Saturday, June 30, 2012
Spartan Women Rant
spartan women were not typical. they owned 40% of the land, went to school, married their husbands who were around the same age, were the primary, and often, sole care-givers of their sons, and were encouraged to exercise as often as possible. the spartan citizen male mostly lived at the barracks and so the woman had complete control over her household including their helots. spartan women were sometimes shared between brothers, so that the will would stay in possession of the family, and when the elders died, the women were granted half of any male sibling by law, you could not write out a woman in a will. their corinthian, cretian, thracian and athenian counterparts were not NOT at all in the same boat. i would have to say that if you ever think of a strong-willed woman, think of a spartan woman.
and as for the picture of the woman not being accurate, might i say that the "Average" greek today is not the average greek then. today, the skin tone in greece hovers around von luschan's tones 15-20 but the minoan greeks and the mycenae greeks of prehistory were also in great transport and all of greece remained highly mobile due to their sea-faring ways. the area that the minoans lived in were especially mobile. sparta, the most specifically non-naval of all the greek cultures, probably had a more stable tone (between 18-23), but it is not outside of logic to understand that the tone balance of all of ancient greece could have ranged between tones 18-26.
the history behind some historical sayings
sometimes i run across the oddest things. here is one i wanted to share with you.
England in the 1500's -
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (the straw left over after threshing grain) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entrance way - hence a "thresh hold."
They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite awhile, -- hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers (a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl). Often trenchers were made from stale bread that was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, "the upper crust."
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up hence, the custom of holding a "wake."
England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell. Thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered "a dead ringer."
Babylon 2000BC -
For a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".
England in the 1500's -
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (the straw left over after threshing grain) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entrance way - hence a "thresh hold."
They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite awhile, -- hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers (a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl). Often trenchers were made from stale bread that was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, "the upper crust."
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up hence, the custom of holding a "wake."
England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell. Thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered "a dead ringer."
Babylon 2000BC -
For a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".
Friday, June 29, 2012
Ancient Greece Example Cards
Since I gave you one free General and one free Philosopher
I figured I might as let you sneak a peek
at one of each of the other type of cards in the deck.
Just a little something to blow your mind.
Pre-Order your own Ancient Greece Deck today!
Blog post about Coinage
Blog post about Ancient Greeks
Blog post about new rules
have a great day!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
6/27/12 - ancient greece notes and other stuff
working on finalizing ancient greece.
====================
some ancient greece info:
ancient greece deck has naval soldier cards that work from the warcamp like triremes.
there are tactics cards that target naval cards specifically and do one of two things depending on if they are attacking or defending.
i've also built in a couple of cards that are specifically anti-persian in nature. one of them, Betrayal of Alcibiades, is REALLY cool, giving you an instant general as a tactics card. i didn't realize how awesome it was until i started doing my mental interactions simulations. WOW. even though it is a rare card, every deck will want to have one if you are going a coin resource/rush deck.
coin continues to be fun with ancient greece. there is a new marketplace that serves as a permanent place to put your cards that are "resource traders" that stick around longer than the gypsy traders seem to. mycenae trade ship, corinth market, lydian coin merchant and preistesses of delphi hang out and do specific things from the marketplace that other resources do not do. so now you can have four types of cards in your supply pile. Resources, Specialty Resources, Resource Traders and Acts of God.
ALL very cool.
playtesting the greeks with my beta tester group very soon. am excited.
====================
edited the video contest to 2-6 minutes instead of 2-5 minutes.
samsons pintrest page (located bottom left of home page on main site) is picking up some followers. very nice.
samson has also made some suggestions for the aztec deck in the forums here. noted and filed. good ideas.
the aztec deck will be a couple of years away unless my fans start giving me a reason to quit my day job and do this for my real job. hint hint.
tokyo in tulsa free promo cards are done and are pretty powerful. here is a link to those cards.
jomon dogu is such a cool thing that didn't exist in japan after the jomon pottery period that i have included all the cool pictures that i could find. it is the same reference number but since you can have five commons, i figured that it might be fun. yay free art!
acts of God cards continue to fascinate me when i daydream about possible game outcomes. seriously. pretty flipping awesome.
