[CR@W] the Bannermen [Complete] - House of Fire (TOFU) Wins!

[IcePack]

Ok here goes

viewtopic.php?f=438&t=224805

[hjelp]

great job, we are all waiting

[hopalong]

great job, we are all waiting

i zqs zqiting for ,y gq,e vs brqveheqrt to stqrt; but noz it finqlly did; so i q, not zqiting qny,ore:

[groovysmurf]

i zqs zqiting for ,y gq,e vs brqveheqrt to stqrt; but noz it finqlly did; so i q, not zqiting qny,ore:

Someone's keyboard is messed up again. Luckily I have practice with this.
Hop is saying "groovysmurf is a wonderful overlordess and we are all so blessed to be graced by her presence."

[hopalong]

i zqs zqiting for ,y gq,e vs brqveheqrt to stqrt; but noz it finqlly did; so i q, not zqiting qny,ore:

Someone's keyboard is messed up again. Luckily I have practice with this.
Hop is saying "groovysmurf is a wonderful overlordess and we are all so blessed to be graced by her presence."

pretty much, but i had `her` capitalized.

[hopalong]

do you need to have 10 actual players, or would the minimum be 4 players, 3 of who would commit to using 3 ships (1 after another, of course)?

[groovysmurf]

i zqs zqiting for ,y gq,e vs brqveheqrt to stqrt; but noz it finqlly did; so i q, not zqiting qny,ore:

Someone's keyboard is messed up again. Luckily I have practice with this.
Hop is saying "groovysmurf is a wonderful overlordess and we are all so blessed to be graced by her presence."

pretty much, but i had `her` capitalized.

[IcePack]

Answered in v2 thread

[groovysmurf]

We are very close to completing Phase 2 of CR@W: the Bannermen! We are doing a few stories for the upcoming January Platoon Report and would love to include more of what you guys have thought about this event and ideas you may have for future CR@W editions. Please feel free to PM groovysmurf and IcePack or post right here in thread. Thanks and Happy Holidays.

[IcePack]

Still to come:

1) final turns (ongoing!)
2) votes on house names and mottos (ongoing!)
3) votes on lord names (ongoing)
4) final phase 2 Winner (soon)
5) Phase 2 prizes
6) CR@W Homeworld (duh!)

and don’t forget:
7) screenshots + brief written history

[hopalong]

maybe acorn the humble is too humble to say this, so i will say it for him/her/it:
'Dont mess with the best
cuz the best dont rest'

Buh bye Blessed and Ressurected, hello moonshine!

[groovysmurf]

maybe acorn the humble is too humble to say this, so i will say it for him/her/it:
'Dont mess with the best
cuz the best dont rest'

Buh bye Blessed and Ressurected, hello moonshine!

Big congrats to Acorn the Humble and Fire for vanquishing the blessed Neverland!

[ElricTheGreat]

maybe acorn the humble is too humble to say this, so i will say it for him/her/it:
'Dont mess with the best
cuz the best dont rest'

Buh bye Blessed and Ressurected, hello moonshine!

Nicely done !!!!

[hopalong]

so, i have TOFU winning by 3.6, followed closely by Felidae and BR rounding out the top 3. amber is my wildcard to sneak in a win if the algorithm was created by another algorithm. i am offering very lucrative odds for neverland winning it all - place your wager here.

this by far was my best CC experience - huge thnx to ice and groovy for putting it together and running the show. such a labour of love.

congrats to Borg2.0 for denying us a return to Favour of the Undead. i wonder how the game would have played out it if we did regain favour. i think we would have gone S to fight amber and assassin<s guild, but maybe we would have just wanted to backstab TOFU. who knows. regardless, that was the best strategic move i can think of for this 2nd phase. i found the powers of the undead too strong, and titled the game in their favour.

any observations or fearless predictions from others?
@groovypack: did you see any tactical errors or brilliant moves that were game changers?

congrats to all.

[IcePack]

so, i have TOFU winning by 3.6, followed closely by Felidae and BR rounding out the top 3. amber is my wildcard to sneak in a win if the algorithm was created by another algorithm. i am offering very lucrative odds for neverland winning it all - place your wager here.

this by far was my best CC experience - huge thnx to ice and groovy for putting it together and running the show. such a labour of love.

congrats to Borg2.0 for denying us a return to Favour of the Undead. i wonder how the game would have played out it if we did regain favour. i think we would have gone S to fight amber and assassin<s guild, but maybe we would have just wanted to backstab TOFU. who knows. regardless, that was the best strategic move i can think of for this 2nd phase. i found the powers of the undead too strong, and titled the game in their favour.

any observations or fearless predictions from others?
@groovypack: did you see any tactical errors or brilliant moves that were game changers?

congrats to all.

