Superpower II: A Civilization III - Conquests Dynasty

[Franklinnoble]

The original "Superpower" was left unfinished, but I've always wanted to go back and try again. Since I now have the latest Civ3 expansion and a flattering Golden Scribes nomination as motivation, I'm starting over.

I like to keep my dynasties as interactive as possible, because it's more fun for me, and, hopefully, more fun for my readers. Last time, I named various military units and cities after people who read and posted. I'm going to do the same thing here, but I've decided to add a new wrinkle...

You are my cabinet.

Now, bear in mind, I'm still the H.N.I.C. when it comes to running the country, but I thought it would be cool to have a panel of advisors, and consult them regularly on matters of national importance.

Nominate yourselves as you see fit. I will select the following:

* Secretary of War
His duties are obvious. Consult on matters pertaining to military readiness and strategy.

* Secretary of Science
Will help direct the path of our technological research.

* Secretary of Trade
Chief of commerce, finance, and foreign trade.

* Secretary of the Interior
Responsible for infrastructure and national expansion.

* Secretary of State
Foreign relations advisor. Should remain aware of strengths and weaknesses of foreign powers and negotiate treaties and pacts to our advantage.

* Secretary of Security
Keep the peasants happy and reasonably safe from each other. Also responsible for intelligence and espionage.

If there is enough interest, I will allow each secretary to select an undersecretary (or 2 or 3... depending on how popular this is). I will dissolve the cabinet periodically and call for new nominations in order to allow opportunities for fresh participants.

The roles of each secretary are meant to overlap and compliment one another - so you'll have to cooperate. Greatest consideration will be given to motions presented by the group as a whole.

You may begin submitting nominations now. Please familiarize yourselves with the rules of Civ3: Conquests if you have not already. It is possible to participate without having a clue about the game, but your decisions will be more sound if you at least have a basic grasp of how things work.

The first order of business is to decide the basic game conditions and the nation we will command. I'm leaning towards Carthage, as I like the Industrious - Seafaring traits, and they have a pretty strong unique unit early in the game.

***Edit - I'm open to the potential of doing this as a PBEM game, if there's 3 or more people interested. I can't promise that I'll be able to take more than a turn a day, though - so you'd have to be patient.

[finkenst]

we should build more caravans, sire.

[The Afoci]

Me like War!

[Celeval]

I'd love to do PBEM, but I'm not confident of more than a turn a day, either; and I know there will be spots I'll be out of town. Damnit.

So I'll just be reading, consider this a show of support. :-)

[JeeberD]

What exactly does a PBEM game entail? Would it be similair to what you have set up now or would each person have his own country?

Also, I only have the original Civ III. What expansions would I have to purchase to participate in a PBEM? Just Conquests or would it take more?

Oh...and if you just stick to your current format, I would like to be Secretary of Science...

[Tasan]

Well since I'm presenting the Epic category, I decided to read your as it was one of two I hadn't read yet. Excellent job. I'd like to participate in this if I could, maybe Sec of Science, as the tech side of Civ has always been my favorite part.

[3ric]

Excellent concept! This will be interesting to see.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

What exactly does a PBEM game entail? Would it be similair to what you have set up now or would each person have his own country?

Also, I only have the original Civ III. What expansions would I have to purchase to participate in a PBEM? Just Conquests or would it take more?

Oh...and if you just stick to your current format, I would like to be Secretary of Science...

You'd need to just get the Conquests expansion. Every person would have their own country.

We've got a couple of people going for Sec. of Science... either figure it out amongst yourselves, or I'll just pick one.

I was sort of hoping The Afoci would nominate himself for Secretary of War. Our mighty nation could use a few crawfish with laser blasters instead of claws.

[tucker342]

Awesome! If not enough people sign up I'll sign up, but otherwise, I'll just read along!

[JeeberD]

If all I need to pick up is Conquests then I'm all for a PBEM. I'm not going to pick it up until I'm certain that we're going to do it though, so let me know what's going on there.

