DI1- Going where no Civ has gone before; One City Always War!

Yes, you read the title correctly. We will be attempting a one city challenge, always war game!

Settings

Pangaea Landmass
Standard Size
Temperate Climate
Ancient Age
Natural Shoreline
Medium Sealevel
Normal Gamespeed

6 AIs, 1 Human

Enabled Rules:
Always War
One City Challenge
All Victories Enabled

Our civilization will be chosen by popular demand. We might want to go with Romans, but if we don't have any iron we would be screwed. In that case it would be prudent to go with Aztecs because their swordsman needs no resources.

In Civ 3 this was feasable because you could make colonies on resources outside your borders if you need them. We won't have that luxury in this game. We are that hardcore though! We will give it our best! We will probably lose, but we will die in glorious combat!

Roster:
Disruptive Idiot--Playing
Methos--On Deck
Rik Meleet
Conroe

Are you up for it?

--No More Slots, sorry--

Could be interesting, but I'm not so crazy to come into it . Anyway, what difficulty?

ucel said:

Could be interesting, but I'm not so crazy to come into it . Anyway, what difficulty?

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Noble, no advantage, no disadvantage.

Im thinking 20 turns to start, and then 10 turns from then on for the length of each person's turn.

Need more [read: a lot] practice on combat so why not. An OCC game, even AW, shouldn't be too time consuming.

And I had every intention of not joining any more SG's!!

I'll try it.

May I join, as well?

Well guys, glad you'll be joining me in this conquest of the world =)

I just tried this game on my own as the mongolians, I was lucky enough to get horses right with me, I was kublai khan so my borders expanded to encompass many resources.

I managed to wipe out two civilizations before the other four could mount a force to take me down. If I had access to iron or copper, things would have been completely different! Culture will be important so that we can grab the resources in our vicinity but we only really need two, copper and something else.

I must say I had quite a blast trying it out and I made it a point to be a thorn in the side of the other civs.

So, which civilization would you guys like to play? I'd like to be Mongolia (either Khan works =D) or Aztecs (to reduce resource dependency), but I think we could pull this off with any civ.

If the roster is not closed, I'm willing to join too. If it is, I'll be following that with great interest

DisruptiveIdiot said:

So, which civilization would you guys like to play? I'd like to be Mongolia (either Khan works =D) or Aztecs (to reduce resource dependency), but I think we could pull this off with any civ.

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My first thought about an OCC is to go with a culturely advantaged civ. A quick and earlier expansion of the borders would allow the most potential for resources within our border. However, I am not sure that building culture is the best idea in an always-war situation.

Having said that, I would probably lean towards Aztecs. Use the spiritual trait to run the 3 early religions. If you don't select a religion, you get +15cpt with all 3 of them. While doing that, build the warriors to defend/explore. After that get Archery and decide on the next 2 religions. Alternatively, get Archery, Bronze, and Iron Working ...

The more I think about it, my vote is for Aztecs.

Conroe said:

My first thought about an OCC is to go with a culturely advantaged civ. A quick and earlier expansion of the borders would allow the most potential for resources within our border. However, I am not sure that building culture is the best idea in an always-war situation.

Having said that, I would probably lean towards Aztecs. Use the spiritual trait to run the 3 early religions. If you don't select a religion, you get +15cpt with all 3 of them. While doing that, build the warriors to defend/explore. After that get Archery and decide on the next 2 religions. Alternatively, get Archery, Bronze, and Iron Working ...

The more I think about it, my vote is for Aztecs.

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Excellent idea. I agree that we have to grab at least one religion, we need it for theocracy. If we can last long enough we can get vassalage which will give us some seriously pumped up units. We pretty much have to win before the industrial era though, it's simply improbable that we would get so many essential resources in one city's borders.

In the beginning, the AI isn't too capable of fighting, but then they quickly mount an assault force regularly at around the classical era. They were even attacking in an organized fashion with each other! This isn't Civ 3 Always War I reckon, this is going to be a challenge.

The resource I would like to start with most is copper, it is absolutely crucial to have spearmen and axemen. We could manage without it but we would probably lose in the long run without hard counters. Swordsmen are nice, but we don't need them too much for city assaults (catapults and units with cover work well against archers). Horses would be absolutely lovely so that we can do some pillaging.

Well, we have our work cut out for us guys, let's play the world! (Oops, wrong game )

Obviously I suggest we not explore right off. Since this is AW we need to have some sort of build-up before meeting anyone.

Conroe said:

Use the spiritual trait to run the 3 early religions. If you don't select a religion, you get +15cpt with all 3 of them.

