BTS Roleplaying Challenge: Gandhi

[slobberinbear]

Round 2: 2525 B.C. to 970 A.D. (!!), part one

Yes, the next round lasted about 3000 years. This has got to be a record for the longest single round in civfanatics posted-game history. The short explanation: peace. I never really reached a stopping point where I had a major decision to make. However, as the turns passed, I realized I had to stop if for no other reason than provide an update that wasn’t too massive. As it is, this will probably be broken up into three posts, so I apologize in advance for the length. I will try to cut down on the clutter of images if possible.

We started the round with our first settler ready to grab the stone … but where to put the city? On the stone, or next to it? We learned the enabling tech ...

In the end, I decided to settle on the stone for the faster hookup. Bombay thus was founded, and Suresh moved in as temporary garrison until a replacement garrison could be built there. Delhi, meanwhile, was finishing up a second fast worker while waiting for Masonry to finish and the road to Bombay to allow rapid construction of the Great Wall.

I decided to research Pottery next, both to give my Fast Workers something productive to do and to build cottages, since I don't have a whole lot of commerce tiles on the map (just one river, 3 silk, 1 fur, and 1 wine ... ). Pottery will also make Writing cheaper, though I plan on getting Priesthood (and Animal Husbandry) first as well. Writing should be dirt cheap at that point.

Here's a view of my proposed city sites:

Chandan survived his eastern explorations and was stationed near Greece, learning ever-more about possible trade routes and mercantile opportunities.

Our early barb defenses were complete!

"I do not understand the need for this ... Wall, Manisha," Gandhi said, rubbing his head in concern.

"The people fear for their lives. The wild animals. The wild men. Not all people are as forgiving and peaceful as you, Mahatma," Manisha replied.

"I am not as naive as you may suppose, cousin ... I had hoped to found a nation on the principles of freedom and equality. It seems I must live in the real world."

"I will be your link to the real world, cousin," she replied.

Our defenses from barbarians secure, I turned to Animal Husbandry in hope for horses. Alas, India has only sheep to be pastured, no pigs, we can’t pasture cows, and the only horses on Perry’s far side.

The fools, he thought.

Chandan stood on a hill looking eastward to Greece. The copper deposits were there, waiting to be profitably mined for commercial and military use. But the Greeks were busy with their sheep, it seemed.

He scribbed a message to Delhi and sent it by pigeon.

"We must settle to the northeast NOW," it read.

Manisha concurred with her fiance's judgment. When a group of colonists was ready, they were sent to the northeast as per Chandan's suggestion.

We then finished Writing, having delayed Monotheism in the process. Inevitably,Judaism was founded elsewhere, but not apparently by either Huayna or Perry … until Perry came wanting open borders, which I refused .. then he converted to Judaism and I saw he'd founded it! So much for Hindu harmony! I guess I shouldn't have put off Monotheism, but at least I stole his copper. He'll have to get iron to build his phalanxes, and by then, I'll have axes ready.

Our Third settler finished, and we could now starting the Pyramids. But it was still early enough, on Prince, to try to get the Oracle and the Pyramids!

"Since we have our Wall, we should now build up our spirits. Let the Hindu conclave build an Oracle so as to divine further the nature of the Universe." Gandhi said quietly.

Work on the Oracle began immediately.

We founded our fourth city to get the sheep and fish, and to deny Perry a close city site for when I did open borders with him:

While the Oracle was being built, we got our first Great Person ... Manisha!

"You are sure about this, cousin?" Gandhi queried.

"I am. I cannot stand by as my future husband and ... others .. risk their lives. I can do my part to aid India's security ... to learn all we can of our neighbors," she said.

"Just be sure you watch your own soul, Manisha, while you discern the secrets of others'."

Ah, the eternal question ... to settle or infiltrate? In the end, I decided to settle, for the extra beakers and to get a long-term EP edge on both Huayna and Perry. Besides, I wouldn’t be using those huge EP points on causing unrest from invasions, hopefully …

Part one of our gamble paid off ...

And I had a lot of great techs to choose from:

CoL and Theology held the most appeal, as they are the priciest techs on the list and give a religion. CoL is looking attractive as research is starting to fall to 50% due to expansion … plus courthouses give more EPs. CoL it is! We ended up founding Confucianism as a bonus, keeping it out of the hands of our neighbors.

We then had one of the more amusing random events:

Trouble with Truffles ... sounds like a bad Star Trek episode.

Taking CoL had the unexpected consequence of Confucianism organically spreading to Huayna, who then converted to the faith … my happy Hindu world is falling apart on me

We got another random event … the perfect event for missionaries .. and I didn't have enough money to fund the super-conversion mission!! Aargh! Note to self: keep reserve of 150 gold at all times.

Perry then asked me to convert to Judaism. He and I will be having that conversation, just the other way around, very soon … Unfortunately, he is now annoyed with me. I decide to open borders with him and try to spread Hinduism to him.

Part two of our gamble also paid off:

"This is surely the height of ostentation, Manisha," he fumed.

"The people built it as a monument to you. They call you the Father of the Nation, Gandhi. If it angers your modesty ... think of it as a celebration of India itself."