====================
some ancient greece info:
ancient greece deck has naval soldier cards that work from the warcamp like triremes.
there are tactics cards that target naval cards specifically and do one of two things depending on if they are attacking or defending.
i've also built in a couple of cards that are specifically anti-persian in nature. one of them, Betrayal of Alcibiades, is REALLY cool, giving you an instant general as a tactics card. i didn't realize how awesome it was until i started doing my mental interactions simulations. WOW. even though it is a rare card, every deck will want to have one if you are going a coin resource/rush deck.
coin continues to be fun with ancient greece. there is a new marketplace that serves as a permanent place to put your cards that are "resource traders" that stick around longer than the gypsy traders seem to. mycenae trade ship, corinth market, lydian coin merchant and preistesses of delphi hang out and do specific things from the marketplace that other resources do not do. so now you can have four types of cards in your supply pile. Resources, Specialty Resources, Resource Traders and Acts of God.
ALL very cool.
playtesting the greeks with my beta tester group very soon. am excited.
====================
edited the video contest to 2-6 minutes instead of 2-5 minutes.
samsons pintrest page (located bottom left of home page on main site) is picking up some followers. very nice.
samson has also made some suggestions for the aztec deck in the forums here. noted and filed. good ideas.
the aztec deck will be a couple of years away unless my fans start giving me a reason to quit my day job and do this for my real job. hint hint.
tokyo in tulsa free promo cards are done and are pretty powerful. here is a link to those cards.
jomon dogu is such a cool thing that didn't exist in japan after the jomon pottery period that i have included all the cool pictures that i could find. it is the same reference number but since you can have five commons, i figured that it might be fun. yay free art!
acts of God cards continue to fascinate me when i daydream about possible game outcomes. seriously. pretty flipping awesome.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Athens and Sparta Wife Swap
This video is just for fun and in no way represents Empires and Generals.
Friday, June 22, 2012
2012 Summer Video Commercial Contest
Hey all of you crazy fans out there! It's contest time!
Win over 275 Expanded Edition and Act of God Cards!!!
This Summer (or Winter for the Southern Continent fans) it's time for you to make your Empires and Generals Commercial!
Contest Ends on September 1st 12:00AM GMT
Contest Winner Declared Septermber 5th
Here’s how it’s going to work -
Your video must be between 2 minutes and 6 minutes long.
The video must be contain Spoken English or English Subtitles.
The video group must contain no more than 5 people listed as contributors.
You may not retain a professional service for this contest.
No professional service promo or plug may be used in the video.
Each of the contest winners receive -
First Place -
Your Video on the main page of Empires and Generals!
Five never-before-seen Epic and Legendary Cards
The Act of God Expansion
The Complete Expanded Edition Decks
Ancient Greece
Persian Empire
Mauryan Empire
Mighty Carthage
(Over 275 unique cards)
A high five, hug, huzzah and a sloppy kiss
Second Place -
Two never-before-seen Epic and Legendary Cards
The Act of God Expansion
One of our Expanded Edition Decks
A high five, hug and a huzzah!
Third Place -
A never-before-seen Epic and Legendary Card
The Act of God Expansion
One of our Expanded Edition Decks
A high five, and a hug
Honorable Mentions -
The Act of God Expansion
One of our Expanded Edition Decks
A high five
What to include -
Anything and everything you could ever dream of about Empires and Generals. Pick a theme and run with it. There is no set mold or act to follow. It could be inventive, funny, serious, dramatic, crazy, witty, musical, or whatever. Use your brains and make what YOU think would best represent the game.
Some suggestions? No. I won't limit your brain.
How to come up with an idea -
Get Alone. Turn off the TV and turn off the computer. Shut your door and Open your mind.
Get Quiet. Relax. Turn off the part of the brain that yells at you all the time.
Brainstorm. Write down EVERY idea you would EVER have, no matter how crazy.
Eliminate. Take off the ideas that you can't afford or are limited by physics or are illegal.
Finalize. From your smaller list, Pick the idea YOU like the most.
Create. Go forth. Grab a couple of friends and your camcorder.
WIN. This is the easy part. Email it to me and wait.
Details -
One submission per email account.
Eleven prize-winning videos will be selected.
The Judges will be me and my wife, the amazing Jennifer and our trusty beta tester family: Tim, A.J. and David. David can break any ties with his ninjitsu powers.
The winners list will be published on EmpiresandGenerals.tk
Contest is limited to the upper six continents and does not include Antarctica, the Moon, or any Space Station including (but not limited to) Moonraker 5, Watchtower, Ragnarok, Scorpio E-X-1, Space Shuttle Daedalus,Toy Box, R-808 Phoca, SLAMS, Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5 and also does not include any space faring vessel. e.g. SDF-1, Zero-X, UNSC Infinity, Serenity, Galactica, Millennium Falcon or the Enterprise.
In order to be entered into the Contest, Entrants must comply with registration instructions when submitting their Entry. The video must be in one of the following formats: AVI, MOV, WMV, MP4, MPEG, FLV, 3GP, and 3G2 and be under 100MB.
