[PB75] Newbfragar and Rusty's Beginner's Guide to Civ4

[naufragar]

Thanks, Tarkeel! It took a looooong time.

My plans to press enter until the end of the game might be in jeopardy!


(I rolled a double turn, so this is actually a turn after I discovered the destroyer.) Mjmd is probing my sentry net with a destroyer. He could have scouted me with airships. He could (and does) have explorers traveling on my railroads. Why does he need to test the waters just outside my cultural vision?  The trouble is that transports and destroyers are just so fast that I would need to have a truly extensive sentry net to cover every angle. I'm working on building some more caravels. In my distress, I offered Superdeath open borders.


Civac is a truly excellent player. He sniped Broadway from Mjmd, so at least his culture attempt is partially delayed. It looks like Civac also might beat Mjmd to nukes, but that would be very surprising, so we'll have to see. Is there game left in this game? 

[naufragar]

I've made a huge mistake. I had to replace my keyboard and I bought the cheapest Amazon model I could find. I was horrified to discover that the Print Screen button requires a Function key press. It's shocking how much more work it is to press Fn+prtscrn than just Print Screen.

But for you I suffer.


Have a screenshot:


Mjmd's culture cities tucked safely away and Civac getting ready to depopulate the planet. I don't have city vision of Mjmd but believe me, he has an atomic arsenal to rival or dwarf Civac's. When was the last time we saw a nuclear exchange on Realms Beyond? I know Amicalola used them in PB69 but were they lobbed back at him? Can't remember.

Here's how close Mjmd is to his culture victory, btw:



And in domestic news, I got Biology, enabling farms everywhere, and my micro just hasn't been up to the task. Hard to care about the little stuff. Bring the nuclear rain!

[Tarkeel]

Mjmd's culture cities tucked safely away and Civac getting ready to depopulate the planet. I don't have city vision of Mjmd but believe me, he has an atomic arsenal to rival or dwarf Civac's. When was the last time we saw a nuclear exchange on Realms Beyond? I know Amicalola used them in PB69 but were they lobbed back at him? Can't remember.

PB66 had a fair amount of nuclear exchanges.

[naufragar]

And in one turn, the world went mad.

Mjmd declared war on Civac, Superdeath, and me, launching 7 ICBMS. I'm a little insulted that none of them were aimed at me.  Two went to Superdeath. Two went to the ocean? And I believe the rest went towards Civac. Guess Mjmd didn't feel he needed to waste the family atomics on me. Total global power fell by 56%. I'll say that again. The world lost over half its soldiers in one flash.


While I did not feel the hot kiss of nuclear fire, I did get visited by Mjmd's tanks:


Took a couple tanks down with me, but my desert cities are hopeless. Mjmd's bombers have also disconnected them from my railroad network, and since this area is all desert hills, it's impossible to keep the network maintained.

Mjmd also advanced on Superdeath:


There's a second, bigger army in the fog, but you'll have to make do with this pic. Superdeath's power fell from just over 3 million to just under 1.5 million. Vaporized.

And a large portion of Superdeath's army is literally a world away:


Superdeath sailed these guys all the way from his ports on the western side of the continent to Civac's in the east?

But Civac isn't attacking with Superdeath because he's doing some amphibious thing against me or Ljubljana?




This game has jumped the shark.

[naufragar]

These turns take forever, man. The modern age gives people so much mobility, and it's a real head-scratcher to keep track of it all.

For example, Mjmd is carving through Superdeath, which puts him dangerously close to my western border:


I've moved some units up to try to ambush his tanks, but those bombers in Chicken&Biscuit can give him vision of every tile in my west via recon missions. And Mjmd's fast workers can do also sort of railroading shenanigans.

Speaking of Superdeath, tanks are brutal. 


Tanks just annihilate rifles. This screen sort of gives you a sense of what's going on. Mjmd is ripping through SD for capture gold and back-up cities in case his culture win is stalled. (Corporations make conquest very profitable. And in the game!) But Mjmd's culture cities are quite safe due to Ljubljana's buffer culture. (By the way, Ljubljana, brother, pal, when the game leader declares war on every player except you, that is...not a compliment.) (Speaking of which, I closed borders with Ljubljana and reoffered them with a "Declare war on Mjmd" attached. Tired of him just being a tourist.)



