[C2C] Ramkhamhaeng of the Incas

[Vokarya]

Vcordie, consider turning 'Dynamic difficulty' off. I hate it anyway. I once played on FFH2 as the Bannor and the game decided to put the difficulty all the way up to Deity, causing me to fall behind tremendously and getting hardly anything done at all. I don't know how it works exactly, but it's not very fair

I agree. Do not turn on either "Increasing Difficulty" (if you use the Custom Options screen) or "Flexible Difficulty" (in the BUG Options Screen) until you know the game pretty well. I play with Flexible Difficulty, no minimum, Emperor maximum, starting from Noble. I usually drop down in the early Prehistoric and then rise until I hit the cap. Sometimes it tops out at Monarch, and sometimes it goes all the way to Emperor.

 

[Vokarya]

Ashurbanipal of the Hittites has two major problems at the moment:
1. He's currently the most powerful AI on the scoreboard. Even if his power is only 0.2 of mine, that's still more than anyone else.
2. He is my nearest neighbor.

This is equivalent to walking around with a huge sign reading "CONQUER ME."

Here is Menelik's capital. Normally, Hattusas is the Hittite capital, but it's changed hands a few times due to rebellions.

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Under some circumstances, this could be a formidable obstacle to overcome. But not when I'm dropping stacks like this one (my First Army)...

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... or this one (my Second Army).

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For some reason that I can't quite figure out, the Egyptian cities that are Ashurbanipal's vassal state have extremely high defenses (over 200%). This means it might take me a while to batter them down with naval bombardment before I send in the troops.

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Also, I notice a Great General hanging out with a couple of Guard units. I'm not exactly sure why the AI does this.

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The Flying Squadrons go in first to take out some lightly-defended island cities. The 4th Squadron takes out Tabigga.

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The 1st Squadron burns Kummanni.

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A return attack by Hittite Riflemen kills the Marine that razed Kummanni. I actually learned something from this - never leave a unit alone. Ideally, I would hit a city with two stacks so that one can take out the defenders and the other can occupy the tile (intact city or ruins).

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While this is going on, I have successfully researched Astronatutics. I'm still not sure if this is spelled right - the first "t" looks wrong. This is another stepping stone into space.

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Tuwana falls to the First Army.

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Truwa falls to the 3rd Flying Squadron.

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I need Guided Weapons after Astronatutics. Still building up to Fusion here.

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The fighting has generated another Great General. This time, I get Gustavus II Adolphus.

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Vilcabamba builds the United Nations. More like united under my jackboots.

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The first UN election pits me against Kublai Khan for Secretary-General. I probably have enough votes to win the election, so I vote for myself.

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Ica builds the Apollo Program. I think I was doing something else with Chuito and its Three Gorges hammers at the time.

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Applied Economics technology is done. I lose some of my old Beadmaker's Huts and Crafts Huts.

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But I get a Great Merchant out of it.

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The election results are in, and I win handily with 2008 votes. I have 1776 votes in the UN myself.

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And every single UN resolution possible requires no more than 1775. Short of defiance, I can push through any resolution single-handedly.

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On the war front, the armies finish the conquest of the Hittites. Akuwa falls to the Fourth Army, and gets spared because it has Notre Dame. Not so lucky were the cities of Carchemish (burnt by the Third Army) and Hubishna (razed by the Second Flying Squadron).

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The Fifth Army captures Hattusas, which has the Hippocratic Oath and Marco Polo's Embassy wonders. It is also the holy city for Mesopotamism, Christianity, Yoruba, and Islam. The Second Army spares Kanesh because it has Archimedes' Workshop and the Great Wall.

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With that, the Hittites are done. I'm still at war with the Egyptians, and with only two cities, it seems a shame to let them survive.

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Next time: Cleaning up Egypt.

 

[strijder20]

While this is going on, I have successfully researched Astronatutics. I'm still not sure if this is spelled right - the first "t" looks wrong. This is another stepping stone into space.

