Welcome to my next RPC game, Stalin's Iron Fist! These games are meant to be entertaining as well as educational!

In this RPC the goal and game are very simple, we MUST win a conquest victory as a One City Challenge (OCC). The first timne we tried a OCC game we got a lucky Diplomatic win as Agustus. Now we want the opposite, Stalin is the unltimate tyrant and must destroy the entire world, razing a destroying all in the path of the Red War Machine!!

Rules
1) Conquest only, although the other victory conditions are enabled for the AI!
2) It's an OCC, only 5 national wonders are available.
3) Stalin may enter worldbuilder to add the following resources if they not already present: Horse/Iron/Oil.
4) Stalin does not share power, he may not take a vassal.

Settings

Pangea Small sized Map with pressed shorelines and medium sea level.
Monarch difficulty
Marathon Speed

Being a Small map, there will only be 4 AIs

So here is our Brutal Tyranical Leader

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/Stalin0000.jpg

And the start

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinStart0000.jpg

Close to a shore but not right on top. Corn/stone look good. Some hills, forrests, and farmable lands!

Where to start! My only experience in OCC's was the Agustus game so I will need help here!

I say settle in spot. Are you going to enter WB or are you going to have some one else do that so you don't see the map?



There is no Iron or Oil near by but there are horses.

Ohhhh I didn't realize we're playing a small map. That changes things. I might not go for mech infantry after all.

Or hell, I might still. I'll have to see how tech/diplo goes. Before I play this I'm going to read up on OCC's though, because I've never done one before. Obviously national park/globe would be 2 of the wonders, probably ironworks also if we have iron (coal would be useless). Oxford is in for certain and we'll need to milk its power extensively. Wall street won't be necessary as maintenance in a OCC is probably a joke portion and income from settled specialists alone should keep the slider at 100% until someone has like 70 units out there or something. NE is a likely pick since we'll want the GP's ASAP.

I'll be playing on epic where heroic epic is almost certainly redundant with the production power in such a city (might consider it on marathon in your game mad...1 unit per turn on marathon would be scary with something like tanks, see what you can do per turn).

So far I'm thinking NE, IW, Oxford, Globe, NP. That's 5 I guess, maybe if we don't have iron I'll have to get creative with IW.

Stone in the BFC means I'll be shooting for every early stone wonder since our compassionate leader is industrious here and we have it.

I might get the AP for some experimentation with it :p. Clearly I can't win using it based on the rules, but it has other uses.

I don't know if a tech lead is possible in OCC, but I have a plan if I get a certain unit first :). Hint: I'm going on a parade!

I've doctored the start slightly in World Builder to have it comply with the rules.
Iron has been moved into the third expansion ring (if I've counted correctly) and Oil added on a nearby desert tile.
Actually the resource situation is very nice for an OCC, the map is almost made for this ;-).

Good luck with the game, here is my scenario file.

Obviously national park/globe would be 2 of the wonders, probably ironworks also if we have iron (coal would be useless). Oxford is in for certain and we'll need to milk its power extensively. Wall street won't be necessary as maintenance in a OCC is probably a joke portion and income from settled specialists alone should keep the slider at 100% until someone has like 70 units out there or something. NE is a likely pick since we'll want the GP's ASAP.
There is a thread/poll that I made a few weeks ago with some discussion on which wonders to put into an OCC city and why. Oxford and NatEpic are no-brainers, I also value the National Park very highly because it solves the health problem which is almost impossible to overcome otherwise (especially if you have only a small map with four civs and will be at war with all of them at some point, limiting your trade opportunities for health resources).

It might be smart even to leave some of the non-hill forests in place in the BFC to get access to more specialists with the advent of the National Park. The forests can be lumbermilled should the need for additional production arise.

The Globe Theatre is the biggest point of discussion, actually. It is totally feasible to get around the happiness limits without the Globe (I've seen it executed in a Deity OCC). War Weariness can be managed with Police State + Kremlin + Jail. The big problem are going to be the UN resolutions, most of which we'll have to defy (unless we control the UN ourselves and get elected Secretary General by some miracle; rather unlikely).

So far I'm thinking NE, IW, Oxford, Globe, NP. That's 5 I guess, maybe if we don't have iron I'll have to get creative with IW.
Iron is guaranteed as per the rules (my scenario file enforces the rules, but Mad is going to edit in Iron anyway if he doesn't end up using it).

Your selection of National Wonders is very solid, but it might be better to pick Heroic Epic instead of IW because we'll be producing mostly units during end-game anyway. On Marathon it is difficult to get 1 unit out per turn without the Heroic Epic (unless you skip the National Park so you have Coal for Ironworks).

It might also be worthwhile to actually build West Point, because that might provide an extra promotion to a lot of units (depending on how many Great Generals are settled at that point). In that case probably the Globe Theatre should be skipped.

To summarize: Oxford, National Epic and National Park are mandatory. That leaves two slots, which could be any combination of IW, HE, GT and West Point.

I will probably try out HE + West Point and see if I can manage unhappiness without the Globe.

Stone in the BFC means I'll be shooting for every early stone wonder since our compassionate leader is industrious here and we have it.
The stone is a godsend since it greatly shortens the Pyramids build, and they are super important for an OCC. The Great Wall is also quite mandatory (we will probably fight defensive wars inside our borders).

I don't know if a tech lead is possible in OCC, but I have a plan if I get a certain unit first :). Hint: I'm going on a parade!
You can definitely win the Liberalism race comfortably on Monarch, only after Lib the AIs will start to get ahead. It's only a small map though, so it won't be overwhelming. I think being first to Rifles or Infantry even should be possible.

I'm going to be a !@#$monger and play it with Mad's original save file. I want to die I think. No doctored resources for me!

Regarding vassals: the Soviet Union was really big on having satellite states, where the USSR could rule in practice if not in name, especially under Stalin in the post WWII era. The first was Mongolia(n People's Republic) well before the Great Patriotic War, and then Eastern Europe afterwards.

For RP-reasons, I would suggest the following rule alterations (sorry if it's too late to include these and I'm just babbling):

No vassals, UNLESS: Mongolia and/or Germany are in the game, then they MUST be vassalized.

If Mao Zedong is in the game, he MUST be destroyed or vassalized. There is only ONE Vanguard of the Revolution, and any other claimants to that title must be dealt with appropriately.

Other than that, the OCC is more or less right, with Stalin's whole Socialism in One State plan and all :)

EDIT: Small map, only 4 AIs, right. Well, I *guess* you can get away with no vassals. One could look at this as Stalin consolidating control over the Party after his ascension to power or the Revolution, or maybe Eastern Europe after the War. Anyway, it's excusable :p

the island Sea map works very well for OCC games. If you can combat the happiness issue without building GT. Then the HE + West Point would be a pretty good combo having that +4XP would be good. I normally always play epic speeds so building the HE is kind of pointless, because a military academy, along with IW gets right at the same effect. HE + military Academy = 150%, which would really help in Marathon

I'm going to be a !@#$monger and play it with Mad's original save file. I want to die I think. No doctored resources for me!
I've played it out with access to Iron but I think it's possible without Iron as well, because you get to Rifling fast enough usually. Ironworks is not essential, Heroic Epic will do the job. Late wonders can be rushed with Engineers.

BTW I did the switch-a-roo trick with the AP to deny it to the AI :goodjob:

EDIT: Small map, only 4 AIs, right. Well, I *guess* you can get away with no vassals. One could look at this as Stalin consolidating control over the Party after his ascension to power or the Revolution, or maybe Eastern Europe after the War. Anyway, it's excusable :p
In my test game I've taken vassals. I'm excited to see how Mad will cope with the no-vassal rule. It can become a pain in the ass having to fight the whole world in the end, because the AIs obviously vassal to eachother. Maybe Vassal States should be disabled completely before starting the game. That would make more sense.

the island Sea map works very well for OCC games. If you can combat the happiness issue without building GT.
Not building the GT could become a problem (at least before Mt. Rushmore) because due to the no-vassal rule, happiness resources will be very scarce. Having the Statue of Zeus to ourselves will be quite essential as well without the Globe, for the same reason.

Maybe not taking the National Park (comes pretty late anyway) is the answer, or one could simply not build West Point. West Point is only needed if there are not enough Generals around, but at least two are needed to make a medic and to build a Military Academy. That means to get the +4 XP that West Point would give at least four Great Generals are required. Not easy unless one declares early and has the AI suicide a lot of units within the Great Walls (I have not tried that tactic).

I got to mech infantry and got killed while using them to troop spam :lol:. Diplomatic manipulation is usually a strong suit for me, but I flubbered it up this time.

edit: might be a small spoiler in there (naming the opponents).

Shadowing this game (the scenario at normal speed)...

Lizzy was exterminated in ~700 AD and Hannibal will soon follow the same faith...

