Hi,

I was unable to complete this game unfortunately, which is really a shame as I love this kind of scored games. :mad: But I played until 1500AD at least, and so will throw my score in the ring all the same.

After reading up on corporations a bit (I've never used them before), I noticed that they are only a drain on your economy if you spread them in your empire. So to avoid an economic crash, I decided not to spread it in my empire at all, and only to foreign cities. Even the first executive wasn't used until my first galley was ready to sail out.

Since number of cities with Sid's Sushi scored the most points, I decided to delay expansion in favor of spreading Sid's. That meant as soon as I had founded a second city (south at the great production site), my capital produced executives, and executives only. All further expansion and military was handled by my second city. The consequence was one of the slowest expansions I ever had, but since that didn't influence my score for this event, I didn't care.

In a similar vein, I noticed that building wonders wouldn't help my score at all, at least not for the 5AD and 1500AD scoring deadlines. So I decided not to build any wonder at all, not even the recommended Great Lighthouse or Colossus, and invest all the hammers in executives instead.


So this was the result of my plan:

In 5AD, there were 7 cities with Sid's Sushi, for 35 points. I also had 11 Sushi resources for another 22 points, for a total of 57 points.

In 1510AD, there were 25 cities with Sid's Sushi, for 50 points. Unfortunately, Brennus and Justinian both were in Mercantilism, which meant that Sid's Sushi didn't show up on the map. I had to enter world builder and go through all of their cities manually to count my corporate branches. In addition, I had 16 Sushi resources (yeah, slow expansion, I now) for a total of 66 points.

Then I had to retire unfortunately, but at a strong position. Brennus and Gilgamesh were eating up Genghis, who only had two cities left, but I was the undisputed tech leader and strong in military and had nothing to fear.


I'm not sure if I get the x2 modifier for not declaring war. I "abstained from declaring war throughout the whole game", and wouldn't have if I had finished it, but I'm not sure if you have to win the game to be eligible for that.

So I either claim 123 points, or 123x2 = 246 points total.

-Kylearan

Introduction
I started this game by doing a little research to get a better understanding for exactly how Corporations worked. I have yet to play a game with them, so this will be a great learning experience.

Here’s what I learned about Corporations, and specifically Sid’s Sushi. It’s oddly appropriate to be running Sid’s Sushi just after having returned from a 2 week vacation to Japan. Didn’t eat much sushi per se, but ate tons of sashimi (sushi… hold the rice wrapper).

Rather than re-hash a lot about Corps and how they work, here is an excellent post (updated for BTS patch v3.13):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread...ost6106394

The documentation does not mention this, but each Corporate Office also generates 2 culture per Sushi resource (Clam, Fish, Crab, Rice) that you control. Note that how many such resources are in range of a city’s “fat cross” is irrelevant. All that matters is that you have access to the resource. However, unimproved Sushi tiles do not count.

Courthouses for the Corporate Headquarters and all Corporate Offices is a must. It cuts the high maintenance costs in half. That means that researching Code of Laws will be fairly high on the priority list.

Gold multipliers in the Corporate Headquarter city is a great way to offset Corporate maintenance costs. Wall Street in particular will work wonders. The Free Market civic also reduces Corporate maintenance costs by 25%.

Another important thing I discovered about Sid’s Sushi is that the +food bonus (of 0.5f / Sushi resource) increments on every odd numbered resource. For example, 1 Sushi resource will give you +1 food, 3 Sushi resources will give you +2 food, etc. If you can avoid it, you never want to have an even Sushi resource count since it will cost extra maintenance with almost no benefit (except the 2 culture).

Using the math from the great “Corporate Maintenance Explained” post above, we get the following maintenance costs per city size and resource count. These are just some examples for comparison’s sake.

