Bolgard
Oct 28, 2005, 02:02 PM
So in the past week I've convinced about four of my friends to pick up the game - half of whom have never played before. This one friend of mine got it yesterday, after only having played Civ III a few times a few years ago. Last night we decide to try a little multiplayer, and first off, we were totally blown away by how incredibly smooth and fun the MP portion of the game was. I mean, really, REALLY impressed. But that's not the story entirely...
It was my friend, myself, and six random civs, on a large continents map, and my friend and I weren't on a team. I forget the difficulty but it was pretty low as it was a training game to get my friend used to the ways of Civ 4.
So, we do our own thing - I'm FDR, my friend's the Germans, and we're talking over a headset to each other as we're playing. I opt for a peaceful expansionist and culture route, while still maintaing a strong military, but my friend decideds that he needs to be the ultimate conquerer, and sets his goal on removing every other civ from the world through armed conflict. :eek:
to the far west of the continant is Elizabeth - I'm next to her - to the east of me is the Aztecs, then east of them is Rome, then south of Rome is my friend, then south of him is Egypt. Eventually, my friend amasses an army and decides to take out the Aztecs, who are the weakest Civ so far. He starts his assault, pillages a bunch of improvements, and takes and razes a city.
At this point, I decided to do something very evil. :crazyeye: First, I wanted to test how improved the AI interaction and dimplomacy options were. Secondly, I wanted to prolong the game as long as possible. And thirdly, I didn't want any one single civ to get too powerful on our continent. I decided I wanted to grow and expand while maintaining a worldwide balance of power. I called up Ceasar. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Hey, Caesar, it's Frank - look, man, you've got hordes of rampaging Germans raising all kinds of hell with the Aztecs, and it's only a matter of time before they start gunning for you - you hear me?"
Caesar: "Good point. I'm so glad you're my friend!"
:goodjob:
And I had, for the frist time in Civilization History, for myself personally, gotten one civ to declare war on another without being directly involved. Of course, at this moment, my friend tells me over the headset "OMG, the Romans just declared war on me!!!"
I, of course, was shocked. I explained to my friend that it probably wasn't a big deal, and he could always sue for peace if he so needed. Right about now I checked with the Brits and with Egypt to see how they felt about everyone else. Egypt loved my friend the Germans - I guess they had good trade going or something, but Egypt hated Caesar. I started taking notes.
Eventually my friend sued for peace. During all this, I had made considerable progress expanding my territory, developing my infrastructure, and completing lots of reasearch. I had also pushed the English back town by town via culture bombs. My idea this game was to see if I could win without firing a single shot.
Over the next several hours, whenever my friend built up a huge army to attack one civ, I'd get one adjacent to him to declare war on him - a few cities got traded back and forth in the conflict, but no one ever had the upper hand. At this point, the Aztecs were out of the game - they had some cities, but were just too far behind to be a threat, and the prime target for my friend was Caesar, who had apparently pissed him off with that initial "unprovoked" attack.
:lol:
Later in the game, he started gunning for Caesar exclusively. At this point, for whatever reason, Egypt was willing to go to war with my friend for a few techs. I only made this deal after my friend had declared war on Rome. This process of declaring war, getting war declared on him by a neighboring civ, fighting for 10 turns, suing for peace, resupplying, and then going after the Romans again went on for about 3 hours.
Every time he went after the Romans I brought Egypt in. By this time, I had about 16 cities, had reduced the Brits to only 2 cities via culture, and had half of this gigantic continent to myself, never having fired a single shot. My workers were installing railroads, and life was looking good. The western half of the continent had known nothing but peace and development, while the eastern half had known nothing but centuries of war.
I think my friend must have yelled into the headset "GOD D*#((@!" about a half-dozen times last night in reaction to a "sudden and unprovoked" declaration of war by a third party immediately after he declared war on another civ. I did my best to make sure no one single side had a clear advantage - when one side, either Rome or Egypt, started to lose, I'd funnel them money and technology to balance them out. As a result, every single Civ was either neutral to me or loved me. I should apply for secretary general of the UN for my peaceful actions!
