Re: Olympia G2

From: morrow@newton.crisp.net (John Morrow)

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000

jhalpern@newbridge.com (Joel Halpern) writes:
>I saw the recent notice of the start of Olympia G2.
>This looks interesting, and I have a number of questions.

>1) It looks like it would be very helpful to have the assistance of an
>     experienced player in understanding the implications of some of the early
>     choices.

You will get an initial report for the city you start in.  Use the
"diplomatic email forwarding service" to contact the other players you
are starting with and ask them questions and look for allies that way.
Most players are at least cordial and some will be quite helpful.  As
a word of warning, some players can and have preyed on beginners.
Don't do anything that will leave you too vulnerable to exermination
until you know who you can trust (e.g. getting on a ferry ship without
a significant amount of proof that it is legit can be a fatal mistake).
The diplomatic sub-game is one of the main attractions of Oly for some
people and even a weak faction can be diplomatically active.

>3) It looks like the early game will go slowly, but be interesting.

Not really.  I've already figured out a scenerio where 2 players could
have a ship in the water and set sail before the end of turn one.
That is probably a bit too quick and reckless for most (neither player
would perform the traditional FORMs during turn 1) but it can be done.
There are plenty of options.  I suspect that a few Oly I alliances
will reform and so will a few new ones.  Some interesting political
situations should start to crystalize by the second or third Oly year,
especially if people start dropping castles near the starting cities.

>More detailed, somewhat hypothetical questions:
>1) If one is focussing on magic, one probably wants to save some NPs
>   to use for learning additional magical skills

A single player can usually afford to develop a single mage, though
other options are certainly possible.  But remember that it takes time
to learn those skills and research and you'll be getting another NP
each Oly year that you can use later.  I wouldn't worry about it too
much.

Also, you might want to OATH your nobles, at least your important ones.
Otherwise you have to pay gold each month to keep them and if you even
accidentally forget that little detail, you can lose the noble (I know
I did once) and they are tough to get back.  You can also lose them
more easily to persuasion attempts.  If you don't OATH, you can support
more nobles but it is more risky.  Getting a noble to OATH-1 costs an
NP so each new OATH-1 noble costs a total of 2NP..

>2) Again on magic, to advance far one will have to build/enter a tower

Yup.  And not just in cities.

>3) No matter what you are doing having someone who can do some exploration
>    is likely to be helpful.

Yes.  Allies and diplomatic mail can help here.  There is generally
some sort of public map that someone will compile (G1 had an atlas)
and most alliances will have their own private maps that they may or
may not be willing to share.  The normal method of mapping is to use a
terrain's letter to code the location, small for a basic location and
capitalized if there is a city there.  Oceans are often indicated with
tildes (~).  For example:

~~~fm
~~Fff
~~~pp
~~~~P

Start your own maps as soon as possible.

>4) There are enough different useful noble skills that it probably pays to
>   A) Have several nobles
>   B) Have several players working together

Again, it seems to me that most players tend to have about 5 or 6
nobles -- maybe more if they aren't OATHed.  Many players also seem to
have at least a few allies.  In G1, before I was exterminated during
an ill-fated attempt at attacking some people in Faery, I was allied
with a single other player (who didn't even have all of their nobles
with mine) and we were doing OK.  Another single player was able to
develop a castle and holdings not far from Imperial City (often simply
IC), though he eventually came under diplomatic pressure from his
neighbors.  There is no "right size".

>Comments and opinions are welcome.  This looks like an interesting game.

Pick a goal and go for it.  Some possible goals:

o  Build up a holding close to a starting city -- travel overland for
   a few turns until you hit some mountains and woods near a city and
   start building.

o  Build up a holding far from the starting cities -- build a ship and
   start sailing.  When you find a city on a nice looking continent,
   start building.  Note that fellow travellers are often also looking
   for an empty place to settle so that notifying others that you are
   settling an area can sometimes discourage other settlers but it also
   lets people know where you are and what your intents are.

o  Exploration -- build a ship and start sailing.  A reasonably sized
   crew  *can* survive quite well on fishing income, BTW, if you find
   some coastal cities and do the "coastal crawl" (i.e. take advantage
   of the fact that moving along a coast is faster than at sea).  One
   could make quite a name for themselves providing public maps and
   such this way.  Alternately, look for the entry points into the
   other lands.

o  Dungeon Looting -- either build a ship or start walking and look for
   lairs.  Get wealth and glory killing monsters and explore while you
   are at it.  Beastmastery is a necessity here, as is a good combat
   simulation program so you know what your growing army can or can't
   beat.

o  Conquest and Player Attacks -- not recommended for the beginner.
   Likely to bring about a negative reaction from those around you.
   Nothing polarizes the other players to group together more than
   a good threat -- unless it is so good that it looks undefeatable.
   Then everyone just runs.

o  Learning -- Build a tower and start studying.  It is probably best
   to ally with another player building up a holding -- or build one up
   yourself -- so that you can have a safe place for you to study and
   work.

o  Discover the Strange Lands -- do your best to gain entry into Hades,
   Faery, the Cloudlands, etc.  This requires that you talk to some
   experience players and do your homework but there is some prestige
   and power to entering and mastering those places.

If you can, find some allies with the same goals.  If you can't, going
it alone is certainly an option though being absent for a week or two
is more risky without allies to watch your back.  Splitting up your
own faction between multiple goals will probably make it difficult to
achieve them though you could do so if you divided your forces among
allies with different goals.

Remember that information is powerful.  You can get some prestige and
points as a "good guy" buy giving it away but you also will lose the
ability to actively use it to bargain with others.  But providing
people with turn reports of what you've seen is often a good way to
build or cement an alliance -- even an informal one.  Just do your
best to control what information you give out -- especially about
yourself.  And verify the information you get when you can.

Hope this helps,

John Morrow

References

Olympia G2
jhalpern@newbridge.com (Joel Halpern)
Thu, 30 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Olympia G2
jhalpern@newbridge.com (Joel Halpern)
Thu, 30 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000