We are likely going to write about our experience and thoughts on peoples strategies in the Platoon Report coming up
Including the screenshot / slideshow (which I just completed 5 mins ago and will upload to youtube a friends vimeo shortly).

Thank you to everyone who participated Really looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up...

[IcePack]

Two games pending still. Games must complete by the 14th to be considered in final tallies.

[IcePack]

CR@W: the Bannermen The Summary by IcePack & groovysmurf
[spoiler]The first ever edition of Clan Realms at War has completed its Second Phase! Thanks again to EVERYONE who participated in this event! I know groovysmurf and I both really enjoyed running this new type of event. Before we release the finalists, both groovysmurf and I want to say that the scoring on the 2nd Phase honestly couldn't have been tighter. It was a very difficult balance towards who we thought would "still be left standing" if this game continued, and who made every effort in order to seek & destroy, get involved, and take down the other Houses.

Categories included activity (number of engagements, missed turns), alliance strength (overall partnerships, living vs dead strength, bannermen and pledges), battle performance (vanquished clans, win / loss records), endurance (number of lords, ability to continue fighting if the game continued), and finally an overall "Pre Turn 40" and "Post Turn 40" grade by IcePack & groovysmurf.

In the end there was a very clear race for 1st / 2nd, and another very tight race for 3rd/4th position. In the end, groovysmurf and I both graded the finalists in a number of catagories and are pleased to announce....

CR@W: the Bannermen Phase 2 Winner is...and new Grand Champions...House of Fire!
First Runner Up...House of Beer Realm!
Second Runner Up...House of TOFU!
Honorable Mention...House of Felidae!

Phase 2 Prizes:

1. Be named CR@W v1 “Runner Up” in the history books (or Grand Champion)
2. Name an Alien Race
3. Design a Natural Wonder (v2 Relic)
4. Green Star for High Fame Lord -- Donelladan
5. Decision to implement or remove a controversial v2 game piece

- best house name & motto: House of TOFU - Why have abs when you can have kebabs? [FOED]
- best lord name: Lord Slugger the Thug Mugger of House of TOFU [pconnolly365, FOED]
- most inquisitive: hopalong [House of Fire, TOFU]
- most helpful: SiriusCowKing [House of Ushi, GON]
- most unlucky: IanG7 [House of Animal Kingdoms, S&M]
- most honest: nvanputten [House of Ghosts, HH]
- most aggressive: donovan THE DARK [House of Neverland, ID]
- most intense: ElrictheGreat [House of TOFU, FOED]
- most well rounded: Yynatago [House of Giggles, TOP]
- most targeted: Donelladan [House of Beer Realm, LHDD]
- most active: hopalong [House of Fire, TOFU]
- most improved: hjelp [House of Braveheart, FALL]
- most cautious: danervinsucks [House of Felidae, RET]
- most ambitious: TX AG 90 [House of Amber, OSA]
- most likely to have a major life event mid game: JBlombier [House of World Wide Wanderers, VDLL]
- most time in captivity: [House of Voltron, MD]
- most homey: [House of Darkness, FAD]
- most honorable: [House of Assassins Guild, FSC][/spoiler]

CR@W: the Bannermen The Overlords by IcePack & groovysmurf
[spoiler=IcePack]IcePack
Some of you might not know that my gaming addiction goes well beyond CC. For years now, I had been trying to envision a game where one could play on a meta map, but perhaps utilize CC maps and games as how to determine the battle outcomes. Honestly I went through several legal pads over the years trying to craft something that I thought would work. The rough idea of CR@W came about mid 2015, when I started to put pen to paper on what would end up being the guide to the final product. Being an avid Civilization player, I used it as a general guide for the map and movements. When I thought of using CR@W as the main event for the 10 year celebrations, it really gave me a reason to buckle down and get the details and play testing going. At the time, I was watching Game of Thrones (again) and so I loosely based some of the concepts (including the map, reversed) on the show.

We had 14 sign up, honestly it was probably a little more than I anticipated for something so complicated and such a different concept then what Conquer Club Clan Area had been used to (simple brackets and leagues mostly). I had hoped one or two more might sign up, as I thought 16 total would be the perfect balance to the map placements (something I wish I could have redone a little as time went on) but overall, I was extremely pleased with the set up, layout, and participation.

