Annals of History Rewritten

Azoth

Inscrutable
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Feb 12, 2007
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Canada
Hey. I thought I'd create this thread to record my games of History Rewritten.
I should have my first report up shortly.

As always, all comments and feedback are welcome!
 
For my first game, I'm going with a random map and fairly 'standard' settings:
  • Fractal Map, Standard Size, Standard Speed, Temperate Climate, Low Sea Level, random leader.
  • Immortal Difficulty, to give the AI its best shot at winning.
  • Extended Coastlines with Reefs and Culturally Linked Start Locations, for flavour.
Spoiler :
C1001Opening.png


I roll:
C1002Opening.png


Thus:

Annals of History Rewritten
Chapter 1: GANDHI OF INDIA
HR version 1.18

India is fine choice of civilization.
  • Its starting technologies, Carving and Ceremonial Burial, unlock the two earliest buildings, Monuments and Cemeteries.
    That's not bad: of the four starting technologies, Hunting is probably stronger but Fishing is highly situational and therefore weaker.
  • Its UB is the Mausoleum, a Cemetery that provides 1 extra :) from the start of the game: a useful building, since Cemeteries no longer go obsolete.
  • Its UU is the Siege Elephant, a 2-move Cannon replacement: strong, but probably a better match for the Bombard.
  • Its UW is Nalanda, an Academy that also launches a Golden Age. That's quite good, since the Academy is one of the few National Wonders that gets built every game.

Here's my start, after I've moved the Scout one tile south.
C10034000BC.png


It's not very promising, covered in forests with few river tiles. I'll need Elephants to unlock my UU, but neither those Elephants nor Prime Timber provide :health: or :).
I can't even access the timber until Lumbermills! Meanwhile, the Rice is buried in Jungle and also inaccessible.

Note that Gandhi is Humane and Philosophical. Humane is a trait for the late game: with extra health, happiness, and longer Golden Ages.
Philosophical is best for peaceful victories, with half-price Schools, more Great People, and bonus specialist culture.
Based on the Gandhi's 'builder' traits - and a start with more production than commerce - I decide to try for a Culture Victory.
I might change my mind later but Civilization is always more fun when you play with a goal in mind.

Not seeing any better spots, and hoping for more resources in the fog, I settle in place. It pays off:
C10044000BC.png


I find a Fruit resource, a second Elephant, and Stone. Good enough!
I start training a Worker and researching Pottery to unlock Orchards for the Fruit, my one food resource. With that, I hit end turn, and I'm off!
 
Chapter 1: GANDHI OF INDIA

The 4th Millennium BC

I spend the opening turns looking for tribal villages with my Scout. Three villages present me with around 30:gold: each, and a fourth offers me maps. (No free technologies: it is Immortal, after all.)
Five turns later, Delhi expands its borders and I meet my first rival: Sejong [Humane/Progressive] of Korea.
Spoiler :
C10053750BC.png

This is excellent news. Sejong, like Gandhi, has late-game builder traits. He doesn't scare me. Not only that, he is Progressive and gets a free Scientist specialist slot in every city. That means he is less likely to produce a Great Prophet and found a religion, which leaves more religions for me. I might even spread my state religion to Korea later in the game, for the diplomatic bonus.

My Scout keeps exploring, finds Seoul to the north of Delhi, and defeats a Lion near a Horse resource.
Spoiler :
C10063250BC.png

Delhi seems to be on an isthmus connecting two large regions of land. No one can cross the continent without passing through Indian culture.
Korea lies on one side; I wonder who lies on the other: another Asian civilization, perhaps, thanks to culturally-linked start locations?


The 3rd Millennium BC

After training a Worker, Delhi trains a Warrior to hunt animals, then proceeds to a Mausoleum.
C10072950BC.png

The extra health and happiness is nice, but the free priest specialist is most important. There are seven civilizations in this game so the first seven Great Prophets will found a new religion. I want all the religions I can get for a Culture Victory. (And they'll come at double speed thanks to Philosophical.)
Research proceeds to Pastoralism, to tame the Elephants; then Agriculture, on the way to Property.

In international news, Sejong adopts Agrarianism and discovers "The Waters of Life" at the Oasis by his capital.
At home, my Scout looks for a site for my second city while my Warrior approaches a Lion, defeating it for 4:food:.
Spoiler :
C10082900BC.png

This is the best my Scout can find:
C10092850BC.png

No fresh water, but three food resources (Fruit, Cattle, and Potato), some Savannah, and coastline. That's fine: I'll want at least one port-city to try for the coastal Wonders.

