P666-03 : Taking out the Euro-Trash!

While we're all patiently waiting to join SGOTM 03, I felt there was room to squeeze in just one more to the currently undefeated P666 series - this time not a trash game, but a slow succession game.

The Settings

Leader: Louis XIV (France)
Landmass Type: Standard Continents
Sea Level: Medium
Climate: Temperate
Size: Standard
Barbarians: Normal
Difficulty: Monarch
Speed: Normal
Victory: All types enabled however human player confined to variant
Version: 2.08 Warlords

The Start

The following tribes are included on the map:

• Celts,
• English,
• German,
• Spanish,
• Roman, and
• Viking.

The leaders (where possible) are random.



The Variant

(1.) The French can only win by Cultural victory.

(2.) It is envisaged that Paris will be the home to select World Wonders;

a. Notre Dame (Penalty of 1,000 gold for failure to build).

b. The Eiffel Tower (Penalty of 5,000 gold for failure to build).

In each instance, if the Wonder above is not built in Paris, as soon as it is built elsewhere, the commerce slider is reduced to 0% science and 0% culture, and gold is collected to at least the penalty amount. Once the gold is collected, it is offered as a freely given gift to the A.I. tribe with the highest score at that time. If the gold reserve already is at or exceeds the penalty amount, then immediate payment may be made. If the A.I. tribe in question is unable to take the gold (e.g. refuses to talk) the offer will be made to the A.I. tribe with the next highest score. Once the penalty payment is made the player may adjust the commerce slider as they see fit. The player may not make a request for gold or include a gold payment in any new trades from the gifted tribe for a minimum of 10 turns following payment.

(3.) It is envisaged that Orleans will be the home to Versailles.

If Versailles is not built in Orleans, as soon as it is built elsewhere, the commerce slider is reduced to 0% science and 0% culture, and at least 2,000 gold is collected. Once the gold is collected, it is offered as a freely given gift to the A.I. tribe with the highest score at that time. If the gold reserve already is at or exceeds 2,000, then immediate payment may be made. If the A.I. tribe in question is unable to take the gold (e.g. refuses to talk) the offer will be made to the A.I. tribe with the next highest score. Once the 2,000 gold payment is made the player may adjust the commerce slider as they see fit. The player may not make a request for gold or include a gold payment in any new trades from the gifted tribe for a minimum of 10 turns following payment.

(4.) The initial city will be Paris. Paris will not be renamed, and no city will be renamed to "Paris".

(5.) The second-founded city will be Orleans. Orleans will not be renamed, and no city will be renamed to "Orleans".


The Players - All Done!

Remconius
Pigswill
Cabert
Bede
Cosmichail
Berserks01
Cam
Xtream_Rockstar


The Play

This is a slow play game. Players may have up to three days to either "got it" or "skip", and further to that; up to another three days to play and submit if they take it. If a player chooses to play faster than that (and most will), that's fine.

First player on the first round to get 40 turns, second to get 30 turns on their first shot, and from that point on 15 turn rounds (unless otherwise agreed).

No reloads. No WorldBuilder.

Comprehensive write ups and strategic discussion encouraged!

sign me in!

comprehensive writeups? I'll do my best

I'll sign up.

I can deal with a slow game

Nice variant!

I'll join if you'll have me. Prince or monarch, that's me.

Remconius,

Welcome to the P666 series! Everyone grab your paddle because Remconius is to be initiated!



OK ... now that's over with, yours is the first 40 turns, which "if memory serves" is to 2800BC.

Cabert and Pigswill,

Welcome back - this should be easier than P666-02!

I'm reserving a spot for my luttle New Zulund friend; mice - as I know he's keen to go with another.

Cam_H said:

Remconius,

Welcome to the P666 series! Everyone grab your paddle because Remconius is to be initiated!



OK ... now that's over with, yours is the first 40 turns, which "if memory serves" is to 2800BC.

Cabert and Pigswill,

Welcome back - this should be easier than P666-02!

I'm reserving a spot for my luttle New Zulund friend; mice - as I know he's keen to go with another.

Click to expand...

Hi cam!
Good to be there, once again

easier?
with our variant rules + improved AI from patch I wouldn't bet on it. But you know me, i'm of the pessimistic kind...