"You have surely learned to manipulate me too well," he laughed. "I'd best be sending you to Pericles before I end up believing I am the Godhead."

I swapped out to Representation and Caste System. I didn’t previously switch to CS before due to lack of bigger cities and food surplusses, building wonders, and because I forgot in all of the Oracle excitement. There you are.

So by 410 B.C., we had four cities, built the Great Wall, Oracle, and Pyramids, and cut off Pericles from expanding in our direction.

 

[slobberinbear]

Round 2: 2525 B.C. to 970 A.D. (!!), part two

Gandhi arrived in the city of Athens without fanfare. To the great concern of all, he went alone, on foot, clad only in his simple robes. The first Greek soldier who spotted him thought he was a vagabond.

"I am Gandhi of India. I am here at the invitation of your Philosopher-King, Pericles," he said, handing over a document with the seal of Greece.

After a day of rest, he was shown into a great building of stone and marble, an ampitheatre of sorts. Gathered on the stone seats were Athens' thinkers and scientists and theologians. They all looked upon Gandhi with bemused interest. He took his seat in an uncomfortable golden chair, one of a pair. Pericles himself then entered, and all in the room fell prostrate to the floor. Gandhi, for his part, bowed low and smiled.

The Greek began. "God. He is One. He is all. He sees all, knows all, and does all. By his will we live and by his will we die. Is this not the nature of divinity?" The assembly nodded and murmured approval.

"Is God good?" Gandhi asked simply.

"Of course!" Pericles thundered.

"Then how can One God, a good God who is all-powerful and all-knowing, suffer the existence of Evil?" he asked, calmly.

Thus began the Great Debate of Nations.

While the Debate was somewhat scandalous in certain circles, no Greek left it without a few thoughts running through his head. As he left Athens for Delhi, more than a few Greeks stopped him to ask of the nature of Hinduism, and thus the faith of India was introduced to Greece.

We finished a very key technology thereafter:

Tech trading and spies. Everything a peacemonger needs to keep ahead! Next up: Currency. The planning is to trading for IW, Mathematics, Hunting, and Sailing and steal bigger tech-game if possible.

Our next Great Person arrived ...

"You have seen the Greeks, Mahatma. You know their nature. We must gather our information about our neighbors in one place, for study and understanding."

Gandhi looked dubiously at her. "Just be sure that India is always an inspiration for others, and not seen as a knife waiting to be plunged into an unsuspecting back."

We build Scotland Yard in Delhi to multiply the EPs there. Already we were building up a nice stockpile of EPs and Manisha was licking her chops to use them.

Meanwhile, I put Delhi in a high-growth food mode to get up to the happy caps.

After Perry finished Math I went to go see him about a trade … and I’m the worst enemy. Gah.

What about Huayna? Surely he'd want to trade, right ... eh ...

Huayna was even worse. Not even open borders was available with him. I gave Huayna Priesthood to try to soften him up, but with no immediate positive effects.

Time to get the missionaries out and build up the power rating! And spies … time to steal those techs they won’t trade for!

I then notice that Perry has Iron, because Athens has a phalanx and yet I'm working his only nearby copper, thank you very much. I don’t have IW yet, so I can’t see it.

Around this time, someone founded Christianity somewhere else.

Huayna asked for tribute, Monotheism .. I caved … he went from Annoyed to Cautious, but he still won’t open borders.

Around that time, India trained its first spy .. guess who?

Huayna then came to me for open borders .. and I accepted. He also wants to trade techs. I decided to go for the little stuff, so that Manisha could steal something worthwhile from Perry. Huayna wouldn’t trade Mathematics, but I got Iron Working, Hunting, and Sailing from him for Code of Laws. And we have iron, near Bombay, also to the south of Delhi in the jungle area and to the northwest near the wine.

--

She knew it was rude, but she passed by Vijayanagara knowing that her intended was there ... but she couldn't face him now. She had other things on her mind: the infiltration of Athens.

"Surely they will suspect you," Gandhi said.

"I am merely a diplomat, cousin."

"The Greeks are a suspicious, self-assured people. Be wary."

The first few days she established her residence in Athens and took visitors. Yet always she was followed. When she declined to participate in a religious debate, she was beaten and forcibly ejected from the city as a harlot.

Bloody, bruised, and barely able to walk, she stumbled westward ...

He had seen her go. It took all of his will to simply watch her leave. But watch he did, and when she awoke, it was in a bed in Vijayanagra, under the watchful eyes of Chandan, her intended.

She awoke with a start, embarassed.

"Did you learn anything?" he asked simply.

"That the Greeks are insufferable pigs!" she spat.

"Read this," he said, handing her a Hindu scripture. "I will visit you tomorrow."

She did read, but was not chastened by the message of wisdom ... rather, she was emboldened. The note she left him simply read ... "thank you, my future husband."

She snuck out of the house late that night and went east, back to Athens. Not as a diplomat, but as a violated Hindu Priestess!

The Greek thinkers, shocked at this woman's rough treatment, offered much in the way of apology ...

