With the release of Civ VI (But, sadly, my inability to have any money to buy it for any foreseeable future) and the fact that my current situation leaves me in a state where I can often play offline games but not online games, I have been playing quite a bit of the ol' favorite Civilization IV.
Starting with a game I had that had the theme of "forgotten leaders" and reading the old AI Survivor games Sullla reported on (and listening to the Troll Kon game again), it sparked on me to do a bit of a variat idea on it, specifically playing 1 game on each of the 52 leaders in Civ IV! Yeah, probably a bit old hat given Civ IV's age, but it is still a pretty monstrous 52 games, and I am not somebody who has worked to the bone and is able to beat Deity easily, I usually play on Monarch and Emperor!
That also got me thinking of the fact that, hey, people might appreciate hearing about it...although only after I'd finished two games. In the end, I decided to throw out those games, in part because they were played on slightly different settings than I will use. If you're wondering, the leaders for those games were Frederick and Hannibal. So I thought I would open this thread up for writing more detailed reports! I will probably not exactly be updating this every day, but I will try to not just let it die!
The Rules
1. Restricted Leaders is on and each leader gets 1 game, win or lose, barring exceptional circumstances like somehow starting on a 20 tile island with no nearby islands to expand to or something else crazy. You get one shot to be hot or not. Map rerolls are not permitted except in those kind of extreme scenarios. Enemy leaders may be picked or randomized and will usually be some mix of it based on thematics, such as putting Roman leaders in a game with Hannibal or having a "Conquest Leaders" theme.
Leaders will be played for the most part normally, but I may at times sneak in some "in-characterness": For example, I will more likely try to found a religion first as Isabella. Retiring early is not allowed: I must play until someone wins.
2. Maps with all-landmass, absurdity or otherwise far out there things like Oasis, Highlands, Fantasy Land and others are not permitted. Expect to see mostly maps such as Pangaea, Continents, Custom Continents, Tectonics, Hemispheres, Big & Small, Medium & Small, Archipelago Shaky Continents and such. Climate and such will usually be random, except in cases where it is leader appropriate. For example Saladin will get an Arid start, while Stalin would get a Cold start.
3. Choose Religions is on, along with No Vassal States and No Technology Brokering. No Tech Brokering has been chosen over flatout tech trade banning because it gets kind of boring to have no tech trading, not to mention it can force out a lot of strats like early religion when I am hoping to give them all somewhat unique games, and I find having some level of tech trading tends to help the AI. Choose Religions is because I enjoy the flavor of different religions being around and No Vassal States should be obvious. I will also be experimenting with Aggressive AI, due to what I find to be a low number of conquests/wars in the first two games, although I have yet to have the real aggromongers...
4. The difficulty will be Emperor, although the first two games were be played on Monarch: I felt like it did not punish me enough for mistakes and I want there to be challenge, so for the time being at least I am bumping up the difficulty to Emperor. This is also why I decided to throw out the previous games, as it felt unfair to give them both a lower difficulty. I'm not good enough to fight Immortal consistantly and it tends to constrain strats a bit too much anyway (like the aforementioned Isabella religiousness).
5. Leaders will be chosen either at random, alphabetically, because I feel like them/at whim or if this ends up being popular perhaps by vote.
6. Winning leaders will be listed according to how fast they won, although they will also have their Score and Normalized Score shown, along with how they won. Losing leaders will be listed according to how long they lasted and always below winning leaders. Victory type will also be listed.
Remaining Leaders By Civilization:
Bold denotes the leader is the active game.
