Barbarian vassal!

[Zongo]

I don't know if this is a known feature, but...

in my current game I decide to grant independence to a couple of cities. I am playing with unlimited leaders, so I spend some time "liberating" and reloading (plus waiting some turns) for the fun of seeing what leader/civ combinations may pop up.
I almost choke when, at one time, I get Barbarian of Celtia as my new vassal.

The barbarian leader. called "Barbarian", has:
1) no traits (no, it isn't aggressive imperialistic) ;
2) the music of the Vikings ;
3) Gengis Khan as a thumbnail face for the diplomacy screen;
4) an animated figurehead which seems not to have any sub-expressions, that is, no noticeable differences between furious and happy , and the figurehead is Sid. In a Fireaxis T-Shirt, with a halo coming and going from time to time .

I upload the save for those of you who want to look at the creator in the eye:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/128905/SidTheBarbarian.CivBeyondSwordSave
The game version is 3.13 + Bhruic patch.

P.S.: the game is a "cheesewalking" scenario - from time to time I like to build myself perfect worlds for perfect games. This game just got more perfect than usual...

CORRECTION - the figurehead DOES have sub-expressions, after all. The halo comes out only when asking what Sid -ahem, Barbarian- thinks of the other civs, and he is "cautious".

 

[Imrahil91]

lol, really funny easter egg he has no favourite civic and has the face of Genghis Kahn in the foreign advisor screen.

 

[Zongo]

Yeah, it's way cool.
I am seriously thinking of helping him win the game...

 

[Diamondeye]

Could be nice to roll this guy at random with unrestricted and top the HoF...

 

[Zongo]

Here is a screenshot of Sid the Barbarian:

Spoiler :

Notice that he does not get any attitude modiefiers, too.
As a side joke, Conan of Aquilonia is my custom name for my civ (Hannibal-HRE). am wondering if this was maybe the condition for unlocking the Easter Egg...

 

[Erik_3E]

Is this a bug or is this realy a part of the game?

 

[Zongo]

Is this a bug or is this realy a part of the game?

I would not call a full-featured animated head a "bug". An Easter egg would be a better description. A groovy Easter egg an even better one.

 

[Zongo]

Could be nice to roll this guy at random with unrestricted and top the HoF...

He comes with NO traits. That would make for a tough game. Maybe you only have a chance of getting him playing at Deity, on Friday the 13th, at midnight.

On second thoughs, he gets NO attitude modifiers either. I don't know how this would plug in the game, but it might be fun - your actions have NO lasting consequence whatsoever -everybody else understand that you are a barbarian- so go for the funky way!

 

[Cabay Jet]

The Sid leaderhead is meant to be used in the Civilization 4 tutorial that comes with the game. (You know, the "scenario"?) He was never meant to appear in game, although he falls through the cracks sometimes as he has here. There's also a mysterious "minor nation" that lurks around in the data files, you might be able to roll him with colonization.

 

[Zongo]

The Sid leaderhead is meant to be used in the Civilization 4 tutorial that comes with the game. (You know, the "scenario"?) [...] There's also a mysterious "minor nation" that lurks around in the data files, you might be able to roll him with colonization.

That's, uh, new news. I guess I filtered the "tutorial" thingy, I do not even remember it...

What kind of minor nation? Just "minor nation" or something like "Fireaxians", etc.?

 

[L4zXX0r]

That's rad.

 

[Cabay Jet]

It is literally called "minor nation." Its flag looks like a diagonal English jack, and that's about all I can remember...

 

[jkp1187]

Nice find!

I'm going to have to try unlimited leaders soon....

Also see here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=137948&highlight=minor+nation

 

[mynystry]

Is this a bug or is this realy a part of the game?

probably is a bug

 

[BretP]

I checked out the save game you posted. You are doing awesome. What level are you playing. I noticed you founded your second city in 3985 BC. How did you pull that off? IF I get big like your civ, my economy begins to hemmorage money every turn. WOuld love some adive on how oyu got so big by 350 AD

 

[loki59]

I've played Conan for a bit, up to 800AD or so. Sid the Barbarian is an obnoxious one for sure. He asks for a new tech every turn, first couple of times I gave in, also gifted all those units You had on his little Island as well as sending 4 workers, 1 settler and a work boat over from the main continent and gifted them to him. I passed a resolution through the AP vote to "stop trading with the infidel barbarian" but he keeps asking for techs every turn. Now I'm waiting for the "wage war on the infidel barbarian" vote to come up.

 

[Zongo]

I checked out the save game you posted. You are doing awesome. What level are you playing. I noticed you founded your second city in 3985 BC. How did you pull that off?

