Adventure 12 - The Judge's report

[The Judge]

The Judge presents: Fisher Price's "My First Write-Up" for Adventure 12. I have a low number of pics (one of those "Oh, yeah, I should be taking some" moments around, oh, say 1800) and will try to do better next time.

A few words on my style: I never played Civ3 (I'll pause for horrified gasps). Civ2, yes, but never extensively. Jumped back in with the release of Civ4, so any kind of "it was SO much better in the old days" statement is usually lost on me. Probably completed two dozen games or so. Warlord-level is pretty easy for me, so I usually go with Noble. Like most middle-level players, I have a decent-to-good grasp of the early/middle game, but the endgame to the finish line usually confounds me. I also should stress that I am a total wuss in Civ. Most games are spent treating things like SimNation. Build cities, improve tiles, play nice, ramp up research, kill Barbarians and Rabid Animals, etc, etc. It's usually Space Race or Diplomatic win for me. Rare is the occasion where I sneak-attack another Civ. Defensively wiping out someone stupid enough to invade, yes, but other than that, I play quietly in my corner of the globe.

So naturally for my first game here, I'm throwing away everything that I know and am comfortable with and am going for Straight-Up Ass Kickery of All Who Stand Before Me. Domination or outright slaughter, FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Moscow founded on the starting tile, and I go for a worker out of the gate. Immediately research BW since I'd like a military tech gap ASAP. My roving Scout pops a map (amused to see the map reveal give me nothing by the northern stretch of ocean. Gee, thanks.), then gets a tech from the northern village (Wheel), then runs into the French approaching from the east.

After the worker, things went Warrior/Warrior/Settler. My scout was devoured by bears, and I didn't see any immediate copper in the area I had so far uncovered. Bummer. Oh, well, AH next up in research to get the sheep working for me and to try and find some horsies. AH gained aaaaand . . . none to be had. Hmmmm . . . okay, no Copper or Horses anywhere near me. Went Archery followed by Fishing (lots of coastline). Rooselvelt drops by. And I fail to capitalize on my BW advantage as both Napoleon and the Americans pick up the tech before I can find and settle near copper. Not wanting to get screwed, I research IW and hope that Steel pops somewhere nearby.

In the meantime, I settle my second city north of Moscow, on the coast and in range of the Wheat. I pull IW in a few turns and, in a stroke of luck, I'm already mining it right next to Moscow. Most excellent news. Bring forth the Axemen and Swordsmen! I crank out Agriculture next to take advantage of that Wheat near St. Petersburg and then Sailing to keep the treasury levels (and, thus, research levels) up. The Egyptians make themselves noticed around this time.

I got another Settler built and then made a sizable error of founding a third city in a horrible spot. Honestly, it was an attempt at a land grab from Napoleon, but I dropped it much too low to the southeast, near the Ivory plots. This was such a lame move - I'm going to invade him anyway. Smart money would've been to just declare on the French and use the settler later. Oh well, it's not going to matter in the long run, I suppose. I spend a few more turns making additions to the army, declaring war on Napoleon in 850BC.

I pick up Writing in the next turn and then capture Paris and Orleans with the first wave of invaders in short order. A bit of a pause to stock up, then the final push north to whack Lyons. I've crushed the French, taken over their property, and am sitting okay in 175BC. Four of my six cities are coastal, so I get Moscow working on the Great Lighthouse. I move tech to Construction for elephants and catapults. In the meantime, Ghandi drops by to say hello.

I do a bit of chopping to get a new Settler up and the Lighthouse built. The next few years pass with me fending off barbs, building up my cities, and trying to balance research at 50%. It's looking like Ghandi is shaping up to be the other baddy on the block. His culture is ticking upward and he's planted some horribly-placed cities just below Moscow and in the extreme northwest of the continent. Meanwhile, I found another new city toward the Egyptian side of the world. New plan is to build an army and invade the Egyptian territories. Slowly start doing that. Finally get to where I want to be after Forges and Macemen arrive. It's kind of slow-going since the costs of my empire are keeping cash and research low, even with Courthouses thrown in. I declare on Egypt in 1370 and invade.

It takes a good number of years to drop them because, as stated earlier, I am not a brilliant tactician when it comes to waging warfare. How many years? Well, it's 1610, actually, before I finally snuff them. Long time wearing them down. During this timeframe, I manage to get to Liberalism first, took Nationalism as the bonus, and began cranking out troops at a furious pace. I also meet Taka and Alexander on the other continent and to my regret, they seem to like each other. I was hoping for some hatred that I could work with, but no dice. Due to the unending war I've just finished, I find myself at the back of the pack in power (minus, y'know, the French and Egyptians tied for dead last) at this stage in the game. Between Ghandi and Washington, it looks like India is the lesser of the two in military might, though they control more territory. Picking up Ghandi's Cultural Engines of Doom wouldn't be a bad idea, either. I decide to hunker down for a few years in order to get a sizable invasion force going again. Still looking for domination or conquest at this point. Cultural option is a no-go (Ghandi is killing everyone in this category) and while I have a decent tech lead (heading toward Rifling), I'm still trying to avoid a Space Race.

