Epic 16 - McClure's Incomplete Adventures

[McClure]

Sid’s Sushi converts money to food. So the question is what can we do with the excess food? Food becomes commerce through using specialists and food becomes hammers via the whip. This suggests minimal cottaging of the terrain, maximal irrigation/mines, and an excuse to build workshops which almost never come into play until State Property. It also suggests getting the Pyramids both for boosting specialists and for raising the happy cap.

One more thing about not building cottages: Food also becomes commerce through trade routes, particularly on an Archipelago map as eventually almost all trade routes are “intercontinental”. So cottages won’t particularly be missed.

Now the scoring in this Epic is as follows: … forget it, I’m off in shadowland since I use the BUG mod and I’m too old to change. Let’s just have fun with the game. (I will track how I do with the scoring criteria but I’m not going to particularly bother with game-planning for it.)

We start and have a possible Red Herring: Sushi executives don’t show up as a possible build. Either a game-breaking bug or … check back in a couple of turns ... now they are there. Probably an artifact of a mid-turn WB save.

Capital pre-founded, so no decision there. Research heads towards Bronze Working so I can commence the whippage. Capital builds a WB, but I have to watch how many I build so I don’t kill my own research, although the WB’s can yield explosive results if it’s possible to wait and build workers/settlers late. An early worker is needed to hook up the Gems, though. More happies = more bodies available for the pile.

Medium-term the preferred Wonders: The Colossus (again, few Cottages), TGLighthouse (as per the Epic description) and the Pyramids. CoL is also an important tech as I expect to be building Workshops out the yang (in addition to Caste System). So ... the royal we will be prioritizing Metal Casting and CoL, as there is no big rush for anything on the top of the tree. I also realize that due to Sid’s in the capital, on turn 150 we're going to get a GM. I’ll have to read up on the new-and-improved CS slingshot.

Then the game actually starts. I take the Sid Executive for a quick spin but only get to 3750 BC before he runs like hell from a Bear. One benefit to all of this jungle is rather little risk of losing the Exec to an animal. But ignorance is bliss, so much fog remains …

3675 BC - Buddhism falls. I always like to play with "Choose Religions". Adds a bit of flavor and masks the AI tech path a bit.

3525 BC – First WB completed and a Clams are netted. That only costs 6 gpt. Again, have to avoid crashing the economy before the 2nd city. I’ll build a couple of Warriors before Slavery comes in as whipping WBs is fairly efficient.

3300 BC - Hinduism FIDAL or FIADL, neither of which can be read in English.

Warriors going walk-about to get free experience vs. Animals before the regular Barbs show. I'll build 3. But both of my explorers took damage from animals so by the time BW is researched (3150 BC) I see no metals in my limited vision. More importantly I revolt to slavery and prepare to crack the whip!

First original erroneous conjecture of the game: Research into Sailing to eventually meet the neighbors. Would have been just as easy to send a couple of WBs wandering. Instead I was afraid of Barb Galleys showing up so I wanted Galleys of my own.

3025 BC – First picture: Receive a game un-balancing event.



Also spot Stone for a Pyramids build. Now just have to figure out where the next city goes ...

2400 BC - Soon after building my first worker ... well this is kind of silly. (No picture, ‘twas the free Shock to all Axes event (and the promotion carries over when the Axes are upgraded to ‘zerks). No neighbors, so sucks to be the barbs.)

2200 BC – The AI builds Stonehenge. It looks like 3 Sid resources is all I'm going to get right now. But I do have a plan ... however since I’m writing this about 3 weeks later I can’t remember what the plan was. But I’m sure it involved stealing underpants.

Anyway, with Masonry in hand (and the possibility of building the GLighthouse), we set out for CoL. A very long trek indeed ...

Now I have to check the rules again ... unclear, so I'll interpret this to mean in the black at 50% prior to expanding Sid's. So expand into city #2.



Next plan is to simultaneously build the Pyramids and Great Lighthouse. I'll whip the GL and build the Pyramids honestly.

1300 BC - Meet Brennus the Hindu. He has more cities (and Axes), but I'm not worried. With two Wonder builds on-going, not much happening. I'm down to Writing + CoL for the beeline. (Goofy game doesn't give the proper order on techs to get the discount. )

1150 BC – The AI builds the Great Wall. Uppsala has 19 turns remaining on the Pyramids and Nidaros about the same for the GLighthouse.

1025 BC - Meet Louis and Open Borders. Also Open Borders with Brennus. We'll see if that is a mistake, I had his WB trapped in the Magellan race.