Ragnar and Joao are at war, and so are Joao and Hannibal.

This is really going my way. :)

Settle in place.

Get Pyramids, Great Wall and maybe Stonehenge up ASAP!

I want to try this. It will be a challenge for me because I usually play (and win) on prince, and Im not yet comfortable on monarch.

I looked at the save and I think settling in place is a good idea. The wheat is tempting but then we would likely have to get desert tile or mountain+sea tile in BFC and thats not so good.
We could settle 1S to get more river tiles in BFC and still get stone and corn.

Try build the Great Wall and fight some defense wars for some nice Great Generals somethign that might also be good is attack key cites of the ai to make sure they wont run away in development since just taking all of there cites will free up huge areas that the other ai can settel.

Settle in place.

Get Pyramids, Great Wall and maybe Stonehenge up ASAP!

I can't really see the use for Stonehenge in an OCC. It's quite alot cheaper to just build the monument... ;)

Pyramids on the other hand is almost a must have. You can even survive without GW in an OCC as you'd want enough defense anyway but then, the Great spy might be nice to get and the bonus GG points.

If I replay this there are 2 things I plan to do, and since they're general game knowledge/tactics and not spoilers I will post them here as suggestions to other players also:

1. Manipulate religions. You want them all in different religions ideally, it will slow down tech and keep one side from going runaway. I failed to do this and my final opponent was HUGE, so big he beat my mech infantry down with industrialism stuff even though I could make one every turn :(. Anyone playing a OCC DEFINITELY wants to avoid the emergence of a monster AI, if going for conquest (Frustratingly I could have won this game via space or diplo, but that'd be against stalin's beliefs!).

2. If I replay this, I'm going to try something weird, such as attacking much, much earlier, and not taking cities. I think if we pillage-camp all of the AI's successfully then we can tech comfortably until we can finish them off one-by-one. I mean vicious pillaging too, so that they don't even have roads. Keep the workers in the cities cowering in fear! It would never work on a standard map, but it might on a small one. I'm probably going to try it tonight. Scorched earth IS Stalin-like, and for a change it will be ENEMY lands.

Sounds like a good plan TMIT. My experience with OCC, although limited, but I've done a few is that if you let one AI grow too large, you'll have no chance no matter what to conquer him/her. One city has it limitations, the biggest one is to not be able to block of an AI from expanding when killing of another AI. Hypotetically you could plant an Iron curtain of units around each AI so they couldn't sneak past but that'd require a whole lot more units than you'll ever have available. So pillaging, keeping their strenght and research down sounds like a plan. And when killing them of, doing it quickly and plan to strike on most of them at the same time so to not let anyone grow too large.

On the note of no horses/iron/oil the only one you can't actually survive without would be horses. If you have horses, Horse Archers early and then beeline for Cossacks (knights and Curiassers require iron but not Cavalry/Cossacks if I'm not mistaken) You can survive without iron, if you have copper it's no problem, if not, then defensive actions until Muskets and Cossacks would be required. Late game without oil isn't that hard either, Standard Ethanol can cure that or you just have to win without tanks.

Good discussions here. A few comments

IRON: required for cannons/crossbows/knights/swordmen. I am pretty certain they are required for artillery and tanks also.

I am also playing a dry run OCC/conquest as an off-line game, and victory does seam achievable. I will likely start the game Wednesday as I family business tonight.

Artillery has no requirement if I recall correctly, though missing out on Cannons is a drawback. For tanks you only need Oil. So modern era warfare is survivable without iron but harder without oil. The middle ages will be harder though without iron, maces is both copper and iron so there's a lifesaver if copper is present and not iron. Though attacking rifles with catapults and trebs won't be a fun adventure so the hardest loss of missing out on iron would be the cannons.

pillaging and razing the AIs key core cities early on is a good idea, you need to slow their teching and cripple their production

on your choice of national wonders; i agree that oxford U and NE are essential, i think HE as well because you will mostly be building units and the overflow gold will help to support your army. I'm in favour of getting IW but without coal definitely get NP unless you have no health issues.
I think getting GT will be essential because defying resolutions otherwise will cripple you, also WW will be a significant problem as you will have few happy resources

so in summary i say go for: OxU, NE, HE, GT and IW if you aren't going to produce 1 unit a turn and then either WP or NP if you have big health problems

I can't really see the use for Stonehenge in an OCC. It's quite alot cheaper to just build the monument... ;)The stonehenge is very cheap for two early GP points. I built stonehenge+great wall+pyramids by ~2000-1800 BC in my game so I got some really early great people.

Please, no Henge :wallbash: if you want to sink hammers in a worthwhile early wonder, do the GW + Mids + Oracle ( perfectly doable with a Ind leader, especially if you Oracle MC for a forge ).... HG is a good wonder to do as well, along with the TGL ;)

My big advice is to use the diplo well... in OCC you normally look far weaker than the AI and that normally translates in more DOWs.... and if you can put them to war eachother, besides diverting them from you, it depletes their armies..... Pretty effective, if you ask me ;).

My view on wonders

National Wonders: NE/Oxford/GT/HE in that order. Most likely WP (we have stone) if victory looks achievable at the cossack age, NP if we need to go to the modern era. GT is a must have since we plan to war alot and WW may be an issue.

World Wonders: GW/pyramids/Stonehenge/Oracle/SoZ/GL in that preference order. Industrious/Stone means stonehenge and we probably want to nab Myst/Med/Priest early for the Oracle and a MC slingshot. THen we are IW and machinery from crossbows and very good early defense.

My ideas about the early game:

I think you should start out by researching agri, masonry, wheel and bw and build some early wonders. You probably want AH or archery pretty early too so you can get some defenders and pottery.

After that I see two alternatives:

You could go for priesthood, build the oracle and choose CoL (for caste system, the religion and to get CS earlier) or machinery. Someone else might get it before you, though, if you build too many stone wonders.

Another alternative would be an early war. If you have copper, research construction and attack with axes and catapults. If you don't have copper, research horseback riding and construction and kick some AI butt with elephants and catapults.

Later technology aims should be literature (for GL, NE), drama (for GT if WW is a problem or if your city is getting big) and CS (bureaucracy is HUGE in OOC).

A more detailed recap of my own game until 860 AD:
Researched agri, masonry, wheel, pottery While building a worker and hooking up the resources. After that I built mines on the hills.

Build order: worker, warrior, gw, stonehenge, granary, pyramids.

Around this time I met my neighbors Ragnar, Lizzy, Hannibal and Joao.

While building the pyramids I discovered bw so I chopped one tile to speed up the build. Unfortunately no bronze.

Then I researched priesthood, built the oracle while researching writing and chose CoL. I sent the missionary to Joao. He converted to my religion, but later switched to the dominating religion hinduism.

Here I realized that I had virtually NO defenses and it was ~1200 BC. Time to research AH and build some chariots. I built chariots while researching horseback riding and construction.

When I had 8 chariots or so I attacked Lizzy and destroyed one of her cities. Three or so catas and a horse archer joined the stack and Lizzys second city was destroyed.

Somewhere around here I got alphabet, IW, archery, fishing, meditation and monarchy from trades.

My stack was severely wounded and her capital was my next target so I sued for peace and got aesthetics. During the 10 turn peace I built some catas and elephants. They joined the stack and this time I had enough attackers to destroy her four lightly defended cities.

During this time I researched CS, monotheism (switched civics to beurocracy and organized religion), literacy, drama, paper. In hindsight I should have waited with paper until after metal casting and machinery.

When the war vs Lizzy was coming to an end i wanted to stir the pot a bit so I gave Joao CS for war with Hannibal. Ragnar couldn't resist the opportunity and attacked Joao.

After Lizzy was exterminated I built GL, NE and GT in 15 turns or so.

Around here Joao asked me to join him in the war, and since I was planning to attack Hannibal anyway I accepted. The remainings of my stack destroyed two of his cities while I built more elephants/catas.

During the war I researched metal casting and got started on machinery.

That's where I ended last night.

With OCC and conquest is there not the serious danger of the AI's flowing into land vacated and in turn making them harder and harder to deal with? A very intriguing game as usual, Mad, and I am very curious to see what's what.

Haven't done an OCC game since my Civ II days.

With OCC and conquest is there not the serious danger of the AI's flowing into land vacated and in turn making them harder and harder to deal with? A very intriguing game as usual, Mad, and I am very curious to see what's what.

Haven't done an OCC game since my Civ II days.

Yes, this and AI's forcing capitulations off each other are major issues. There's few things that suck as badly as DoWing 3 civs at the same time in a OCC because you HAVE to just to win conquest. Well, such a scenario seldom leads to a win though :(.

With OCC and conquest is there not the serious danger of the AI's flowing into land vacated and in turn making them harder and harder to deal with? A very intriguing game as usual, Mad, and I am very curious to see what's what.

