I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I have been playing a pretty much pure PvP game called RF-Online. And it seems that I cannot get a break from it. I have my own guild. It is a 3 race game (Bellatto, Accretian, and Cora). I play a Bellatto and I have held one of the highest positions in my race for 8 weeks so I have been very busy.


I want to hear what's going on with everyone. I am very curious as to whats been going on with all of you. I hope that everyone is well and that you all are having a lot of fun

Take care,
Jude

PS not sure where to put this exactly so I put it in the GW section because those are the ppl that I really know KOP feel free to move it if you like.

THIS IS THE CENTRAL PRISON IN AUSTRIA


KoP

Here are the preliminary results from Epic 17. Please let me know if there are any mistakes:

http://www.garath.net/Sullla/epic17results.html

Most interesting I think is the fact that we had ZERO Conquest victories submitted. I guess everyone metagamed themselves out of the most obvious victory condition, eh? No one went for a UN Diplo victory either, although that makes more sense. Everyone was victorious, and we had some very impressive finishing dates.

Congratulations to our winners Muaziz, Jabah, sooooo, and timmy827!

Lonely Sorceress is her name, and she is a young Elementalist.



Fox's idea inspired me to the point that I wanted to try it out. And while I wanted to play in Prophecies (so I could read Fox's tales and be prepared ), I only had caster classes left to play among the core ones. So I went with an ele... I know it will be hard but I'll do my best.

So, after the pre-searing prelude, I find myself in the burned Ascalon. I start exploring around and find with pleasure that most of the creatures in Old Ascalon are weak to fire damage. Obviously, I proceed to flare every insect to the ground with great pleasure.

The low level monsters don't deal a lot of damage, and my aura of restoration can keep up with it for some time, so I enjoy the damage of fire storm and lava font when enemies surround me. My damage is high enough, that I can kill off a group of four monks with heal other when I'm just one level above them.

As I push deeper into no man's land though, I find a new type of foe, which poses me problems: Grawls have degen and lightning orbs! And they're higher in level than me as well. It takes some time to get used to their behavior and to find a reliable way to kill them. I even try to venture north of the Wall for a quest before try to complete the Great Northern Wall, but at the first encounter with a Charr group I get smashed and have to forget about the quest, for now.

Well, I've made it to level 7 when I tackle the first mission in the game. The first part goes smoothly, the devourers are several levels behind and they pose no threat. My biggest problem is fitting the bonus items into the inventory! Between collector items, materials and loot I'm having a hard time especially since I have no bags yet. Even the few Charr who were so challenging in the Breach just a little before, now fall easily thanks to some careful pulling and wiser skill usage. While running around I find myself in a strange spot, which turns my cape yellow.



Some sort of curse hidden somewhere here? Anyway. I'm happily burning bugs until the cinematic pops up. I recall that the final part of the mission was just a quiet home run, so I'm not prepared for a bad surprise...

The countless Charr that spawn are only slightly behind me (well within earshot!) and immediately start chasing me. I run, and when some devourers pop up before a bridge just before me, I'm sure that I'm going to die and fail the mission. The devourers do attack me, but then while I try to flee they turn their attention to the charr mobs and luckily slow them down just barely enough to allow me to rush southward and complete the mission.



The Charr ran faster than me, so I was quite on my toes in the final part!

Next up: Fort Ranik.

I regret to say I haven't had time yet to read a single report, but I did quickly scan the threads and found the leader selection interesting. Three leaders were chosen three times:

Huyana Capac (Ind/Fin)
Gandhi (Spi/Phi)
Darius (Fin/Org)

Not what I would have expected. No leaders were chosen twice. Here is the list of single selection leaders:

Zara Yaqob (Cre/Org)
Elizabeth (Fin/Phi)
Brennus (Spi/Cha)
Hannibal (Fin/Cha)
Pericles (Cre/Phi)
Charlemagne (Imp/Pro)
Mansa Musa (Fin/Spi)
Cyrus (Cha/Imp)
Suryavarman II (Cre/Exp)

From a traits perspective, here is the breakdown:

Fin - 9
Spi - 5
Phi - 5
Org - 4
Ind - 3
Cre - 3
Cha - 3
Imp - 2
Pro - 1
Exp - 1
Agg - 0 (!)