--

Yes, poor Manisha was captured in her first mission of espionage. During her "convalesence," I pulled a trade with Perry: Mathematics and Archery for Code of Laws. I figured I'd steal Monarchy from him so that I could work my wine tile eventually, since I had no desire to actually research Monarchy myself.

As it turned out, Manisha's second attempt went much better:

Yes!

We got another key economic tech right about then:

It was time to get the silk hooked up, finally, and start resource trading -- especially with Huayna, who didn't share my resources like Perry did.

We also got an interesting random event ...

"The herb can save lives," she said.

"The herb will kill those who are tested," he replied.

"The needs of the many ..."

"ARE NOT SERVED BY INHUMAN TESTING!!" he spat, furious. "I will not approve a treatment such as this!"

--

Ahh, roleplaying. We said no thanks to the herbs.

We then got our first Great Engineer. Around this time I recalled that Christianity had been founded fairly recently. Could I tech Theology and rush the AP?

Yes, yes I could. The grand meeting hall of the Hindu was built! Bonus hammers for everyone!

And the hits just kept on comin' ...

I also settled a few more of the city sites during the round, securing our southern lands from Incan settlement and getting the wine city going. Research was around 50-60% of our spending, and the beakers per turn were steadily rising due to investment in infrastructure buildings, growing cottages, trade routes, and our silk tiles.

However, although our building and teching and diplomacy was going well enough, our exploration was awful. I finally built a galley and set forth to explore Huayna's lands. Manisha, flush with a second success following yet another brush with Greek "justice," had determined to go to the Incan homeland to gather intelligence ...

 

[slobberinbear]

Round Two: 2525 B.C. to 970 A.D. (!!), part three

She was in her own thoughts that morning, organizing her mission to Cuzco. She strode along the road hugging the river south of Delhi, and idly noticed a man at the water's edge ...

He hadn't noticed her, as he was deep in his morning exercises, shirtless, his long black hair spilling past his waist. She drew in a sharp breath, shocked in recognition.

He turned, sword instantly in hand, then laughed. After a moment of silence between them, he nodded slightly and began to run the wooden comb through his hair, to be bound into his turban soon thereafter.

No words were said as she came to him. He led her to a secluded bend in the river, and Manisha took him as fiercely as Suresh took her.

--

While the exploration was beginning, Perry came offering his cows! To be eaten! We said no thanks ...

He later came at me with a demand for silk, once I had some online. No sense starting a war over one resource, not while I am out-techhing him peacefully. The move paid off, as Perry then came back to me offering his wine for my rice. So while he initially refused to trade me wine for silk and rice, I ended up getting the wine for my silk and rice anyway, and got the diplomatic boost from paying him the silk tribute to boot. Sometimes it pays to be a wimp.

A key tech followed that:

I made the switch to Bureaucracy immediately, even though Delhi was really a production city and not much of a commerce producer (other than the silk and cottaged cows). I recall that the Bureaucracy multiplier doesn't apply towards shrine income and other gold ... only commerce, IIRC. But who cares! I get more hammers!

Speaking of hammers, earlier (around 200 A.D. or so) I had also acquired Meditation, finally, and had built Hindu monasteries (and temples too) to get the bonus hammers from the AP.

Our exploration started to pay off and we met our favorite techmeister:

Seems he was hacked off that I was trading with Huayna, even though Huayna didn't seem to care that I ended up opening borders and trading resources with Mansa. Go figure. Anyway, Perry had met Mansa first (from open borders with me, no doubt), and Mansa was Jewish. He had just picked up Philosophy, too, and by the end of the Round, Mali was a Taoist state.

I resolved to get Philsophy and beat Mansa to Angkhor Wat. When I had nearly completed Philosophy, Mansa was willing to trade it to me for Literature, which was fine with me, since I had just completed ...

So I immediately switched Delhi to AW and started running Pacifism per our RP rules. Besides, I wanted more GPPs and Organized Religion was really only useful at this point for the bonus production in Delhi. The switch to Pacifism also saved me quite a lot of cash in civics cost ... I was able to bump science a notch after the switch, too.

But the question remained: could I beat Mansa to AW, even though he'd had a 10+ turn lead on me?

Wonders, wonders, everywhere! But also, we finally got a great prophet, and built the Hindu shrine. Vishnu be praised!!

Huayna then approached with this turkey of a trade:

I was feeling generous, and agreed. He liked me a lot better after that, so much so, that he was willing to convert ... for a price.

I went ahead and converted him. He'll be my little diplomatic buddy now.

I researched Paper and started building the Library of Sankore. The round ended with a solid cultural tech:

I was hoping to get the free great artist, but apparently the Buddhists on the other continent got there first. At any rate, this opened up Hindu Cathedrals (or whatever they're called ) and will be good trade bait with my neighbors.

One more Great Prophet (settled in Delhi, natch), ended the round.

Here's the maps and relevant info screens:

Thus, we still have a lot to do exploration-wise, military-preparedness-wise, and settling-wise. Tech is good and Diplomacy fine so far. The plan is to steal Machinery, the seafaring techs, and gunpowder (when they get it) all the while researching Liberalism, Nationalism, and Constitution myself.

