Adventure 32 - Kylearan

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I was away from last Friday until today, and just came home two hours ago (and yes, I already had the urge to check out Realms Beyond - might be a sign I've spent way too much time in this forum already... ). I played Adventure 32, and on short notice sent DerangedDuck (the Sponsor) a PM with my executive summary, asking him to post it for me on report day. Looks like he didn't receive it or never read it.

I will post a more detailed report in the next couple of days when I've recovered from my yearly "biking, castles and beer"-tour (through Luxembourg this time). Until then, I post the summary I sent to DerangedDuck.

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Hi,

here's my ultra-short summary for Adventure 32 - Friendly Takeover, as I'm on vacation until Wednesday. I will provide a more detailed report when I'm back.

Due to time constraints, I decided not to capture any cities, neither via passive aggression nor by military force. I had only 4 cities until very late in the game, when 2 cities flipped to me. I know this was not optimal scoring-wise, but ah well. (My only gripe with this otherwise excellent scenario is that it rewards military conquest...)

I founded 3 corporations until 1AD: Standard Ethanol, Sid's Sushi and Civilized Jewelers. I only managed to build 1 extra executive, though.

Until 1500AD, I managed to found only 1 additional corporation: Aluminium Co (I lost Creative Construction by 6 turns).

I won a cultural victory in 1808AD.

So my score is:

1AD: 3*100 + 4*10 = 340
1500AD: 4*50 + 42*2 + 4*3 = 296
End: -274 + 111 + 6*2 = -151

Total: 340 + 296 - 151 = 485

-Kylearan

[T-hawk]

Hi Kylearan! Good to see your first game since the baby... and we definitely hope you can find the time to conjure up a full report!

I've been crazy busy this week, but finally finding time to read and comment now.

I had only 4 cities until very late in the game, when 2 cities flipped to me.

The most important phase of this game, though it was well hidden among the scoring options, was the land grab. I dismissed the idea of the passive domination victory, as either an impossible red herring, or at best requiring a dedicated military game plan. Via culture, one can conquer only border cities. Once one is flipped, it takes fifty to a hundred turns to deliver pressure to the next rank of cities, even with the culture corporations. The game would end after maybe two iterations of that at most.

But the trick (that I totally missed and Mortius did splendidly) was to grab spots all around the continent, regardless of the actual quality or location. That made EVERY rival city a border city.

I know this was not optimal scoring-wise, but ah well. (My only gripe with this otherwise excellent scenario is that it rewards military conquest...)

'Twould appear not. All of the top scores (Mortius, myself, Sullla, Timmy, zeka) never prosecuted any offensive war, not even for purposes of reducing flip garrisons. Machine Guns were just too powerful a deterrent, and the clock on acquiring flips too tight at 1500 AD. The execution of a peaceful builder scenario worked out well indeed.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

here come some more details about my game, even though it still won't be a real report. Since I was one of the few who didn't go the passive aggressive route, it might be of interest for comparison purposes anyway. And after skimming over some of the other reports, it became apparent what lack of time can do to your score...my game lasted only 3 hours with not much pre-game planning, and it really showed. My consolation is that even with unlimited time, no way I would have managed to play such a perfect game as Mortius did.

I founded Rome one tile north, on the coast, and after a worker quickly built three settlers and claimed the three sites I wanted.



I never used the whip doing so, even though the capital was very food heavy...I fear I became really rusty.

After that, I could have founded 2 or 3 more cities in the south, but deliberately did not. I feared my research would be slowed down too much by doing so, and I did not know if I would manage to get to Music before 1AD with some cities so far away. I hadn't played civ for a very long time, and had lost the feeling for what is possible and what not.

After researching necessary worker techs Hunting, Agriculture, Bronze Working, The Wheel and Pottery (and getting Sailing from a hut), I went for Writing next, built a library and immediately hired 2 scientists, providing me with my first corporation. I did *not* build the Oracle, somehow thinking it would dilute my gene pool, and only later realized that I could have done it in another city and could have easily avoided generating a great prophet. I also forgot how cheap forges are for Rome, and only built the Pyramids and Hanging Gardens to generate great engineer points, and a forge only much later, and as a result lost an engineering corporation by 5 turns to Gandhi. :smokin: But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I never became really happy with Cumae, the potential super-city with the insane amount of resources. It was always in a cultural struggle with Pericles, and I was really surprised just how much pressure it had to endure.



Even though it built the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens, a Cathedral, the Hermitage and other cultural stuff, it never managed to claim even its first ring tiles! Even when the city became legendary, cultural pressure from Pericles was too hard.



One of the reasons seemed to be that Pericles was going for a cultural victory himself...but I'm getting ahead of myself again. While generating the great scientist, I beelined to Currency to get access to the forum, built one, and hired to great merchants next. I had to hire some scientists for a couple of turns to get the merchant before 1 AD, but it succeeded. Together with the great artist from Music, I had three corporations before 1AD.

I *really* should have started to generate great people in parallel in different cities. Together with a MC slingshot, I would have had at least 4 corporations instead...but as I said, having no time to properly think this through can do this to you.

Lincoln incorporated Cereal Mills in 75AD - not sure what I could have done to prevent this? He had also incorporated Creative Constructions in 225BC. In 660AD, Gandhi incorporated Mining, Inc. - 5 turns before I got my great engineer. Argh. But at least I got to Rocketry before 1500AD, and incorporated Aluminium, Co. Besides researching, I was very busy spreading all the corporations to the rest of the world.

In 1560AD, Argos flipped to me, as did Konya in 1725AD. I luckily generated two great artists (hadn't tried for them, even) and won a cultural victory in 1806AD.

Besides going for cultural domination (which against Pericles, who was going for a cultural victory and already had 2 legendary cities himself, would have been quite interesting...), only a military campaign could have boosted my score significantly. Especially if I had captured Washington before 1500AD, which had two HQs in it, and which I felt would have been possible as it was only lightly defended. But I didn't have the time for a military campaign, and also I felt it was out of spirit for this scenario called "Friendly Takeover". I really loved this variant game, but my only gripe with it is that it would have rewarded war in several ways. Not so much as passive aggressiveness would have, but conquering headquarters and having more size X cities had boosted my score significantly.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun nonetheless! Even though I knew beforehand I wouldn't be able to compete, I was glad I managed to participate in another event. I'm slowly getting more spare time again, so watch out once another of my beloved events with complicated scoring systems comes along - I will think that one through throroghly next time. :D

-Kylearan

[Kylearan]

Hi,

'Twould appear not. All of the top scores (Mortius, myself, Sullla, Timmy, zeka) never prosecuted any offensive war, not even for purposes of reducing flip garrisons. Machine Guns were just too powerful a deterrent, and the clock on acquiring flips too tight at 1500 AD. The execution of a peaceful builder scenario worked out well indeed.

Agreed. What I meant though was that if you hadn't the time/nerve/knowledge to go the passive aggressive route, a simple military campaign capturing large cities and some HQs could have increased the score significantly compared to those who only expanded peacefully and did not try to flip cities. This I felt was a bit out of spirit. But it seems nobody went that path, so it doesn't really matter.

But I've only skimmed over the other reports, and now I'm looking forward to read through them in more detail.

-Kylearan