I wonder if Sulla would be willing to disclose the full list, including those that did not report? Off the top of my head, I'm shocked we see no Roman leader.

Darrell

Me and Attica are taking an extended break from our Ironman sessions right now, so meanwhile while I wait for the rele ase of Super Smash Brothers Brawl, I have decided to further my abilities in Ironman by practicing a solo Mage in multiplayer and by trying to start a classic 3-man game.

These are the required criteria I need to accept you; one or the other.

a) Must have some experience with Ironman (not a victory, but at least know basic tactics like set and bait, hinge sides, peeking, TP fishing, and Rogue/Mage Shotgun formations), OR:

b) Must have a thorough knowledge of the strategies and information regarding Ironman in the Forge section on Realms Beyond Diablo.

I enjoy having a fun game, but I also take my game very seriously, so I want to do well in our attempts. If it goes well, we can do more games in the future and perhaps start a guild or something.

Characters: I play the Mage most often, but I can also play the Warrior if someone else wants to do Mage. I cannot play the Rogue, however.

Rules: I like Lock-In rules (strict), but will play Relaxed Fit as well, depending on what the team wants to do.

We should also develop an outline as to what characters should hit and take what regarding shrines, elixirs, potions, equipment, and books.

I live in California, so my time zone is Pacific Standard.

If anyone wants to establish a game, please post so we can work out a reasonable playing schedule.

Thanks for your time, and I hope to have a bloody good time with this.

~Foxhound

Hi, just a placeholder because my five week old son does not quite understand RB report deadlines. Details of Gandhi's domination victory will follow some time.

EDIT: The date was 1090 AD.

EDIT2: Report is now up, see below.

Greetings. I'm new to Realms Beyond, and indeed to (sort of) competitive civ, so this has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I also normally play in LAN multiplayer, which meant a couple more shocks, and at the time I played this I was a Noble player (now Emperor). Given all that, I'm happy just to have won. Comments or indeed criticisms are completely welcome.

General Plan

I've played all the victories before, but I've never set out from the beginning of the game to win cultural, so I decided to do that here. In terms of picking a leader, I reckoned that the keys would be Spiritual (for cheap temples) and Mysticism (for several religions); from those leaders, I plumped for Gandhi, partly for the peace-orientated UU and also for Philosophical. The (rough) plan was to gain nine cities, found most of the religions, and build cathedrals aplenty in my three main sites.

Opening

Loading up, I didn't see any real reason to move (though 1N was vaguely tempting for the floodplains), and so settled in place. My normal strategy is to churn out three quick warriors and conquer my nearest neighbour before archery, so I got going on that. If there's no-one nearby, I can just use them for scouting and city defense.



A few turns into the game, luck was with me as I spotted the Mongolians and (even better), their borders. Aggressive neighbours are a bit of a pain, but he should still fall if I can get a 3:1 advantage, and then I should be in a pretty strong position.



My first Monarch game was going swimmingly - not only did I pop Animal Husbandry from a hut(!), but I founded Buddhism in Delhi. Someone else pinched Hinduism soon after, but hey - I could let one slip.



The icing on the cake came when, on turn 18, I finished my army and the vanguard finally gained a view into the Mongol capital. Given the early date, I was pretty confident that he'd only have one warrior doing guard duty.



...

...

...

An archer?!

I now realise that in single-player games, this is normal, and that the AI actually starts with archers. At the time, it was quite a shock, and I actually put the game aside for a couple of days to come back to. Needless to say, this was a bit of a rude awakening: not only was my strategy stillborn, but I'd wasted plenty of time (and delayed my city growth) building an army that was already outdated. Oh well; nothing to do but go on.

I founded Bombay for its copper, and only afterwards realised that it would inevitably play host to Judaism. I should have delayed my metal and founded a better long-term spot... I suffered badly for this mistake, as for most of the rest of the game I couldn't decide whether or not to make Bombay one of my top cities (when pretty much all it had going for it were age and the religion).



Next up was Vijay, a really promising city which was a sure pick for the cultural win and would also provide a cultural bulwark against Kublai. I was pretty confident of taking that gold tile before too long.