Haven't done an OCC game since my Civ II days.

YEs, this is an issue. However, I have an idea how to handle this based on my off-line version of the game. Burn everything to the ground. Let the AI settle those lands, and PAY for the upkeep. It ends up being a disadvantage to the AI if they settle lands without cottages/farms/improvements.

In my off-line game I have cossacks and have
1) weakened Ghengis severely to the point that he's a vassal of Cyrus.
2) Got Cyrus and Charlemagne at each other's throats.
3) Almost utterly destroyed Suliman (he has 1 city left and I had to get off to work!).
4) Once Suliman is finished I will finish Ghengis and attack Cyrus who has to get through Charlemagne to get at me.

Just an example of how I plan to manipulate things in the RPC.

Early analysis
1 Wheat Grass= +4 f
1 Plains Stone= -1 f +4? (or +5?)
1 Oasis = +1 F
1 Plains Hill = -2f +4
1 Grass Hill= -1f +3
7 Flat Grass= 7(+1 f) = +7 f
1 Plain visible= 0 +1
3? Plains= 3(0+1)= 0 +3
3? Grass Hill= 3(-1f +3)= -3f +9
1? Floodplains= +2f
City = +2f +1
[7 Forests]
5 riverside non city tiles
so based on Farms+Mines+Quarries, Max 'Early' city = +9f + 25
(counting Civil Service.. but only 3 tiles are not irrigatable)

7 tiles that are only +1 and no commerce (so can be avoided if hitting health cap)

running high Specialists=+8 f with 2 working... so
pop 6= 2 workers 4 Specialists
pop 9= 4 workers 5 Specialists
pop 12=6 workers 6 specialists
pop 15=8 woerkers 7 specialists
pop 18=10 workers 8 specialists

Max Hammers
6=18
7=19
Cap 8= +1f +21 h
9=22
10=23
11=24
12=25

Please, no Henge :wallbash: if you want to sink hammers in a worthwhile early wonder, do the GW + Mids + Oracle ( perfectly doable with a Ind leader, especially if you Oracle MC for a forge ).... HG is a good wonder to do as well, along with the TGL ;)This is Marathon and you have stone. You should be able to get all these wonders and lots more. An industrious OCC civ is a wonder-happy civ. :D

With OCC and conquest is there not the serious danger of the AI's flowing into land vacated and in turn making them harder and harder to deal with? A very intriguing game as usual, Mad, and I am very curious to see what's what.When I do OCC conquest, I turtle until tanks. Then all hell breaks loose. :goodjob: I'll be interested in seeing if anyone can make serious headway before that.

I can't really see the use for Stonehenge in an OCC. It's quite alot cheaper to just build the monument... ;)

Pyramids on the other hand is almost a must have. You can even survive without GW in an OCC as you'd want enough defense anyway but then, the Great spy might be nice to get and the bonus GG points.

Stonehenge is good for Great Prophet points, they're possibly the best early Great Person to settle. It also lets you know where you are on the map, and the free monument helps too.

Stonehenge is good for Great Prophet points, they're possibly the best early Great Person to settle. It also lets you know where you are on the map, and the free monument helps too.A monument is useless (1 CPT is nothing) but Stonehenge is decent. Actually, Prophets suck pretty bad in OCC because you don't have much of anything to do with the money. Still, one is OK. GPPs are always good and so are the hammers.

The best GPs in OCCs are spies, engineers and scientists.

I played to the finish today.
So... the war continued. I razed a few more of Hanniabl's cities, but my stack was getting smaller and was badly hurt, so I sued for peace and got feudalism if I remember correctly. During the peace I discovered education and built Oxford University and Heroic Epic.

Somewhere around here I discovered engineering.

Then I produced some macemen, trebuchets, catas, knights and two pikemen and declared war on Ragnar. I razed one of his cities that was right on my border. Then I waited for him to counterattack and slaughtered his big stack. After that I destroyed all of his cities except for one before I sued for peace and got theology and music.

Techwise I went for gunpowder, chemistry, philosophy, liberalism (took steel), printing press during the war.

After ten turns I destroyed his last city. During the peace between the wars I discovered banking and replaceable parts and built some cannons.

After finishing him off I took a little break fighting until I discovered rifling. Then I started pumping out rifles , and when I had seven or so I attacked Joao. He didn't stand a chance. It's too easy when you attack longbows and knights with rifles... After he was exterminated I easily exterminated Hannibal too. I continued pumping out riflemen during the whole war.

The AI's were in standstill wars with each other during pretty much the whole time, and no one declared war on me, which probably helped quite a bit. I think that the war I started between Joao and Hannibal was key to my success.

I finished in 1695 with the score 15783.

Oh, and I settled most of the great people I got, except for one scientist that founded an academy and one scientist that bulbed education. I got four great artists which sucked. :(Oh, and this was my second OCC ever. I must play this mode some more in the future cause it's hella fun. :)

A monument is useless (1 CPT is nothing) but Stonehenge is decent. Actually, Prophets suck pretty bad in OCC because you don't have much of anything to do with the money. Still, one is OK. GPPs are always good and so are the hammers.

The best GPs in OCCs are spies, engineers and scientists.

I disgaree on the settled prophets. Gold is very valuable in the OCC.

Example my off-line game (sorry to keep referring to this, but it's a discussion point). I have thousands in saved gold. I am currently building CR III macemen in 1 turn and quickly upgrading them to rifles, rather than building a combat III, pinch rifle in 3 turns. Cossacks are different in that you cannot build knights at the same time, but you can build maces and rifles simultaneously.

When I do OCC conquest, I turtle until tanks. Then all hell breaks loose. :goodjob: I'll be interested in seeing if anyone can make serious headway before that.
I turtled until Rifles/Cavs, then started attacking the AIs from weakest to strongest. You won't have to wait for tanks, and also not for Cannons (Trebs are good enough for most cities).

I also bribed them into wars with eachother to keep them off my throat and weaken them. I would say that that's pretty important, but easy to do since you will have a tech lead for a long time.

When I do OCC conquest, I turtle until tanks. Then all hell breaks loose. I'll be interested in seeing if anyone can make serious headway before that.
I usually do that too. However, in this game I turtled until warriors then annhilated the world.:lol: I did lower the difficulty to settler though so maybe I shouldn't count.:devil:

When I did the game a second time, for real, I used rifles and cossacks.

I disgaree on the settled prophets. Gold is very valuable in the OCC.

Example my off-line game (sorry to keep referring to this, but it's a discussion point). I have thousands in saved gold. I am currently building CR III macemen in 1 turn and quickly upgrading them to rifles, rather than building a combat III, pinch rifle in 3 turns. Cossacks are different in that you cannot build knights at the same time, but you can build maces and rifles simultaneously.Why can't you build one-turn rifles? As for saving gold for thousands of years, that's just silly. :crazyeye: What a waste.

Gold has considerable trade value. Thousands of gold = bought DoWs, without giving up techs (though the AI will just use it for that, since it gets to upgrade everything for what feels like 6 gold per unit or something anyway).

Gold can buy techs from friendly AI's, also.

Why can't you build one-turn rifles? As for saving gold for thousands of years, that's just silly. :crazyeye: What a waste.
On Marathon, you can not build 1-turn Riflemen. The gold saving tactic is huge, it was also used by that person who won an OCC conquest on Deity. He piled up about 40,000 gold, built a lot of Samurai, then mass-upgraded them to Mech Infantry.

Another benefit of building Maces and upgrading them is that Maces can get CR III right from the start with enough settled GGs, and a CR III Rifleman (after the upgrade) is unparalleled.

The beauty is that with an Industrious leader and Stone you can pile up a lot of gold simply by building unfinished wonders that you don't want and waiting for the AI to complete them. Ka-Ching!

Is building wonders partially and then letting the AI finish them really better than simply building wealth (or science) directly? I mean once you have the techs, obviously.

Is building wonders partially and then letting the AI finish them really better than simply building wealth (or science) directly? I mean once you have the techs, obviously.
Yes, if you have the resource. IIRC, you get multipliers on the gold you receive just as if they were hammers. (Someone can confirm??)

Yes... the gold for a Wonder is 1 Hammer sitting in the box->1 Gold
(those hammers in the box got all of the bonuses)

As for Prophets in an OCC [conquest especially] I'd say

Engineer >Scientist>Prophet/Merchant>Spy>Artist

the merchant food is really useful, but the Hammers are Really useful

and Gold can be used to Buy Techs from the AI, as well a manipulate diplomacy without giving away key techs.
as well as upgrade possibilities

Stalin's Iron Fist: Part I

Here we plunge into Stalin's world, where he seeks global conquest.

Played actually a fairly long round for the first segment of an RPC! That's the way it goes with a OCC!

