The Ice2k4 Official Campaign HQ

Welcome fine citizens of our newly founded nation. Our scribes and priests have finally decided on the year of which we currently reside in as 4000 BC. In a little less than 2 weeks, the year 4000 BC will begin. 4000 years from that date, the world will end. For the next 4000 years though, we need a strong leader, one who will guide us through the tough and the bountiful. So remember, elect Ice2k4 as Supreme Warlord of our elite society.


Here you can voice your support for Ice2k4, contribute to the election, as well as inquire and debate with the soon to be nominee. All forms of questioning are welcome, and will be responded to as soon as possible. The official platform of the campaign will be posted shortly.

Remember vote for Ice2k4 in the upcoming elections.

News:

Nomination/Election Status: Nominations have begun.
Ice2k4 has been nominate4d by Ravensfire, and has accepted.
Ravensfire has been nominated, and has declined.
Falcon02 has been nominated, and has declined.
Methos has been nominated and has accepted!

Currently, Ice2k4 is running against Methos for Cheftian.

Introduction
Welcome to the Official Platform endorsed by Ice2k4. First and foremost, Ice2k4 is a strong believer in Realpolitik, and although he does not believe in wishy-washiness or indecisiveness, his views are flexible based on the people. Realpolitik is defined as "realistic politics based on the needs of the state." As times change, changes are needed and old traditional views may change as well. Please do not mistake this as being indecisive, as Ice2k4 will never go both ways on an issue at the same time. Now to finish talking about myself in the third person, and get on with the political platform.

Organization of Early Government
Although it is not official yet, it looks like we'll be using a tribal system of government. Since there will most likely be only a cheftian and elder (possibly a second elder) during the first term, organization may seem pretty simplistic. Although I do not plan to appoint a useless bureaucratic system of deputies, I do plan to appoint a few deputies, even in the early game to help manage what will become an illustrious empire one day. You ask what duties could I possibly assign to deputies so early in the game? For one I would like to make information largely available to the public, especially citizens who might be unable to view the save because they are mac users (or if the HoF mod continues to be pushed.) This means image posting of the save, updated constantly, and a history department, as well as other informational policies that may be beneficial to the public. However, this is not to be mistaken as creating a bunch of useless deputy offices early in the game, as the whole point of our build-as-you-go system is to regulate the amount of offices to the participation levels.

History Department
One of the things that we really lacked in the past demogame was a history department. Newcomers who would join mid-game, did not have any real refrence as to what happened in the past. Last demogame, I started playing in the 2nd or 3rd term. It took me almost a full term to catch up on exactly what happened and the rest of the citizens viewpoint.

I would like to make this demogame much more accessible for newcomers. One way to do that is make a newspaper (which I already have) that will update newcomers or regulars who have been on vacation about the most current news. However, a newspaper only covers whats happening now. A history department will (in the second post) update every turnchat and report anything of importance which happened. However, the first post will contain a summary of what has happened (and will not be broken into turnchats.) This provides both a somewhat detailed record of history and also an easy to read summary to get players caught up.

Early Game Strategy
Since I am only a prominent Prince player, I don't intend to play the game my style. I intend to play the early game at the request and consensus of the citizens. Although I will offer suggestions that may match my normal strategies, I won't be using them unless the citizens agree. Generally my strategy differs with each leader, however, I am starting to play a few Vanilla games to get the feel back (since I've been playing Warlords.)

Creation of Offices
I doubt that we will reach a point in the term when a bunch of new offices need to be created. I think once we create our second worker, we may want to delegate infrastructural duties to a new position, such as a domestic minister. The early game is pretty easy to handle and micromanage. I do want to create a Military leader as soon as we meet our first barbarian warrior, or whenever we have both our first and second city properly garrisoned. Until either of those two, were not going to have any real military plans. As for religion and civics, were not going to be changing those so often that we need an official for it. Citizens can handle that duty. However, if we do found a religion, I would like the citizens to consider creating an office for just the spread of our religion. The building of wonders should be a duty delegated by the people. Other than that, mostly everything should be covered, until we decide to form a new government.

In my eyes it would be good to have a Warlord, Elders for each city, an official to handle workers and infrastructure, a Military Leader and possibly a Religious Minister. All other duties should be delegated by the people since they don't occur so often. However, officials used to serve the purpose of analyzing their area. Although the Foreign Minister didn't make that many in-game decisions, it sure helped when he analyzed all trade possibilities. I don't want offices like this being elected as they create way to many offices, and we'll start to get those pesky uncontested elections again. My plan to deal with this is to use deputies for the more analytical, logistical jobs.

More to be updated.

