Here's a fun little game on deity that I thought I would share. It's not exactly up to the Australia-only or some of the one-city challenges I've seen on the forums, but here are the constraints I'm following:
1. Stay within the historical boundaries of the USSR as much as possible and try to have no more than 50 cities. This isn't 100% set in stone (look how I incorporated Norway into the empire), but they should be fun and not huge deviations. For trading purposes I might consider having a small base in Cuba, or possibly Greenland or Newfoundland.
2. Victory is by spaceship, global conquest is not necessary. However I have set the computer to respawn if defeated, so if I wish I can perform military "raids" on my opponents-- as long as I sell off the buildings of the conquered cities and disband them by constructing settlers and moving the population back home. For example it would be okay for me to attack Athens with the intent of erasing it, and afterwards leaving a garrison of troops on the hills to watch the straits. A police action if you will.
3. A.I.'s were selected to surround Russia with three opponents on her border and to give the computer opponents as much growing room as I thought possible. Seeing America and the Aztecs right on top of each other was a big surprise!
4. No Democracy or Republic governments, and no food caravan deliveries. This time I'd like to see the population grow naturally, without the aspects that make the game too easy / tedious.
So far the game has been quite interesting. St. Petersburg turned out to be my first city site and the rivers of Eastern Europe had to be seized quickly to stop the French pickets. Getting ships out from our warm water ports has been a matter of good fortune since the Greeks could set up a blockade at any time. Other than the Zulus as a trading partner, our ultimate goal was the Americas but the North Atlantic passage was going mighty slow on our triremes. To the east is excellent frontier territory for the taking, but it also means war with India looms on the horizon.
Chances are good that the powers in Africa and North America will pose an end-game threat; I'm hoping to leave them alone to see how big they get!
1. Stay within the historical boundaries of the USSR as much as possible and try to have no more than 50 cities. This isn't 100% set in stone (look how I incorporated Norway into the empire), but they should be fun and not huge deviations. For trading purposes I might consider having a small base in Cuba, or possibly Greenland or Newfoundland.
2. Victory is by spaceship, global conquest is not necessary. However I have set the computer to respawn if defeated, so if I wish I can perform military "raids" on my opponents-- as long as I sell off the buildings of the conquered cities and disband them by constructing settlers and moving the population back home. For example it would be okay for me to attack Athens with the intent of erasing it, and afterwards leaving a garrison of troops on the hills to watch the straits. A police action if you will.
3. A.I.'s were selected to surround Russia with three opponents on her border and to give the computer opponents as much growing room as I thought possible. Seeing America and the Aztecs right on top of each other was a big surprise!
4. No Democracy or Republic governments, and no food caravan deliveries. This time I'd like to see the population grow naturally, without the aspects that make the game too easy / tedious.
So far the game has been quite interesting. St. Petersburg turned out to be my first city site and the rivers of Eastern Europe had to be seized quickly to stop the French pickets. Getting ships out from our warm water ports has been a matter of good fortune since the Greeks could set up a blockade at any time. Other than the Zulus as a trading partner, our ultimate goal was the Americas but the North Atlantic passage was going mighty slow on our triremes. To the east is excellent frontier territory for the taking, but it also means war with India looms on the horizon.
Chances are good that the powers in Africa and North America will pose an end-game threat; I'm hoping to leave them alone to see how big they get!