Welcome JamesEde to the PBEM board. We need some fresh players.

I am the maker of the map you want to play on and I've made some needed changes that I think help the balance and playability so if a player does sign up to play you and you both agree, I could start up the newer version of the map for both of you to try.

I'll watch your thread and when you're ready I'll just need your email addresses to get things started.

Regards
Fubarno

I'm itching for a new game, so I'd be willing. I don't know the map in question, but I'm happy to play anything, as long as surrender is off (the newer version would probably be best though).

ericpommer 'at' sympatico.ca

[This message has been edited by Springheel (edited 04-01-2007 @ 07:00 PM).]

Ok JamesEde, I just need your email address and than I'll fire it off to you guys.

at last. i am itching to play a human opponent. my email is jamieede@yorku.ca

just to confirm, springheel, you don't mind elves? i'd like to play orcs if that's okay (my favourite race). do you wanna make this a WL game?

fubarno: can we customize the spheres and skills on these wizards or will that upset the balance?

surrender off is okay for me. i assume we'll play by the standard rules posted under sticky notes. could you explain the rationale for surrender off, though? is it to prevent your own forces from surrendering in automatic battles?

incidentally, i was wondering which battles in pbem are tactical and which are automatic?

anything else i should know before my first pbem battle?

james.

james.

[This message has been edited by JamesEde (edited 04-01-2007 @ 11:52 PM).]

The wizards are customized for the map and changing them would upset the balance.

99% of the PBEM games are played with surender "off" as it is a most unpopular setting.

In PBEM all battles against another human player are resolved via auto combat and take some getting used to, but results can be predicted with practice. The battles that you initiate against AI units can be played tactically or using the auto combat, though I never use auto combat in pbem against an AI stack.

I'll start the game with JamesEde as Orcs and Springheel as the Elves. I'll leave it to JamesEde to start a new thread or use this one for game posts. WL decision is between you guys also.

Good luck and I hope it's enjoyable.

Ok, first turn sent to Springheel. May the best Canadian win

WL is fine with me if you'd like to register it.

Day 1:

Lots of friendly elves around...we spend the day recruiting and looking for ways to get money.

Day 1 of the glorious orc empire.

our army is small, but we see many recruits waiting to enlist, though they are mostly snagga. some enter the ranks today, more will certainly join tomorrow. we take a furnace with barely an HP lost, then venture onto the surface. close by is a great uruk, a welcome sight, but what we really need is a hero to lead our troops into battle. perhaps tomorrow...

btw, thanks springheel for giving me my first human challenge! i am so sick of the ai, its either human opponents or give up the game.

james.

My brother has returned, and we are turning around our gold situation. But we need more.

(np. I've been playing pbem for years now, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet)

Day 2 of the Glorious Orc Empire:

Busy day for the greenskins.

our general came back from raiding with a strong party, and proceeded to capture a mine and explore a crypt.

killed a couple of drunken snagga orcs wandering around. they weren't worth the gold to hire them, but they could have captured structures.

topside, my scouts captured a quest stone for the war god and a pile of resources.

james.

Bah. Lost a fairly decent army unneccesarily in a reckless attack.

day 3

things slowing down as the immediate area is steadily cleaned out. our orc soldiers captured a furnace and enlisted an undead unit. elsewhere our hero and his company move closer to completing our quest for the war god. i have decided to make war the official religion of my empire. for an orc, there can be no higher deity.

day 4

not much action for my warriors, as we move towards objectives, but spells researched and scouting reveals interesting targets for the future...

james.

[This message has been edited by JamesEde (edited 04-05-2007 @ 00:30 AM).]

Our hero recovered a useful magical shield today.

day 5

a good day for the orc empire. our illustrious general explored a crypt, killing three birds with one stone by gaining an item, over 150 gold and accomplishing a quest for the war god. not satisfied with such daring, this bloodthirsty warrior then took a gold mine, and all of this without losing a single soldier. elsewhere in the kingdom things are quiter, as troops move into position and research and production continues. but there shall be more battle tomorrow...

james.

We made contact with the dwarves today. They have allied with us, including two heroes.

day 6

today we mourn the passing of a great warrior. our first and only general, uncle fugly fell to the bloodlust that sent him and only two guards against a small but powerful town militia. though the town was taken, fugly was laid low by a dirty shaman. it is a curse upon us orcs that we love war so much, we often throw our lives away needlessly.

now i taste full well the bitterness of no restarts. i shall be more cautious in the future, but i need a hero to fill his war shoes. perhaps the goblins in the tunnels to the northwest?

in better news, a great uruk warlord was recruited, a mine and resources were captured.

james.

We gained access to the waterways in a difficult battle. And there are raiders nearby, but where?

day 7

recruited a goblin hero to replace fugly, goblin town came with him. recruited other goblin units and captured a furnace. sighted the river.

james.

Started spending some gold.

day 8 of the glorious orc empire:

getting over the loss or our general, especially with the addition of yet another goblin hero to the cause. captured a goldmine, defeated some indies and completed work on our temple to the war god.

james.

We won a decisive victory for a farm and are moving to new targets tomorrow.

day 9 of the glorious orc empire:

my orcs grow impatient for new battles, as all this manoevering galls their warrior spirits. we orcs tend to carry heavy arms and armour, however, and most of us shun horses or other steeds, so we must trudge along slowly.

an undead hero joined our cause, impressed by the reputation of my fighters. our units move into position to achieve a number of objectives tomorrow, and excavations begin in the underground. gold is something of a problem however, as our construction plans must be put on hold. perhaps the upkeep of all those miserable goblin troops i have for some reason signed up can be lessened somehow...

james.

