The meek shall inherit the Earth. Warlord No military Domination

lurker's comment: looking good. keep it up

Hahahah this story is hilarious keep it up! I love Jeeves i hope he doesnt get himself executed

Exciting and ambitious project. I'm guessing your aim is to 'expand' by cultural flips, and It'll be interesting to see if you can accomplish a domination victory (if at all) before 20k or 100k kicks in (or have you turned all other VCs off)?

All VCs are on. The original aim was to expand as much as possible and fill in the gaps after cultural expansions, picking up the odd cultural flip. If I was close enough to domination limit by then, I planned to send out combat settlers because the AI is very random about where it attacks so possibly I could gain the last few percentages that way. We'll see how it goes..

More will follow later today.

In 730 BC the Celts met the Carthaginians. Hannibal and his people were backwards with regards to tech, but had 7% of the world's territory under their empire. At this time the Celts only had 20% and Brennus, who had become used to the concept of Mathematics, understood all too well that if all the nations in the world were allowed to grow to this size, he would not be able to convince them to surrender to Celtish supremacy. The Celts would need to occupy all other land and coast tiles that the other civs didn't. And then there were probably a few islands out there that they wouldn't be able to reach for a long time... Brennus was more than a little that he had lost his best (only) advisor. Jeeves at the top of his form would have come up with a plan to get further ahead of the other civs.

To understand Jeeves' reactions, it's advisable that the observer takes a step away from the daily doings of the palace (cave) court (advisors) and studies a little psychology (or the 6th sense as Brennus invariably called it).
It's a sad, yet common, misunderstanding that those who are granted long lives grow weary and embrace death. This may be true if you loose the strength of your limbs and the sharpness of your mind. Jeeves had lost neither (well, not anything he'd miss). Not that there had been much strength of limbs to start with. He had, after all, chosen the life of a civil servant. And this was partly due to the fact that he had never been much of a muscle man. Also, the endless years of drafting budgets, going to and arranging meetings and sending memos had surely and steadily drained what muscle there had been out of his body. His female assistant was more muscular then him. But then, she had to carve his work, like the 300-tablet long thesis "Whither Celtia? An analysis on the Celtish transport system, including footpaths", into stone with a hammer and chisel.
People who live as long as Jeeves had, and in good health, generally want more. Jeeves was no exception. He had enjoyed life to its fullest for over 3000 years and felt that "quit while you're ahead" was a poor saying. He wanted more. Which is why watching scarcely dressed barbarians running around with strange weaponry all over his front lawn made him agitated, nervous and scared. He felt like it was all going to be over all too soon.

One morning as Jeeves sat and tried to finish off his lunch (gently poached elephant), his assistant stepped into the room and tried to, very gently, cheer him up.
She "Ahem"ed like only a pupil of a great master can. Normally, Jeeves would have remarked on the effort she had put into being soft yet clearly audible. Not so this time.
Jeeves grunted in response and she took this as 'go ahead' for what she was about to say.
"Pardon me for saying, Sir. But you seem a little tired this morning."
Jeeves went off at once: "TIRED?!? TIRED, Molly? I am jolly well tired and I'll tell you why. I'm sitting here trying to enjoy a spot of lunch. And what happens? This Byzantine warrior sticks his head through the door and asks me if I know where he can buy silk jimjams for his wife."
"Erh, Portuguese, Sir."
"What?"
"The warrior, Sir. He's Portuguese. You can tell by the colour of their cute little loincloths."
"I see. Can you tell which one is going to murder me by the tint in his eyes?"
"Not this one, I think Sir. Look how happy he is."
A grubby yet cheerful face popped into view in the window, waving a piece of cloth that may well have been a rather nice set of silk pyjamas until he decided to touch them.
Molly waved back. Jeeves turned and looked at the man, then turned back and continued shaking uncontrollably.
"Isn't tourism great, Sir? And we get to spread our ideas all over the world."
Jeeves sighed. He felt like he so often did when speaking to Brennus these days. What is there to say when faced with utter lunacy? He was trying to guide his lunch from his plate to his mouth with the help of a spoon. Eating solemnly seemed to work well with a strong, silent approach to the recent conversation. It didn't work out too well. The fact remained that he wasn't very strong. Moreover, the spoon clattered like a one man band each time it hit the platter, which it did often since he dropped a lot of food due to shaking too much. If the Celts had had wine in those days, Jeeves would surely have been another subscriber to its curse and blessing.
"Use the fork."
"What?"
"Use the fork, Jeeves." Molly pointed.
"Ah, yes. I thought I had walked into one of Brennii dreames there."

