I got three out of three, do I win a price? In all seriousness this is one of those times I really wish that I'd have more free time. So I guess I should wish you guys good luck for the future. I hope you'll become one of the "powerplayers" of the Empires clan scene eventually. And then one day we shall have blimp battles over the skies of Brenodia and former Jekotia! :D
Keep this thread clean, or I'll have to clean it, and I don't like cleaning, unless its players im cleaning, with a full-auto rifle.
Simple Machines Forums ( http://www.simplemachines.org/ ) + SMF to Mambo Bridge/Wrapper + Mambo ( http://www.mambo-foundation.org/ ) is a good, expandable and secure (AFAIK) solution that will allow you to get live within a few days. Only coding you should need to do is in the theme (all DIV layers, so it can be a bitch to get it to work in FF2, FF1.5, IE6 and IE7, but doable. I have yet to use all div layers and have a site that works in all the above browsers and Opera...I always have to use JS to create a separate website just for Opera.) If you want to see a development site I have running with Mambo + SMF (unified login, wrapped) PM me for access...
IPB is something like....149 USD? SMF, PHPBB (and MANY others) are...free...and perform just as well. My opinion anyway. I can make a SMF forum that is equal too, or better than, vBulletin and IPB without much effort.
Then be aware that unless someone else is paying the fee for you, invision can request you to take it down; if you keep it up after that, they can (and will) submit a lawsuit against you (or the webhost) - seen it done too many times by IPB and vBulletin people. They are known for issuing lawsuits for people without proper licences.