But Ljubljana is really worried about this area for some reason. He's been given enough time to recover from his tech stagnation and is now steaming along quite nicely. Won't be fast enough to beat Mjmd unless Civac throws himself into the meat grinder and no reason for Civac to do that if Ljubljana just sits on his hands. It's the oldest problem in RB Multiplayer. Everyone wants the other guy to jump on the grenade. It really is unconscionable that Ljubljana can't even take the simplest step of closing borders with Mjmd. That would at least stop Ljubljana from being a net positive for Mjmd's victory chances.

Speaking of Civac, he's now defending my skies. 


Nice guy. Especially since Mjmd's bombers keep blowing up my railroads! 

[naufragar]

Our valiant partisans, supported by airships of the Moralintern, have drawn blood against the villainous Mjmd's forces.

Mjmd was just gobbling up Superdeath cities at will. A handful of tanks just steamrolls everything Superdeath has left over:


By the way, aerial reconnaissance is so nice. I've never played in an MP game in which I've gotten to use it, so this is fun.

Cannons and then infantry are sufficient:


Counting the Sentry knight that I lost last turn, I lost 1100 hammers to Mjmd's 1190. (I had to delete a victorious knight and infantry, so they wouldn't just be free Great General points.  ) So, a victory. Now, Mjmd outproduces me fivefold, so even trades are disastrous. All the same, it felt good to show some teeth after being visited by his bombers for the past few turns.

I can't defend Superdeath's northern cities forever. Eventually, Mjmd will take them and be able to pressure me in both my West and my East. And with his 5x production advantage and much better units, I'm dead. It feels strange to be the only intact player fighting him. Ljubljana still shelters Mjmd from Civac, and Civac is completely tied up. I wish I knew what either of them were thinking.

By the way, Tanks are awesome units. I've never personally seen them in use in a multiplayer game. I've got Infantry and Cannons to defend against them. Tanks are 40% stronger than Infantry while only being 30% more expensive. And they can attack twice. Just ruthlessly efficient units. And that's discounting their bomber support. I'll unlock Artillery and Anti-tank units in ~6 turns, but I still won't have an answer for Mjmd's air superiority.

And if I ever do become a nuisance, he'll just send a nuke my way. 

[naufragar]

One good thing about binary research is that you can change tech priorities on a dime. I had wanted Artillery for anti-tank guns and, well, artillery, but I saw something that changed by mind:



In 3 turns Mjmd can hit my coast line with a transport. Even 5 tanks attacking amphibiously is a disaster for me, and I have no way to defend against it. I'll try to get the tech, and I'll pray I have oil. Of course, Mjmd also has a gigantic tank column that I can't contain. And nukes.


Superdeath renamed all his cities to highlight his belief in nuclear nonproliferation. Things like "ban nukes," "nukes take no skill," and "nukes r broken." I'm not of his mind. Mjmd got through Rocketry and Fission before Superdeath and I even got through Electricity. You've got to let players in the lead be in the lead. Let's not flatten every aspect of the game. (Unless we flatten with nukes.   )

[naufragar]

I'll try to get the tech, and I'll pray I have oil.

Wait a minute. Scientific Method unlocks Oil. I should be able to see my oil resources.


Uh oh. This map's modern era strategic resources were left unbalanced... "My" oil is nowhere within my natural expansion. I've got one in the water that'll have to wait until Plastics tech. I've got two in my borders that are adjacent to foreign borders. (So they'll be disconnected at will by enemy bombers.) And one of those is in GT's territory, so it's a good thing I conquered him.

I did a quick glance for Uranium and, while I have some, Superdeath has none in his or Ricketyclik's lands. I won't live long enough to see Aluminum, but I'm guessing that the modern strategics are just in their randomly generated spots.

So I offered peace to Mjmd. I got tired of fighting him while Ljubljana does nothing but watch with his ten thousand tourist impi. I had horrific combat luck this turn, so while I did kill some Mjmd tanks in defense of Superdeath, I feel that I've spilled enough blood in foreign lands. We'll see if Mjmd accepts.