975 BC - Whip the Great Lighthouse in Nidaros for 4 pop. Including 3 Redshirts. Will this solve my economic problems?



Well, at least a little. Can add 4 bpt (which is a 20% boost) while staying in the black.

I still only have 2 cities, but here’s my first Axe thanks to Random Events.



Nothing like starting with a level 5 unit. I don’t have anyone to use these on except Barbs, but the events will make it painless to capture a couple of barb cities on my continent.

In 750 BC The Pyramids complete from a whip. Food=production. The Oracle goes on the same turn and I found my 3rd city. The GL is very nice on this map, I think I actually made a profit by founding the city.

In 725 BC my first GM pops Metal Casting. Yeah, I planned that I should have a big head start on the Colossus. I also revolt to Representation (primarily for the happiness). I’m not sure I can even run a non-citizen specialist yet. Maybe I have a Library in Nidaros???



Finally, in 475 BC CoL is researched. 475 BC - Guess I don't have to spread Sid's to pop the borders here.



By 170 BC I’m able to whip the Colossus. The map is frustrating for circumnavigation. And I’ve still only got 3 cities. That will change quickly as CH’s come online in my Sid cities. (Only two so far)

My fourth city doesn’t need Sids due to huge food surplus. Will provide workers at size 2.



Tech path now: Civil Service, Optics? Once I have Currency I can back-fill. Probably pick up Alphabet and trade Currency and CoL around for stuff I’ve missed. I don’t want to give up Metal Casting, despite already having built the wonder. (Keeps others away from circumnavigation.)

Then I concentrate on building military to capture 3-4 Barb cities that have sprung up. The next GM pops and .. that’s an odd coincidence. However, if I bulb CS I’ll lose the free Shock promotions on my Axes. (Axes, not Melee) So maybe I’ll slow-play this a couple of turns until I have ~6 Shock promoted units. Swap research to something else while I build a few more Axes. In 325 AD I pop the bulb and revolt to CS (having already researched Machinery). Revolt to CS and prepare to use the flotilla-of-doom on some Barb cities.

Not a lot of deep strategy yet. I haven’t tried to infect any AI with Sids and they can’t reach me to attack, so it’s just me vs. the Barbs and the Jungle.

Meet Khan in 335 AD, Open Borders and make a lopsided trade with him. Now he’s pleased.

Capture a Barb city on the SE tip of our island, another on the island immediately E and one on the longer island SE. Actually captured the latter twice as I burned the first location and then the city re-grew one tile over. This point in the game was spent trying to get caught up on workers and settlers, as I lost a lot of expansion building 3 wonders in my first two cities.

Bizarre. I make a tech trade with Brennus (He gives Calender + 56 gold, receives Currency + Priesthood). He goes from Pleased to Cautious. Whatever.

This random event didn’t work out for me. Turned out to be 113 gold down the drain …



Circumnavigation in a sloppy, slow 550 AD. I’m sure anyone who made a concerted effort with WBs could have done this in the BC years. Then despite being the closest civ to us, we finally meet this guy.



Gilga ended up playing an isolationist game just like me. Never attacked anyone, never was attacked. But he did tech well.

Early in the AD years this event comes in: Starting to get a little silly, particularly because I knew I wanted to play passively and just investigate the effects of corporations. This event led me to try to build a blitz Trireme, but the Barbs wouldn’t cooperate. 8)



Around 700 AD I capture my first source of Rice, from a Barb city on the major island N of the start. These guys will be replaced with some defensive ‘zerks and move on to attack other barb cities. CR III/Cover is a nice way to bust LB’s. J

(This report is getting hard to write because my screenshots aren’t being saved in chronological order. Bizarre.)

[McClure]

By 820 AD I've jumped to Caste System, and I spawn a Great Engineer. The Engineer goes to build the Temple of Artemis in the capital, although I had thoughts of rushing the Apostolic Palace and going for a Diplo win. I suspect that would have been difficult as I would have well beyond the allowed population fraction. But someone will likely try that ...

Somewhere in here I built the Hanging Gardens, which conveniently is not a continental wonder. I also research Paper first and map sales net around 600 gold. No real strategy (besides "not cultural") has formed to win the game. I just want to see how this plays out ...

1140 AD – Brennus had some money. Had. Sell him Drama @ last for 250 gold. Setting up for a big settler push, so why not actually take the time to get the boats in order?

