AIOJ01 -- America the Beautiful

[allin1joe]

Ok, now that my first ever SG ended in success, time to start another one(the first one I've started so if I forgot anything, let me know).

Difficulty = Emperor (can be talked down to Monarch if the variants are too difficult)
Civ = America
Map Size = Standard
Map Type = Panega
Climate = Temperate/Normal
Barbs = Roaming (up to discussion as I really dont care )
Version = Conquests 1.22

Variant
-- Only governments that can be used are Republic and Democracy. We need to get Republic as soon as possible and switch. When we get Democracy isn't important, but we need to have it before we move on to the next age, and we need to switch immediately upon learning it.

-- We can never pop rush while in Depo

-- Only victory condition we can do is domination. All other normal victory conditions will be on though.

-- We can NEVER raze a city. Any city we take in combat we have to keep.

-- If an AI takes one of our cities (any city with a majority American population), we have to take it back IMMEDIATELY and will not accept peace with that civ until the city is back under our control.

This will be my first Emperor attempt, so if you feel this will be too difficult given the variants and civ, let me know and we'll drop it. I have never played America because their traits/UU stink, but I figured this variant might be interesting.

When you sign up, please let me know if you'd like to start. I figured I'd go somwhere in the middle of the order. 20 turns to start, 10 after that.

Roster

Zakharov
ChuckDizzle
allin1joe
DaveShack
zurichuk

Standard LKendter SG rules ..

RoP Rape - if you have to ask...

RoP Abuse that includes things such as irrigating all tiles with a city building wonders, denying resources with a RoP, putting a unit to block a land bridge, etc.

Scout resource denial - parking a scout on a resource, as the AI won't ask scouts to leave. The same scenario also applies to workers.

False Peace Treaties (must wait for the 20 years to end).

The negative science exploit - you can run a huge deficit (-250 / turn) of negative cash with a token penalty of one lost worker / cheap building. If cash will go below zero, the research level must be dropped.

Ship chaining exploit - you can move a ship, unload troops to another ship, move that ship, etc. This allows you to ship an indefinite distance, and that is why I consider it an exploit.

Resources disconnect / connect exploit - I consider most resource tactics fine. Delaying to hook a resource, trading it away etc is fine. The exploit is to do this every turn. Build a stack of horses, connect saltpeter, upgrade to cavalry, and disconnect.

Palace Jump - You abandon the capital city to move the palace to a new location. If you want to move the palace, build a new palace.

Mass troop jumping - You can't give away a give a city to transport a large amount of troops to another land mass.


Standard LK house rules:
1) Worker automation of any kind is prohibited.
2) No worker purchases during the first 50 turns to avoid civ crippling.
3) Declaring war / demanding leave solely for the purpose of getting out of trade deals. This includes nonsense spying simply to force a war. Stealing techs is fine.
4) Even if not covered under exploits listed, please try not to use tactics that take advantage of holes in the game design.
5) Our trading reputation is golden - please respect it.
6) Complete your turn. It is frustrating to get a 1/2 completed turn.
7) Once you post a skip notice it is irrevocable.
8) If I skip a player to due a missed got it, or over due turn the turn is invalid if the next player has posted a got it.

 

[Jurimax]

So it means that you can never take an enemy city of 1 citizen without culture? (it would autoraze) Or is that an exception to the rule?

Gr Jurimax

 

[allin1joe]

So it means that you can never take an enemy city of 1 citizen without culture? (it would autoraze) Or is that an exception to the rule?

Gr Jurimax

We can make that the exception to the rule (since we have no control over it). We can never choose to raze a city.

 

[DaveShack]

I have been looking for an Emperor training game (winning handily on Monarch, losing consistently on Emperor), so would like to join if a couple of participants are ready willing and able to train.

 

[ChuckDizzle]

I'll play. Not much experience with America.

 

[allin1joe]

Ok, I will generate some starts tomorrow unless someone else gets to it first. Jurimax, are you in?

Chuck, do you have much experience on Emperor?

 

[ChuckDizzle]

I have some. I've just moved up, and haven't fared badly.

 

[Jurimax]

I'll pass but lurk

 

[allin1joe]

Ok, with the current experience level of the players who have signed up alread, plus with the variants, I am definately thinking about changing the difficulty to Monarch. Thoughts?

I'd like to get one more player before we start. 2 would be preferable.

 

[Zakharov]

I'll sign up as I am close to finishing another SG.

I don't mind starting if you want me to.

 

[allin1joe]

Ok, we've got our 4th, so I'll generate some starts tonight for us to discuss. For now, do we want to do this on Emperor or Monarch?

 

[zurichuk]

I have some free time over the next few weeks, I'll sign up if not too late

 

[allin1joe]

I have some free time over the next few weeks, I'll sign up if not too late

Ok, you're in. Feel free to pipe in on the difficulty level.

 

[Zakharov]

I regularly win at emperor, but struggle with demigod. This variant will play about 1/2 a level higher. I think emperor will be a nice challenge, but if the team votes for monarch then I don't have a problem with it.

I have never played America because their traits/UU stink, but I figured this variant might be interesting.

You are right that the UU stinks (it comes far too late to be effective), but the traits are very nice, especially at higher difficulty levels.

Industrious is always a nice trait as I love to have plenty of workers, and expansionist becomes very useful at monarch/emperor and above. At these levels a non-exp civ has a very high chance of popping barbs from a hut, but for exp civs this chance is zero. The two move scout is also useful to get early contacts for the trading game, which is essential to success at high levels.

I admit that I rarely use America, though this is because of the UU and not because of the traits.

BTW, one thing when rolling starts, I vote for a 4 or 5 billion year old world, as I don't want too many mountains. (Preferably 5).

 

[ChuckDizzle]

I think we can take emperor. Let the AI brace itself for a pimpsmack.

 

[DaveShack]

I'm here to get pointers on the higher difficulty, so given we have at least one trying to win Demigod, Emperor sounds good to me.

 

[zurichuk]

i pm'ed my preference earlier to allin1joe as emperor also (similar skill level to Professor Zahkarov), with republic / democracy being the war-weariness governments we will have to attempt to fight well, prioritize luxuries and alternate the wars if possible

 

[allin1joe]

Ok, I have generated 4 saves, and REALLY like #4 myself(honorable mention to #2). Pictures are in this post, saves will be in the next one.

 

[allin1joe]

Here are the saves:

 

[allin1joe]

Oh, one more thing. #4 has tundra to the SW, but I dont think that offsets the benefits of starting with wine, cow and BG.