Redacted

[Kalin]

Screenshots are tricky to procure, and it would not do to reveal sensitive information.

Nevertheless, here are some partially censored ones:

Los Aztecha, Capital of Vera Cruz and High Seat of the Most Righteous Hazat. Note the ultra-modern industry and super-lucrative mining complex.

Also, allied Inquisitors now guard the Cathedral against Patriarchal heresy. Praise be!

The task force of the misguided Patriarch, currently blockading and preparing to bombard Sutek.

They may look strong, but do not be deceived, they are no match for the mighty Hazat!






WE WILL SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!

Current standing of the Houses: Decados is in the lead, shortly followed by Hawkwood and Li Halan.

Al Malik and Hazat are lagging behind, but are doing quite well tech-wise. Hawkwood have the worst tech but the strongest army.

 

[Azira]

 

[Absalom]

Yeah i'll get around to posting screenshots later

Its difficult with sensitive info everywhere tho

 

[Kalin]

News from beyond the frontier tell of widespread carnage on Absolution, the water-world which was recently abandoned to the Symbiot scourge. We can but only pray that whatever colonists remain will hold out against the demonic onslaught.

On Holy Terra, meanwhile, the cowardly Patriarchy sends a massive force to butcher the noble Prince Trayvon Odhiambo Martin, beloved cousin of his Supreme Majesty.

Billions of voices cry out in pain and indignation at this unspeakable atrocity, demanding justice and retribution!

The evil crusade against us continues, claiming the lives of three additional Hazat nobles:

• On Tethys, a cowardly and tricksy attack led by Brother Battle mercenaries claimed the life of a leading member of the Dulcineas branch of the Hazat. Church casualties were obviously enormous.
  
• On Artemis, another of our brethren was killed in battle facing overwhelming odds, though not before taking down thousands upon thousands of enemies thanks to his superior congoid fighting skills.
  
• On Penteteuch, Sir Phelot Jamal Kony sacrificed himself for the glory of the Hazat cause, bravely leading his vastly outnumbered garrison against the enemy, crushing several legions and even destroying a Patriarchal transport ship in the process.

Of course, all of these losses, which in truth were tactical victories for the Hazat, are nothing compared to those suffered by the Patriarchal host:

• On Cadiz, our garrison bravely destroyed an enemy incursion, and on Severus, the Decados home-world, our holdings were successfully defended against assault-landed Brother Battle units, all of which were utterly destroyed!
  
• Another Patriarchal incursion on Aragon was similarly squashed, with only minor casualties among the easily-replaced militia. Justice for Trayvon!
  
• Finally, the Church holdings on Vril-Ya have been liberated by the Hazat. All food supplies stockpiled by the greedy Patriarch have been sold to the Merchant League re-distributed to reach the poor and needy. All hail his most generous Highness!

Finally, the Orthodox monastery on Vera Cruz has mobilised its forces, which are now heading south towards Hazat settlements. A vast army marches north to counter them, including the famous Dervish Legions and several units of brand new Gene-Warriors, skillfully crafted using recovered and entirely wholesome Second Republic technology. Meanwhile, the mighty Hazat Navy rains down destruction upon the Patriarchal host from above. Total victory is inevitable!

In regards to diplomacy, representatives of His Highness have been seen all around Byzantium Secundus, engaging in negotiations with every major House of note. It has been confirmed that technological advances have been both sold and traded with several parties.

Surprisingly, the Hazat recently rejected an offer regarding the Regency elections made by House Hawkwood. According to court officials, the Hazat have instead pledged their support to a third, as of yet unnamed party, so as to best aid the reconstruction of Imperial authority over the Known Worlds.

 

[Kalin]

Peace in our time!

As of the year 4962 AD, His Holiness the Patriarch and His Royal Majesty have signed an agreement of cessation of hostilities. Poorly trained Church troops are no doubt relieved to no longer face the hardened killing-machines that make up the mighty Hazat host.

In related news, the Aragon Metropolitan See, now under permanent Hazat supervision, has received a most holy miracle: scholars have unearthed both the Foot of St. Ignatius and the Lamp of Knowledge, two powerful artifacts previously thought to have been lost forever. Such majestic blessings are clearly a sign of goodwill and support from the Pancreator.

 

[Kalin]

And a little something for the more graphically inclined: The Holy Lamp of Knowledge!