Hi Cabert!

Louis XIV is a lot better matched to a Cultural than Montezuma is with a Space Race, and the Salon is just icing on the cake. We'll be fine - trust me.

our wise leader.

I never went for cultural with Louis, as far as I remember.

From a historical point of view, Paris became the french capital quite late.
Capital of the gauls was Lyon (I forgot the latin name).
And versailles should be built... in Versailles

So are we allowed to settle Lyon first?

Cool, I get to start! Thank you for that inaugural beating.

Ok what is the plan?

Floodplains are nice, so early pottery for a few cottages would do us good.

Paris is the first city founded and we expect some wonders there. From the screenshot it seems to be low on hammers. Cows give a few, the hill we are on would help (if we dont found on it).
We could:
-Settle in the desert (or is it FP) to the east.
-Check the N and NW with the warrior ot see if there are hills (fog gazing seems to reveal a grey hill footprint.
-Settle SE to bring the plains hill into the picture. (Or S, but I dont like building 1 tile from Coast)

Proposed plan:
Warrior NW to reveal some terrain. If hills in BFC, we could found on the hill or 1E. If no hills are seen, we could wait one turn (maybe move settler N to reveal terrain) and settle on turn 2 desert or elsewhere. Of course we are industrious so we dont need that much production.

Leader -Louis XIV (France)
UU- Musketeer (Gunpowder Unit, replaces Musketmen) 9 2 80
UB - Salon (Observatory) +1 free Artist
Techs - Agriculture, The Wheel
Creative (+2 culture per city, Double production speed of Theater and Coliseum.)
Industrious (Wonder production increased 50 percent, Double production speed of Forge)

Science
We have the wheel, so pottery first is an option, but we should probably align it with production of the first worker.
As we are going for culture we need to get a few religions in our cities, self founded, or otherwise. We could try to get an early religion, with Isabelle Buddhism could be tricky but hindu, judaism should be doable.

City plan
Do we want 9 cities to be able to build enough temples to get religous power buildings (+50% culture) in our three cities.
We should also consider using the other floodplains (and hopefully 1-2 food resources) for a Great Artist factory. With the Caste sytems, pacifism and lots of food we can easily set one up.

Let's hear your views.

Cabert,

I thought Reims was the capital for a while. Oh never mind ... play the variant or you'll get the paddle!

Remconius,

I like the desert square too, and would also go north west. Great minds and all that. You'll find that I'm 'mad' for quick population growth, so I'd go after Fishing ... but that's just me.

I'd forget about going out of our way to found the early religions ... Brennus and Isabella will probably do that for us ... but we might grab Islam given that we're encouraged to go after Versailles, and there's something to be said for the other later faiths' technologies.

Cultural victories are my weakest but the old Warhorse would like to try this. Sign me up.

And I would move the settler to the desert on the coast and go calm-digging. The hill, the cows and the trees will net handy hammers and the the city will be rolling in food, or should that be cuisine? Is there a Cordon Bleu wonder?

Bede said:

Is there a Cordon Bleu wonder?

Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't say "wonderous" but there's a reasonably respectable 'surf and turf special'!

Brother Bede ... one moment ... ... you too are initiated!

How about Beouf au Bourgnion and Crabs Richelieu? Thanks for the welcome, I think, <goes for icepack>

Bede said:

How about Beouf au Bourgnion and Crabs Richelieu? Thanks for the welcome, I think, <goes for icepack>

Click to expand...

boeuf bourguignon is a favourite of mine

Desert square sounds good; our capital should have sandy beaches. Do we get health bonus for river? Its difficult to tell from screenshot and I'm not sure if this has been changed in warlords/patch.

Marble would be nice, but I guess we could do without it.

Techwise start with fishing sounds good, AH should be gotten early as should bronzeworking for slavery (you never know, there could even be copper around). Where this leaves us in terms of religion I'm not sure; probably not hinbuddhism. What about CoL, maths and GS philosophy slingshot?

Edit:Richelieu had crabs?

Another edit: will mice be joining us?

CamH

I would like to join as well as I rarely play Louis (don't think I ever have) and this sounds like fun. I have played with culture quite a bit and this is an opportunity to see culture in action. Now if you will accept this humble player who is comfortable with Monarch Vanilla/warlords prepatch and getting used to one with patch, I will do my best to make those borders swell.

