Magic with Feudal Chivalry +25k gold to non-podium kingdoms

[mafmiller]

I just noticed that a player is assigned the RA and no one is the WA. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around?

[Jumpingfist]

seems we are playing big brother Alamaze. RA is a pretty big difference to both sides of the board. But really effects the east

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

Solutions?
1) Leave everything as is, give non-podium players another 25k bonus on next turn to compensate for veterans knowing where the weak links are (could also swap out RA/WA kingdoms)
2) Swap out RA/WA, teams stay the same but players have to rotate to a different kingdom within team from what they were originally (or just give them the OPTION of rotating to a different kingdom) and then not revealed with new set-up/Turn 0
3) Swap out RA/WA, teams redraft but MUST pick a different 3-kingdom team (can't be what they originally picked) and then not revealed with new set-up/Turn 0
Other thoughts? Just want to move to a solution so we can get on to the playing! I'm good with any of the above.

[Ry Vor]

The game has begun.  It is what it is, its the same condition (knowing kingdoms and players) for everyone.  This game took more than four hours to setup.  Anonymous is far more difficult than full diplomacy where the kingdoms are posted.  I allowed the Ranger substitution since we (I) had made mention of that possibility earlier in the thread - that a substitution could be allowed, then sort of retracted it, but it was already about 1am Friday morning before the setup was ready and I didn't want to wait a day to make further changes and wouldn't have had time Friday to do it.  Besides, the Ranger team is easily the least experienced.  And in the tradition of chivalry, let's try not to assail the, ah, inexperienced, too early or too forcefully.

Let's play.

[mafmiller]

I definitely think WA/RA should be swapped. Choices may have been quite different had people thought RA was playing instead of WA. Although I'd much rather have played this not knowing who was on which team, I don't think knowing who is who is really helps or hurts anyone more than another. True, someone may want to target the so-called weak links (just because one is new to Alamaze doesn't necessarily mean one is a weak link! ), but it's just as likely that an experienced team would want to bump off another experienced team early. ... just my thoughts ... I'm fine with whatever is decided.

[mafmiller]

I definitely think WA/RA should be swapped. Choices may have been quite different had people thought RA was playing instead of WA. Although I'd much rather have played this not knowing who was on which team, I don't think knowing who is who is really helps or hurts anyone more than another. True, someone may want to target the so-called weak links (just because one is new to Alamaze doesn't necessarily mean one is a weak link! ), but it's just as likely that an experienced team would want to bump off another experienced team early. ... just my thoughts ... I'm fine with whatever is decided.

It looks like the boss and I were typing at the same time. Like I said ... I'm fine with whatever.

[HeadHoncho]

This is a case-in-point for the customer service discussion we had recently.

So instead of, "Hey, I made a mistake (or two), let me see how we can try to rectify the situation," it's, "Hey, I made a mistake, but I guess you will all just have to suck it up, even though it may have a significant impact on the game."

Maybe all 12 players will indeed end up sucking it up, because they may understand that they have little other choice or recourse when you make your mind up.

But even if so, this is exactly the type of thing that leaves a bad taste in probably at least a subset of players' mouths, and can result in medium to longer term erosion of the player base.

Finally, is it supposed to take four hours to set a game up? Maybe UM can help with that, somehow, because it seems quite high.

[bananas]

We opted for the RA over the WA despite the supreme weakness it would give us in mid to late game. We were going to get tromped anyway, so why not come out swinging heavy and have fun. When we get snuffed out for lack of magic, we'd learn to appreciate the disadvantages.

As for the lack of Anon, we'll just all have to be on our best behavior and not communicate at all with the other teams. As for experienced guys picking on the newbs... I do not see that as a problem either. They already pull their punches in full diplo games with a newb anyway. I do not see why that would be different here.

I have no stance on the 'what people wanted' vs 'what they got' since I'm happy either way. But I do see what HH is saying. In the little time I've been here, I've heard "I would not have joined this game if I had known XYZ" more than once.

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

I have much the same thoughts as HH.

As a customer, I was led to believe that:
1) There would be a WA not a RA kingdom. This would indeed have influenced our team selections/draft.
2) Which players were playing what kingdoms within each team would be kept hidden from other teams
3) Which team alliance each team drafted would be kept hidden from the other players.

I paid money for this service. Now it is not what was promised. It may seem insignificant to you (no big deal) and its not THAT big of a deal, but if does have an effect on some of us playing). Then on top of that, I'm told "tough tootles, deal with it, it took me a long time to give you an incorrect product". I'm sorry it took 4 hours but in the end your product was not what I ordered or was promised.

Perhaps when YOU go out to restaurant and order a meal and they screw up your order and bring you something different and then have the audacity to tell you they already cooked it so deal with it YOU are good with that. I'm going to expect that to at least apologize and offer me some sort of compensation/substitution for THEIR error.

Now I already like this game very much. I'm not going to quit over this issue, even if things stay exactly the same. But it does take a bit of the shine off my newfound joy. Continued incidents like this will start the "erosion" process mentioned above. Everyone makes mistakes, I understand that. But I certainly expect a company or friend to apologize and make some kind of an effort to rectify the mistake and not just blow me off.

[Netstrider]

Did no other team try a substitution as described in the beginning of the thread? How did all three of us miss the "sort of retraction" - but everyone else saw it?

In one way it's better that everyone saw the substitution from the start if everyone thought that couldn't have happened. There would have been much more whining after 3 kingdoms lined up to smack the WA and then found out he had teleported to the safety of a different universe

WRT taking 4 hours to setup a game - Well, that's probably what makes Alamaze different. In a normal/modern game we as players wouldn't have the option to play a completely different kind of scenario then the game was programmed to run. You would get whatever was already configured and wait six months for different scenarios to come out. If they ever did. But here there is still a "GM" who can manually configure the game parameters to offer something different to all of you people who probably spend *way* too much time playing this game and expect something different once in a while to keep your interest up.

The cost of that, though, is that if the GM is going to pay attention to the rest of his life once in a while we just kind of have to deal with the hiccups that result from trying something a bit different.

Sorry, I'm new here to these forums and I don't mean to preach, but I'm appreciative for all the years and effort that the "GM" has put into the game. And just stunned that a game I played 25 years ago is still relevant and totally fun.

Good luck all. I'm looking forward to playing the game.