gistfile1.txt

GAME 16
War at Sea: Team Island Alliances.
(Custom rules, settings, and concept by Pneu)
RULES/SETTINGS/DETAILS:
1. Each team member has sovereign control of their nation. But, since you are part of a team in a team game, you will be
expected to participate in "teamwork". Delegation and/or reassignment will happen for idlers/inactives.
2. Diplomacy will be disabled. Technology must be acquired through research, conquest, or theft. Transfer of gold is
forbidden.
3. Players start with 3 settlers, 3 workers, and 4 explorers.
Please be aware that this is a "retro" game that has rolled back community improvements to the multiplayer ruleset.
1. There is no base corruption (no minimum corruption), but corruption increases faster with distance. Because of other
settings, Nations who don't or can't carefully optimize “smaller-poxing” around the capital will soon discover that this retrorollback
makes them technologically backwards and quickly vulnerable to conquest.
2. In Democracy, each city gets one unhappy citizen made content, as if each city had a free courthouse. This combines with
the corruption settings to heavily and decisively penalize non-Democratic government beyond what is experienced in
standard games.
3. In Despotism, production bonus in the Capital has been removed. This will lessen 'resource luck' and significantly slow
economic growth during the despotic period.
4. Fundamentalism does not have unhappy citizens and enjoys almost no corruption.
5. Isaac Newton, Marco Polo and The Internet are removed from the game. This will slow the mid- and late-game
considerably. Statue of Liberty has also been removed.
6. Darwin's Voyage and Philosophy only award 1 free tech to the FIRST nation to discover each. With most nations getting no
tech from these, this will further slow the game pace.
7. Buy cost on all Wonders is double that of buildings: that is, 4 gold per remaining shield. This reverts an unintended 'bug'
that happened to multiplayer ruleset, slowing the game back to how it was before the 2 gold / shield 'bug'.
8. Trade routes are enabled, and must be between cities more than 8 tiles apart. There is a limit of 4 routes per city.
9. Cities on a river get a free Bridge even before Bridge Building is researched.
10. Caravans cost 50 shields and donate 50 shields to a wonder.
11. Aegis Cruisers get a lower defense bonus (now 2x instead of 4x) against air units but have the same cost. The net effect of
this is that defence against air units is reduced to be equal to battleships, while still having a DHPS inferior to
cruisers/battleships against non-air units. This means that all around and on average, the most advanced naval unit now has
an inferior average defence/cost ratio to more primitive units which were available with earlier technologies. (DHPS =
Defence x Hit Points / Shields). This is a significant re-balance of power away from surface ships and toward offensive units
which can hide (air units, submarines) and may result in a slower end game and/or encourage nuclear alternatives.
SUMMARY:
Each Nation starts on a fair island of 100 tiles, allowing for a small number of cities prior to conquest/colonization. The world
map is similar to Earth: 70% water. Your location is completely random, so you may find enemy islands are close to you! This
will immediately create tensions in key waterways, resulting in naval conflict and a need to support isolated nations on your
team or else be outnumbered by the other team. Trade routes on the seas will dominate economic wealth, and navies will
battle for control over the key waterways! Coordination of allied fleets into offensive initiatives and defence zones will be a
key part of this game. Diplomacy=OFF will forbid using waterways for trading of gold and science, magnifying the difference
between the best players and everyone else. Isolated weaker nations who face a stronger power are forbidden from
receiving gold support. Thus, geographics and settings may encourage rapid volatility, fall of nations, and one team getting an
upper hand quickly. In spite of that, this might be a slow game for survivors, because other factors were introduced to extend
game length: a) no tech trading b) recessive economics caused by land scarcity, c) re-balancing of naval power to penalize
troop transportation in the late game. Several other slowing factors were added which can be read in the
rules/settings/details page.