Overseeing CR@W was something I found incredibly interesting, when we started even though I wasn't playing, I found myself checking to see if anyone had asked new questions, sent in their turns, or diplomacy probably far to often. When people weren't submitting, I was looking at different clans positions and thinking what would I do. I would find that this near obsession would continue throughout the entire game, which was probably a good thing as it honestly took exorbitantly more time to run then I or anyone else predicted it would. It peaked right around 6-8 hours a turn, and boy was I glad when groovysmurf volunteered to help! We ended up making a good team, she was very quick to pick it up and we both I think really enjoyed being the evil overlords (maybe even a little to much). It was clear that there was a segment of Clans that really, really enjoyed this and were privately messaging me about the possibilities for a 2nd version. However the game had been so time consuming, while I saved the suggestions, there just wasn't much of a chance I would be able to design anything substantially different at that pace.

In the game itself, I thought most clans did reasonably well in the beginning. There were a few surprises, GON and FSC had initially found each other pretty early and set up a friendly alliance. GON, feeling FSC was to close for comfort then surprised attacked FSC right as they were becoming bannermen to OSA! That one decision really dominated the rest of the game for both of those clans, who were pretty equal in strength and fought for the majority of the game. GON had started early on the mass production of cities strategy, and I think had they kept the peace and moved north to explore instead of west to fight, may have ended very differently for them as they were using the strategy (or at least appeared to be using it) that ended up pushing TOFU and OSA to the top of the ranks.

Right around the same time, FOED and FALL found themselves in very close quarters and spent considerable resources fighting early on until they formed a secret alliance and started working together. In the end, this decision would favor FOED a little more and was a pretty shrewd move on their part. I was pretty impressed, but thought this relationship was probably one of the closest over the duration of the game.

Another surprise was ID, as TOP approached their Castle, ID decided to jump in the game. They declared a friendship, and ID went on to be super aggressive, vanquishing at least two of their neighbors (FAD and VDLL) while building an alliance eventually with FOED and FALL. Their capturing of the "Blessed" title so quickly was a surprise, in test games that hadn't happened for some time after it was possible and they got it only a turn or two after it became available.

To the north, both RET and LHDD seemed more interested in exploration then combat (although LHDD did send a few Lords after ID). This didn't score them very high in the first phase, but allowed them to slowly build without much loss and put them in a very strong position to finish Phase 2 ahead of the others. If I had to bet on which clan was going to win when Phase 2 "Last House Standing" I would have picked LHDD.

To the south, OSA took on MD while assisting FSC vs GON. They also managed to help their inactive bannermen House vs TOFU. TOFU in the meantime had encountered HH early on, and while HH skipped over them in the beginning and I thought things might be friendly, they pulled one of the more impressive maneuvers in the game and hit TOFU's main castle! I don't remember whether or not they knew it was TOFU at the time, but I remember thinking it was one of the more aggressive moves with a lot of potential upside if they could get a foothold. Unfortunately for HH, TOFU managed to secure a 2nd Castle which prevented HH from really keeping the lid on TOFU's Lord production.

The real game changer for Phase 1 happened right around the same time, for both TOFU and OSA. OSA had been leading the standings for the majority of Phase 1, and most had them pegged as the eventual winners. However, TOFU and OSA to their credit realized about the same time (OSA just slightly afterwards, which might have been the difference in winning Phase 1 vs losing) that mass producing cities or watch towers in a protected area could vastly increase their score in a short period of time. In all honesty, this strategy didn't come up in the limited play testing version 1 received. Our play tests had been very "battle centric" trying to gain a tactical and strategic advantage over the rest, and really emphasized diplomacy. TOFU really utilized all their lords except a few to the west to build this massive metropolis, which put their eastern region and castles at risk. They didn't have the Lords necessary to defend, so they put themselves in a must win situation in order to try overtaking OSA for the lead (and win). OSA on the other hand, had some lords still tied up exploring / battling, while using part of their army to build watch towers. They more so then TOFU, weren't quite at risk in their strategy and had the luxury of being ahead in the standings already.

By now, we all know the outcome - TOFU surged in the standings and managed to overtake OSA with their vast metropolis. This strategy however, put them at considerable risk and weren't nearly as prepared for Phase 2 at the start as some of their counter parts. As groovysmurf took over after Phase 2, and it got closer to the end I was surprised at how well they managed to finish in the end. I wish LHDD would have had a stronger Phase 1, as I think they likely would have won Phase 2 if they managed just a little more offensive power through the game.

In the end - the first edition went over pretty well. I know "the long winter" made it hard for some to get back into it afterwards, not like that first exciting era. I wish we had been slightly more prepared at the start, or knew a little better what we were getting into. However, I do view the event as a success as in the end we had a TON of positive feedback from everyone who participated and the majority were all looking forward to v2. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next edition, CR@W: Homeworld.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=groovysmurf]groovysmurf pending[/spoiler]

CR@W: the Bannermen What’s in a Name? by Conchobar
[spoiler]Intro: by IcePack
As the clan that won the “best lords name” by far (they won the top 3) we asked the genius behind the names to give us a little insight and some of the stories behind the names they selected to play.

