Role Play Challenge, TNG: Simon Bolivar, Rise of the Amazon

Welcome all to my next RPC, TNG. These games are meant to be educational and fun with a unique twist on leaders not included in the 52 leader CIV deck! All the normal 52 leaders have been played out and can be found in the Classic RPC Summary thread.

Here we go back to an Earth-18 Map! Epic Speed. Emperor difficulty.

Ah South America, the forgotten continent. Well there is Hyuna in that abysmal Western Andean land, but who care about that. We want a true South American Empire, born within settling distance of the Amazon basin! No bigtime RPC rules here, let's see how the game shakes out and make those rules up as we go along! South Americna is a tough land to settle

The Leader I have chosen is Simon Bolivar, great leader of Brazilian Independence, using the CIV leader of Joaoa of Portugal. Perhaps starting somewhere different from Venezualia but just when do we care that much to historical accuracy in an RPC!

Also, this is a Mad Scientists view of the Earth and I have altered things a little bit. I added a few resources a while ago in South America, not many, but a few. To be honest I simply do not remember what they were.

I also added some resources to central North America, particularly a generous supply of Buffalo (um, cows!).

I have also changed a good number of leaders so the map plays out differently!

Here are the new leaders in Spoliers. If you prefer to be surpirzed I will not let the cat out of the bag until I meet them



I also modified the New world a little. An Andean Mountain was changed to a hill to allow Hyuna into the Amazon and the Land Bridge between the Americas is opened.

As I said, no official rules! A new leader selection and starting in the Amazon is challenge enough to start.

Our Leader



And the start



Forgive the view of Old World Lisbon area. I do not know how to change that, but it's not a big deal.

We have Gems and there is seafood north in the dark area.

Painful start, and gunning expansion will be slow due to almost 0 forest and lots of jungle. South America has a lot of long-term tech potential though. In my mad mad world montyinteam run I settled up the amazon early (even dealing with annoying micro) enough to shop/mill spam it and crank out a lot of military.

Thoughts:

- Early commerce will be OK with gems, but the capitol is otherwise a big downer. The AI starts with an advantage here.
- IW is an obvious priority.
- While a couple cottage sites are conducive to expansion and tech, there needs to be a balance since production sites are extremely rare in SA. Slavery is an answer, but this precludes caste/pacifism early astro. The options here are a cottage carpet with minimal military (re: stay alive vs monty) at a choke point or heavy whippage. Very early war on us isn't particularly likely due to peaceweights and capitol distance, but religion could be a wildcard...no guarantee that the new world gets it no matter what the leaders are.
- EXP gets a relative boost here. Worker turns will be critical and EXP will help it.
- The land is good enough to win by itself (easier than Australia for example)
- Early wonders will be difficult and might not be worth it for more than failure $$$

madscientist said:

The Leader I have chosen is Simon Bolivar, great leader of Brazilian Independence

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Mad, I love your RPCs, but don't say stuff like that. Bolivar was from the Spanish America and there are light years separating Brazil from the rest of the continent, culturally, politically, economically, historically, and pretty much any other criteria you may think of. We only share the same continent.

Let me start a new RPC, featuring Zapata, the great leader of American Revolution!

Wait, isn't all North America the same?!?

Really tough start with low food. The site can be a good city in the long term but tough starting out. Very slow expansion for me.

there's a button in wb that resets the fog

looking forward to following!

its a pretty big gambit, and maybe a waste, but what about going for IW from the Oracle? The faster you get it, the faster you can expand and kill the Hyena.

bobbyboy29 said:

its a pretty big gambit, and maybe a waste, but what about going for IW from the Oracle? The faster you get it, the faster you can expand and kill the Hyena.

Click to expand...

With gems, the block is hammers early on, not tech. I'd be much more interested in Gwall to end barb trouble cost-effectively, though it would probably prove very difficult to get it.

Why not just make the trek to the triplecorn/deer/fish down south? Barbs will stay in check until you settle. Granted, you'd be settling by 3800 BC at best so I guess it's not really an option for normal.

I did try it though and it's doable.

As I said, I've fixed the revealed Territory in Europe.



View attachment 245069

Enjoy

p.s. you have to select the Civilization, for which you which to conceal or reveal the whole map. Don't use Rammesses II by default, (which I did), p.s. I made a change for them as well

@TMIT, A good assessment of what I thought. The biggest benefit with Joao is that msot tiles we can utilize we know the tech for (Fishing/Mining) thus we have to luxury of doing something different, like BW/IW or perhaps simply go hunting/archery to save us from the native Amazonians which usually spawn nastily (at elast they do when I play as HC and try to penetrate the Amazon early). I like very early fogbusting with archers here.

@ Sidney, yeah gads youa re correct, I flubbed the leader! I will adress this somehow in the narative. I prefer not to use all South American leaders like ISrael this time, just focus on land/earth. Be patient, Sotuh America is big and easy to get lost in.

@ Lymond, there is a seafood resource in teh BFC, that will have to do. Plenty of hills to mine thus we can have a low population worker/settler spamming capital. Early sailing means trade routes are not a problem.

@ Ryan, thanks!

@ Bobby, I foresee very few if any early wonders. We do have Joao here and he screams early expansion. MAybe with early UU we can quickly start settling Australia.

@ JFleme, great second site for a big whipping center while the capital is a great production area (Early on).

@ IPEX, Thanks! I will use your save!

OK folks, perhaps a little help in city names in teh area. What should the city be where I am (Is it Rio DeJanero???) and where do the next few go? I think I know where Buenos Aires and Caracus should go, but I already flubbed the leader!!!!

My knowledge of South America is rather poor, as you can tell.

(Is it Rio DeJanero???)

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It's Recife/Pernambuco. Quite far away from Rio, BTW.

I don't know the map of the area, but would settling on one of the plains hills help? 2H starting tile would give you a little boost early. That being said, it won't help if there's no food for it.

Having played this, I realize there are more hammers around than I thought earlier. The start is still very slow due to all the jungle, but there are a couple good sites pre-IW, and IW comes quickly here.

Maybe we could see some rare use of serfdom here, what with all the jungle that needs to be cleared. I don't think I've ever seen anyone use it, nor have I used it myself... If only for that reason it would be sort of interesting.

Simon Bolivar, Rise of the Amazon: Part I

Simon Bolivar, general and motivator of men, found himself on the seashore with jungle to his back and a group of native inhabitants looking expectantly at him.

"Where the hell am I? This is not Great Colombia, and these are obviously not Spaniards, or Portugese."

A native approached him, sir where are we to settle??? The Great jungle river lies that way." Pointing North, "And the open plains with an abundance of food lies to the south" pointing towards the area where Argentina should be. "And that direction is..." The native looked fearfully at the expansive jungle.

Bolivar shook his head and started to remember the meeting. Yes, the spiritual leader from deep within the jungle, talking about my destiny to lead this continent and prevent it being abused. "Foolish nonesense" Bolivar thought until he took the strange smelling pipe. The world spun and next think he found...

"Sir, where do we settle?"

Bolivar scratched his cheek, "Perhaps this can work out. A land to tame, an empire to build, riches to be won, wars to be fought."

"No need to move friend, settle on the spot."

Thus Recife was born



The natives apparently knew hos to fish and talked about mining. Excellent, Bolivar instructs the Amazonia people to construct workboats using the unmined gems to speed it along



Research is started with Bronze Working while the warrior is sent south to explore



The dangers of South America already rear their heads as the warrior is killed by the inhabitants.

Once Bronze Working was complete Bolivar found NO copper! Bolivar considers his options



Given the non-success of the first warrior, research was started down hunting/archery lines so as to defend this frail early civilization from the horros of the Amazon.

Surprisingly, Bolivar met with another civilization



The Incans! Extremely strong with the Quechua and with obviously equal access to the Amazon forrest. Bolivar cautiously greats the Incan King and continues with hsi own work.

Once the native Amazonians were able to construct crude bows and arrows, Bolivar instructed them to research iron working, not really for defense although early swords are certainyl a nice perk, but to chop out this oppressive jungle. To his delight



Iron directly to the south!

Research next went sailing/agriculture/mysticism and right after Rio de Janeiro was founded Bolivar thought on what to research next



One Border pop from haveing a second city working seafood and gems!

But the question is where to settle next?? The Amazonia people are extremely fast in building workers and settlers, so Rapid Early eXpansion should be a priority here thought Bolivar.



So there we have our early start. I am thinking of settling as many coastal cities as I can, both north and south, but which direction first??? South offers the best land while the north will block off the North American from moving into Colombia/Venezuela.

Hyuna is of little concern as the Andean area really sucks and we do have Swords to beat down on him if he settles into the Amazon.

As far as strategy I am thinking the following

1) I am looking at farming the Amazon rather than cottaging. With so much coast and precious metals commerce is not an issue, and once the population is established we can watermill/workshop the entire Amazon basin. Cottages seams way to easy here.

2) Expansion, let's see what the other lands are and where the religions are. Hyuna is the Buddhist founder and when shrined is a very tempting target.

3) Research, longterm. Beeline Optics for the UU! That means Compass/Metal Casting/Machinery which nets up crossbows quickly.

4) Immediate research? I say wheel/pottery/writing. Animal Husbandry looks ridiculously useless here, the America's have no horses and Sotuh America seams very limited in animal resources other than deer.

Save will follow tonight.

I'd say go to the double corn/fish/deer site next. Too strong to pass up early on, and then fill along the north coast.

Another question here. Is it worth going for masonry and making a run at the Great Lighthouse??? We do have a heavy production basebd capital, but that will slow settler spamming and defense.

Yeah I agree with UW - get Buenos Aries up and running and then make a swing into Venezuela and Columbia. Has the Great Wall gone yet? I'm guessing yes, it often goes early on this map, but it would be a boon for you.

Edit: re: TGL, yes. You can settle Cuba and the Falklands for a nice boost and there is room for an easy 9-10 coastal cities in SA, I think.

Jaaboo said:

Yeah I agree with UW - get Buenos Aries up and running and then make a swing into Venezuela and Columbia. Has the Great Wall gone yet? I'm guessing yes, it often goes early on this map, but it would be a boon for you.

Edit: re: TGL, yes. You can settle Cuba and the Falklands for a nice boost and there is room for an easy 9-10 coastal cities in SA, I think.

Click to expand...

The Great wall has fallen already. Thatw as one thing I did NOT want, I prefer to fight it out against the Amazon Jungle!

Well, this has been a depressing experience. Proves I am not an Emperor player yet, perhaps, but I don't know how different it would have been on Prince, where I normally play. Shadowed Mad - same city sites, same builds, same tech - learn from the Master, I thought....
I guess the rest should be spoilered...

Anyone willing to read the spoiler and tell me what I did wrong? Or should I have carried on regardless? Otherwise I'll just see what Mad does next...