Adventure 22 - Brick by Brick

This game was set on the Hemispheres map. Emperor difficulty, No Tech Brokering and the variant rule was that we could never have the most land.

We are playing with Pericles, which should be fun. He has Frederick's old traits from Vanilla, and Frederick was always a favourite of mine. The Greek unique building (Odeon) also seems excellent. My plan was: in the early game make use of farms and specialists, don't cottage much at all. Then later on once I had some land and some tech I would plant some cottages and maybe go to emancipation to grow them, depending on how things worked out.

OK, the starting position seems ... woody. I settled on the spot, missing out on the cows which were to be revealed. The only thing a worker could occupy himself with is to farm the rice until we researched bronze working. Since we don't start with agriculture, that means that a worker first would probably be a bad move. So I start with a warrior and research agriculture. Worker began once the warrior completed and we were at size 2, and then we got the techs needed to chop trees down. After another warrior I made my usual move of chopping out a second worker before settler, then warrior, then chopping out a settler. I guess no one will roll their eyes at early chopping in this game since without it one cannot improve any tiles!

We are on our own little island with Mansa Musa. We had no copper so I went to archery for defence. First city was here:



Our second and third cities are placed west of Athens to box Mansa Musa off. We claim some floodplains with Sparta and some stone wih Corinth. You can see I am researching masonry so as to build a quarry and start the pyramids.



As our half-price libraries are whipped around our lands we finish the pyramids and adopt representation to make our scientists instantly twice as clever.



The happy benefit for the pyramids is also crucial because currently I haven't planted a city near the only happiness resource in our half of the continent: silver.

The SP (Stupid Palace) was built very early in my game, in 75BC. It was a hindu palace, not a religion I knew of in any cities on this hemisphere. In fact, our hemisphere seemed to be reilgionless with only Taoism and Islam to go.

By 1AD we have a line of cities from east to west, spanning the continent. Our science rate is struggling at 20% so I have to halt expansion for a while.



But the beaker per turn count is decent because of representation. In that picture I am building metal units because previously my culture stole a Malinese copper mine in the north. On this exact turn the Malinese got that tile back and I would have to reassign the builds.

Mansa founds Taoism a few turns before I could lighbulb Philosophy, that's annoying. I was still able to get some trades for the tech from Darius and Hatty however. Mansa spreads Taoism to our hemisphere and I convert in 325 AD.



I am hooking up the marble that has just been captured by Athens' culture, and am researching towards literature and the great library. The wonder was completed in Athens in 500AD.



Darius had found us earlier, and we also found Hatshepsut later on to complete our hemisphere. Hmm, 3 good techers to compete with in a builder variant. I am struggling slightly on techs and have to keep up by trading. As usual, researching compass gets me out of the whole - man I love that tech.



Does anyone else think that No Technology Brokering actually makes you into even more of a tech whore? If you get a monopoly tech, but only one AI has anything to trade for it you would not normally make the trade because the AI you give your monopoly to would trade it away - instead you would risk waiting, until other AIs have techs to give you. But with the option checked, you have no worries and can make the trade.

Anyway, with phiosophy and CoL researched, I decided that I didn't need slavery any more and revolted to a niiiice set of civics for an empire running specialists.



So it's probably a good time to make a PLAN. It seems our hemisphere is all happy together, all being Taoists. Mansa founded Islam but has not spreaded it around. The only land I could realistically conquer was Mansa's but that did not seem a good plan to me. His lands were mostly plains and it would cost a lot in terms of economy and diplomacy to conquer them. So for now it would be peaceful. In fact, diplomacy seemed a good option now. Hopefully with the other hemisphere having 1 less civ than us (assuming there were the default 7 civs in the game) then one of them would be population leader and I could gain the taoist's votes, then raze the cities of any civs on the other continent that wouldn't vote for me.

With the great library and pacifism I was getting lotsa great people. An academy was built in Athens and a few scientsts were settled there. Others lightbulbed techs. One of them got paper and an engineer built the University of Sangkore. Not sure how great that wonder is, but it did gain me more beakers than just settling the engineer and denyed it to my opponents.