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Even Sirian/Speaker (can’t remember which one) we’re surprised to get the first three religions in RB1. As they stated extensive testing was done to prevent that. Unless we have high commerce out the gate I don’t see it happening. Won’t know until we see are start. Even just two religions would be helpful.

Honestly I almost hesitate to chance the religion run. It won’t be too long before our enemies come calling so I feel we might want to get our land improved as much as possible before they do. Get a couple of the worker techs, improve the land, and than head for Iron Working and pray.

Realize I have no experience in CivIV with OCC AW (or AW at all) so the above is only speculation.

Methos said:

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Which Civilization would you like to start as?

Methos said:

Even Sirian/Speaker (can't remember which one) we're surprised to get the first three religions in RB1. As they stated extensive testing was done to prevent that. Unless we have high commerce out the gate I don't see it happening. Won't know until we see are start.

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I read that in RB1, as well. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I have not had any problems running the first 3 religions. Now, running the first 5 is another story. Basically, you need 10 commerce at the start of the game. If you found on the coast or a river, you should be able to get all 10.

You're right, though, it is a gamble. Depending on our draw, we could very well miss.

Methos said:

Realize I have no experience in CivIV with OCC AW (or AW at all) so the above is only speculation.

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Uh oh. Looks lik DI has got himself two OCC AW virgins on his hands. I should probably note to the group that I've only had C4 for 3 days, now. So, my experience is quite limited.

DisruptiveIdiot said:

Which Civilization would you like to start as?

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To be honest I’m not really sure. I don’t have enough experience with war to know what traits would be the best. The one thing I fear is not having iron in our borders and missing our UU [as Montezuma]. If we have copper than we’ll still have good units.

Alexander looks okay as they start off with the ability to build camps and the phalanx seems like a good unit. We’d also know right from the beginning whether copper was nearby [needed for UU].

Ghenghis Khan could be good as well. I’ve played with the Khesik and it’s a very good unit. Also the +2 health would definitely be helpful to keep our city at a high population.

DisruptiveIdiot said:

In that case it would be prudent to go with Aztecs because their swordsman needs no resources.

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Er, didn't notice that. That does make the Aztecs more appealing.

The problem with the Aztecs is that even though we'll have swordsmen without iron, they will be weaker. We are bound to have at least one resource near us, which hopefully would be copper or horses. Iron is of secondary importance as copper counters two unit types.

If we really want to gamble we can go with Rome and praetorians. That would be a very risky strategy but if we have iron we are practically guaranteed victory. Very risky and I wouldn't advise it.

Well, we have one other member who hasn't voiced their opinion, let's here it, Rik!

I'd like you to consider playing as Ghandi's India.
They are Spiritual; hence no anarchy. And Temples are half price. If we shoot for multiple religions the temples do help and are a logic play. India starts with Myst, which helps as well.
Those multiple cheap temples can be used to do religious scouting; switching religions to see the cities that also share that religion. And Civic-changes won't cause anarchy.
India is Industrious. It will not be really important to build half-price wonders, but who knows ? What is important is that India starts with mining. A step towards the metals.
And India has fast workers. 3 moves. That can just be enough to avoid capture.

We'll be needing metal, no matter what civ we choose. Or horses We'll be in deep trouble if we don't have it, so a civ with a metal or non-metal UU doesn't make that much of a difference.

Rik Meleet said:

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Actually I was considering India too, for the fast worker. We will need to build our own supply lines to the enemy so that we can mass a powerful enough force on their borders quickly, workers with 3 movement would be very ideal in this situation.

If we have copper then we will have the mainstay of our army. If we have horses we have our resource denial to prevent UUs from showing up. I like your idea Rik. Who says we need a military civ to go always war?

The spirituality thing will help too, we will be able to switch to slavery without an interruption in crucial unit construction meaning whips to victory. The temples won't be so much of an advantage, we won't get much benefit after we get to 5000 culture. It is imperative we get a religion for theocracy so we can stack it with vassalage for lots of free XP. Spiritual will be useful and industrious will give us the option of building heroic epic and chichen itza, two very nifty wonders to have.

So, can we all unite in agreement over one civ? I'll get a screenshot of our starting position as soon as possible after we select a civ. I see the merits of all civilization choices so it's up to you guys on what we will do. I'll agree to anything you choose (except something random, like Roosevelt ).

Well, my first choice would still be Aztec. I really like the free promotion for melee and gunpowder. Plus, hunting is the prerequisite for Archery.

Having said that, Rik does make a good argument for India. Mining is definitely one step closer to Bronze, and more expensive than Hunting. I could agree with this choice, as well.

DisruptiveIdiot said:

I see the merits of all civilization choices so it's up to you guys on what we will do.

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I'm with you, doesn't really matter much. I've still not used to all the traits and am curious how any of them pan out with this variant.