To start things off. our techpath

Agriculture/Masonry/Mysticism/archery/BW/AH/writing/med/PH/Pottery/start IW. The order was a bit off, I should have delayed writing but there was no adverse effects!

But where did we settle?

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0000.jpg

Settled in place. Looks good enough to me and a free happy resource which we can hook up ASAP!

we met our first adversary

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0001.jpg

Not my top ten of who I wanted to see. Hannibal techs well and wars well, he could be trouble.

Our scouts were pretty good, we got 86 gold, a map, 41 gold, a warrior, and

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0002.jpg

SWEET!

Speaking of which

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0003.jpg

Stronge techer, weak warrior!

And what seams to be a reincarnation from the Louis game.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0004.jpg

Well, at least there is only one of these guys because

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0005.jpg

tops out our 4 AIs!

Once we met the AIs we started piling on the wonders

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0006.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0007.jpg

And BW reveals

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0008.jpg

Well, that's out of the BFC! Let's what AH and IW bring us.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0009.jpg

OK, we have horses, no need to screw arround with the worldbuilder yet.

The biggie wonder!

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0010.jpg

And the last wonder of this segment

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0012.jpg

The options

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0011.jpg

And we select the no brainer for an Industrious leader, Metal casting.

OK, the world view

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0013.jpg

A little closer view, Liz to our east, Ragnar to our west, and Hannibal due south!

The city

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinA0015.jpg

I say we are doing good so far. We broke open border with Liz at Ragnar's request. we started Iron working, after that I do not know.

The build order for the segment went

Worker/warrior/scout/Stonehenge/Great Wall/Barracks/archer/archer/wall/Pyramid/Chariot/Chariot/Oracle.

Diplomacy could be very interesting here, as there are no real zealots. In fact all will be happy with FR! Favrotie civics are either late (FR for Liz, FM for Hannibal) or HR which we should not adopt. The best I can hope is ourselves and Ragnar get Hinduism and we form a good block against Liz.

So how is our Russian Tyrant doing!

It looks like you block off a significant chunk of land to the East. Are any AIs there? Either way it could prove interesting if you deny borders selectively. A chunk of unsettlable land could prove an interesting barb hunting ground and pillage/raze/gold/experience factory. Isolating an AI would be even better. They have probably met each other but you can possibly prevent trade income.

I'd say thats a fairly solid start, although you need to run a library soon. Targeting the Great Library as the next key wonder and picking up the Parthenon if you can.

If you have iron then some swords / axes could do some fun harrassment of the AIs. You may as well use the great wall to generate yourself some generals - they will even help your research.

OK, i played this game almost through. Things were going really well then i had the very bad surprise of seeing a Diplomatic AP win by Ragnar. So watch out who builds it and you could think about building it yourself. Ragnar was big enough to win by his votes only.

Another option would be to keep all borders close throughout the game so religions cant be found in moscow.

I popped Aesthetics with the Oracle which allowed for a quick GL which was followed by theatre and Globe Theater. You really have to build the Golbe Theater asap.

OK, i played this game almost through. Things were going really well then i had the very bad surprise of seeing a Diplomatic AP win by Ragnar. So watch out who builds it and you could think about building it yourself. Ragnar was big enough to win by his votes only.

Another option would be to keep all borders close throughout the game so religions cant be found in moscow.

I popped Aesthetics with the Oracle which allowed for a quick GL which was followed by theatre and Globe Theater. You really have to build the Golbe Theater asap.

Well i didnt feel like restarting so i loaded the second autosave and declared war to Ragnar before the Religious victory vote hoping to kill cities and make him lose votes, but the AI asked to stop the war against Ragnar! I of course defied and after a long war, i won the game in 1991 with tanks and a stack i carried aroudn the map for years and years.

You should go to war when you have a nice stack of cannons and cossacks. Cossacks will kill everything until Infantries...and i got there first too.

Played this through. Victory in 570AD and I'm not much of a warmonger and made 3 medium mistakes. BC is definitely attainable. I'm not sure why people are waiting until cossacks/rifles.


I did not go into the worldbuilder and add iron. If I read the rules correctly, that was allowed, but it would have been too easy with iron.

In the tech path you should aim for mathmatics, then pop construction with Oracle. Catapults are insanely overpowered if the AI does not have a tech lead. Then research archery (if you haven't already), AH, and HorseArchery so you can pump out some elephants and horse archers. Then alphabet. Or maybe Alphabet first and steal some techs.

Basic strategy is to box as many civs as possible to keep them from expanding and researching. I could only do 3 civs (stupid mistake #1)...but a better warmonger player could probably do all 4 without crashing their economy due to unit maintenance costs. I think if you can box all 4 civs correctly in the beginning, this game can be won in the BC's with cats/charriots/archers/warriors.

Build a barracks and get some promoted (cover) warriors out. Send two/each to Elizabeth, Ragnar, and Hannibal capitals. Park them on forest hills next to the city and the AI will stay boxed in for hundreds of turns not improving their land. They may squeeze out a 2nd city. So what. Add a 3rd warrior or archer later when the AI has about 6 archers in their capital. I did not do this, and it cost me at least 6 units and many turns (stupid mistake#2). Build GW and Mids. I used representation to boost the happiness cap so I could whip like crazy. Rep helps research rate if you run scientists or settle a GP since your economy will come close to stalling with all those units. I built most of SH and left it in the queue for gold when Jao finally built it. If you box all 4 civs properly, they may never build it though. Save as many forests as possible for chopping units...don't use them all for wonders.

I took out Ragnar first using cats and promoted warriors. He had two cities. Then Elizabeth with cats/warriors/and a horse archer. She had 3 cities. Then Carthage with cats/warriors/HA/Elephants. He had 2 cities. So 3 civs down by 100BC or so. Jao had about 8 or 9 cities at that point, so I had to regroup and use spies with cats/HA/Elephants and a couple leftover warriors. Stupid mistake #3 was the order of AI death. I probably should have left Elizabeth for last.

This was a fun game, but it would have been more challenging with civ less suited to the scenario. Industrial + aggressive helped a lot. So did the stone.


edited for clarification on some points.
cas

Played this through. Victory in 570AD and I'm not much of a warmonger and made 3 medium mistakes. BC is definitely attainable. I'm not sure why people are waiting until cossacks/rifles.


I did not go into the worldbuilder and add iron. If I read the rules correctly, that was allowed, but it would have been too easy with iron.

In the tech path you should aim for mathmatics, then pop construction with Oracle. Catapults are insanely overpowered if the AI does not have a tech lead. Then research archery (if you haven't already), AH, and HorseArchery so you can pump out some elephants and horse archers. Then alphabet. Or maybe Alphabet first and steal some techs.

Basic strategy is to box as many civs as possible to keep them from expanding and researching. I could only do 3 civs (stupid mistake #1)...but a better warmonger player could probably do all 4 without crashing their economy due to unit maintenance costs. I think if you can box all 4 civs correctly in the beginning, this game can be won in the BC's with cats/charriots/archers/warriors.

Build a barracks and get some promoted (cover) warriors out. Send two/each to Elizabeth, Ragnar, and Hannibal capitals. Park them on forest hills next to the city and the AI will stay boxed in for hundreds of turns not improving their land. They may squeeze out a 2nd city. So what. Add a 3rd warrior or archer later when the AI has about 6 archers in their capital. I did not do this, and it cost me at least 6 units and many turns (stupid mistake#2). Build GW and Mids. I used representation to boost the happiness cap so I could whip like crazy. Rep helps research rate if you run scientists or settle a GP since your economy will come close to stalling with all those units. I built most of SH and left it in the queue for gold when Jao finally built it. If you box all 4 civs properly, they may never build it though. Save as many forests as possible for chopping units...don't use them all for wonders.

I took out Ragnar first using cats and promoted warriors. He had two cities. Then Elizabeth with cats/warriors/and a horse archer. She had 3 cities. Then Carthage with cats/warriors/HA/Elephants. He had 2 cities. So 3 civs down by 100BC or so. Jao had about 8 or 9 cities at that point, so I had to regroup and use spies with cats/HA/Elephants and a couple leftover warriors. Stupid mistake #3 was the order of AI death. I probably should have left Elizabeth for last.

This was a fun game, but it would have been more challenging with civ less suited to the scenario. Industrial + aggressive helped a lot. So did the stone.


edited for clarification on some points.
cas

Lol, spectacular. I'm seriously impressed, I should have gone this route rather than the idiocy I went through. I'll have to keep that kind of play in mind for NON OCC games also, since "conquest" of an entire continent (which would be smaller than an entire small pangaea or at most same size) would be pretty strong. Of course, not just any civ could pull that off, especially higher up in difficulty, but still worth noting how comically easy this was for you after I got my tail kicked in (and I'm a pretty sound warmonger, just have no OCC experience and got too cautious).