Hazat scholars shall soon benefit greatly from venerating this splendid relic, no doubt associated with some incredibly brainy Saint or Martyr of ages past.

Also behold the the blessed Foot of St. Ignatius, completely intact with sandal and sock even to this day!

It can be used to enshroud an entire planet with the Pancreator's protection, warding off the very vilest of plague-demons.

In addition, note the extremely powerful Hazat artillery! Relic-thieves need not bother; the Holy of Holies in which this treasure will be kept in shall soon be practically impenetrable.

Finally, here are the current standings. House Hawkwood continues to dominate in regards to military strength, but House Al Malik and Decados are both gaining ground.

In addition, House Al Malik has taken a leap in regards to infrastructure and industrial output, no doubt as a result of an aggressive engineering program.

House Decados is leading the tech-race, closely followed by the Hazat. As before, House Hawkwood is far behind, but is starting to catch up with the rest.



Also, if some other players would like to contribute a bit in regards to news reports, here is a short guide on how to produce screenshots:

Spoiler

As has been previously mentioned, it can be quite tricky to procure screenshots from the game, but I have found a method that works reasonably well.

First off, use the in-game command ctrl + shift + ` (symbol might vary, but it should be the top-left key under Esc).

Your screenshot will be saved as SCREEN.PSX in the game's main directory. You will need to open it with some suitable software (I use IrfanView, which is free and very handy).

Certain colours turn to purple, but you can change this back by going to the "Image" menu and selecting "Replace Color". In order to select the right colour to change, you just have to click on it (program will also remember your choice, so you only have to do it once).

Once you save the file, you can select the format to convert it to, such as .png, and boom, there you go, a mighty fine screenshot!

It is possible to alt-tab from the game while doing this and then alt-tab back, take a new screenshot and repeat the process. When I want to hide some critical info, I just use MsPaint and blot out the parts I wish to keep secret.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

EOTFS is an amazing game. Those screenshots look much better than I remember

 

[Storyfag]

Looks neat. Is there a single-player option?

I'd very much like to see screenshots of other Houses' leaders.

 

[Kalin]

Yep, you can definitely play single-player, hotseat too if you'd like, though that might be rather time-consuming (at least when your empires grow). The AI leaves much to be desired, but it is still a very good game.

 

[Kalin]

Seeing how Absalom was one of the unfortunate victims in the great purge and has yet to answer the calls of the millions of souls crying out in pain at his departure, there is no choice but to declare him a vaporized un-person and start this whole thing over from scratch. This is a pity, but truth to be told, we would have stood no chance at completing the game anyhow given our increasingly atrocious turn-speed. Would have been nice to see who won the election though, but ah well, on to a new game of back-stabbing and scheming instead!

This time though, we really need to commit to playing speedily, so barring any unforeseen problems, 2-3 players should be able to finish one full round in 1-3 days, and 4-5 players in a couple of days, definitely no more than a week. Also, shame on those lazy souls who pledged to post updates but failed to live up to their word! Here is your chance to redeem yourselves!

So, looking for players for a new attempt. If the old ones would like to try again that would be swell, new ones are welcome too. Just remember to keep it up, this is serious business after all, and it only takes some 5-15 minutes to play a turn and send it forward.

 

[Dayyālu]

Well, I'm in. Can I take Li Halan House this time?

And yes, I'll try to write some updates on this one. Shame on me for my failure to deliver.

I suggest to send the passwords for the turns to a neutral observer or to Kalin ( despite being a Devil in his treachery and backstabbing, he proved to be a worthy organizer nonetheless). Thus, is someone drops off the map, we can play/jump the stale turn and keep things going. Or enlist a sub.

 

[Kalin]

Certainly, first-come first-served in regards to the Houses. Also, good to have you back on board, and that is a very good idea about the passwords!

 

[JagreenLern]

A new game? Ok, sign me up as Decados again.

 

[Kalin]

Awesome, Decados it is! We have room for two more players, in case any other fellows want to join up. Like before, I will pick whatever House is left.

 

[Kalin]

Or not! Well, if no one else joins in the next day or so, we can always go with AI substitutes to fill out the blanks. They won't be all that challenging, but the struggle to control and/or conquer the AI Houses to get their Sceptre votes should add some extra fun.

One thing though, if we have to play with AI Houses, we should use the rule that wars must be formally declared on them before we land units on their planets. If not, it is way too easy to build up an army next to their main palace, launch an attack to snatch their Sceptres and haul them back to friendly territory before they even realise what happened.

