I have ACR installed, so spares are kinda... unavoidable.

I'll um, leave it at that.

Oh, and third update here . The write-up is slower than my actual play-time, so I'm trying to slow down the playing.

I have ACR, too, and Christy and Sylvester always tried their hardest to make lots of babies; if not for her miscarriage, they'd have succeeded twice. Ivy and Linus aren't quite so enthusiastic.

I haven't played in a couple of days, but once I do, I'll get Lionel to finish University and then post an update.

War has come to Homefront.

When Trent, Pyre, Alex, and Fern met at National University, they could never have imagined what their futures held. Double dates and long philosophical conversations in the common room led to friendships -- and romances -- that seemed like they would last forever. Graduation gave way to marriages and mortgages and multiple births. Despite their very different lifestyles, the couples remained close and met frequently at each other's homes or out in the community. Trent pursued a career in politics, while Pyre barely interrupted her passion for dance to give birth to the twins. Alex and Fern moved to the country and pursued their interests in farming and writing, convinced that "working for the man" wasn't the path to happiness. Money was tight after the birth of the triplets, but there was always love (and woohoo, for romantic Alex). Then the war came like a sudden storm.

Trent, convinced a military response would bring swift peace, raced off to the military recruitment center to join the counter intelligence unit. Alex, filled with doubt, nevertheless enlisted as a drill instructor. A philosophical gulf began to develop between the lifelong friends. Lengthy chats were replaced by heated arguments. When Alex died in friendly fire, Fern's life was torn apart. After days of misery and exhaustion when all she and the triplets could do was cry until they collapsed, she realized war itself was the enemy and vowed to fight the industrial military complex. She could no longer look to her old friend Pyre for support. Having quit her job as a dancer, Pyre was throwing all her support behind her husband and the war effort.

Gameplay notes. That's right: Alex died in the FIRST military death roll. In my regular game, thanks to smart milk and the lack of dead husbands/fathers, I've never had toddlers age without learning all of their skills. It just seems odd that there are no consequences. I think TS3 has a better handle on penalizing development when that happens. On the other hand, Fern and the triplets (and I!) barely survived the three days until they aged up. I'm trying to get both Pyre and Fern into the Uni careers (Artist and Show Business) because it could be a long time before an heir is eligible to go to Uni again, but the newspaper is not being kind.

ETA: can Fern remarry? She's a family Sim, so she's rolling the want. I'm tempted to lock it and say it won't happen because all the men are off at war, but if she can remarry, I assume her second husband would not be able to unlock any careers.

Just say your widow picked up someone when they were on leave.

Yeah, what smellincoffee said. =) Since Alex didn't unlock a career, you're allowed to have Fern's new husband (if she gets one) try. He'd have to finish the military track first, of course.

Thank you both. I didn't know if Founders had the same liberty as heirs. Sadly, it turned out to be irrelevant as Fern was Discovered and then Captured. I'm not much of a storyteller, so here's a chronological history of Homefront thus far:

Patriots
day 1 - Patriot founders Trent and Pyre move into their new home.
day 5 - twins Truman and Daisy are born
day 7 - the war begins. Founder male Trent enlists in Counter Intelligence.
day 18 - a bombing raid destroys the Finer Diner community lot. Trent killed in the bombing.
day 20 - "spare heir" Roman is born.
day 26 - Pyre drafted. Quits career in law enforcement and joins military as Senior Officer.
day 30 - teen son and "true heir" Truman killed in service
day 36 - a bombing raid destroys the skating rink. Roman killed in the bombing.
day 39 - default heir Daisy marries Jonah Peacock, who immediately enlists in the military.
day 42 - Jonah killed in service. Daisy (pregnant) is drafted.
day 43 - cheesecake twins Stewart and Johanna are born. Daisy quits the medical career and joins the military.
day 47 - Pyre dies in platinum old age as a retired general. Daisy, exhausted from childcare, is frightened to death by a ghost (father, husband, brother? Who knows?). Social worker comes for the children. The patriot cause is ended.


Subversives
day 1 - Subversive founders Alex and Fern move into their farmhouse.
day 4 - triplets born: Sinclair, Cody and Alyx
day 7 - the war begins. Founder male Alex enlists as a Drill Instructor
day 8 - Alex killed in service.
day 14 - burglar! (lost 3 chairs and a wishing well)
day 18 - Fern discovered distributing anti-war art.
day 20 - Fern captured and executed
day 22 - "spare" Cody killed in service
day 24 - "true heir" Sinclair killed in service
day 34 - Alyx becomes an adult, marries Connel Dyer (the burglar from day 14), and joins the Law career. Connel enlists as a member of the Elite Forces.
day 38 - Connel killed in service
day 40 - twins River and Connie are born
day 46 - Alyx fired (<- chance card)
day 47 - Alyx joins music career
day 48 - Alyx discovered performing at an anti-war rally and quits her job to go underground.
day 49 - Alyx marries Edgar Thrasher (because I am terrified of having the only adult in the house at risk of death)
day 52 - the farmhouse is bombed. Everyone survives the bombing, but they are forced to move with only §18,000 into a starter house in town.
day 53 - twins Joshua and Zackery born
day 54 - Edgar killed in service.
day 55 - River enlists.