Nope, it's the second T, unless you were not counting the t from astro. It's astronautics.
Great update as usual

 

[Vokarya]

Nope, it's the second T, unless you were not counting the t from astro. It's astronautics.
Great update as usual

You're right, it is the second T. I always skip over the first two syllables because I know that part is right.

 

[vcordie]

Heh, maybe when you're done here you can start a new c2c story. Perhaps taking a more comedic/narrative approach? Maybe a Boudica superslave game? Seriously though, keep up the good work and please keep up with the c2c stories. Yours is the only one I can find. I can find a few outdated lets plays too but nothing not abandoned. so, please ^_^

 

[Vokarya]

Heh, maybe when you're done here you can start a new c2c story. Perhaps taking a more comedic/narrative approach? Maybe a Boudica superslave game? Seriously though, keep up the good work and please keep up with the c2c stories. Yours is the only one I can find. I can find a few outdated lets plays too but nothing not abandoned. so, please ^_^

You just described my current game. I have a Boudica city with 67 settled slaves and 21 Great Military Instructors by settling every spare Hero I can construct, and it's not finished yet. I'm trying to see if I can build Three Gorges Dam before 1 AD.

I am going to wait on my next story until I get all of my remaining Wonder ideas coded.

 

[strijder20]

You just described my current game. I have a Boudica city with 67 settled slaves and 21 Great Military Instructors by settling every spare Hero I can construct, and it's not finished yet. I'm trying to see if I can build Three Gorges Dam before 1 AD.

Modern era by 1 AD?
That's even more impressive than those Deity Sushi-by-1-AD games...

 

[Vokarya]

Modern era by 1 AD?
That's even more impressive than those Deity Sushi-by-1-AD games...

Actually, Three Gorges Dam is Industrial in C2C. It uses the new Hydroelectricity tech. I finished with about 50 years to spare.

 

[Vokarya]

I've finished off the Hittites but I am still at war with their ex-vassal Egyptians under Joao II. With only two cities, I think I can finish them off pretty quickly.

Hubishna falls pretty quickly, and having nothing to recommend keeping it, burns.

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Microprocessor technology. Another computer tech.

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Globalization comes next. This is a MAJOR technology as it obsoletes numerous early trade buildings. It costs me about 1400 gold per turn in income.

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Globalization also triggers the last Great Prophet for founding a religion. The religion in this case is Scientology.

The early religions are not yet set in stone (right now, Druidic Traditions and Shamanism stand in for just about all prehistoric traditions) but most of the historical organized ones are covered. I think for modern religions, the only missing ones are Rastafarianism and Wicca.

My Great Prophet is Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli, better known to history as Pope John XXIII.

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I get another project: the Hubble Space Telescope. It doesn't do anything for my science immediately, but it will open up the Deep Space Research Institute. Most space buildings are projects, not wonders, because they really aren't assigned to a particular city.

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Sausa finishes the World News Network. For some reason, I really, really like this wonder -- probably because we haven't developed a lot of media technologies and buildings yet.

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World News Network puts a Press Agency in every city. Press Agencies are good for Culture and Espionage bonuses and reduce war weariness nationwide. I could build Press Agencies a while ago, but the WNN is harder to get. I wish all of the free-building-for-every-city Wonders were removed at least a tech or two from the building they grant. We've moved Piazza San Marco all the way to Guilds, but Grand Central Station is a particular offender.

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Communication Networks is another major gateway technology for the late Modern era. It leads to a staggering number of technologies, some of which are also prerequisites for techs on the Communication Networks list. I've located just about every redundancy in the tech tree and some of them have been removed (there are some issues with reducing the prerequisites too far).

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My fleets finish pounding down Arpad and capture it. It turns out that Arpad has the now-obsolete King Richard's Crusade. This is one of the Wonders that requires Christianity as a state religion to build (the others are the Holy See Library and St. Mark's Basilica). I decide to keep this city.

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Taking Arpad finishes off the Egyptians.

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I have no problems selling Gunpowder this late in the game. Early Gunpowder units will be flattened by the Modern Infantry I can churn out.

