Acronym's Bucket List Succession Game - sign-ups open!

[Acronym]

I recently posted a bucket list of things that I've always wanted to do in Civ III but have never got around to doing. Two of them were:

1. To beat the game at Emperor level
2. To take part in a Succession Game

Thankfully, a kindly soul (scoutscout) suggested killing two birds with one stone and enlist the wisdom of others in an Emperor Succession Game - so here it is!

I can play reasonably well at Monarch, so this will be a level up for me. I'm looking for 3 or 4 other players - a mix of skills above and below this would be great, to allow the more experienced to share their skills and the less experienced (myself included!) to have a decent challenge.

Additionally, I've never actually completed a Space Race victory, either, and would be keen on making this the end target of the game, though I appreciate this is a more challenging goal on the higher difficulty levels.

Other than that, I'm open to suggestions as to game settings! If you'd like to be added to the roster, fire a post below, and chip in your two cents with what civ / size map / barbarians / deadlines you'd prefer.

Looking forward to the game!

Roster:
1. Acronym (GMT+1)
2. Lanzelot
3. MrRandomGuy
4. tsj282 (GMT+1)
5. CommandoBob
6. Choxorn (GMT-7)
7...

Settings:
Difficulty: Emperor
Map: Standard, continents
Civ: Germany
Victory Condition(s): All enabled, goal is Space Race

Deadlines:
Confirm 'on-deck': 24 hours
Time to play turn from confirming: 48 hours
Number of turns: 20 turns for the first round, 10 turns each thereafter

For lurkers wishing to play alongside:
Initial save file attached below - feel free to play from the beginning, but please do not post any spoilers in this thread or anywhere else likely to be seen by the players in this SG!

 

[choxorn]

It's been a while since I've played one of these. I've been wanting to do a C3C one ever since I fixed my patching issues, and this one looks like fun.

I'm in.

These days I mostly play at either Monarch or Emperor, and getting to the point of being comfortable with Emperor.

I don't really have any opinions on most of the game settings.

As to Civ choice, how difficult do you want the Space Race to be? It's obviously a bit easier if you go with certain traits (like Scientific or Industrious) than with others.

One last thing- I still have a few more weeks left in the quarter and finals are going to eat up a fair amount of my time soon, so depending on when this starts, you might want to slot me towards the end of the roster.

 

[MrRandomGuy]

I'm more of a conquest person. Conquer the entire world is the victory condition most satisfying to me.

But if we're going for space race I suppose that would be fine. We should add diplomatic victory and shoot for building the U.N. first should we get behind.

I'm in.

 

[choxorn]

I generally prefer to enable all victory conditions, even if there's one in particular you want to shoot for.

 

[tjs282]

Hi Acronym,

I was about this close -->||<-- to jumping in straightaway and saying YES to ScoutsOut's suggestion of an SG in your other thread. Now you asked too -- and especially if you want to go for a Spaceship win -- it's even harder to turn down. I do have a couple of reservations though.

One is the potential time commitment. CivIII is not (quite) my entire life -- I like to spend time with my wife too (and it's in the small print!), so I generally don't play more than 2-3 weeknights, for a couple of hours or so at a time. I often have more time at weekends, but only when no family stuff is planned. (This is another part of the reason it's taken me so long just to get to the level I'm at now). Point is, I can't guarantee to pick up my turn within the usual 48-h window every time.

The other issue is computing power: our laptop is pretty old, and the processor was fairly low-end even at the time we bought it. I've tried starting on Large maps, but the interturn wait is a real fun-killer. Even on Standard size, during the late game, just the interturns take 1-2 minutes per turn, never mind all the unit/city management. (I have all the 'transitionary' animations turned off -- and I really only keep the battle and worker animations to track who/what hit me on the interturn, and remind me what my workers are doing between play sessions.)

So I'd rather not play on any map larger than Standard, if possible -- even though that will mean reducing (tech-)trading opportunities, especially in the Modern Age (although we should aim to become tech leader by the late Ind Age if not before!).

The only other points to note are, I've never done an SG before, so I'm not familiar with the general procedures; and most of my CivIII experience is with Vanilla, not Conquests. But if you're still willing for me to join on those terms, then count me in.

I don't really mind which Civ we play, but Choxxorn makes a good point -- my Iroquois Spaceship win the other day notwithstanding, a Sci civ is probably the best choice if you want to aim specifically for this VC (although I think Sci/Ind would be overkill!).

In the interests of being able to control our own destiny, I'd recommend a Continents map. From what I've read on these forums, a Pangaea map will pretty much guarantee having to play a militaristic game all the way through, whether we like it or not, i.e. a Conquest or Dom VC is most likely to be triggered. And Arch-maps tend to cripple the AI, meaning the game would be less of a challenge at Emp than it otherwise might be.