 

[disk failure]

It has been over a decade since i last played this game and i forgot all the finer details related to proper house management - hell, i forgot most of the details, but i'd love to give this a try, if it's not too late to join in?

 

[Kalin]

Not at all, welcome aboard! The mod we play with is quite different from the original version, so it might be a good idea to try it out and play some single player games on the side. The download link is in the first post, and once you unzip the game it has a pdf file with the new tech and unit trees. It also comes with some sound advice, though the first couple of paragraphs dealing with engineer production are now outdated - you can construct engineers right away, though their build time is quite long and they cost food and metal, the latter being in short supply early on.

It is a very good idea to buy some extra metal from the League agoras (each agora has its own supply) and sell excess resources to finance metal-purchases and research costs. Personally, I start off by selling off a bunch of food and building as many engineers as I can afford to kickstart research.

Which House would you like to play as?

 

[disk failure]

Thanks for the tips, i will definitely play a single player game or two. Or seven. I do wonder if there are any techs-of-awesomeness that i should research as soon as possible in this mod?

As for the house i guess i don't have any strong leanings one way or the other, maybe i'd prefer to play al-malik or the hazat a touch over the hawkwoods, but i'm pretty flexible in this regard

 

[Kalin]

Good question! I think Elektroniks and Chemicals are most important in the beginning, since they allow you to produce their associated materials. After that, I like to push for Hyper-Ballistiks and then Advanced Assault Rifle, which in turn opens up access to Advanced Tank Cannon. The latter is the single requirement for Space Fighters, and while they are really quite crappy compared to proper jump-capable ships, they are very cheap, can be built much sooner and can be packed on Charioteer transports. Of course, you won't be able to build them very fast without extra spaceports, so for that you need to research Economiks followed by Makro-Economiks. With that out of the way, I typically start the long march towards Jump Drive.

As for the Psychosociology branch, Theurgy is very handy if you find relics, since they won't work for you until you have unlocked the tech. Other useful techs are Indoctrination and Liturgical Ritual, which allow you to train Avestite Troops and Brother Battle in churches. They are some of the strongest units in the game, only take one turn to train and cost nothing except upkeep. However, training them is only viable if you have first conquered some churches from the Patriarch (and fighting him can get ugly), or if you have the Theological Psychosociology tech and have built some churches of your own on neutral worlds.

 

[oscar]

I haven't even played this game and the above sounds awesome.

 

[Kalin]

It is, and I am not even making up the charming substitution of c with k, that is all part of the mod!

Why don't you give it a try and join up? We are still one player short, after all.

 

[disk failure]

There seems to be a lot of nobility in this mod. You can even build additional nobles, so i guess Lancastering a house is no longer a relevant option, which is a pity, beacause i rather liked having (and worrying about) that possibility in the vanilla version. I must admit i'm a bit puzzled why the designer of the mod chose to alter this mechanic so drastically...

 

[Kalin]

I suspect it is to encourage the use of nobles in battle, which is much more viable in this version. Nobles are stronger and harder to kill, and are especially good once upgraded with either cyberware or psi-training. Building new ones is perhaps a bit odd, but it does take 18 years, which would be time better spent on noble specialisation or additional knight retinues.

In vanilla, I always kept all the nobles protected like a bunch of king pawns, now I tend to only guard one or two in my capital and the one on Byzantium Secundus, and then use the rest to lead armies and space navies.

 

[Kalin]

Oh, and do let us know which house you would like! If no one signs up for the last spot, I think it might be a good idea to start setting up the game.

Dayyālu will have to create it and play the first turn since Li Halan always goes first. Like before, game options are: Historical, PBEM and Security ON, Universal Warehouse ON, Rebellions ON, Consume Food ON and Plague ON.

In regards to traits, Battlemaster is a must, and charismatic leadership is best avoided (think it still messes with the game). I think we could play on Beginner, it provides plenty of trait points and our selections should randomise the game a bit. Once you set up your faction, it would be swell if you would let us all know which traits you picked.

Finally, all players should PM their passwords to yours truly so that we can find substitutes and/or replace any losses in order to keep the game going.

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

Sorry I vanished on you guys. Definitely don't want to slow down the flow of this game, so I'll pass this round. Keep us updated on the game's goings!