Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Post Mortem
First off, a few screen shots. The power graph for the history of the game:
Even before I took on Gandhi I was ahead of him in power. And, somewhat surprising, I was ahead of Shaka as well for most of the game. Usually he, like a lot of other Aggressive leaders, spam so many units that I don't catch up unless I'm playing as a determined warmonger too, and sometimes not even then. Maybe BtS is indeed making the AI play differently--but not necessarily better, based upon what we saw in this game.
I also forgot to mention in the game update post that a huge frickin' world war broke out around the end of the 1800s, with the Chinese block, Shaka, and Saladin ganging up on Tokugawa and Wang Kon. Shaka captured 2 or 3 Japanese cities and Toku took them right back before the war was done. Gandhi and I just sat back and watched. Anyway, that accounts for some of the power fluctuations you see above at that time.
In some ways, I think, the more sophisticated diplomatic system is a bit flawed in Civ IV. In Civ II, if you started becoming the world's only superpower, all the AI civs began to dislike you and make military pacts against you. Sometimes they'd dogpile you in a big all-out war to end all wars. In this game, the only chance the AI civs had for victory would have been to pull a Civ II--gang together and simultaneously attack me. Instead they attacked each other.
The AI doesn't like taking on a hugely powerful civ even if it's the only way to win the game, nor is it likely to attack its "friends". While there's been much said about the "better AI", maybe in some respects it could use some dumbing down.
But I digress.
Espionage:
Again, I was way ahead here from early on, no doubt as a result of prioritizing Courthouses in all of my cities. I like the new espionage system--there's so much you can do with it, including deciding to largely ignore it. I didn't in this game, and it was very valuable to know what other civs were researching in particular. I'm hoping in a future game I'll build the Great Wall and we'll see what sort of mischief I can get into with an early Great Spy.
Demographics:
No real surprises there, given my commanding lead for most of the latter half of the game.
Top 5 Cities and Wonders:
Another sign of my dominance of this game. I can't remember the last time I ended an ALC with 4/5 of the top cities.
Statistics:
17 cities is a lot to found for me. The map certainly encouraged it. I could have founded more--I never did build the eastern fishing villages on that northern tundra island. Towards the end of the game, though, extra cities seemed superfluous. Same with extra seafood for Sid's Sushi Co; I canceled a couple of deals for extra seafood because they decreased rather than increased my revenue. I think someone said earlier that a 20-item benefit (20 extra food, in this case) is optimal, and that appeared to be the case.
My score:
Not my best ever, but darned respectable. I jacked it up as it was with all those late wonders. I was in such a dominant position even by the mid-game that I could have pursued any victory condition I wanted.
In fact, I did some things in this game that may have lowered the final score in order to stay true to the spirit of the ALCs. I didn't need to invade Gandhi, but I wanted to show off the UU. I didn't need to pursue a space ship win, but I wanted to utilize the UB. It would be interesting to go back and play the game without the invasion of India and see if I could launch the space ship earlier, or to play as more of a warmonger from earlier on and see how quickly a domination or even conquest win could have been achieved.
This game definitely showed how powerful the SE can be. I finally felt in this game like I've achieved a certain comfort level with that very demanding strategy. It also showed how very important the starting position and other map elements (surrounding geography, rivals) can be. Caesar was a relative pushover, unlike Ragnar and his 3 frickin' gem mines in the previous attempt. And the land I had was perfect for the SE, again unlike the harsh terrain of the previous game. The map must get as much credit for the win as I do.
Also sharing credit for the win is everybody who contributed. The greatest success of this game was not the victory, but the very thorough debates about many of the new features from which we should all benefit and enjoy the game even more. Though I had played a couple of off-line games with Beyond the Sword before and during this ALC, I had no idea how to properly use such new features as colonies, Privateers, or corporations. AI also appreciated the advice on how to maximize use of things like Golden Ages and Cristo Redentor, even if I didn't necessarily take advantage of the insights this time around. I hope to do so in the future.
And the good news is that there are still other new game elements to exploit. We didn't really take advantage of some of the new military units (I can't wait to use Paratroopers in an ALC!), and I think there's a lot more we can collectively explore with the espionage system and the new wonders such as the Apostolic Palace.
That being said, I'm going to take a little time before starting the next ALC (Spain/Isabella). I would like to try out Solver's unofficial patch in some off-line games before deciding whether or not to use it for these games. Linked to that is whether I should move up to Emperor level; if Solver's patch makes the Monarch-level game more challenging, I may delay a level jump a little while longer. I also need to start posting my story updates in Princes of the Universe; some of you following that thread have been clamoring for more material, and I feel bad that the new expansion pack meant that you've had to wait.
So be patient in waiting for the next ALC--I won't take too long, maybe a week or so, but I'll get there. In the meantime, tell me what you thought of this game, and be sure to give me your thoughts on Solver's patch, the difficulty level, map types, and so on over in the ALC Bullpen thread.
