GWJ Strategy Gaming Group: Now Playing Midnight Suns

Old world
Northgard
Stars in Shadow

Wow it's a close race for the finalist. Here are the top games that garnered the majority of votes.

Civilization 6 (9 votes): $5.99
Old World (9 votes): $31.99
Fantasy General 2 (4 votes): $19.99
Northgard (4 votes): $8.99

Please vote for your favorite game (just one) by midnight Friday, December 30. That way I can have the votes tallied and set up the new page before New Years.

Also, if anyone finds better deals on these games besides Steam, please share the link. I'm terrible at hunting down deals and appreciate you bargain hunters.

Old World

jdzappa wrote:

Also, if anyone finds better deals on these games besides Steam, please share the link. I'm terrible at hunting down deals and appreciate you bargain hunters.

You can search isthereanydeal. Or better yet, install Augmented Steam extension on Chrome or Firefox and it does the work for you, shows prices right there on the steam store page

Old World

And what Stele said. Is There Any Deal and the browser extension are great!

Old World

I can't play Old World so...
Civ 6

This is a tough choice.

Civ 6

Civ 6

Civ 6

Old World

Might as well dive into Old World. It's much newer to me and I have not finished a game yet.

Old World

I've been itching to get back to it, so this could be my added incentive.

I played quite a bit of Old World last year while it’s been a while since I loaded up Civ, so:

Civ VI

Should we have the option each month of a sanctioned Wild Card game? That is, if you don't want to play the selected one, you declare what you will play and your goal (achieve a diplo win, or win 5 scenarios) and then achieving that goal in the game you picked gets you the point?

Just a thought.

Old World

old world

Robear wrote:

Should we have the option each month of a sanctioned Wild Card game? That is, if you don't want to play the selected one, you declare what you will play and your goal (achieve a diplo win, or win 5 scenarios) and then achieving that goal in the game you picked gets you the point?

Just a thought.

Interesting idea Robear. I'm not against it though it would require a little more bookkeeping on my part. I'm also concerned it would divide attention, but I'm open for further discussion. Would love to hear what the rest of the group thinks.

I think the whole point of these clubs is that we pick a game and play it. I know I'm faintly bias given I run the cRPG these days, and the idea of having to track multiple games is off-putting, but I also think it sort of renders the clubs meaningless if - ultimately - anyone can play any game they want each time.

We do go through voting processes for reason! There's a lot of admin involved there, and for something done voluntarily it doesn't need to be added too...

Seconding Sorbicol, since I cant think of a better way to put it. The goal is to have people play a game together so we can discuss it, since not everyone plays games when they first come out.

No worries, it was just a thought.

Robear wrote:

No worries, it was just a thought.

The cRPG Club has a "retirement" home where people who miss the window can still play the game, and be credited it for it. We're fairly easy going there, but the idea is to the play the game chosen in the window allocated if you can.

Feel free to just plain-out skip a game that doesn't work for you, too.

I bailed on Imperator:Rome cos I personally can't stand that Paradox grand strategy design. No biggies.

I will also add that the JRPG club will very occasionally do two games in a quarter if the final vote is tied or very, very close, and that finishing either will count for leveling up. So there is some precedent for multiple games being played in a quarter, though still under the roof of playing together. I haven't counted the votes for Old World and Civ 6 to see who is in the lead, but that could be the way of resolving a tie if there is one.

Sundown wrote:

I will also add that the JRPG club will very occasionally do two games in a quarter if the final vote is tied or very, very close, and that finishing either will count for leveling up. So there is some precedent for multiple games being played in a quarter, though still under the roof of playing together. I haven't counted the votes for Old World and Civ 6 to see who is in the lead, but that could be the way of resolving a tie if there is one.

I didn't know that but it does sound like a reasonable compromise. We use Ranked Choice voting to avoid this in the cRPG club (we have a single transferable vote in effect) so it doesn't come up!

Jonman wrote:

Feel free to just plain-out skip a game that doesn't work for you, too.

I bailed on Imperator:Rome cos I personally can't stand that Paradox grand strategy design. No biggies.

Yeah I never even started Vampyr for the other club last quarter because I was so into Troubleshooter for the other club. Just ran out of time and once it was December the Halloween spirit to play Vampyr was diminished as well.

Sorbicol wrote:
Sundown wrote:

I will also add that the JRPG club will very occasionally do two games in a quarter if the final vote is tied or very, very close, and that finishing either will count for leveling up. So there is some precedent for multiple games being played in a quarter, though still under the roof of playing together. I haven't counted the votes for Old World and Civ 6 to see who is in the lead, but that could be the way of resolving a tie if there is one.

I didn't know that but it does sound like a reasonable compromise. We use Ranked Choice voting to avoid this in the cRPG club (we have a single transferable vote in effect) so it doesn't come up!

We do ranked choice voting too. One time, it led to an exact statistical tie between Tactics Ogre (before the re-release) and Nier: Automata. After eliminating all other games, the same number of people had the game (1) in first place, (2) in second place, and (3) would not have played the other one. That's the only time I've had this happen during my tenure, though it might have happened beforehand.

Otherwise, I tend to agree with Sorbicol.

Sorbicol wrote:
Sundown wrote:

I will also add that the JRPG club will very occasionally do two games in a quarter if the final vote is tied or very, very close, and that finishing either will count for leveling up. So there is some precedent for multiple games being played in a quarter, though still under the roof of playing together. I haven't counted the votes for Old World and Civ 6 to see who is in the lead, but that could be the way of resolving a tie if there is one.

I didn't know that but it does sound like a reasonable compromise. We use Ranked Choice voting to avoid this in the cRPG club (we have a single transferable vote in effect) so it doesn't come up!

I'm open to Ranked Choice for next time, though TBH I don't fully grok the system. I may also set up a retirement home thread in the new year as well.

As for my vote:

Old World

The die is cast! It was a close contest but our first 2023 game will be Old World!

Link is up and I'm in the process of updating everyone's ranks. It's a little confusing since not everyone in the Troubleshooter thread was part of the club, but if you don't see an update by tomorrow afternoon please send me a PM.

And congrats to Sundown and Robear for hitting Sergeant Major rank!

EDIT: Oh yeah - we also have a retirement throne room now!

Recruit mastrude reporting for duty.