Lastly, I also think all VCs (except maybe the Wonder VC) should be enabled, to give all the AI Civs a fighting chance based on their strengths This should also encourage us to play a balanced game, since we'd also have to play to prevent the AI Civs from triggering their 'preferred' VC (or getting the Spaceship themselves!).

What do you think?

 

[CommandoBob]

Count me in on this, though I'm willing to be a minor player if needed. Spaceship VC is fine. Standard Continents map size is fine. Civ choice: Zulu or someother MIL civ? We expect to see SCI civs in space, but not the guys/gals that have mastered the finer points of Pointy-Stick Diplomacy.

Hi Acronym,

The only other points to note are, I've never done an SG before, so I'm not familiar with the general procedures...

This may help to give you an idea of what to expect, How to Play a Succession Game.

 

[choxorn]

And my name only has one x!

 

[Acronym]

Excellent! That was a much quicker (and bigger!) response than I'd been expecting - looks like we've got a good crowd to get started already. If there are any late-comers, they'd be welcome to join, too (I hope I didn't offend scoutsout by repeatedly misspelling his name!).

I'll update the roster to include choxorn, MrRandomGuy, tjs282, and CommandoBob.

Standard Continents map sounds good to me, too - this game may take long enough bouncing between players, so I don't think a Huge map would be a good idea! I'll put the other settings - including barbs (?) to random.

I definitely agree with enabling all the Victory Conditions - I think we want the AI to have a chance to play to its strengths, too. But if we can at least aim towards Space Race (even if we end up changing course), that should help guide our strategy.

If we're looking at a SCI civ, and a MIL one as CommandoBob suggested, should we go for Germany? I appreciate their Panzers might not be much use till later - though would a Golden Age in the Modern Era help towards the Space Race?

I'll give it another 24 hours then roll a start location (no picking or choosing - we have to go with whatever comes up first!).


PS - tsj, I'm in the same boat as you with time commitments - at the moment my entire Civ time consists of a turn in a PBEM that comes round once a fortnight; the rest is very sporadic, 10-hour binges usually post-night shift. I'd like to have this SG run with pretty slack deadlines, as long as everyone is happy to stick around and not let it fizzle out.

EDIT: If people could add their timezones, that might also help arrange the order of the roster, unless anyone has any ideas about how it should be arranged (maybe experienced players alternating with less experienced ones). I'm in the UK, so currently on daylight saving time (GMT+1).

 

[CommandoBob]

If we're looking at a SCI civ, and a MIL one as CommandoBob suggested, should we go for Germany? I appreciate their Panzers might not be much use till later - though would a Golden Age in the Modern Era help towards the Space Race?

Actually, I was trying to suggest avoiding SCI civs!

A late game Golden Age would help with some of the 640 shield spaceship parts. We would have to be careful about which, if any, Great Wonders we built, so that we would not trigger our GA by wonders. But if we kept around a few, umm, targets, we could have our GA when we wanted it.

 

[choxorn]

Like I said, whether or not we go with a SCI civ depends on how easy we want this to be.

I'm on the US West Coast, Daylight Saving Time (GMT-7)

 

[tjs282]

@CommandoBob:
Thanks, that article was exactly what I needed to see. I generally don't use any of those exploits in my solo play -- not even the green ones. Possibly also something that I need to get over...

@Chox--one 'x'--orn:
Yeah, sorry about that. Didn't see I'd misspelled your handle 'til after I'd posted, and it didn't seem worth editing just for that. Hope this won't colour your opinion of me...?

@Acronym:
I'm in Germany, GMT +1. Our long weekend starts today (Himmelfahrt -- Ascension Day -- is a public holiday, and I took tomorrow off work), so I'll be away from my Internet connection from now until Sunday evening (my wife is tapping her foot already...). I'll go with whatever Civ etc. you guys decide to play.

 

[choxorn]

That's fine, I've had people misspell my name in weirder ways than that, and do so more than once.

 

[Lanzelot]

If you can still take one more player, I'd like to join, too?!

I've played a couple of SGs in the past (even a Space Race: BB-01, which was Babylon/Monarch), and this looks like fun!

For best results in a space race, I would recommend a scientific/commercial or scientific/agricultural civ, with the option to start the GA in the early middle age. (It is important to get Universities up quickly.) Also we will need to do a fair amount of war-mongering in order to capture enough land for science farms early on. (With GA + Universities + science farms it is sometimes possible to reach "4-turn research" sometime in the middle ages and keep it up for the rest of the game.)

So for example: Greece, Korea or Sumer. But if you don't want an "easy" game, I'm also ready to go with any random civ...

 

[CommandoBob]

I took a peak at the HOF for Emperor Level, Standard Map Size and Spaceship VC.