AIs and Celtish military 730 BC:

Happy Birthday Captain!

Own said:

Happy Birthday Captain!

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Cheers
Never to old for a

*BUMP*

Hey!

Was also watching this story with great interest! Anything happening? Was Brennus finally conquered by rival civilizations? Did he ultimately cave in and develop some military, if only to defend himself? Has he built any ships yet, to explore other continents?

Don't leave us hanging, dude!

Cheers
Nocturne

welcome to CFC

Thank you! Now, on with the story

Nocturne said:

Thank you! Now, on with the story

Click to expand...

Thanks for your interest. More to follow this weekend.

And welcome to CFC

In 450 BC, Brennus called upon his advisors for a brief briefing, as it were.
"Ladies and gentlemen", he started, "we are only a hundred years or so away from completing the Temple that will show our enemies who should rule this world."
"Yeah for us." The words came from one of Brennii advisors, Brennus just couldn't figure out who. He felt there was too much sarcasm and not enough enthusiasm behind the statement.
The added "Whoop-di-hoo" enhanced this feeling.
"But won't that enrage the other civs even more, Sir?" Jeeves was a nervous wreck these days, but he still was the only advisor who spoke up against the ramblings of Brennus.
"Yes it might. And the Vikings, in particular, are getting restless. I have given this issue much thought and I've made up my mind on how to make peace with them once and for all. I will not tell you what the plan is just yet, but it involves the iron source outside Entremont, so please make sure it's hooked up so we have ready access to it. Afterwards, if it's all ok, set up a meeting with the Scandinavian ambassador. That's all. Meeting adjourned."

The advisors all poured out of the throne room (Brennus actually had a palace now), gossiping about what Brennii plans might be.
"He's going to invite the ambassador to watch what we can do with iron. Then they might think twice of attacking us. Beneficial to both parties and all that, you know." The trade advisor was a practical man. He felt like this: if a civilization A, let's call it the Celts, could make something that another civilization B, let's call them the Scandinavians, couldn't, then the "Celtish" civilization could make these objects and sell them to the "Scandinavian" civilization. Civ A would benefit from the trade as much as civ B (in theory).
"I don't think so", Jeeves said. "He'd have told us about that, surely."
"He's going to threaten them with military. He might even train an army." The military advisor was practically aglow with the warm fuzzy feeling that people of the armed forces get when war is drawing near.
"That might be it", Jeeves said it without believing himself. He thought he had caught a glimpse in Brennii eye that could only be interpreted as a humorous one. He dreaded Brennii humour.

Jeeves paced the floor of his study, trying to think what Brennus could have to say to the Scandinavian ambassador about the iron when Molly walked in the door.
"Eh, Jeeves, Sir."
"Out with it, woman."
"We're going to get wines from the provinces soon. And all the civil servants would like to have a little party to celebrate. Would you consider asking me with you, please?" We have to remember that this was almost 2500 years ago so of course it was improper for a woman to ask a man to go to a party. As has always been the case, though, it's quite alright for a woman to ask a man to ask her to go to the party.
"Sorry, Molly. I'm just not in a very cheerful mood these days. I guess going to a party now would make me feel like that guy in the dream Brennus had. The one where there is dancing aboard a big ship and then it hits an iceberg, you know.
"Yes, I see you. I feel you. That is how I know you go on."
"Eech. That's positively soppy. What made you say that?"
Molly blushed. "No idea, Sir. It was silly of me. What I meant was, I know how you feel. It's like a highway to Hell."
"That's more like my Molly." Jeeves smiled.

