War and Peace in Illyriad

(Hurrrrahhhhh for Corwin - thread back on topic!)

Underneath this, is the question of what sort of game this.

What is undeniably true, is that it's a city-builder. You have no build cities. No option. Whatever else you want to do, you have to build up your city.

After that, there are clearly some extensive military elements, including the ability to wage war on other players. Does that make it a wargame? That's arguable. But what I have noticed is that "it's a wargame" is generally the rallying cry of the bully - of the militarily-strong player who wants to make life miserable for weaker players. So, I'd be suspicious of that claim. But it can be plausibly made.

So, Illyriad is a city builder. And it can be a war game if you wish.

You can, of course, also play it as a "tournament game", where you only use your armies for consensual PvP or PvE combats. (That's pretty well what I'm doing. I started following this path at Tournament #2; then when Tournament #3 became the preserve of about 2 dozen huge players I started thinking of ways to democratize tournament-style play. Hence, Lords of Frost, illyolympics, me cheerleading for SunStorm's seize-a-city challenge, etc.) But that's actually a sort of wargamer who has taken an abstinence pledge. (Or more accurately, someone with the capability to be a wargamer, but who has made the conscious decision not to act like a ****head.)

Can it also be a diplomatic game, or a trading game? The developers would obviously like people to play that way, judging by the text of the front page. But how possible is it?

I started out wanting to trade, as there was then talk of "Trade v2"; but I got bored trading after about 6 months; once Trade v2 does come in, perhaps this will make a trading path more viable, as a long-term focus, particularly if it can un-hitch trade from military. (Right now, to be militarily strong you need to build lots of weapons... and to have something to trade you need to build lots of weapons... so it isn't really an alternative path! That's why so many militarily strong players also have lots of gold - they make weapons to build troops, and when they max on troops they sell the surplus.)

Diplomacy? Hmmm. I'm very intrigued by what people like Conclave are doing. But it does strike me that with one simple rule change (and no doubt the wargamers have already petitioned the GMs demanding this, as they'll hate the idea that there is someone they can't **** on) they will immediately become very vulnerable to the wargamers.

Which kind of brings me to my point. You can play this game lots of ways. You can play it purely as a city builder. You can play it as a wargame - which it can be. You can play it as a game of trade or subterfuge - though your options are more limited there. But whatever style you choose, the wargamers have the trump card: a wargamer can drive the peaceful players out of the game; they do not have any equivalent power.