So the Patriots are out of the running. No careers achieved on either side and we're heading into the third generation. I feel like the computer in War Games: the only way to win is not to play.

Some gameplay questions:
* I intended this to be a patriarchal legacy, but both my generation 2 heirs defaulted to women (they were the only survivors on each side). When a female heir marries a male townie, does he have to enlist and reach General? I think yes, but the casualty rate in my game is so high that if it's not a requirement, I won't make them do it anymore. D'oh! Answered by HM above.
* I have a "recruitment center" set up on a community lot using Mog's job board so teens and draftees can join the military career immediately. However, when subversives are "discovered," I've been relying on the newspaper to get them a job in the criminal track. The newspaper is not always cooperative: Alyx only found a criminal job two days before she transitioned to elder and retired. Would it be acceptable to set up a second "black market" community lot for discovered Sims to join the criminal track using the career board?

You're having some serious bad luck, Mangaroo. o_o Makes me realize how lucky I've been (even though my girlsims seem to have a chronic case of Discovereditis).

If the newspaper is being that ornery, then yes, you can set up a lot exclusively for the job search board. If you're comfortable with testingcheats, that works well too.

I've had good luck...until now. The third generation has had numerous setbacks, but the heir is in university now. She should be able to knock out out a career fairly quickly, but has had no luck finding a spouse.

Day 110 and it's all over for Homefront: the last subversive -- teenager Brooke Dyer -- was frightened to death by the ghost of her uncle. Pity. She had survived the last challenge risk of her teen years (there had been a bombing raid the previous night), and it should have been clear sailing for the next six days until she started facing the risk of Discovery.

In retrospect, the most damaging handicap in my game was the restriction that prevented anyone from going to college (and thereby circumventing military service) until a qualified Sim reached the top of the Education career. Still, if I attempt this challenge again (and it's definitely joining the Asylum on my list of repeatable challenges), I can't imagine playing any other way.

If I understand the rules, my subversives have succeeded in bringing the long war to an end. Although my writeup in Sims Stories is still at the beginning of the second generation, here's some basics.

Starting sims: Marc and Juliette Almand.

Marc and Juliette both begin as police officers, although Juliette's pregnancies keep her a cadet. Marc skills for both the police and the military career, so he's frequently exhausted. When the war breaks out, Marc joins as a junior officer and climbs oh-so-slowly up the track. Finding friends is difficult for him, and he gets demoted and fired more than once. Doesn't help that I make him train for another career on the side. He survives his time in service, making the transition into politics and becoming Mayor.

Juliette has three kids, all girls: Jeanne, Alexandrie, and Marie. Jeanne assumed the mantle of heir, although until she hit college I had no idea what career she'd pursue. Then she became obsessed with painting, so I said "all right" and started training her to be an artist once she got out of university. She cultivated a few relationships with potential husband. Her first husband Trevor (NPC who pesters sims who are into arts and crafts) was a disaster, smooching Alexandrie on his and Jeanne's wedding night. They started revenge-woo-hooing and eventually Jeanne became pregnant with a neighbor's babies. Trevor beat up the neighbor four times (three in one night!), and soon died on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Juliette turned from law enforcement to the law and eventually became "The" Law before passing away.

Jeanne gave birth to twins Simone and Nicole, nearly identical black-haired blue-eyed beauties. I favored Nicole early on. Jeanne later made twins with her new husband Cyd Rosewater, a Maxis-made Sim who likes training with his dog. Cyd went into music, while Jeanne pursued her artistic talents. They had another set of twins, Penelope and Jules. Jules was the first male in this family, and with his green eyes I was tempted to make him the heir. My hours invested in grooming Nicole for the role overrode that, though.

Meanwhile I kept playing Alexandrie, Marie, and Alexandrie's partner Ginger Newson. Since their household wasn't my challenge household, I eased off on the rules a bit -- although I did roll for subversive risks. Nothing happened, and they had three boys: Robert, Trevor, and...another. Alexandrie had two of them (one by Trevor, one by the same guy who fathered Simone and Nicole). Marie had (by virtue of my same-sex pregnancy mod) one child. She was a cop, Ginger a librarian, and Alexandrie a stay-at-home mom until the kids were teenagers. Then she became a cook.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my dice finally realized "Oh, this is a war. Bad stuff is supposed to be happening". They lost their house twice in a row, meaning briefly they lived in poverty: poor Marc was reduced to sleeping on a couch. Cyd was Discovered, but thankfully not until after he became a Rock Star. He also turned into an elder on the next day, so his retirement was pretty lame. He couldn't keep his job as a rock star, and he couldn't rise through the criminal ranks as an elder, so he sat on the couch or fished all day.