Time passes. I have to keep research at 50 and I'm still losing -21 per turn in 1720. Printing Press is four turns away. Banks and Courthouses are queued in the majority of my 16-city empire. It's right around now that I check on Ghandi's power and see that he's been building troops. Like, a lot of troops. And he's clearly hit Rifling because I see a few of those around. The Door of Opportunity appears to be closing. Can't decide if massing my forces on the border, bankrupting myself to upgrade, and then attacking is the right call. Might need to anyway.

I get Miltary Tradition in 1806 and upgrade every mounted unit I can afford to a Cossack. I also start thinking that Washington might be the easier target to roll up rather than the Purple People Eaters. The world at this time:


I send my Explorer in for a recon tour through the Americas . . . and the report is stunning: he's got Elephants and Catapults and maybe a Musketman or two. Wonderful news! I send the Explorer some hookers and cocaine and retire him to St. Petersburg for life. Washington is a dead man! I've got this in the--


What? Defensive Pact with Ghandi?! Awwwww, man. I can't pull the trigger on that, it would be suicide.

I mope a bit and keep building and ponder a Godzilla-style seaside invasion of Japan. Biology comes along and my pop levels in cities across the empire skyrocket. I aim for Flight (picking up Steam, etc, etc along the way). Basically, I build and build and build for years. Around 1900, I feel okay enough to send over about 3/4 of my army (mostly Cossack/Cannon combos) to the opposite side of the world. Bonus being that when I snag Rocketry, all the Cossacks can get upgraded to Gunships. That should pave the way for victory. Satisfied with the plan, I declare on Japan in 1920, invade a small spur of Red on the western coastline of Continent Two, and sack the first city I find. Dehli reaches legendary culture in 1922, but I'm not worried since nothing else is even remotely close. Yes, truly my continent is a quiet three-member, peace-loving--


. . . Washington declares war in 1926. :mad:

I mean, seriously, full points for the tactical nature of tackling me while I had damn near my entire army deployed on the far side of the world. But what the HELL was that for? Since the discovery of the Defensive Pact, I'd courted this guy plenty. He wasn't a fan of the Japanese, we were on Pleased terms, had traded well with one another, etc. I'm on Free Religion, so it's not any kind of hate on the belief front. I just can't see what I did wrong. Kind of like getting blindsided in a game of Risk. Legit move, sure. Good strategy, yes. But, baby . . . why you gotta hurt me like that?

I battle Washington on the border for a few years. He smashes two southern cities in short order. I have some of my army turn around, board transports, and speed for home while the remaining parts capture one other city on the Japan/Greece continent. Disaster nearly strikes when I'm forced to furiously defend an end-around by a sizable Japanese invasion on Moscow. This served as an excellent reminder that the world is round. Stupid backdoor to my empire . . . *grumble* . . . I have to say, the computer is being intelligently evil as hell here. War weariness is killing me, as is the need to get Democracy due to Emancipation (thanks, Ghandi). The Indian government won't give it to me, though, for anything other than Flight. This would nearly hand Ghandi the game, so no deal.

I make peace with Japan to cut down on WW. Washington still won't talk and he's sending everything but the kitchen sink against me. Pillaging galore by the Americans. But I catch a good break when his mass-stack-attack on Giza fails. I spent a few turns strafe-attacking his better units with fighters off my single carrier. One lone SAM mowed down 5 or 6 attacks in a row and the city was spared. I rename Giza to "Point Defense" in defiance of the American failure. War drags on and on and on. I finally sack some of his northern coastline, settling on four cities taken before negotiating a fifth (returning me one of mine) and gold for peace. We "win" the Great North War (1926-1961). Yay.

It is then that I realize that I have no hope of cultural victory because of Ghandi. No hope of UN victory (Ghandi built the UN during the throw-down in '35) because while I have the pop advantage, it's not enough for the diplomatic win. Can't crush four developed Civs in the time I have left since there is no real military tech gap I can exploit at this late stage. Especially since Ghandi has worked up a tech and warfare advantage to the point where Washington, when asked about attacking Ghandi in the 1970s, said 'no' not out of friendship, but due to fear of the Indian might. I have but one option. I must slink back to the Space Race and hope she'll still have me.

