was camel cavalry and skirmishers, but their skirms and cams kept murdering us in the skirmish round. And they had only one less unit than we did, so it was hard to keep up parity of losses!

Fortunately you didn't go to war with the Ethiopians yet! When we do go to war briefly, my Judean client state won't understand the purpose and will also declare war, so you should be prepared for that, but they should calm down once I peace out soon afterward. 

What was that WW1 game called? Fatal Alliances? {checking BGG} Man, that's a 4.0 complexity! You'll be doing that a week with them for sure!  :D Oh, it's based on the War In Flames 'engine'. (So, a successor prequel of sorts to the 3rd Reich games?)

[JasonPratt]

Due to Mom having had a small stroke back on Saturday, she'll be in rehab for at least two weeks, and not back to work for at least three, so my workload has jumped RATHER SHARPLY to say the least. ;) (Including double-extra training for the new owners of our family's small factory, who are not remotely ready to take the wheel yet.)

This currently won't affect two of my FoG:Emp multiplayer games, including this one. But I'm sending an alert that this could potentially happen later. (I'll be resigning from Devoncorps' mp game, but that one is almost finished anyway; and some other timeclocked mp games.)

[Barthheart]

Sorry about your Mom Jason. Hope she recovers fast and fully.

[MetalDog]

I am sorry to hear about your mom, JP.