Well, it was a self made game-like scenario - I edited the game to make an ideal continent for me to expand into (notice how all the cities on the eastern continent lie in ideal positions, often on a river or by the sea, with 2 or 3 food resources and another non-food one, but without looking obviously TOO good), and started with a couple extra settlers I did not found the 3rd city right away because I wanted all three of the early religions in a city, which later on will have Wall Street and the headquarters of my 2 corporations of choice (Mining and Sushi, flat spam to all cities on map thanks to the Rathaus).
I'd say that half of my games are "real" games, and the other half are of them are like these

I enjoy making sweetspot worlds as much as I like playing in them. I hate it when in normal games a peak destroys a wonderful pseudocrystal geometry of cities. I guess a terraforming maniac lurks within me...

EDITED - I will post my base strategy in a later post, and I will make it more readable.

To loki59: yes, the barbarian leader is a pain in the butt! He asked me a tech the turn immediately thereafter. I did a fast reload magic and instead of creating a new vassal, I liberated the cities to Pacal. He's a much nicer guy.

 

[Stylesrj]

I did see a Sid leader in the Barebones mod...

 

[kazapp]

Both this and Minor nations has always been part of the game.

What you normally do to play them is change the <bPlayable> setting for the civilization in the ..\Assets\XML\Civilizations\CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml file from zero to one, like this:
<bPlayable>1</bPlayable>

Minor Nations starts with no traits or unique unit/building. As compensation, they do start with all possible starter techs.

Regarding the thread topic - apparently the colonization logic allows the selection of Sid the Barbarian under some circumstances. *shrug*

 

[Zongo]

TRAITS

In "real" non-WBuilt games I play with the HRE and an Organized leader. This gives me a quick Rathaus, which is a tremendous help to keep costs down and expand for as long as you have (or make) space.
As second trait, Industrious helps a lot with the wonders - expecially the AP, which has no quickening resource - and having quick forges cannot be overstated.

CITIES

Apart some cottage-heavy cities for science, I go farm-intensive with 2 objects in mind: first drive production through slavery, and then run a specialist economy when the basic infrastructure is in place.
My template building queue for the basic infrastructure is:
- granary;
- rathaus (quickened by the Organized trait);
- monastery;
- temple;
- forge (1 slot earlier if quickened by the Industrious trait);
- (lighthouse, if applicable - it gets quickened by Organized, too);
- library.

EARLY-GAME

I try to found a religion, get a great priest to pop the shrine and build 4 wonders:
- the Apostolic Palace
- Sistine Chapel
-Sankore University
-Spiral Minaret.
Gunning for Code of Laws is a sensible approach, giving a religion and the Rathaus at the same time.
The Pyramids are also a great wonder to pick, because of early representation - it helps keeping the slave-laboured cities happy but most importantly it gives a tremendous science boost to the specialized economy.
Concerning the remaining wonders, I always try the Oracle slingshot, and I really like the Great Library.
Of course, I spread my religion, uh, religiously

MID-GAME

With the 4 wonders built and the basic infrastructure in place, the cities will pay for themselves:
+4 gold from temple and monastery in the city;
1/4 of costs with a Rathaus built twice as fast thanks to Organized;
1 gp + multipliers in the shrine city.
On top of this, the temple+monastery combo will yeld an extra 4 hammers, 4 beakers and 10 culture, plus the standard benefits of 1 happy face, 3 culture, 10% more science and a priest slot.

Running representation and mercantilism rocks - you get +3 science +2 culture from the specialists. I usually go for 2 scientists and a spy for the direct benefits, but switch to the Lone Engineer in a city where I earlier started farming a Great Person. I want to have a Great Engineer ready to burn the very moment I can found Mining Inc. The same goes for a Great Merchant -> Sid Sushi, but that can also be obtained with some planning and a first hit at Economics. In any case, I run a batch of merchants at my shrine-market-grocer-bank city. It usually suffices to run 100% or 90% science on the slider.

If I feel a war fits in (it does) I forego Macemen, wait for Engineering and build some stacks of City Raider trebuchets and Combat landskechts. On the field, the only thing standing in the way of a landsknecht is a bow unit, so these are the enemies to watch out for. More than the cover promotion, I consider some other unit to clear the path if some-bowman show up at a chokepoint (ideally Cover HRE knights - way cool, black and yellow, they remind me of The Bride in Kill Bill).

LATE-GAME

Scientific Method will kill the Monastery bonus, but playing well this happen not much earlier than founding the first corporations. Ideally, Mining Inc. and Sid Sushi. Thanks again to the Rathaus, the corporations can be brutally spammed to each and every city. Wall Street is an ASAP must, so I start to build the necessary banks some time earlier.
The Mining Inc. boost plus a cheap Factory from the Organized trait make the industrial revolution a real blast.