[PB59] Ichabod realizes Civ 4 PB is for closers only

[Ichabod]

Civ password: ger

Hello, my name is Ichabod. For those that don't know me, my post count shows that I'm a long time forum spammer. I have a long history of games played in this forum, starting with Fall from Heaven, than Civ 4, 5 and 6, with WW along the way. If memory serves me right, my last Civ 4 game was one of these big pitboss games (PB 32), where you could say I got second place? Something like that. It was a casual game for casual players (the definition of casual is: if you have to ask what is a casual player, you are likely not a casual player    ), and I lost to the least casual player of the bunch. I think that sums it up, I was a good casual player.

It's been a long time since my last Civ 4 game. My mechanics are probably rusty, but I think I had time to realize my shortcomings. The gist of it, is that I'm not a player that antecipates good active plays, based on the opportunities the map gives - my plans are always 5/10 turns later than they should, which greatly diminishes the likelihood of success. Ah, and I don't build navies and always lose the game/my position due to naval combat.   Also, I'm prone to morale loss that gravely hinders my gaming capabilities. And I'm not the most reliable player. And I don't report a lot.  

The (original) title of the thread (Ichabod and Darrell try again) is (was) a reminiscence about what was the biggest (?) PB in RB history, where Darrell and I teamed up. We tried opening with a religion, lost Hinduism when we would have gotten Buddhism and 50 turns into the game we had asked for replacement players (reading a bit, our Civ had something like 5 replacement players before being destroyed). We won't do that again, I promise!

[Ichabod]

Changelog version 2.0

Tile Yields and Improvements

• Lumbermills: Available at Metal Casting, +1 commerce with Machinery, +1 commerce with Electricity, Lumber mills get their +1 commerce bonus next to a river on all river tiles, not only on straight river tiles, reduce buildtime to 5 from 8
  
  
• Forest preserves: +1 commerce, now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers like above
  
  
• Jungle no longer grows onto resources
  

Game Mechanics

• Drafting: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft.
  
  
• AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), Religious victory, and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions.
  
  
• Fail-gold: You never get fail-gold if you also completed the wonder somewhere else (so no National Wonder fail-gold, or doubling up on a wonder to guarantee yourself a paycheck. The game still informs you that you received "0 gold" from your hammers).
  
  
• Toroidal Maintenance: Now return city maintenance as if the map were Cylindrical.
  
  
• War Weariness: War weariness decreases faster during peace
  
  
• War Weariness: Increases only by half during an MP game
  
  
• Religion spread: Spreading religions via missionaries to your own cities never fails
  
  
• Global warming: Removed
  
  
• Espionage: Active missions removed
  
  
• Espionage: 'No espionage' option fixed, see bugfix section for more details
  

Techs

• Agriculture: Cost 40 instead of 60
  
  
• Mysticism: Cost 60 instead of 50
  
  
• Fishing: Cost 50 instead of 40
  
  
• Metal Casting: Cost 300 instead of  450
  
  
• Alphabet: Cost 250 instead of 300
  
  
• Refrigeration: lose +1 sea movement
  

Buildings

• Aqueduct: Reduce cost to 80
  
  
• Castle: Obsoletes at Corporation instead of Economics
  
  
• Customs House: Cost 120 instead of 180, also applies to all UBs based on Customs House (Feitoria)
  
  
• Colosseum: -25% war weariness
  

National Wonders

• Red Cross: Cost 200 instead of 600
  
  
• West Point: Cost 550 instead of 800, +5 XP instead of 4, Requires a level 5 unit instead of 6
  

Wonders

• Resource modifiers: All wonders that had +100% production with a specific resource now only have +50% production with that resource.
  
  
• Great Lighthouse: +1 trade route in coastal cities instead of +2
  
  
• Statue of Zeus: Obsolete at Gunpowder
  
  
• Mausoleum of Mausolos: Obsolete at Nationalism
  

Unit mechanics

• Flanking: Flanking strength (used to calculate damage from flanking strikes) of all units reduced by 50%.
  