Getting wonders on the new monarch is tough but just need to act fast so we can avoid that penalty.

remconius said:

City plan
Do we want 9 cities to be able to build enough temples to get religous power buildings (+50% culture) in our three cities.
We should also consider using the other floodplains (and hopefully 1-2 food resources) for a Great Artist factory. With the Caste sytems, pacifism and lots of food we can easily set one up.

Click to expand...

We will be the only Creative tribe on the map, so there's a good chance that we'll get a few rival border cities to flip to us during the game. I think nine is a good target to aim for too due to the reason you've outlined. Other tribes may choose unwisely, and we might end up with more.

I like the idea of a Great Artist factory if possible. Hopefully we've got some good food-rich sites to work with! I don't think it should be mandatory to have one, but nice if we can.

pigswill said:

you never know, there could even be copper around

Click to expand...

Unlikely - I rolled up the map.

pigswill said:

What about CoL, maths and GS philosophy slingshot?

Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan!

pigswill said:

Another edit: will mice be joining us?

Click to expand...

Mice has decided to opt out due to RL for a little while, but will lurk.

Cosmichail said:

I would like to join as well

Click to expand...

You know the drill ... ... you're in!

Comprehensive write-ups and cultural victories are both my weak points If you would accept a mediocre write-up, then I'd like to join.

Berserks - assume the position ...

I guess in terms of write ups, I'd hope for something more than just a turn log. It need not be a thesis (sorry if "comprehensive" seems a bit of a burden - that wasn't my intent), but some sort of explanation as to what you tried to do in the turn, such as; why you might have adjusted some of the build orders or why you swapped civics or whatever.

We've found some pretty interesting variations in P666-01 and -02, and while P666-03 is a different and more traditional format, it's clear that what might seem an obvious tactic to some is completely missed or discarded by others.

Cam_H said:

Remconius,

I like the desert square too, and would also go north west. Great minds and all that. You'll find that I'm 'mad' for quick population growth, so I'd go after Fishing ... but that's just me.

Click to expand...

You want food? I present you food!

4000BC:
Warrior moved NW, Settler moved 1N.
Nothing of interest revealed.

3960BC:
Move Warrior N: Bah, Tundra, apparantly we are up north.
Move settler SE to the planned desert tile (which is actually FP). Think long time and decide settling on the forest below doesnt lose anything. Settler moved 1S and....



3920BC:
Below forest is plains tile. It gives a blue circle, hmmm. Doesnt cost me an extra turn, or lose any very good tiles (except 2 river grassland). Move 1S and Paris is founded. And what is there?



We bring you food! We need HR and get a huge city going asap.

Paris starts worker.
Fishing research started.

3680BC:
Fishing > Pottery next (for cottages on FP)


3640BC:
Hinduism FIDL.
Hut opened and gives hunting!
We also see marble and gold!



3520BC:
Frederick met:



3440BC:
Barb pops from a hut (we still have only Bob the warrior)



3400BC:
Phew! We survive, but only barely:



3360BC:
Pottery > Mining (to get some production going)

3320BC:
Worker completed > Warrior next.

3200BC:
Warrior beats wolf while healing.

3120BC:
Mining > Bronze Working (find copper, slavery and chopping)

3040BC:
Julius encountered:



2800C:
Bear loses to warrior which is still healing.
430 turns left, so I play 10 more. (started from 460)

2720BC:
Judaism FIDL.
warrior ready > Workboat next.

2640BC:
Bronze working in > Archery (defense)
NO COPPER

2560BC:
Bob runs into Copper discovered:



2480BC:
Archery > Writing (libraries)

2440BC:
Workboat > Archer (defense)

2400BC:
Here is a map of our lands:



Thoughts for next player:
-NW of copper we can found a city with copper, cow, silk and 2 FP.
-West of Paris we can build a city with 6-7 FP which would make an excellent Great Artist Factory.
-Further west we can build a Cow, wheat marble city.
-Up north we can have Commerce fishing city.

The second city will be Orleans and get Versailles, so will need reasonable production. Perhaps the copper city?

With the great Food potential we need happiness in Paris (HR seems logical)

Here is the save:

View attachment 142171