MM10: Gandhi’s Mad Science. (0%-Science)

Well I am a scientist and I’ll tell you that scientific advances are achieved by people working in laboratories not in cottages next to rivers. Soo….

Variant: Once writing is researched the science slider must be set to 0% and maintained there throughout the game. We will get all our research from specialists. Now this has a few ramifications. First we will be awash in $$, what to do with this money-how about expand through war . Second, if we are to have any chance at all we will need the pyramids and representation. Finally, with all that $$ it would be nice to be able to switch to Democracy now and then to spend some of it. Thus we will play Gandhi-Spiritual and Industrious. We absolutely must snag the pyramids or we are finished.

Settings.

Monarch
Pangea
Epic

Goal is domination, UN also a possibility. I think we would have trouble in the space race.


Mark
Sharog
Thyrwyn
Bihary
Katank
Shadzy19

signupz0rzz

I would like to give this a try. We will actually avoid working cottages once we get Writing and concentrate on Working high food tiles to support our specialists and high hammer tiles for production. We should probably plan for pretty tightly packed city spacing as each city means more scientists.

Thinking about this some more: We will want to research food (Agriculture, Animal Husbandry) techs quickly as we need to support specialists. We need the Pyramids and we need to get to Code of Laws for Caste Sytem. We should plan to head for that right after Writing. This may be a good game to try for the Oracle/Civil Service slingshot (time the building of the Oracle to come in after we have researched CoL and grab Civil Service as the free Tech)

This will be tough as our research will drop to zero between the discovery of Writing and the time when our first Libraries come in. We need at least 4 cities by the time we get Writing I think.

Actually I play tested this a bit and what works well is early aggression. If we get the pyramids and then all the war techs--IW, HBR, and Metal casting for cheap forges before writing we can out gun our nearest neighbors for extra land and then get to writing and CoL for consolidation of our position and the switch to the specialists economy. I think this is really a war mongers kind of game because of all the $$ for expansion and upgrades.

Still have 2-3 slots open. I play tested this out till around paper and it was really an amazing game with all the $$ you can expand like crazy. In fact the more you expand the better because each new city gets you more specialists and $$ are never a concern.

Sounds valid. I'll try a test game this weekend myself. I really like Spiritual for Warmongering

We need 2 more to start this one. It will be a warmongers type of game. I'm sure we must have a couple of warmongers here. I'm thinking of upping it to Emperor if people would be more interested in that level.

Interesting idea guys.

But why sandbagging on the variant? I say beeline for Writing. Now Wrtiting happens to be at an interesting point in the tech tree: You can choose to beeline across Priesthood, Pottery or Animal Husbandry, which is a nice and interesting choice. And yes, then buliding those libraries fast is absolutely necessary to get to Masonry at all... But it will happen fast enough to be competitive.
EDIT: Playtested it, and it does not work. Too hard. Still, I would suggest a compromise: Let us only research techs that are lower tier than Writing before Writing. This includes all the basic 1-2-3 tier techs, but not Metal Casting and Iron Working that are tier 4, like Writing.

I am overloaded at the moment, but I will jump in (one SG is almost finished for me) if you want me. I am an OK monarch player.

We may consider the philosophical trait with all those specialists we are going to run... Academies and even settled Great Scientists would be a great help. How about Saladin? Or Alexander for the Warmongering? At their respective golden eras, both the Arabs and the Greek were THE SCIENTIST civilizations in the world.

Bihary

BTW, I am also a scientist...

I have actually been playing some variant's on this using Alexander, though Saladin would be a good choice, too. Gandhi's advantage is that he starts with mining and mysticism. This gives us early hammers and opens up the three really useful second tier techs: Bronze Working (Copper and Chops; Defense and rapid expansion); Masonry (the Pyramids); and Polytheism (religion and the Parthenon).

Tenatively, I would try Poly->Bronze->Masonry to start. Then get the needed food tech(s) then push for Writing through Priesthood. Of course, if we start near Stone, we may want to try to get Stonehenge, too.

Mark, I like the concept alot. But I can't really commit to another SG atm, LK117 is just getting to the point where 10 turns takes a long time and it looks like we'll have more uphill battles there coming up. Also, it’s proposal writing time over here so I’m inevitably putting in extra time at work.

What size map did you have in mind?

If this one is still lingering when LK117 is wrapping up then I’m game, otherwise good luck. I’ll be playtesting and lurking.

Thyrwyn said:

I have actually been playing some variant's on this using Alexander, though Saladin would be a good choice, too. Gandhi's advantage is that he starts with mining and mysticism. This gives us early hammers and opens up the three really useful second tier techs: Bronze Working (Copper and Chops; Defense and rapid expansion); Masonry (the Pyramids); and Polytheism (religion and the Parthenon).

