CTIV-2: The Money Game

CTIV-2: The Money Game

Land Type: Archipelago
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
World Size: Standard
Difficulty: Noble

The Civilization we will be playing is: CHINA (Qin Shi Huang)

The goal of this game is to corner the market! ... Of course, this isn't SMAC, so we can't

So, instead, we'll just play along with the financial path and we'll see what happens.

I rolled up a fake start to test a couple ideas. Let us praise Sid that this is not our actual start:


In terms of variant rules, this is what I was thinking.

TECH
-----
We're allowed to research Hunting and Fishing at any time.
First Goal: Currency. 4th in a beeline*.
Second Goal: Banking. 16th in a beeline. We're allowed to research one tech not on the Banking beeline, and we're allowed to research Archery and Sailing.
Third Goal: Economics. 23rd in a beeline. We're allowed to research one tech not on the Economics beeline.
Fourth Goal: Corporation. 29th in a beeline. We're allowed to research one tech not on the Corporation beeline.
Fifth Goal: Industrialization. 48th in a beeline. We're allowed to research two techs not on the Industrialization beeline.

*By beeline, I mean--click the tech in question, whatever is required to reach it has to be researched (although in any order allowed). The exceptions don't have to be done immediately (in other words, you might want to wait until you're half-way to Banking before researching an off-the-beeline tech).


CITY IMPROVEMENTS
---------------------
Required Builds (all cities of size 3 or higher must build once available unless there is a military requirement -- they can finish what they're working on first; in case of National Wonders, must build asap)
----
Banks
Grocer
Harbor
Market
Forbidden Palace
Wall Street

Preferred Builds (Try very hard to build)
----
Courthouse
Forge
Colossus
Eiffel Tower
Great Lighthouse
Statue of Liberty
Versailles

Note that specific wonders will not be required victory conditions, however, all efforts should be made to build them. Note that a Wonder might require a tech not on the beeline; this should be taken into consideration when choosing techs.

CIVICS
-------
We have some preferred Civics as well. While not required to switch once available, there should be a compelling reason not to.

Preferred Civics
----
Legal:
Bureaucracy
Free Speech

Economy:
Mercantilism
Free Market

EXPLOITS
---------
Don't do them.


Roster:
ChrTh (UP)
afpunk (On Deck)
Methos
Conroe
Bede

Everyone in the roster please confirm your involvement. Also, feel free to chime in on the variant rules, including any ideas to add/change/remove.

I'll be posting the starting position and playing the first 20 turns this weekend.

Lurker subscribing...

Looks like fun.

Cleric Bede reporting to the Chancery for money changing and counting.

I'm here..

reporting for duty

Ok, we only need Conroe to check in and we'll be good to go.

What does everybody think of the variant rules?

ChrTh said:

What does everybody think of the variant rules?

Click to expand...

Haven't had a chance to check out the tech line yet, will try this afternoon.

One thing I would propose is going with a spiritual/financial civ instead. One of the best ways I've learned to increase your gold is through multiple religions and multiple shrines. With spiritual we could grab several of the early religions and mass spread our missionaries around for the increased gold. With a single Holy City I hit +36 gpt, imagine what we could do with two or more?

Just a suggestion.

I thought about going Spiritual, but there are so many religious SGs out there right now, I wanted to do something a little different. Plus, going for the religious techs puts a dent in going for the financial ones.

ChrTh said:

Ok, we only need Conroe to check in and we'll be good to go.

Click to expand...

He's standing on the platform waiting to board the train ...

Methos said:

One thing I would propose is going with a spiritual/financial civ instead. One of the best ways I've learned to increase your gold is through multiple religions and multiple shrines. With spiritual we could grab several of the early religions and mass spread our missionaries around for the increased gold. With a single Holy City I hit +36 gpt, imagine what we could do with two or more?

Click to expand...

Methos is absolutely correct. Shrines are absolute cash cows in this game. And all of that revenue gets multiplied by the money buildings in the city. Then, you put the Wall Street on top of it and rename the city Fort Knox.

Although I am a SG Noob and I don't 100% know how to post screenshots or use an autologger I am interested in this game. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. $$$ ^^

Good, we're all present and accounted for.

I think I need to say why I created this game: I'm interested in doing a Financial SG not in terms of making the most possible money, but in seeing what a strictly financial mindset will gain you in Civ IV (if anything). If we mix religion, I don't see how we're going to be able to do so, as at least half of our energy will be spent on religious matters (and based on other games, a lot more than that). I selected Industrious as the second trait because it'll give us a better chance at getting financial wonders and also because it doesn't lend itself to a specific style of gameplay (outside of Wonder Pokemon).

So we'll stick with China for now. Perhaps CTIV-2^2 will be Mali with the goal of accumulating the most wealth ...