I've run into two pieces of my artwork being used in this map now. Neat.

A number of battles today. We defeated some infidels and two groups of raiders, as well as recovering a magical sword. A good day.

[This message has been edited by Springheel (edited 04-11-2007 @ 07:14 PM).]

day 10 of the orc empire

explored a crypt and thus appeased the war god. killed some cats prowling around my territory, but mainly just movement and construction.

in other news, we have spotted a northman allied with our foul enemies the elves. we have given notice to the elves to be gone from our lands or we will bring unholy war to them.

james.

day 11.

captured a furnace and continued excavations. that foolish northman of the elves not only failed to move out of our territory, but actually moved in deeper. declared war (as if we orcs need an excuse) and moved several parties into position to crush it.

james.

[This message has been edited by JamesEde (edited 04-12-2007 @ 10:41 AM).]

We are exploring deeper into orc territory. It is crawling with them. We will see if camping near some savage independents will affect our chances.

In our lands we fought two significant battles and won both of them, though we lost a valued unit. Our capitol city has been much improved, however.

Day 12 of the Glorious orc empire

We warned those elves to scram. Not only does their puny northman not leave, but we find a unicorn has taken our mine! Well, needless to say, he doesn't hold that mine anymore. And were closing in on the other one. Elsewhere, our troops explored a ruin, and one of our generals picked up a helm of light, of all things! cursed holy champion will look just stupid on us, but the defense will come in handy i suppose. Captured another mine in the underground. our coffers really are overflowing.

james.

We took control of two magic nodes and a farm today. Tomorrow we'll have our revenge on a nasty dwarf.

orcs, day 13 (i think)

uhh, lets see here. i must have drank too much grog, cuz i can't remember what on earth my orcs did today. uhhhh, i killed that damn northman, i know that. but i found a stinking frogrider skulking in the shallows. must get some units capable of going over water there to kill that one too. not much else besides that and some manoevring/
production. uhhh, oh yeah, uhhhhhh, Soon you will taste the axes of the orcs!... or something... (wanders off to clear his head)

We rid ourselves of the pesky dwarf. We wanted to hire a cardinal, but his price was too high. We killed some of his followers to encourage him to lower his price.

day 14 of the glorious orc empire.

today my fearless uruks slaughtered some humans guarding a tower. the hero we freed was more than glad to join our army, as was a black knight and his soldiers. elsewhere, my troops explored a campsite and gained a suit of armour for one of my generals. our victories were tempered, however, by a needless and costly assault on a chaos node. though we gained the node, two valuable units were lost. such is the problem with our warlike race, we rush towards the smell of blood, but all too often in our haste it is our own we spill.

james.

We fought off a horde of crocodiles for a valuable magical item. We lost a powerful unit in the fight, but managed to take control of three crocs to make up for it.

BTW, did you register this as a WL game already?

Mostly troop movement today.

Orcs, days 15-16.

well, that new hero we signed up didn't even have time to get fitted for a uniform. she fell in a rather pointlessly greedy battle whose reward was a black wand(?!). Oh well, er, uh i mean, that's the breaks in the orc army! we aren't sentimental, no matter how darn valuable such a hero may have been if we hadn't been so dumb as to just throw her in without proper back up.

elsewhere, we captured another city and seduced a shaman and priest to the cause in the process. but those pesky elves will not scram, and have taken a furnace. moving troops to intercept, but i think it is time i brought my armies to bear on their lands, and trust me, when i come across the water, it won't be to scout and harass, it will be to lay waste to elfdom.

as far as the game being registered for WL, i posted a message registering it, but the WL threads seem pretty dead right now, and even my thread asking to be put on the ladder has not been responded to, so i'm still not even posted as on it. i only really wanted to get on cuz i thought it would get more games my way, but it seems i have no problem getting people to play with, so i don't feel it to be a high priority at this point.
james.

We fought a somewhat difficult battle to rescue a dryad hero, but she decided to join the fight and got herself killed. It wasn't an entirely wasted effort, however, as a knight and some troops heard of our efforts and joined us.

We've made some interesting discoveries during our scouting of the enemy lands. Looks like they'll have more than just our scout to worry about....

day 17:

mostly manoevering. assembling two armies, one big, one small, to achieve multiple objectives.

james.

Cleared out a dungeon but the reward was paltry. Rumours speak of an uprising, somewhere.

Orcs, day 18:

captured a node, and retook a furnace. damn sneaky elves sneaked off rather than stay and fight. probably hiding in the bushes somewhere. that's the problem when fighting a race of cowards. we are a warrior race, however, and the news of a nomad uprising does not scare us. let them rise up, we will bury them all. we may, however, have to put off our plans for the elves for the time.

Grumshank

actually, i'm a bit scared, i heard that whatever is about to be unleashed has made short work of AI players in the past. hope i'm well defended enough

We had a very good day. Destroyed some infidels and were given a strong magical weapon as a reward, took over a new outpost, and discovered a powerful magical breastplate in a ruin.

Day 19 of the orc empire.

no sign yet of this supposed uprising. took out a nomad camp and picked up a fancy new hat for my undead general. our main army is now moving into position, and our southern forces have entered the swamps. elsewhere, we are pulling select troops back to our towns to prepare for any trouble these nomads may throw our way. no sign of elves.

james.

Played my turn in a hurry and made some stupid moves.