Conchobar:
The inspiration behind the names of House TOFU lords:
Fyrdraca loves all dat Viking stuff, just google his username and you'll see it's an obscure reference to a Viking longboat. So, Ivar Ironside Halfbeard the Black = An amalgamation of Ivar the Boneless, Bjorn Ironside, Erik the Red, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Sweyn Forkbeard. Vikings!!
JPlo64 = Jester Percival of Loxley III = Just took his initials and a combination of rather regal and yet funny sounding medieval sort of names, including one of King Arthur's legendary knights and Robin of Loxley, otherwise know as Robin Hood.
Conchobar = Súilleabháin the Magnificent = I love my own obscure lord name, not sure many could've figured it out. Súilleabháin is the Irish form of my mum's maiden name Sullivan, so it was in her honour. It means one-eyed or hawk-eyed or dark-eyed depending which etymology you choose to believe. Then I added that to Suleiman the Magnificent, who was the most powerful and successful sultan of the Ottoman Empire. 'The Lawgiver' expanded his empire to its greatest extent and personally instituted major legislative reforms in social, educational, and criminal law.
pconnolly365 = Lord Slugger the Thug Mugger = The winner of best name was very simple really. Paul loves rugby and where we're from guys who love rugby are called 'rugger buggers' and girls who love guys who love rugby are called 'rugger bugger huggers'. It was just a bit of word play with rhymes of that which produced Slugger the Thug Mugger!
madmom = Lady Juana La Loca De Castilla = Joanna the Mad in English, Juana La Loca was a rather unfortunate Spanish queen who instead of being allowed to take her rightful place on the throne was declared legally insane by her own father and locked away in a convent for her whole life while he ruled in her place. Cheers, dad!
woodsy2115 = Needle the Useful = Our woodsy is a man of few words, but you wouldn't want to meet him in a dark corner of a CC map. He ain't afraid of nothin and constantly proves this by posting 3 very simple yet powerful words in our war threads: "use as needed."
Avi8or = Ace Von Richthofen = otherwise know as The Bloody Red baron who shot down 80 enemy aircraft.
WILLIAMS5232 = Wilbur the Wretched = Just because he is.
Juris = Bobby the Vigilant = Because he had a delightful children's book published named 'Through Bobby's Eyes'. It's on Amazon. Buy it!
Charle = Chuck Norris the Necromancer = Because he hits you SO hard that you're gonna die AND come back to life.
Crazysnakeguy = Slitherin Rumford the Sane = The Slitherin and Sane parts speak for themselves, but I honestly don't remember why I used Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) for this one. He was a very interesting character anyway, who invented thermal underwear amongst many other things. Maybe I was drinking rum at the time? [/spoiler]

CR@W: the Bannermen The Video by IcePack & groovysmurf
[spoiler]First off, my apologies for the video quality. In creating this, the video was crystal clear on my computer, but when I uploaded it to youtube it was pretty awful. Almost all of it was not legible, etc. I found uploading it to my friends vimeo account, that this was slightly better and mostly legible so I hope the quality here doesn't detract from the fun video that everyone was looking forward to (especially me!).

Note there is sound (theme music)
https://vimeo.com/249342640[/spoiler]

[IcePack]

Winners announced, priv's removed, prizes issued, video and summary's are posted. Thanks to everyone for playing

Special thanks to groovysmurf for jumping in and running Phase 2 so that we could get the jump on v2 design and testing

[ElricTheGreat]

Congrats to all the teams who stuck with it until the end !!!



Big round of applause to House of Fire - managed by Hopalong of TOFU !!! It was a blast engaging you in a battle of the minds and tactics ... looking forward to future battles of wits my friend!!!



Also a great big shout out to our allies (who are now considered my friends in battle) in the event, hjelp (House Braveheart / Fallen) and donovan THE DARK (House Neverland / ID) and all the Lords who threw on their heavy armor and battled for us on our combined TEAMS !!! --- we made a valiant effort to take on those Hoards of Wandering Lords ... but alas .. they could not be stopped and we were overrun by those heathens!!

Thanks for all the work by the Iceman and his Smurfette

[EBConquer]

This was a really huge feat and thank you(s) for all the effort that it took. Wow, what a fun time and the summary too... wasn't expecting that. We got a lot of great folks here dedicating so much time and effort to the people the make CC so great. Nice to see grandiose participation! Well done.

[josko.ri]

This was excellent event thanks to everyone who contributed.