You can also see that Perry, denied expansion on our continent, went to settle next to Mansa. Better him than me!

Again, thank you for reading the long post and sorry for the huge round. Without war there are a lot fewer major decisions to make, and one turn just led to another. Your thoughts and criticism are appreciated.

 

[Groogaroo]

Its a shame that you didn't get a chance to spread your religion before the others adopted other religions, its kind of lucky you have fairly nice neighbours. Despite the religious differences your doing well diplomatically, well done on converting Huayna Capac and getting pericles to just cautious, Mansa might be annoyed but with him thats more like cautious really!

And all those wonders you nabbed, Nice!

I love the story telling aspect, Its a nice touch!

 

[slobberinbear]

Thanks. I find that by naming the units and posting my games, I am a lot more careful and pay much more attention. It's also a creative outlet.

It's funny about the wonders ... when you are in a peaceful game, you almost are forced into building them. You can't build settlers, because you can't afford the maintenance ... you don't build up a huge army ... so your hammers have to go somewhere, and why not into a wonder.

I suppose you could produce wealth or research instead, but since Gandhi is Philosophical, a wonder strategy makes sense for him. It would be interesting to see a peaceful, non-wonder game though.

 

[NintendoTogepi]

This game is quite entertaining! I love the little stories!

It sucks that Judaism and Confucianism weren't founded on the other continent...

 

[slobberinbear]

Round 3: 970 A.D. to 1380 A.D

Round Three was shorter (could it be longer than the prior round? I think not). It was mainly devoted to teching, diplomacy, spying, trying to up my power rating, exploring, experimenting with civics, and my own attempt to maximize Liberalism. And a victory condition is starting to present itself, methinks.

I was getting so many techs, and had so many buildings I wanted to build, it was a real struggle trying to balance the desire to improve my cities with the necessities of defending India. I kept reminding myself that I would eventually meet the evil Buddhists on the other continent, and their transports loaded with troops would have zero trouble amphibious-assaulting my warrior-defended shoreline. *gulp*.

Spying is a frustrating business. On the plus side, Manisha ran a mission for a key tech...

But for every success, there was a failure and a getting caught while traveling to the target city and/or waiting for the EP cost to drop. I had decided to keep even weight spying on all three of my neighbors, and more or less rotated my spies among them while the EPs directed to the other two reloaded.

All in all, I would say trading techs is easier, but spying is fun (and you get to maintain your tech lead), once you accept that there is more effort required in doing it and have realistic expectations.

I had some fun with spies too besides stealing. Jewish Perry suddenly saw the light on Hinduism ... I'm sure it had nothing to do with the top Rabbi being caught red-handed extorting funds from the Greek treasury ... muahaha...

He even liked me better. Any time, pal!

Unfortunately, Manisha was captured twice during the round, including on this better-than-average attempt to convert Mansa:

So while spying was fun, and did get a few techs, it wasn't enough to achieve tech dominance. We got this semi-disturbing information to confirm that:

Those Buddhists have to be dealt with, and soon. Here's the religion screen in the middle of the round. As you can see, the Buddha bloc is signficant.

We completed just one wonder this round, the Library of Sankore ... the rest of Delhi's hammers went to get a lot of the basics, including a market, forge, university, and the National Epic. With all of the settled great people (including Chandan, who joined as a Great Merchant ... more on him next round), Delhi is becoming a force of nature. Hammers, beakers, gold ... not terribly specialized, but very nice.

And one of our key tech goals was realized:

One city was settled, to the far north:

I settled it both to increase our population, get a few resources, and to prevent a backdoor settlement from one of my neighbors.

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a trade with Huayna to pick up Compass and Feudalism. Everything I gave him (other than Music) was at least two tech-generations old and everything useful had been built from them. It let me backfill techs a little and supplement my stealing ... so that I could pursue my Liberalism plan.

Around the middle of the round, after Education came through, I had the option to research Liberalism. But none of the "free tech" options really impressed me. I figured I was the first one to Education ... why not try to make Liberalism really work for me? The gamble here was that I had no idea how advanced the Buddhists were, and every turn I halfway expected to see that Liberalism was discovered in a faraway land. So I wanted to get an impact tech, but not screw myself by being too greedy.

First up: Nationalism, for the Taj Mahal. I switched briefly into Nationhood to see the effects of the bonus EPs. It was nice, but as I didn't have barracks in very many cities, and wasn't drafting units, I'm not sure Nationalism was a good fit at the time. But hey, Gandhi is the Father of the Nation.

Then, Constitution, for my Mausoleums. I started building these right away. The bonus EPs and the EP multiplier will be huge, and the happiness is nice too.

Manisha stole this ... Caravels for India!

And I researched Printing Press quickly. Could I finish Liberalism first to get a Democracy slingshot?

Yes! The gambit paid off, and now we could really do some evil passive-aggressive things to everyone, other than spying. I'm talking Emancipation, which everyone else is a long way from being able to adopt ...

