Civilization: Persia
Leader: X
Map size: Small
Map type: Middle-water pangea. Rest random
Opponents: 5 random
Barbs: Just the 5 above :)
Difficulty: Regeant
Variants: OCC, AW, Infantry, Despotic, Conquest

X was an odd child amongst a weird family, making him beyond extreme in his views. When he came to power, he vowed to only have one city. "One city is enough for me to rule...and it's enough for me to take over the world. ALL shall know my intentions to dominate." Thus was this game begun.

For those who don't know....
OCC = One City Challenge -- no other cities built or captured ever
AW = Always War -- at war with all known other civs all the time
Infantry -- no mounted or fast units
Despotic -- no leaving despotism
Conquest -- must conquer the world

I checked that the map we're on is a true pangea, but I know little of it beyond that. But we can win without taking to the water -- an important point.

Strategy:
- IMMORTALS, IMMORTALS, IMMORTALS
- Crush our foes quickly with waves of immortals
- Get our one city up to 15 spt quickly and crank immortals every other turn until the end of time
- A 4/2/1 unit? Use it!
- Captured slaves should build roads to connect our city with the front(s) as fast as possible, as well as forming colonies to import luxuries.
- Kill opponents as fast as possible

I know this is do-able. I've done it before.

OPEN GAME RULES:
Claim whenever it's free. Play within 8 hours of claiming. With only one city, turns should go fast. If you build something besides immortals, you better have a DARN good reason for it. 10 turns per player, after my initial turns.

Start:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/lotr9-4000bc.jpg

Arathorn

what an awesome idea! I love ridiculous variant games! This is not a got it but I will be looking to play a turn this weekend after my other SGs.

I actually moved one NW of our original starting location, to get more bonus grass in range faster. So, in 3950, X Ville was founded, from which point X would launch troops to conquer the world!

The first build was ... a barracks. We're gonna need veteran troops and lots of them. Barracks are a necessity. Iron working is researched at max, of course.

The worker irrigates the cow (and roads, of course), then starts mining and roading the abundant bonus grass in the area.

After the barracks completes, a worker is ordered. His job will be to road to and colonize iron. Then a spear for defense and MP. I would've liked to have built an immortal next, as IW was done, but the road to the iron wasn't built yet. SO...a warrior was built.

It wasn't until 2800 BC, a full 1200 years after X took power, that the first immortal was built and dispatched to go pillage, plunder, and destroy.

He didn't make contact with anyone until 2510 BC (yes, turn 31), when he found the Aztecs. War was declared.

2470 saw the first immortal action, as X's finest did one damage to a jag (I attacked) and died. This gives Monte a GA, but it should be a short-lived one.

In 2350, an immortal actually won, giving us a GA. We're getting close to the "magic" 15 spt while in a GA, but losing the GA shouldn't hurt shield production much, really.

In 2150, I step aside for the next leader. Yes, that's 40 turns, which is a lot, but I had to make sure a few things were viable before passing it off. Everybody should play 10 turns from here on out.

Arathorn

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/lotr9-2150bc.jpg

Save file
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/lotr9-2150bc.zip

Next leader:
Crush the Aztecs.
Make sure there's no landbridge west (normally there wouldn't be ona Civ3 generated map, but we can't afford surprises).
Improve a few more river squares around X Ville and start roading east.
Keep the immortals flowing.

Arathorn

Arathorn is this in 1.29 or PTW?

This is PTW, 1.27f. I should've mentioned that. All my games are PTW these days. Really, though, 1.21f could probably play, but it has to be PTW.

Arathorn

These variants together are insanity, I say! It should be an interesting game.

No, this isn't a got it. I think I'll probably participate in the future, though.

Got it.

Preturn: We make exactly 15 spt :D

2110: Got an elite immortal at Teotihuacan.
If I ever play in an SG with the Aztecs, I will rename ALL towns :D
Send the warrior scouting NW.