Size 4
1 resource (+1 food): 7.0 gold
3 resources (+2 food): 9.8 gold
5 resources (+3 food): 12.6 gold

Size 8
1 resource (+1 food): 8.3 gold
3 resources (+2 food): 11.7 gold
5 resources (+3 food): 15.0 gold

Size 12
1 resource (+1 food): 9.7 gold
3 resources (+2 food): 13.5 gold
5 resources (+3 food): 17.4 gold


Game Plan
Scoring wise, it would be nice to have at 2 other cities with Corporate Offices by 5 AD. We start the game with one Executive, so that’s one for sure. It’s not clear whether having a second one in place by 5 AD will be too damaging to the economy or not. An Executive costs 150 hammers to build so it’s not cheap (by early game standards). We will have to wait and see.

If we are trying to maximize scoring, we will also need to avoid declaring war. Since we also want a lot of Sushi resources, that will mean expanding at a good pace.

Since Corporate Offices generate a lot of culture, a Cultural victory good be a good way to go. The only downside will be picking up the religions that we do not found. Later in the game, Cathedrals are very important for the +50% cultural bonus. Something to think about.

I think founding at least one religion in the Capital is a must. In the long run, the capital will become a cash cow. That will be the religion we want to spread.

Another thing to consider is that our first Great Person will almost certainly be a Great Merchant since Sid’s Sushi Headquarters generates +1 Great Merchant Point per turn. Looking at the Great People Tech thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140952) we find that we could potentially use it to bulb Metal Casing (1008 beakers) or Code of Laws (783 beakers) if we research properly. I doubt bulbing Code of Laws on turn 100 will be early enough to be first to the tech. If I research Polytheism to try to found Hinduism, losing Confucianism might not be a big deal. But if I can’t be first to it, then might as well bulb Metal Casing instead since it is a more expensive tech to research.

I haven’t mentioned Stone or Marble since those are usually a “wait and see” approach. I love an early Oracle with access to Marble, but otherwise I avoid it. Likewise, I usually try to build the Hanging Gardens and Pyramids if I have access to Stone.

In this particular game, the Great Lighthouse and Colossus will be very valuable due to the number of coastal cities we will have on an Archipelago map.


Ancient Era
The Vikings start with Fishing and Hunting. If I want a shot at an early religion, I will need Mysticism immediately. The map is Archipelago, so I doubt I have a neighbor. I probably won’t need to worry about real defenses until the Barbs appear.


We don’t start with a Scout, but rather a Sid’s Sushi Executive. He has 2 movement, so I can use him for a little early scouting, but cannot afford to lose this unit, so I will need to be very careful, probably parking him on a hill for a little fog busting.

Sid’s Sushi Executive pops a hut for Sailing. Nice…

In 3775 BC, Mysticism is discovered.

Buddhism is founded in a distant land in 3770 BC. Fortunately, I was headed for Polytheism. And in 3375 BC, Polytheism is discovered and Hinduism is founded in Nidaros.

Here is the Satellite View after some recon.


Uppsala is founded in 2675 BC, northwest of Nidaros. It is in range of one Clam tile, one Gem tile, and one Sugar tile. Nidaros’ Refined culture (750+) allows the Gem tile to be worked without any cultural growth from the new settlement. That might be helpful since I am not planning on building any Missionaries for a while.


In 1900 BC, Genghis Khan’s Work Boat makes an appearance from the south.

In 1574 BC, Haithabu is founded to the southwest of Nidaros. It only starts with the Stone in city range, but will pick up a Gem tile and the Copper tile once the borders expand. Since this city has no food tiles, I decide that I would eventually use the power of Sushi to feed this new settlement. The Corporate Office will also pop the borders very quickly. A century later, Tacitus reveals that I am the most ass-backwards civilization. Go Vikings!


Birka is founded in 800 BC, southeast of Nidaros. It can immediately work a Clam and Stone tile. There will be another good spot to the southwest, but since I don’t yet have Animal Husbandry for the Pasture, I will get there a little later.


In 365 BC, I finally decide to put the power of fish to work and spread the good word of Sid and his Sushi to Haithabu. A Great Merchant is born soon after which is when I realize that I cannot bulb Metal Casing without knowing Currency. Doh! Currency is a cheaper tech so I decide to hold onto the Great Merchant until I get around to Currency, which will be soon enough.

