NCSG IV - The Return of the Mummy!

Hello and welcome to the forth installment in the NCSG series!

The purpose of these games is to learn together and explore different aspects of the game. Also its really good fun!

On to the game....


The idea for this game has come from various cheesy films, books, comics etc. The basic premis is that a foolish and greedy explorer has disturbed an ancient curse that holds an evil and powerfully mummy in check. Enter the god king Ramesses II and his evil acolytes!

This is a game focused on running an RE (Religious Economy) and thus following a slightly unusual tech path (at least for me it is). Ideally this approch will be backed up by a strong espionage game to represent the Mummies evil power infiltrating his rivals along with the fact I always suggest an espionage based game! I suck at good espionage.

What of our mouldy leader?

Ramesses II of Eygpt:









Good traits and UB for an RE and also fast access to his UU due to his starting techs! A sweet little package overall.

After checking various different map combos these are the game settings I've settled on....



....and here's the start!



The usuall guide of 24/48 applys here but I doubt we'll enforce it that strongly. Remember that with this many player there will always be someone who will take the save if you can't play in a reasonable time frame....

We'll play 20 turns in the BCs and then 10 in the ADs.

The Roster
Groogaroo - winner of where's Wally and up now!
schwartz - on deck
Krick19
S.ilver
grandad1982
GatlingGun
Bleys

Let the fun begin!

The save

This should be an interesting SG for me, as it cover two aspects of the game that I rarely bother with (Religion/Espionage) there just always seems like more important things to do!

Regarding the discussion points...

The leaders you were thinking of certainly would make the game alot harder, we'd have to really bee-line/bulb the techs that unlock the wonders we want. If this was Prince I'd say go for it but on Monarch I think lets go random (I'm still such a wimp when it comes to Monarch ).

Map settings? I'm always pretty boring with my map settings on offline games I'm assuming though we want a map where we have plenty of early contact with the AI.

I like the idea of arid (and more chance of stone) probably because its a setting I normally avoid, I'd like to see how we work around a lack of food.

Coolio

Yer. Early "contact". Thats right. Nothing to see here. Move along please. Sorry? What War Chariots?

grandad1982 said:

Yer. Early "contact". Thats right. Nothing to see here. Move along please. Sorry? What War Chariots?

Click to expand...

I was thinking more from an espionage point of view, but yeah of course we want to get full use out of our UU

Does arid have any affect on the chances of horses popping up?

Probably a lower chance of horses due to more desert and less grassland.

Espionage wise I hope a good techer lives near us so we can start on them early.

I wish it was computer time for our players across the pond

grandad1982 said:

I wish it was computer time for our players across the pond

Click to expand...

I know what you mean! Sometimes I feel I'm talking to myself

then when I wake up in the morning I find I've missed 2 pages of discussion!

Gah, sorry. I saw the thread before I left for class this morning, but didn't have time to comment. Religious games are fun for manipulation of diplomacy . We probably want to beeline a religious tech, and build the trio of religious wonders (AP, UoS, SM) to boost our buildings.

Regarding espionage, I'm really still not good with that yet, so it'll be an interesting learning experience.

Perhaps we could roll a pangea so it's one big arid jihad!

I think the optimal way to do this is probably to grab Masonry and the Great Wall on the way to either:
a) Self-teching Monotheism for Judaism, or
b) Theology bulb via obelisk priests after the first spy pops.

Because for the espionage element to work out we really need that Spy to be the first GP. Pangaea might be fun, we also may want to run an arid tectonics map.

PS: I'd go with Monarch difficulty, maybe epic speed if you all like that, I'd choose normal if it were up to me.

Ooh this'll be interesting..

@ schwartz. I think I like option b) best of all I think as its really using the UB.

Wonders wise Great Wall is a must for the GSpy (hopefully). Mids maybe as well? If not mids then cottages become more important for research.

AP, UoS and SM are all musts as well.

Looks like its arid then. Will check some arid Tectonics then roll a Pangeae or Tectoics map.

Save will be up soon.

Will add you on Krick19, welcome onboard! I assume thats what you want?

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Heres a little fun if you want to indulge. Where's Wally?

Some where in this save game (from NCSG III - The Epic of Gilgamesh) Wally is hiding. Can you find him?

The first person to post a screen shot of Wally will win the oppertunity to take first place on the roster!

Hi Grandad... is there still room for me to join?

Hi GatlingGun. I reckon your more than welcome to join.

Now we have 7 players I stongly suggest that we try to get a couple more people on board so we can start two games. Whilst 7 in one game isn't all bad it does mean there is a very long time between sets.

One solution is to start two games of 3/4 and then let each "team" be responsible for future recruitment.

Any second team that is formed should differentiate itself by adding "...team 2..." or what ever to the thread name.

I'll put a note in the registration thread and see if we can attract more players.

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I have rolled a start and will include the opening screen in the OP. I won't put the save up just yet as I think we should wait for more players to voice an interest.


Things to decide:
1. Wait for more player and run 2 teams or...
2. Just run the game with 7 players or...
3. Get 2 teams going now and let them handle recruitment on their own.

grandad1982 said:

Things to decide:
1. Wait for more player and run 2 teams or...
2. Just run the game with 7 players or...
3. Get 2 teams going now and let them handle recruitment on their own.

Click to expand...

I happy to start with 7players. 5 player teams was a bit of a Nightmare in NCSG II (Team 2) ended up with only 3 of us

I can't belive no one has found Wally yet! I go to all this trouble and you pesky kids....... [stamps of raving to get a cup of tea].

Groogaroo said:

I happy to start with 7players. 5 player teams was a bit of a Nightmare in NCSG II (Team 2) ended up with only 3 of us

Click to expand...

Very true... and I enjoy getting input from various folks, the team collaboration is one of the best parts of a SG series.

grandad1982 said:

I can't belive no one has found Wally yet! I go to all this trouble and you pesky kids....... [stamps of raving to get a cup of tea].

Click to expand...

What you mean this guy?



I found him just didn't want to go first!

Yer thats the badger!

Looks like you win first place in the roster groo!

Signing up, Ramesses is one of my fav leaders, and I love the Religious Economy game with him. In my Prince days I would build Stoney and the GW, and if I had stone, the Mids as well, then just pretty much roll over everything, was pretty lopsided, heh.

grandad1982 said:

Yer thats the badger!

Looks like you win first place in the roster groo!

Click to expand...

Go me!


Oooh! Just noticed the start pics been added to the first post!

Lots of floodplains, seems fitting. We have lots of food & Production, now all we need are some horses near by and were sorted. Options for settling too. possibly 1E to free up the floodplain were on or 1NE if we fancy an early boost from the plains hill. I'm normally tempted to mine pigs on a hill in the very early game but we'll need them hooked up to counter the floodplain unhealthiness.

Animal Husbandry first is a no-brainer and we need mining > masonry for the great wall. Bronze might have to wait if we want to garantee getting the wall.

I agree 1E as a possible move. However the problem is if we move the warrior 1NE and pop the hut to see whats in the outer ring of the BFC we can't get a tech (need a settled city). I know this is a small point but something to consider.

As for 1NE on the plainshill for an early production boost? No IMO. We lose 2 floods (if my fog gazing is correct) and have no way of knowing what is to the N in fog. Would rather chop the hill and mine it for wonder production.

In some test games I played I could always get the Great Wall with or without stone. Its quite a cheap wonder and I managed to get some troops and usually (just) a second city before it was done. Or almost straight after.

Tech I was thinking AH for the pigs (5 1 ) and horses. Then as you say Mining > Masonary. After that its probably Myst > Pot or Hunting > Archery.