Atreides

Getting gold from trading surplus resources sounds like a good idea!

What's a way to consistently make lots of money without relying on golden ages and plundering? I tend to resource-grab, making sprawling empires. I'm guessing it's road and unit maintenance that's getting me down Also towards the end when there's nothing else to build and I spend it on units, maintenance keeps increasing

What if she's a doctor on the bus?

Mad props on the Holy Avenger fight. That was almost too perfect!

Sweet

Beth may want to have the fun of doing 4 themselves. Which could work out well, if that frees Obs from engine-building and lets them focus more on content. Hopefully the bar will be set high by then either way.

Maybe they changed the default to be old skool.

Steampunk Post-apocalyptic fantasy Modern with nano tech giving magic-like effects Spiritual feudal Japanese

Are you fighting the seriously tough battle at the graveyard for the Holy Avenger?

They come through for each other when it gets tough!

Will we get to export characters and import them into a new game?

That jarred me as well.

The increasing ratio of retirees to workers in some developed country is putting a strain on pensions and service maintenance. Particularly for pay-as-you-go pensions and services (medical subsidies, old age pensions, etc) that are funded by taxes, mainly from production.

I want to start a casting party with a sorc, wiz, druid and cleric. With a pet rogue-fighter to scout and handle traps.

I come back after awhile and really sad to see this. There's a real sense of community here, Visceris back from BIS...

Just signed in after awhile to say how much I enjoyed this!

I think at this stage culture's more of a determinant than genetics. There are some cultures where it's encouraged to have less kids than another or vice versa. For example immigrants into places like Europe.

Depends on what decks your friends are playing. Are they casual/tournament decks, Standard, Extended etc? I keep in touch to what's happening through the internet and occasionally test things by Apprentice. They'll probably steamroll the precon decks which are deliberately designed to be rough and a starting point for improvements. If you go precon vs preocon that'll be fair but if you use your precons against constructed decks (again, your Urza extended vs their standard?) it could be tough even if you're a good player. I'd recommend you play with their decks (also to see how current cards are - they're def fun) to be on the same level or vice versa. I love precon vs precon because it's fun and unpredictable, but vs constructed it's different. Btw what are the championship decks you're talking about? Current tournament decks? Haven't tried the Planechase decks, read a bit but haven't understood everything yet. It sounds interesting though... Prob a good idea to set a budget beforehand and keep to it. Or you could ask your friends to share construct a cheapo deck for you.

I challenge myself to make decks without rares or as cheap as possible, but with good play. Maybe you could save that way? I didn't know the Duel Decks are so expensive. Over here they're slightly less than twice the price of the latest precons.

The switch to 40 card precon + booster is going to take a while for me to get used too. I still like the 60 card precon which is rough but gives a lot of variety. A lot of the cards aren't focused but that's what gives it variety in play. Precons in general aren't known for their quality but the devs do pack in some synergistic tricks for intermediate players to pick up. I remember trying the Azorius Ascendant deck and it went pretty crazy fast with a card drawing and tapping engine with flyers. Def one of the better precons I've played with, or at least ones that I cracked. Haven't tried mixing the duel decks. For a lot of tight back and forth gameplay I'd prob go for the duel decks over the precons. They've got some decent rares and famous cards in them too.

The Urza set sounds interesting, should have a lot of variety to keep things interesting. I wouldn't go Tempest though. Urza sets were supposed to be powerful but some of the new cards/decks I see are really powerful in their own right. However there's been more balancing to prevent quick "I win" scenarios. They need to work towards them now. Actually I think I have a better idea for you - try the Duel Decks. They're a set of 60 card precons, very balanced against each other, have cards ranging across sets and are quite competitive. I keep up but don't buy, except for the duel decks which are really fun. Great for quick games. Plus they're not that expensive relative to mtg prices (plus they're quite competitive/tricky which isn't always the case for precons) 1. Elves vs Goblins - superb 2. Jace vs Chandra - much more calculating plus you can try out the planewalkers (burn vs counterspell type decks) 3. Demonic vs Divine - not as polished as the first two. Gameplay can be quite lopsided rather than the back and forth of the previous 2 and it can be quite clunky.

Starcraft's telling of its story is the best for me though there are several annoying gameplay limitations by today's standards. Lately I've been playing RA3: Uprising and I like it's corny presentation and its gameplay is surprisingly intuitive. The hotkeys are the same throughout, depending on positions on the bar and mapped for the left hand which makes memorizing hotkeys redundant.

Starcraft 2 Diablo 3 Dragon Age Mass Effect 2 Dungeon Keeper 3

Humans are just as common as elves in fantasy. Perhaps even more so. It's just the way they're stereotyped that makes them boring. Ok so how about this: The other races have decided to ship the rapidly reproducing Elves into portals to another world. The elves want peace but they are overpopulating the world as it is and things will get worse (sort of like the apologetic fat dude on the airplane who spills over into your seat but can't do anything about it). Since the Culling Wars didn't go to well (ethics fallout and attrition on both sides) the other races have tricked the elves into believing that entering the one-way portals is a fulfillment of their "destiny".