In 335 BC, Machiavelli completes his greatest work, and it’s a doozy, The Largest Civilization of the World. “Puny” is the adjective used to describe our not yet quite so glorious civilization. I suspect my love for the whip has something to do with that number.

In 350 BC, the first devastating news arrives, “The Colossus has been built in a far away land”. I had just begun to research Currency so I was nowhere near being able to build the Colossus since I would also need to build a Forge first. Needless to say that whoever grabbed The Oracle very early in the game (with Marble no doubt) scooped Metal Casing. I don’t think I had a realistic chance at it.


I did end up building the Great Lighthouse and the Hanging Gardens at some early stage in the game. I built the Lighthouse first and the Gardens second (once I had access to Stone).

In 260 BC, “Our herbalists have discovered a new plant that holds great promise for health treatments. However, tests on human subjects are required to find the right mixture.” I have three options:
1) “Forget these tests. Anything worth knowing has already been discovered so why risk needless death?”
+1 happiness in all cities for 10 turns
2) “Alright, try limited tests, but only on non-essential citizens.”
-1 happiness temporarily in all cities, 20 % chance: -1 population in all cities, 35% chance: +1 health in all cities
3) “Health is the bedrock to world domination! Run full scale tests on all but the youngest and weakest among us.”
-2 happiness temporarily in all cities, 50 % chance: -1 population in all cities, 90% chance: +2 health in all cities




I decided to go with “world domination”. Because this game would have many high pop cities due to all the ocean food resources plus Sid’s Sushi, I figured the Health would be a better long-term advantage. I did score the +2 Health, but also lost 2 pop in the process.

Bjorgvin is founded sometime before AD times. It’s a monster of a city with 2 Clams, 1 Crab, 1 Pig and 1 Horse tile. It also has 3 Plains Hills nearby for great production to complement it’s abundant food supplies. This town would eventually build the Moai Statues to become my best production town.



10 AD, First Scoring Round
AD times have been reached, and thus the first round of scoring is upon us. I had expanded Sid’s Sushi to Haithabu a while back and also expanded it to Birka just before the dawn of some other religion’s savior (hey, don’t blame me, I’m Hindu).

Nidaros’ city screen does in fact reveal +12g from the Sushi Headquarters (+4g per Sushi-loving town). It also reveals a rather measly 5 Sushi resources. I really mistimed two Work Boats and hence lost out on some extra points. Losing The Colossus really made me play a lot faster with a lot mess micro and attention to scoring detail.


5 points: EACH city (domestic or foreign) containing Sid's Sushi Corporation in 5 AD — 3 cities = 15 points
2 points: EACH "sushi" resource (fish/clams/crabs/rice) you control in 5 AD — 5 resources = 10 points

Please note that due to a typo, “10 AD” was actually the first AD game year on Epic speed.

In 415 AD, my efforts for a recount finally produce an update from Machiavelli. I am now up to 4th place (out of 6… doh!) and earn the superlative titled of “Mediocre”. At least we’re moving up in the world…

By 505 AD, I had built Angkor Wat in Nidaros. It’s not a game breaking Wonder, but it allowed me to run 4 Priest specialists in an effort to get a Great Prophet as my next Great Person. That would allow me to build the Hindu shrine and considerably increase my income.


Roskilde is founded shortly thereafter to the west of Nidaros. It will pick up the remaining 3 Sugar tiles which will give it a nice food and income supply.


Brennus declares war on me in 880 AD. He probably saw where I stood on the power graph and figured I would be easy pickings. The fact that we were of different religions didn’t help either. Even though I didn’t have too many troops, I had a decent amount of cash on hand so I wasn’t too worried about an attack. I expected to have a little more notice of approaching ships. Alas, 3 Galleons showed up with almost no warning. I was left with 2 turns to get some more troops to the capital. Fortunately, those boats headed south before deciding to land the troops near the capital. That bought me an extra turn and allowed the city to be saved. Had the AI head straight for the capital and attacked it amphibiously, it probably would have taken it. Once this disaster was averted, the rest of the war posed no problems, although it lasted quite a long time without much additional conflict.

