Tokugawa the Unsettled (Conquests 1.22 Deity Variant)

Time to get back into the SG fold

Map: standard sized, pangaea, 80% water, random conditions.
Civilization: Japan.
Difficulty: Deity.
Opponents: 7 random. Raging barbarians. Maximum AI aggression.
Rules: default, culture-linked start and respawn are off. Special conditions see below.
Victory conditions: all enabled. See below.

Tokugawa is an unsettled leader. Not mentally. Just physically. He has grandiose plans to rule the world. But his people are unwilling to go anywhere. Why would they want to leave the glorious Japanese capital for dirty far-flung lands? Especially when such lands are inhabited by disgusting barbarians and neighbours who are little better, spending eons fighting and killing each other? No, far better to enjoy the home comforts they have, and leave the destructive world to itself. Unfortunately, this does make Tokugawa's desire to rule the world rather difficult to achieve...

Variant: we are not allowed to train any settlers from any city. Thus this game starts as a deity OCC. Settlers gained from huts (very slim chance) are acceptable. Otherwise, the only ways to expand are through conquering and keeping AI cities, or culture flips.

To reflect this handicap different victory types have greater achievement value.

Gold Medal: conquest, domination, 100k culture
Silver medal: space race, 20k culture
Bronze medal: diplomatic, histographic

It is up to us which victory to pursue. For maximum achievement we go for a victory type that is extremely difficult to achieve without training settlers, ie, conquest, domination or 100k culture.

Sub-variants:
i) we are not allowed to build any bombers.
ii) we are not allowed to purchase any AI workers, ever. They can be captured, but not purchased.

Etiquette: a flexible 24/48 hours for got it/play. The standard exploits are forbidden. I'm sure everyone knows the score, if not, just ask.

Japan has been chosen because the initial aim will be a military victory (hence militaristic) but cheap culture will be very important since we have to somehow keep AI cities (religious). Plus they suit the theme quite well.

Maximum of 6 players. Players should be deity-competent. We will need a lot of discussion about early tactics, since this will play much different to a normal game. Do we go for an ancient wonder? Do we go on the war-path immediately? Do we try for culture flips? How will the map and opponent conditions affect the game? There will surely be a lot of early demands and wars...

Signed up:

Nad
Greebley
Ted Jackson
Sir Bugsy
Yom
gozpel
Aggie

I've always wanted to try this variant.

I will play even though my SG allotment is fairly full. I think some games will end before we get to the really intense turns in this one.

Let me get this straight... you're effectively proposing an 1CC, AWD game but if we manage to survive to Chivalry then we can start capturing cities ?

Put me down for some of that please.


Ted

I don't see any AW part anywhere. That would make it difficult indeed.

I think an OCC AWD would be called suicide.

I'm in a similar boat as Greebley. I'm in several SGs, but hopefully some will end before this gets to the tough stuff. Nad, if you'll have me, I'll sign on.

I'll join too .

@Greebley: It will start off *effectively* as a deity OCC AWD. That is, we'll have to go to war very early to have a chance of winning. Did someone say...archer rush? (or swordsman, if we're that lucky)

Our advantages over an AWD is that we have only 1 opponent, can choose when to start the war, and can trade. Powerful advantages!

I was thinking we might want to start the game like an OCC. Go for colossus; research Philosophy and hope to pick up Lit; go for the GLib. Then we build Giant Death Robots and take over the world.

Count me in and stuff the medals, it will be cool enough to just survive

I can only play the 2 coming weekends due to work commitments, after that I'm free to whatever.

As for discussions, we need a bit more info than provided.

At least I understand we can't wage war immediately, that is suicide.

Instead of early settler a couple of worker quickly to improve all possible good tiles and then join all to the city, or being devious let them road to future "prospects". Don't forget the colonies, even if the AI will take them fairly early, it's still worth it to get them as early as possible.