First off, a few screen shots. The power graph for the history of the game:
Even before I took on Gandhi I was ahead of him in power. And, somewhat surprising, I was ahead of Shaka as well for most of the game. Usually he, like a lot of other Aggressive leaders, spam so many units that I don't catch up unless I'm playing as a determined warmonger too, and sometimes not even then. Maybe BtS is indeed making the AI play differently--but not necessarily better, based upon what we saw in this game.
I also forgot to mention in the game update post that a huge frickin' world war broke out around the end of the 1800s, with the Chinese block, Shaka, and Saladin ganging up on Tokugawa and Wang Kon. Shaka captured 2 or 3 Japanese cities and Toku took them right back before the war was done. Gandhi and I just sat back and watched. Anyway, that accounts for some of the power fluctuations you see above at that time.
In some ways, I think, the more sophisticated diplomatic system is a bit flawed in Civ IV. In Civ II, if you started becoming the world's only superpower, all the AI civs began to dislike you and make military pacts against you. Sometimes they'd dogpile you in a big all-out war to end all wars. In this game, the only chance the AI civs had for victory would have been to pull a Civ II--gang together and simultaneously attack me. Instead they attacked each other.
The AI doesn't like taking on a hugely powerful civ even if it's the only way to win the game, nor is it likely to attack its "friends". While there's been much said about the "better AI", maybe in some respects it could use some dumbing down. But I digress.
Espionage:
Again, I was way ahead here from early on, no doubt as a result of prioritizing Courthouses in all of my cities. I like the new espionage system--there's so much you can do with it, including deciding to largely ignore it. I didn't in this game, and it was very valuable to know what other civs were researching in particular. I'm hoping in a future game I'll build the Great Wall and we'll see what sort of mischief I can get into with an early Great Spy.
Demographics:
No real surprises there, given my commanding lead for most of the latter half of the game.
Top 5 Cities and Wonders:
Another sign of my dominance of this game. I can't remember the last time I ended an ALC with 4/5 of the top cities.
Statistics:
17 cities is a lot to found for me. The map certainly encouraged it. I could have founded more--I never did build the eastern fishing villages on that northern tundra island. Towards the end of the game, though, extra cities seemed superfluous. Same with extra seafood for Sid's Sushi Co; I canceled a couple of deals for extra seafood because they decreased rather than increased my revenue. I think someone said earlier that a 20-item benefit (20 extra food, in this case) is optimal, and that appeared to be the case.
My score:
Not my best ever, but darned respectable. I jacked it up as it was with all those late wonders. I was in such a dominant position even by the mid-game that I could have pursued any victory condition I wanted.
In fact, I did some things in this game that may have lowered the final score in order to stay true to the spirit of the ALCs. I didn't need to invade Gandhi, but I wanted to show off the UU. I didn't need to pursue a space ship win, but I wanted to utilize the UB. It would be interesting to go back and play the game without the invasion of India and see if I could launch the space ship earlier, or to play as more of a warmonger from earlier on and see how quickly a domination or even conquest win could have been achieved.
This game definitely showed how powerful the SE can be. I finally felt in this game like I've achieved a certain comfort level with that very demanding strategy. It also showed how very important the starting position and other map elements (surrounding geography, rivals) can be. Caesar was a relative pushover, unlike Ragnar and his 3 frickin' gem mines in the previous attempt. And the land I had was perfect for the SE, again unlike the harsh terrain of the previous game. The map must get as much credit for the win as I do.
Also sharing credit for the win is everybody who contributed. The greatest success of this game was not the victory, but the very thorough debates about many of the new features from which we should all benefit and enjoy the game even more. Though I had played a couple of off-line games with Beyond the Sword before and during this ALC, I had no idea how to properly use such new features as colonies, Privateers, or corporations. AI also appreciated the advice on how to maximize use of things like Golden Ages and Cristo Redentor, even if I didn't necessarily take advantage of the insights this time around. I hope to do so in the future.
And the good news is that there are still other new game elements to exploit. We didn't really take advantage of some of the new military units (I can't wait to use Paratroopers in an ALC!), and I think there's a lot more we can collectively explore with the espionage system and the new wonders such as the Apostolic Palace.
That being said, I'm going to take a little time before starting the next ALC (Spain/Isabella). I would like to try out Solver's unofficial patch in some off-line games before deciding whether or not to use it for these games. Linked to that is whether I should move up to Emperor level; if Solver's patch makes the Monarch-level game more challenging, I may delay a level jump a little while longer. I also need to start posting my story updates in Princes of the Universe; some of you following that thread have been clamoring for more material, and I feel bad that the new expansion pack meant that you've had to wait.
So be patient in waiting for the next ALC--I won't take too long, maybe a week or so, but I'll get there. In the meantime, tell me what you thought of this game, and be sure to give me your thoughts on Solver's patch, the difficulty level, map types, and so on over in the ALC Bullpen thread.
, so I think your research rate would have been just fine without Representation for the early part of the game. 
for spreading it and not being able to use State Property if necessary. Considering the large investment, I'd say a domestic corporation should be beneficial most of the time and a foreign corporation could be beneficial at times as well.
