Adventure 12 - Zeroth Amendment

[Zeroth Amendment]

Zeroth Amendment – Adventure 12

Part 1: Pregame Analysis

Difficulty: Noble

Civilization: Russia

Leader: Catherine

Map Size: Standard

Map Script: Ice Age

Rules: Standard

Victory: Any

This game claims to be unscored, but of course the de facto scoring parameter is speed of victory.

Noble is a couple levels below what I usually play, so this should be a nice, gentle re-introduction to the games on Realms Beyond, which I haven’t played since Epic 2. I started slacking off when school ended for the summer, but now that it’s started up again I can play lots of games and post lots of reports. Beats studying!

We’re leading the Russians this game, and it would be criminal negligence to be handed the Cossack unit and not exploit it. We’ll be heading to the trio of Horseback Riding, Gunpowder, and Military Tradition with all deliberate speed, and from there conquest/domination should proceed fairly easily, with the Cossack’s 20% increase in stats over standard Cavalry. The only reasons I could see for not taking this path would be a lack of horses or a lack of enemies (i.e., if I’m alone on my continent). We’ll see how it turns out.

Regarding the starting position, I hate to settle on forests (what a waste!) and I love to settle on plains hills, so I think I’m going to settle 1S. We’ll see how it looks when I move my scout around, though. Ready? Go!

[continued in next post]

[Zeroth Amendment]

Part 2: Ancient History

Moscow founded 1S, going worker first with research on AH both to work the sheep and to find us horses for Cossacks. Gotta have the Cossacks, can’t live without the Cossacks. My scout pops the hut for some gold, meets the French to the west, then gets eaten by a bear. Poor guy. Research finishes on Animal Husbandry, and shows no horses. Well, I haven’t fully scouted my area yet, it’s a bit early to panic. My next research is into The Wheel-Fishing-Pottery, the idea being to get some use out the Financial trait as soon as possible. Simultaneously, I’m building a warrior followed by a settler. Once I finish Pottery, I start research into Mysticism with an eye toward eventually building the Oracle.



My second city, St. Petersburg, founded because hey, it’s a food bonus, on an Ice Age map. You gotta take what you can get. Maybe should be up there in that tundra square 2N2E, but whatever.



Whoops, though, I forgot I didn’t have Agriculture. After Mysticism comes in, I start on that, to get my wheat going.



Well here’s a pretty little discovery my warrior made…




France has horses! And I don’t. This means that I have to take France out before I can wipe the world clean with my Cossacks. Also, they are pretty well positioned to block my peaceful expansion, so I should probably take them out sooner rather than later. Right now my army consists of two warriors defending my two cities and one warrior on a scouting mission, but I am resolved to press the attack as soon as I can build an actual army. That means researching Bronze Working, so I begin research on that.



Oh, but look what I find a few turns later, in 2200 BC:




I think that justifies pushing forward my timetable for war a little, don’t you? I know there has been talk of the “seedcorning” of AIs by stealing their workers very early, and how it might be an exploit. In this case, though, I think it’s fine. After all, I’d been planning to go to war with them soon anyway – I’m just choosing the timing on my declaration of war so that it helps me and hurts them. It seems reasonable enough.



2200 BC: First French War Begins



Whoops! I may have jumped the gun more than I thought I did. Bronze Working comes in, but there’s no copper anywhere in my empire. There’s nothing to do but go for Iron Working and pray. Napoleon could knock me over with a handful of archers at this point. The ultra-conservative play would be to go for Archery, but I’m not quite ready to pour those beakers down the drain yet.





Geez, this is embarrassing. ONE LITTLE WARRIOR, and there’s nothing I can do but watch as he pillages my cottages. You can see me building another warrior there in Moscow – I do eventually manage to take him out, but not in time to save the poor people of the hamlet 1E of Moscow. ;_;



In 1560BC I pick up Iron Working and praise the Lord (or the event sponsor), there’s iron in my territory. The hill 2N2E of Moscow, which means that if I had settled in place instead of moving my settler 1S it would be within my capital’s radius. Them’s the breaks, I guess. The poor overworked map generator tries so hard to give me a usable starting location, and then I turn around and throw it back in its face. I’m kind of an ungrateful jerk, huh? Anyway, let’s get that Iron hooked up ASAP, and take the fight to the French. The people of the Greater Moscow Area will be avenged! In the meantime we start research on Meditation, because hey, what’s a game of Civ without executing a Civil Service Slingshot, right?



Before the iron gets hooked, we have a chance to squeeze out another settler, this time bound for the northern wastes.




With the founding of Novgorod there, I think I’ve exhausted the good city sites in my starting area. Any more cities will have to be purchased with French blood.



Speaking of French blood, look at this pitiful excuse for a garrison in their capital.