  
• Circumnavigation: Unlocked by Optics, +1 trade route in all coastal cities instead of +1 movement and can be achieved by everybody
  
  
• Coastal blockade: only blocks sea trade routes and resources provided by sea trade, blockaded cities can still work blocked tiles.
  
  
• Barbs now never attack your unit stack if the stack includes a settler and a unit that is giving military happiness
  
  
• Barbs never raze a city even autoraze. On recapturing such a city you too do not autoraze it.
  

Land units

• Scout: +100% vs Animals gained with Hunting, no tech required, that way everybody starts with a scout
  
  
• Swordsman: +25% city attack instead of +10%, also applies to UUs Jaguar Warrior and Gallic Swordsman
  
  
• War elephant: Strength 7 instead of 8, requires Ivory or Iron, applies to all UU
  
  
• Explorer: Gains Flanking
  
  
• Airship: Cannot see submarines
  
  
• ICBM: Cost 1500 instead of 500
  
  
• Tactical Nuke: Cost 750 instead of 250
  
  
• Nukes: Nukes never create fallout on tiles containing strategic resources.
  

Naval units

• Work Boat: no longer require any tech (still require Fishing to work water tiles).
  
  
• Galleon: Requires Paper and Astronomy, Dutch UU still only requires Astronomy
  
  
• Privateer: Required techs are Gunpowder and Astronomy instead of Chemistry and Astronomy, removed hidden nationality, can plunder during war time
  

Corporations

• Tech: Discovering the corresponding tech for a corporation earns you an executive of that corporation. To settle the HQ you still need a great person.
  
  
• Sid's Sushi Co.: Food bonus per resource 0.25 instead of 0.5 and culture bonus per resource 1 instead of 2, maintenance costs halfed
  
  
• Mining Inc.: Hammer bonus per resource 0.75 instead of 1, maintenance costs 3/4 of original
  

Civics

• Serfdom: +1 commerce on Farms, +1 hammer on Watermills and Windmills, available on Monarchy instead of Feudalism
  
  
• Emancipation: lose unhappiness bonus, gain +10% Hammer in all cities
  
  
• State Property: Lose +10% Hammer in all cities
  
  
• Environmentalism: Available at Biology instead of Medicine, remove Corporation costs
  

Traits

• Financial: +1 commerce on land tiles that have 3+ commerce, lighthouse gives: +1 commerce on water tiles that have 2+ commerce
  
  
• Expansive: Remove Worker bonus, add +100% production of Aqueduct
  
  
• Creative: Remove production bonus for Colosseum
  
  
• Charismatic: +100% production of Monument, +100% production of Colosseum
  
  
• Aggressive: -50% unit maintenance cost, free Barrage I for all siege weapons
  
  
• Philosophical: +150% GPP instead of +100%
  
  
• Protective: +100% domestic trade route yield (works like a harbor mechanically, just only for domestic trade)
  

Civs

• UBs no longer obsolete at any time. Affected civs are Celts, Egypt, Ethiopia, Native America, Spain
  
  
• America UB: NEW Immigration Station - Harbor replacement, +3 Great People Points, +1 happy from Hit Musical, Singles and Movies
  
  
• America UU: NEW Minuteman - Musket replacement, Starts with Guerrilla 1 and Woodsman 1.
  
  
• Arabia UU: Camel Archer starts with March
  
  
• Babylon UB: +5% food storaged on growth
  
  
• Celts UB: +1 culture
  
  
• China UU: max 40% collateral damage instead of max 60%
  
  
• Germany UB: Assembly Plant available at Steam Power instead of Assembly line, +2 hammer
  
  
• Germany UU: NEW Riesengarde - replace Grenadier, available at Chemistry, starts with Pinch
  
  
• Greece UU: Phalanx - replaces spearman, strength 5, +25% hill defense
  
  
• Inca UB: Makes city act as a source of fresh water instead of +2 culture, Cost 45
  
  
• India UU: movement 2 instead of 3, start with Mobility promotion
  
  
• Japan UB: NEW Tatara, Forge replacement - +2 XP to Melee, +10% hammer bonus with coals
  
  
• Maya UU: Starts with Woodsman 1
  
  
• Native America Tech: Fishing/Hunting instead of Fishing/Agriculture
  
  
• Native America UB: Available at Archery instead of Mysticism, additional +1 XP for gunpowder units, never obsoletes
  