Sumeria was used 4 times, Netherlands twice, with Germany, Russia, Inca and France only once. The dates ranged from 1130 AD to 1620 AD.

Netherlands. Hmm. Not a civ I expected to see on this list. SEA and AGI, right? A defensive UU, the Swiss Mercanary, upgrade from normal Pike, so an Middle Age GA could be arranged. Not a civ normally associated with an aggressive offense (much like the Dallas Cowboys).

Sumeria's UU is the Enkidu Warrior. We would have to be careful to not trigger our GA in the Ancient Age or in despotism with an accidental victory.

Being Dutch would be different for me since I haven't done a lot of SEA civs. Overall, the civ choice is .

 

[Lanzelot]

The Netherlands is one of my favorites... With a good map (many coastal first-ring cities possible) it has good early commerce and it starts with Pottery & Alphabet, so an early Republic sling is guaranteed.
With a lot of scientific neighbors, it'll be a top choice, no doubt. But I guess we'll have random opponents? In that case I do prefer a scientific civ.

I'm surprised that Germany is up there: militaristic is just a wasted trait in a science game, and the UU is much too late. (And usually you don't want to invest shields into a MIL wonder early on, so triggering the GA by ancient & medieval wonders is not easy either...)

Russia is a top choice on lower levels, where the scout will do much of the ancient age research... But on Emperor we can't expect too many techs from huts?!

 

[Northern Pike]

militaristic is just a wasted trait in a science game

Just lurking, but I had to drop in to disagree with this , or at least to qualify it. At high difficulty levels, the militaristic trait is a good basis for the space victory, because it's not practical to conduct such a game peacefully. Extensive conquests are necessary to grab enough land for four-turn research, and to deal with rivals who might win the game before the player does.

At deity, that logic applies very strongly. I won't claim to know about emperor, but my intuition is that it would still be relevant.

 

[Acronym]

Plenty of discussion already - I think there's only going to be one way to find out.

I'm going with Germany

I take your points, Lanzelot (and of course, you're welcome to join - great to have you on board!) - especially regarding the late GA - but I think we're looking for an even match here - not with the odds stacked too much in our favour (e.g. SCI/COM, or with preselected opponents) but not them against us either (so, going for at least a SCI). I'm sure we'll muddle through one way or another - with a bit of pointy-stick diplomacy to satisfy CommandoBob's hawkish nature!

We're certainly not aiming for HOF scores here, but if Germany can make it into the HOF tables, then at least we know its possible.

I'm going to roll the start now, and post a screenshot up for discussion. I've got a long day at work tomorrow, working over the weekend, and long day on Tuesday, so I'll have limited opportunity to play the start until next week - but at least that'll give some time for discussion. I might try and play the first 10 turns on Sunday, pause for some feedback, and then play the second 10 turns before passing it on.

In terms of deadlines, I think a fairly standard '24 hours to confirm' / '48 hours to play' should work, as long as no one minds if this slips every now and then. I think the etiquette is usually 20 turns each until everyone has had a go, then 10 turns each from then on. Let's make sure everyone gets their first 20 turns in, first, and then skip liberally if people can't make their round.

Any objections, speak now or forever hold your peace! (And our Spaceship has until December 31st 2014 to launch!)

 

[Acronym]

Though the sun was not yet visible above the crest of the eastern hill, the sky was already light. Bismark crept out of the shelter of the camp and ran down to the nearby river. All around were the soggy, half-chewed remains of the new plant the tribe had recently found - full of deliciously sweet juice, but utterly inedible. Further south, he could see much more of the stuff growing wildly. An idea which had been slowly gestating as he had munched on the sugarcane last night now came back to him...

The camp was beginning to stir, and Bismark felt the warmth of the sun on his back. A gentle breeze swept in from the sea. This was indeed a very pleasant spot - much more comfortable than the harsh desert to the east they had travelled through to get here. He would suggest to the elders, and the new headman, Acronym, that they settle at least until the weather changed...



Elders of the Germanic people - let the discussions begin!

 

[choxorn]

It looks like it will be beneficial to move a tile before settling to make our capitol coastal- either 1 SW, 1 W, or 1 NW of our current location. Before deciding where, I think we should move our worker, either onto one of the hills or the sugar tile, to get a better idea of what the surrounding area looks like.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, you should probably put me last in the roster, particularly if you can't get this until Sunday and tjs also has some time issues- that way, unless we go really fast I'm unlikely to get it until after my finals end in two weeks.

 

[CommandoBob]

We will want to improve the Sugar tile soon but we do need to see what is south of us. I would move the worker onto the Sugar and fogbust. We will find some flood plains to our east, which will help us grow when we have so many plains around us.

Unless we find a BG in the fog, I think we shoud move our settler onto the western hill. We will still grab the flood plain in our first cultural expansion.