Epic 24 - Micromerica

[Olodune]

Part I

The idea in Epic 24, is that we play to a time victory using an extensive rule set that will hopefully keep the late game interesting as well as force a balance between peacemongering and warfare.

There were three things I liked about the design of this Epic

1) Huge Map. I’ve never played a huge map and generally find large maps a little tedious, but (at least for this once) I’m willing to give it a shot. I generated a few maps using similar setting and tried to get a sense of what to expect. Big. Huge … and yet very pretty landmasses.

2) Normal speed. Everything I think I know about huge maps suggests this could be a challenge.

3) A tight rule set. Heading into the game all I know is to expect ~3500 total available land tiles, and that obtaining (and eliminating) a blood enemy seems to be a good idea. Don’t let too many civilizations die, oh, and ban nukes. {Anyone see a problem with this plan }


The Start

Well this is a very versatile start. Lots of hills, food, and riverside tiles. Either I can focus on commerce tiles (meaning early pottery) or production (meaning mines). Both options also need Bronze Working.

Let’s try prod. First three techs are Mining->Masonry->Bronze.

You guessed it:



Building the Great Wall before a settler is certainly a gamble, but I’m hoping that it will pay off in the long run. 15pts in the bag too, which is basically the score of an extra city. At least now I can focus on growth rather than arms.

By 975bc, I’ve only expanded to three cities total -- definitely a slow start. New York went to the SE next to an irrigated Corn+Pigs+3 Hills and became a second production city. Boston went to the NW to finally lay down some cottages.

Saladin is my first contact, followed by Hammurabi, founders of Buddhism and Judaism, respectively. To America’s immediate south is a vast jungle, which I want to claim:



Did you ever hear that story about a Rabi a Lion and a Warrior?:


Sending an unescorted missionary across the wild seems a little foolish -- but if the AI wants to spend its hammers on my culture I can live with it.

Washington continued to work the hammer tiles, getting my second wonder:



Getting the oracle was exciting, but founding Confucianism was a very nice bonus. I’m not going to ever adopt it but eventually I should have a very profitable shrine.

Switching straight to Caste System also has one large benefit: new cities can hire an artist for three turns rather than build a monument, saving hammers and getting the full city radius very quickly. (No slavery for me this game.) In fact new cities first build was generally a cheap courthouse, since I didn’t have enough workers to keep pace with early granaries for most of the ReX phase.



I was actually quite pleased with a Great Spy -- he is a untouchable scout who can ignore barbs (even those standing on huts).

Another wonder, this time for happiness:



Building wonders without resources is painful, but by this time I’m beginning to wonder if T-Hawk may have intentionally left our start low on strategic resources and luxuries. I think I’m doing reasonably well balancing growth with wonder building, but a few annoying misses are looming on the horizon:



Missing wonders by such a narrow margin is a real pain, because those hammers could be used for workers and settlers. Oh well at least the gold refund will support research efforts.

At 1AD I have a few concerns; America still only has six cities compared with Saladin’s 10+. It’s time to start getting serious about claiming some tiles.

My second GP is actually very welcome, and a very nice wonder is completed:


The Mausoleum should be a solid investment since it scores well, and will extend every golden age until 2500AD. Very nice.

Another miss:



I decided to skip the Chichen Itza since I didn’t want to throw away more hammers -- so naturally it remains un-built for hundreds of years. Oh well.

By 920ad our borders mashed up against Saladin and Hammurabi, but there is still a significant gap between us and Sitting Bull. Our research rate is finally picking up some steam, but most of my cities are undeveloped -- so I headed for an economic technology that is mostly passive:



For some reason I nearly forgot about the Sistine Chapel (which should be very nice to have later), so when Saladin popped the free Great Artist from music I quickly researched the tech and burned a sleeping Great Engineer:



I’ve been putting all my espionage points towards the Arab leader, so not only can I follow his tech progress but I can peek inside his cities:



Ouch! That is a painful sight. Not only is Saladin only at 20% Science, but he is working three unimproved tiles. I’m not sure the AI is doing all that well on a huge map.