Yeah, that’s not gonna stop me. Paris falls to Russian troops in 800 BC. At this point, I have my horses, and I could make peace and wait for Cossacks to take him out. But I only lost one axe taking Paris, and there’s really no point in half-killing somebody, right? Might as well keep the momentum going.



Oh, and by the way…





ONE TURN! ONE FREAKING TURN UNTIL THE CS SLINGSHOTDAFLJAKFDJAJRFIEJFHGKVLNCDSAS! FJKDEAFAJLKDF! FCJKVRYUHGWSIH! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!



Whew. Man, that is really awful. If anybody manages a CS Slingshot after 725BC, I’m going to be a bit peeved. Confucianism founded in Paris, for what it’s worth, which isn’t much.



Man, I’m down in the dumps now that I missed the Oracle. Maybe slaughtering the hapless French will cheer me up!



You know, I kind of expected better out of an Aggressive leader, but maybe he was too busy chasing the Pyramids or something to properly defend himself.




That takes care of that. Now that I’ve carved out some Lebensraum, I need to get settlers into the empty spaces where France used to be, before Gandhi or Hattie do.

[Zeroth Amendment]

Part 3: Peace and Love

Well, actually, it’s not peace and love time just yet. Somehow the Apache tribe managed to settle near the center of the continent, and they have to be brought into the Russian fold.



That’s a pretty decent spot for a city, I think I’ll keep it.

In 200 BC I found a pair of new cities to claim some territory. Here’s the first:

And here’s the second.


The second one overlaps a bit with Paris, but those furs will be a welcome boost to my citizens’ happiness.

Oh, somewhere in there I got Alphabet and started tech-trading like a madman. Gandhi is a very nice man, and is willing to share his special secrets with me.

I may have out-expanded my economy, though…



Currency helps turn that around somewhat, when it finally arrives.

In 350 AD, Moscow builds the Great Library. That’s my first wonder of the game. Is this really on Noble? I seem to be getting blown out of the water a little, here. Moscow picks up the Nat’l Epic afterwards, because doubling 8 GPPPT is a lot of fun.

In 600 AD, Russia enters the Medieval era, finally picking up Civil Service. I could have had it a millennium earlier if it weren’t for Gandhi. Well, he’ll get what’s coming to him when I get Military Tradition. Revolting to Bureaucracy puts my economy back on a reasonable level – I’m now able to gain money at 60% science. Well, it’s not great, but I’ll take what I can get. Next we’re off to Music, which we pick up in 740, along with Homer. I don’t have much use for him, really. I research Drama and Monarchy real quick, and then use him to discover Theology, finally founding Christianity 840 years after it showed up on Earth.

Oh, and I missed a city site in my initial settlement rush.



Anyway, I’m pursuing Liberalism now. I found Taoism in 920 AD (why are the AIs slacking on religion this game? They sure didn’t slack on building the Oracle… and Education in 1090 brings me into the Renaissance. I go with a boring old Liberalism into Nationalism in 1150 – after what happened with the Oracle, I’m not going to slow-roll it and wait for a bigger tech. Then it’s just a matter of researching the various techs leading up to Cossacks.



Oh yes.

[Zeroth Amendment]

Part 4: Senseless, Bloody Massacre

I’m not sure there’s much to discuss here. I mean, Cossacks vs. Longbows. You pretty much know how it goes. I could show you before and after pictures of each city, and mock the pitiable efforts of the AI to defend against my horde of Cossacks, but I think I would run out quips somewhere around “How many Egyptian units capable of standing up to Cossacks does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” “All of them, plus ten Canadians.” You get the condensed version, instead.



War with Egypt begins in 1380, ends in 1545 with the complete subjugation of the Egyptians. Time elapsed: 165 years.

War with India begins in 1555, ends in 1615 with the complete subjugation of the Indians. Time elapsed: 60 years.

War with America begins in 1630, ends in 1690 with the complete subjugation of the Americans. Time elapsed: 60 years.

In 1705, Russian borders expanded enough to qualify as a Domination victory. Total Time: 5705 years.











I enjoyed this adventure. I kinda wonder why so few people are reporting for it. Maybe they don't smashing helpless AIs with Cossacks? But who doesn't love that?

[mihau]

and talking about settler snaching "sure exploit"

[mucco]

That's another evidence of the incredible strength of this unit. If beelined to, this unit is invincible for hundreds of turns. Impressive game Zeroth!

[jdotmi]

I, er, actually didn't finish my game, which leads to a lack of things to report about. I started war with France way late, and then I got sucked into WoW and Warlords.

Reading the reports that are up here already show me a lot of things I could have done much better. I did manage to snag some earlier wonders, but I basically screwed up the rest of it.