Bjorgvin miners are rewarded for their diligent work when a new source of Gold is discovered in one of the nearby mines. With the forges in all the major cities, this leads to a great increases in happiness among the wealthy. And ummm… the miners actually get the shaft while the empire reaps the benefits of this great discovery.


Several decades later, grief strikes the empire as the Apostolic Palace is built by a heathen civilization just before the glorious Hindu people can complete it. I wasn’t necessarily trying for a diplomatic win, but it would have been nice to have the option. The production bonus also would have been nice. One thing was certain, I had no chance to score a good Diplomatic Victory now. It was going to have to be Cultural or Spaceship. Since more people would probably vie for Cultural, I had a better chance at earning a top 3 in the Spaceship department, but that would also mean playing an extra couple hundred turns… ummm, how about no?

In 1060 AD, Herodotus picks up on Machiavelli’s population demographics works. Something, that history timeline makes a lot of sense, but I’m not sure how to explain it. I’m sill stuck in “Mediocre” 4th place.

Somewhere around 1265 AD, Tonsberg was established just east of Nidaros across the sea. It will have access to 1 Fish, 1 Clam, and 3 sources of Spice. I probably should have settled there long ago, but there was a pesky Barbarian city in the way. I actually opted to raze the Barb town and settle one square to the west in order to pick up the extra food tile that would have otherwise gone wasted. It also meant settling on the Spice which gave me the instant happiness (that I may or may not have needed).


In 1270 AD, I capture the town of Kusbans from the Barbs and realize the turn later that the bastard Celts had almost beat me to it! Good for them. That will teach them to try to sneak attack me in the dark of night! I am rewarded with this new city by having Judaism, a foreign religion, spread there. I had only founded Hinduism, Confucianism, and Taoism. This gave me access to a fourth religion which would be nice since I was almost locked into a Cultural (or Spaceship) Victory at this point.


In 1330 AD, Gilgamesh strikes again and builds the Sistine Chapel a mere two turns before I can complete it. Losing this Wonder will delay my Cultural Victory quite a bit. Gilgamesh had been a huge thorn in my side as I had discovered it was his Sumerian empire that had also bested me to The Oracle and The Colossus. Damn you Gilgamesh! On a not completely unrelated note, the Sumerian mother goddess Inanna, also a goddess of Love and War, and Queen of Heaven and Earth had said: "As for me, Inanna, / Who will plow my vulva? / Who will plow my high field? / Who will plow my wet ground?" Got to give some props to the Sumerians… They were well ahead of their time when it came to erotica in literature.

In 1395 AD, I was presented with the following quest:


I didn’t actively try to pursue it, but loosely built a few Colosseums. In the end I think I forfeited this quest when I reached the Modern Era with Radio. In these quests, I never know if existing buildings count towards the quest or not. Oh well… I didn’t have the Statue of Zeus and I doubt the reward would have been anything other than happiness that I would not need.

In 1405 AD, Herodotus finally stops wondering about size and starts wondering about function. The Viking empire is finally recognized as “Glorious” for its sophisticated culture. It’s not that size doesn’t matter… but a little finesse goes a long way.


1500 AD, Second Scoring Round
I really could have planned things a lot better here as well. I could of easily had two extra Sushi cities and a couple of extra Sushi resources, but having had drunk a lot that night, I managed to miscount by 20 turns (thinking that in 1360 AD I still had 48 turns rather than 28… a large difference). I managed to rush a lot of things in the end and was whipping like crazy once I realized my mistake. Here is what I managed to end up with:



2 points: EACH city (domestic or foreign) containing Sid's Sushi Corporation in 1500 AD — 13 cities = 26 points
1 points: EACH "sushi" resource (fish/clams/crabs/rice) you control in 1500 AD — 19 resources = 19 points

Here’s a shot of Sigtuna in 1500 AD. It is size 3 and boasts +20 food/turn which is pretty sick.