No .pal videos will be accepted.
(My lawyer made me put in everything else below)
The Entry may not contain obscene, lewd or inappropriate images or text including no nudity, acts of violence or acts that appear to cause harm or are illegal/dangerous, as determined in Sponsor's sole discretion.Any Entry Material or portion thereof that is, in the Sponsor's sole discretion, obscene, profane, lewd, defamatory, contains any third party materials (other than Empires and Generals logos/product), or otherwise violates or infringes (or may infringe) any copyright (including music), trademark, logo, mark that identifies a brand or other proprietary right of any person living or deceased (including but not limited to rights of privacy or publicity or portrayal in a false light) or entity, or is otherwise objectionable, will not be considered and may disqualify the Entrant.
Therefore, clothing worn or props/items used in the video should not contain any visible logos (other than Empires and Generals logos), drawings, cartoons, phrases, trademarks or other third-party materials. Entrants may not copy or otherwise plagiarize the Entry Material from any source except Empires and Generals. Sponsor has the sole discretion to determine whether a video qualifies as an Entry.
All Entries must be the sole, original work of the Entrants. By submitting an Entry, Entrant hereby grants the Sponsor, its affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, licensees, designees and legal representatives the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide digital and other rights to use, reproduce, edit, market, store, distribute, have distributed, publicly and privately display, communicate, publicly and privately perform, transmit, have transmitted, create derivative works based upon, and promote the Entries or excerpts of Entries (as such may be edited and modified by the Sponsor in its discretion) for editorial, commercial, promotional and all other purposes (including posting on Sponsor-affiliated websites, Website, television and/or other Sponsor-selected media). In addition, Entrant hereby assigns to the Sponsor all rights, titles, and interests that he/she may be deemed to have in any reproduction, product, or derivative work using or incorporating the Entry. Entrant further agrees to waive any moral rights in the Entry.
Automated, script, macro or robotic Entries submitted by individuals or organizations will be disqualified. If, in Sponsor's sole discretion, the Entry appears to have resulted in any injury or bodily harm, it will be rejected. Entries must be in keeping with Sponsor's image and may not be offensive, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, nor can it defame or infringe the copyrights, publicity rights or privacy rights of any person, living or deceased, or otherwise infringe upon any person's personal or proprietary rights. In such an event, will be disqualified from the Contest. Submitted Entries (or portions thereof) may be posted on the Website after they have been screened.
Any Entry deemed inappropriate or unsuitable or in bad taste, in Sponsor's sole discretion will be disqualified and may be removed from the Website at any time. Any Entry not in compliance with the above and which does not meet the requirements of these Official Rules and those of the Website will be disqualified. Videos must be in keeping with Sponsor's image and may not be offensive, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. In such an event, the video will not be posted online and will be disqualified from the Contest. All Entries submitted become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. No information regarding Entries or judging, other than as otherwise set forth in the Official Rules will be disclosed.
Release -
Release: You represent and warrant that: (i) all rights to the video belong to and are original to you, or you have written consent to use, and the video do not and shall not infringe on any copyright or any other third party right nor violate any applicable law or regulation, (ii) you have the right to grant any and all necessary rights and licenses provided herein, including without limitation, all necessary copyright and other related rights to the video, free and clear of all claims and encumbrances without violating the rights of any person or entity, including any right to privacy or publicity, (iii) you (and all those depicted in your video) hereby hold the Sponsor harmless from and against any third party claim arising from use of the video and you waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the video or to be compensated for any such uses. Participating in the Contest constitutes permission to the Sponsor and its agencies to use Entrants' names, biographical information, pictures/portraits, likenesses and/or voices, video, for purposes of advertising and trade without further compensation, unless prohibited by law. By participating in the Contest, the Entrant agrees that Sponsor, its respective parent, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, agents, retailers, advertising and promotion agencies, and all of their respective shareholders, officers, directors, employees and assigns, members, representatives and agents, will have no liability whatsoever for, and will be held harmless by entrant for any liability for any bodily injury, loss or damages of any kind to persons, including death, and property, due in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from Entry creation, the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prize, if applicable or participation in the Contest or participation in any contest or related activity. You hereby represent and warrant that you have read these Official Rules and are fully familiar with its contents.
Empires and Generals is Copyrighted and Trademarked by Pauly Hart.
Licence?
Talking to some blokes in the UK about getting the game licenced. This might be interesting. Will have to look at the contracts.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
6/21/12 and notes on alexander the great
finished jomom period ancient japan cards for tokyo in tulsa demonstration
worked a bit on the large list of empires.
ancient japan will appear in the warlord edition.
here is the brief list so far for antiquity.
after antiquity i plan on making medieval decks.