Of course, if I accept peace, it's possible that Ljubljana just attacks. We'll see. But for now, we're going to bow out of the conflict and let the actual contenders fight. Or not fight and just let Mjmd win.

[naufragar]

Superdeath declared war on me. I sort of naively assumed this was to help me pillage his tiles, so Mjmd can't get them.


Mjmd has 11 tanks in range, 1 of which can attack twice. SD has 12 defenders. The outcome is uncertain. Mjmd has to not lose a tank to a fluke low-odds roll. But if he does, I'll be able to pillage more stuff.

But then I saw that Superdeath was declaring as some sort of spiteful protest.


He moved a Commando Grenadier up to my borders! I actually still thought he wasn't seriously attacking me when I first saw it. Then I saw the commando promotion. So it had to die. He also moved a trireme up to a seafood resource and will pillage it next turn.

In fairness, I did attack him on turn 164, which was just a short one hundred and twenty-one turns ago. And I did sacrifice my own troops to slow down his death. But for this, I guess he needs to attack me with commandos.

Speaking of attack...


Ljubljana is still keeping a lot of units in these cities, many of them Cavalry. It's possible that he seems my peace treaty with Mjmd as a betrayal. (I've killed a dozen Mjmd tanks. How many have you killed, buddy?) I can't defend against Ljubljana, so I won't try. If he kills me, he kills me.

I don't see any transports yet:


But note the facing of that leftmost destroyer. He's darting in and out to scout...something. Harumph.

In Civac news, he's fighting Mjmd out in the water, launching a whole bunch of tactical nukes. Global power went down by 32,000 points, but with everyone building units, it's hard to tell how much was actually lost.

Interesting game. Mjmd is in the lead, but Ljubljana is catching up in the domestic demos, but has a long way to go for tech. Civac has a ton of tech, but has fallen behind domestically, with just 30 cities to Ljubljana's 40 or Mjmd's 60. At minimum, in 45 turns Mjmd wins a culture victory if none of his cities are destroyed. But with nukes and modern mobility, those cities aren't guaranteed to be safe. And in 45 turns? Who knows. Someone might actually win a spaceship victory before then. Fascinating game.

(And the map has contributed to the interestingness. I feel bad for expressing my frustrations. )

[naufragar]

Man, all sorts of stuff is happening in this game. I don't have vision, although I am trying to send out tourist airships.

In my portion of the world, Superdeath survived the tank attack and offered me a peace treaty. This was a little weird, since he used ANOTHER COMMANDO to kill a cannon of mine:


But his trireme didn't pillage my seafood? I couldn't understand. I killed his grenadiers for a total of +12 Great General points. (2 victories for 2XP plus Imp bonus (2xp) plus domestic fight bonus (2xp)). I reoffered peace, but am moving up a galleon to kill that trireme just in case.

But why offer peace to a guy who's going to be dead next turn? Well, out of respect for whatever the heck this was:


I don't know if this was Commando shenanigans or what, but Superdeath took a city off of Mjmd. Inexcusable in a front city with air reconnaissance, but hey! Well done, SD.

Ljubljana declared war on Mjmd, but I can't tell if this was Ljubljana attacking or just declaring because he knew Mjmd was going to attack.


Mjmd promptly nuked Ljubljana and took a couple cities from him. I've sent an airship to scout, but I should've sent two! Mjmd has battleships hugging Civac's coast! So Mjmd is pressing that southern continent on both land and sea. And looks to be making gains against both players! Well, dramatic swings are possible when nukes are in play. This is an exciting bit of game. 

And I might be seeing fireworks closer to home. What's with all the Cavalry and Paratroopers, Ljubljana? 


This isn't Ljubljana's modern stuff, so he could just be using his leftover horse units to try to get land off me, while keeping his main force in the south to defend against Mjmd. With corporations and a huge empire, even a handful of corp resources could matter. Given that he moved up his bombers last turn, I'm guess he attacks this turn. 

With Ljubljana's apparent hostility, this means I no longer have any access to oil. I understand your vision for the oil distribution, Pind, but it feels so bad to be locked out of modern era units because you got there second.

I'm still teching Flight because if Ljubljana does attack, I presumably make myself a vassal of Mjmd and beg oil off of him.