The barbarians also became a problem around this time - see that injured Roman archer? It just fought off a Barbarian counterpart which would have had a good chance of destroying my city. Time to get a move on in defense.



I got my act together with religions this time, and - through the Oracle - founded Confucianism in Vijay. At the same time, the Mongols finished the Pyramids... Karakorum was looking tempting.



For now, though, I was staying at peace as I strove to settle up the land (and deprive the Barbarians of spawn-points). Patal - my final potential cultural city, giving me a group of four to pick from - was founded West of Delhi, and built the Great Lighthouse to aid the increasingly-strained economy. Meanwhile, Christianity joined Judaism in Bombay. With 200 turns gone, I found that I'd settled enough to be going on with, and I was through the worst of it financially (ticking over at 20%, courthouses coming through). All that remained to do was look after my top three (well, four) cities until the end of the game.



Things could easily have become boring here, and, you could argue, they should have. The thing is, something unusual happened. The AI suddenly learnt to fight:





Naturally, I was worried. The Malinese were killed by the Carthaginians, and the Greeks fell to the Romans (post-Praets), so there were two competent and warlike AIs on the march. Meanwhile my power was low and my popularity had taken a hit as I refused to join in... I should have taken sides once the end became inevitable.

Still, I could see a way out. I was still on pretty good terms with Hannibal, so I cosied up. Resource trade, beneficial tech trades, gift of a unit... and friendly. I secured a defensive pact as soon as possible, and in no time I was going to have a Permanent Alliance with one of the strongest players on the board. That should see me safe.

Some people might not have thought of that strategy, but as I play with one other human I always have PAs on, so it was second nature to me (though usually I ally with the human).

...

So, I discovered Liberalism (first) and researched on to Banking, then turned off research and waited for Hannibal to get to Communism. About 100 years later, I remembered to switch to Free Speech and Mercantilism, which of course were the reason I'd gone that far in the first place... oh well. I still didn't know which three cities I was going to win with, but I had bigger problems when Hannibal arrived (strangely, he hadn't given me an alliance yet) and mentioned that peace didn't suit him any more. To keep the possibility of union alive, I agreed his request to go to war: with Rome.



I made it through the war and gained my first cultural flip, from Montezuma, on the very same turn. There followed about twenty turns of peace before my re-signed Defensive Pact caused a bit of trouble.



Everyone in the world was now at war - Caesar against me and Hannibal, Kublai against Montezuma. From time to time I had to defend a baby stack of Roman invaders (with my woefully outdated defenders), but by and large they left me alone. Believe me, though, I was very nervous. Thankfully I managed to trade something (Astronomy?) for Constitution, and then Representation & Artists got my tech back on some sort of track. It was also at about this time that I realised the Permanent Alliance option was disabled for this game *facepalms*.

Turn after turn, though, I wasn't attacked, and my victory was moving ever closer. In the final turns I brought out a whole bunch of Great Artists, and before too long first Bombay, then Delhi and finally Vijay achieved legendary status. I'd done it - and in a not too disappointing time, as well.



Hooray!



I was the proud owner of the top five cities in the world, a first for me, and received the highest honour in the scoring (though that happens most games, really). Overall, not bad for my first Monarch game, my second single-player game (after the tutorial), and my first online challenge.



Post-Mortem

Pretty good, really - but there are a few things I could have done which would have saved me a lot of time, effort and turns.

i) Attacking from the word go is not possible in single-player Monarch
ii) Always check the settings before you begin play
iii) If I'm targeting a cultural victory, make sure as many religions as possible are founded in the right cities. Bombay should have been on Vijay's site, and Vijay on Patal's.

I also should have done more in the way of barb defense. I had a good early warning and scouting network, and I settled the black land quickly, but I really rode my luck at times (especially when Caesar had to do my defending for me).

I'm sure the relative experts here must have some thoughts; and, naturally, I'm open to questions (I do have more screenshots left as well). So go on, hit me.

Cultural Victory in 1768AD (394 turns), with Gandhi, by Alex.