But due to the weird tech bug I talked about in the info thread I couldn't trade paper to anyone except Hatty. Which was annoying. Another scientist lightbulbed education, so here is the obligatory liberalism-taking-nationalism pic:



By 1190 AD I had all the cities I would plant on our home island. The newer cities were not connected to the river system so mainly got cottages. The older cities continued to work mainly specialists. Corinth built the national epic and pumped out many a GP. Athens' forests were continually chopped throughout the growth of the city, converting it to a cottage-fest to take advantage of bureaucracy.



Optics was next and I built some caravels to see who was on the other hemisphere.

Asoka, Lincoln and Elizabeth ... hmm I sense Darrelljs has hand-picked these leaders! Well, that's interesting. They are all behind in tech quite a way despite them being strong teching personalitites and this being emperor. Also Hatty seems to have crashed her economy by overexpanding while neglecting to build cottages. These reduced bonuses look to have seriously hampered the emperor AIs. I had also caught up with Darius (kinda) and Mansa so the tech situation was looking pretty good. Obligatory pic of finishing the Taj Mahal:



So, time to add to the PLAN. Looking at the statistics, Lincoln was quite away ahead in population. Great! So, how could I get the other two's votes .... oh Jese they both have free religion as favoutire civics! Now normally that's really bad for a diplo attempt because you cannot convert them to your religion. But in this game it could be good because I could abandon Taoism for Free Religon later on. Darius ALSO favours that civic! Mansa is very easy to get the votes even without the religion benefit by going into his favoured Free Market civic. That leaves Hatty. She has Org Religion as a favourite civic, so that's out because it's in the religion column. But since we've been friends for a while and have no negatives, I think I can get the +8 just from trading (that's +4 for starters) and open borders, peace, resource trading etc.

Right, so to Mass Media then! Printing Press, lightbulb twice for Scientific Method, then I see Mansa is researching physics and will beat me so I research biology instead and trade it to him for physics. Then electicity, radio, mass media, us the saved GE to rush the united nations in 1630 AD.



Asoka and Elizabeth had to be gifted techs to get them to liberalism then they took up their favourite civic (I had to bribe elizabeth). I had converted myself to free religion a while ago. One slightly worrying thing was that Lincoln kept voting for Asoka in the Stupid Palace elections and getting +2 modifiers.

So, Asoka votes for Lincoln in the secratary general elections. We are both friendly with the Indian, with Lincoln getting his modifiers almost exclusively from the +8 "You voted for us" modifiers from the Stupid Palace. With the UN obsoleting the SP, shouldn't modifiers from it also be obsoleted? No? Worth a try.



Bugger! That should leave me slightly short in the diplo vitory vote. And it does.



Hmm, I'm not that many votes short, maybe this could be solved without going to war. I upped the espionage slider and spammed spies and privateers. Cancelled resource deals with Asoka and Lincoln, traded away my resources to my friends, pirated their fishing nets etc. Before I could really implement my grand poisoning plan of the american water, I unexpectedly won the game.



So 100 years after the UN was built we achieved a diplomatic victory in 1735 AD.

What changed? Well, I got friendlier than Lincoln was with Asoka. The bonuses from shared civics, resources and open borders increased in quick succession, getting me his votes. Hatty turned out to not be a problem, asking for help twice for 2 nice diplo points. The key to securing all the votes on my own continent was not getting any negatives. This was fairly easy with none of them having worst enemies.

With the choice of AIs, espeicially with 3 of them having the same favoutite civic and another one being Mansa Musa, I think diplomacy will be a popular victory type. Also culture would be easyish with all the peaceful AIs on the map. Space would be pretty hard, with Darius teching well throughout the game and the civs on the other hemisphere improving in the endgame due to their vast areas of land.

Thanks to Darreljs for sponsoring the game. The variant was cool. I think one or two aggressive AIs could have made the game a bit spicier.

I have only played until 1000 AD so far and will have to post a shadow game up later on since I didn't have time to finish. I will try to have a report up by next week on my website, if anyone wants to read it.

Once I saw the start, my basic strategy was to chop the pyramids and run a massive specialist economy, with a no-cottage variant. I wasn't too happy with the leader darreljs picked for this as I was actually in the middle of a game with pericles where I was running a similiar specialist economy.

Initial tech path was Agriculture -> Mining -> Bronze Working. Capital builds were warrior -> worker at size 2. Once I found stone in 3520, my chop pyramids plan was further reinforced. The land around us was also nice for SE's, as it had high food and ability to put alot of cities into a small amount of land and still running 3+ specialists per city.