Nad, if you shuffle the roster I might get my turns this weekend, or else I have to wait til next weekend. Of course, depends if you even start it this early If you're late put me down last or something.


EDIT: Or maybe you even let me start again? I know how you hate those boring early turns

Well, this filled up a bit quicker than expected. I was intending to reserve a place for Aggie, who has played in all my SGs, if he wanted it...I'll still keep a potential 7th place in the roster for him . So Aggie, if you want it, it's yours...

ROSTER:

Nad
gozpel (so you can play this weekend)
Greebley
Ted Jackson
Sir Bugsy
Yom
[reserved]

Just to clarify, it is NOT always war, although with raging barbs and 7 deity opponents at max aggression, it might feel like it .

With regards to the start I can see two main routes to head down:

1) (Very) early war: barracks and lots of units early.
2) Builder start/aim for a wonder (one of Colossus/Pyramids/Great Library).

They both have pro's and con's. Going to war very early will give us more cities sooner and exponentially multiply our power and resources for the rest of the game. However, we can't raze and replace anything (no settlers) and we have to take AI cities wherever they place them...so we'd want cities that were at least size 2 or had culture to avoid auto-razes, but in war the AIs will often whip like crazy, so we may end up with little/no gains.

Going for a builder start will give us a nicer capital and a big bonus if we get a wonder, but it will then be harder to capture AI cities, since they will have had more time to fortify/defend them and hook up resources.

What other options do we have? What should our aims be? Are we definitely going for a military victory, is there any chance of 100k culture?!

I agree with gozpel in that a couple of extra early workers will be very useful. I also think lots of exploration units should be sent out, and we might even pop some huts in case we draw a settler .

Sorry if my "tongue in cheek" comment didn't come across very well,

I read Nad's 1st post and had this vision of a little old Japanese Spearman rushing from wall to wall of his village, throwing anything to hand at a queue of Swords, Horses & Archers stretching off into the distance

As we're playing on a Pangaea, I would think that our priority would be to get some scouting Warriors out to make contacts & Workers to improve our workable tiles ASAP. Once we know a little more about our surroundings & immediate neighbours we can decide on "Whole Game" strategy.


Ted

I like to be in. I always like to be in a Nad-SG

Welcome Aggie

ROSTER

Nad
gozpel
Greebley
Ted Jackson
Sir Bugsy
Yom
Aggie

I will start tonight.

I think it would be an error to plan a long term strategy without at least knowing what our immediate surroundings look like. If we have a lousy start, we may be forced into an early military campaign. If we have a shield-rich start, an early builder strategy may be perfect. I think we need to see the start and surrounding terrain and plan from there.

I think it is worth thinking about what the options are. We just don't want to commit to a given course of action yet however.

I do think the early worker is a good idea. I might still go for a granary first though if we don't have any bonus to our food.

I think 2-3 warriors for exploration is worthwhile. 2 warriors and 2 workers have no unit costs. Is it worthwhile to spend 1 gpt for a third? It probably depends on the map and our location.

The first start we got (naturally):



I like what I see! River, coast, couple of bgs and horses! That's a big bonus.

There's also some sort of resource peeking in the fog which the white arrow is pointing to. I can't tell for sure what it is, except it seems to be whitish...could be cattle

Moving the settler northwest would seem the natural move. What do you think team?

Will start playing in a bit.

This is the start of the game, in case anyone wants to examine more closely or if we have lurkers who wish to shadow the game:

BTW, this is a theme that's been done before, but I hadn't written it up. I called it "One Built City" (OBC), because that was what ToddMarshall called it, back when he was doing his. It's now in my "Variants" list, along with the no treasury Nad-idea....

Good luck and have fun with it!
Arathorn

Moving the worker north is also a natural move. After that you can decide where to move the settler. Good start

Nice start

I'd agree with Settler NW (regardless of what's under the fog).


Ted

I was going to say the same as aggie. Move the worker north and then probably move the Settler NW based on the info.