I may have gotten a little carried away on the civics here. I went ahead and swapped into Free Speech, Emancipation, and Free Religion. With the civics change, I was ready to start cottaging more of India. As it was, only about 1/3 of the cities had cottages -- but I had grown many the cities with farms. Clearly, I need Biology to get the best of both worlds at this point. I adopted the advanced civics more out of a sense of what Gandhi would do rather than whether it will help me with the game. Although I think early Emancipation is a great way to put the long-term happiness hurtin' on everyone else.

Probably my biggest question here is going to Free Religion. On the one hand, FR left me "pleased" with all three of my neighbors, whereas before I had the -4 religious penalty with Mansa. Since I had caravels out looking for the Buddhists, being in FR would help establish relations and get open borders and trade routes once I hit Astronomy (which is next on the list).

On the other hand, I'd burnt an engineer on the AP, and I will lose control of it going to FR. It would be ironic if I got hoisted by my own religious petard, as it were.

So tell me what you think here. Back to Hinduism for a bit, while I convert the world? Or stay in FR to be friends with everyone? One leads to a possible AP diplomatic victory, the other to space.

Oh, and I have a Great Engineer I decided to save. My odds of getting another one are slim, so I figured I'd keep him around for a corporation or juicy wonder.

Here are the round-ending screenies:

Notice the cottage on the right over our non-pastured bovines. Brings new meaning to the phrase "cash cow."

Thank you, I'm here all night. Try the veal.

Everyone *wuvs* me.

I still need more units. Without slavery, I'm having to build key buildings the hard way, and my power rating is suffering. I need a navy, and soon.

Here's the map of the Mansa/Huayna continent, after doing a map trade or two:

So .. keep Free Religion or not? Per our RP rules, I had to take the most advanced Legal and Labor techs available...

After I tech Astronomy, I'm going to aim either for Biology or for the tech that enables Frigates, which escapes me now. I figure my biggest security threat is a flotilla of angry Buddhists. But I could really use some bonus food production, too. Your thoughts?

**UPDATE 4/24**

I'm not getting much response to the thread, whether because of the numerous other games going on or just the lack of interest in this particular game. I'm prepared to go forward, but I don't want to clutter up the boards just for my own ego's sake. So if you'd like me to continue the game, I will ... but if not, I'll let it drift off into oblivion.

 

[matthewthegreat]

**UPDATE 4/24**

I'm not getting much response to the thread, whether because of the numerous other games going on or just the lack of interest in this particular game. I'm prepared to go forward, but I don't want to clutter up the boards just for my own ego's sake. So if you'd like me to continue the game, I will ... but if not, I'll let it drift off into oblivion.

Please finish the game! I had thought about quitting the RPC I'm doing right now but I found out that even if no one posts a lot of people are lurking.

I myself have not posted so far but have been following this RPC and have been waiting for the next round. So please continue I have been really enjoying it.

 

[Groogaroo]

I think you have to finish the thread, how else will I know what happens between Manisha, Suresh and Chandan.

 

[madscientist]

Finish the thread.

The AP is a finicky thing, so I would bank the game on the predictable space race which I cannot see you losing.

Otherwise your doing fine, no advice here.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I think I'll shadow this out of boredom . Haven't looked at anything but the rules yet.

 

[thefais]

Keep this going!

Seems like Biology is the best for priority #1, especially if you shoot for a diplo win. After scoping out the other 3 leaders you'll be more able to see if FR is necessary - Even then, you'll likely have time before (if) they invade.

 

[pigswill]

Accidental post.

 

[slobberinbear]

Round 4: 1380 A.D. to 1655 A.D.

The round began with a list of question marks. Who would be awaiting our caravels on the far side of the world? How would Gandhi's adoption of Free Religion affect his control of the Apostolic Palace? Could we gain the tech lead and avoid invasion?

We started off colonizing one of the last bits of arable land on the subcontinent:

Again, nothing wonderful, just securing it against a neighbor's backdoor colonization. Later, I put a city one more city to the east, across the bay from Bangalore. The AI is ruthless about gobbling up every last bit of real estate.

And then the AP vote came up. Perry won. Ironic that, since I had converted him to Hinduism in the first place. Ah well, the price of Free Religion. I was still Pleased with everyone, but had to wonder whether it was worth the trouble to convert Perry. At the time, I did it as a defensive move to keep him happy with me, but the long-term effect was a bit of a backfire, but no harm so far.

Still bringing up the rear in military might, too:

The caravels, sailing westward, met our main adversary for the endgame:

Darius occupies the middle portion of a large continent. To his north, his vassal:

And to his south, the last leader, who shockingly, was NOT Buddhist. There was hope in avoiding a religious bloc ...

Of course, Cathy is a bit of a nag and temperamental to boot. She's the closest thing we have to a nutcase on the map.

Around this time, we got another Great Engineer. You will recall I had one stashed for future unspecified uses. So when this one popped up, I knew I had to use it for the Statue of Liberty, especially since the other civs would be gunning for Democracy now that I had adopted Emancipation. Fine with me -- let them burn their beakers on that (and not military techs) while I get to space!

Anyway, I couldn't quite build the SoL yet, as Delhi was busy on another wonder at the moment.