After BW, tech path was wheel -> Archery -> Animal Husbandry -> Masonry. I got pyramids in 775 BC, then met Darius soon after. Darrelljs apparently picked all techwhore AI's it seems. I found this to be a very nice game design, trying to outtech the techwhores with as much land as them.

Situation at 25 AD:



At this point, the tech brokering bug came in. I tried to research things nobody else had to trade, but could not figure out who had what and that kind of hurt my situation. First tech I went after to trade was Aesthetics, but suddenly on the turn I finished it, both mansa musa nad darius magically had the tech.. . Met hatty in 760 AD, and was finally able to pull off a trade, as somehow she didnt have currency up until that point. My first trade of the game was Iron working, meditation and preisthood from hatty for currency from me.

Anyways, founded a few more cities, met asoka in 860 AD, who had run away in every aspect. He was tech leader by a mile, and had 28% of world population, but less land than hatty. After I met Asoka, I figured out that I could not outtech these AI's without trading and with no cottages, so I decided that the easiest way to win the game would be beeline to mass media and diplomatic. I was trying to do a liberalism -> Astronomy slingshot, but had bad luck with great people, as I popped 1 great merchant and 1 great engineer when I needed a GS to lightbulb education.

1000 AD situation:


I dont even know if any of the AI's have researched liberalism because I was not paying attention to the announcements and its impossible to figure it out from the tech trade screen.. Not sure if I would even win this game (The question isnt my relations with the AI's, but the AI's relations with eachother). Oh yeah, Mansa Musa had Astronomy and galleons at this point



Overall, I must say this was a great scenario design. First time I have been outteched by the AI on emperor in a while when playing a peaceful game. The tech brokering bug was annoying for me, but otherwise nice scenario darrell.

VoiceOfUnreason: 1370AD.

I made a major strategic blunder, in that I was too slow to get to hereditary rule.

I may have also handcuffed myself by being unwilling to use warfare to achieve equality. Of course, given the economic balances, that may have simply been a quick way to suicide.

The "can research" bug definitely had a negative impact on my willingness to continue.

Athens settled in place, Sparta set up as a GP farm to the west (I was 6 turns out from 800GP at retirement). Mansa proved a real pain here, as he dropped a city on the horses, and managed enough culture there to steal the ivory on a regular basis.

Ah well, I've played better. Maybe next time.

A question for all the knowledgable folks here at Realms Beyond.

I am playing a vanilla civ game, archipelago tiny islands -- lots of fun with this map, as I generally play continents or pangaea. It is prince level (I'm not all that skilled a player), and I'm starting to pull ahead of the pack at about 1350 AD. Relations are strong (pleased or friendly) with everyone but Peter and Temujin. But they are weak and far away.

Out of nowhere, the horn sounds. Deals are cancelled, so it must be against me. Who is it -- Peter or Temujin? Neither...Bismarck has declared on me. Bismarck? The guy who is (was) friendly for centuries? WTF?

I had an autosave from the previous turn, so I reloaded it to check. Yep, he was in fact friendly, not just a high pleased. The screen shows "have enough on our hands" so he was planning war, but I thought a friendly civ would never declare on you. Events could push them down to pleased, and then it could happen, but never from friendly.

What does "friendly" mean, and how is it different from "pleased", if war declarations are still possible?

I don't know what Bismarck is thinking, anyway. I've got way more cities and troops than he does, not to mention better tech. I'm more upset by the loss of trade deals -- and a couple useful happiness resources -- than I am about any real threat from the Germans. I suppose he could pull in his fellow Hindus (I'm running free religion), but even together they aren't strong enough to really hurt me.

Oh well...looks like I'm about to acquire some territory. I'm running profit at 80% research, so it was probably time to expand again anyway.

Can anyone explain the whole "friendly" thing?

Adventure Twenty-Two is now open for reporting. Please post your reports in the Tournament Discussion subforum.

GlassTiger - Blade Master
NanoSkirt - Naked Engineer
BlackLicorice - Evoker
Janie - Marksman
DoMinion - Summoner
RosemaryThyme - Guardian
BlackBarry - Engineer


Will be edited on release

KoP

It's not a big deal but still something worth celebrating. I posted the following at hellgate.incgames and got my post edited, by Flux.

Quote:Limited number of Founders Which is it?