America: Abrahamn Lincoln (Philosophical/Charismatic), Franklin Roosevelt (Industrious/Organized), George Washington (Organized/Charismatic)
Arabia: Saladin (Spiritual/Protective)
Aztec: Montezuma (Aggressive/Spiritual)
Babylon: Hammurabi (Aggressive/Organized)
Byzantine: Justinian I (Spiritual/Imperialistic)
Carthage: Hannibal (Financial/Charismatic)
Celts: Boudica (Aggressive/Charismatic), Brennus (Spiritual/Charismatic)
China: Mao Zedong (Expansive/Protective), Qin Shi Huang (Industrious/Protective)
Dutch: Willem van Oranje (Financial/Creative)
Egypt: Hatshepsut (Spiritual/Creative), Ramesses II (Spiritual/Industrious)
England: Winston Churchill (Charismatic/Protective), Elizabeth (Financial/Philosophical), Victoria (Financial/Imperialistic)
Ethiopia: Zara Yaqob (Creative/Organized)
France: Charles De Gaulle (Industrious/Charismatic), Louis XIV (Creative/Industrious), Napoleon (Organized/Charismatic)
Germany: Otto von Bismarck (Expansive/Industrious), Frederick (Organized/Philosophical)
Greece: Pericles (Creative/Philosophical), Alexander the Great (Philosophical/Aggressive)
Holy Rome: Charlemagne (Protective/Imperialistic)
Inca: Huanya Capac (Financial/Industrious)
India: Asoka (Spiritual/Organized), Gandhi (Philosophical/Spiritual)
Japan: Tokugawa Ieyasu (Aggressive/Protective)
Khmer: Suravaryman II (Expansive/Creative)
Korea: Wang Kon (Financial/Protective)
Mali: Mansa Musa (Financial/Spiritual)
Maya: Pacal II (Expansive/Financial)
Mongolia: Genghis Khan (Aggressive/Imperialistic), Kublai Khan (Aggressive/Creative)
Native America: Sitting Bull (Philosophical/Protective)
Ottoman: Mehmed II (Expansive/Organized), Suleiman (Philosophical/Imperialistic)
Persia: Cyrus (Charismatic/Imperialistic), Darius I (Financial/Organized)
Portugal: Joao II (Expansive/Imperialistic)
Rome: Julius Caeser (Imperialistic/Organized), Augustus Caeser (Industrious/Imperialistic)
Russia: Catherine the Great (Creative/Imperialistic), Peter (Philosophical/Expansive), Stalin (Aggressive/Industrious)
Spain: Isabella (Spiritual/Expansive)
Sumeria: Gilgamesh (Creative/Protective)
Viking: Rangar (Aggressive/Financial)
Zulu: Shaka (Aggressive/Expansive)
Hall of Fame
The spoiler tag below is for the finished games as mentioned. Do not click if you do not wish to know the results of previous games.
The rest of this post will be for linkspace and so on. Game links will be in spoiler tags both due to clutter and to keep anyone from being spoiled if they do not wish to.
Pericles of Greece:
Starting with a game I had that had the theme of "forgotten leaders" and reading the old AI Survivor games Sullla reported on (and listening to the Troll Kon game again), it sparked on me to do a bit of a variat idea on it, specifically playing 1 game on each of the 52 leaders in Civ IV! Yeah, probably a bit old hat given Civ IV's age, but it is still a pretty monstrous 52 games, and I am not somebody who has worked to the bone and is able to beat Deity easily, I usually play on Monarch and Emperor!
That also got me thinking of the fact that, hey, people might appreciate hearing about it...although only after I'd finished two games. In the end, I decided to throw out those games, in part because they were played on slightly different settings than I will use. If you're wondering, the leaders for those games were Frederick and Hannibal. So I thought I would open this thread up for writing more detailed reports! I will probably not exactly be updating this every day, but I will try to not just let it die!
The Rules
1. Restricted Leaders is on and each leader gets 1 game, win or lose, barring exceptional circumstances like somehow starting on a 20 tile island with no nearby islands to expand to or something else crazy. You get one shot to be hot or not. Map rerolls are not permitted except in those kind of extreme scenarios. Enemy leaders may be picked or randomized and will usually be some mix of it based on thematics, such as putting Roman leaders in a game with Hannibal or having a "Conquest Leaders" theme.
Leaders will be played for the most part normally, but I may at times sneak in some "in-characterness": For example, I will more likely try to found a religion first as Isabella. Retiring early is not allowed: I must play until someone wins.
2. Maps with all-landmass, absurdity or otherwise far out there things like Oasis, Highlands, Fantasy Land and others are not permitted. Expect to see mostly maps such as Pangaea, Continents, Custom Continents, Tectonics, Hemispheres, Big & Small, Medium & Small, Archipelago Shaky Continents and such. Climate and such will usually be random, except in cases where it is leader appropriate. For example Saladin will get an Arid start, while Stalin would get a Cold start.