Soon thereafter, I meet Mehmed [Aggressive/Judicial] of Turkestan.
Spoiler :
C10102600BC.png

This is NOT good. As a Judicial leader, Mehmed has access to Monarchy civic at the start of the game; the bonus production and commerce in the capital gives him a fast start. As an Aggressive leader, many of his units start with the Commando promotion, which can cause huge problems on defense. The very turn I meet him, Mehmed completes Stonehenge. Clearly, he isn't letting his early Monarchy go to waste.

But Delhi is developing nicely. It can build a Settler in 6 turns. (Note that I planted an Orchard over the Prime Timber.)
C10122575BC.png

The timing is perfect. I will discover Property in 7 turns and can revolt to Monarchy while the Settler is in transit. Property is THE key technology of the Ancient Era. Monarchy civic provides the single biggest bonus in the early game; everything else comes more quickly after that. My next research targets are Ritual and Calendar, which unlock the other early game civics, Tradition and Agrarianism.

My Scout then finds a fantastic site for my third city: along a river, with Bison, Cattle, Cotton, and Fur. He even defeats a Bear! Things are looking up for India.
Spoiler :
C10132450BC.png
 
Chapter 1: GANDHI OF INDIA

The Three Pillars of India

So Gandhi invents the concept of 'Property' and decides most of the world belongs to him. The Indian Monarchy is established in 2375BC.
The very same year, the city of Bombay is founded. Long live His Majesty, King Gandhi of India! :king:
Spoiler :
C10162375BC.png

Tacitus declares that Glorious Turkestan is the most cultured nation in the world, followed by India the Great. Hopeless Korea is seventh and last.
Some three hundred years later, Chuang-tzu is born in Delhi and I am prompted to pick a religion. As Gandhi of India, I choose (what else?) Hinduism.
Spoiler :
C10192050BC.png

Hinduism is founded in Bombay but I continue building a Monument there. It's slated to be one of my three Legendary cities, remember.
I also discover turtles in the lake by Delhi. That's nice, I suppose. (If only I knew Fishing...) Meanwhile, Sejong founds his third city, Wonsan, and discovers Record Keeping. (I can tell because he can now sign Open Borders. I go ahead and accept.) Meanwhile, Mehmed completes The Oracle in Istanbul. (Drats! I was hoping to build that.)
C10202050BC.png

This is seriously NOT good. :( Not only does Mehmed get a free technology, he is accumulating Great Prophet points in his capital. I expect him to found Islam any day now. (And maybe even a second religion later.) I don't want to deal with religious tensions so I decide not to adopt Hinduism. If I play nice, Mehmed might spread Islam to me; that will help with diplomacy and with my Culture Victory. (Of course, I still don't know where Mehmed is. My Scout and an exploring Warrior were both killed by barbarian Warriors.)

Once I discover Calendar, I adopt Tradition and Agrarianism:
C10222050BC.png

These three civics are the three pillars of ancient India. Monarchy and Agrarianism greatly enhance my production and commerce; I will follow them for a long, long time.
Tradition, I might keep for the rest of the game, if I stick to a Culture Victory.

Then: DISASTER!
The barbarians found Alemanni right next to my planned third city site! :cringe:
C10232025BC.png

(Note: Even on Immortal, barbarian cities in HR spawn with Warrior defenders. Why is that? It's because, in BtS, the AI starts with Archery for free on Monarch and above. And that includes the barbarians.)
Well, Alemanni must BURN! :nuke: With four Warriors on defense, Archers won't cut it. And Axemen will take too long to train and reach the city, even assuming I have Copper. Chariots are my only option. I switch research to The Wheel and plant my third city by those Horses near Korea. It won't be much of a city; but what choice do I have?

Cursing my luck, I found Vijayanagara in 2000BC. To my surprise, it picks up a third resource in the fog:
C10242000BC.png

And I think: Vijay is not so bad. Sure, it has very little food and many Mountain tiles; but it has three resources, weak though they are, and a river. With some help from settled Great Artists, it might just be my third Legendary City. It will certainly have a head start on any other cities I found. And I'm not looking to break any records here. And I can tailor that amazing river city for research, instead. (Can you tell I'm desperate for a silver lining?)

Here is where my research stands:
C10262000BC.png

I've been following a pretty standard path: first, my starting techs (Carving, Ceremonial Burial); second, techs that unlock improvements (Pottery, Pastoralism, Agriculture); third, techs that unlock civics (Property, Ritual, Calendar); fourth, techs that unlock military (The Wheel). I have lots of options moving forward: Hunting for Camps, Fishing/Sailing for Fishing Boats, Mining/Masonry for Stone and The Pyramids, or Oratory for Theatres. I don't need more military immediately if I have Chariots, which rules out Archery, Riding, and Bronze Working. And Divination is not worth it without The Oracle.

Well, it's 2000BC: 60 turns in, or 10% of the game. Here are some final shots of my empire and its demographics. (Look: someone has almost twice my GNP!)
Delhi, Bombay, and Vijayanagara: also the three pillars of ancient India. And soon to be three shining beacons of culture for the world.
Spoiler :
C10252000BC.png

C10272000BC.png


I'll play more turns later this week. Wish me luck!


To Be Continued...
 
Nice idea:thumbsup:
What do you think about the slavery civic? In general, I prefer it to Argrarianism. I suppose you will work some pastures? Where will you get your commerce (before cottages)? Farms along a river with 2:commerce: and savannah/jungle plantations with 2:commerce:? I like plantations with slavery (3:commerce:) very much, and the ability to sacrifice population is really nice, too.
 
Nice idea:thumbsup:
What do you think about the slavery civic? In general, I prefer it to Argrarianism. I suppose you will work some pastures? Where will you get your commerce (before cottages)? Farms along a river with 2:commerce: and savannah/jungle plantations with 2:commerce:? I like plantations with slavery (3:commerce:) very much, and the ability to sacrifice population is really nice, too.

Really? I much prefer Agrarianism. You're right, I build a lot of Pastures, which produce enough hammers that I don't miss the ability to sacrifice population. For commerce, I rely on riverside Farms (2:commerce: with Agrarianism), as well as Forest Camps (2:commerce: with Redistribution), Coast tiles (up to 3:commerce: with The Colossus), and especially 3:science: Library Scientists. (I have plenty of food to support specialists since most of my improvements are Farms and Pastures!) I guess it just goes to show how well designed HR is, that two completely different strategies can be equally viable.

Anyway, I've decided to abandon my Gandhi game. There isn't much point showcasing a game with buggy Flood Plains and Corporations. I'll roll up another map and start again.
 
Anyway, I've decided to abandon my Gandhi game. There isn't much point showcasing a game with buggy Flood Plains and Corporations. I'll roll up another map and start again.

Sorry about that. I hope you will record your new game for us too. It's a great way to get discussions going and experience gameplay from another perspective.
 
Azoth, have you thought of maybe publishing the next Annals in the Stories & Tales section and have here just a crosslink to it?

I believe, story subforums are heavily used both on the CFC as on the German forum, and Annals like yours surely help getting people interested, considering there are many once again disappointed by Gods & Kings and in search for something else.
 
Really? I much prefer Agrarianism. You're right, I build a lot of Pastures, which produce enough hammers that I don't miss the ability to sacrifice population. For commerce, I rely on riverside Farms (2:commerce: with Agrarianism), as well as Forest Camps (2:commerce: with Redistribution), Coast tiles (up to 3:commerce: with The Colossus), and especially 3:science: Library Scientists. (I have plenty of food to support specialists since most of my improvements are Farms and Pastures!) I guess it just goes to show how well designed HR is, that two completely different strategies can be equally viable.

Well, I'm just used to slaving every building I need:D I'm sure both civics can be used very well. Do you build mines for production or just pastures? With slavery, mines are complettely useless (if you've got smokehouse and granary, a simple grassland farm without ressource is stronger...). Only useful for wonders (you only get about half as many hammers by the same amount of slaved population:() or special cases.
 
Sorry about that. I hope you will record your new game for us too. It's a great way to get discussions going and experience gameplay from another perspective.

Don't worry about it. Bugs happen. I'm happy to start another game.
I do have a couple of suggestions for 1.19, based on my limited playthrough:
• Extended Coastlines with Reefs and Culturally Linked Start Locations should probably be enabled by default, both for Custom Games and especially for Quick Starts. New players might not know these options are available (Quick Start sometimes skips right past them) and it's better to offer the full-flavour package by default. Players can choose to turn off these options if they prefer.

• Fishing is clearly the weakest starting technology. Carving and Ceremonial Burial unlock buildings while Hunting unlocks an improvement. Fishing simply lets players work water tiles; and 1/0/2 Coast is not particularly attractive at the start of the game. I would reorganize the early naval techs as follows:

FISHING: Can work water tiles, Work Boat, Fishing Boats
SAILING: Harvest Boats, Can trade along rivers
SEAFARING: Galley, Can trade along coast

It makes sense that Fishing Boats are available at Fishing.​

Azoth, have you thought of maybe publishing the next Annals in the Stories & Tales section and have here just a crosslink to it?

I believe, story subforums are heavily used both on the CFC as on the German forum, and Annals like yours surely help getting people interested, considering there are many once again disappointed by Gods & Kings and in search for something else.

I was thinking about it but I wanted to have at least one game under my belt in this subforum first. (I've never written a full game report before.) Well, I guess 60 turns is practice enough: I'll publish the next Annal under Stories & Tales for sure. It would be nice to raise the profile of HR in the general forum. I'll post a link to the new thread here. I suppose that's what you mean by "crosslink"?

Also: do you have any feedback about the report itself? I may have to proceed even slower and explain features in more detail if I'm writing for people unfamiliar with the mod. What do you think of the screenshots? I know I prefer game reports with lots of pictures but they do increase the size and load time of every post. I decided to leave only the most essential screenshots in and put the rest in Spoiler tags. Does that work?

Well, I'm just used to slaving every building I need:D I'm sure both civics can be used very well. Do you build mines for production or just pastures? With slavery, mines are complettely useless (if you've got smokehouse and granary, a simple grassland farm without ressource is stronger...). Only useful for wonders (you only get about half as many hammers by the same amount of slaved population:() or special cases.

Nah, I don't bother with Mines. I use Pastures and Camps, especially hillside Forest Camps. With Agrarianism, on Emperor or Immortal difficulty, production is never an issue, only commerce. Even Wonders depend mostly on commerce. I can usually build any Wonder if I'm the first to discover the technology that unlocks it. If I'm not the first, I usually don't bother. Speaking of which: what do you think of The Pyramids? If you prefer Slavery, you probably research Masonry pretty early. I never build them. 500:hammers: for +50% Worker Speed? I'd rather train 8 extra Workers for 480:hammers:.
 
Speaking of which: what do you think of The Pyramids? If you prefer Slavery, you probably research Masonry pretty early. I never build them. 500:hammers: for +50% Worker Speed? I'd rather train 8 extra Workers for 480:hammers:.

The Pyramids? A great wonder. Perfect to fill your treasury up:D The effect, well, it's nice to have if you conquer them. But I have a stone ressource around my capital in the most games. If I connect it to my capital, I have a 150% production bonus (with Monarchy, and as Solomon is easily my favourite leader [I don't like random leaders, I just love Spiritual too much], I adopt Monarchy in the first round). Now I build a building (or just a settler) and slave it with the maximum (or at least a high, needs a little micro management, of course) overflow. I get 30:hammers: for one sacrificed population, so I can get about 70:hammers: (+the normal production) for the Pyramids. Someone will surely build them, so I get 70:gold: for one population. Even more with Creative Leaders. Wonderful, selling your own people:D
 
Speaking of which: what do you think of The Pyramids? If you prefer Slavery, you probably research Masonry pretty early. I never build them. 500:hammers: for +50% Worker Speed? I'd rather train 8 extra Workers for 480:hammers:.

I'd say it's overpriced for its effect in HR. The high cost made good sense in BTS, since it unlocked all the government civics (several of which were quite powerful and otherwise only available after you got pretty far up the tech tree). +50% Worker speed is a *much* weaker benefit, and should probably come with a substantially lower price tag.
 
I'd say it's overpriced for its effect in HR. The high cost made good sense in BTS, since it unlocked all the government civics (several of which were quite powerful and otherwise only available after you got pretty far up the tech tree). +50% Worker speed is a *much* weaker benefit, and should probably come with a substantially lower price tag.

It could also get a different effect. Didn't you get a free granary in every city in civ III or so? As you build one in every city, this could be a nice effect, too. Or a free cemetery or anything. I like free buildings:D
 
Double post, deleted.
 
Extended Coastlines with Reefs and Culturally Linked Start Locations should probably be enabled by default, both for Custom Games and especially for Quick Starts. New players might not know these options are available (Quick Start sometimes skips right past them) and it's better to offer the full-flavour package by default. Players can choose to turn off these options if they prefer.

My only hesitancy with Culturally Linked starts is that it adds a not insignificant amount of time to map generation. I think extended coasts should be off by default as they change gameplay significantly on some maps. Reefs will be generated on all maps, just in greater quantity with the 'extra reefs' option selected.

Fishing is clearly the weakest starting technology. Carving and Ceremonial Burial unlock buildings while Hunting unlocks an improvement. Fishing simply lets players work water tiles; and 1/0/2 Coast is not particularly attractive at the start of the game. I would reorganize the early naval techs as follows:

FISHING: Can work water tiles, Work Boat, Fishing Boats
SAILING: Harvest Boats, Can trade along rivers
SEAFARING: Galley, Can trade along coast

It makes sense that Fishing Boats are available at Fishing.

Yeah I need to do something along these lines. Noted.

Speaking of which: what do you think of The Pyramids? If you prefer Slavery, you probably research Masonry pretty early. I never build them. 500:hammers: for +50% Worker Speed? I'd rather train 8 extra Workers for 480:hammers:.

I'd say it's overpriced for its effect in HR. The high cost made good sense in BTS, since it unlocked all the government civics (several of which were quite powerful and otherwise only available after you got pretty far up the tech tree). +50% Worker speed is a *much* weaker benefit, and should probably come with a substantially lower price tag.

The other strength of the Pyramids is it's the only ancient era source for Engineer GPP. I agree the cost needs to come down though, I'll lower it to 300:hammers: and increase its culture a bit too.

It could also get a different effect. Didn't you get a free granary in every city in civ III or so? As you build one in every city, this could be a nice effect, too. Or a free cemetery or anything. I like free buildings:D

I don't feel free Granaries makes thematic sense. Best choice thematically would be free Cemeteries but that would make it very strong, possibly too strong. After all, that's a free specialist in all cities, while the Statue of Liberty only grants one on the same continent.
 
Speaking of which: what do you think of The Pyramids? If you prefer Slavery, you probably research Masonry pretty early. I never build them. 500:hammers: for +50% Worker Speed? I'd rather train 8 extra Workers for 480:hammers:.

Say that you have 16 Workers. For the same :hammers: cost, you can build 8 more Workers or the Pyramids, for the same worker-turn advantage. If you have more than 16 Workers, the Pyramids are the better thing to have.

The Pyramids are powerful because their effect scales and their benefit lasts a very long time. Having them means that you only need pay 80 Workers to do the work-per-turn of 120, and can use the maintenance saving to run a bigger army. For this, the price is right!

That said, someone else usually beats me to constructing them, and the chance that their builder is a neighbour close enough to conquer in the early game is slim ...
 
That said, someone else usually beats me to constructing them, and the chance that their builder is a neighbour close enough to conquer in the early game is slim ...

That's it. Someone else, everyone else will try to build them, too. If you build them, you invest early hammers which you can't use for expansion. You'll have less cities than your opponents (which means, by the way, that you need less workers, too;)). It's like Stonehenge. A wonderful effect, yeah. Free cultural expansion, free 30:hammers: for every city. But if you build it, you have to neglect your expansion in the beginning. That weakens you, often more than Stonehenge is worth. The same with The Pyramids. Even with Stone, they cost 2,5 settlers. Just too much.
And the +50% often just disappear complettely or partly (ok, not a big problem on slow game speeds). If you build a road with The Pyramids, you still need two rounds.
 
I was thinking about it but I wanted to have at least one game under my belt in this subforum first. (I've never written a full game report before.) Well, I guess 60 turns is practice enough: I'll publish the next Annal under Stories & Tales for sure. It would be nice to raise the profile of HR in the general forum. I'll post a link to the new thread here. I suppose that's what you mean by "crosslink"?

Also: do you have any feedback about the report itself? I may have to proceed even slower and explain features in more detail if I'm writing for people unfamiliar with the mod. What do you think of the screenshots? I know I prefer game reports with lots of pictures but they do increase the size and load time of every post. I decided to leave only the most essential screenshots in and put the rest in Spoiler tags. Does that work?

I think your first Annals conveyed, that the person writing them is having fun with what he's doing pretty much, which is a strong indicator – forgive me the overused word – of being "authentic" ;), I mean, a reliable narrator.

Don't worry about too many screenshots, because that's in the nature of Civ IV annals and stories, that they're picture heavy. Most readers of such accounts are expecting it and used to it.
 
I think your first Annals conveyed, that the person writing them is having fun with what he's doing pretty much, which is a strong indicator – forgive me the overused word – of being "authentic" ;), I mean, a reliable narrator.

Don't worry about too many screenshots, because that's in the nature of Civ IV annals and stories, that they're picture heavy. Most readers of such accounts are expecting it and used to it.

Thanks, man!

Well, I've started a new thread under Stories & Tales and published the first chapter of my second Annal. You can follow along HERE.
 
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