What a great opportunity to fellowship with people who share your passions for comics and Christianity. I admire your courage and willingness to be a witness to faith at such a large event. Hopefully all goes well. I'll pray for you.

I'm still bummed things didn't work out for online gameplay when I was last off-track. I know you're extremely busy right now, but If you do have a bit of time this month, I'd still like to break out the old Age of Empires 2 and play a game with you online.

God bless,
Dan

I also have AE2. It might be fun to meet up in Medieval Europe to hurt each other. Or possibly join forces against Lord AI.

That would be very cool Ben. I'd actually like to try a big game versus the AI. Our computers should be powerful enough to work in whoever wants to play, plus several computer opponents. We could set the population limit high, select a big board, and have quite a fight. We just need to find a time that works well for everyone.

I'm in, as long as I'm relegated to gathering resources, building towns, and making great masses of bowmen...

Lets try it halloween weekend. Oct 29-31

Anonymous was me

Milord Ben,

It looks like I'm free on the afternoon through evening of either that Saturday or Sunday. If you guys can work out a time for either of those days, I'll keep it free.

Huzzah!
Dan

Cool - I should be available, I think, though I suspect I may work on one of those days. I'll get back to you guys and let you know.

Oh.

Was Devin still involved?

I forgot.

Do we really want that guy playing? I hear he cries a lot when he loses.

Whatever.

So, anyone have any particular civilization they want to play? I'm open to play anyone myself, but it'd be fun to kind of figure out how we want to set this up. There are lots of possibilities.

I'm a fan of the Britons, but I also like the Vikings and the Spanish (I'm a western European kind of guy). The Turks and the Koreans have their advantages, too. I'll play anyone, really.

I think we ought to have civilizations from the same area. Maybe Vikings, Franks, Britons, and Goths?

Oh--which reminds me to ask if we're planning on using the Conqerors expansion or not. If not, that changes a few things.

This, by the way, must be the geekiest commentary dialogue ever.

You're right. It's a pretty geeky commentary.

So...

The Britons seem like a good fit for you. You mentioned you enjoy "making great masses of bowmen." The Brits are good for that.

And Ben could be the French, since that's the "useless talent" he came out as.

Just kidding, Ben. Be whatever you want.

I do think it'd be cool to base the setup on geographical areas. We could do a crusades types thing, or fend off barbarian invasions, or such.

Saturday would be best but Sunday will work. I don't mind playing the axe throw'n French. Those guys can really bring on the pain. So Dan, will you set up the game and send us your IP? Its been awhile sine I played. I can't remember how the online multiplayer works.

Lets stick with fending off the hordes. Craignez le marteau, Charles Martel

If I remember right (it's probably been 3 years since I've played AOE2), we won't need an IP address to play a game. There's a website that you can connect to in the multiplayer options. Somebody hosts (I can do it) and the others join the game. It's pretty simple.

The invasion idea sounds fun. We can try to fight off civilizations like the Mongols, Goths, Vikings, and Saracens. If we had the expansion (I don't think everyone does) we could add the Huns to the list. I read in a book of Medieval history about a time when Europe was simultaneously fighting off invasions from the Vikings, Saracens, and Magyar (Decendants of the Huns). So things like that have definately happened historically.

We'd have many options for teams to choose from ourselves in such a scenario. The Britons, Franks, Teutons, Byzantines, Celts, and Spanish are all good options.

The Franks are a good choice, Ben. You're right. They have good cavalry, and farming advantages. Throwing axemen rock.

This will be fun. I'm really looking forward to it.

So is Saturday afternoon and evening a good time for everyone?

Also, I do have the expansion for AE2

I could probably swing Saturday evening, though I might have to pause occasionally. Leaving Joanna by herself on the weekend with the monkeys is generally a no-no.

The funny part is, of course, that we're using Devin's blog for the planning and he's the one who's not chimed in... Sounds like he's a busy man, though.

Heh, sorry. I didn't realize people were still posting on this thread about the topic. I'm glad that you are, though.

Personally, I've always liked the Teutons. I like the Byzantines, too, but I think that has more to do with a fascination with the culture rather than their abilities in the game - I always get squashed when I play them. So I'm probably going to cast my vote to play the Teutons.

I don't have the expansion right now, but I imagine I could probably find it for relatively cheap at this point. I'll look around a store or two and see what it would cost. No promises, though.