Senatus Populusque Romanus - Zachriel's Gotm16

[cracker]

Senatus Populusque Romanus
The Senate and the people of Rome.


http://www.zachriel.com/gotm16/

Roma, urbs æterna.
Rome, the eternal city.

[Hygro]

WOOHOO! I've been wating all month for this!

Edit: Just read it (oh that rhymes ) and I loved it!

[Darkness]

I can only echo Hygro's comments!

Great tale, Zachriel!

[Jurimax]

Good job Zachriel
Especially loved the part where your invasion of Greece starts.

Greets Jurimax

[Zachriel]

Thanks, but nihil est -- in vita priore ego imperator Romanus fui.
That's nothing -- in a previous life I was a Roman Emperor.

[Aggie]

Your tales are as interesting than history itself. I would almost believe it's real life

[heliogabalus]

I suppose this is again a magnificent presentation by you, Zachriel, but unlike all your other games, I have not got my computer to load all the images of this one.

I know that you put the warning "graphically intensive - may take 2 or 3 minutes to load" onto the site, but prior to this game I never had problems with long loading intervals. Have you done anything differently this time, maybe used a different file format for the images?

I will try again in a few days.

[thd]

Bet you enjoyed using the paratroopers and chopper for once.

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by heliogabalus
I suppose this is again a magnificent presentation by you, Zachriel, but unlike all your other games, I have not got my computer to load all the images of this one.

As far as I know, everything should be working ok. However, we are suffering a bit from server overload, which is probably the source of your troubles. Try an off-peak hour, or another day. Sorry for the inconvenience. PM me if you are still having troubles. I do appreciate the input.

[ControlFreak]

Awesome. I think the roman story is my favorite so far.

Having only been in the industrial age once and bypassing advanced flight, I never knew what helicoptors were good for. Now I see that Cracker's map has devised a perfect opportunity to take advantage of them. Whether by purpose or by accident, the mapmaker created a winner and Zachriel a winning documentry of their advantage.

Thanks for a great diversion from work and a little education as well.

[Mojotronica]

Right on! I loved it -- this is the kind of thing I think about when I play Civ...

[Megalou]

Thanks a lot! An informative pleasure, Zachriel!

Very nice to see Graves' prophecy. It really is a small masterpiece inside a great masterpiece, especially the enigmatic contradictions "son, no son" etc. Are you familiar with the origin of this "poetic riddle"? I'm curious to know if there is more reality in it than the mentioning of the "Punic curse" and the general spirit of the sibyllae.

Just like in the Baylonian settler story I was struck by your inginuity and unusual solution to the Greek problem. I was a bit surprised that your GOTM16 seemed so close though. You are obviously a much more experienced player than me and yet I was in full control for several centuries. Did you just play around to make the story more exciting or was it a semi-milked game?

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Megalou

. . .
Just like in the Baylonian settler story I was struck by your inginuity and unusual solution to the Greek problem. I was a bit surprised that your GOTM16 seemed so close though. You are obviously a much more experienced player than me and yet I was in full control for several centuries. Did you just play around to make the story more exciting or was it a semi-milked game?

Game time is always in short supply, so I want the best game possible. I try to play in the "sweet spot," where the game balance is best, where the level of complexity is highest, where the strength's of the game become most evident, and when a catapult might actually make a difference.



Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.

Generally, I handicap the game depending on the level and starting position. In SPQR, no city packing, certainly would try not to pack with Rome, but instead use spacious city placement to grab Luxuries and control land. The GOTM16 terrain was excellent and lent well to this sort of strategy. (The degree of spaciousness can be adjusted to level, terrain and personal ability, or how tough a game you want.)



Virtually every town in SPQR had Moenia (City Walls), even Rome. Walls were crucial to defend against the Greek attack across the Spina del Mondus, and were quite handy in the Impi Wars, to stretch the thin defense.

Didn't strip the Game Forest near Rome. Probably should have. They ended up wiped out by pollution anyway. Oh well.

Of course, never breaking agreements. This is a fair handicap. Justice must always struggle against injustice. Building is always harder than destroying. And the good guy wins only if he is very, very careful.

In SPQR, Caesar led a World Alliance against the villainous Alexander -- The United Nations of Rome. If Alexander had not been greedy and attacked, he may have completed his Spaceship unhindered. (Caesar did have a couple of backup plans. Culture and Diplomatic Victories were possible. Besides, who knows. Maybe Alexander would have had an accident. )

(WARNING: In the game Caesar created an MPP with every other Leader, but Alexander. Multiple MPP's can result in unexpected wars and ruined reputations due to conflicts between the other partners. Be careful with multiple MPP's. They must be used with consideration.)

Additional handicaps:
Using the City Governor most of the time. Not trying to catch an extra shield or two by constantly rearranging the Citizens. Using Worker automation progressively. Not constantly adjusting the tech slider. Not purposefully starving civilian populations.

Additional comment:
This is not to say that there aren't many other ways to play the game.

[cameramano]

Wow... I am amazed... Helicopters came in handy! Maybe the programmers weren't smoking when they put them in.

[cracker]

Originally posted by cameramano
Wow... I am amazed... Helicopters came in handy! Maybe the programmers weren't smoking when they put them in.

Nope, they were still

It takes a major effort to set up a situation where helicopters would be even remotely useful and the AI does not seem to be programmed to use them at all. Zachriel did a masterful job of finding the easter egg in this game that makes helicopters and paratroops potentially useful. Do not extend any of that credit to the programmers.

[JoseM]

great story

[Hygro]

easteregg? I didn't play this GOTM, so don't mind mo for asking, but what was put in to make helicopter's/paratrooper's better?

[ControlFreak]

Hygro

You should play it. It was a fun one.

The mapmakers created a mountain ridge that stretch the entire world, North to South. All of it was coastal facing away from our civ. That meant you couldn't settle any towns on the opposite coast of the ridge. As a result you can't make any ports facing east. The only way to get to greece who was on the near (western) side of their island, was to sail ALL THE WAY around the world (westward from our continent, around the other continent). Zachariel was able to make good use of helicopters because a town built on our side of the mountain ridge was only 5 tiles from the other continent. After sending bombardment ships all around the world, he realized that he hadn't sent any troop transports with them. Rather than waiting the umpteen years to sail a second fleet over to greece, he built helicopters and paratroopers and hopped over the mountains. Very ingenious!

No mods to helicopters. They were used as is.

On Zachariel's website scroll down to the invasion entry to see a picture.

[DaLightHorseman]

Great story,
and quite appropriate for this empire that you managed to turn a simple victory into such a masterful tale to spread amongst the people upon your return.
caesar would be proud.....

whats the latin for spin doctor?

[heliogabalus]

Originally posted by Zachriel

As far as I know, everything should be working ok. However, we are suffering a bit from server overload, which is probably the source of your troubles. Try an off-peak hour, or another day. Sorry for the inconvenience. PM me if you are still having troubles. I do appreciate the input.

I tried a different computer pool today, and it worked. So I cannot say whether your server was too cramped or whether "my" pool computer had insufficient power.

I liked it a lot, especially the historical background (but shouldn't it be "Ceterum censeo..." instead of "Praeterea censeo Bismark esse delendam."? Or did you alter it on purpose?)

Looking forward to your next story! Carthage, I suppose?!