I plan on leveling with my friend in a few days about this.
;)
It was my friend, myself, and six random civs, on a large continents map, and my friend and I weren't on a team. I forget the difficulty but it was pretty low as it was a training game to get my friend used to the ways of Civ 4.
So, we do our own thing - I'm FDR, my friend's the Germans, and we're talking over a headset to each other as we're playing. I opt for a peaceful expansionist and culture route, while still maintaing a strong military, but my friend decideds that he needs to be the ultimate conquerer, and sets his goal on removing every other civ from the world through armed conflict. :eek:
to the far west of the continant is Elizabeth - I'm next to her - to the east of me is the Aztecs, then east of them is Rome, then south of Rome is my friend, then south of him is Egypt. Eventually, my friend amasses an army and decides to take out the Aztecs, who are the weakest Civ so far. He starts his assault, pillages a bunch of improvements, and takes and razes a city.
At this point, I decided to do something very evil. :crazyeye: First, I wanted to test how improved the AI interaction and dimplomacy options were. Secondly, I wanted to prolong the game as long as possible. And thirdly, I didn't want any one single civ to get too powerful on our continent. I decided I wanted to grow and expand while maintaining a worldwide balance of power. I called up Ceasar. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Hey, Caesar, it's Frank - look, man, you've got hordes of rampaging Germans raising all kinds of hell with the Aztecs, and it's only a matter of time before they start gunning for you - you hear me?"
Caesar: "Good point. I'm so glad you're my friend!"
:goodjob:
And I had, for the frist time in Civilization History, for myself personally, gotten one civ to declare war on another without being directly involved. Of course, at this moment, my friend tells me over the headset "OMG, the Romans just declared war on me!!!"
I, of course, was shocked. I explained to my friend that it probably wasn't a big deal, and he could always sue for peace if he so needed. Right about now I checked with the Brits and with Egypt to see how they felt about everyone else. Egypt loved my friend the Germans - I guess they had good trade going or something, but Egypt hated Caesar. I started taking notes.
Eventually my friend sued for peace. During all this, I had made considerable progress expanding my territory, developing my infrastructure, and completing lots of reasearch. I had also pushed the English back town by town via culture bombs. My idea this game was to see if I could win without firing a single shot.
Over the next several hours, whenever my friend built up a huge army to attack one civ, I'd get one adjacent to him to declare war on him - a few cities got traded back and forth in the conflict, but no one ever had the upper hand. At this point, the Aztecs were out of the game - they had some cities, but were just too far behind to be a threat, and the prime target for my friend was Caesar, who had apparently pissed him off with that initial "unprovoked" attack.
:lol:
Later in the game, he started gunning for Caesar exclusively. At this point, for whatever reason, Egypt was willing to go to war with my friend for a few techs. I only made this deal after my friend had declared war on Rome. This process of declaring war, getting war declared on him by a neighboring civ, fighting for 10 turns, suing for peace, resupplying, and then going after the Romans again went on for about 3 hours.
Every time he went after the Romans I brought Egypt in. By this time, I had about 16 cities, had reduced the Brits to only 2 cities via culture, and had half of this gigantic continent to myself, never having fired a single shot. My workers were installing railroads, and life was looking good. The western half of the continent had known nothing but peace and development, while the eastern half had known nothing but centuries of war.
I think my friend must have yelled into the headset "GOD D*#((@!" about a half-dozen times last night in reaction to a "sudden and unprovoked" declaration of war by a third party immediately after he declared war on another civ. I did my best to make sure no one single side had a clear advantage - when one side, either Rome or Egypt, started to lose, I'd funnel them money and technology to balance them out. As a result, every single Civ was either neutral to me or loved me. I should apply for secretary general of the UN for my peaceful actions!
I plan on leveling with my friend in a few days about this.
;)