2070: We raze the town, was defended by a spear and a Jag.

2030: Spot the next Aztec boarder.

1990: A Babylonian warrior stops south of the Aztec city.
We could trade with IW, but why should we help them to get techs?
We will do better with a very slow tech pace, so I hold off.
Declare war and kill the warrior.

1950: -

1910: Spot Aztec settler pair.
The city we are approaching seems to be the capital.

1870: Kill the settler pair, our first two slaves.
This is the difference between swords and immortals, zero casualties.
I advance towards Tenochtitlan.
Finished scouting NW, no landbridge, nice.

IT: A Bab warrior impales itself on our immortal fortified in the forest south
of the Aztec capital, we get the second elite unit.

1830: Only one spear at their capital, no problem. We get a third slave
and the first AI is history. :D

1790: Some unit movement. X Ville is size 8, 17spt.

1750: Ok, I spot the red guys, will hand over the save now.

1725: Kill a Bab warrior,

Ups, 11 turns... :D
The warrior in X ville can be upgraded or used as MP.
I built only Immortals, we are up to 10(or 11 with the warrior)
Our army is "strong" versus the Babs :D
Don't forget to guard the north while hunting the Babs in the east.
Have fun, killratio was 8:0, hope to grab it again :)

SAVE (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/LOTR9-1725BC.zip)

Excellent, Belisar. A punishing start. Bye-bye Aztecs!!! One down, four to go.

While sending 8 or so immortals to crush the Babylonians, it's important to have another few continuing to explore, so that the next target can be found by the time the Babs are gone.

Boy, two ancient age UU foes already. I hope we don't get Carthage or Greece.

As for the warrior, UPGRADE him. Unit costs will eventually become painful and MP costs us just as much gold as lux tax. Send him off to kill.

Who's next?

Arathorn

Got it!

Yes, the short time between "Got it" and the reply was playing first, then checking I could successfully upload the file, then saying I would play. :goodjob:

0: F4 check; Only know Babylon. Goal is to get a luxury colony (or 2) formed. I want to use the native worker to found the colony, to save on unit costs. Dyes appear to be closest, and on the way to the front. # of turns remaining of Golden Age is unknown. Upgrade warrior --> Immortal.

1: Move Immortal out of X-ville (2nd MP), up lux tax to 30%. This cost 2 gpt, and the unit wasn't urgently needed somewhere, so the Immortal completing next turn will stay in X-ville. Meet MONGOL scout in jungle N of ex-Azteca. Since we are researching The Wheel already, trade MASONRY for WHEEL, POTTERY, and 10 gold. Declare war. :nuke: Research set to Alphabet at 10%, as this gives opportunity to drive for the Great Library, or Currency. I think a Marketplace as early as possible is an economic necessity. Nearest horses are in ex-Azteca.

2: Immortal completes, and stays in X Ville. :rolleyes: Lux tax back down to 20%. Smite Bab warrior, and collect Immortals for group advance against Bab city.

3: Stack of 4 Immortals at Bab boundary. Northern Immortal slowly advancing to try to find Mongol cities.

4: Stack of 4 next to Nineveh. Second group consolidating on iron mountain in south.

5: Golden Age ends, X-ville riots. :mad: Ugh. Lux tax to 30% again. Nineveh razed (win 2 battles to 0), one slave garnered. Southern group locates Babylon city. Out of the Golden Age the economic fun begins. At 6.1.3 we are at break-even happiness, and are losing 4 gpt.

6: Road to Azteca complete, Bab settler pair sighted near Babylon. Also, three (regular) Mongol warriors appear on mountain east of Babylon.

7: One Immortal chases (Checkmates) Bab settler pair, while stack of 4 moves next to Babylon city. Found Dye colony with native worker, and can move lux tax to 20%, now losing 1 gpt. (Net gain of 3 gpt) Amassed slaves building road to Babylon.

8: X-ville builds Immortal. Lux tax to 30% in anticipation of growth next turn. (Not going to have 2 riots in 10 turns!) :nono: I think the settler pair will found on the next turn, so take a chance and attacked across river, into a forest (thought we were a little unit-heavy, and I wanted the slaves). Victory and two more slaves. :D Spot Mongol border in the north. Attack on Babylon: victory (promote), victory and Babylon burns.

9: X-ville grows, does not riot! (Something about a blind squirrel and an acorn) It now pulls 15 spt, but it is working an unroaded forest, so a couple of slaves should be sent back to rectify that, and to build a gems colony. Spot another (final?) Bab border in the south. Next player has the honor of putting Hammers scalp on their wall (or some other mixed metaphor)

Stop at 1500 BC to be on even numbers.

To next leader, Dyes colony is undefended, will need to correct that as the Mongols are sending a bunch of warriors towards us. (The colony is on the way to the front, so just a last-one-out defense should be sufficient).

For the advance into Mongolia, I have generally been trying to rally the troops at the Iron mountain in former Babylon.

Hope that wasn't too bad. Kill ratio of 5-0, so maybe the next player will also have the "honor" of the first losing battle.


The Save (1500 BC) (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/LOTR9-1500_BC.zip)

Got it

PreTurn - Everything looks okay change nothing
Turn 1 Our borders expand, now we don't need the iron colony, We trained another unit of Immortals which I sent a against the Mongols besause the Babs are all from dead. I fortify on Dyes with an Immortal, and kill 3 mogol warriers with no promotions :( Good news I see the Mogols capital.
Turn 2 The Babs are dying So I decide to send bulk of our Immortals to attack and destroy the Mongols. Use slaves to build roads on front lines.
Turn 3 Another unit of our fine Immortals is produced like the last one they are sent towards the evil Mongols. I moved our one Immortal near the Mongol capital I will attack next turn.
THE BABS ARE DEAD!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Destroy_Babs_LOTR9.jpg
Great news that is, we also got 2 slave groups.
After razing the Capital I see they were on a chokepoint into unexplored lands send 3 Immortals down there so if another civ is found we can possibly destroy them.
Turn 4 This turn was mostly building roads and moving units I attack the Mongol Cap. the elite Immortal loses 2 HPs but kills one spear.
Turn 5 Again we train some fine men to send into battle,a new unit of Immortals is created . The elite Immortal attacks the spear in the Mongols cap. and loses 3-0 whats up with that? :(
We also kill a mongol warrier and win but still no promotions.

Sorry I could only play 5 turns but I have some RL issues to deal with.
LOTR 1375bc (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/LOTR9,_1375_BC.SAV)

we should continue to advance to kill the Mongols then look for more civs down past to chokepoint

Another nickels worth of free advice to the next leader: In Deatvert's screenshot, two luxuries are visible near the ruins of the last Babylonian city. Since our road network is going that way anyway ...

I've got it. Be back in about an hour or two.

6gntxn

Look around. I'll leave the healing Immortals at the land bridge and send the rest against the Mongols. Too many people left going somewhere. Leaving dye colony unguarded. There are too many Immortals between it and any enemy.

1350BC-1 Moving a slave to road that last forest around X-ville.

1325BC-2 First Immortal created. Ivory colony created. Move 2 imortals south to see who is there.

1300BC-3 Ivory and Incense colonies connected. Three lux allows us to drop to 10% tax and only losing 3GPT.

1275BC-4 Second immortal. Defeat mongol archer 3-1 and find Ta-Tu. Find settler pair leaving Karakorum.

1250BC-5 Defeat settler pair 3-1 and get 2 more slaves. Mongol scout emerges from the fog next to our dyes so he dies.

1225BC-6 Third Immortal.

1200BC-7 Four Immortals ready to attack Karakorum, one versus Kazan and one verses Ta-Tu.

1175BC-8 Fourth Immortal. Karakorum spear1 loses 3-0, spear2 loses vs. elite 3-1, spear 3 loses 3-2 and that is the capital with one slave. We lose our first Immortal 4-2 attacking Kazan. They will be avenged. Defeat one spear in Ta-Tu 3-3. Movement reveals an Ottoman warrior. Speak to Osmond and he has Mysticism and Alphabet 10g and 4 other cities. He has no contacts so I let him know who our next victim will be for Mysticism and 10g. Now that he knows the Mongols he will quickly learn who we are so I declare war.

1150BC-9 Our palace gets a second story. X-ville is up to 10 and I give them a scientist to save the tax increase. Ottoman warrior fortified but he should have run away. He dies 3-0.

1125BC-10 Another Immortal. We now have spices. The scientist goes back to work and add the science bact to 10%. Defeat first spear in Kazan 3-2 and the second dies 3-0. An archer did leave the city before it fell. Best attacker is the 4hp elite attacking uphill but we win 3-1.

1100BC-11 Sorry guys. I had to avenge the lost Immortal and defeated Ta-Tu 3-2 and thus ending the Mongol race.

The slave near X-ville will need to road the other 2 forrest squares. The governor likes them. After that we can send him to be a gem colony. The rest of the slaves are building the road to the former Mongol capital. The Mongols were nice to road their furs but did not build the road to us. The Immortals are all heading to the spice colony since that is where the road ends.

-6gntxn

THE GAME (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/LOTR9,_1100_BC.SAV)

Well I got a few minutes to kill. ;)
Ten turns coming right up.

1100 BC (pre-turn)
First thing I notice is we are really screwed up on the years. I am going to play to 750BC to get us back on track.
:hmm: 10% science and losing $3/turn. This game will end during the ancient ages, so I turn of science. We won't get anything better then immortals for a long time.


1025 BC
We finally spot an orange border.

975 BC
I get to kill something - scratch a warrior.

950 BC
Once again we kill a warrior.

875 BC
Not my typical style, but the SoD is still to far away. We take a whack at Izmit, and drop to 1 hp. However, it only had 1 defender and is destroyed!

800 BC
Our injured immortal gets away with killing yet another warrior.
It is cheaper to hire a tax man, then up luxuries.

775 BC
We will be bankrupt shortly, so I continue an atypical piecemeal attack. This sounds sick, but we need to lose some troops. There is one less spearman in Bursa.

750 BC
Bursa is auto-razed. We gain 2 new workers to keep building a road-net to the Ottomans.

Summary:
We are in really bad shape. Bankruptcy in less then 10 turns, and that means the barracks will be sold off and random immortals will be vaporized. We need the wines colony to fire the taxman.


http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/LOTR9-750BC.zip

Things are looking very good. I'm not sure. Are the Mongols gone? If so, we're down to two foes. In my experimental games with OCC AW, it was always at the two foe mark that things got a little dicey.

With bankruptcy looming, we can change X Ville to producing wealth. This will get us a little extra cash and stop the flow of immortals, so that our unit costs will get under control. It sounds crazy, but it's the thing to do. Believe me. It sounds like we're at about that point.

One or two MPs can stay back to defend X Ville, but all the rest of our forces should be going to fight. One or two scouting past the Mongols on their land area, and the rest to fight off the Ottomans and explore around/past them.

Keep the pressure up on the fledgling civs. They're getting to the point where they massively out-produce us, so we need to take advantage of superior troops, both in quantity and quality, while we can.

And don't be afraid to lose a troop here and there. LKendter's got it right. Each loss is worth one gpt.... But don't throw troops away needlessly either.

If it's not won, I hope to claim tomorrow, but I just can't tonight.

Arathorn

The Mongols are gone. They only had 3 cities.

-6gntxn

I hope it is OK to claim it again after 4 persons.

"got it"

Preturn: I think we are in a good position.
We have 6 luxes. The wines will be connected next turn, I wake the
Aztek worker and send him north of X Ville to connect the last source, Gems.

730BC: I found the wine colony, fire tax collector. We are up to 28 Immortals.
As suggested I start wealth in X Ville.
Move the troops.
We are at -3 gpt with 31 cash, meaning we can keep our army for 10 more turns.
I guess we will have a few cassulaties and from then on we just have to stay at 25.
When the Gems is online, X Ville will need one MP less, meaning all 25 Immortals can be used
offensively.

710BC: Start road towards Gems.

IT: An Otto archer stops near our leading group.

690: And gets slaughtered, giving us the next elite Immortal.
We advance inside their boarders.

670: No enemy units in sight. We advance further.

IT: We lose 1 Immortal to an archer from Istanbul, voila, only -2 gpt at 20 cash.

650: Step next to Istanbul.
We also advance at Aydin, guarded by a warrior.

630: We attack Istanbul, kill two spears and an archer, but the injured archer is left.
We raze Aydin, was defended by 1 warrior.

IT: The next archer stops near our units at Istanbul and a single spear
(where is his settler :D:D) comes out of the fog NW of Istanbul.

610: We kill both the last archer defending Istanbul and the one that is near the city.
Spot the next one on a hill east.
We advance to Edrine.

IT: An archer steps out of the fog near Edrine.
The spear walks west, two tiles north of our road.

590: Send an Immortal to intercept the spear.
Raze Edrine, was defended by two spears.
Kill the archer. I send two injured Immortals on two moutain tiles to heal and scout.
For the moment, I can see only the small town Uskudar east
Their road-network seems to end north of where Edrine was located.

570: I spot a orange boarder north, near the coast.
3 Immortals go for Uksudar, some are healing.
The bulk is on the road and needs a few additional turns to arrive at the front.
Move worker on Gems tile.

IT: 2 archer approach form Uksudar and one out of the fog north.

550: Found Gems colony and disband one MP in X Ville, meaning we are at -1 gpt, 10 cash
and we still have 27 immortals.
I kill the spear north of our main road.
In 3 turns, our road towards the Ottos (or should I say what is left from them :D)
will be completed.
Currently, I can see 3 Otto cities, each beeing approached from an Immortal stack.

In 3 turns (with MM on turn 2) X Ville will grow to size 12, the we should be at +- 0 gpt.


This will certainly be over soon, it was great fun :D

And what is left from the Otto-core:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/lotr91.jpg

SAVE (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/LOTR9-550BC.zip)

Got it. Don't think I can finish in 10 turns, but I hope to off the Ottomans and find the last civ.

Arathorn

Need immortals killed? I'm the man for the job. No, not really. Offed a bunch of archer in 530. THen, in 490, I lost an immortal while razing Iznik and Antalya. I lost another in 470, but got a double palace expansion anyway.

Our final foe is Korea. A warrior of theirs appeared north of this interminable jungle in 450 BC. I traded them contact with the soon-to-be-extinct Ottomans and our world map for their world map and Alphabet, just because I could. The world map was very nice, though. It shows them with 9 cities. Hmm....that's a bit of production power, but nothing >20 immortals can't handle. They do have iron, too...two sources, so we'll probably see a few swords, probably 2-6 or so...

The Ottomans lasted until 370 BC, when I razed Uskudar and eliminated them from the game. Most of our forces are headed north to deal with Korea, but it's a slog through a bunch of jungle.

By 350, I was close enough to their core, though, to get us a couple more slaves -- spears just don't guard settlers well from immortals! :)

I don't think Korea will fall in 10 turns -- but they should die in 20. We're back to a bit of positive cash-flow, but I'm pretty sure any new immortals wouldn't make it to the front in time. Just crush with what we have!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/lotr9-350bc.zip

Who's next?
Arathorn

Seems like the shortest SG ever played :)
We were a bit lucky because we hadn't to deal with defense-3 UUs.
The Greeks or Hanni would have been tough, infantry-casualties at the other side of the pangea are difficult to replace.