Tenatively, I would try Poly->Bronze->Masonry to start. Then get the needed food tech(s) then push for Writing through Priesthood. Of course, if we start near Stone, we may want to try to get Stonehenge, too.

Click to expand...

My other SG just finished. I am in 100% if you want me guys.
I would really prefer to play with Alex, as I think he fits the theme best, and because I never played with him before. Ghandi gets played a lot on these boards.
Alex does not start with techs useful for this variant, and early religion is not obvious. But that means interesting choices right at the beginning, which I prefer to having a clearly optimal path.

I would have nothing against rerolling the start, or picking a start from say 3 choices to "guarantee" stone if you want.
Monarch level sounds good to me, as does pangea. You may want to consider the "balanced" setting, it guarantees the crucial resources close to the start, although in my experience stone is still far from guaranteed.
An archipegalo map would work for me too.
I would really not like to play on a map bigger than standard, my comp does not quite cut it, and I prefer shorter games.

Hope we can start soon,
Best

I just finished the same SG. I'll be in too if you guys will have me.

Ghandi is indeed played a lot on these boards. He is really one of the strongest leaders IMHO. He starts with mysticism and virtually guarantees you an early religion if you go for it. He starts with mining and is industrious. This is pretty much begging for bronze working and metal casting w/ oracle. His crazy speed workers also chop faster to guarantee you the oracle. Grabbing both the henge and the oracle without resources is very doable with Ghandi. Early forges then magnify an advantage whether in military or otherwise.

I think I overplayed Ghandi a bit personally as well. Specialist crazy economy could be pretty cool. Too bad there's no Industrious/Philosophical leader. We should decide on either philosophical or industrious. Philosophical for the GP generation and industrious to help guarantee the Pyramids. Problem with the Pyramids is the amazing early sacrifice you make for it. Same lumber can chop 3 settlers and 6 archers! or 11 swordsmen! If industrious, then the numbers are reduced but still quite significant.

OK we have 5 and can start. Now for the Civ. Well Ghandi is the strongest IMO but he is over played. I guess we can vote. I really like industrious for getting the pyramids which is absolutely needed and cheap forges and aggressive for war. The Philosophical trait is nice but not necessary . We could even run pacificism or build the parthenon to crank out leaders for a while. Well I could go any way so lets vote.

Ghandi: Spi/Ind Strong but overplayed.
Alex: Philo/Agg
Napy: Ind/Agg
Salidin Spi/phi

I'm leaning toward Napy.

I vote for Alex, but I can live with anyone.

Saladin is spiritual/philosophical. He's not aggressive.

I personally overplayed all of em except for Alex. However, Nappy is probably the best trait combo.

So Alex for more interesting and Nappy for easier win. Ghandi is probably even better.

I would like a spot if you would have me , its definatly a fun variant , and might learn me to make better use of specialists. I just came out the same game katank and bihary where in.

My vote would go towards Nappy as well , hes a fun leader with a strong and underrated UU , both his traiths work very well for this variant .

I'll say Nappy - I've played Louis, but not L'Empereur. Let's give it a go!

Started as Nappy


4000: I step over the river to get the FP to start and pick up the sheep. Start worker. Research Hunting then AH. We have 2 animal resources and ivory.

3960: Marble is nearby. Not as nice as stone but well take it.

3760: 83 gp from hut.

3600: Meet Saladin way up north.

3480: Meet Cyrus from the East

3360: Meet Mansu from the East

3320: Hut gives Mysticism.

3240: Worker-> warrior. Irrigate FP. Reach the end of the continent up North

2680: Mining-> Bronze. I guess I didn’t mention the research but we got AH in there too. Warrior->warrior.

2400 Start Settler. Persia is poaching our marble.

1975: Sorry I hit enter but haven’t moved things. We are in a bit of a tricky situation. Cyrus is very close and will take our marble. I would wait to move the settler to see if we have copper anywhere near. If not I would grab the horses and whip out a few chariots and take on Cyrus before he gets metals and all his culture built up. He is a neighbor I would like to neuter early. I think we could afford to do this in the capitol and after we get 4-5 chariots we could switch to the pyramids run. Chariots can be very effective vs archers for pillage and even to take cities.

Mark
Sharog-UP
Thyrwyn-On Deck
Bihary
Katank
Shadzy19

Guys, we need hordes of spears fast or pray Cyrus has no horses.

I had some really bad experiences with immortals massacring my stacks.