I'm doing a little shadowgame of this one as well (seems very popular to do so). I have to say it's a pretty good startposition for an OCC even though lacking some vital resources. I have to say the lack of Happy resources in the vicinity will call for GT in this one. But on the other hand, health shouldn't be a problem. I won't be editing in any iron or oil in my game if they're lacking. I'm usually pretty lucky with popping an ironmine from a mine in most of my marathon games so there's a hope but else, Iron shouldn't be needed, it'd make things easier, but not overall necessary.

The rest may include some spoilers so for the sake of it, I should put it in tags, but I would guess it'd be safe for most to read it.


My start looks pretty much like Mad's, though I wonderhogged little too much, I thought I lost that addiction a while back, but obviously not. So far I have this list built in this order: GW, Pyr, Henge, Oracle, SoZ, GLib, Hang Gard, Parthenon. (pew...)

Off course this meant I totally missed out on the idea I had to hinder AI growth with early pressure. Now the AIs have grown strong, all but Liz hindu so I'm playing it to only try to annoy Liz atm. I've likely missed the window where I could do a successful conquest with Elephants, HAs and cats and I'm not ahead enough in tech to feel comfortable. Now I'll build up a massive force of cats and Mounted units in waiting for a good opportunity to start the conquest. With Joah, Ragnar and Hannibal all Hindu it'll be hard to toss them against each other at this point. Toss everyone at Liz would be easy but not much gain for me there, Liz I can handle.

So we'll see how it plays out...

Lol, spectacular. I'm seriously impressed, I should have gone this route rather than the idiocy I went through. I'll have to keep that kind of play in mind for NON OCC games also, since "conquest" of an entire continent (which would be smaller than an entire small pangaea or at most same size) would be pretty strong. Of course, not just any civ could pull that off, especially higher up in difficulty, but still worth noting how comically easy this was for you after I got my tail kicked in (and I'm a pretty sound warmonger, just have no OCC experience and got too cautious).Indeed I am very impressed as well.

I went wonder-spamming: SH - GW - Mids - Chicken ( :eek: ) - Oracle ( guess which tech I picked with that :mischief: ) - HG. My current project is the MoM. Then I will choose some of the Aesthetics wonders. As I am about to learn Music, they should go up quite quickly. This is a very strong opening with the only Industrious civ on small map Marathon. I am far ahead in tech (CS while several civs don't yet have CoL, almost to Music when none have Aesthetics).

However, as cas has proven, there is an even better route. I think that the map size is the most important consideration for this. This would be a lot harder to pull off with six opponents. But as you say, the civ and the level are important too. And, as cas points out, the construction beeline is simply deadly on small Marathon. I think I might give this a whirl for my first attempt at deity.

As for this game, I could surely execute my original plan of winning with tanks with ease. Somehow there doesn't seem to be any point now. Perhaps I'll switch to space. Perhaps I'll quit...

Lol, spectacular. I'm seriously impressed...

That date can be absolutely crushed by a lot of ppl who post in these forums. The three glaring errors I made cost dozens of turns or more each and led to a domino effect on some other time wasters. I will play this game again over the weekend tweaking the strat a bit and hopefully acheive BC. Having knowledge of the map/civs will help a little on the 2nd attempt, but not a lot.

I need some practice with the :ar15: and :whipped: anyway.

cas

You're not seriously considering building that chariot instead of a forge/library, are you?

Sholdn't you get the oil from standard Ethanol instead of WB?
You have the resources for this corporation.

@ shadowers! Congrats to all those who have successfully shadowed the game! While an early victory is often a sign of an excpetional game, these RPCs are about game enjoyment and a demonstrative game. So I will definitely play it out slower unless there is a key point to go for the Jugular. I on my off-line OCC conquest game, so I feel confident on how to approach it!

@ Dutch, I gotta admit after Julius 1 and firghting 2 Ragnars in the Louis game I am a little gunshy of that dude with teh pointy helmet. I prefer a few more chariots before I start a forge/library.

@ Wilhemus, you bring up a decent point there. I am considering whether to avoid worldbuilder or not depending on iron/oil (I am doubtful considering the spoiler talk I have yet to read!). We have horses, so Cossacks are a given. We have war elepnats and may be able to catch the copper by the macemen age. As you mention we can found standard ethanol at plastics, if we are alive by then and it's only one more tech.

So with my new found confidence and the great Russian UU I'll wait on adding iron/oil if need be. However, I reserve the right to add a mined/roaded iron resource if we face extermination!

On Monarch, you can crush cities guarded by Archers that have not expanded into the Fat Cross pretty easily. It'll be better for you since you're Aggressive.

1) Build 3 Warriors per enemy Archer. Give each the Cover promotion.
2) Attack the city.
3) Raze the city.
4) Repeat.

Its not hard, and I've used it to great effect.

"conquest" of an entire continent (which would be smaller than an entire small pangaea or at most same size) would be pretty strong.
While that early rush was certainly spectacular, a very daring, cheeky style of play, I don't think it would help with another continent on the same map.

Eliminating all the AIs by the early ADs leaves your entire continent vacated. You will be behind in tech compared to the other continent and your actual expansion won't have started. This basically means you start the game at that point with a few wonders in your only city and a lot of obsolete units that you might have to delete to recover your economy.

Unless there is complete chaos on the other continent chances are you will lose a late game if you're playing on one of the higher difficulties because you won't be able to catch up.

One way I could see this strategy succeed is if you manage to build a reasonable super-capital during the early Cat shenanigan which might carry you through the late development of some satellite cities. Just as Obsolete likes to play it, but he does expand much earlier (he doesn't really explain how important his other cities actually are, so it's difficult to evaluate for me).

I am considering whether to avoid worldbuilder or not depending on iron/oil (I am doubtful considering the spoiler talk I have yet to read!).
The one thing you're missing out on if you lack Iron is going to be Cannons. The Cossack and Rifleman do not require Iron, and we have horses already.

Cannons can be substituted with Trebuchets and Spies, and later on Artillery (doesn't need Iron either if I'm not mistaken).

Oil can be replaced with bio-ethanol, which is the hype of the day anyway in the USA. Let Russia have it, too :-).

While that early rush was certainly spectacular, a very daring, cheeky style of play, I don't think it would help with another continent on the same map...
...chances are you will lose a late game if you're playing on one of the higher difficulties because you won't be able to catch up.


If you are referring to a non-OCC continents game, it works just fine on emporer. You use the former AI capitals and whip workers in them to cottage and whip improvements too. The AI capitals are usually in good start positions with either cottage-spam or GP farm resources. Those 2-3 cities fuel your economy and they can also spit out a few units to make the conquest faster. If there are 3 AI's on your continent you will have 4 great city locations by 0AD if played right. Each AI on the other continent will have 1-2 great cities and 3-4 average ones before they run out of room. Eventually you fill in the gaps in your continent and outpace them. AI stinks at overseas conquest too.

There are possible issues if the other continent only has 1 religion and no warmonger AI's, but you can still overcome it easily by late game.

I make no assertions about immortal / deity. I can only win very specific setups on those levels.

cas

Stalin's Iron Fist: Part III

OK, things have livened up a bit as we have been at war (still no danged GG to settle), made a good friend, and have a questionable neighbor.

As you all may know by now, we have NO iron! I have NOT entered wrold builder and we are doing just fine.

Techpath: IW/Math/HBR/construction/Aesthetics/polytheism/lit/fuedalism/CS/paper (almost).

OK, first of all after teching IW

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0000.jpg

OK, we mined every open hill and hope for the best!.

To add insult to injury, we got tyhat random event for better swordsmen!

War finally breaks out as Ragnar attacks Liz.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0002.jpg

Diplomaticlly we have the Buddhists in Ragnar and Liz, and the Hindus in Joao and Hannibal! We later opt for the Hindus.

We nailed several wonders

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0003.jpg

And traded MC arround a bit

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0004.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0005.jpg

The relations with Liz soured, must have been the numerour DoWs I did! Monarchy may seam useless as we are in representation but it is a requirement for Fuedalism which we do need.

And I just love this wonder as a war-monger

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0006.jpg

Finally we get this request which we honor.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0007.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0008.jpg

My thinking is that Ragnar and Hannibal will both leave me alone since they have to get through my lands to attack Liz.

We did manage to raze one English city.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0009.jpg

Which was about all we did this segment outside of our borders.

This was where we adopted hinduism.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0010.jpg

I do not trust Joao, but I cannot afford to take on more than 2 AIs and Ragnar is an issue.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0011.jpg

As you can see. We fought a successful defensive war, not losing a single unit, but not killing enough Vikings to get a GG. We also asked Hannibal for copper which he obliged giving us at least axes.

