March Madness: Civ4 AI Edition

[pindicator]

This blind squirrel finally found a nut!

[Commodore]

So in the final, there is going to be like one war, right?

[Sullla]

Addressing issues from earlier in this thread:

* I did correct RefSteel's score from the previous game. The extra 5 points are included in the spreadsheet. Thanks for the notice.

* Fixed the incorrect link on the website and changed Mansa Musa to Zara in the last report. I'm not sure why Mansa was on the brain for a game where he wasn't even playing.

* Map for the next game is coming tomorrow. I think we'll have more than one war, Suryavarman has a massive peace weight difference from the Mansa/Elizabeth types, and Justinian is pretty aggressive. Who knows though.

The results from this last game:

- Zara was our most popular pick for the game winner, with exactly half of the entries. The other half were mostly divided between Pericles and Stalin. In a rare event, all six leaders were picked by at least one entry to win.

- Runner up tends to be the hardest leader category to pick, and it was again the case here. Pericles was most popular here, with 11 selections (32%). He was a real disappointment in this game.

- Boudica (14 picks) and Stalin (12 picks) were the major favorites in the First to Die category. In all honest, Boudica probably should have been the first eliminated in this game. Her land was significantly weaker than Stalin's land. I still don't know what that guy was doing in his opening, believe me it was like watching a train crash slowly unfolding across 50 turns.

- It's rare to see only 2 leaders survive, and so it's no surprise that only two entries got this correct. Congrats to antisocialmunky and Jabah.

- Spaceship (15 picks) was the most popular choice for victory type, followed by Domination (11 picks). These were solid picks, since the game nearly ended via space. Zara only needed to finish the SS Casings for his spaceship, and they were all in production when the game ended. A few more turns, plus the 10 turn wait for the spaceship to arrive.

- We also continue to have a high degree of accuracy on the victory dates. 85% of the field was within 25 turns. The guesses tended to shoot too high this time around, no one was earlier than Molach's Turn 302 estimate, while the high end pick was Brian's Turn 362.

As for the individual entries:

* Ceiliazul had arguably our best round to date, scoring 23 points by correctly picking winner, runner up, first to die, victory type, and victory date to within 10 turns. This was missing only number of leaders surviving to be a perfect ballot. Bravo!

* There were several other entries that were nearly as strong. Azza and pindicator also broke the 20 point barrier, correctly picking all three leaders and victory type, only falling a bit further off on victory date. Molach, Nakor, and antisocialmunky weren't far behind.

* von Adlercreutz and haphazard both had the advancing leaders, but in the wrong order. This time I remembered to score them correctly!

* At the top of the leaderboard, Ceiliazul's huge score has opened up some separation from the rest of the field. Will anyone be able to catch him? No pressure picking the championship!

I'll work on getting things ready for the championship and open the game for picking tomorrow. Thanks.

[TheSunIsDark]

The spreadsheet image is not visible, like all the others. It just shows [Image: results12.png]

[Lord Parkin]

The image shows fine for me.

Sullla, will you add the points for picking the 6 leaders advancing to the championship now, or after the match? Looks like Ceiliazul scored an impressive 40 there too. I only managed 20 myself.

[TheSunIsDark]

The image shows fine for me.

Not for me... checked in Chrome as well as my usual Firefox. Might be my OS (Windows 7), not sure though. They were working fine a few weeks ago, but then stopped working.

[Dantski]

Ugh just 1 point from this game and 14 total from the 3 playoff games. Hopefully I get everything perfect on the final game.

[RefSteel]

Thanks, Sullla! And what a crazy game!

