The Big Four Hotseat - HARAD VACANT

[joerock22]

The “Big Four” Hotseat
Leader: joerock22
Admin: knight of meh

Description: This hotseat is designed as a fast-paced game for players who want to play Third Age: Total War more often. The only factions are Gondor, Rohan, Mordor and Harad. On paper, this looks like a fairly even match, but we will learn more as the game progresses.

The Map




Factions

Gondor: joerock22
Rohan: Chieftain Khuzaymah
Mordor: PandaChef
Harad:


Rules

Administrative:

• Long campaign
• Manage all settlements
• M/M Difficulty
• Password
• Map Updates: every 5 turns or player preference

General

• You may reload your turn as many times as you want
• Turns must be taken within 24 hours. If you cannot play your turn, please make arrangements for subbing. Please send your ally your password so he can sub you in case of unexpected absence
• Please PM or VM the next player in line

Gameplay

• Good vs. Evil
• No Invasions
• No gifting settlements in danger of being captured
• Battles against other players must be auto-resolved. Battles against the AI can be fought
• Post screenshots of all battles against other players: deployment screen and results screen. I think this makes following a hotseat much more interesting. Note – you do not need to post screenshots for lopsided battles, i.e. 1,000 vs. 100, but please mention the battle in your post
• No assassinations or sabotage. This game should be about battles; agents should have a smaller role
• No surrounding armies with smaller stacks to deny a retreat. You are allowed to block bridges or river crossings
• Mercenary transport ships cannot attack other ships
• Units defeated by a player coming after you in the turn order may not move or attack on your subsequent turn
• Bribing is allowed
• Ships cannot enter or leave a blockaded port until the blockaded fleet withdraws
• Sallying from a city under siege is not allowed solely to deny the attacker the choice to sack or exterminate, or to lure him into a trap
• Players are only allowed to cross the Anduin at three points: 1) Osgiliath, 2) Cair Andros, and 3) Falls of Rauros. Players may also cross by ship at any point. The crossings at Pelargir and Barad Harn may not be used

Buildings

• No destroying any buildings if the city is at risk of capture
• No restrictions on exterminating cities: this is total war!
• On the turn you capture an enemy city, you are only allowed to destroy inns and cultural buildings

Spies

• Whether a spy may open the gates of a city depends on the size of the city garrison. If a city is defended by 900+ men, or 1500+ orcs, then spies may NOT open the gates. If a city is defended by fewer than this number, then spies may open the gates without restriction
• The purpose of this rule is to allow players to defend their cities without fear of losing their garrison due to spies. Its justification is that cities with more defenders have better surveillance and it would be harder for spies to operate. I also want to keep the rule simple, which is the reason for the hard limit. So basically if you defend a city with 6 full units worth of troops, you are safe from spies
• Spies may open the gates against the Rebels (AI) without restriction

[Matto16]

Sounds very interesting. Maybe I will join and if not I will follow it with great interest.

[PandaChef]

I would like to join, if that's possible. Although me and you are already in a Gondor Rohan HS, so I would prefer anyone but Gondor. I can do fast turns although there might be like one period where I will be gone for 5 days but thats it.

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

I would like to join too, I think that is very interesting

[knight of meh]

1..2..3..4 damn

[joerock22]

Remember I didn't make it first come first serve. If there are more than 4 players wanting to play (including myself), I'll draw names out of a hat or something.

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

Can I provide the hat? It will contain my name a thousand times ;d

[joerock22]

Well, it seems like we have enough interest, so I posted the rules. Pretty standard except for the spy rule, which I've wanted to try for some time now. So please review that one carefully. I am open to change on these, so please post if you have any comments or suggestions.

Anyone else with interest in this hotseat should post within the next 24 hours or so, to be part of “the lottery.” I hope to set this up within the next day or two.

[knight of meh]

i am recusing myself from the lottery as i would like the opportunity to see how this plays out with access to toggle_fow ,so i would volunteer as a hapless ameteur admin .. it can't be that hard my hardest task would be altering the descr_strat to get rid of the other factions

advice if i do become admin is appreciated Matto

also i recommend posting an image or agreeing how far north rohan can conquer to get the desired campaign of "good vs evil" effect instead of "good stalls evil while Rohan tries to nab as many rebel economic centres as possible"

[Playfishpaste]

I'd like to sub in if anyone needs it.