You own the only paper in the country, and you're running for Warlord. Sounds corrupt to me, just like a Warlord should .

dutchfire said:

You own the only paper in the country, and you're running for Warlord. Sounds corrupt to me, just like a Warlord should .

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Yep, I already have the media in my pocket, now to get a few of those justices

Good Luck pal

A history department, eh?

Intriguing... Would you care to expand upon what you mean by this?

But how do you like to play Civs and your earlier game strategy.

A history department, eh?

Intriguing... Would you care to expand upon what you mean by this?

Click to expand...

One of the things that we really lacked in the past demogame was a history department. Newcomers who would join mid-game, did not have any real refrence as to what happened in the past. Last demogame, I started playing in the 2nd or 3rd term. It took me almost a full term to catch up on exactly what happened and the rest of the citizens viewpoint.

I would like to make this demogame much more accessible for newcomers. One way to do that is make a newspaper (which I already have) that will update newcomers or regulars who have been on vacation about the most current news. However, a newspaper only covers whats happening now. A history department will (in the second post) update every turnchat and report anything of importance which happened. However, the first post will contain a summary of what has happened (and will not be broken into turnchats.) This provides both a somewhat detailed record of history and also an easy to read summary to get players caught up.

But how do you like to play Civs and your earlier game strategy.

Click to expand...

Since I am only a prominent Prince player, I don't intend to play the game my style. I intend to play the early game at the request and consensus of the citizens. Although I will offer suggestions that may match my normal strategies, I won't be using them unless the citizens agree. Generally my strategy differs with each leader, however, I am starting to play a few Vanilla games to get the feel back (since I've been playing Warlords.)

I have been nominated by Ravensfire, and have already accepted.

That was really evasive. You'll be a great politician yet .

jdubdixon said:

That was really evasive. You'll be a great politician yet .

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Evasive? Generally I don't like politicians for that reason (hence I never plan to get into politics.) In what way was I evasive. If your referring to the civ strategy, I would gladly lay down some of the strategies I have in mind, but since we haven't selected a leader/civ yet, I really can't lay down my ideas on strategy. I'd be glad to post a few I have in mind. The other thing is, in the past demogame, the power was invested in multiple people, so no one person could have a set strategy. The consensus of the people made up the overall strategy, and I'm still used to this. Now that a lot of power is given to the warlord in the early game, the need for the people is minimized, however I am still old fashioned in the sense that I rather take a collective strategy rather than implementing my own. In reality, I've climbed my way up through the difficulty latter in CIV, mostly through some of the strategies I learned in the first demogame. 50 heads is better than 1.

Hope that was helpful. I'll post some specific strategies I have in mind, to show my style of play later. If I went off on a tangent about something completely different than what you were referring to, let me know, and I will respond asap.

If you don't want to sound evasive then stop doin that thing you did when I asked about your strategy. You didn't answer the question and listed the reasons why not.

jdubdixon said:

If you don't want to sound evasive then stop doin that thing you did when I asked about your strategy. You didn't answer the question and listed the reasons why not.

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By the question I didn't think you wanted me to list each of my strategies for each civ. Apparently that was your intention.

So,

General Strategy for Civs that start with mining
First thing to do is settle the city and set the research to bronze working. With these types of civs I do not try to found any religion. I also set the build queue immediately to worker. The worker and bronze working should finish at the same time or within a turn of each other. The next thing to do is set the build queue to settler, and chop forests to hurry production with the new worker.

The research should then be set to whatever will benefit me more.
i.e. If I settled on a costal tile, I'll research fishing, if I have a resource that can not be utilized because of tech restrictions (other then later-game techs) I'll research those techs. I then settle my new settler relatively close to the capitol, in either a river bed, coastal tile, or mountainous region (depending on the geographical region my capitol is settled on.)

At this point I build a warrior in the first city, and a worker in the second. I continue to build warriors in my first to protect both the first and second city until the worker is finished.

There is a slight variation however if I find marble or stone. Marble means 1/2 production cost on oracle and Parthenon and stone means 1/2 production cost on Pyramids and Stonehenge. I always go for oracle, with or without marble, especially since it's easy to get on Prince. That will most likely be the only wonder I build (unless I really feel I need Stonehenge.) If I get marble however, I will build oracle and then pyramids right after.

With the oracle I get code of laws to found Confucianism and acquire courthouses early, as well as switch to Caste System. And with pyramids I am able to switch to a Specialized Economy since I can now access Representation.

With courthouses I begin to build up my army and invade the first civ. I usually take the first neighboring civ with ease, and the second civ I only take if I think the economy can handle it (although I admit there are times the science slider hits 30%, just to rebound to a solid 70% 30 turns later) and my forces won't be completely wiped out, even if I fail. I find myself doing this 80% of the time playing with Rome (and acquired Iron) and only 15-30% of the time with other civs.