I may be digging out of a hole and Ghandi may have a monster lead on techs, but I've got three things in my favor. One: more cities. Two, I started Moscow on the Apollo Program while at war with Washington as a back door in case things looked hopeless (and they do). I manage to get there one year before Ghandi in 1966. But the absolute best moment was realizing the third thing a few turns down the road. Somehow, I beat him to the punch on Casings and my first Thruster and couldn't figure out what was up. And then it dawns on me when Ghandi strolls into the home office in '87:


Corner on Aluminum! Take your sugar and LEAVE, my good man!

It's only a matter of time now. I even followed Ghandi's threat of moving to Emancipation and took the one turn hit to avoid any kind of invasion that would have totally killed me. Last piece of the puzzle in 2017.


What I learned: Winning is winning, so don't worry about Space being a safety net. Sometimes your plans work perfectly. Sometimes the Americans sneak attack you from behind.

Good game, but I'm fairly certain I got utterly creamed by better players. Nice starting point on the tip of the continent that forced you to kill eastward or die on the vine. I just ran into a Indian-American roadblock and had not the strength to overcome it.

[mucco]

Good game it was an interesting idea to try to attack Japan; surely facing a block of Gandhi and Roosevelt in the late game would have been ugly. Too bad you were hit by America, I'd have really enjoyed to read how you would have managed a two-continent empire. The two allies you faced were less avanced in my game, so I felt I could take over them. In your game it would have been a far more complicated thing however.

I'd really like some detail from the early game, or some close-ups of your core at the end of the game. Can you provide them?

Your opening (so that Darrell doesn't have to write it up himself ):
worker - warrior - warrior - settler - worker - archer - settler
bronze working - popped wheel - animal husbandry - archery - fishing - iron working

EDIT: updated building order.

[mostly_harmless]

Maybe Washington was bribed by Toku to help out in the war?
Hard to tell.
Nice report.
Congratulations.

[The Judge]

I'd really like some detail from the early game, or some close-ups of your core at the end of the game. Can you provide them?

I managed to find one taken from above right after I crushed the French.
As you can see, there is tons of space that I didn't develop in my mad rush to the east. Spread myself out waaaay too thinly and was hobbled by it as India and America turned themselves into immovable objects. I'll check the save game for end-game material when I get a chance.

Your opening (so that Darrell doesn't have to write it up himself ):
worker - warrior - warrior - settler - settler?
bronze working - popped wheel - animal husbandry - archery - fishing - iron working

Worker-warrior-warrior-settler-worker, as I recall. Archer and another settler for the poorly placed third city before IW allowed me to start production on Axemen and Swordsmen. I'll check the game log for the exact run on techs through the first ten or so. Better notes next time.

[T-hawk]

Good game, but I'm fairly certain I got utterly creamed by better players.

This isn't a scored game, so there isn't any creaming to be had. All wins are equal here, so congrats on the eventual triumph.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

very nice report, it was a good read! Some more screenshots would have been helpful, but you know that alreay.

That may sound weird, but I envy you for being sneak-attacked by America. I rarely get attacked in my games, and events like this make for more exciting games for sure. Nice job of fending him off you did there, and congrats on the win!

-Kylearan

[darrelljs]

Your opening (so that Darrell doesn't have to write it up himself )

Heh-heh...thanks, but I only do the opening moves comparison for isolated starts at Monarch or above, and probably not even all of those

Darrell

[Sirian]

Heh-heh...thanks, but I only do the opening moves comparison for isolated starts at Monarch or above, and probably not even all of those

People get used to reaping the labor of others. Once they start to rely on your work, you become the definitive authority and they start looking to your effort with expectancy if not actually taking it for granted.

Of course, anything like this IS a lot of work, so people shouldn't take it for granted. It's an especially big deal when, say, someone like Griselda, who rarely has the time to play in the games, still manages to be the workhorse who keeps the fun going for everybody else. (We're not worthy!) 8)


- Sirian

[mucco]

Heh-heh...thanks, but I only do the opening moves comparison for isolated starts at Monarch or above, and probably not even all of those

Hey, don't think I'm doing that for you, I'm not that kind Seriously, it's just that I liked the way you were writing off the opening, as it helps the comparison between games, so I decided to use it too. That was more of an acknowledgement for your efforts.

People get used to reaping the labor of others. Once they start to rely on your work, you become the definitive authority and they start looking to your effort with expectancy if not actually taking it for granted.

Of course, anything like this IS a lot of work, so people shouldn't take it for granted. It's an especially big deal when, say, someone like Griselda, who rarely has the time to play in the games, still manages to be the workhorse who keeps the fun going for everybody else. (We're not worthy!) 8)

The more you work, the more others want you to work.