[VidLP] HJTenchi and Buzzdowan present VidLP - Bismarck - "Feed the Beast"

[The Pilgrim]

Can't keep up with you. Damn this work...

buzzdowan, do you know you can capture any 1HP city with any 1HP melee unit?
It doesn't matter how wounded it is, if you completely remove the defense with ranged/siege units, it won't die attacking. You could take southern Siamese city with that very wounded rifle one turn earlier. Didn't have to pull it back to heal.

[buzzdowan]

Originally Posted by The Pilgrim

Can't keep up with you. Damn this work...

buzzdowan, do you know you can capture any 1HP city with any 1HP melee unit?
It doesn't matter how wounded it is, if you completely remove the defense with ranged/siege units, it won't die attacking. You could take southern Siamese city with that very wounded rifle one turn earlier. Didn't have to pull it back to heal.

Although it is somewhat weird, I know that you can take a city with 1 HP unit. I think it would be better if there would be 50% chance of success in such cases.

I have to admit I did not notice that in my play. Often I find glitches in my play when I am watching myself playing. I think I learned I a lot by replaying and studying my own play and even more from suggestions that I am getting from the viewers. Thank you!

[buzzdowan]

Buzzdowan's - Feed the Beast - Part 12, Part 13 are up!

Enjoy!

[The Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by buzzdowan

Although it is somewhat weird, I know that you can take a city with 1 HP unit. I think it would be better if there would be 50% chance of success in such cases.

It's not weird at all. I don't play for culture or diplomacy. Is that weird?
I agree and hopefully this will change somehow in the expansion. Taking a city with lonely almost dead scout is convenient, however not very realistic and makes little sense.

Originally Posted by buzzdowan

I have to admit I did not notice that in my play. Often I find glitches in my play when I am watching myself playing. I think I learned I a lot by replaying and studying my own play and even more from suggestions that I am getting from the viewers. Thank you!

Hm... maybe I should record myself playing and then watch it. I know when I showcased a game, realizing that other people will see it forced me to play more carefully than I usually do. I really like how you're taking time when you make tactical decisions. Something I need to improve at. In some occasions I thought you were too cautious, but - you don't lose units. Which is important since they became heavily promoted. Me, on the other hand, when nobody's watching I do click-click-click and then baaam... a unit was killed! Often I just don't have a patience to micro my army properly and put up with casualties.

[buzzdowan]

Buzzdowan's - Feed the Beast - Part 14 is up!

Enjoy!

[RedRover57]

It seems to me that, like in every standard domination game, the game is basically won in Phase 1, after establishing technical superiority. Using these special rules, Phase 2 is even easier than standard play because there is no worry about managing happiness as the conquests are all gifted away. Phase 3 would not be any more difficult as the "beast" won't know how to take advantage of the situation and all that will be required is to take the capital for the easy win. Maybe you should have enabled all win conditions so that the beast might at least have a chance to win via another victory type if you are not fast enough with your conquest. There is little chance that the AI could win an actual domination victory under any circumstances.

[buzzdowan]

Originally Posted by RedRover57

It seems to me that, like in every standard domination game, the game is basically won in Phase 1, after establishing technical superiority. Using these special rules, Phase 2 is even easier than standard play because there is no worry about managing happiness as the conquests are all gifted away. Phase 3 would not be any more difficult as the "beast" won't know how to take advantage of the situation and all that will be required is to take the capital for the easy win. Maybe you should have enabled all win conditions so that the beast might at least have a chance to win via another victory type if you are not fast enough with your conquest. There is little chance that the AI could win an actual domination victory under any circumstances.

I see the pattern here. Basically the most OP concept is research and two things specifically bulbing GS for discovering new technologies and research agreements ... I am preparing now a new game where we will reduce the power of these two. I agree, that maybe the game would be more challenging if we would leave other victory conditions enabled. Thank you for the observation!

[buzzdowan]

Buzzdowan's - Feed the Beast - Part 15 is up!

Enjoy!

[RedRover57]

Originally Posted by buzzdowan

I see the pattern here. Basically the most OP concept is research and two things specifically bulbing GS for discovering new technologies and research agreements ... I am preparing now a new game where we will reduce the power of these two. I agree, that maybe the game would be more challenging if we would leave other victory conditions enabled. Thank you for the observation!

Since I find Deity to be too restrictive in strategy and downright tedious most of the time, I often like to use self-imposed restrictions in Immortal or lower games for a bit more of a challenge. Try some or all of these:

Only allowed to sign RA's with civs that you have a DoF.
Only allowed to plant GP for their special buildings. No bulbing techs with GS or rushing wonders with GE.
No playing civs with overpowered UU's and UA's (rules out Mongolia, Babylon, etc.).
No selling lux/OB to civs that you will DoW within 30 turns.
Play on at least Immortal difficulty.

[buzzdowan]

Originally Posted by RedRover57

Since I find Deity to be too restrictive in strategy and downright tedious most of the time, I often like to use self-imposed restrictions in Immortal or lower games for a bit more of a challenge. Try some or all of these:

Only allowed to sign RA's with civs that you have a DoF.
Only allowed to plant GP for their special buildings. No bulbing techs with GS or rushing wonders with GE.
No playing civs with overpowered UU's and UA's (rules out Mongolia, Babylon, etc.).
No selling lux/OB to civs that you will DoW within 30 turns.
Play on at least Immortal difficulty.