Free choice of civ, and victories judged by category give players a lot of scope to play the game they want, rather than tailor their game to the settings/scoring presented by the sponsor. Warring isn’t my bag, Space on Epic is a bit too drawn out for my taste, and I find Diplo wins can be a rather flaky and unsatisfying, so it’s going to be a cultural victory for me (but you’d guessed that already).

I thought about a left-field leader (Augustus) but with the start as it was, I couldn’t see past Huayna Capac: plains hill for some initial hammers into the Henge whilst gunning for Hinduism, which should be a straightforward claim seeing as we can work the oasis (3-0-3) after our border pop. Cuzco will be a wonder-factory; not sure what the other two legends will looks like, but they’re bound to have some cottages

Get a map from the hut, and we’re good to go:




Get another map and see Mongolian borders. A couple of turns later, Kublai pops up. If you don’t settle in my face, I won’t Quechua rush you. Deal? Seeing as we have Agri, it’s worker at size two. Hinduism is duly founded on turn 15. Uneventful exploring and teching (AH then Mining):




Cool that we’ve got Marble in our back yard: should allow a 3 city Oracle. City 2 is going for Corn/3 Gold. Gotta get there before the Mongols! Settler whipped after BW is discovered.




That’s Karakorum’s culture in the pic, of course. Henge complete in 2475BC. No danger of losing that one. The Wheel and Masonry are the next techs learned, and we encounter Mansa in 2200BC. Nice to see a friendly face. Macchu Pichu founded to claim sheep and marble. Jules pops in for tea soon after. Hmmm. Onward to Priesthood and the Oracle, with Writing due around the same time as the wonder, of course. Choose CoL, found Confucianism in Tiwanaku, cementing its status a Legendary city.




Olly looks a reasonable cottage/production hybrid. Not sure if it’ll be Legend though. Pots cast a couple of turns later.



Seems to sum up this part of the game quite well. I’ve got my beady eye on those two barb cities, so I’m going to be training some axes after those terraces are whipped. Unfortunately, Mansa’s drill 3 skirmisher manages to take Ligurian which he keeps (because he’ll never raze a city). I don’t know where his homeland is, but it can’t be that near
Meet Hannibal on T113, and discover IW a couple of turns later. A GP was born around the same time and builds the Kong Miao. I’m hoping to convert KK to Confucianism (so that I may run it too). Gift Kublai a spare Corn for the relations, and meet Alex on T120. Hmmm. Expand into the jungle:




Learn Sailing (BC700) and complete ToA (650). Change the gift to KK into a trade (for cows). Seize Parthian from the barbs and get a weird message about returning it to Mongolia. Eh? No, it’s mine. All mine. Complete Calendar and note that Jules has Alpha. Trade him CoL for it. Tech situation:




Looks like Hannibal is planning a war: glad he’s not near me! Speaking of wars…





O me miserum!

Kublai has a 5 strong stack near Tiwanaku: 2 swords, an axes, spear and chariot. I have a newly upgraded Axe, and a whipped spear and swords coming next turn (plus 40% cultural defence). Unless KK comes with more units, I’ll be fine. No sign of Jules and his dread Praetorians, so I assume he’s dogpiling on request. Four turns later, St Augustine reports that Kublai is the most powerful civ on earth. Perhaps in response to this message, he attacks Tiwanaku, losing his entire stack to my beefed up defence. Having whipped up a large bunch of warriors, I think I’ll need to find a good use for them

Jules has shown up with an axe and a wounded archer, so I kill them and make peace for 30g. I’d put wonders on the back burner, but in 260BC I finished Mausoleum in Cuzco. Two turns later I get another GP who builds the KW. OK. Construction is learnt soon thereafter, so the war plans can hot up now. Some minor skirmishing shows mean KK has Keshik :sad: but gives me a GG  who creates a medic chariot.

BC 155 saw someone build Pyramids and Jules LB Philo, founding Taoism with the GS he popped the previous turn. Up north, I was able to take the surprisingly poorly defended New Sarai, but KK retook it two turns later. My main target, however, was Karakorum. I decided to go ‘all in’ and attack without bombing down the defences because more defenders were pouring into the city. After a mass catapult suicide, the troops stormed the barricades, and despite terrible losses, were able to claim the city. Make peace for Monotheism. With KK founding Judaism in Beshbalik – as well as bring CRE – I’m not going to get much value from Kara for ages. Indeed, it’ll need a huge garrison just to stop it flipping. With these AIs, have a good reason to train units won’t hurt my chances of survival!