Thormodr said:

Although I am a SG Noob and I don't 100% know how to post screenshots or use an autologger I am interested in this game. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. $$$ ^^

Click to expand...

Hi Thormodr,

I'm afraid you'll have to lurk, this roster was set a month ago (what I can say, I like to get ahead of things )

Keep an eye on the CTIV Planning Thread (see sig), I'll likely have another game similar to this in the future.

No worries. Good luck to you guys. Lurk I shall do.

Another suggestion I have, is for everyone to use one of the gold/commerce mods. As many of you probably already know gold and commerce use the same icon so its hard to distingish between the two. Since we're going going the financial route it would be best to fully understand exactly what affects what.

I myself prefer Mumin's New Symbol for Gold mod. It uses a euro coin for the gold symbol instead. For those other GOTM players among us, this mod works with GOTM security, at least it does for me.

Understand not using the religions and no problem with it. This way we can see how the normal improvements affect commerce.

Ok, I've rolled the start...and it looks like a good one:



We got 2 Ivory, 2 Gems, and a Corn all within our city radius. Of course, we also might not be able to put more than one city on this island (looks like we're at the Northeastern end of it). But at least in that case there's another island nearby.

I'll be playing later, will definitely start with Hunting.

ChrTh said:

We got 2 Ivory, 2 Gems, and a Corn all within our city radius. Of course, we also might not be able to put more than one city on this island (looks like we're at the Northeastern end of it). But at least in that case there's another island nearby.

Click to expand...

Those gem mines should be 7 commerce each. And then all of those grassland hills! Plus a river, as well. This is going to be one high commerce AND high production city. I don't recall ever having a start this good. That is one nice map generator you've got there. Care to loan it out?

That does look like a great start, can't wait!

Turn 0 -- 4000 BC
What a wonderful start ... maybe. We'll have to see what else is around.
Moving the Warrior reveals BANANAS. Also, we might not be on a small island...what we're seeing across the water might be part of the same landmass. I see lots of Jungle though.

Beijing is founded. Warrior is ordered up.

I decide to research Hunting first (due in 6). Don't need Fishing yet, as I've yet to see a sea resource.

Turn 1 -- 3960 BC
There's Rice to the South (amidst the jungle and forest)

Turn 4 -- 3840 BC
More gems in the South, and what looks like a landbridge

Turn 5 -- 3800 BC
We meet the Americans (Roosevelt), they're due south of us. Who's up for an early war?

Oh, the island across the way? A two-tile jungle.

Turn 6 -- 3760 BC
Hunting comes in, start Animal Husbandry (due in 10)

Turn 8 -- 3680 BC
Beijing grows to size 2, swap to Worker (second Warrior is useless right now). Grab some commerce land to drop Animal Husbandry to save a turn.

Turn 10 -- 3600 BC
Buddhism is founded in a distant land.

Turn 14 -- 3440 BC
Warriors return home and Fortify.

Turn 15 -- 3400 BC
Animal Husbandry comes in, we have horses nearby. Writing due in 12.

Turn 19 -- 3240 BC
Hinduism is founded in a distant land

Turn 20 -- 3200 BC
Worker finishes, go back to Warrior. Worker starts on Camp.

Here's our world:


Here's the save:
View attachment 108108

afpunk2, you're up for 15 turns (and then 10 turns afterwards). However, if the team wants me to try again, I definitely will. This is a great start for a 1CC, or even a 2CC, but since we're committed to researching the financial techs, it's going to be hard to break through Roosevelt (unless we start an island-hopping settling routine).

As this is a democracy, I'll put it up for a vote; let me know if you want to reroll this start.

What are our chances with an early warrior rush? In the early archer rush could be quite viable. Is there a equivalent? I guess it depends on how much of a cultural defense bonus the city gets. I couldn't see it being more than 20% at this stage. Assuming George has 2 archers, how many warriors would we need? 6? 8?

Hmm, this is a hard choice.

The good

This is noble difficulty.

There may be plenty of nearby, reachable islands in which to settle.

Roosevelt isn't the most aggressive of leaders.

The bad

With my initial experiments with the rules, we would have to wait until after Feudalism before we have a chance to branch off for Iron Working. That'll take a while.

Roosevelt is really close.

The ugly

There is a LOT of jungle out there, and there's no guarantee nearby islands will be better...

To be honest, I don't know which way to go, so I'll just say stick with it, its what we got, we'll be able to recover.


Edit:
In reply to Conroe, this being noble, Roosevelt most likely won't have archers yet (though that won't last too long). If we want to go this route, I'd want to have Washington down and out before turn 50....that's when he'll get his second border expansion. Hmm, this idea might be the best way to go if we stick with it....however, a unit leaving our capital will have to move 9 times to attack Washington.