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I'm now trying to found cities quickly to fill in captured lands before the AI can move in. Yasodharapura fills in the southern tip of the Hittite continent. I've long since run out of Incan names and now my city names are being drawn randomly from all cities that haven't been used yet.

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Superconductors technology is here.

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I get Sinan as a new Great Engineer. I may need to use these guys in a bit.

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Magnetic Levitation lets me build Maglev railroads.

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I found the cities of Yeha and Delhi to fill more Hittite land.

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Ollantayambo builds the International Monetary Fund project. This will allow me to build a World Bank national wonder. Nobody else will probably be around long enough to build their own.

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Controlled Plasma is the last technology I need to research before Fusion.

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Discovering Controlled Plasma kicks off the Transhuman Era.

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Next time: The new sun.

 

[LordNwahs6]

Next time: The new sun.

I wonder what that could mean. Nuclear war?

 

[Alexius08]

Fusion, probably.

 

[strijder20]

Controlled Plasma is the last technology I need to research before Fusion.

Fusion, probably.

Yes, likely.

 

[LordNwahs6]

Yes, likely.

How could I have forgotten about fusion...

 

[Vokarya]

Fusion is done. It obsoletes most early power plants, allows training some new fusion-powered naval units, and allows me to build the Fusion Power Plant.

Spoiler :

Power Plants provide a small hammer bonus in C2C along with their Power bonus. Clean power plants (Tide, Wave, Wind) generally produce 1 hammer. Dirty power (Coal, Oil, Natural Gas) produce around 5-7 hammers. Nuclear Plants produce 15, and Hydro Plants produce 20, making them decent builds even if you have another source of Power. Three Gorges Dam produces 250 hammers, which is a giant bonus for a city.

Guess how many hammers a Fusion Power Plant produces?

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Forget nuclear weapons - this is real power. The three cities that get the Fusion Power Plants will outshine every other city the way the sun outshines the stars. This is why I was so careful with Chuito - I set it aside as my first fusion city, and it has been carefully only building Wonders that will directly enhance its production or its military units.

Fusion Power Plants have since been changed. They now provide only one thousand hammers, but they provide it to every city on the same continent. Whether this is better or worse will depend on the choice of map script, but I have a v22 game going on a Giant Perfectworld script and my home continent has one hundred cities. You do the math. Three Gorges likewise produces 25 hammers in each city, instead of 250 to one.

The Great Engineer from discovering Fusion is almost an afterthought. Still, though, I should do something with them. Norbert Rillieux is the GE this time.

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I dip into Biological Warfare for the Secret Army Base national wonder. We will see it soon.

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Walt Disney is a Great Merchant.

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Fusion was my last tech goal, and Biological Warfare came about because it was immediately available. I set my next technology goals as Artificial Life and Invisibility.

3D Modeling is the first step towards Artificial Life.

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I proposed the Single Currency UN resolution. It passes almost unanimously. Tokugawa is the only one to vote against it.

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Nanotechnology is next, followed by Micromechanics. We're getting into where there is not a lot of new stuff to build.

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With Micromechanics, I drop back in technology a little bit to pick up Jet Propulsion. One consequence of beelining a particular technology is that you miss out on a lot of technologies from earlier eras that weren't on your direct path.

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One of the prerequisites to the Fusion Power Plant is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. This is a project, so it can't be rushed in any way. I had Chuito build it the hard way, and that's why I bothered to build the Three Gorges Dam there, even though it would get overshadowed once the Fusion Plant was done.

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Jet Propulsion leads to Supersonic Flight.

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With the ITER built, I can start sending in the Great Engineers to rush the Fusion Plant.

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From Supersonic Flight, we get Stealth.

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Thanks to Multiple Research, I'm able to pick up Mechanized Warfare on the same turn. Mechanized Warfare is only an Industrial-era technology.

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One Great Engineer slashed three turns off the Fusion Plant. I spend 2 more to nearly finish the job.

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Vitcos builds the World Bank. It's good for another +600 gold per turn.