Another nice aspect to being in Caste System is the ability to get “panic culture”. In this case I want San Francisco’s borders to expand this turn so a Babylonian setter is forced away:

[Olodune]

Part II

More Peace (Despite my best efforts)

The next phase of the game focused on the final ReX, meeting the other continent, and building up America’s economic base.

First of all, did the border expansion push pay off? Not exactly:



Since we are playing until 2050 I didn’t rush locating many of our national wonders. However this city is destined to be a good great person generator -- even the Globe could go here:



After thousands of years exploring the vastness, Max Gogf is ready to spark a national fervor:



All the extra commerce helped a smooth glide into my goal for Liberalism:



Emancipation is one of the large mid-game economic accelerators, and Free Religion will be a nice boost as well. Since Washington is only an average capital Free Speech is immediately a dramatic upgrade as well. Getting Democracy is early is probably a piece of the puzzle to scoring well in this variant (it’s just too bad Roosevelt had such a slow start under my guidance).

More turns of plenty (I already am very pleased with the Mausoleum of Mausollos):



Meanwhile I did actually get Optics and send a caravel out exploring (from my single city with sea access at the time). I met Hindus Caesar and Shaka, buying a world map from the later:



So it appears the big foreign threats are Rome, Russia, and Germany -- with Russia likely leading the way. Also note the unsettled peninsula beyond Zulu lands, clearly a few cities down there could be useful.

For comparison a view of my own continent:



For some reason Elizabeth chooses to be the lone Taoist on Hindi grounds, Caesar does not approve bringing well balanced stacks into action:



Just before finishing Liberalism I made the only significant trade of the whole game so far:



Closer to home I’m beginning to feel more aggressive (remember I still don’t have any candidates for Blood Enemy). This will help in the case of hostilities.



Recently I’ve canceled all trade agreements with the Arabs, and started to make harsh demands to force their hand. I’ve even been keeping my power rating low.



I used a very valuable Great Engineer to save 8 turns on the Kremlin as efficient Universal Suffrage seems to be a fantastic way to locate troops where they are needed in a hurry. I’m especially nervous as we’ve started to look for distant lands to settle in and I don’t want a weak (read Shaka) AI to become a default BE because America has neglected her defenses.

Rome beat me to some unimpressive islands:



But Shaka’s backdoor is still (slightly) open. In we go:



And a free city to boot:



Settling cities at home is getting a little extreme. Its Vegas in a Desert:



A problem with the Great Wall is lack of experience for my troops, so opening up the Heroic Epic has been a priority:



Since I now have Sistine + Statue of Liberty + Efficient Rush Buy (theatres) + Free Speech claiming Sitting Bulls food is just too easy, even from a well developed city:



Culturally our home continent is looking fairly promising.

[Olodune]

Part III

A Covenant in Blood

While Saladin is a likely candidate for my blood enemy he doesn’t seem particularly interested in declaring war -- so by this time I’m beginning to feel a little nervous obtaining one.

Before letting you know how that went, if was time for the final pieces of the economic master plan to fall into place, first the levees:



A tricky part of the scoring of this scenario is to find the right corporation to use as our unrestricted agent of American economic might (State Property is a very reasonable alternative). A culture heavy corp (Sids, Jewelers, or Cre Con) would be a great boon at culture pressure as a means to get scoring tiles, but our land is lacking in the materials for all three. Even the ever reliable Mining Inc is looking a little run-of-the-mill. What resources we possess in the greatest abundance are rice and corn, so Standard Ethanol or Cereal Mills are good options. For a normal game I would probably use Ethanol since it provides am easy passive benefit, but for this game a food giving corporation seems the correct choice. This is largely because food remains (even in the late game) the easier resource to transform into others (by tile shifting and choosing specialists). So we map out a technology path:



And our core corporation is founded, giving us 7 food in each city we spread it to:



Elizabeth is not a very acute diplomat, choosing to be the lone Taoist on a Hindu continent. This time its going to hurt her badly:



Catherine brings some heat:



Caesar has the best battlefield discipline sacking London and the Taoist capital of York:



As I am now nearing the end of the technology tree finding any valid blood enemies is a real challenge. Saladin is already furious, Shaka is cautious, and it appears that Elizabeth will survive too long (she has a hard to reach island city that I’ve been waiting for someone to approach -- all her land cities have been captured for a while now). So when I see that Catherine is now Annoyed with Roosevelt I open up another door:



That foxy women surely doesn’t waste any time, as this follows about two turns later:



At this point I’m very happy as Russia is the perfect Blood Enemy for scoring purposes as Russia is a massive empire. If Saladin had ever stepped up to the plate this game could have looked very differently.