Nobody willing to take a few minutes to crush a fledgling civ with a flood of immortals?

Nobody up for the challenge of trying to eliminate them in 10 turns?

Arathorn

I am sure somebody will come along.

As for me - 7 more modern war turns on a world map. :eek:

I'd like to try but can't post a got it for another 2 hours and still complete in 8.

I'm tempted to try, but you may be noticing my sig right now ... although you never know what insanity I may get into tonight :groucho:

got it

350 BC - 0
Start another immortal in X-ville for mp duty.

330 BC
Inchon falls, start the march on Korea.

310 BC
X-Ville immortal -> wealth

290 BC - 3
Split the available immortals into three groups to attack Korea.
Pretty much strung out behind this grouping.

270 BC - 4
Wonsan falls

250 BC - 5
Just more movement. I'm ignoring the warriors. They can have the one worker back.

230 BC - 6
Cheju falls. Lose a worker.

210 BC - 7
More movement.

190 BC - 8
Ulsan falls

170 BC - 9
Hygasan falls
Soeul falls
More movement

150 BC - 10
Well not quite 10 - 3 cities left.

130 BC - 11
Pynonyang falls
Pusan falls

110 BC - 12
Namp'o falls -> Victory

The Game (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Civ III PTW Autosave 110 BC.SAV)

270 BC

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/persia.jpg

That has to be the fastest SG victory I've seen. Congrats to all for a very well played game. :goodjob: And to Arathorn for a very well thought out variant.

A 2-page SG. That HAS to be a record!

Nice job, Coffee. Did you need something to relax from our NOW game :D
Victory in 110BC [dance]

Comments:

- Two pages? Less than a week? Awesome!!! Sul5b should take notes! :lol:
- What's the final score? I'm curious. Such an early victory usually gives a good score, even on regent.
- HOW do people lose on regent? Or lower levels? It's hard for me to fathom.
- This played easier than either of my trial games. Our starting location was much better, so we got to 15 spt faster than I had before. This was, incidentally, the second start I rolled. The first was not a true pangea, which I really wanted. Starting in a corner and expanding one way only helped, too, I think.
- Thanks to the participants! This was a lot of fun, especially for such a quick little game.
- I think I lost as many immortals as the rest of the people combined -- 3. What's up with that?
- Thanks for finishing us up, Coffee. How close was my 2-6 swords estimate? And smart on ignoring the warrior and going for the cities.
- Realistic to try on Monarch? Or a standard map? I dunno, but these games play so fast, it can be tried easily. It's more of a snack than a meal.
- :goodjob: :goodjob:

Arathorn

@Belisar Thanks and yes I suppose did. :)

@Arathorn I'll have to check on the score and report back. Only 1 sword I'm afraid and he impaled himself. I enjoyed the 10 turn challenge. Monarchs good.

Thanks to Arathorn for this SG. This was a fun read. Good game to all.

The final score was 6529.

I was inspired by this SG and tried something similiar.
Tiny world, 3 rivals (I wanted a real quicky), Emperor, OCC, but I skipped the AW.
Without AW this is easily doable on emperor (win in 690 BC, score over 13000). I tried with AW as well but got dogpiled on and lost.
On standard map or even small Monarch or higher should be much more tricky as it takes longer to wipe all AIs out and you might find yourself facing knights.

Originally posted by ChrTh
A 2-page SG. That HAS to be a record!

Actually there have been 2-page SG wins before, about this fast. But IIRC they were also OCC games. :)

[delurk]
That was a fun distraction for a lunch break...! (Makes a change from other SGs/Tales that often have me overrunning.) Out of interest, I didn't notice any GLs being generated?! I'd have thought at least 1 would've popped out of the woodwork.

Neil. :cool: