Role Play Challenge: Julius Caesar of Rome, All or Nothing

Welcome to the replay my next RPC game, Julius Caesar looking for a Conquest game on a PAngea map. These game are meant to be fun and entertaining plus contain a certain element of education at the Monarch level, marathon speed!

Rome on a Pangea map, too easy ride. Built 40,000 Prats and that's that. Well first of all, SO WHAT!!!! Second of all there are always the RPC rules to add some flavor and challenge. IS Julius up for the challenge? Well he is a ROMAN and if not he will die with full honor and glory deserving of the Roman Empire. This is the compliment to the Agustus OCC game, Mighty Rome from one city to claiming the entire world!!!

Rules
1) Rome NEVER tributes, they only accept tribute. However, JC does not have to ask for tribute, just to make that clear!
2) We are playing a Huge Sized Pangea map with 17 other leaders, all either from Rome's era or from a key geographic area of the Roman empire.
3) JC Has specific rules dictating how he obtains a conquest win, the following leaders MSUT be utterly destroyed

Hannibal: The hated enemy of Rome, and Carthage MUST be razed!
Charlemagne: getting rid of the imposter "Holy Roman Emperor", Hah!
Justinian: To unify the Roman Empire, as it should be!

4) JC may never totally eliminate another civilization AFTER FUEDALISM, but before that he may eliminate another leader IF it is deamed needed for survival. If a civilization is eliminated by another, so be it and Julius looks at is as fate.
5) No defensive pacts are allowed for JC, all other aspects of the game are open. We may make allies as we see fit, at least until Rome has no more need for them.

Settings
Monarch Difficulty
Marathon speed
Pangea HUGE sized map
Temperate climate
Medium sea level

The list of Rome's Rivals

Alexander of Greece
Asoka of India
Boudica of the Celts from Britania
Charlemagne of the upstart Holy Roman Empire
Darius of Persia
Gilgamesh, legondary King of Summeria
Hammarabi of Babylonia
Hannibal of the hated Catheginians
Hatshepsut of Egypt
Justinian of the Rebel Eastern Roman Empire
Issabella of Iberia
Mehmed II of the Asia Minor Region
Ragnar, Barbarian legend from the frozen northern regions
Saladin of Palenstine
Qin of the mysterious Chinese empire
Zara of Ethiopia
Ghengis Khan of the Huns

Yes I took some liberty with the names.

Our Glorious Leader



And the start



Not too bad.

OK, let's hope JC does better.

Part of the earlier problem is I was a little too cavalier with teh speed and graphics of the new computer!!!

Scenario file for the game is attached.

I repeat my suggestion from the first thread to try to slingshot Feudalism and go without any early eliminations. It should be possible easily with the Praets.

Tee Hee. I'm going to copy you and razz carthage .

siggboy said:

Scenario file for the game is attached.

I repeat my suggestion from the first thread to try to slingshot Feudalism and go without any early eliminations. It should be possible easily with the Praets.

Click to expand...

Early slingshot will be tough with so many AIs, several have mysticism to start However Qin appears to be the only Industrious leader.

madscientist said:

Early slingshot will be tough with so many AIs, several have mysticism to start However Qin appears to be the only Industrious leader.

Click to expand...

The Feudalism slingshot is not much harder than the Metal Casting (or CoL) slingshot. You'll have to get to Monarchy before the Oracle is built, but on the other hand you can skip Pottery and Writing. I'd also skimp on the early techs (Agri and BW and nothing else).

While the revised rules are not asking for vassalizing absolutely everybody, it would be a much cleaner win if you actually did it.

On the other hand, even if you have to go to war with anyone, it doesn't mean you need to wipe them out straight away. So maybe just going to Feudalism the slow way might be enough.

It always hurts having to skip Metal Casting as the free tech because it's just great trading material (AIs never go for it early).

Better luck this time, mad. I'm sure you've seen this by now, but definitely check out this if you haven't.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=260902
Guide to 500k+ scores through Huge map domination on Immortal difficulty

HAHAHAHAHA. Oh my, I actually wound up having justinian and charley wiped out entirely in my game on the other thread (Justinian killed Darius, and then later I softened him up for Egypt...who wound up killing them both!). And of course, I burned Carthage .

Now that i'm done over there I'll be watching how this plays on a huge map.

And I still don't understand how you tolerate marathon speed ...but you probably feel that way about faster speeds (prior to starting, I switched the map rolo-style to let me pick, and took epic). I'm not going to shadow this one (i'll just read this time!)...I've had enough of rome, even without prats . Good luck!

Edit: I vote against the slingshot. You want as many hammers as possible going into units and cities. Wonders can come later, as in taking them. All you really need is iron working(assuming you have iron and don't have to bum rush 3 people with chariots!!!!!!)...the rest can be extorted, although you'll likely have some good land to work with before long so tech ok regardless!

Meh, why so much hate towards Carthage ?

It makes me think about a RPC : Hannibal's revenge, Rome must burn !

Numidian Cavalry versus Praets, that sould rock. I'll maybe give it a try.

Anyway, good luck Mad !

Julius Caesar of Rome, All or Nothing!: Part I

OK, we are doing much better than the last failed attempt! No wars and not as crowded although there are enough neighbors to keep things interesting!!! Played a little further than I usually would for the first round but after the last failed attempt I am eager to get going!

To start, moved the warrior



Floodplains to the south and perhaps a shoreline. we decide to settle in place which also found us cows to the west.

Our warrior popped 2 huts, one for 40 gold and the other for XP which wa snice because the same warrior got this random event right after



Leadership! Yes, we send him back home for protection.

Our build order was nothing special: worker/5 warriors/settler/warriors/settler/barracks etc......

Tech order was : Agriculture/Hunting/AH/BW/Wheel/Myst/Mason/Pottery and saved. No archery and you will see why. Also went military and masonry since we do have access to marble and prefer the walls for power numbers boost AND a shot at the Great Wall.

So after teching AH we look for horses



Not in the BFC but 2 close spots.

We elect city #2 for the southwestern horses



And after BW



Now that is sweet! In a location that we essentially own!! We que up another settler and go on the coast.



We did do a bit of REX here, but not that much because of the economy. We did wettle one more very nice coastal city though.

But first, another ramdon event



12 chariots!! Holy smokes, that will take alot of gold to support!!!

Here is the 4th city, hopefully taking copper away from Asoka.



Here you can see Hannibal is already getting a little frisky.



There was a question of why the hatred of Hannibal. Well maybe because historically he led Carthage during teh Punic wars and maybe because Rome burned Carthage to the ground in real life!!! Can you blame them, look at Hannibal already, causing so much mischief.

By the way, limited AI picture this game, too many!!!

Just before the end of pottery we took this world view shot



Neighbors to the east



Definitely Asoka and I believe Mehmed.

Persians to the north



I have one settler made, perhaps I should claim that gem area now or wait until Darius chops out those forrests a bit.

Hammarabi to the east



And out tech option



I am looking at writing for libraries and some trade routes. We need to get some research and need something besides military to build. After that then let's hit IW for Prats. With copper and horse we can certainly TAKE iron if we need to!!!

After that, we have a few choices

1) Currency/CoL to build a stronge economy before war!
2) Meditiation/Priesthood/monarchy/Fuedalism then start "accumulating" vassals.
3) MAth/construction/HBR/archery for HAs/Jumbos/Cats.

I am more than willing to peacefully expand a little to right the economy. I enjoy Prats as much as the next guy, but I am looking at heading this game into modern era warfare!!!!

OH, one mroe thing. We made a run at the Great wall, but lost it halfway. We did get 250 gold which we are using to ramp up the slider to tech pottery/writing faster and accumulate some beakers!!!

going currency/CoL is I think the best plan but to stick as close to the rules as possible you probably want fuedalism ASAP
whilst cats would be useful once you get iron you won't really need them for a while

this start looks a lot better than the last one, much more room to expand and less dangerous neighbours

it might also be worth grabbing those gems at about the time you get IW as they are something like 7 commerce each when improved and thats a good few units

siggboy said:

Scenario file for the game is attached.

I repeat my suggestion from the first thread to try to slingshot Feudalism and go without any early eliminations. It should be possible easily with the Praets.

Click to expand...

I cannot get this to work, it does not get passed a pick your leader. That section is blank.

I vote currency/col also. Early in the game, prats need no siege. Just expand and start making them as you have hammer available. Once you have economy techs, construction will drop defenses for you, and with CR prats that's all you need until the AI's start going feudalism.

Rome has power in the early game from that unit...IMO best course is to take advantage of it (if you can) by using the powerful unit's strength to carry you as you address economy.

You'll want to expand big enough that future opponents will become vassals and be held, too.

cripp7 said:

I cannot get this to work, it does not get passed a pick your leader. That section is blank.

Click to expand...

I messed up the WBSave while editing it. I'll repost a working version.

Edit: The original post is fixed now and contains a working version of the scenario.

madscientist said:

There was a question of why the hatred of Hannibal. Well maybe because historically he led Carthage during teh Punic wars and maybe because Rome burned Carthage to the ground in real life!!!

Click to expand...

I know. The question was more : why is everyone siding with Rome on that one ? Poor Hannibal, he's a nice guy.

What's so cool in burning a city to the ground IRL ? I'd rather hate the one doing that than the one who lives in the city.

Julius Caesar of Rome: All or Nothing!

The leader of glorios Rome looks across the lands and laughs as he watches all the other leaders getting involved in petty wars that accomplishes nothing except drains their resources. He patiently waits Rome's turn into world affairs, as the Roman Pratorians are amassed. He busies his best minds to the proper technology that would control these weaker civilizations. One by One they shall fall. He looks at these leaders false gods and religions, Hindus to the east and north, Buddhists to the west, none unifying. Yes the time for action is approaching.....

OK, folks we teched along, made some trades, and stayed completely peaceful while our neighbors are at each other's throat. Rome is positioned very well, in the middle of the continent yet with little border preassure. But do we have Iron????? Let's see

First our tech path: writing/archery/IW/Sailing/Math/Currency then we need to decide where to go.

Build orders were military so I had enough units to defend each city, walls to up the power numbers, libraries for a limited SE.

We setteld ONE more city, to claim gems although 1 was claimed by Darius, a rather good luck deal



With access to bananas and rice, this city has enormous potential.

A good luck deal because after teching IW we see



That new city claims the only source of iron although we did pop a second from a mine! the thing is building the monument took time, and even longer for the city to expand. Nevertheless, by the save we are building Prats all over!

We are late in alphabet but not the other AIs, we made this trade leading towards monarchy.



With so many leaders we keep getting alot of requests, for trades, for open borders, for joining wars, for autographs. No wait scratch that, got carries away.

And it seams like Hatty is low man (or woman) on the Totem pole here, getting dogpiled. JC made alot of trades with her since he does not see her as a threat.



We pop our first GP



Which we sue to build an academy. I forsee Rome being a big part of this economy, and well it should be!!!

Also Hinduism and Buddhism have spread to us, but we adopted neither which has kept us out of wars.

I was not hesitant to make any remotely decent trade, as you can see



My thinking, with 17 other leaders if we don't trigger the trades someone else will, leaving us in the dust!

Another example, since everyone else had alphabet and I don't see Hatty lasting too long (although she is pumping out War Chariots).



Monarchy is a key tech we want, for happiness AND opening up Fuedalism.



And we are willing to overpay for it from the only AI willing to trade it to us.

We did scope out alot of land, mostly to the west.







And once we teched Currency, we saved. Here are our options.



More discussion at the end.

Here are screenshots of our 5 cities
which I will put in spoilers in case anyone checked them out from the save.



Powergraph numbers which will increase as we build more Prats.



One thing about this game, I will build as much military as I can tolerate!!!! No relying on diplomacy here, except perhaps ROMAN diplomacy

And a full map of the world.



OK, Asoka/Mehmed directly west
Hammarabi Directly east with Isabella east of him
Darius Directly North
Hannibal NW between Darius and Mehmed.
Qin NE between Darius and Hammarabi.

So several questions here

1) Tech order? options are
Fuedalism
construction/HBR for War elephants/cats
CoL

2) Religion? Hindu (Isabella/Hammarabi/Darius) or Buddhist (Asoka/Mehmed/Hannibal)

3) Who do we hit first and when? Taking out the prime Persians cities with Prats will essentially cut the continent in half, do we want to do this???

4) who is most likely to be a longtime friend?

Enough for now. Amazing how peaceful we played considering how much the war has erupted in flames!

I vote CoL again, as it will let you sustain your wars and boost your EPs, so if you do need to lower a cities defences you can do it with a spy rather than catapults
or feudalism for the RPC flavour

religion pick the one of the bloc you aren't going to attack first

i'm not sure who is most likely to be a friend, i'd choose someone of decent size and power as far away as you can. a good techer ideally, who won't be too upset when you start invading people

has asoka gat the buddhist shrine yet? if he has then i think he's a good first choice to attack, he rarely builds a big military and he has a holy city
if not Mehmed as he is the closest to your core, unless you know one of your neighbours has no resources then they probably should be first

Wow, I'm itching just to see a big war start. I think you should build a lot of Praets, and just keep mowing everyone down until you have a very experienced group of like CR3s. I don't think you should take Persia yet, or else you may have troops moving through your land just to get to the other side, and that just makes me uncomfortable.

Krick19 said:

I don't think you should take Persia yet, or else you may have troops moving through your land just to get to the other side, and that just makes me uncomfortable.

Click to expand...

The flip side of this is that I can control which troops go where. Examples IF I DoW on Hammarabi, I can get Asoka/Mehmed/Hannibal to attack him for free. I then declare peace with hammarabi but no open borders. THe western leaders will be very happy and reluctant for peace if they can send troops through yet see none in return. The downside is what you mentioned, seeing troops trucking through Roman lands.

Blimey theres a lot of gold to your west! for a late game city with a food corp that would be taisty good. If it goes that far....

I'd go: Construction (you need Cats), Feudalism, CoL

I'd also avoid a religion for a while (as long as they bow to Caesar, It doesn't matter what they've got)

CoL can possibly be traded for, (especially with Construction) and by building a Forum or two (Currency) you can generate Merchants for Gold to support the Conquest.

So I'd say:
Construction (While building forums and Trying for Merchants)
Feudalism (While preparing an Invasion Force of cats+Prats then Declaring War on someone)
CoL/HBR (trade for asap)... but not with Feudalism, since that slows you down if they have it.

Then target Engineering (Trebs), then Civil Service (Maces)
after that... depends on the Situation.