When the news was first released on the 11th, there were no mention about a limit on Founder's accounts available.

Then EA's official press release on the 17th says "Lifetime Subscription memberships are limited to the first 125,000 pre-order purchasers of Hellgate: London"

Now the FFS beta page says "Only a total of 100,000 Lifetime Subscriptions are available for purchase and the Lifetime Subscription offer ends on November 30, 2007"

*sigh* I would expect a bit more professionalism.

About once a month or so I try winning the Earth 1000 A.D. scenario as Isabella at Emperor. The game suggests Chieftan for her, I suppose because you only start with two cities. You also start with a ton of Knights, a pair of Crossbowman, and a Settler. Cordoba is yours on turn 1 and taking North Africa from Saladin is trivial. I've pretty much gotten all the logistics optimized and it is a rare day I don't take Thebes, but the holy grail (no pun intended) is Jerusalem. You have two issues there, #1 your allies have a lot of troops in the area and might take it first, and #2 you need some good die rolls to keep enough Knights alive to take it. It's that or bypass the two North African cities held by Saladin, which makes your Settler valueless. It also means you won't get Marble online anytime soon, which brings me to the other critical aspect: early wonder whoring. There are a ton of early Wonders that are still available, chief of which is The Oracle, The Great Lighthouse and The Great Library, but also Temple of Artemis, The Colossus, The Hanging Gardens, The Great Wall, and The Sistine Chapel. I've gotten the moves down fairly well (especailly the passing of Iron between the starting cities) so I can nail the big three every time and usually a couple of the secondary ones.

So, in the BTS version of the scenario some things have changed which make things a bit easier. First off, Ragnar, Charlemagne and Justinian are now playable leaders. While you start off at war with Ragnar you can eventually make peace with him. You start off at peace with Justinian. This is important as you don't have to worry about all those Byzantine Pikeman, and even better you can sign Open Borders and utilize his roads to get to Thebes faster. Another big change is that Peter shows up with Civil Service a few turns into the Game. If you run cash from the start, you can trade Divine Right and most of your money for it. This means you can select Nationalism with The Oracle ! Huge! Not only that, you can then trade Civil Service to Charlemagne for Music, giving you a good shot at The Sistine Chapel. Another change is that there are two new wonders available, the Statue of Zeus which is in the bag since it requires four Obelisks which the AI won't build, and the Mausoleum of Maussollos which is a good attracive foil for the AI.

So, my last game I got just fantastic die rolls, not only was I able to take Jerusalem, but I was even able to take Mecca! In addition the big three wonders, I also picked up The Sistine Chapel, The Hanging Gardens (very rare), The Great Wall, and The Statue of Zeus. My research priority as always was Banking for three reasons. First, I want Banks in my shrine cities. Second, it is on the way to Rifling. Third, within a dozen turns I was in Representation/Bureaucracy/Slavery/Mercantilsm/Philosophy, really churning out the GPPs and teching along at a fantastic pace. My first GS went to an Academy in Thebes, but the next four went towards bulbing Paper/Education/Printing Press (partial). I self researched Gunpowder and Replaceable, then pulled a Liberalism -> Rifling slingshot! Remember I got Nationalism from The Oralce 8). It was a bit of a gamble. I kept an eye on Elizabeth, in Warlords she would be the one most likely to steal Liberalism from me. In BTS I was afraid of Tokugawa, he starts with great techs for it, but no victory without risk! So now I am in a position to draft Riflemen and no other AI has as much as Gunpowder. I am not sure if I should rip through Europe or Asia, I've got great diplomatic relations with the former but I prefer their land.

I'm also tempted to just call it a win and start trying on Immortal .

Darrell

Epic Fourteen and Adventure 23 are announced to be opened by now, but aren´t downloadable. What happened?

I would love to play an Epic and Adventure soon where I can participate, that´s why I ask.

I know there are a few interested parties, so here's my bad news for the day:

http://www.dragonmount.com/


Yes, folks, Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time series has passed away.

And yes, in some people's eyes, even worse news: He wasn't finished with the series that has already taken so many people roughly 10,000 pages into a tale that won't be finished. Unless there is some sneaky lawyer stuff, Jordan had repeatedly claimed his will and contract were both written so his notes and his story were to never be finished by anyone else. So... my sympathies go to his family and friends. And the (probably) million other people who will mourn the passing of the story that he took with him.