Can you say ‘dogpile’?



Poor Mansa. In 10AD, I found Huamanga for crab/iron and discover CS. Revolt to BUR and HR for 2 turns of anarchy. In 130AD, Jules demands that I convert to Judaism. Why I thought you’d never ask! More Anarchy.

Poor Mansa’s luck got worse when someone asked me to join the war. Libyan was costing him a fortune in upkeep, so really I was doing him a favour




With Kara struggling under Mongol culture, Libyan will be used to spam my cities Jewish. Olly completes Hanging Gardens in 265AD, which seals it as my choice for 3rd Legend. Trades some techs and make peace with Mansa, and in 370AD I pop a GP who bulbs Christianity (in Tiwanaku). I’d learnt Aesthetics the same turn, which gave me some more wonders to chase, but by economy needed some attention so Currency was soon traded in. Livy declared me the most advanced civ in 415, so this is looking very promising.

I notice that Monty has Literature and realize my recent Space games have made me ignore Music out of habit. Oh well, might as well head that way anyway. Monty had got a GA earlier, but much to my surprise, Music was undiscovered. Until 550 thatis, when I claim it and its precious Artist (merged to Tiwanaku). During the tech to Music, I completed SoZ and founded Vilcas on some incense so that it could work fish, cows, and iron. Jules asked me to join his (imminent) war with Azteca. No thanks, said I. And Monty got the same response a few turns later.

Hagia Sophia completed in 565, and Philo traded in from KK the following turn. In 595, Alex asks me to attack Mansa, which I do to give this situation:




Sankore in 640 and this is beginning to look won already. Seeing as no-one else wanted it, Parthenon in Olly in 685. Next turn Vilcabamba is founded on furs, to work fish and (later) whales. Trade in MC (Philo) and Machinery (CS & Aesth). Sistene in Cuzco in 760, and it’s all about how early I can wrap this up.

I must have made peace with Mansa at some point, because KK asked me to go again. And why not? Education in 805 and Vitcos, my final city, in 900, when Apostolic Palace is completed. No more wars against me now :groucho: I vote for Alex as leader.

Liberalism in 920 (to deny it to the AIs) and Nationalism is taken. Having traded in Lit, Olly completes the Great Library in 970. I’d normally avoid this wonder in culture games, but Cuzco is my GP spammer, so I shouldn’t suffer too badly from GS pollution (and an Academy is 4cpt). Seeing as more religions are a good thing, I found Islam in 1010, the same turn as I complete Taj for a 15 turn GA. Another Prophet the next turn, and he scoots to Tiwanaku to found Nativity.



Alex uses AP to get Monty & Hannibal to declare on Mansa. I complete AW in Cuzco (because I could) and the Spiral Minaret in 1150. Makes some trades and gift Hanny Education and I’m now Friendly with everyone that matters. A GP starts another GA in 1240. I bribe KK into war against Monty with Banking, as much to keep him busy as for any other reason. I sign a DP with Hannibal.

Useless preachers:




And the eagle-eyed will notice that Mali is no more. I pop a Copper at Cuzco in 1350 KK asks me to join the war against Monty, which I agree to, seeing as Aztec is finding the two on one too much to handle. No more DP, of course. Welcome aboard:




By this point I have switched off research, but Glib and Sankore are giving me beakers anyway, so I can Lib to Hanny for the rest of Rep Parts. I strike a similar deal with Alex for Chemistry. By 1490, I’m running profitably on 100% culture. Monty departed in 1480; he won’t be missed. Cuzco get an improbable GS. Oh well, such is the risk of a wonder-spam GPP farm (Academy in Tiwanaku).




Cheeky Alex. Or rather, suicidal Alex: if I’d have voted for myself, I’d have won thanks to Hannibal’s votes. I abstained because I’m gunning for a culture win and 1505 would be quite late for an AP victory anyway*. Speaking of victory, Cuzco goes Legendary in 1530: this was planned because the trick here will be to get Olly and Tiwanaku to Legendary around the same time. The latter is already at 1145cpt, so I want a couple of Artists to bomb into Olly.