Since I’ve been keeping my power low (to encourage a DoW) there is a small problem:



Since I know Catherine will likely head for my cities south of the Zulu I start a frantic search for her troops (she initiated the attack with a tiny stack of Cossacks). The Kremlin is also being put to its fullest use as troops are rush bought into existence.

Finally a recon plane spots the main Russian army:



By the time it’s at Hunt Valley’s doorstep our defenders are looking a little thin:



However, the Russian Empress spends a turn taking down our cultural defences, giving Roose the time he needs to flank attack away her siege, hit her stack with air power (which is safely behind the lines in case Hunt Valley does fall), and upgrade his tanks to fearsome Modern Armor.

We hold!



After the destruction of her main stack my troops are free to march through Zululand and Roman lands until they reach Russian soil:



The advanced American troops are superior to the industrial age Russian defenders. I am using stacks of Stealth Bombers to pulverize defenders so when Modern Armor/Paratroopers/Navy Seals/Gunships reach their destination the battles are easily one (generally). A naval based carrier group, with Navy Seals in transports captures all the coastal cities. (My pictures of this came out as a solid black screen, sadly).

Inland our spies report an interesting project is under way:



Clearly I cannot allow Catherine to enable nuclear weapons as even a few strikes against the American core cities could be devastating (so Roosevelt captures the city before the project ever reaches fruition -- the world will remain nuclear free a while longer).

At the gates of Moscow:



After more mopping up, our Blood Enemy is defeated in 1888:



Surprisingly (or not) no one was willing to declare war against Catherine for any price. Some (like Bismark) though of her too fondly, while others (like Hammurabi) feared for their lives if they joined the fighting. No Blood Brother was ever enabled.

After the first major stack combat the war was exceeding one sides, as seen in the kills statistics (since this is my first war all kills are Russian or barbarian):



The American stealth bomber casualties, were not shot down, but were overrun in neutral (Roman) territory where I mistakenly thought they could not be reached and/or were under defended.

Other events that occurred during this timer period:

I’ve been trying to bury all the corporations so that we I don’t have to worry about AI spread to our cities. However I missed two: Sid’s Sushi and Aluminum Inc. I’m not worried about Sid’s spreading to my cities (since it competes with cereal), but the border pressure could be annoying. Sitting Bull got it:



A good sign that I’m finally running out of American city names:



In fact shortly after this city was founded new cities got randomly assigned (Kyoto, Istanbul, Omsk, etc). It appears the algorithm is to randomly choose another AI (even if they exist in the game) and assign you the next available name. Who knew?

What do I do with one of these:



I play with “Show Enemy Moves = On” so barbarian galleys are very annoying (especially if it takes a submarine to reach them):

[Olodune]

Part IV

The Near Future (the peaceful part)

Spy actions are really ramping up (mostly from Saladin). Often the beginning of a turn will be a splash of red (I thought we removed civ3-style “pollution” ? )



The captured Russian core has quickly come into its own (I did have to garrison several border cities with the remnants of the conquering army to prevent flips):



Sadly the peaceful cruise could not last forever, a silly German leader finished the Manhattan Project, so I need a project of my own:



Shortly thereafter the world has gone nuclear:



Clearly I must step carefully for the remainder of the game -- massive nukes against America would be devastating for the final score.

[Olodune]

Part V

While cereal mills is still my core corporation, using creative constructions (the highest culture corp available to me) in key border situations is great (I just need to keep a careful count):



I did manage a 5-person Golden Age:



Sadly Bismarck was the first to try out some doomsday devices:



I did bribe for peace when I could but Sitting Bull also managed to nuke an enemy:



Bismarck apparently likes this game quite well:



Naturally all this wanton destruction led to some nasty global warming towards the end (I am certainly happy I chose not to chase the “large city” scoring. Here is a particularly warm turn:



Since this game lasted so long (and we have a ridiculous happy cap) unusual later game civics swaps seemed optimal: US->Representation in 1954; Emancipation->Caste System in 2000.