While I was waiting, there was a flurry of trade activity. I got Guilds and Banking from Mansa, Engineering from Cathy, and a cartload of various health and happy resources from both Cathy and Darius. I also had to deal with the every-10-turns-Cathy-makes-unreasonable-demand-for-techs-and-resources issue. In the meantime, I was researching Gunpowder, necessary both for my anemic power rating and to get Chemistry, which I wanted for Frigates and to get to Biology.

Well, gunpowder completed, and I started working on muskets immediately.

--

The end did not bring relief to Chandan.

After years of service to India abroad, Manisha returned to fulfill her familial obligations. She found Chandan matured and wealthy beyond belief. He had returned from the East with several key Greek trading concessions, and was a Great Merchant established in Delhi. He had acquired a certain gravity, assurance, and maturity from his travels, and was not unattractive to her. Doing her duty was ... pleasant, as shocking as she found that truth.

Their wedding was attended by thousands, and the approving Gandhi gave her away. Generous gifts from foreign lands poured in, which the couple largely gave to the needy of Delhi. The last gift was a long, heavy object wrapped in simple cloth.

"It is for you, my husband."

Unwrapping it, he found a curved sword of stunning craftsmanship. Holding it, he saw it was suited for a larger man than he, and laughed. "Surely, this must be for a giant."

Manisha fainted.

She bore him three daughters, but every so often he found her standing on the balcony, looking to the south. No amount of lavish appointments or fawning servants could please her. Successful in every endeavor in his life, Chandan was determined to rescue his wife from her malaise.

But she grew weaker and thinner, and took no visitors but her daughters. The consumption had taken her, and within a few months, Manisha was gone. Chandan was inconsolable at her funeral, railing at the officiating priests.

He gathered all of his resources, all of his favors, and all of his associates. No expense was spared, and many wondered if the merchant would bankrupt himself. But it was finished, his last tribute to the woman he ever loved ...

"Have I earned you now, my love?" he cried as he gazed upon the monument, then collapsed in sorrow.

--

As the Golden Age began, one of the Great Engineers was burned (not literally ... the pyres were after he finished his work) to build most of the Statue of Liberty, which soon completed in Delhi.

Bonus specialists everywhere! This would be handy in my quest to get one more Great Merchant ... more on that later.

I researched Economics so that I could swap into Free Market and boost my trade route income, and realize Gandhi's dream of capitalism in India:

One of Manisha's trainees also managed to liberate this tech from Mansa:

I had a few unchopped forests left and decided to get Replaceable Parts for lumbermills, and of course to eventually get rifling to avoid being invaded. I became more and more convinced that Cathy's Christian Crusaders (tm) would be arriving on India's shores armed with balilaikas, borscht, and bullets.

I gave her some gifts to make her happy. This woman is hard to please.

To get Biology, I had to make a run through Scientific Method, which is one of the "obsoleting" techs. Ah well. Necessary for the Nation.

Around this time, Perry's southern cities (on the Mansa/Huayna continent) split off. I now had the Albino Archon to deal with.

He was relatively easy to deal with for a change. In other vassal state news, Liz broke from Darius, which immediately dropped him in the score totals.

In a bit of historical irony, India was supporting British independence for the remainder of the round. I gave her a gift or two and some generous trades.

The true goal of the round then was realized: food for everyone!

The round ended with a key industrial and military tech, and India had risen to scientific prominence!

Delhi started on the Ironworks right away.

India has also crept a little up the power chart, thanks to some musketeer-and-frigate building in my two production cities. I was still being far outpaced by Cathy, though, who was vaulting past Darius. Hopefully, she'll invade him and not me.

Here's a look at the city screen:

I'm at Pleased status with everyone except Darius, Cathy, and the vassal Justinian, who are Cautious. Without a shared religion bonus, I don't have a whole lot to work with diplomatically with them, particularly since the RP rules dictate my civics choices.

The plan for the endgame is twofold:

(1) to found either Sid's Sushi or Mining, Inc. If I get Sid's, I domestically produce 10 rice + seafood resources, which translates into five free food for each city with the corporation, plus another .5 food for every resource I can get in trades. That's two more specialists in every corp. city. The downside? I need a great merchant. Medicine, the enabling tech, is around the corner.

Founding Mining, Inc. would give me +1 hammer in every corp. city for every mineral resource. I have 8 minerals domestically, though I haven't discovered coal yet and may have more. +8 hammers, after being run through my various city modifiers, is huge. The downside: I'm unlikely to be able to get more of these minerals through trade, as they are strategic minerals. Railroad, the enabling tech, is fairly close at hand. And the kicker: I already have the great engineer.

(2) Space. I have three cities capable of building spaceship parts, realistically. The rest of the cities are just supporting the economy. I plan on building up a steady stream of units, especially naval units, to guard my west coast. Cathy will come after India, mark my words.

 

[matthewthegreat]

If you already have the great engineer I would found Mining, Inc. Mining is very good if you are going for a space race, after the modifiers you are going to have some thing like +20 hammers which will really help will the race

 

[madscientist]

Tech towards military dominance and keep the power numbers high enough to give Cathy reasonable doubt in attacking you. She is by far the most dangerour adversary for a peaceful endgame. By all means do whatever you can to get her and Darius at each others throats.

