RB20 - Miller Time

[Sirian]

Party Time!

This is a goofy little SG, built on a wacky variant based on a stupid pun. "Miller Time" is a beer marketing slogan, but I'm turning it in to a variant. Specifically, we're going to build mills, lots of mills, nothing but mills as far as the eye can see. Oh, and we're going to party. We're going to party like it's 2049.


Civilization: America
Leader: Washington
Difficulty: Prince
Map Script: Highlands
World Size: HUGE
Game Speed: Epic
Victory Conditions: Time


Game Rules:

* 24/48 rule loosely enforced.
* 15 turns per player


Variant Rules:

1. No Mines, Cottages, Nets, Quarries, or Wells. (Just "farms" and "mills").
2. Coal mining is allowed (but no Coal Plants! Just enabling railroads).
3. No chopping of vegetation!
4. Allowed Civics include: Representation, Nationhood, Free Speech, Serfdom, Emancipation, Environmentalism, Pacifism, Free Religion.
5. No starting wars.
6. If war is forced upon us, we will fight to keep (or retake) all that is ours.
7. The first civ who sneak-attacks us will be our "worst enemy" and we will strive to oppose them diplomatically. We are only allowed to capture cities from our worst enemy (or recapture our cities taken by anybody), and in fact we can proceed to wipe them out if the team agrees this to be wise or necessary.
8. Once we have a worst enemy, anybody who joins them in war with us is subject to "being taught a lesson" by having one of their cities captured by us, to send a message about "choosing unwisely".
9. No intentionally settling on otherwise uncollectable resources. (We can use them if we sat on one by accident, though. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!)
10. Once we have learned Drama, we must maintain at least 20% Luxury Tax at all times! (Governmental Organization Of Drink, Necessarily Ensuring Social Security -- GOODNESS -- also known as the Hops Allow Perpetual Partying Yearlong law -- the HAPPY law.)

And yes, the HAPPY law brings endless GOODNESS!


Goal:

Sorry, this is not a goal-oriented event. Think HAPPY thoughts, people. Think endless GOODNESS!
(It's MILLER TIME!)


Sign-ups: I'm looking for four players and two alternates. You -MUST- have a rig that can handle Huge maps in to the late game. Realms Beyond players will get first dibs.


ROSTER:

* Sirian
* ?
* ?
* ?
* ?

Alt: ?
Alt: ?

[Dreylin]

While I'd love to take part, there's no way my machine can handle a late-game Huge map so I'll just have to enjoy the party from afar. In the intrests of clarity (probably unnecessary); your "forbidden list" does not include Pastures or Plantations; do these count as "farms" for the variant purposes? Also, you don't mention starting Era, so I assume Ancient?



It's Beer. Hooray Beer!

[sand]

good luck with the game i'll lurk

[SpriteSODA]

good luck you're gonna need it=P

[Strauss]

Originally Posted by Sirian

Oh, and we're going to party

I like this one . Sign me up. My PC can handle Huge maps, though it slows down at the late-game (but whose PC doesn't, really?).

[Qwack]

lol nice idea . Unfortunately I dont like huge maps and I dont think my machine will be able to handle them either.

[LKendter]

Good luck with this. I would be a nice lurk.

As for a huge map, I don't want to see how badly my PC would die. Large was painful enough on the poor thing.

[T_Raccoon]

so according to the variants you can build roads, railroads, farms, and mills right? what about building things like camps, plantations, on top of resources and stuff we cant do that?

[Nares]

Originally Posted by Dreylin

It's Beer. Hooray Beer!

Wrong brand.

Btw, do you think I can buy the textbook that the listed variant rules comprise on Amazon?

I'll join if you don't fill up on RB folks, though I'm more of a 40% HAPPY law kind of guy myself, when I'm not running binary drinking that is.

Originally Posted by T_Raccoon

what about building things like camps, plantations, on top of resources and stuff we cant do that?

Originally Posted by Sirian

• 1. No Mines, Cottages, Nets, Quarries, or Wells. (Just "farms" and "mills").

• 9. No intentionally settling on otherwise uncollectable resources.

No mention of Oil Rigs or Whaling Boats, but I assume they're not allowed as well.

I'm curious as to the civic choices, however. The rules don't specifically exclude any particular civic, just outline what I assume are the most preferred civics. Can non-listed civics be run, or would the starting civics be the only allowed civics until one or more options in a given civic category are available?

Regardless, it sounds interesting, especially in light of the recent interest in specialist economies over on the Strategy forum.

[Tatran]

I'd like to join if you want me.Huge maps no problem so far.

[Griselda]

Sounds like the Union of Millers Local 48 likes to kick back with a Miller after work.