Even 9 turns before the finish there is still unclaimed landmasses:



And the finish:



{Scoring to follow in a few hours – I need to re-examine the save, etc}

[Olodune]

Part VI

Scoring.

Let’s start by counting the surviving civilization and their diplomatic rating:



That is 6 rivals, 2 of which are “pleased”.
I’m also claiming two large cities that can feed themselves before their massive corporate food:




And a look at excess corporations, as well as legendary cities (cities that are legendary don’t show the turns until the next border pop – also culture generated is the column to the right):











That's 18 excess corps (0% penalty), and 64 Legendary Cities.

I only invaded my blood enemy (Catherine) but did not eliminate her early enough for any scoring purposes (see part III of the report).

No Wonders were destroyed, and I was never nuked.

I built:

The Great Wall +15
The Oracle +15
The Pyramids +50
M. of Maussollos +45

Final Demographics:



For a final score:
Land +2342
Wonders +125
Relations +4 (2*2)
Legendaries +256 (64*4)
Future Tech +890 (178*5)
Large Cities +6 (2*3)

Subtotal 3623

Modifiers NONE !!

Final Tally (Please Check) 3623

Fun game. Long game. Need a break from Civ.

Final Save Attached~ (Edit: Nevermind, the final file is 1.14 MB (when zipped) -- too large for RB. I can send it elsewhere if you would like.)

Edit: Counted one too many Future Techs (only 178 complete).

[timmy827]

Well done! I had originally hoped that I would get the largest civ on the other continent to be a blood enemy and only invade them, but gave up as I couldn't get any borders. It was nice to get a good example at how that might have played out, as we picked the same corporations, and you came out ahead in the score.

[Olodune]

Well done! I had originally hoped that I would get the largest civ on the other continent to be a blood enemy and only invade them, but gave up as I couldn't get any borders. It was nice to get a good example at how that might have played out, as we picked the same corporations, and you came out ahead in the score.

It was pure Luck getting Cathy as my BE, especially since I had been trying to get Saladin to DoW for 300 years Clearly large parts of the scoring are (somewhat) random.

At the time I was fairly certain Cereal Mills was the best corporation. After playing I realized that there was a loophole where all cities could incorporate with Aluminum+Jewelers+CreCon for the majority of the game, then be "cleansed" with Mining Inc just before 2050 -- it doesn't look like anyone chose that route

[T-hawk]

Well done indeed! 2342 tiles with only the one invasion is excellent. I hoped that somebody would find a Blood Enemy on the far continent. If not by direct war declaration (as your Russia did), then by the "genocider" clause. I had a cross-continent BE in the Civ 3 version, and quite enjoyed building up empires on both halves of the world.

And glad you got a satisfying modern era war. I still haven't gotten to use a Stealth Bomber ever.

I'm starting to agree with Blake's assessment that the Civ 4 BTS AI is too passive. Looks like nobody at all had any wars from Hammurabi or Sitting Bull, and timmy even had no wars at all until the future age.

Building wonders without resources is painful, but by this time I’m beginning to wonder if T-Hawk may have intentionally left our start low on strategic resources and luxuries.

Semi-intentional. The map was random and unedited. But I did look for a weakish capital start, and rejected one playtest map that had both stone and marble very close.

Chichen Itza went very late in my game too. Once Confucianism goes, the AIs prioritize Code of Laws quite low.

Great Spy as explorer I'll have to remember that one. He can swipe huts out from under sitting barbs? Great Ninja!

I had New Orleans at almost the same spot you did, the southeast flood plains. Size 51, wow!

Yes, the loophole of "cleansing" culture corps with Mining Inc was mentioned in the game info thread. There was no way to ban that, since replacement of corps can be a viable strategic tool (especially if it's an AI corp), so we had to trust to play by the spirit of that rule.

[Olodune]

I hoped that somebody would find a Blood Enemy on the far continent. If not by direct war declaration (as your Russia did), then by the "genocider" clause.

I was hoping for this as well -- Liz had been taken down to a single island city (Oxford) and was at war with Caesar and Catherine, but neither seemed willing to get a transport in the right locale. Much later Shaka finally took the city to eliminate the English.