The day of the meeting with the Scandinavian ambassador arrived and rumour had spread throughout the city that Brennus had prepared an army of 1000 that would come marching through the streets at his command, declare war on Scandinavia and chase the ambassador all the way to Trondheim.
Jeeves was in the meeting with Brennus and the ambassador. All the other advisors waited outside for any news.
The meeting dragged out a bit and a street merchant selling suspicious looking sausages in-a-bun was almost out of sausages and was wondering if he could get off with selling nicely rolled mud in-a-bun instead.
Then the Scandinavian ambassador came out of the palace with a big grin on his face.
He proceeded to say something like: "Wee thee skåndinåviån pøple åre very håppy vith joor deecision and thank joo frøm our bøttøms" before beaming a final time to the crowds, bowing deeply and getting up and away on a horse he had brought with him from his homeland. For his people, he was skilled in the Celtish language. In fact, that was one of the main reasons he had been made ambassador to Celtia.
After a while, Jeeves came out, looking more despondent than ever. He went straight past the crowd of advisors who hadn't understood a single word of the Scandinavian ambassador and was eager to learn what had happened. He pushed his way through the crowd to Molly and only when he reached her did he speak.
"If you're still free to go, I'd like to take you to that wine tasting party you spoke of", he said.
"I'm free, and I'd like that," Molly said.
"But..." The military advisor looked thoughtful, which was an altogether disturbing sight. "If there are no half-naked men with swords running around here..."
Jeeves smiled a wry smile. "No half-naked men with swords, no. There won't be any either. Brennus said he was afraid they'd fall and hurt themselves if they were going to run around with swords in there hands."
"But then, what was the meeting about?"
Jeeves ignored him and looked back at Molly. "I think I'm going to get very drunk at that party. Please promise me you'll carry me home and tuck me in."
"Yes, Sir. It'll be an honour, Sir."
"Will it? Yes, I suppose it will," Jeeves said absentmindedly.
"But why are you so determined to get drunk?" Molly asked.
Jeeves sighed heavily. "Brennus just gave our only source of iron to the Vikings..."

Celts stats @ 450 BC:
25 cities, 30% of world area.
Military consists of 11 settlers and 23 workers.

What follows is screenshots of each of the other civs' territory apart from 1-2 cities that were built some distance away from the AI capitols. I chose to shrink them so they could fit to page so the compression is awful, but you'll at least get a view of how my tactic is to shut each AI civ in and then fill in the rest of the land afterwards.
All AI civs have 5 cities except Byzanths with 4 and Carthage with 7.

Byzanths:


Carthaginians:


Portugal:


Spain:


Vikings:

The meeting dragged out a bit and a street merchant selling suspicious looking sausages in-a-bun was almost out of sausages and was wondering if he could get off with selling nicely rolled mud in-a-bun instead.

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I wondered when C.M.O.T. Dibbler would be making an appearance Great story, BTW.... I would never be crazy enough to try a no-military game on my current difficulty level (monarch) due to the fact that the AI will make outrageous demands and/or declare war any time they have a measley 5 more units than you do.....

Hikaro Takayama said:

I wondered when C.M.O.T. Dibbler would be making an appearance Great story, BTW.... I would never be crazy enough to try a no-military game on my current difficulty level (monarch) due to the fact that the AI will make outrageous demands and/or declare war any time they have a measley 5 more units than you do.....

Click to expand...

Thanks for your interest
I doubt this is winnable on higher difficulties than warlord. Not because the AI is more agressive on higher difficulties (it's programmed to act the same way), but because most of the reason why it's working on lower difficulties is that territory is a part of the military strength equation (iirc) and so the AI gets rather apathic after a while, as long as you provide them with some bribes

Well, it wouldn't be so annoying, if the military strenght equation was merely the quantity of combat units you have rather than the quality of said units. or the infrastructure supporting those units (mainly due to the fact that in this game, as in most good strategy games that I play, I tend to have a realatively small, streamlined military force that is made up of elite/strong units and my strategies tend to rely on commando-type surgical strikes rather than swarming the enemy with a ton of cheap cannon-fodder units).

I've had AIs who declared war because they had 30 combat units, and I only had 15. Thing is, 15 of their units were warriors, 5 were archers, 3 were swordsmen and the rest spearmen, while my 15 units consisted of roughly equal numbers of Spearmen, Swordsmen and Horse Riders. On top of that, half of their cities weren't even connected by roads and were scattered all over the place, while all my cities were connected and positioned such that any of my horsemen could reach pretty much any of my cities in 1 turn. Needless to say, that particular war ended up with a substantial territory gain for my civ....

Another annoying thing with playing with low/light military on higher difficulty levels is when you bribe the AI and they declare war anyways two turns later. Shaka almost always does that whenever I play the Epic game, thus if I know that the Zulu are on the same continent as myself, I put more emphasis on military than I otherwise would, and concentrate on wiping them off the map.

An email-virus has disabled my internet conn at home. It'll be a little time before I get back online.
I'm determined to finish this story, in time

As some of you will know, it's been a while since I got my PC up and running again. However, I had lost some of the files that I needed for writing this thread. They have now been recovered and I hope to continue and finish the story soon.

