A Hobbit’s Memoirs
Let me start by saying thank you to all who participated in this grand adventure. Most of all thank you to Mike, whose Haven map and rules were the focus of this game.
I would like to open a few ideas for discussion. First, I would like to talk about a hidden map game communication. Then I will explore the success of the MMA. Finally I will offer my opinions.
I may have taken advantage of the rules of this FOW game, but I am not convinced that it made a better game. I now am completely convinced that with a hidden map, should come hidden players, and here is why. At the outset I asked if we were really allowed to talk to the other players in the game even if we had yet to meet them in the world. The answer was yes. So I did. So did some others. I believe some stayed to a more “realistic†view of only talking to those they had met, which I am afraid, may have placed them at a disadvantage. I figured, since I can talk to anyone, and we are allowed to trade information, why not set up a small group of players who would pool their collective vision to see more of the world. Sure this would reduce the excitement of individual exploration, but the knowledge gained would surely be greater. Well after some exchanges of emails, I had a group of 6 to include myself eagerly awaiting our first maps. Thus the MMA knew of 18 SC at game start. We didn’t at first know our exact position in relation to the others, but by comparing boarders of unknown land and sea zones, we quickly had a pretty good idea of where we were. Through other short term alliances, we had gained enough map fragments to map the entire Haven world by May! Yes this knowledge was one major element for our success, but I think it greatly unbalanced the game as a whole.
Stemming from what I saw as an exploitable advantage in map knowledge, the Map Makers Alliance was formed. I was new to diplomaticcorp and feared entering a large game with players who would likely have played other games together. (An assumption that turned out to be a bit misguided.) So coming off an excellent first game and entering The Haven with one other player from my first game, I quickly contacted Greg (Nomads) to see if we could work together. He was very receptive to the idea, and I thought why not look for another player. I had talked with Mikeal (Rouges) just briefly at the very start of the game, as I did notice that he was a veteran of diplomaccorp, and I figured I would gauge his interest. He was interested, but cautious. So with maybe three of us, I thought I would try for maybe a quarter of the players. But how to choose? Here is the really dumb luck part. My first ally was red. I was orange. Mikeal was pink. Hmmm….what do I get if I look for races with some degree of red in their color? Well I add, Wizards and Magicians. That is five, but with a game that includes Dwarves, I like others guessed that some sort of underground tunnels would exist, so despite being red pigmentedly challenged, I contacted the Dwarves. (That may have been the MMA’s greatest stroke of luck due to Georg’s amazing mapping and his website where he updated and compiled all our maps each turn). The details of all our emails between us is somewhat lost in my memory, but I do recall having the hardest time with the darn Dwarves. Typical of their race they stubbornly tried to keep the underground secret. In an effort to create a lasting alliance I even wrote a set of “laws†that we all agreed to abide by. Sure anyone could have said screw that, but it didn’t happen! (whew!) While I am not really sure if everyone was on board by the time the game started, I would say that by the end of year 1 we were all pretty much on the way to a very successful game.
Now for my opinion on a few things. I think Haven has too much water. Just my opinion, but I like to have the differences between navies and armies a little more defined. I think the special abilities were an interesting addition, but as we were warned at the start, they may need some tweaks. Some of the abilities were great in the FOW game, but would be nearly useless in a regular game, so if Haven is to be played that way, keep that in mind. I really liked the success of the MMA, but I would offer that we shouldn’t have been allowed to contact each other. Finally I want to say I am sorry to the Pirates. They really didn’t have much of a chance with Greg and I playing him like we did. Partly it was just because it was early in the game and everyone had limited knowledge, and partly because we fed him so much misinformation, anyway, I just felt really bad. As a side note, the fact that 6 of us were not attacking each other, sometimes left us with limited choices as to who we could attack. The Pirates fell squarely between me and the Nomads.
Well, thank you for reading my ramblings, and enjoy one last Hobbit Feast!!!
DaveE