Nicole and Simone went to college. Simone found someone fairly early, but Nicole had bad luck. I focused her on men (ACR made `em bisexual) to avoid the "if one person in a same-sex couple is discovered, both are discovered" risk, but the only guy she liked was Mitch Indie -- and he was gay. So, she found a girlfriend and was happy. Nicole rejoined her parents while Simone moved into her own house.

Nicole's partner -- one of the Maxis-made Sims with the last name of Wirth -- became a teacher and moved somewhat sluggishly up to Minister of Education. I had groomed Nicole for Journalism, but it was so slow to come up I put her through another few careers instead. Finally she got into journalism, and thanks to all the level grinding became Media Magnate fairly quickly. After I play Alexandrie, Marie, and Simone up to match, everyone is going to celebrate by getting married (if they're gay), buying computers, and getting the hell out of the military.

While my luck with the dice was excellent -- one military death, two houses blown up, and one subversive discovery -- I think I made this too easy by having my heirs go to university. There, I had plenty of time to work on their skills. While Jeanne's triumph was delayed by having to make babies, Nicole only had to wait until the newspaper rolled the career. Then boom, she's media magnate in a few days. Her partner at least had to skill as an adult. Glad I put off Nicole having kids so she could focus on that career. I didn't know I could add days between die rolls with every successful career, though.

I've been getting a bit fed up of playing the sims, so I've decided to give this a go and see if it makes playing a bit more interesting!

I'm going to use some of mangaroo's ideas too, making it so that sims can't attend uni until someone has completed the Education career, and moving the spares to other lots - but I'm going to do all males to a military baracks and all females to a gardening/sewing/fishing lot, and then they have to produce food and clothing to help support their families (by inviting them over and giving them stuff as gifts). I'm also going to do both a Subversive and a Patriot family at the same time, and the two men are going to be brothers. I'm going to make it so that the families get on well to start with, but if one of the Subversives gets discovered then none of the Patriots alive at the time will interact with any of the Subversives again. Any Patriots born after the discovery will, though. Unless another Subversive gets discovered!

I'm really looking forward to this challenge, it certainly sounds, ummm, challenging! :-D

Mangaroo: I like the changes you made. If I replay once I finish, I may implement similar rules. It seems to make things ten times harder, but that's part of the fun. >>

Smellincoffee: Congrats on finishing! =D And yeah, University does give them a particular edge. I'm debating whether or not to remove the extra days between dice rolls from the rules. I used it, and after finishing two jobs, the sense of imminent danger has eased a bit too much for comfort.

lauratje86, yay! I wish you better luck with the dice than I had in Homefront.

HaunterMooneyes, I had so much fun with this challenge that I'm trying to map the rules to the careers and features available in TS3. (It's too soon for me play it again in TS2. I would constantly be comparing the new game to my poor defeated Homefront.) As soon as I can figure out what to do about the lack of University and decide whether to replace subversive Law with Cuisine or Sports (yeah...not exactly a direct match, there), I'll be ready to go!

Thanks mangaroo :-) I've been doing ok so far, but the war only started half a week (one play round) ago! Nobody's dies, no houses have been destroyed, and my Subvesive lady is busying away trying to reach the top of the Education career so that her kids (fingers crossed), or at least her grandkids, can go to university!

I reckon that cuisine would be a better one, Sports sounds pretty patriotic to me, you know, entertaining the public during wartime, giving them a "team" to root for and so on. Not sure how to make Cuisine sound subversive, though! Maybe something to do with making links with the country they're fighting by introducing their cuisine to the public's everyday life?

Also, I play with ACR, so in other news, my Patriot lady, who was intended to be a career-oriented lady with two or three kids, woohoo'd autonomously with someone she brought home from work (the first time she brought him home! Shocking! :-D), so I decided to get her pregnant by him as she seemed to like him so much! The resulting son won't be the heir, as he's not the husband's son, and so she's now pregnant again, by her husband this time! :-) And with natural twins!

Mangaroo: I'm glad you liked it! I would draw up a TS3 version if I had TS3, but since I don't...and I agree with Lauratje; I think that Cuisine seems more suited to Subversive. I like Lauratje's idea for justifying it, too: maybe the Sim at the top of the career has a really popular restaurant or a cooking show featuring foodstuffs from the "enemy."

Lauratje: I'm glad it's going well! Isn't ACR fun? XD My founders didn't have much fun with it--I think they were too stiff--but it's thrown some bizarre curveballs into my second generation. Good luck!