Stalin's behavior was mystifying; it's obvious he really missed having Catherine around to prop him up. I'm much more surprised that I got the points I did - from Stalin dying first and from missing the victory date by only a single turn(!) than that my other picks were way off. So the story I've written for this one isn't about anything I got right:

Ottoman troops poured out of their cities in columns of infantry, supported by crack Cavalry units, gathering in force outside the last holdout of the Celts. In the heart of Chinook, her last redoubt, Queen Boudica of the Iceni slammed down the receiver of the patent Ethiopian radio transmitter lent her by Zara Yaqob. With a ringing curse, she told her staff, "No help is coming. That treacherous snake of an ally-in-name is sending all his forces to claim the southern lands, leaving these would-be murderers to lay their siege unchallenged. Yet surrender not your hope! We need only hold off the Ottoman swine here gathered at our gates, for as the heart of Suleiman Peacebreaker's lands are consumed, he'll spare no more reinforcements to trouble us here, but stream them all in terror to his vile palaces, to try and fail to stem the tide of Ethiopian military might!"



"There'll be mechanized troops tearing into their lands ere long like a wolf into the belly of its prey!"

The first sounds of gunfire sounded on the outskirts of Chinook as the Ottoman infantry columns began their inexhorable march, and Boudica rallied her men. "Fight on, brave Celtic warriors," she cried as she leapt to her horse, raising her rifle toward the heavens and spurring toward the battle. "Hold the gates this day, and the Turks themselves shall fall ere our demise!"



The battle was over, and Boudica walked alone among the ruins of the city gates. Moments ago, she had been exhausted, bleeding from a dozen wounds, screaming with fury and courage and pain, surrounded by raining bullets, flying hooves, and the clash of war. Now all was quiet - even the sounds of fighting between Ottoman forces and the Chinook resistance that would keep the city in turmoil for another decade after the war seemed faint and distant. Boudica was alone, no longer hurting, no longer angry, not even exhausted anymore. The acrid smell of smoke around her - of gunpowder, smoldering ruins, and in places, burning flesh - barely reached her. She walked the ruins, completely alone.

Her heart lifted when she saw a figure sitting among the twisted remnants of the city gates: A pale woman with night-black hair who seemed deeply familiar though Boudica could not remember ever seeing her before.



Boudica hailed her, and the dark-haired woman smiled, stepping down from her perch as the raven that had lighted on her wrist beat its wings and took flight. Light glinted from the Ankh she wore. "You had a good run," the dark-haired woman told her. "Nearly fought your way out of that barren corner where you were born."

A decade before, the Queen of the Iceni might have protested that she might manage it in spite of all -- but with the fall of her final stronghold, Boudica knew there was no hope of ever becoming a world power once more. It wouldn't be long before Emperor Zara Yaqob dominated the entire continent, and proceeded with Suleiman to make another play for a world Boudica would never see. Now the queen said only, "I seem to recognize you. May it be that we've met before?"

"Yes," the dark-haired lady answered, "once. In the meantime, you've sent many men to me. I made this visit to Brennus already, after Stalin and Pericles."

Boudica looked at her, bemused. "And the world, it's gone strange. May it be that you are the Morrigan? And am I now asleep and dreaming?"

The dark-haired lady shook her head, drawing close, glancing up at the departing raven. "Not she, and no, this is no dream; I'm not my little brother." She smiled again. "Just someone else who starts with D."

Boudica laughed. "Dominion? Defiance? You're beautiful, to be sure, and it's a sure pleasure to meet at a time like this." She met the dark-haired woman's eyes, and suddenly shivered. "No," she said then. "No, I suppose I know very well who you are."

Light glinted from the ankh again, and Dream's eldest sister stepped lightly around a corpse whose face, had Boudica looked upon it, she would have found more familiar still, though she'd only ever seen its features mirrored. The body still clung to the shattered stock of a rifle, but Boudica did not look down; she saw the woman with the ankh reach out in kindness, and Boudica reached out in turn as the dark-haired lady told her, "Take my hand."

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Survival update: There were no survivors from Playoff Game 3 except the two moving on to the finals - yikes!

[antisocialmunky]

Its too bad Katon and I don't have scores for game 2 :\

I guess we can just compare averages after the game is over.

[Mattimeo]

Opening round Game 2 OP.

First place won 2nd round Game 2.
Second place won 2nd round Game 1.
Third place won 2nd round Game 3.