I have something very similar in mind. I was inspired by a comment by apocalypse105 in this thread http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=458770

I am thinking of an immortal game with these restrictions:
- GS may not be used for discovering technology
- RA may only be signed with friends (DOF)
- A player may not built GL and PT
- Trading Luxury and strategy resources for gold is only allowed with friends (DOF)
- Trading Open borders for gold is only allowed with friends (DOF).
- A player may not use liberty policy tree.

This way I want to force myself to use some alternative strategies and do slower my pace through tech tree... What do you think about this?

[buzzdowan]

Buzzdowan's - Feed the Beast - Part 16 is up!

Enjoy!

[buzzdowan]

Do not go away yet, I will show an alternative ending, which will give more time and resources to the beast....

[buzzdowan]

Here it is, an alternative to the original game:

-= Feed the Beast with Steroids =-
This is a variant of original Feed the Beast game, where Phase 3 is modified as follows:
...
Phase 3
- Upon entering into phase 3, a player must gift all gold to the beast.
- A player must gift all military units to the beast in the shortest time possible.
- Take the capital from the Beast and win a domination victory!

Additional general remarks:
- Disbanding military units is not allowed during Phase 2 and 3.

Alternative ending of the original game is published here Part 17, Part 18 and Part 19.

Enjoy!

[nokmirt]

I added a thread to the Gods and Kings forum about 'Feed the Beast', to see if anyone would want to try this with the XP. So far I am getting a rather cool reception. If you would post on there maybe give some history of the idea, perhaps it will take. Anyway, I think its an awesome idea though. The vids are really interesting so far.

[buzzdowan]

Originally Posted by nokmirt

I added a thread to the Gods and Kings forum about 'Feed the Beast', to see if anyone would want to try this with the XP. So far I am getting a rather cool reception. If you would post on there maybe give some history of the idea, perhaps it will take. Anyway, I think its an awesome idea though. The vids are really interesting so far.

Thank you for following and supporting us on this mission It is an interesting idea to try this with the new expansion. As I also said in the other post, I simply know too little (yet) about the expansion to give solid estimations as to what effect would GnK have on this scenario.

I will definitely try Feed the Beast with GnK, after playing one or two 'standard' scenarios if anyone does this sooner, let us know, we would like to know about it

[19Mellon73]

Great, I'm finaly through...

Thanks so much for your entertaining work, mate.

But you know me, I have to whine and moan a bit

I have one complaint: You played it a bit to generic for my taste. Could have been equally played with every other random civ.

Other than that, loved it ! (O.K. the marble thing drove me insane half way through)

Keep it up buzzdovan

[nokmirt]

Originally Posted by buzzdowan

I will definitely try Feed the Beast with GnK, after playing one or two 'standard' scenarios if anyone does this sooner, let us know, we would like to know about it

I was thinking the same thing. First learn GnK, then it's time to feed the beast.

I'll let you know if anyone tries it with GnK.

[buzzdowan]

Originally Posted by 19Mellon73

Great, I'm finaly through...

Thanks so much for your entertaining work, mate.

But you know me, I have to whine and moan a bit

I have one complaint: You played it a bit to generic for my taste. Could have been equally played with every other random civ.

Other than that, loved it ! (O.K. the marble thing drove me insane half way through)

Keep it up buzzdovan

Hi Mellon! I really love hearing it from all of you who followed me through this mission. Your contributions were really constructive and useful. Let us go together into the next adventures!

[nokmirt]

I have been watch HJTenchi's videos and I had a radical idea. I am not sure if it is possible though. Let me know what you think buzzdowan. This is what I posted on his comments.

I am looking at your map, and there is a lot of open ocean, with plenty of room for more land.. What would make this 'Feed the Beast' more interesting is a map like this with 3 continents. Each with 3 or 4 civs. Then you could play 'Feed Two Beasts'. HA HA!!!

Then after feeding both, you destroy the weaker beast to feed the stronger one. After that things get interesting. You begin to work on destroying the remaining beast, Conquer the continent without his capital first. Then take final capital, on his remaining continent.

I only had so many characters to write the comment, but let me know if there is a map script that allows for three continents. Like A Terra map, but civs settle on all three.

[buzzdowan]

Originally Posted by nokmirt

I have been watch HJTenchi's videos and I had a radical idea. I am not sure if it is possible though. Let me know what you think buzzdowan. This is what I posted on his comments.

I am looking at your map, and there is a lot of open ocean, with plenty of room for more land.. What would make this 'Feed the Beast' more interesting is a map like this with 3 continents. Each with 3 or 4 civs. Then you could play 'Feed Two Beasts'. HA HA!!!

Then after feeding both, you destroy the weaker beast to feed the stronger one. After that things get interesting. You begin to work on destroying the remaining beast, Conquer the continent without his capital first. Then take final capital, on his remaining continent.

I only had so many characters to write the comment, but let me know if there is a map script that allows for three continents. Like A Terra map, but civs settle on all three.

Hello there! Certainly an interesting idea. I am not aware of maps with three continents. There is a similar idea suggested by Gyathaar in this post. Human is simply to good if he gets a chance to run away with technology. We need to find a scenario which will constantly disturb a human player in acquiring technology. A scenario where you are constantly at war with the weakest civ (or maybe even all but strongest civ) could be something in this direction.

Thank you for sharing your idea with us!