The case of the lost spaceship

So, I, Caesar, am involved in a space race with the Babylonians. Both of our ships are basically ready, missing only a few parts, which can be whipped out in a turn or so. Hammurabi launches first with a ship that'll take 12 years to reach its destination so I do the customary thing for such an occasion and sell some universities to pay for four additional components. Then I launch on the next turn with a 10-year-trip ship. So I'm waiting for my delicious space-win, rubbing my hands and all, essentially just pressing enter, waiting for the headlines... when I realize its circa 1700. I check the ships and realize that both have arrived and remained but a footnote in this prticular world's history.

I am familiar with the lost ship phenomenon in CIV, I've never actually had it happen to me before, but I've seen it discussed here. What I don't know is if there is any point in playing the game further after it happens. If the win/lose screen doesn't show up (it doesn't when the ship is "lost in time") does it still count as a win/loss when the ship has landed, or can you finish the game by conquest or playing it out until the end? With a reflection on the final score, of course.

I am about to try and answer my own question. I even invested an hour or so of playing already, but my CIV crashed. I'll porobably start over from the latest save (ships already landed), because it's quite an interesting scenario, which I want to explore some more... This is really the reason I'm asking my question - if I take the time and suffer the micro it takes to conquer all, will I still get the replay that pieces everything together?

I seem to remeber a similar thing happening to me quite a few years ago, and yes, I won through conquest. But such a bug takes all the fun out of the game, at least for me, since I plan beforehand the way I intend to win (if I manage, which most of the times I don't, because I try to use weird tactics just for the sake of it, and to see how the AI responds).

I don't think it really takes away from the game all that much. I'm still playing this particular game and it's quite interesting. I just blitzkrieged the Babilonians into history within 3 turns of warfare, preceded by decades of humiliating UN and nuclear MAD imposed peace between Caesar (me) and Hammurabi. While I was preparing my invasion, the combined efforts of my diplomats, the Germans (also nuclear armed) and the English (ditto, everybody was) who kept landing near Eridu, crippled the once mighty city. It was time to strike, I had already established a beachhead on the Babylonian continent just a transport away from Rome. Eridu was the only real threat to my capital in its entire 5866 year history, throughout the whole period. I was blocking it off from reinforcements with my bombers and diplomats while the Germans (mostly) and English constantly harrassed its defenders. When I finally struck I hit their capital (for some reason moved to Ellipi) with an amphibious assault... And so on. I'll stop now, because I'm getting logorrhoea.

What I've noticed is that the AI apparently had less incentive to nuke me after the ships landed (even though I technically beat it to AC). I'm pretty sure that if we were yet to build our ships, and in a similar military situation, Hammurabi whould've nuked me, and maybe not just me. I was blockading Eridu, I had finally overtaken him in military power, and the Germans and English were going bananas on his coast, while I was sabotaging him left and right.

Also, when I took the capital it said their spaceship returned to Earth. Why would it do that if it was already landed like the spaceship screen said? And this made me wonder, if I let Rome, or even better, move my capital to a distant province for a turn and let it fall... My SS should probably also return? If so, do I get to build a new one and finally get to those damn mindworms? When I finish the game I'll go back to an earlier save and try it out. If anybody's interested at all in this thread (which I highly doubt) I'll post more of my findings.

PS - a correction on the OP - it doesn't make sense, a 10-year ship WOULD have won me the game, because turns are 5 years during the 18th century. My ship was 14, Hammurabi's 16.

Mize said:

Also, when I took the capital it said their spaceship returned to Earth. Why would it do that if it was already landed like the spaceship screen said? And this made me wonder, if I let Rome, or even better, move my capital to a distant province for a turn and let it fall... My SS should probably also return? If so, do I get to build a new one and finally get to those damn mindworms? When I finish the game I'll go back to an earlier save and try it out. If anybody's interested at all in this thread (which I highly doubt) I'll post more of my findings.

PS - a correction on the OP - it doesn't make sense, a 10-year ship WOULD have won me the game, because turns are 5 years during the 18th century. My ship was 14, Hammurabi's 16.

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Did you ever go back and try to relaunch your ship after losing your capital?

Also, if you launched your "10-year ship" one turn after Hamurabi, yours would have landed 3 years *after* his "12-year ship", e.g., he launches 1700, landing in 1712 while you launch 1705, landing in 1715.

akTed said:

Did you ever go back and try to relaunch your ship after losing your capital?

Also, if you launched your "10-year ship" one turn after Hamurabi, yours would have landed 3 years *after* his "12-year ship", e.g., he launches 1700, landing in 1712 while you launch 1705, landing in 1715.

Click to expand...

This was quite a while ago and the math is a bit hazy now. I did beat the Babylonians by a year or two on the first launch, but it didn't matter, since none of the ships landed within a game turn (on a -0 or -5 year), thus no victory was recorded for anyone. Curiously, this also made all of my (very advanced, all nuclear armed) opponents much more peaceful - they didn't have an impending spaceship loss to fight over.

About your main question, yes, I did launch a new ship, and it worked flawlessly. Although I didn't let Rome fall to do it, rather I built a palace in a small fringe town and let that one get taken.

How were you guys able to launch a spaceship so early? You guys are good if you guys know how to launch a spaceship so early, its impressive.

This particular game for me was a combination of good geography, easily placated neighbours and very good trade (which is essential for getting technology fast). With my regular play-style, I will usually start building the ship in the mid 1800's, but in this game I managed to do it over a century earlier.

Otherwise, people have been known to launch ships much earlier, sometimes even in the BCs, but this is done by using exploits (save-load, settler trick, etc.). If you play 'fair', and have a lot of good land and you manage your cities properly, you can probably launch a ship in the early ADs.