At some point, I am presented with another quest:


In 1740 AD, I complete this quest and am awarded one of the following:
1) “With such a large force of Musketmen working together, additional training for these units can be achieved.”
Every Musketman is promoted to Pinch (+25% vs Gunpowder units)
2) “Leverage our military advantage to collect harsh taxes from our feudal lords and their counties.”
Receive 640g. -1 happiness temporarily in all cities.
(This option was grayed out so I assume it was only available to players currently using the Vassalage civic.)
3) “Enjoy our Golden Age of Muskets.”
(I assume that this option was only available since I had completed the Taj Mahal.)




Needless to say I chose option 3. I had also built the Mausoleum a while back so all my Golden Ages lasted longer. There were 4 Golden Ages in total: Taj Mahal, 1 Great Person, Muskets (who knew?), 2 Great People.


Cultural Victory in 1804 AD

No prize here. Probably my latest Cultural Victory ever. So many things went wrong. Towards the end, I was probably a little too demoralized to be able to really focus. I probably adopted the Caste System later than I should have, and I definitely adopted Pacifism later than I should have. Then, I forget to get my other high pop cities working Artists so I had to cut off all their specialists while my main three cities produced Great Artists. I was pretty much a disaster. Of course, missing the Sistine Chapel by a couple of turns is what really killed me. It’s a good thing I was still a ways from developing the Manhattan Project or there would have been ICMBs flying for sure.




Final Score
I never declared war. I was attacked by Brennus in what turned out to be a pretty long war; mostly since I refused to give up much gold to sign peace. But it was an otherwise peaceful game. During the war with Brennus, I did not have the forces to do anything more than defend, so I never took any cities.

5 points: EACH city (domestic or foreign) containing Sid's Sushi Corporation in 10 AD — 3 cities = 15 points
2 points: EACH "sushi" resource (fish/clams/crabs/rice) you control in 10 AD — 5 resources = 10 points
2 points: EACH city (domestic or foreign) containing Sid's Sushi Corporation in 1500 AD — 13 cities = 26 points
1 points: EACH "sushi" resource (fish/clams/crabs/rice) you control in 1500 AD — 19 resources = 19 points

Total: (15 + 10 + 26 + 19) x 2 = 140 points

I would be very surprised to make Top 3 Cultural Victory. My only hope is that everyone decided to go for a Diplomatic Victory (via the AP).


At the end, I was half tempted to try to replay the beginning of the game to see if it was possible to beat Gilgamesh to The Colossus if I bee-lined Priesthood and then started The Oracle (without Marble). But after pausing for a moment, I decided I would rather go blow shit up in Unreal Tournament III.

My report is on my website as always.
I can't believe I am reporting this late, and will be the first one to post.
I hope a few more reports show up or my scoring efforts will be meaningless.


http://www.kendter.com/epic16-1.htm

So I've been thinking, while this might not be a variant per say, it still might be fun to try. The idea is to make a brand new character and play your way through one of the campaigns or the whole game and see how fast it can be done and see how your time compares to others. Since we all have different time availability, the easiest way to measure would be through the /age command. Really, the only thing you need for this is an empty char slot since you can just delete the char after you're done with it.

Keeping with the variant tradition, we can add certain restrictions and try to see how people make it through with a certain type of character. For example we could specify making it through Prophecies using an ele with only Flare and Fire Attunement, and possibly Glyph of Elemental Power. Or a warrior using only starter weapons, or whatever.

Thoughts? Anyone want to try it?

So... I registered myself on GuildCafe and wanted to see what was involved in registering a guild, which is apparently not much because RB now has a page. Is this something worth continuing? It doesn't seem to offer anything we don't already have (as in features, i.e. forums, etc.) aside from a bit more publicity. It does seem like a pretty decent way to meet up with other players from other guilds though, so it might be worth checking out on an individual basis. They have Diablo, D2, GW, and HG:L listed but not Civ, guess it's for online capable games.

Anyways, Wyrm was taken so I signed up as Remy. Anyone else signed up?

For those that don't know what GuildCafe is, you can read more about it here.