Edit: ah there's a lottery, in that case I'd like the chance to be a regular player.

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

The spy rule is very interesting, I like that.

The borders in my opinion should be pretty standard. Harad and Mordor can not go further east. Ammu Khand and Oibamari are out of the game. And Rohan is not allowed to expand much further north either. Derwath, Gineard and Foldburg in the northwest, Limlight Fortress and Tirith Anduin in the north(east). In the middle of the map, Malgalad as most northern settlement.

I would vote for Knight to be admin as well, I am against an admin that is also playing.

And of course, I would still like to apply for the lottery.

[PandaChef]

Ye I really like the spy rule, I was thinking a hotseat should implement something like that as its stupid a spy can open a gate with like 1000 men inside.

[joerock22]

I was thinking something like this with regards to the campaign map. I agree that Rohan should have limits for expansion. For example, they should not be able to expand into Isengard's territory because they are already benefitting from Isengard being dead. I'm including Fangorn in this because I'm assuming that Isengard was taken over by the Ents.

But I think Rohan should have some room for expansion. Mordor and Harad have a handful of cities on their side of the river that are fairly easy to capture. Harad also has that one settlement in the east that they should be able to take. If you guys want to be more restrictive, that’s fine, but I think Rohan should at least be able to capture a few cities in relative safety like Harad can.

What do you guys think?

[Arrow2daknee]

Map looks good! I will refrain from joining since I am not as active as usual, but I will follow this with great interest.

[joerock22]

A second option: let Gondor and Rohan expand to the west but not to the north. Expansion to the west is risky because those troops are too far away to help in emergencies. But I like having the option.

[Matto16]

First option sounds better to me. As you pointed out Mordor and Harad already start with many settlements and can easily conquer others on the east side of Anduin so the possibility for Gondor and Rohan to expand both west and north is fair in my opinion.

Another thing: those crossings on Anduin around Amon Hen and Pelargir are practical for armies, but for the sake of reality I would remove them. Cair Andros and Osigilath should remain the only crossings on the river but they could cross it also with ships of course.

[knight of meh]

Another thing: those crossings on Anduin around Amon Hen and Pelargir are practical for armies, but for the sake of reality I would remove them. Cair Andros and Osigilath should remain the only crossings on the river but they could cross it also with ships of course.

good plan , now i have to go work out how to do that

edit: who repped me not knowing what a librarian was? this ignorance must be rectified!

[knight of meh]

i have never started a hotseat either .. do i have to start because i am the admin or can anyone start it and i just have to put in the admin password??

Another thing: those crossings on Anduin around Amon Hen and Pelargir are practical for armies, but for the sake of reality I would remove them. Cair Andros and Osigilath should remain the only crossings on the river but they could cross it also with ships of course.

an update on this (haven't found out completely how to do it yet) it can't happen unless people are willing to either

1)have a new installation with new map files
2) have edited map files on hand to make the save games compatible

the problem is even one crossing makes a different map in the save file so any changes at all to the map makes all saves incompatible

i will offer up the same solution as joe with the addition that i will keep tabs on all armies around the anduin so cheating would just be stupid ,so voice your opinions

don't you think you should choose the players now joe? by my count you have five people? (wouldn't it be funny if joe wasn't n the selection )

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

I agree with Matto on both matters. Second map if you start counting settlements devided by the river, it is 24 for good and 30 for evil if I didn't miscount ( considering the 2 sea settlements belong to Harad)

Also I think it is very cool indeed to keep the only crossing points osgiliath and cair andros.

[joerock22]

Okay, sounds good. Unless anyone objects, we will go with Map #1 and I'll add a rule where it is illegal to cross the river except by ship, or at Osgiliath or Cair Andros. I have no idea how to change the game to eliminate those crossing points.

Actually, I’ve never tried to set up a hotseat before! I’ll probably need a few hours to figure things out (like killing off other factions) so this will likely have to wait until the weekend. But that gives us time to iron out the rules and map, so that’s okay.