3. Choose Religions is on, along with No Vassal States and No Technology Brokering. No Tech Brokering has been chosen over flatout tech trade banning because it gets kind of boring to have no tech trading, not to mention it can force out a lot of strats like early religion when I am hoping to give them all somewhat unique games, and I find having some level of tech trading tends to help the AI. Choose Religions is because I enjoy the flavor of different religions being around and No Vassal States should be obvious. I will also be experimenting with Aggressive AI, due to what I find to be a low number of conquests/wars in the first two games, although I have yet to have the real aggromongers...
4. The difficulty will be Emperor, although the first two games were be played on Monarch: I felt like it did not punish me enough for mistakes and I want there to be challenge, so for the time being at least I am bumping up the difficulty to Emperor. This is also why I decided to throw out the previous games, as it felt unfair to give them both a lower difficulty. I'm not good enough to fight Immortal consistantly and it tends to constrain strats a bit too much anyway (like the aforementioned Isabella religiousness).
5. Leaders will be chosen either at random, alphabetically, because I feel like them/at whim or if this ends up being popular perhaps by vote.
6. Winning leaders will be listed according to how fast they won, although they will also have their Score and Normalized Score shown, along with how they won. Losing leaders will be listed according to how long they lasted and always below winning leaders. Victory type will also be listed.
Remaining Leaders By Civilization:
Bold denotes the leader is the active game.
America: Abrahamn Lincoln (Philosophical/Charismatic), Franklin Roosevelt (Industrious/Organized), George Washington (Organized/Charismatic)
Arabia: Saladin (Spiritual/Protective)
Aztec: Montezuma (Aggressive/Spiritual)
Babylon: Hammurabi (Aggressive/Organized)
Byzantine: Justinian I (Spiritual/Imperialistic)
Carthage: Hannibal (Financial/Charismatic)
Celts: Boudica (Aggressive/Charismatic), Brennus (Spiritual/Charismatic)
China: Mao Zedong (Expansive/Protective), Qin Shi Huang (Industrious/Protective)
Dutch: Willem van Oranje (Financial/Creative)
Egypt: Hatshepsut (Spiritual/Creative), Ramesses II (Spiritual/Industrious)
England: Winston Churchill (Charismatic/Protective), Elizabeth (Financial/Philosophical), Victoria (Financial/Imperialistic)
Ethiopia: Zara Yaqob (Creative/Organized)
France: Charles De Gaulle (Industrious/Charismatic), Louis XIV (Creative/Industrious), Napoleon (Organized/Charismatic)
Germany: Otto von Bismarck (Expansive/Industrious), Frederick (Organized/Philosophical)
Greece: Pericles (Creative/Philosophical), Alexander the Great (Philosophical/Aggressive)
Holy Rome: Charlemagne (Protective/Imperialistic)
Inca: Huanya Capac (Financial/Industrious)
India: Asoka (Spiritual/Organized), Gandhi (Philosophical/Spiritual)
Japan: Tokugawa Ieyasu (Aggressive/Protective)
Khmer: Suravaryman II (Expansive/Creative)
Korea: Wang Kon (Financial/Protective)
Mali: Mansa Musa (Financial/Spiritual)
Maya: Pacal II (Expansive/Financial)
Mongolia: Genghis Khan (Aggressive/Imperialistic), Kublai Khan (Aggressive/Creative)
Native America: Sitting Bull (Philosophical/Protective)
Ottoman: Mehmed II (Expansive/Organized), Suleiman (Philosophical/Imperialistic)
Persia: Cyrus (Charismatic/Imperialistic), Darius I (Financial/Organized)
Portugal: Joao II (Expansive/Imperialistic)
Rome: Julius Caeser (Imperialistic/Organized), Augustus Caeser (Industrious/Imperialistic)
Russia: Catherine the Great (Creative/Imperialistic), Peter (Philosophical/Expansive), Stalin (Aggressive/Industrious)
Spain: Isabella (Spiritual/Expansive)
Sumeria: Gilgamesh (Creative/Protective)
Viking: Rangar (Aggressive/Financial)
Zulu: Shaka (Aggressive/Expansive)
Hall of Fame
The spoiler tag below is for the finished games as mentioned. Do not click if you do not wish to know the results of previous games.
The rest of this post will be for linkspace and so on. Game links will be in spoiler tags both due to clutter and to keep anyone from being spoiled if they do not wish to.
Pericles of Greece: