twilight imperium PBEM anyone?

hmmm…looks like a non-preset Map might not the worst idea we had :smiley:

argh, I mean a preset map…I am tired :smiley:

Well, regardless of what happened, let me put it to you this way. The likelihood that the tiles were properly randomized, given that one person got the worst possible hand is… 1/5,952 = 0.000168. (Looks like I made a mistake earlier when I estimated it to be 1 in 4 million.) So yes, it is possible, but I would bet $5,952 to $1 that they weren’t properly randomized.

Edit: I’m actually ok with a preset map, and always have been if you look at my previous posts. As long as it is an FFG official preset map. (That said, I do have a slight preference for a player-created map, because creating a map has interesting strategic decisions, and because I would prefer a lesser time commitment for the next week or two.)

I vote for a preset map with bidding for positions.

I’ll use my privilege as the creator of this thread to (respectfully) veto any house rules, such as bidding for positions. :slight_smile:

(Also, since you already have seen your race, you cannot request any further rules changes because technically a rules change can give you an advantage at this point. For example, I imagine that races that are not good at generating trade income will tend to get a slightly worse deal on average during position bidding, because they would be more cautious to spend the trade goods that are harder to replace for them.)

Also, with Jpsuchecki’s permission, I would like to create the draw pile for everyone and possibly even take over as the GM (while still being a player). I’ll probably start from scratch, because if I understand things correctly, as early as his first logfile JP shuffled all 63 systems to form the initial draw pile, as opposed to only using 4 special, 8 emplty, and 20 planets. This actually makes it plausible that one of the players will get jacked, such as getting 4 specials out of 5 tiles, and invalidates my earlier calculations. (I imagine that’s one reason for the rule of “4 specials, 8 empty, and 20 planet” for the initial 6-player draw pile.)

I’m fine with any agreement we make here as long as we get the game going soon. :slight_smile:

Just for the record Rus: Technically during bidding you do not spend TGs. You will never start with less than 0 TG. You will just give others a couple to start with.

I took the liberty of redoing the initial system draw pile, for which I started the game from scratch as a GM. I also created the objective deck and revealed the first as per the rules. See the attached log file.

JP, if you would rather continue being the GM and do those things on your own, that’s fine, just let us know and everyone can simply ignore my log file.

Otherwise, everyone please treat this as the latest logfile, which means it is now

[size=200]Naalu is up[/size]

Here are the things that need to be done on everyone’s upcoming turn (modified version of JP’s list):

Load the file, select your character (P1-P6), and step through the moves till the end. At the end of the review it should ask you to start a new log file. Do it. Name it TI3_game1_round00_turn0x_[race], where x is the turn number (Naalu starts at 1) and [race] is the name of your race.

Then follow the relevant bits of the setup procedure on p. 6 of the rulebook with relevant additions from expansion rules, i.e.

Take your home system planet cards and put them faceup next to your race sheet
Draw your preliminary objective card. You must keep the first one you draw, no restarting the logfile under any circumstances.
Place your control marker on the victory point track
Place your starting techs next to the race sheet
Place your command counters on the appropriate allocation areas on your race sheet
Draw two political cards and place them in your private area

Do NOT place your units and leaders yet. By the rules, you get to decide their placement after the map is created. Even if you only have one planet, you still may want to hold off placement because you can decide where your leaders go based on the final map.

Go to the “setup” window and draw 5 system tiles from the stack immediately to the right of the “systems Deck (Searchable)” label into your private area. Unfortunately the tiles are faceup and so the top tile is always visible, there isn’t anything I could do about that short of editing the module itself. You will be able to see the top tile of the next person, but try your best not to see it.

Select one of the five tiles and place it on the map according to the instructons on p. 8 of the rulebook.

JP recommended that you retire your character at this point. I actually don’t think this is necessary anymore. I think the only reason to retire is to let others modify what you did, such as flip GM-dealt tiles. But, this time the GM didn’t deal anything.

End the log, post it here, and declare the next person’s turn.

PS Naalu – for some reason the colors of your ships are not the same… not sure what happened there, but of couse feel free to fix it.

I took the correct number of tiles from each pile
added them to one pile
shuffled them together
and Dealt everyone 5 off the top of the pile.
This allowed me to only see the top card of every players pile.

I’m sorry you didn’t get the tiles you wanted.

I will make a premade map, but it appears my position as GM is being cut. I’m sorry Rus but I have more problems dealing with you, then dealing with everything else. If your going to take over, that is ok with me, but I don’t trust your familiarity with vassal to run as GM.

I dont see why JP should not be our GM. Since this is pretty much everyones first game under those conditions (using logs, and a GM) it is normal that there will be flaws and mistakes.

Oh btw, while I was reading the distant sun counters and Final Frontier Counter (which r new to me) how will you handle those?
Example Situation: I activate a system, fly into there, and end my move there. Should I just flip the counter and resolve, or do you want me to say “GM UP - Resolve [something]”? I can live with both.

I think jpsuchecki should remain GM. I don’t see a reason why not. As said, I’ve suspected that the tiles might not have been shuffled correctly, but it still could be a result of chance. Let’s just get on with the game!

well, lets just see how this map will turn out, 2 special systems at Rex…sounds interesting.

I’m not sure how the shuffling system works. However if I did not shuffle, player 6 would have had all the special systems, with players 4,5, having all empty systems so I know they were shuffled.

I created a logfile with a premade map. If you like it, we can go with it and you can place your pieces and stuff.

Naalu has speaker so they are first. (Check the previous post to see your positions.)

I just want to start the game.

If not, We can go with the previous log file.

Fontier and Distant suns will happen as soon as I get to them. Rarely do they affect other players. If we need to turn back the clock, we can.

JP – your position as GM is not being cut, sorry for not making that clear. I stated in my post that if you’d like to continue being the GM, all you need do is say so, and everyone can simply ignore my post. I should have clarified that I still heartily endorse you being the GM.

There are two reasons I posted my new logfile: (a) I had the feeling that JP did not really want to be our GM, but was continuing to do so out of his good will and politeness – perhaps I was wrong in that assessment; and (b) I wanted to see what it’s like to create a logfile with myself as a GM, with an eye towards catching bugs/glitches.

PS Hmm, JP, since it does appear that you did the initial system draw pile correctly, we either have to accept a 1/5,952 freak occurence or suspect a bug with vassal or module. (After all, if you roll 5 new dice for the first time and all of them turn up 6s, your first instinct is to check the dice!)

Just took a look at your preset map, JP. Thanks for creating it!

I do note, however, that it is unofficial and somewhat unbalanced (this time in my favor actually). When I referred to official maps, I meant these: fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c … Preset.pdf , which are fairly balanced.

This is just a note for your consideration / future reference without any implied criticism or pressure to change it again. Like you, I also don’t want to delay things unnecessarily further, and I certainly appreciate all your work!!

I’m tired of placing my units and then scraping it to get new tiles/maps. I’m going to wait to hear for sure that we are using a setup before doing it yet again.

Also, in the premade galaxy what determined the placement of tiles? After shuffles shouldn’t you just place them systematically? (and what’s the deal with moving a blank tile away from one of the HS and replacing it with a two planet system? :smiley: ) I’m not looking for another restart - like everyone else I think we spent too much time on this already and it’s time to play!

AbsoluteZero, officially you don’t “just place tiles systematically” after shuffling. See here for how to create official, balanced preset maps (this is not what JP did):

fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c … Preset.pdf

Note that there are two official 6-player preset map templates (a single-galaxy map on p.2 and multi-galaxy on p.5). Should everyone want to go with an official map, my vote is for the multi-galaxy one on p.5.

And just so there are no misunderstandings, even though I post notes and suggestions, I always defer all final decisions to JP’s good judgement.

I started playing them in a circle around Mecatol rex based on how they were shuffled. However I realized once I started to do that, the game would favor one player of another, so once I was done, I move a few around to try to balance it a little. Anyway If there are no major problems, I say go ahead and place starting units.

I wasn’t sure if this also counts as the strategy phase or not. I didn’t take a strategy, but I don’t mind saying I’ll be taking tech II when the time comes.

What are the rules for private dealings? I can’t find if a final decision was made, and we are getting close to time for these things!

Also, big sigh at tiles lost. You can see in JP’s log that I had bereg and lisis. Can’t do much better than that!

[size=200]SAAR is up[/size]

Go ahead and start strategy phase and place your plastic and such.

The TI3 premaps are just suggestions. A player made map isn’t always balanced.