  
• Persia UB: NEW Bazaar - replaces market gives 25% trade yield
  
  
• Russia UB: Replace University instead of Laboratory, only +1 free scientist
  
  
• Spain UB: Never obsoletes, +2 XP for naval units, does not require Walls
  
  
• Zulu UU: Remove Mobility promotion
  

Leaders

Also included are three new leaders for the missing trait combos

• LieuYe (ORG/PRO)
  
  
• San Martin (CHM/CRE) and
  
  
• Nebuchadnezzar (IND/PHI)
  

[Ichabod]

Florida man Darrell is watching his advertisement reel (aka big hand egg game), so he's not here to spam with me.

[Bobchillingworth]

I hear you on the morale loss, but I think I've got it figured out- the key, you see, is to pick the least-buildery, most nauseating civ / leader combo possible. That way, you'll find yourself unable to become overly attached to your obnoxious, horrifying civilization, and won't mourn the loss of cities; indeed, you may even be relieved to see them go. In your case, I wonder if you could kill two birds with one stone by selecting, say, Peter of the Vikings, and spending 90% of the game whipping boats. It's a fool-proof strategy, in that you're guaranteed to prove yourself a bonafide fool in the undertaking.

[Serdoa]

If you want I'm up for dedlurking you Ichabod. I'm not really interested to play in these big games myself (and also have enough to do already) but I'd be happy to put forward my opinions and maybe it helps to keep your reporting up if you know people are reliant on you providing information.

[Ichabod]

I hear you on the morale loss, but I think I've got it figured out- the key, you see, is to pick the least-buildery, most nauseating civ / leader combo possible.  That way, you'll find yourself unable to become overly attached to your obnoxious, horrifying civilization, and won't mourn the loss of cities; indeed, you may even be relieved to see them go.  In your case, I wonder if you could kill two birds with one stone by selecting, say, Peter of the Vikings, and spending 90% of the game whipping boats.  It's a fool-proof strategy, in that you're guaranteed to prove yourself a bonafide fool in the undertaking.

Sounds like real life. Perhaps picking Sitting Bull and building all cities one of the coast would achieve a similar result. I could spend the game amassing a stack of catapults and assorted trash, ready to bash the first hapless fool who decides to cross my borders with tanks. Combine that with totally ill-advised beelines to some first to bonuses (as in, music before currency), just to deny them from the players that have a chance to win.

On a side note, I couldn't remember the Viking uniques from head. The signs of impending doom just got a lot stronger.

If you want I'm up for dedlurking you Ichabod. I'm not really interested to play in these big games myself (and also have enough to do already) but I'd be happy to put forward my opinions and maybe it helps to keep your reporting up if you know people are reliant on you providing information.

I would be very grateful. Feel free to jump ship whenever you like, if I start to fail in reports. I won't try to delude myself that I can play this game to win, because I never before approached a game of Civ with the level of dedication and planning that I've seen from some players, of which there are some in this game. I'm thinking about setting some organizational goals, such as simming the X first turns; using a spreadsheet to track some things... Things like that, that would give a nice return without an absurdity of commitment. On the same note, I have to find a way to keep reporting enjoyable (my main gripe is finding a way to make picture sharing easy).

I was actually divagating about a possible way to win this game and all I could think about is a culture victory: it's the only victory you can achieve with a bearable amount of cities. Considering this, I wonder if having that goal in mind since the start of the game is a good thing.

[darrelljs]

So I can start bumping our post count now?

Darrell

[darrelljs]

So I don't have civ anymore. I'm willing to buy the game and install the mod to do early game micro sims and the like but I have to ask...my only computer is a Mac, is that possible?

Darrell

[darrelljs]

If you want I'm up for dedlurking you Ichabod.

This let's me focus on post count since someone better is around to give actual advice and helpful suggestions!

Darrell

[darrelljs]

It's a fool-proof strategy, in that you're guaranteed to prove yourself a bonafide fool in the undertaking.

. Speaking of which, what's the over/under on the number of times Krill calls me an idiot?

Darrell