A few more trades

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0012.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0013.jpg

And after teching CS we changed civics.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0014.jpg

Great for building more wonders!

While still at war with Liz we finally get a Great Scientist and we saved.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0015.jpg

The view of the city.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0016.jpg

Healthwise we are doing very well.

TEchs we are holding our own.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinC0017.jpg

OK, we are still at war with Liz.

Some items to discuss

1) What to do with the GS. We do not have an academy yet, but likely the next GP is another GS. Then again we have a great headstart in the liberalism race and bulbing most of education. Also education is ONE step from gunpowder and Muskets!!! Plus FAST access to universities and OXFORD!

2) War. Liz seams well entrenched and Ragnar is falling behind. I am considering attacking both at appropriate times.

3) I think we should aim for rifles/cossacks and see how much damage we can do. If we can whittle the world down to 2 AIs that are at each other's throat by the end of that era, I feel pretty good.

So how am I doing!

Doing pretty good. Muskets are great, once there you can start poking at Liz. Would AI's settle behind you if Liz is taken out on that difficulty? I'm a noble/prince player so I don't know about monarch.

nice. For some reason though, can't get hang of marathon speed.

I would definitely "Settle" the GS (although possibly as an Academy)

lets see +55% (3 Monateries I'm assuming) give you 110 Science
a Settled Scientist gives +9+55%=~14 but also gives an additional +~10 once you get Oxford and some hammers (but it drops by about 3 research when the Monasteries go obsolete.)
an Academy gives ~+35... I'd probably go with the Academy, since that benefit keeps on giving. and increases as you get more specialists/super specialists.

if the next GP is also likely a GS you can still use it to bulb Education, but you don't seem to have a very strong competitor in the race, so I'd stick with Settling.

I'd bulb if you got a GA.


I agree with the Rifles/Cossacks idea (are you planning on putting in the Iron to allow for Cannons, or just go with Trebuchets?)

I'd research Path, Education (Uni+Oxford), [trade for CoL], Philosophy(A.W.), Liberalism [Take Nationalism.. deny Taj?], get Gunpowder, Drama (Theater+Globe), Machinery, Guilds (Grocer for Wine Health), Banking (Mercantilism*), Music (Cathedral if you build UoS), Military Tradition, PP, Replacable Parts, Rifling, Engineering


*Mercantilism is Possibly better than Decentralization
Mercantilism= 6 Commerce (Specialist)+ GPP... minus 2 Trade routes that get a +50% Bureaucracy Bonus
assuming they are ~3+3 that means giving up 9 commerce for 6... but getting some more GPP.

Actually, are you going to try and preserve those Forests? If you are planning on the National Park, and Doing OK in the Meantime, It might be worth it (since you can support all the tiles with existing food production, and you could Mill them on hitting Replacable parts
(in which case after Rifles+Cossacks, I'd go straight for Biology.. Engineering, Chemistry, Sci Method, Biology)

That gives you an additional hammer for each tile (Preserve=Specialist+Hammer... and health+happy but those don't matter , Farm=Specialist alone)
using that analysis
by biology you get 8 Free Specialists+6 excess food=
11 specialists... by able to have 3 Engineers, and 10 Priests with 3 Cathedrals + A.W... otherwise just 7 Priests
Excellent for Infantry Spam... Tank Spam allows you 2 more Engineers

PS why the Mines outside your BFC? they can't pop anything unless they are worked... If your workers are bored, I'd get the Cow.

I would definitely build an Academy with this GS and settle/bulb with the next few to come. You'll want the Academy anyway and the sooner you build it the better for your total beaker count in the end.

As for the rest, I completely trust you on that ;-).

Go for an academy. Then destroy Liz and Ragnar with cossacks. If you can get it down to just Hannibal and Joao you have a great chance of winning.

definitely take the academy with the first GS, otherwise I agree with Krikkitone

Just won my shadowing of the game :D. First ever Monarch Victory :D Finished in 1991 with the amazing score of 7775 lol. Had to fight 3 AI at once in the end but still a vicotry :D Now I can relax and watch how you play it out mad :P

Also I would like to thank you. Your Role Playign Challanges has made me learn allot about the game and it made my first Monarch victory posibol :D

A few comments

1) Yes I plan to keep teh forrest for health and potential free scpeicialists with NP.

2) Why mine hills outside the BFC? Because I am an idiot and forgot the minnes have to be worked to pop iron!

3) I agreeing on the academy.

4) Beeline cossacks/rifles. Nationalism for free and try to nab the Taj for a free GA and civic change.

^^Chop those forests south, near the Portuguese border.... They are of no use for you as they are and they may give you something. And they may even regrow ;)

I agree with r_rolo. In OCC I chop all of the forests outside of the BFC for the hammers.

@ madscientist
If the hills outside the bfc didn't have a forest on them, it would be worthwhile to mine them in case there is coal or aluminum on those hills-or you could put a fort on the hills outside the BFC too. But as Krikkitone said, the Cow can be pasturized now for a health benefit rather than improving the hills. You could also build a road to the wine by Hastings to gain the wine by of either culture flipping it or by razing Hastings.

Stalin's Iron Fist: Part III

OK, we have a fairly involved segment here, wonders/trades/techs/wars. We also have one problem with the requirement for our victory that I want some advice on.

But first, the techpath: drama/education/philosophy/gunpowder/engineering/liberalism/guilds/banking/PP/RP/rifling!

We also used the Great Scientist for an academy which really makes the most sense for this game.

We played up diplomacy to keep the AIs off us somewhat so we could finish up building wonders and needed buildings while minimizing the military needs.

We also build these National Wonders: NE/GT/OX/HE with one spot left for either the NP or IW.

First Wonder we got

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0000.jpg

Second wonder

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0001.jpg

We then made a series of trade with Ragnar

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0002.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0004.jpg

AND another nice wonder

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0005.jpg

And we decide to keep Liz busy while we continue infrastructure.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0007.jpg

The redhead is none to pleased with us.

We were first to liberalism and took nationalism which gave a head start on

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0008.jpg

After Joao bossed arround asking for 600 gold we made this trade to recoup some.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0009.jpg

Sure optices is useless ehre, but we do want physic eventually.

Finally, Ragnar stops by for some negotiations

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0010.jpg

To which we look to our new friend (after one of those +3 diplo random events).

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0011.jpg

We are ready for the vikings, having trebs/muskets/war lelphants and even a few maces from hannibals donated copper.

After some defensive battles we finally got a

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0012.jpg

And a Great Artist.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0013.jpg

Which we used to spin a Golden Age.

We also make our last "Toss away Tech" trade for a good long while.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0014.jpg

Just to keep Liz off our eastern flank.

And pretty soon our power numbers begin to increase.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0015.jpg

We finally get a pretty good stack and send it off to Ragnar's land, no defensive war here, I am looking at a deep attack and perhaps we can get to the Viking capital.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0016.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0017.jpg

We finally move onto Nidros

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0018.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0019.jpg

We declared peace and pillaged as much as we could before Joao's culture pressure absorbed the towns. Decent gold.

To be continued............

Stalin's Iron Fist continued

Soon after the war ended we teched

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0020.jpg

Qued up Military tradition for 23 turns and saved the game.

A view of mother Moscow where we expect another GP soon.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0021.jpg

By the way we have gotten mostly GEs, GPs, Gss and one additional setteld GSpy.

A view of Liz's lands

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0022.jpg

Ragnar's

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0023.jpg

And the southern guys.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0024.jpg

OK, there is one problem that I cannot figure out how to eliminate. Ragnar has a city on an off-shore island. I cannot reach it, how do I deal with it. Hannibal or Joao will simply keep the city. The only thing I can figure is to remove it via worldbuilder.

In techs we are doing well although Liz is getting close to Redcoats

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0025.jpg

So I think it's time to eliminate the English menace real soon!

Finally in power we are catching up.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0026.jpg

So I say we upgrade muskets to rifles and pound the hell out of Liz, and finish her off with Cossacks once we can build them. There is ALOT of Pillagable lands to the east, and Stalin needs gold to fuel the Russian war machine!

A view of mother Moscow where we expect another GP soon.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinD0021.jpg



So where are the lumbermills? You do have workers, right?:confused:
What were they doing while you were teching rifling? (Maybe :beer:?)
Or do you like working 2:food:1:hammers: tiles instead of 2:food:3:hammers:?:lol:

I plan on forrest preserves although I could build lumbermills until I tech SM.

1) Lumbermills: yes, please build them now ;-)
2) Forest Preserves: I'm delighted that you saved all the trees. You should definitely build the NP (8 specialists!). Still no Iron has popped so IW will be of limited value anyway. 8 free specialists EASILY match that!
3) Island city: ignore it, if it turns out to be the last remaining city for conquest then vassalize and you win (or simply end the game, it really doesn't matter)

Great job, go for Lizzy next and then move quickly so the remaining AIs won't resettle her land (maybe closing borders at that point will help, as you're blocking land access to the English with your city).