1150 AD – Found the next-to-last city on my home continent. I’ll get the HE up soon in … . I have nearly double the GNP of the other civs, but I’m last in soldiers. Also, have reached the point where Sid's is basically break-even when founding in a new city with a Courthouse, so it will start to be spread overseas.

I need to get Sids into about 3 more cities, and build 4 more of my own. Hard to understand just what the hell I’ve been building in some of my cities the last 250 turns. I only have one Library in my entire empire.

1200 AD – Khan throats me out and founds a city on my island. He’ll just be keeping it warm for me until I decide to take it. After round of settler builds, now kicking in WBs and Sid Execs. After that we’ll have an infra push except for a couple of military cities.

1210 AD - This is starting to get silly. I've already decided not to attack anyone and I think there is only one more medieval "military" event remaining.



1250 AD – Well, I founded five cities in 10 turns. Now my economy is in the drink, but the whip will save that.

And here are the tasty new cities ....







There is also a city SW of Polynesian that has zero food-producing land tiles, but claims Marble and Silver. Sid's, FTW!

1280 AD – I take the free GM at Economics. Not sure what to do with him, but I do revolt to Free Market. Soon the unwashed masses will go Mercantile, so use it while I can. Heh. Just now realized the primary benefit to FM. (-25% to Corp maintenance)

At this point, Louis is the only one with enough on his hands. No obvious target, but he can’t reach me so I have time. I'm slow-playing Liberalism because I want Rifling. For now the next step is to spam Sids and net some more fish. Prior to the revolt to FM we were at least 50 in the black so it shouldn’t be too hard to keep up the economy. Also go to bed ....

Begin next session: Short-term plan is two settlers, then each high production city builds one Sid’s executive and two military units. After that we can re-consider whipping up some infrastructure and some boats.

When the Anarchy ends I queue up a couple of Sids execs and whip another couple of workboats, I’ve got 50 gpt leeway to work with here.

1310 AD – GS born in capital, will go for an Academy elsewhere. Have to verify where …. I think the GM from Econ went on a long trade mission to Celtia and netted 4000 gold.

1340 AD – Expand Sid’s into a ninth city, and skate by at +3 gpt. I can hit a 10th city soon, but will absolutely crash the economy when doing so. Also realize now that I was building the wrong thing in one of my cities …

1400 AD – State of the Empire: Sids has been spread to 10 cities, and I control 17 Sushi resources. There are also 4 more resources in my boundaries waiting for nets. Don’t believe I will found any more cities prior to 1500 AD, but I should spread Sids to ~3 more cities.

With 20 turns until the 1500 AD checkpoint, we're still looking good for a Lib -> Rifling sling. My research was hindered by the free promotion events as I want 16 ‘zerks pre-Rifling and 6 Triremes (w/free Combat I due to event) pre-Astronomy. This turned out to be an original, erroneous conjecture as Military Science obsoletes 'zerks, not Rifling. Who knew?

1405 AD – Louis declares war on me. Could lose a city, but I’ll get it back in short order. Potentially slight benefit from not having to pay the upkeep on the corp for a couple of turns. Hard to say whether I want Brennus in on this or not …



The city I'll lose is labeled "Sid Abuse", the city with zero food-producing tiles on land. Since only two units in Louis’ stack can take a defensive bonus, I evacuate the city and will re-take with my Berzerks on offense.

Oh, I also pay off Brennus and Khan to declare on him, seeing as how he has Astronomy and can reach me. The Riflling sling in about 5 turns, at which point the armies of the entire world are obsoleted.

By 1425 AD I've gotten the city back and cease offensive operations. All that netted Louis was a dogpile and gave me some GG points. Shortly thereafter I execute the Liberalism --> Rifling sling and also trade for Astronomy.

In 1470 AD I launch a Golden Age to finance the last few Sid's Execs. By 1500 AD I have Sid's in 16 cities, all domestic and control 21 resources.



I traded Economics around to try to get the AI into Free Market instead of Mercantilism, but that was a loser.

Peace is unexpectedly made with Louis in 1525 AD from an oddly-worded event. Whatever. I wasn’t going to take the war to him anyway. In 1575 AD I meet Mao, who was created as a colony of Khan. Note I'm using Bhuric's patch so this doesn't start a world war.

I'm still capturing Barb cities (Vandal) in 1590 AD in order to claim more resources. I haven't yet tried to spread Sid's to a foreign city. Research of Scientific Method reveals … oil …nowhere. Ugh. So definitely not a late Tank-fueled Conquest. In hindsight I could have conquered the world with Rifles as I had the tech about 100 turns before anyone else and in-game realized that I, alone, could build Amphibious City Raider Rifles by avoiding Military Science.