Thank you for your patience

350 BC and Jeeves was a nervous wreck. The man had started talking to his plants, which is never a good sign. He stayed away from the palace as much as he could, avoiding work when he had to go there. Even Molly was beginning to doubt him. Jeeves felt like a teenager again. He was wondering what the point of it all was. He felt like he was a small pawn in some lunatic master plan that tried to figure out the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Molly, who was deep into the pagan tradition and had listened closely to many a lay line, could have told him the answer. She never told anyone though, she felt like the answer was too bizarre. Moreover, she had got the calculations wrong, and the universe would have been a totally different place if 3,111,696 was the answer.

Brennus on the other hand was as chuffed as a choo choo. He called his advisors together and happily proclaimed that his plan was working. The huge-pointy-buildings-come-universal-place-of-worship plan was beginning to bare fruit and the Celts now occupied 32% of the world’s area. However, place for expansion was rapidly filling up. The Portuguese had settled a town way south on the continent and the Byzantines had finally moved a settler towards the open lands to the west. He was getting a little worried about what to do when there wasn’t any more land to settle on this continent. He couldn’t start producing war ships and he wasn’t going to start training military. Brennus felt his only hope was to hold out for ships that were incapable of attack. Knowing his military and science advisor, he felt that would be a long way away and probably lead to more hassle on the military issue along the way. Brennus wasn’t sure if he could take another 1000 years of nagging about military from his advisors. At least Jeeves didn’t front the opposition anymore.

We return now to Jeeves happy meeting with his advisors where he informed them his plan was working.
“My plan is working, gentlemen. And ladies.”
Molly had convinced Brennus that he needed a Human Relations Advisor and that she was the woman for the job. She now had a permanent seat on the advisors council. This made things even more complicated for Jeeves. The woman he loved had a habit of shouting: “Grow a spine!” to anyone who objected to Brennii plans. Jeeves felt it would be easier to nurture a spine if only he didn’t expect its chord to be split in two by an enemy sword at any time.
“Hooray!” Molly shouted. Brennus winked at her. The first time she had done such a thing, Brennus was convinced she was just like the other advisors. And sarcasm had slowly but surely taken its sting. Brennus knew sarcasm and didn’t like it. But Brennus was, as said before, a man who thought the best of his fellow man /and woman). So when he saw her lightning eyes when she moments later replied “Grow a spine!” to the military advisors objections, he was convinced that Molly was a good egg. Which she was, apart from her obvious lacking in calculus.
Again, Molly shouted: “Hooray!” Not the least unsettled by the other advisors’ grumbling she added: “Splendid! When will we take over the world?”
Jeeves did a terrible mistake. He woke from his self-inflicted slumber only to find out that his king and master was obviously eyeing out the girl of his dreams. It suddenly dawned on Jeeves. “The girl of my dreams.” he thought. He was filled with envy and jealousy because she couldn’t just live her life in happy misery like the rest of them did these days. And also because he didn’t like the look Brennus had given Molly.
Jeeves then, like many men before him and many men after him, did something unforgivably stupid. He used sarcasm against a woman. He replied:
“You mean when will we die, and be returned to Mother Earth to join once more into the big circle of life?”
Molly went from that nice pinkish tint that is the natural facial colour of the Celts, via an embarrassed looking red to a deep purple colour. Her eyes shot shards of lightning at him as she stuttered to exclaim her feelings:
“Oh... oh... DO grow a spine!” She started crying and ran out of the room.

Molly wouldn’t speak to Jeeves for days and when she at last said something, the words were full of malice. He shouldn’t just expect her to forgive him for making a fool out of her in public. He should grow a spine and prove it before she would even consider speaking to him again. Jeeves at first felt his heart sink even further, but there was still no wine to drown his sorrows and besides, parts of him felt she was right. Quoting Brennus, Jeeves mumbled to himself one night as he lay sleepless in his bed, “It’s better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool.” There and then Jeeves made a Decision (all life-altering decisions should be spelt with a capital D):
It was time to stand up for the woman he loved (apparently). It was time to stop whining. It was time to stop wasting away the long years fearing something that, quite probably, but (Jeeves had lived with the fear long enough to realize) may never happen. It was time to grow a spine. It was in fact, time to do what civil servants all around the world do every day: Carry out the orders of their masters, no matter how loony they seem.

Current city count: 26
Military: 17 Settlers, 28 Workers

Now there is plenty of drama!!

Old Jeeves, seems, has finally woken up and smelled the ?

And what of Molly, catching the eye of Brennus!

And in which part of his body will Jeeves "Grow a spine?"

Keep up the good work Capt.!

And Happy Holidays!!

you're tactic seems to be going quite ok but i guess you need boats very fast or you'll never get even close to the domination limit