Once the threat of Cathy has been nullified, I think you ar epretty much set. Good job!!

 

[Commodore Nate]

Mining, Inc.! You need hammers in every city to produce casings and engines, as well as in your production cities to make the big parts.

 

[slobberinbear]

Round 5: 1655 A.D. to 1915

Another long round follows. We started the round with three main concerns: founding a corporation, getting to space, and avoiding invasion, particularly by our wild Russian lass across the ocean.

I decided to found Mining, Inc. to help with the hammer output of my cities and thereby speed up spaceship construction. So I switched my research from Medicine to Steam Power. I wanted to uncover coal and get it online for my Ironworks in Delhi, and also to get to Railroad -- the tech that unlocks Mining, Inc. and provides other hammer-related bonuses.

Step one:

India has one one coal resource, near Perry’s lands. One more reason I'm glad to have blocked him in the early game. As it turns out, my northeasterly city also claimed uranium, which thankfully turned out to be an unnecessary resource. At any rate, one coal is enough for Ironworks, and will add +1 hammer if I can get Mining, Inc. off the ground.

During this round, I was never really sure who my biggest adversary would be: Darius, Mansa, or Cathy. All three had larger empires than India's. Mansa was teching hard (as usual) and of course Cathy alternated between "come hither" and "woman scorned" … in the end, I decided to devote EPs equally to all three.

India then finished Railroad, and I founded Mining Inc. in Delhi ...

By the end of the game, each branch of Mining, Inc. was worth about 36 hammers, 52 in Delhi -- at a total cost of around 150 gold per turn when you figure in the corporate costs and trade costs (I had to pay for some resources). This essentially doubled the production of my #2-5 production cities, and was huge. A large part of my diplomatic game was focused on rearranging my existing trades (I had been giving away minerals for happy and health resources) and acquiring mineral resources from the other civilizations. So one of the other hidden costs of Mining, Inc. turned out to be reduced health and happiness, since I lacked other trade resources (until later) once I pulled India's minerals off the trading block.

I had a visit from Cathy, who is pleased with me … apparently some of the negative modifiers have fallen off. But no man is ever safe with Cathy around … throughout the round, I was cajoling, bribing, and placating this woman. With apologies to Mrs. Bear, I felt like I had a second wife.

Besides the corporation and production bonus, Railroad also lets you build machine guns, a great defensive unit that you can get without even touching the Rifling tech line. And, of course, Railroad gives your workers something to do, as they often have little to do by this stage of the game, unless you are changing improvements due to civics.

As I stated in my Sitting Bull game, I don't do reloads. If I mess up, I post it. Well, I had automate executives and missionaries on (I love it for missionaries to reduce unit management) ... and so when Delhi built an executive, Mining inc. spread to a city I didn’t want it to – my commerce city! Although the extra hammers were nice and I could deal with the cost, it wasn't what I had in mind! Live and learn. I would not spam a corporation in every city; aside from the cost of the executive, the other costs do add up, and the reality was I didn't need every city to max out its production. In the end, Mining, Inc. was in about half of my cities.

An intersting corporate issue is paying gold for your key resources. For example, at one point I was paying 12 gpt to Cathy for her copper… I’m essentially swapping gold for hammers here. At first, that sounds exhorbitant, but when you think about it, by the endgame I was getting about 2-3 hammers in 6 cities from that one copper ...

One of my buddies in the round was Liz:

Besides this Pact, we did several trades. She actually came a long way from being Darius' vassal last round.

My lack of excess trade resources caused me to pursue the Modern Era resource wonders: Broadway, Rock N Roll, and Hollywood. So after Combustion gave me access to my oil (I had two), I went for Electricity and Radio, which led to ...

Once I had Rock N Roll, India's A&R record executives started peddling “Smells Like Teen Curry” worldwide. Not many takers at first, though … we need to work on the Bolly Grunge sound.

I had been worried about Broadway, because Darius had beat me to Electricity. In the end, Delhi had levees and railroaded lumbermill and mine tiles to go with Mining, Inc.'s bonus hammers … and I had triggered a golden age with a prophet for an extra boost. The GA shaved another two turns off Broadway's completion time.

Broadway and the other late-game resource wonders are critical if you are playing a peaceful game. Often, you simply don't have a ton of resources to trade with (since there was no conquest), and you need more and more of them simply to make a trade, as the AI civs start asking for 2:1 deals. And each wonder gives you five of each! With these two wonders, I was able to reestablish my old trades for health and happy resources and keep acquiring new minerals for Mining, Inc. By the end of the game, almost half of my minerals powering the corporation were from trades. In fact, I actually got some cash back on some of these deals:

Another wonder game to Delhi:

Our spies were less active this round. Even with a 10% espionage slider, I simply never got enough EPs to steal many techs, and since I wasn't at war, I didn't have a big use for the other spy missions. I think India stole two or three more techs this round, but that was mainly backfilling. I still think stealing is a great way to backfill techs to preserve a tech monopoly. By the end of the game, I had so many stockpile EPs, I reduced the slider back to 0% and just coasted with a settled great spy and a specialist here and there.