Holy crap this is addictive. Seriously. I died the first three games because I never found time to have children and the first one was like seriously infurtile. The third time i got so very close the finishing my 4th career track then the dad died in action, the mother was found out, and couldn't make enough money and then the social worker came. But this is my 4th time and I'm doing really good. I was determined never to do this after I couldn't do it the first time. That lasted like 4 minutes.

I started this challenge maybe a week ago and am playing when I can. My family is Patriots and have twin boys, now children, although I haven't decided who will be heir yet. The mother is unemployed and is taking care of the boys and a victory garden. I'm also rolling for bomb attacks and have a property with a basement I'll use if the house gets hit. I can't remember offhand which position the hubby is specifically, but he is an officer and close to the top of his career (military, of course). I've been lucky so far and no bombs have destroyed the house and the hubby is still kicking. Thanks for the challenge...it's really unique.

Challenge players, when are you sending your teens to Uni? In my Prosperity hood, I typically send my teens off 4 days from adulthood, but there's obviously an advantage here in sending them sooner so males can avoid the risk of dying in service.

(I'm getting a little ahead of myself, since my Subversive is only close to the top of the Education career, so I haven't unlocked Uni yet. But I want a plan in place in case I do. Now I have cursed my Sim and she will be discovered.)

Katika: Ouch, I'm sorry your first few attempts turned sour, but I'm glad this latest one is going better! (Now that I've congratulated you, everyone will spontaneously drop dead when you open up the lot next. )

Suikostar: You're welcome! It's always fun making new challenges and watching people enjoy them and adapt them to their tastes.

Mangaroo: I send my teenagers to college straightaway to give their parents less time to die/get Discovered/lose their jobs. By the time they've aged to teenagers, too, I'm usually tired of their parents and ready to find them a lifelong partner and get them started on their career and family.

Does this count as necro-ing the thread? If so...oops.

But I just had to say, this sounds like an amazing challenge, and I think you did a great job at thinking it through. I'm pretty sure I'll try this, the only question is whether I'll post pictures of it or not. But it would be a shame not too, as I have an amazing storyline for this one, plus I can use certain sims I want to.

So maybe I will. But anyway I wanted to thank you for making such an uber-mazing challenge. It has rekindled my interest for sims 2.

Thank you so much! =) I'm glad you like it. Have fun and good luck!

I finished the challenge!

I know this is my first time posting here and I'm really sorry if posting in such a dead thread annoys you, but I thought you would like to know that someone still plays your challenge. I actually made my account on ModtheSims only minutes ago specifically to tell you that I've finished it and I loved it. My Subversives won, but I think in about sixty or so years when all the children now are old or dead there will be a resurgence in my neighborhood and a second war will begin. I just have to rebuild the population a bit first. So much of my neighborhood didn't survive.

I have to say that I did modify the challenge a bit the longer I played - allowing rich families ($200,000 or more) to own computers, allowing boys only 16 or older to join the draft, etc. And because my neighborhood was already well developed when the war started I just arbitrarily divided the citizens into Patriots and Subversives instead of focusing on only one family line. This method seemed to work quite well since it pit neighbors, friends, and even family members against eachother. One Patriot family completely disowned their gay child and they never spoke to eachother again.

The heartache was worth the fun for me and, however terrible it may be to say, I look forward to playing this challenge again. Well done!

Vejhed: I'm glad you necro'd this challenge! I'll be giving this a shot :D

I'm totally addicted to this challenge; when I already have a major challenge going on elsewhere I was just filling in time during a break, stumbled across this thread totally by random, and now I'm barely able to get away long enough to type this post! (sleeping also gets in the way but unfortunately my workplace doesn't employ zombies so sacrifices must be made)

I'm bumping this topic back up y'all need to check this baby out! Well thought out, very clear explanations and easy to follow rules. And though the "one sim week" to start with might seem daunting I was so busy setting up my sims for their oncoming war torn life that it flashed by in no time at all; very much needed, too! Also, I'm a sucker for a blank canvas start (you know all those lawn legacies and dawn of time challenges) but it was really rather refreshing to start a couple in a ready-made home already in the middle of their lives. Love it!

I wish there were more blogs or at least more people playing this to follow; it's a fascinating game (have I laid it on thick enough yet?! XD) I'm hoping to create one myself before I get too far ahead. I'll keep y'all posted!

For now though I decided to go with the two families start - one for Patriots, one for Subversives, and it's been a lot of fun so far; every time I have to roll the die I hold my breath and every time another day passes without any sim dying or being drafted I let out the biggest sigh of relief XD you can skill all you want in the world but at the end of the day it's pure dumb luck with a die that makes or breaks the game! Absolutely enthralling. Can't recommend it enough. Just brilliant!



taliah~

Why do we have to marry townies?