I've got a party starting here in a few hours, so I decided to go with a GMT opening time instead of ESTish like I usually do.

Happy New Year, everyone, and enjoy the game.

Thought this might be a fun thing to do. I came up with a few to get things started.

Montezuma's Revenge
Hex Spell. For 10...22 seconds target foe moves 50% slower. If that foe is hit in melee they are knocked down for 4 seconds and this hex ends.

"You Hit Like A Girl!"
Shout. Target foe suffers from Blind and Weakness for 10 seconds.

"Shut Up Already!"
Shout. If target foe is activating a chant or echo, that skill is interrupted and for 10 seconds that foe cannot activate shouts, chants or echoes.

Obscene Gesture
Spell. Target foe and all adjacent foes are interrupted and suffer from Blind for 5 seconds.

Girl Cooties
Skill. Target touched foe suffers from Disease for 10...34 seconds.

Epic Sixteen is now open for reporting. Please post your reports in the Tournament Discussion subforum. Happy 2008!

Upcoming 1.0 patch note

Quote:Based on the number and depth of balance changes to skills in this update, certain characters will be provided a “respec token” that allows them to reassign their skill points. This token is automatically placed in the character’s inventory and can be used at any time.

All Evokers and Guardians will receive respec tokens, as will all characters in Subscription Member accounts.

Items Are For Wimps, as someone I know always says, but what's one going to do when HGL is so item dependant. Keep up the fight , or give in ? Either way, there is much to learn about items, and more specicially weapons in this game, since weapons (especially gun types) might as well be thought of as spells or skills - because they are!

Weapons can be considered as stand alone skills, a normal attack with the effect depending on the type of gun used; or synergy skills such as using a weapon with Increase Splash Damage Radius mod(s) turning a single/narrow target skill into an AoE-ish skill. It is an interesting system. One major problem with this system is that unlike skills that are always available on demand, there's only so much inventory space to carry around weapons to try out later in a comparative manner. Compile this with missing info and confusing stats readout, and to a lesser degree not having the proper item lvl for where you are playing, I would wager most of us have not given your other "skills" (AKA weapons) a fair shake, to fully explore what they are, and can do.

Take for example the Fusilier Friend my MM had found early in game. If it wasn't an unique item I would have laughed and scraped it as soon as I picked it up. It's not your normal rocket pistol since it only shoot one projectile and does no splash damage. Even with its 100% shield penetration, it only does 0-1 damage @ 30 shots per minute, big deal!?. It ended up to be quite a useful weapon even in late Normal diff, and maybe beyond - As far as I have seen in normal diff, Electric Eel guns list no more than 1 max dmg. (Also note that the damage listed after one upgrade is 1-1. I will see what it does when I get around to giving it another upgrade)


I would encourage you all to try out one of these electric eel guns that are dropped in the later acts. Maybe they drop earlier but I have only noticed them then. It shoots an electric eel that attaches itself to the target, and drain life, fast.

When I started thinking using lots of Chance To Cast items I was naturally thinking of dual weilding those 600 shots per minute pistols. I have gave these pistols a brief test when I have finally got my hands on a pair of them. I wasn't impressed, I could hardly kill anything with them, nevermind seeing procs firing off left and right as I would have expected. WTF, I thought, they don't even do a good job on breaking crates! But there lies the key which I only realised days later, out of the blue. These are rocket pistols, this type does not fire one shot at a time 600 times per minute, it fires spreads of bullets so many times per minute. I was testing the pistol as I would have a machine rifle so a lot of bullets were wasted, and sometime even failed to hit the target at all. The further the monsters are, the least likely they are to be hit because the gaps are larger between bullets. These type of guns, for single target and small mobs, are meant to be used at close range- Like Fire Storm, and unlike Spectral Bolts. If you shoot a single target at point blank range, it's going to take 1200 shoots per minute! It's a different play style.

I am sure you all have some favorite type of weapons or some weapons you have played with to have some insight on how they works, if only for your own build and play style. Lets share them and explore dem undocumented skills

KoP