This had been the most peaceful game of Civ I'd played in ages, mainly because I wasn't attacking yet had gradually built a respectable defense force. But ... war was bound to happen sooner or later. Thankfully, though, not in India.

Cathy declared on Darius. Better him than me. Per our RP rules, I said no to her offer to join the fray, and frankly my military lacked any assault units anyway. I was strictly built for defense, with destroyers on the coast and machine gunners in the cities. As the round progressed, I started sending submarines to Cathy's coast, just in case.

Cathy’s declaration triggered a massive world war. Apparently all of the generals were itching to play with their toys. Huayna joined in the fight against Darius, and Liz came in against Cathy. Mansa then declared on Huayna, who had been irritating him for millennia now. Only me, Perry, and Justinian were on the sidelines.

I had regained control of the AP in a unanimous vote (I was Pleased with nearly everyone, IIRC). Perhaps I could force a peace between Mansa and Huayna, at least?

Liz traded me medicine, straight up, for railroad. Odd, since it was an even-beaker trade. It allowed me to put hospitals in select cities, as health was becoming an issue with factories going up. I never did switch to Environmentalism yet, though … I needed the trade routes and was unwilling to raise corporate maintenance. Besides, most of my cities were small enough that I wasn't needing additional health.

At any rate, while battle was raging worldwide, I was busy teching like a little madman. Nothing to see here, Cathy, yes, keep fighting Darius ...

Once Rocketry was done, I started on the Apollo Program and the space race. But before I could build spaceship parts, I needed to improve my production. I first went for Plastics to enable construction of the Three Gorges Dam, then to satellites and a longish path to Robotics (through Computers) for the Space Elevator.

The war raged on. Eventually, Huayna got things patched up between he and Mansa and Darius. Cathy’s Cossacks, meanwhile, had captured two of Darius’ cities. But she was woefully behind in tech ... Cathy ended up being an attack dog, though certainly not on my leash.

The conflicts gradually died down, and the only combatants left were Darius and Cathy, locked in a bloody war of attrition. In the end, Darius and Cathy finally made peace with the help of a mediator. No doubt part of the deal involved Cathy conquering Darius in other ways best left unmentioned. Regardless, the net tally: Cathy had taken about three of his cities over about 100 years.

Without a target, Cathy was getting uppity. She demanded Biology, I caved.

A widower for years, Chandan had arrived in middle age with some grace and gravity, and, contrary to popular belief, the Taj Mahal had not bankrupted the merchant. To the contrary, after a year had passed since Manisha's death, Chandan was propositioned by all sorts of hopeful men seeking a husband for their daughters ...

--

Through some luck, I had aluminum in my borders, two of them. Everyone wanted my spare aluminum. Ain't happenin'. Used in both spaceship components and military units, I had zero interest in parting with it, even for another Mining, Inc. mineral or two.

It was time to build the Ship.

Mansa was clearly my biggest rival for the Space vicotry, but he had only just finished Apollo when India's ship was halfway built … and he never did actually build a spaceship part.

Gandhi was aging; gracefully, he hoped, but this life was ending, of that he was certain. He had one task remaining before he left India to govern herself.

He traveled south of Delhi, to the riverside she had told him about years ago. And there he was. The Sikh bowed low when he saw the Father of the Nation. Gandhi smiled and sat on a large rock at the river's edge.

"You must be Suresh." The Sikh's eyes flamed, but he was silent. Their common link, a woman they each loved in different ways, was an unspoken presence amongst them.

"We must live this life, wherever it takes us. My life is nearly spent. But yours is not," Gandhi continued.

"I am half the man I was," Suresh lamented.

"I disagree. She who you seek awaits you, somewhere in the universe, reborn anew." He paused, sizing up the younger man. "Would you seek her now?"

"I would cut through the armies of Russia for her," Suresh cried, his heart bursting.

Gandhi smiled. "Then go to her."

 

[slobberinbear]

Victory!

In the end, this turned out to be an easier game than I'd thought, largely because there was only one nutcase on the map, and she was far away from me with a competent neighbor who wouldn't be steamrolled. I ended up with the perfect set-up for the space race.

The RP rules really didn't hinder me too much. I suppose it would have been handy to take out Perry, and slavery doubtless would have been useful early in the game. Not warring meant I was able to focus more on production, espionage, and corporate issues, which resulted in a very different endgame than with my previous outing as Sitting Bull.

Anyway, thank you for sticking with the thread, and as always, please give me your feedback.

 

[Nares]

Anyway, thank you for sticking with the thread, and as always, please give me your feedback.

Maybe put the "reports" in spoiler tags?

This page alone is covered in photos. I can only imagine how painful it would be to load it with a dialup, or even DSL.

It would also make the few lurker comments more readily visible.

Also, have you considered posting this in the stories forum? I think it borderlines on both strategy and story, and cross-posting might be a good way to bring people from one forum to the other, and vise versa.