Rod02- Planning and Discussion

Hello Guys, Rodent is back and he is back with a vengeance

Here is a bit of background story for you-

Rodent had just started civIII for his usual huge map game, but something has gone horribly wrong......

"What the? Why are you all here?"

They stared at Rodent with an unreasoning hate.

This is the planning and discussion for Rod02. I plan to Discuss many things here.

• The title
• Our strategy. How do we plan to start?
• Also Recruiting new players
• Anything else that is left

Cbob, Peebo and Overseer, check in if you are still interested.

lurker's comment: I'm so happy to see this getting off the ground. colour me the first subscriber

Edited to add a title suggestion...

for always war and 31 civs I would go with "And then there were none".

Great Mystery novel for a great game to come!

What level do the players feel comfortable at in general? I kind of like the following "happiness variant" (hint... it's not really much of a variant) and others might find it interesting...

Pangea 60%, wet, warm, 5 billion. Play as someone industrious or agricultural... or both. You can train warriors early on... but you can't train any other units from a city until it has a marketplace. You can upgrade warriors to medieval infantry, but not to swordsmen. A few different possibilities might work here for my general idea, but to keep things simple for everyone, I'll stipulate that the luxury slider starts at 60% and stays there the entire game. The other 40% can go however you like. Min or max opponents, whichever you prefer. Probably make it so that you have to become a Republic as soon as you can. All victory conditions enabled, but the team can only win by conquest. Well, another victory condition would work, but I don't see that happening in a succession game.

If you guys like this idea and maybe want a more complex version, then I'll say you go all out research until you get The Republic slingshot and then you go all out research to Currency. Then the luxury slider goes to 60% and stays there. You have to become a Republic ASAP and stay there the entire game. You still have to build markets before training units other than warriors. You may have happy and content citizens. However, if you have any unhappy citizens after you learn Currency, they have to become specialists as soon as you spot them. If you have a choice between two specialists and the rest happy citizens or *only* one entertainer and the rest happy citizens (not content, *happy*), you have to go with the entertainer.

I think I'd feel comfortable at Deity, but I'd think the team would probably rather play Emperor (Demi-God anyone?).

If you want to steal an idea, feel free (I might even join):

Title: Shaka's List

Background: As the 30 civs stared at Shaka, he realized that he would need to rid the world of these heathens. However, Shaka was a very organized sort, and rather than indiscrimately destroy everyone he met, he resolved to make a list, start at the top, and work his way down. Being a tad obsessive-compulsive, Shaka's List was, of course, in alphabetical order.

Goal: Conquest.

Variant: Non-Oscillating War. Shaka must always be at war with the civ that is earliest in the alphabet that Shaka has met. Shaka may also be at war with other civs as the occasion demands, but he may not completely destroy any civilization unless they are first on his list.

Level: Emperor probably works--hard, especially with the ever-shifting alliances (it's likely to cause reputation to be broken pretty early!), but manageable.

Map: Huge-plus (200x200?). Continents would be evil; pangaea probably best.

DWetzel said:

Being a tad obsessive-compulsive

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What is it with Shaka's mental health and succession games? First schizophrenic, and now… If you go with this idea, perhaps the title should be "Obsessive-compulsive Shaka".

Schizophroneic Shaka with 31 tribes.

I just threw up in my mouth a little just thinking about that.

Interesting ideas, some of them sound tough to execute though. I still like a crowded Pangaea AW for this round. My idea may show up in an SGFN, the forgotten governments game where revolt when Feudalism is researched and be Feudal until Fascism is researched then revolt again. The desired VC would be space. But that's another game. This one needs to be different but doable. So if you want to try something, maybe play test it for feasability and difficulty first. The Schizophrenic Shaka game was a perfect example, that one failed because it was damn near unwinnable, though it made for an interesting read. I'm interested in playing whatever we decide on.

NickyH said:

What is it with Shaka's mental health and succession games? First schizophrenic, and now… If you go with this idea, perhaps the title should be "Obsessive-compulsive Shaka".

Click to expand...

Not so much Shaka but more that Zulus are at the end of the alphabet.

At the end of Rod01 we discussed the next game being a Regent level AW with 31 civs, as Rome (I think). We discussed; I'm not sure what was decided.

While I'm normally more of a builder, the 'peaceful' (wimpy) VCs just don't appeal to me right now. Conquest sounds just about right. AW works too, but NOW is fine.

Just have some aggression that needs to be released!

Outside the Box
This is a little bit crazy and wouldn't work for 31 civs. But a conquest game where all the AIs are eliminated on the same (last) turn. Sorta like the current SGOTM, but with a very satisfying final round of "Off with their heads!" If any AI survived that turn, the game would be declared a loss.

Outside the Box II
Regardless of the civ, we don't build their UU. Really hard for Rome, Greece and Carthage. No Legions, Hoplites or Numerain Mercs. Almost normal playing for Russia, America, Germany and Ottomans.

Outside the Box III
No building of discounted improvements due to civ traits. No libraries for the SCI, no barracks for the MIL, etc. Sounds interesting, but could be a very tough game, depending on the VCs.

Each of these ideas are separate and are just food for thought and brainstorming.

Aren't there two other AW max tribe pangea games out there right now? That asked, if you want more of the same, go for it.

CBob, we did conquest in many 31 civ SG's in GR's games. It gets better late as you just raze town after town and plant your own way back in a safe area. If you get near domination, no more towns built.

I guess the team decided long back with a vote that it would be AW 31 Civs, thanks for the suggestions all , but i hope you understand.

Now on to a big issue- We need new players!!! The Current team of 3 is mostly stable, but we would love a bit of fresh blood in the team.

Dwetzel, Vmxa, Spoon have posted, so i will ask them first, Would you care to join this game if it is an AW 31 Civs Crowded?


And on to strategy Suggestions-

Early game

• We will probably want not to scout at all early
• Our City placement will probably be CxC or CxxC
• our desired tech path, as we are romans will be to get Iron working first
• We will probably want to collect a goodly number of legions early and probably go on the offensive slowly

Any other suggestions? If my suggestions are wrong, correct them.

Spoonwood said:

Aren't there two other AW max tribe pangea games out there right now? That asked, if you want more of the same, go for it.

Click to expand...

There are other AW Max games, but this would be at Regent, and a little bit easier for someone new to SGs/AW. I hope.

Sure, why not, sign me up. War isn't my strongest suit, though, I'll warn you!

If there is still spot open after you signed the franchise players, I would be interested.

You'll get better, DW. Even at Regent, we'll see plenty of incoming troops, so you'll learn to fight smart. I think emphasizing Legions will be the best policy, but we'll also want Catapults and Horsemen, the one thing I've learned with AW is to try not to leave even strong troops exposed to enemy attackers. We'll want to use 2 move units to finish off enemy units that have been weakened by bombardment and to attack the last in a stack. Our list of enemies will grow fast, the first of which will likely be expansionist tribes. Watch out for Impis, they are deadly pillagers. Keshiks will be a problem later, they don't require Iron. Each tribe has unique dangers, which will require heads up play. Note to Rodent: set AI aggression to high, hopefully that will foment wars among the AIs. It won't affect us, since we DoW on contact anyway.

Rodent, if you do not get enough players, I can play. Go ahead and let others in first.

Did you decide on the map size? Huge is 160x160 and that will be quite crowed for 31. 250x250 is not crowded and makes the game a bit too long IMO. So maybe something like 200x200.

If you do go for an over sized map, be sure to up the tech cost factor.

Map tiles:
std = 100x100 = 10000; 5000 tiles in CAII; 240 CF (1.0); 1x
huge = 160x160 = 16960; 12800 tiles in CAII; 400 CF (1.66); 2.56x
sup200 = 200x200 = 40000; 20000 tiles in CAII; 530 CF (2.21); 4x
sup250 = 250x250 = 62500; 31250 tiles not tested; 650 CF (2.71); 6.25x

So 200 would be around 530 by my test. The culture will not be correct either and should be fix in the editor to 200. It will not matter much, but defaults to 100k.

You will want to try to stick to CxxC for 3 move coverage.

Horses tend to be a bad investment, except for a few to try to kill 1HP units. The reason is you pretty much cannot afford to upgrade them and you can't afford to not build your best attacker. They do become cheap MP units though.

One thing about AWR is you probably can take a few liberties, especially with wonders.

TheOverseer714 said:

You'll get better, DW. Even at Regent, we'll see plenty of incoming troops, so you'll learn to fight smart. I think emphasizing Legions will be the best policy, but we'll also want Catapults and Horsemen, the one thing I've learned with AW is to try not to leave even strong troops exposed to enemy attackers. We'll want to use 2 move units to finish off enemy units that have been weakened by bombardment and to attack the last in a stack. Our list of enemies will grow fast, the first of which will likely be expansionist tribes. Watch out for Impis, they are deadly pillagers. Keshiks will be a problem later, they don't require Iron. Each tribe has unique dangers, which will require heads up play. Note to Rodent: set AI aggression to high, hopefully that will foment wars among the AIs. It won't affect us, since we DoW on contact anyway.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not tooooo afraid of it. I'm trying an AWM right now, as Germany. Should be eminently winnable.

What is your thoughts on Barbs? Regent normally means barbs good, but massive map with max civs AW tends to mean barbs bad.

This is due to the large amount of land that will not be used and the speeding of the AA techs for the AI.