Were now into ‘hit enter’ territory. DPs with Jules and Alex secure that side of things, and nothing of great note occurs until:




Shakey (and I don’t mean Bernard) came along at just the right time. Sweeeeet.




Much wooness for me. And it’s top of my HoF (*until I reload and get the AP win, which scores more). It was plain sailing for me (and that includes KK’s attack) I think the scenario was pretty well designed, although I think we could have swapped Hannibal for an IND civ, to give Wonder-hogs like me a (more) decent run for their money.

YEAH! I did win a Monarch game! And it was not a cheesy biting nails while awaiting for a Diplo victory, but a full-blown Space Race! Double thanks to Sullla for the scenario

Pre-game:

Stevens: Tell Baker that I told him all that I know already. Tell him I want to live in peace, understand? That it's no use to go on tormenting me! - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

Why is this quote fitting? Because I was preparing myself very bad to win this Epic. After all, I missed my chance at Something Fishy, and Surprise Yourself was beyond my skills. And the ticking clock "End of the Epic is NEAR!" was also tormenting me.

When I mailed Sullla, I thought a bit who to take, and I decided to go with Brennus. He was a fine Civilization, and I really wanted to play that with Spiritual. Charismatic was still new to me, but I didn't need to play my strategy around that trait, at least - the happy bonus can still be just good. Gallic Warriors aren't all that bad, Guerilla III is a fine promotion, and they don't need essentially Iron, they can fare with Copper (the other thing was that there wasn't no copper nearby), and I already like resourceless Jaguars. UB was quite useless, but hey... at least starting techs were fine with me. I didn't have a need to wait idly with my worker until he finds a tech to do something, and religion was helpful.

Before I went to play that game, I played some games earlier to practice and turned off them in disgust on how I suck. I toyed around with StarCraft, and delayed the Epic.

Well, clock was ringing soon, so I finally went to play this game. What did I achieve - is below...

Strategy:

Man With No Name: Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're gonna have to earn it. - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

I also discovered something called "Risk", and amazingly the strategies I read out of boredom were highly applicable to Civilization. I learned that if I will go for my goals directly, find many solutions to one petty problem and have a plan, and will look at how the situation looks on the whole map, I will WIN Monarch.

So, the plan was quite simple, but effective. As I read some of the reports on the way, it sounds like my gameplay is very similar to that of Sullla.

A) To take advantage of Mysticism, I went after Hinduism.
B) After I poked a bit with a Warrior, I ultimately decided to try to take one of my opponents out (Mongolia).
C) Get my first cities by conquest. And thus, I settled only one city before I proceeded to conquer Mongolia.
D) Conquer Mongols.
E) Get a lot of cities and cottage them - essentially, a REX. We had a lot of good land.
F) Out-tech the AIs and win.

Now, the planned victory was meant to be a Space Race. Why? Because I didn't feel confident enough to take Domination, Conquest, and I was bored of Cultural. Besides, it won't be hard with quite versatile Brennus. Space Race or Diplomatic were my goals.

The opening: Founding a religion and other matters.

Tuco: God is on our side because he hates the Yanks. - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

I moved a settler 1N after I saw all the flood plains on the north. Since the point was a Space Race, a good bureaucratic capital would pump my science to go ahead. Techwise, it was Polytheism -> Agriculture -> Animal Husbandry -> Bronze Working -> Iron Working (after I noticed no copper) -> The Wheel.

Another city:

Man With No Name: It was the grave marked "Unknown", right beside Arch Stanton. - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly... look, all the quotes will have the same source, until I say otherwise! :P

Hicoola-doola! We have Iron nearby! What a coup, my plan isn't out of the wiiindow! I mine it already.

The second city went directly to the east. I spotted this powerhouse city with three gold hills and couldn't pass it up to vile Mongolians! (especially when I think what kind of butchering they'd do, like settling it in the wrong place... ugh!) Luckily, Mongolians decided to go for another site. Nice, more plunder for us.

Early rush:

Quote:Man With No Name: I've never seen so many men wasted so badly.

Quote:Man With No Name: Tut, tut. Such ingratitude after all the times I saved your life.