Remember no vast conquering though, if I don't have courthouses.

General Strategy - Egypt/Persia
Note Stone and Marble variations apply, as stated in the first strategy.

Immediately I research animal husbandry. I also start my build queue with a worker. Once animal husbandry is completed:

If there are horses in the cultural borders of my capitol, I put research on mysticism and try to found one of the three early religions. (although I make sure I have priesthood to build oracle, before I try to found Judaism.) After that I decide whether a war would be beneficial.

If there are no horses in capitol:
The worker is finished midway through the research on BW. The build queue is switched to settler. The worker will be building farms while we wait for the bronze working to finish. The settler is then chopped until it finishes, and settles the nearest horses (unless it is ridiculously far.)

From there are on I war chariot/immortal my next two opponents (making sure I kill off one before declaring war on the others.) and let hundreds of years of peace repair my economy. Usually by the civs from the other continent are met, I am equal with them in techs and much higher in score.

Remember no vast conquering though, if I don't have courthouses.

Vague Strategy - Peaceful/Mysticism Civs
In regards to civs that start with mysticism, I go for Buddhism, polytheism and than monotheism. Finally I build the oracle and capture Confucianism. Usually with a great prophet I get theology. Divine Right is usually acquired with a great prophet and the other half is researched in a few turns. Usually I never found taoism though. With this I spread my religions as much as I can to get the huge economy boost, while playing off aggressive civs against each other (as well as the occasional tech monger.)

Generally, games that I want to play peacefully, I use diplomacy to keep a status quo with everyone, and then run away at the end with a space victory or possibly even a diplomatic victory.

Assuming you would be operating our first settler unit, I would like to know what your thoughts are on choosing the first spot provided by the computer vs. charting out a different location. Obviously it all depends on the starting location, but I'm sure you can give us humble citizens your thoughts on the matter.

That is not what I meant. I meant what do you generally do to start off and what i told you about how not to be evasive I meant don't go on and on about why not.

Assuming you would be operating our first settler unit, I would like to know what your thoughts are on choosing the first spot provided by the computer vs. charting out a different location. Obviously it all depends on the starting location, but I'm sure you can give us humble citizens your thoughts on the matter.

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Generally I like to settle where the AI starting position system places me. My reason being is (with a few exceptions) the system has been built to give everyone a fair start. Now, starts may look horrible in the beginning, but you must remember there are many resources which are not revealed such as horses, bronze, iron and later game resources such as oil and coal. With bronze, iron and horses in mind, you really can't be sure where to settle, because without at least one of those three resources you can forget about a war. I do support mapping out possible starting locations, but unless there is something that looks exceptionally great, I rather settle where we start, I also rather not lose a turn or two due to exploring to find a better starting position, as those turns are precious. If I seem like I'm going both ways on this issue, let me make it clear:

Although I do not mind mapping out starting positions, unless an extraordinary spot arises, I plan to settle first turn, where we are placed.

jdubdixon said:

That is not what I meant. I meant what do you generally do to start off and what i told you about how not to be evasive I meant don't go on and on about why not.

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Could you give me an example of what you mean by start off? I'm not sure I know what you mean.

In regards to telling you "why not", I didn't want to give my specific strategy, because I won't be using my strategy. I then provided an explanation reflecting on past demogames, only because it seems that you are new to the demogame (correct me if I'm wrong.) Just stating how things have been done in the past.

ice2k4 said:

Although I do not mind mapping out starting positions, unless an extraordinary spot arises, I plan to settle first turn, where we are placed.

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I strongly disagree with this and hope you are willing (as you appear to be) to post an initial screenshot of our starting position prior to settling, so that we as citizens can discuss the best site to settle.

I hate to intrude on your platform, but the "blue circles" are not always the best spot to settle.

I strongly disagree with this and hope you are willing (as you appear to be) to post an initial screenshot of our starting position prior to settling, so that we as citizens can discuss the best site to settle.

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Not posting a screenshot before settling wasn't even an option in my mind.

I hate to intrude on your platform, but the "blue circles" are not always the best spot to settle.

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I don't believe the "blue circles" are the way to go for cities founded after the capitol, but I usually find that wherever my settler is dropped was the best starting location.

ice2k4 said:

I don't believe the "blue circles" are the way to go for cities founded after the capitol, but I usually find that wherever my settler is dropped was the best starting location.

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I tend to agree with the "usually" part, but have run across a few starts where the settler isn't even standing on a blue circle.

The way I read the preceeding dialogue is that you'd prefer to be the organizer of citizen decisions, and not be thought of as an uber-player trying to make the citizens go your way. I'm happy to see that, it's the type of leadership the DG needs.

Doesn't mean I won't go looking for some competition for you though.