*i have received some criticism in releasing the macedonian deck so late. the thought here is that we needed to establish someone for alexander the great to fight. we know that his kingdom is the culmination of the ancient greeks and persians so i could not release them in the same edition. and he thought about fighting carthage, but didn't really like navys at all, he thought little of rome and maurya was who he never defeated...
so you could really say that every deck in the expanded edition ties in with his deck.
it will be worth the wait.
worked a bit on the large list of empires.
ancient japan will appear in the warlord edition.
here is the brief list so far for antiquity.
after antiquity i plan on making medieval decks.
The Ancient World |
Family Edition |
The Huns |
Republic of Rome |
Egyptian Empire |
Ancient China |
Expanded Edition |
Ancient Greece |
Carthage |
Persian Empire |
Maurya |
Warlord Edition |
Macedonia* |
Silla |
Ancient Japan |
Sythia |
Mesopotamian Edition |
Assyria |
Hebrew |
Hittite |
Babylon |
*i have received some criticism in releasing the macedonian deck so late. the thought here is that we needed to establish someone for alexander the great to fight. we know that his kingdom is the culmination of the ancient greeks and persians so i could not release them in the same edition. and he thought about fighting carthage, but didn't really like navys at all, he thought little of rome and maurya was who he never defeated...
so you could really say that every deck in the expanded edition ties in with his deck.
it will be worth the wait.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Important decision on the use of coinage
The decision I made involving the Expanded Edition on the use of coinage has haunted me for months. I can't shake the feeling that since so many of us use Currency* today instead of actual Money*, we do not understand what the applications are truly of coin.
So I was going to go ahead and add two more resources to this edition to have a more even spread of resources per empire usage, but I am going to be adding nine instead, the middle one being coin.
Coin will not be able to be used all of the time but each deck (Maurya, Carthage, Persia and Greece) will have one specific coin trader within each deck.
Ancient Greece will use the inventor of western coin, Lydia as their specific coin card: "Lydian Coin Merchant". It is called a merchant but not an exchanger because the idea is that Money is not exchanged, but Currency is. The idea for currency exchange did not come until much later around the time of Christ.
To take a quick side-trail here: I find it interesting that the only time Jesus Christ used anger and force in His ministry is twice at the temple in Jerusalam, once in the beginning of His ministry and once at the end (most people only think it happened the one time), where He drove out the money exchangers for using a leveraged system of currency exchange. The only temple tithe one could pay to be a devout Israelite then was the "Temple Coin" (which they held a monopoly on) due to the law that you could not have graven images given to YHWH. So Christ was all pissed off and called them thieves. Lovely.
So we won't be monopolizing the coinage use in Empires and Generals and I believe it will be a quite fair system of exchange on a 3:1 value.
Three of any one resource gets you one coin. One coin can buy any resource.
If it were a 2:1 ratio, I do not believe that it would be a fair game if you decided NOT to use coin and then things would be unbalanced.
And one of the game mechanics calls for a slight bend/twist in history, where everyone had a fair shot and things were fair across the board in every culture and every continent. For the MOST part. Obviously the game is not meant to show racially supremacy but racial exclusiveness and racial diversity and achievement.
Wow, I just sat down to write a few words.
Aren't you happy you read this?
-Pauly
*Where historically Money is a value of the rare and precious metals you have on deposit in the form of equal value receipts and Currency is the receipts for supposed money or whatever the market will bear as supposed monies.
So I was going to go ahead and add two more resources to this edition to have a more even spread of resources per empire usage, but I am going to be adding nine instead, the middle one being coin.
Coin will not be able to be used all of the time but each deck (Maurya, Carthage, Persia and Greece) will have one specific coin trader within each deck.
Ancient Greece will use the inventor of western coin, Lydia as their specific coin card: "Lydian Coin Merchant". It is called a merchant but not an exchanger because the idea is that Money is not exchanged, but Currency is. The idea for currency exchange did not come until much later around the time of Christ.
To take a quick side-trail here: I find it interesting that the only time Jesus Christ used anger and force in His ministry is twice at the temple in Jerusalam, once in the beginning of His ministry and once at the end (most people only think it happened the one time), where He drove out the money exchangers for using a leveraged system of currency exchange. The only temple tithe one could pay to be a devout Israelite then was the "Temple Coin" (which they held a monopoly on) due to the law that you could not have graven images given to YHWH. So Christ was all pissed off and called them thieves. Lovely.
So we won't be monopolizing the coinage use in Empires and Generals and I believe it will be a quite fair system of exchange on a 3:1 value.