Maybe once the island city is his last city remaining, you can go into WB and just give yourself a boat or two to ferry your troops across. You can delete them once you're done with them. Or you could just add land until it is part of the main continent.

It's Hannibal's city, not Ragnars.

Anyway, just use WB to change that unpassable ice tile to a snow tile (do it now, it'll help Hannibal fortify the city for later)

With the island, give yourself a galleon/transport (whichever suits the time when you only have that city left to conquer). Or vassalise will give you conquest victory anyway and even though Stalin doesn't take vassals, a remote one city island vassal should even Stalin agree upon.

Nicely done to keep all those forest. I intended to do so early as well, but with all the early defensive warring I had I felt I had to clear the grid closest to the city from Forests to take away that defensive advantage from the AI (not on the side with river though). And then I had that terrible forestfire event to take away another forest from me. But well, I think I'll have my game in the bank before NP comes into play.

In my shadowgame I'm up to about the same time as Mad is (somewhere in the 1400). I do have Cossacks at this points and is starting my purge of unwanted neighbours. I did an earlier attempt with Muskets/Elephants/trebs agains Joao as I wanted to take out the AP city but didn't really pull it off, I only managed to pillage alot and kill of one city before he managed to get to muskets and the grenadiers when I got rifles. It got a bit though at that point. Now, Liz has no hindu cities so no chance for a diploloss to AP yet atleast.

Now I'm starting the purge with Cossacks, Rifles, spies and trebs. I decided to go for my close friend Hannibal first has he still hadn't any Muskets. So LBs against my Cossacks is an easy match. After Hannibal I'll take on Joao, else he'll spread too much into Hannibals old territory, Joao hasn't many cities but he's more advanced (Muskets/grenadiers) but thankfully a a few techs from Rifles. After that I assume I'll have Infantry and killing of Liz, who isn't too strong but fairly advanced (parity with Joao) and Ragnar who has spread a bit but is a bit backwards techwise.

Great job, go for Lizzy next and then move quickly so the remaining AIs won't resettle her land (maybe closing borders at that point will help, as you're blocking land access to the English with your city).

If Liz is gone and all tiles pillaged, wouldn't you have to fog bust to keep barbs out? or do you let barbs in and keep a small stack (3-4 kos, cats) for the extra GG points?

Update coming! We have progressed very nicely, and need maybe the biggest decision of teh game to be made!

If Liz is gone and all tiles pillaged, wouldn't you have to fog bust to keep barbs out? or do you let barbs in and keep a small stack (3-4 kos, cats) for the extra GG points?

He has the Great Wall and you don't get GG points from fighting barbarians.

Stalin's Iron Fist: Part V

We have shown the world the power of the Russian (or is it Soviet) army!

We upgraded as many muskets to rifles as we could afford, then brought them to the English border.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0000.jpg

Time to get down to business.

We are teching Military tradion/chemistry/military science/astronomy/SteamPower.

And we decide to further stir the pot

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0001.jpg

No use letting those two get too stronge preparing for war.

We easily take that northern city

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0002.jpg

And let's look at power numbers.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0004.jpg

Way ahead of Ragnar, Liz is falling (she lost ALOT of unit defending that city) and even with Joao. Hopefully Hannibal will lose some too.

We razed york, started moving a wall of rifles pillaging everything and moved our mega stack towards London.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0005.jpg

We are popping cossacks/rifles/trebs 1 every 1 or 2 turns! Also one GREAT thing in OCC warfare is that the entire stack continues to move. NO need to leave a garrison troop of units in takne cities

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0006.jpg

Lost alot of wonder there, and a Buddhist shrine (come to think of it I also razed the christian holy city, oh well). Maybe not as solidly Communist as Mao, but I am the Chinese comrad would approve razing those holy cities!

Very quickly Liz is down to 4 cities. Interesting how stupid she was, after seeing my horde of units coming she continued to build the Spiral Minerat! She finally built it, I hope she enjoyed the few extra gold she got!

After destroying that southern city we move onto the last three. We also pillaged every damn thing we could find. Let barbarian cities spawn in this desolate area, Comrad Stalin has no problems with barbarians.

We got this great random event.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0009.jpg

Got us a free scientist AND +3 health!!!! As things are going we may not even need the NP wonder and may opt for westpoint, IF we get that far!

Very quickly and asking Hannibal to join in we eliminated the hated English.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0010.jpg

Sorry Liz, that's two RPCs in a row we got you destroyed, hope there's no bad feelings!

Very soon after Joao and Ragnar go to war against each other, and I use this to

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0011.jpg

The reason, Joao has rifling. Time to exterminate the vile Portugese.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0012.jpg

This was the only city on our borders with Portugal.

Oh wait, first of all.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0013.jpg

Yes, now where was I. We very quickly destroy the city, pillaging very little since Catheginian culture captured the resources.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0014.jpg

And we move our SoD on towards the Portugese core.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0015.jpg

Now, regarding Iron, we still have none. This has been fine and we do not miss cannons as trebs are doing a very nice job, and they are no susceptible to flanking damage from Crussairs which everyone seams to have except Ragnar.

After destroyong two Joao cities and cutting off access to horses we move on towards the core cities.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0016.jpg

My only concern was Joao capitulating to Hannibal before we could nail Lisbon. What should we care? Well, the AP is in Lisbon.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0017.jpg

We also had a nasty random event, volcano eruption destroying our horses. We quickly run workers there to repair the damage.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0018.jpg

And very soon.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0019.jpg

Joao and that dredded AP are destroyed! No Ai backdoor Ap win this game!

To be continued.............

Stalin's Iron Fist: Part V continued

We saved here, teching Steam Power for levees and on the way to machine guns.

A look at Hannibal's lands

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0020.jpg

And Moscow, notice how I have lumbermills now!!!!!

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0022.jpg

Tech's are, interesting. Both Ragnar and Hannibal are 1 tech away from rifles!!!!!!!!!

Made more interesting by this

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0024.jpg

Ragnar has vassaled to Hannibal!!!!!!!

Power numbers show we are even with Hannibal and way ahead of Ragnar.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinE0025.jpg

SO where do we go????

We are not 100% ready for another war although we could hold our own. The again if we wait there may be a serious tech/power problem. If we do go to war I say a very agressive hit deep into Carthaginian territiry while we use cossacks to repel counter attacks.

I say go on, no time to waste now. Move that SoD towards Hannibal right now. If he gets rifles things will be tougher until you get Infantry. So the window is now or wait while Hannibal expands into deserted Portugise country.

Keep enough forces at home to beat back any troops Ragnar might send your way. If you manages to pin down Hannibal quickly, Ragnar will be a walkover and your soon home with the mighty russian empire. Too bad you gave hannibal those techs that leads up to Rifling. I would say that was a minor mistake.

I agree going for a Carthage push-back at the very least. Even if he gets rifles you likely have the ability to cripple him quite nicely. Not to mention your ability to pillage the lands and give him some war weariness with the SoZ.

Fight defensively with Raggie and you can possibly get yourself another General out of the deal as well.

As we discussed in the beginning, the biggest effort was to contain the civs so that there was no mega-civ created by opening up huge swaths of land. With two financial civs out there and lots of open land, it must be in your best interest to move forward now.

I also agree with pushing into Carthage. It will weaken Carthage and could potentially result in Ragnar breaking free due to spreading into the open land. I would only attack Ragnar if he sends units into your territory. You will get 2x GG points from the GW as well as no WW.

Raze Carthage and maybe some of the other core cities as well. Don't bother with the new cities close to Moscow. I don't think that you can completely wipe him out at this point but you can easily cripple him. Also, as other have said, if you take out some of his cities, Ragnar might break vassalage. On the other hand, Ragnar has mostly longbows defending his cities, so it might be possible to wipe him out now. Either way, keep warring. :ar15:

I've never played a proper game of civ but common sense tells me --> Hannibal dies

Go after Hannibal. You have to keep him from building settlers and grabbing all that land that you just have "liberated" from the capitalists.

If he settles all that land you will have to conquer it again. Hell, he might be able to get domination if he settles all that free land.

Hannibal, this is the hardest part, avoiding domination!

Oh, and get the NP still. It is worth it.

I would go for the NPark 1st before Levees... it gives a massive science AND production boost (since you have A.W.)

SM, Biology (start running as many Engineers + Priests as possible for the Hammers) [Physics here if you have a shot at the Scientist]
[Econ if you have a shot at the Merchant]
Steam Power
Econ, Rep, Corp, Assembly Line, Facism
Steel (useless wo Iron), Railroad (useless wo Coal/Oil), Physics, Artillery
Then if it lasts that long
Combustion, Electricity, Industrialism

Also I would make sure you are in Mercantilism, as you aren't going to have any foreign trade the rest of the game.