Anyway, the new short-range plan is to capture/found about 5 more cities and flip a couple of others. When I'm finished domestically I can spam Sid to to foreign cities with no real use for it.



(The other abusive use of Sid's)

One oddity during this lull was that I popped a GG off of Privateer attacks. Couldn't make as much hay as I wanted as I didn't build enough Privateers and kept getting lousy rolls on combat (winning w/0.4 health remaining and having to heal for 8 turns ...). So no Blitz Privateers either. In world events, war breaks out: Justinian and Louis vs. Khan and Mao. I stayed out of it as it was the usual AI inteptitude and all that got accomplished was pillaging.

After Corporation (Wall Street) I head down the Electricity branch for the happy wonders. I'll be either in Caste System or Slavery so I'll need some extra happies to keep my humongous cities content.

Around 1710 AD I'm ready to send Sid's abroad, when I notice ...



So I can only spam Mao with Execs. That will work for now, but I'll have to check the UN resolution list …

Where’s uberfish to debate me about founding this city?



The impinging French city was captured by the Celts ... which actually accelerates the inevitable.



Popped a GE and was going to launch a Golden Age (primarily to chance Civics), but then realized ...



First game I've built Jesus. This allowed me to merge a GP in the capital for 15 gpt. And right about here Louis capitulates to Brennus. Clown.

Eventaully revolted to the normal combination of Rep/Nationhood/Slavery/Free Market/Free Religion. And that solved any happy issues I may have had since I think I ended up with all 7 religions in my nation, and most cities had at least 4. I also notice that I have two sources of Uranium, but require Fission (I guess) to actually use it. Never saw that before.

In 1744 AD I have Five WW in production, so we’re in Caste System and Representation so my whip hand can cool down and my workshops are more productive.



Oh, and all you base are belong to us. First revolt of the game and this city would soon flip to me. Khan was even nice enough to found the city exactly where I would have. The French/Celtic city on that small island would also flip to me ...

So in 1786 I build the UN and get elected Secretary-General. Can’t win a diplo election, but I can crash the world economy. Again, time for bed ...

Back after about 5 days and I can't even remember what Civics I'm in. But I propose the global civic of Enviromentalism ...



I think Mao has to die. But I celebrate loss by infecting all nine of Khan's cities with Sid's.

In 1832 AD I call for a UN victory. I don't get it because Brennus is #2 in population. So the fiendish plot is to spread Sids to every one of Justinian's cities so he takes over #2 in pop and cash out with a victory. Will it work???

Don't know. Never finished the game. But this was still fun.

[Muaziz]

Nice write up. I don't think there's any doubt you would have won. The only question is how long it would have taken, and whether you would have had to go to war to "adjust" the other civ's population.

As an aside, it looks like you are using unapproved UI mods. Personally, I think we should all be allowed to use them, but it has been forbidden by our Overlord Civilization masters.

[McClure]

As an aside, it looks like you are using unapproved UI mods. Personally, I think we should all be allowed to use them, but it has been forbidden by our Overlord Civilization masters.

Yeah, its the BUG Mod. Don't know why it's disallowed (and don't particularly care ).

I was also using Bhuric's 3.13 Patch. I was half-tempted to flaunt that by creating a colony, but decided that creating colonies, taking all of their seafood resources, and still sticking them with the Corporation was lame.

If I finished the game it would be a space win. I played a couple more turns today and the AI's started to fight and adopt bad civics. I would have had to kill Mao to get Enviromentalism passed, since I doubt the AI can truly consider specific conditions, so the path of least resistance was going to be space.

I did hit one milestone: Sids in 50 cities, Might have been able to push that to 60 non-Celtic cities if the AI were more cooperative. My favorite thing in my screenshots is the 811 beakers/turn at 0% science. Even in Representation that means, ballpark, 200 specialists.

Towards the end of the game I was running high espionage so I could see how the AI was handling Sids without having to use Debug mode. The upkeep costs weren't killing them and they seemed to use the extra food to run specialists rather than adapting their tile improvements. The AI cities were too small to see how they would try to manage significant growth beyond the happy cap.

I also wanted to see how the AI would respond to my espionage spending, as I was building all the spy buildings in every city and the Governor loves to assign spies as specialists. I figured if I spent 10% the AI would all respond by spending at least 20%, thus retarding their research. That experiment was inconclusive as I'm not sure what they would have been running normally, although for all the civs for which I could see their cities were running at least 20%.