And in regards to being Secretary of Science, I am the obvious choice. Tasan's just a silly Houstonite...

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

I was sort of hoping The Afoci would nominate himself for Secretary of War. Our mighty nation could use a few crawfish with laser blasters instead of claws.

Me like war! Me want to run war! Me want to blow shit up!

[JeffNights]

I'll add my diplomatic touch. As Colin Powell is my hero : )

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

What exactly does a PBEM game entail? Would it be similair to what you have set up now or would each person have his own country?

Also, I only have the original Civ III. What expansions would I have to purchase to participate in a PBEM? Just Conquests or would it take more?

Oh...and if you just stick to your current format, I would like to be Secretary of Science...

Silly me, I saw JeeberD and just thought it would be inane ramblings, so I didn't even read it ;- )

I'll take whatever there is left then, and just "advise" on science.

[Franklinnoble]

JeeberD -

I've never done a PBEM game before - so I'm not sure quite how a dynasty along those lines would work. I'm willing to experiment, but I don't want that to be the lone endorsement for you to go buy the game. Let me know how you feel about it.

Even if we do PBEM and it's just the two of us, I suppose we could solicit our own cabinet members and have separate "teams" to keep in interactive for whoever wants to read but can't actually play.

Anyone else interested in doing PBEM?

[Blade]

I have only played the original Civ III, but if that is not too much of a problem, I would like to apply for the Secretary of Security.

[Raven Hawk]

I have played only regular Civ III also, but I feel I have a pretty good handle on it. I would like to apply for the Secretary of Trade. I love this aspect of the Civ games and have always found that it is never leveraged enough.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

JeeberD -

I've never done a PBEM game before - so I'm not sure quite how a dynasty along those lines would work. I'm willing to experiment, but I don't want that to be the lone endorsement for you to go buy the game. Let me know how you feel about it.

Even if we do PBEM and it's just the two of us, I suppose we could solicit our own cabinet members and have separate "teams" to keep in interactive for whoever wants to read but can't actually play.

Anyone else interested in doing PBEM?

I'm about to head over to Wally-World to pick up the game. I had better enjoy it, dammit...

It would be cool if we could get another person or two to play along with us, but your suggestion about us both having cabinets sounds like it could be interesting. I just wonder how we could do it as a dynasty without giving away too much info about our civs to each other...

[3ric]

Jeeber, you can download it from trygames.com and use it free for three games to see how it's like... and then buy it if you want.

[Celeval]

Alright, damnit, if we can deal with me being out of town from Friday-Monday this coming week, I'm in. :-)

And I may bring my fiancee along either as a separate player or a team member of mine.

[Celeval]

Is there a Civ III PBEM faq someplace, that steps through how to run a turn, etc?

[JeeberD]

The game has been bought. I have to be at work in a couple of hours, so I probably won't be able to really start messing with it until after work tonight, but I'm now in for sure.

Good to have you along, Celeval...

[3ric]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Is there a Civ III PBEM faq someplace, that steps through how to run a turn, etc?

Good question, I'm intrigued by this idea... haven't bought Conquest yet though.

[Celeval]

I've been looking but haven't found one... closest is http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...threadid=72094 but that's not much.

[Franklinnoble]

Anyone who wants to do the PBEM, please e-mail me. I think we should run a "trial" game first (just go through a few turns) before we do a full-blown dynasty, just to see how it works.

The issue of security certainly is valid... public cabinet discussions would place us at a disadvantage. Perhaps the solution is to agree to an alliance of nations VS the AI - at least for the early part of the game. If we wipe out the computer, then we'll solve the privacy issue - but at that point, a clear international leader will probably have been decided.

Thoughts?

[Celeval]

Also depends... if the three of us (are there 3 of us?) are spread out enough and are able to avoid butting up against each other, it might work out as well.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

Anyone who wants to do the PBEM, please e-mail me. I think we should run a "trial" game first (just go through a few turns) before we do a full-blown dynasty, just to see how it works.

Sounds good to me. But your PM box is full, and your profile isn't doing email.

Kevin

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Sounds good to me. But your PM box is full, and your profile isn't doing email.

Kevin

Guess I won't even bother trying...

[Junior 19]

I would be up for a PBEM game. I'm pretty much a Civ novice though. I had played Civ2 a long time ago and to be honest it was the Superpower I thread that made me go out and get Civ3, that and it was basically free with gift cards from xmas. Anyways, I got the gold edition that has Civ3 and PTW combined so I don't know how that would affect anything. For example I tried to install the latest patches for the games and it I had to reinstall the game because the patches asked for the Civ3 or PTW CD to be in the drive. Which isn't what you get in my version.

Is it Conquests that you are going to do the PBEM through? I don't know if it has that feature or not but I'd be willing to pick it up if I had to. Either way let me know.

[Tasan]

I'd love to PBEM, but I don't have conquerers, and I don't really have the $30 to spend on it since I just bought FBCB the other day.

[JeeberD]

Ahh...come on Tasan. How much more broke is $30 going to make you? Make the sacrifice, you'll be glad you did...

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Ahh...come on Tasan. How much more broke is $30 going to make you? Make the sacrifice, you'll be glad you did...

Diapers and wipes man, diapers and wipes. They ain't cheap.

;- )

[JeeberD]

Bah! Be a man and use cloth diapers. Much, much cheaper...

[Junior 19]

And Reusable!

[Franklinnoble]

Guess I'd better go clean my inbox...

[JeeberD]

Any update on this?

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Bah! Be a man and use cloth diapers. Much, much cheaper...

Did that for his first year. When we moved, we had to use disposables for a while. Ever since then, he breaks out like crazy to cloths. It sucked to have to go to disposables, because yes, it is a LOT cheaper ;- )

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Tasan

Did that for his first year. When we moved, we had to use disposables for a while. Ever since then, he breaks out like crazy to cloths. It sucked to have to go to disposables, because yes, it is a LOT cheaper ;- )

Really? Wow...I was just joking. I didn't think that anyone actually used those anymore...

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Really? Wow...I was just joking. I didn't think that anyone actually used those anymore...

Boy I love how this has turned into a diaper discussion! ;- ) And yes, there are actually some parents who still use 'em.

Anyway, back to CIVTALK! I might swing the expansion too, I've been reading how good PBEM is.

[Franklinnoble]

OK... my inbox is empty. Please PM me if you wanna do PBEM... looks like we might go in that direction...

[JeeberD]

PM sent

[Franklinnoble]

OK... got three PM's. I won't have time to start the game until Saturday, at the earliest. Anyone else can jump in until then.

[Raven Hawk]

We doing the cabinet thing still, or no?

[The Afoci]

I am the War guy!! We must!

[Raven Hawk]

I'm the trade guy! We must go to war to monopolize natural resources!

[The Afoci]

Screw trading, we will own everything. No one to trade with!

[JeeberD]

Bah! You will never defeat the kingdom of JeeberD!

[Franklinnoble]

Alright... it looks like we have at least three people interested in PBEM. It'd probably be best for everyone to e-mail me at franklin AT noblebrown DOT com with your game preferences (which Civ you want, etc.) Make sure you have the Conquests expansion installed. I'll get the game started when everyone checks in.

I still dig the cabinet idea, and even if I lose a bit of a competitive advantage, I still intend to use it. The other PBEM players may feel free to post their dynasty perspective here as they wish. Feel free to solicit your own cabinet, if you like.

[Franklinnoble]

OK... so far, I've gotten e-mails from three interested parties and replied back. Let me know if you have NOT gotten mail from me and still want to play...

[Coffee Warlord]

Hey franklinnoble, can I be named as your Minister of Information? I want no duties aside from government sanction to write press reports during the dynasty as I see fit.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Hey franklinnoble, can I be named as your Minister of Information? I want no duties aside from government sanction to write press reports during the dynasty as I see fit.

Clever... I like it.

Consider it done.