I would go for the NPark 1st before Levees... it gives a massive science AND production boost (since you have A.W.)

SM, Biology (start running as many Engineers + Priests as possible for the Hammers) [Physics here if you have a shot at the Scientist]
[Econ if you have a shot at the Merchant]
Steam Power
Econ, Rep, Corp, Assembly Line, Fascism
Steel (useless wo Iron), Railroad (useless wo Coal/Oil), Physics, Artillery
Then if it lasts that long
Combustion, Electricity, Industrialism, Plastics for Hydro Plant (if no Coal)

Also I would make sure you are in Mercantilism, as you aren't going to have any foreign trade the rest of the game.

Cripple him if you can. I lost this game precisely because 1 AI got powerful. If you don't pwn Carthage it'll settle all that land you freed up via conquest. Even if it takes the AI a while, you don't want to go 10-15 cities vs 1 with tech parity. It's a losing formula :(.

Hannibal must be attacked right now at all costs. From here on, you'll only start lagging behind in techs further because your research rate is lower than Hannibal's, and you'll need a considerable time to get an improvement on your offense.

Because you have no iron, Steel is useless. Machine guns are great for defense but cannot be used on the attack, so I'd say Railroad is limited in use at best. And the only units that will really help - artillery and infantry - seem far away, considering you need to tech steam power/economics/constitution/corp/AL for infantry and SM/Physics/Steel/Artillery for artillery.

Just go into war with Hannibal and don't stop for the rest of the game. With the Globe Theatre you have no war weariness anyway. :D

To me it looks like the best tech path is the Artillery path. It should look something like this:

Scientific Method
Physics - If the GS is still available, great!
Biology (part bulbed with the Physics GS if need be and if you need the GS)
Steel
Artillery

After Artillery, it's Rocketry to get SAM infantry. Regular infantry would be better but is 5 techs away at the point, in comparison to just 1 tech for SAM infantry

or; in the voice of Cato the Elder: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam."

Go get him :trouble::trouble::trouble:

:D

Russian Fury! The Conclusion of Stalin's Iron Fist!

We took everyone's advice after a few turns to reorganize a bit. We hit Ragnar and Hannibal hard, focusing entirely on Hannibals biggest cities.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0000.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0001.jpg

Very quickly Hannibals #2 city is razed as well as another smaller city. He was in fatc quickly trying to settle former portugese lands and shooting for a sneaky domination win

As predicted, Ragnar broke away from Hannibal and we quickly took peace.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0003.jpg

Power numbers for the Mighty Russians are truely scary!

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0004.jpg

We proceeded to steralize souther Carthaginian lands

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0007.jpg

Until Hannibal was trapped into this corner

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0008.jpg

And those two northwestern cities.

After teching Scientifi Method we see.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0009.jpg

No oil. Who cares, Russian Cossacks are enough to wipe this trash off the map.

We capture and raze the last SE Carthaginian city.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0010.jpg

At this point I entered worldbuilder to connect that lone island via tundra.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0011.jpg

Here is the last view of Moscow before hitting Viking lands!

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0012.jpg

I opted to keep the lumbermills over forrest preserved figuring we do not need anymore GPs and prefer to have the hammers for more and more and more and more Cossacks. But first be built about 15 trebs (1 turn each) for the anticipated Viking assault.

We decide to attack Ragnar without the curteous formal declaration as the Viking slime does not deserve any!

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0013.jpg

As you can see Ragnar attempted to settle Portugese lands, weakening his techrate and thus preventing him from even getting to rifling.

A view of our mega stack heading towards Ragnar's core cities (at least those core cities LEFT!).

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0014.jpg

We exterminate alot of vikings.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0016.jpg

Leaving the world to just 1 ice-boubd Viking city and Hannibal's 2 ice-bound cities. Note, we never declared peace with Hannibal. Made no sense as WW is not an issue, for us!

Soon enough

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0019.jpg

And before you know it

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0022.jpg

A OCC CONQUEST win !!!!!!!!

Power numbers showing how we were the lowest and soon turned into the highest!

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0023.jpg

Comrad Stalin's Polaroid

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/MSguy_photo/Stalin/StalinF0024.jpg

Thankyou all for you help with this game!!!! Recap to follow! I have included the save in case anyone wants to look at the Carnage of the world at the hands of the Russian Empire!

OK, let's talk about the RPC

RPC Rules

1) well, since it was a OCC there were not really any! We did get the Conquest win which was required.
2) The rules said we could add iron and oil. We added neither! While iron would have certainly helped, we did not need it as the Russian UU and agressive rifles/grenaders with supplemental trebs were satisfactory.

Why we won

1) Getting other Ais to dogpile Liz.
2) Getting Joao and Hannibal to go after each other while I took out Liz.
3) Weakening Ragnar by razing Nidros early, he never recovered.
4) Getting a 3 on 1 dogpile of Joao who was at tech parity with us.

OR in another words, DIPLOMACY!

Also teh small map helps, with fewer opponents. 4 seams like a good number for OCC conquest, easy to get 2 and 2 matchups!

Thanks for following this RPC!

The next will one I have NOT discussed before

The English Bulldog! we will play as Churchhill on a hemispheres map with 7 continents. I will generate a few and ask the audience to let me know the one where Churchill has a continent to himself. Chruchhill may never leave that continent, even in war. Naval ships cannot go outside the cultural border except to intercept an incoming fleet althoug privateers are allowed. Churchhill MUST fight to the bitter end and if an enemy force lands or tries to occupy the continent he MUST fight until it is secured, no peace. All victory conditions are available.

Nice game and nice win! OCC isn't as hard, as it looks. At least my shadow game was very easy.

AIs were far far behind in techs, they even didnt have Printing Press. The best unit I met was grenadier, few turns before the end Ragnar researched MS. Cossacks just eat everything, at some point I even didnt bothered with trebs.

The game is here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=275786

Churchill?!?!?!.."You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
And my all time favorite, "...we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!"
So MadScientist...
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, "This was their finest hour." or RPC, whatever the case may be, look forward to it.
Carry on Governor...

Nice! Why don't you try another Conquest OCC sometime? Perhaps as Justinian I on a STANDARD sized map?

Possible rules:
Must only allow Christianity as the last religion on Earth, thus you should beeline Theology and Theocracy (Religions that spread to Constaniople prior to this must be removed with WB and no religious buildings may be built)
A coastal start for a more interesting twist
The Hagia Sophia should try to be built (should be easy considering Theology would be beelined)

Again, I would not play it for quite a well as you just finished Stalin, but it could be interesting :)

I think there is one more OCC game on the RPC horizon. I plan to play as Limcoln for a definite peaceful win. I plan to rename Washington as New York, the greatest city on earth!!!!!!

But this game shall be very near the end of my RPC marathons, probably third from the end!

Churchill?!?!?!.."You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
And my all time favorite, "...we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!"
So MadScientist...
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, "This was their finest hour." or RPC, whatever the case may be, look forward to it.
Carry on Governor...

YEs, Yes, Yes!!! You have the spirit of the RPC already!!! We shall never surrender!

This was a pretty fun OCC, not to hard really if you got the techadvantage, even without Iron. In my game I decided to save little Liz for last, por girl, didn't get past Muskets.... ;) Only Ragnar was a bit hard in my game, I thought him too far behind but he managed to expand into Hannibals/Joaos lands and did get to Rifles and Cavalry. It took a while and a whole lot more troops than I figured I'd need to break him down, many russian Cossacks died in the Viking war.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0010.jpg

A very well played game, once you started attacking not stopping until there was no one left to attack.
a great advert for OCCC!

One point With National Park, (and pre-railroad) Preserves are Better than Lumbermills

Preserve=+1 hammer (Citizen) + 1 with A.W. Priest or Engineer slots
Lumbermill=+1 hammer + 1 with Railroad

870 AD conquest victory.

Attack order: Elizabeth (attacked after Ragnar had declared on her)
Hannibal
Ragnar declares once I had a city of Hannibal down, so I shifted my attention, left Ragnar with a single city in the far south.
Took Joao down.
Joined attack on Hannibal/Ragnar (Vassal)

Built 27 WEs total, and some 14 cats and 10 trebs. I researched towards Construction first, started cats, researched HBR, built some WEs, and started killing people. Got the Wall, Henge, Mids, Oracle (MC), ToA, HG, Great Library, from the top of my head.

It felt like a breeze, I usually don't play marathon but quick, so war was easy. (Though the general pace of the game was sloooooooow). War Elephants (Barracks + Stable + 2/3 instructors) really kick some behind.

After HBR I went towards Machinery - Engineering. I skipped Civil Service and CoL until late in the game.