Three of any one resource gets you one coin. One coin can buy any resource.
If it were a 2:1 ratio, I do not believe that it would be a fair game if you decided NOT to use coin and then things would be unbalanced.
And one of the game mechanics calls for a slight bend/twist in history, where everyone had a fair shot and things were fair across the board in every culture and every continent. For the MOST part. Obviously the game is not meant to show racially supremacy but racial exclusiveness and racial diversity and achievement.
Wow, I just sat down to write a few words.
Aren't you happy you read this?
-Pauly
*Where historically Money is a value of the rare and precious metals you have on deposit in the form of equal value receipts and Currency is the receipts for supposed money or whatever the market will bear as supposed monies.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Mobile site now live
heya. http://m.empiresandgenerals.com/ is now live.
not all the cards are on it, just enough to tease.
not all the cards are on it, just enough to tease.
Avalanche Act of God Promo Card
Hey there kids!
People have been telling me what cool cards the Act of God Expansion is.
So I figured everyone should have a shot to try it out for themselves.
With God in play, things always take a dramatic turn for the worse... or better.
Here is a free card for you to play with:
Facts about the AOG cards:
* Ultra Rare
* Devastating
* Unpredictable
* Played from the Supply Line
*Can be played in any Game Version
Make sure to check out the rules for the Act of God Card in the Forums at http://empiresandgeneralsccg.forumer.com/act-of-god-theme-expansion-t1224162.html
This free card also comes complete with a spammy ad! Huzzah!
Order your entire Expansion today at http://www.etsy.com/shop/EmpiresandGenerals
People have been telling me what cool cards the Act of God Expansion is.
So I figured everyone should have a shot to try it out for themselves.
With God in play, things always take a dramatic turn for the worse... or better.
Here is a free card for you to play with:
Facts about the AOG cards:
* Ultra Rare
* Devastating
* Unpredictable
* Played from the Supply Line
*Can be played in any Game Version
Make sure to check out the rules for the Act of God Card in the Forums at http://empiresandgeneralsccg.forumer.com/act-of-god-theme-expansion-t1224162.html
This free card also comes complete with a spammy ad! Huzzah!
Order your entire Expansion today at http://www.etsy.com/shop/EmpiresandGenerals
6/17/12
fixed mark anthony to better explain what's going on with his card.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Samson's Desk.
Notes from the desk of Samson:
June 17th -
1) Buhen fortress is the most strongest defense card in te game which has caused stalemates in a few games I've played. You could use this to defend your camp while your warriors go off to war or you could just make a bunch of these and get victory points to win
2) Doing a stone deck with the greatwall of china,semna fortress,city walls, and a bunch of snefru would make a great deck.
3) Flooding cycle could save you from being defeated by a opponant with any deck realy but this makes the perfect anti high costing card, now combine this with coliseam games and hun warrior cards and you have a pretty good combo.
4) Police is one of my new favorite cards think about it how many soldiers in this game have more health then strength? Only 15 or 14 cards! This would be perfect for the stone fortress deck.
Tax farming plus Equite (the highest costing soldier in the game) would generate more salt and stone than any resource card avilable at the moment per turn. Of course this has risks and benefits, your oppanant wont be able to steal him away like a recourse card but cards like Qin Shi Huang could kill him.
=================================
Saturday, June 16, 2012
comments
eventually, all of the 20 places that i answer questions will wear me out.
please go to the forum if you need help!
thanks!
please go to the forum if you need help!
thanks!
6/16/12
added police to card fixes. added the words "in play" to not provide any more confusion about this crazy awesome card.
You can find the thread about that in the forums here
added a new banner at the top of the main site for downloads cause opera browser still gives me fits with html5. YAR opera!
added info on act of God expansion on the front page as well. you can find that all of that information here or on the new button on the front page.
also added a poll on the facebook group that you can check out
hope your empires are succeeding in all that you do.
may you all have a wonderful day!
You can find the thread about that in the forums here
added a new banner at the top of the main site for downloads cause opera browser still gives me fits with html5. YAR opera!
added info on act of God expansion on the front page as well. you can find that all of that information here or on the new button on the front page.
also added a poll on the facebook group that you can check out
hope your empires are succeeding in all that you do.
may you all have a wonderful day!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Pauly and Tiger talk about the rules.
REPOSTED FROM THE FORUMS (cause forums are cool like that)
=====================
hey tigermisu,
great questions! i might repost this whole convo to the blog.
but in order to answer correctly, and to do your hard work any justice, let me break it all down and respond bit by bit.
-----------------------------
Tiger - If I have a 4/8 unit, my opponent has a 7/7 unit, this ends in a double block. Do the units "lose" life and end up with 4/1 - 7/3?
Pauly - At the end of the day, the 4/8 unit and the 7/3 unit are still alive and unscathed and stays where they are. the trick is to not have to keep count with pencil and paper. they can "catch their breath" or "apply bandages" and be ok next turn. this was one of the real life things i had to nerf in order to feed game mechanics.
-----------------------------
Tiger - My warcamp gets attacked and my unit dies, I lose one cultural point, does this cultural point go to the life of the attacker?
Pauly - ok so you've lost a point in your warcamp. this affects YOU only. no one gains from your loss... no vampires in the game... just like in real life. the only way i would make a card like that would be like a "spy" card and i haven't made any of those.
i may come up also with "spoils of war" type of stuff and they get to steal something from you... but not yet.
-----------------------------
Tiger - Let's say he bands a light archer 6/1, a hun unit 5/3 and a tripple ballista 9/3 in his 0/12 fortress. What would be the total stats of the fortress? We thought it would be 20/19, but at some point it reaches so many cards it seems impossible to take!
Pauly - aha! common mistake... no worries. ok... it would be a THREE/TWELVE because there are only THREE cards in the fortress. even samson is treated as a +1 attack when encamped.
the thought here is that even though they may be awesome outside the walls, inside they are just another archer or a guy with a rock.
-----------------------------
Tiger -If we got the fortress/banding idea wrong, how does it actually work? What if we have a 4/2, 3/1 and 4/8 unit banded and they get attacked with a guy with 10/3, one with 5/5 or one with 15/15? what different results would that net?
Pauly -
a) 10/3 - ok so your three dudes are up in the semna fortress sipping coffee and bang bang bang goes the door. they look out and it's a 10/3 dude. they all shoot... he blocks their shots but still can't break the door down. (10/3 vs. 3/12 = double block)
b) 5/5 - they sit back down and wouldn't you know it, on the next turn a 5/5 guy walks up and starts pounding on the castle. they shoot at him, laugh and everyone walks away with another harmless war story. (5/5 vs. 3/12 = double block)
c) 15/15 well it was all fun and games until the horsemen platoon got wind of this debacle. they run down the gate, smash the fortress and slaughter them all, then set fire to the bricks (15/15 vs. 3/12 = attacker wins. unit is discarded)*
here is the sad truth about fortresses... you are at the mercy of it's walls health. there is no life inside a breached castle. we've all seen what happened at helms deep. LOL. wait. no gandalf in this game.
-----------------------------
Tiger - Now let's say we want to unband units from eachother/from a fortress, can we do this in our army phase freely, or do we need a special card?
Pauly - Treat fortresses as warcamps. move around wherever you want in army phase
-----------------------------
Tiger - If we use an instant effect tactic card, can it get discarded and get to use another one in the same turn? can we discard cards from our hand directly into our pile if we find them useless? what about discarding kingdom/soldiers already in play?
Pauly - you can play ten tactics cards in a turn as far as i'm concerned. a hundred if you can pull it off legally. whatever tactics card is played - BOOM! it happens. if you lay another on top of that one, then the NEW card is trumping the old card.... and so on.
ok discarding cards happens during resolve phase. i think i should spell that out in the rules more. yes you can discard your whole hand if you want to.
discarding stuff from the field of play happens in each phase. you can discard your supply line during harvest phase (why God why?), you can discard your strategy and kingdom during kingdom phase and you can discard your warcamp and battlefield during army phase.
-----------------------------
Tiger - Finally, the Julian Calendar ultra-rare, it makes it your turn inmediately, however, how can I toggle it when it's not my turn? Can I halt an opponent's turn when he hasn't finished? Does the rotation resume clockwise or it continues on where I broke it?
pauly - i tend to play this card right before someone i want to lose is getting ready to play. that is why it is ultra rare. it's like the evil skip-bo card.
remember...YOU CAN PLAY TACTICS CARDS WHENEVER THE HECK YOU FEEL LIKE. when it is a three man game with me, david and a.j. sometimes i will just long range barrage david when he is walking over to attack a.j. cause i feel like it. it's the coolest part about tactics cards. you can interrupt someone when it's not your turn.
-----------------------------
thanks tiger! great questions! i will now have to go retype a bunch of stuff. hehe. it's great that you guys had fun! you should record your next game and put it on youtube and post the link in here!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Fan art? YES.
Fan Art Cards.
We need them. We love them. You make them.
WHAT are you waiting for.
Here is where you need to go to learn more about putting your art on a card.
In the mean time, I will be redoing some of the old cards that our one artist, Francis Hilow, has given us the art for.
We need them. We love them. You make them.
WHAT are you waiting for.
Here is where you need to go to learn more about putting your art on a card.
In the mean time, I will be redoing some of the old cards that our one artist, Francis Hilow, has given us the art for.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Ancient Greece Temp Card List
Here is the temporary list of cards to be released with the release of the Ancient Greece Deck for the first installment of the Expanded Edition.
Generals
1 Pericles
2 Xenophon
3 Leonidas
4 Themistocles
5 Epaminondas
6 Pyrrhus of Epirus
Philosophers (act as Generals)
1 Plato
2 Aristotle
3 Euclid
4 Archimedes
5 Pythagoras
6 Socrates
Soldiers
1 Athens Survey Team
2 Athens City Planner
3 Athens Cartographer
4 Athens Scout Ship
5 Athens Trireme
1 Spartan Hoplite
2 Spartan Agoge Youth
3 Spartan Veteran Soldier
4 Spartan Commander
5 Spartan Helot
1 Corinthian Gastraphetes
2 Cargo Vessel
3 Scythian Mercenary
4 Marine Hoplite
5 Full Citizen
Strategy
1 Morality of Aesop
2 Moderation of Epicurius
3 Lore of Demosthenes
4 Trigometry of Hipparchus
5 Medicine of Hippocrates
6 Myth of Homer
7 Laws of Draco
8 Reformation of Solon
9 Art of Phidias
Kingdom
1 Fiction writing
2 City-State
3 The Olympiad
4 Democracy
5 Advanced Mathematics
6 The Parthenon
7 Mass Colonization
8 Colossus at Rhodes
Tactics
1 Antikythera Mechanism
2 Betrayal of Alcibiades
3 Persian Rebuttal
4 Laurion Confrontation
1 Diekplous Maneuver (ships only)
2 Periplous Maneuver (ships only)
3 Ideals of Athens*(+Athens)
4 Ideals of Sparta* (+Sparta)
5 Peloponnesian Warfront* (+Sparta)
6 Delian League* (+Athens)
Resources
Locris
Phocis
Aetolia
Boeotia
Thessaly
Epirus
Peloponnese
Resource Types
Clay
Honey Wine
Sheep
You can pre-order the deck here
Ancient Greece
Generals
1 Pericles
2 Xenophon
3 Leonidas
4 Themistocles
5 Epaminondas
6 Pyrrhus of Epirus
Philosophers (act as Generals)
1 Plato
2 Aristotle
3 Euclid
4 Archimedes
5 Pythagoras
6 Socrates
Soldiers
1 Athens Survey Team
2 Athens City Planner
3 Athens Cartographer
4 Athens Scout Ship
5 Athens Trireme
1 Spartan Hoplite
2 Spartan Agoge Youth
3 Spartan Veteran Soldier
4 Spartan Commander
5 Spartan Helot
1 Corinthian Gastraphetes
2 Cargo Vessel
3 Scythian Mercenary
4 Marine Hoplite
5 Full Citizen
Strategy
1 Morality of Aesop
2 Moderation of Epicurius
3 Lore of Demosthenes
4 Trigometry of Hipparchus
5 Medicine of Hippocrates
6 Myth of Homer
7 Laws of Draco
8 Reformation of Solon
9 Art of Phidias
Kingdom
1 Fiction writing
2 City-State
3 The Olympiad
4 Democracy
5 Advanced Mathematics
6 The Parthenon
7 Mass Colonization
8 Colossus at Rhodes
Tactics
1 Antikythera Mechanism
2 Betrayal of Alcibiades
3 Persian Rebuttal
4 Laurion Confrontation
1 Diekplous Maneuver (ships only)
2 Periplous Maneuver (ships only)
3 Ideals of Athens*(+Athens)
4 Ideals of Sparta* (+Sparta)
5 Peloponnesian Warfront* (+Sparta)
6 Delian League* (+Athens)
Resources
Locris
Phocis
Aetolia
Boeotia
Thessaly
Epirus
Peloponnese
Resource Types
Clay
Honey Wine
Sheep
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
6/12/12
card shop and t-shirt shop are now live on the site.
acts of God cards are done and live.
pre-order spelled correctly on site.
what's a preorder?
Some more minor fixes to wording in the rules.
hey there kids!
fixing stuff again!
there still seems to be some confusion on the game with army phase and attack phase. since i am a bit of a wacko, i will go ahead and blame it on myself and not paying enough attention to detail.
ok in a turn based strategy system you have several things going on. since the scope of E&G is soooo big, i had to tame down or slow down time for the battle sequences and speed up time for the kingdom progression. obviously you cannot build the wall in the time it takes for one bushel of food to get from the hometown to the battlefront.
so we have to take things one step at a time where our fighting boys are concerned.
here it is in a nutshell:
----------------------------------------------------------
during army phase... every card one moves
during attack phase... one card attacks
----------------------------------------------------------
pretty simple. sorry again for not being specific enough. i just rewrote the whole thing about attack phase. also, i took off "one inch" because no one in my country taught me the metric system.
ENJOY!
-pauly
Army Phase
5) You may move any soldiers to or from Battlefield to Warcamp. Cards in Battlefield do not have to attack, they can remain dormant. Once the turn moves on past the Army Phase, you may not move units.
----------------
Attack Phase
1) You must have a General in play to place a unit in Battlefield, unless otherwise stated.
2) Choose one available Soldier card or General Card or unit in Battlefield to attack with. The unit must be a single card or a group of cards banded or equipped together. You may attack with only one unit per turn.
3) Present your unit to attack. Push the attacking card forward a bit towards your opponent that you have chosen to attack to show the attack. State your attack.
4) Defender may choose who blocks the attack, unless stated otherwise.
5) Defender player pushes forward defending unit.
6) Use the Attack Resolution Card to determine outcome of attack.
Note: Attack is not Counter-Attack. Every Blocking/Defending Unit is Counter attacking while they are also Blocking/Defending. At the left you see that Julius Caesar is Counter attacking Samson with an 8 against Samson's Life of 2. In this instance, no matter who initiated the attack, they are both dead and discarded.
New decks now on sale!
ok so here it is! the ACT OF GOD thematic expansion is NOW ON SALE! go here https://www.etsy.com/listing/101942944/empires-and-generals-acts-of-god-theme to visit the store, or go to empiresandgenerals.com to see the whole ad. you may also pre-order the ancient greece deck. it ships out august first! woohoo! just in time for chinas corn-harvest! wait. i don't think that china can get on facebook. no matter. you should buy stuff anyway. silly chinese governements!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Rules Clarifications
I have added three items to the rules.
Item 1) It does not matter what "Empires" your deck is comprised of. You may "Mix and Match".
Item 2) Card Mechanics
Shuffle your cards
Let the person on the left cut
Draw seven cards (You can draw x amount from playing deck and y amount from supply as long as x+y=7)
Item 3) Army Phase
...
5) You may move any soldiers to or from Battlefield to Warcamp. Cards in Battlefield do not have to attack, they can remain dormant.
Thanks to Will, the Lucky Lizard for the catch!
Item 1) It does not matter what "Empires" your deck is comprised of. You may "Mix and Match".
Item 2) Card Mechanics
Shuffle your cards
Let the person on the left cut
Draw seven cards (You can draw x amount from playing deck and y amount from supply as long as x+y=7)
Item 3) Army Phase
...
5) You may move any soldiers to or from Battlefield to Warcamp. Cards in Battlefield do not have to attack, they can remain dormant.
Thanks to Will, the Lucky Lizard for the catch!
mailing list
Stop by http://www.empiresandgenerals.com/#!OtherStuff/component_14113 and leave a comment to sign up for the mailing list. i will be sending out the newest never-to-be-released-to-the-public card to you at the beginning of july.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Pull
Changed Pull to also include abilities usage.
Pull - Fatigue or Penalty from creature coming from Hand into Battlefield or War Camp. Typically this affects only Soldiers. Soldiers may not attack or use abilities the turn that they come into play.
http://empiresandgenerals.wikia.com/wiki/Glossary
Pull - Fatigue or Penalty from creature coming from Hand into Battlefield or War Camp. Typically this affects only Soldiers. Soldiers may not attack or use abilities the turn that they come into play.
http://empiresandgenerals.wikia.com/wiki/Glossary
Pauly's Huns Horde Deck
Somebody might enjoy this...
Built with The Huns only
I hope some of you start adding to the wiki and forums with all of your decks.
Outer Mongolia - 3
Caspian Sea - 5
Gobi Desert - 5
Samson - 1
Reflex Bow Shot - 1
Terror of the Steppes - 5
Long Range Barrage - 5
Xiongnu Heritage - 5
Attila - 5
Hun Warrior - 20
Have fun!
-Pauly
Built with The Huns only
I hope some of you start adding to the wiki and forums with all of your decks.
Outer Mongolia - 3
Caspian Sea - 5
Gobi Desert - 5
Samson - 1
Reflex Bow Shot - 1
Terror of the Steppes - 5
Long Range Barrage - 5
Xiongnu Heritage - 5
Attila - 5
Hun Warrior - 20
Have fun!
-Pauly
Saturday, June 2, 2012
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