I doubt that this computer can handle Huge (not a signup), but wanted to add the union layer to the fun. Clearly, this is a Working Man's Game.

[Iustus]

If you don't mind carrying a less experienced player, I would like to play this variant. I love playing huge maps.

I am not sure if you meant to exclude pastures/camps/plantations as well? I am guessing you did, but did not mention them specifically.

Working without most resources seems like a real challenge!

It seems to me that the criteria for a good city site are going to change a lot with this varient. High value plots are what? Rivers and coast as the best source of commerce? Forests of course. Flood plains and food resources you can farm. All other resources are only useful in what they give without an improvement.

There seems to be little use for a lot of early workers, with only farms to build (and little happy resources to make big cities).

It seems to me that coastal cities would be the best choice in the early game, before you ---- eerrrrrp ---- highlands map? Ok, lake cities would be the best choices early on, for commerce, until the forests can be made productive.

No copper, no iron, no horses early mean a lot of peace and some fast teching up I suppose? With absolutely no resources, are longbows and catepults the only units prior to gunpowder?

With fewer resources, do you think religion(s) are indicated for happiness?

Is it worth trying to build wonders prior to lumbermills?

Beelining to replacable parts as soon as possible also seems indicated, but perhaps not.

Seeing as how you designed this varient, I would love to hear your thoughts about what you plan and/or expect.

-Iustus

[Sirian]

Originally Posted by Iustus

I am not sure if you meant to exclude pastures/camps/plantations as well? I am guessing you did, but did not mention them specifically.

What? Not have hamburgers and pork chops to go with our beer? Not have fancy-colored party shirts? Incense? Sugar and spices so we can have some doughnuts?

Those are "farms" for our purposes. Just the stuff I mentioned is off limits. Not having Mines or Cottages is a big enough deal already, I think. We might get to Horses, but that's not guaranteed. Of course, Longbows on a Highlands map are serious defenders. The chief problem will be the economy.


- Sirian

[Nares]

Originally Posted by Sirian

What? Not have hamburgers and pork chops to go with our beer?

Hmm, good point. Shame you can't "farm" buffalo wings.

Originally Posted by Sirian

Not have fancy-colored party shirts? Incense? Sugar and spices so we can have some doughnuts?

So, what you're saying is, money really does grow on trees ("farms").

By the way, is this a Warlords SG or not?

[FuRRie]

Difficulty a bit to high for me specialy with the varaint .
I'll be watching it from close by !

[Tarkhan]

I think Sulla (or is it Sullla) and Sirian should team up and do the first Warlords SG. Those two make an awesome team, and can tell one heck of a story. Stories involving hydra, cubans, and isolationists conquering the world.

Also, these rules regarding worst enemies and their allies remind me of Sullla's You Have Chosen Unwisely (TM) rule. .

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by Nares

when I'm not running binary drinking that is.

Binary Drinking? That is when you use both hands right?

[FuRRie]

And them 2 disagreeing oftenly is great to read !

[Iustus]

The chief problem will be the economy.

Ok. So what are the solutions? Merchant Specialists? Water plots? Rivers? Trade routes? Cheep civics?

It seems to me in these type of peace-loving varients, you need to expand fast, since you are mostly disallowed from gaining much territory later by war. This is going to be even more at odds with a commerce poor economy that cannot afford high distance maint costs.

On the other hand, running high food may mean you can do a lot of merchant specialists. Personally, I do not even know off hand which buildings give you merchant specialists, markets? grocers? banks? I will have to look it up. Are there any early ones? (Like libraries and temples).

Since we can build plantations, some of those resources could be a lot of money, I am not sure how likely you are to get many of them on a highlands map though, they tend to be light on jungle, no?

It is looking to me like the early game is going to be the hardest here. Once you get to bigger cities and higher on the tech tree, the disadvantages will be overall less (no towns notwithstanding).

Since production will be very large, it seems to me that a goal should be to get as many wonders as possible, as those permenently contribute to score.

Washington being financial will help some, but in our case, I think that will only really help with water plots and commerce resources like spices, right? Organized will actually help with the economy as well, especially when civic upkeep starts to become a major factor.

What about Watermills? Windmills? Workshops? The first two seem obvious, just being another kind of mill, right? Coal mills? Oil mills? Trout mills? Gold mills?

-Iustus

[Sirian]

Originally Posted by Tarkhan

Also, these rules regarding worst enemies and their allies remind me of Sullla's You Have Chosen Unwisely (TM) rule. .

That's not Sulla's -- at least not originally. (Check out RBD SG3 -- for Civ3).


This is not a Warlords game. v161 all the way.


- Sirian