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Mechanized Warfare leads right into Modern Warfare. Modern Warfare is the only C2C technology with SEVEN prerequisites, requiring Amphibious Warfare AND Guerrilla Warfare AND Mechanized Warfare AND Composites AND Robotics AND Guided Weapons AND Globalization.

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I decide at this point that I probably should have taken out the Romans while they only had one city. They currently have four. On the other hand, I have four Flying Squadrons. They have gotten recent upgrades, and now each consists of a Missile Cruiser escorting a Landing Ship Tank full of Modern Marines. I line up all four of them on Roman cities and the war doesn't last very long.

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Lisbon builds the World Trade Center. It's good for another +10% gold in all cities, generating an additional 500 gold per turn profit.

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Mani is yet another Great Prophet for my collection.

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I research Military Robotics next. There are a few military units here and the Unmanned Warfare civic.

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Chuito's Fusion Plant is finally finished. I queue up every possible building and top off with a Secret Army Base for an additional +100% military unit production and +2 XP per unit.

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Next time: So what do you do with tens of thousands of hammers?

 

[hoplitejoe]

I just don't get why anyone would want to play C2C when you can build everything in one turn and techs take 3 turns max to research.

 

[strijder20]

I just don't get why anyone would want to play C2C when you can build everything in one turn and techs take 3 turns max to research.

There is a lot more to build and a lot more to research, though

 

[Vokarya]

I just don't get why anyone would want to play C2C when you can build everything in one turn and techs take 3 turns max to research.

The early game is much better balanced than the end game. I play the end game for the discovery and for watching my plans come to completion.

 

[Vokarya]

What better use for a 500th post than an update to my story?

I'm still on the road to Artificial Life. The next tech along the road is Hypersonic Flight. There's a new Air unit here - the Aurora Scramjet - but I have never had a game where I needed an air force.

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Biomimetics comes after Hypersonic Flight. This opens another couple of military units.

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I don't know if this is a regular BTS feature or a C2C feature, but it's possible for a unit to swim to shore if its ship is sunk. The Flying Squadron Escort 3 nailed a Barbarian Galley prowling around the former Hittite lands, but a Musketman that was on board survived. Unfortunately for it, I have Modern Infantry ready to pounce.

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Chuito gets the Secret Army Base. I'm waiting to get the units at Artificial Life and Invisibility, so I decide to wait a little on cranking out lots of military units.

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Genetics technology next. Naturally, this is eventually required for Artificial Life.

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The game within the game... I discover Civilization and put it to work in my Universities.

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I do decide that I need two more Flying Squadrons to go after the numerous AI archipelago cities. Chuito has no problem cranking out ten more Modern Marine units. I just have to wait to build ships to carry them.

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Neural Networks technology is the very next tech. This is required for the AEGIS Cruiser. I think my Missile Cruisers are already pretty good, so I don't need to upgrade.

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The Recession event costs me a little gold to reduce the impact to 1% inflation. The alternative is 5%. Inflation can be a huge issue in the late game, although there have been steps to reduce the impact. I know in the past I have had to abandon at least one game because inflation got to be too bad.

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I thought I could use a few more Workers, so I set Chuito to build as many Workers as it could in one turn. I thought I would get a few dozen and be set for a while. I was wrong.

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Seven hundred Workers drives the game to its knees. I had to reload. Fortunately, I save often.

After Neural Networks comes Cognitive Robotics. The super-Workboat Constructor Ship is here.

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Chuito gets the Human Genome Project. Fusion Power just blasts through Projects.

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Here is a up-to-date Flying Squadron. A Missile Cruiser escorts a Landing Ship Tank full of Modern Marines with about 17+ XP each. Some have fractional points due to the Dynamic XP option, having been in combat as Marines before getting upgraded. (In current versions of C2C, this is LOW. Hero units make excellent Great Military Instructors.)

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The Private Space event is funny for three reasons.

1. Chuito can build any spaceship component in 1 turn, with or without the event. Chuito has actually already built one SS Engine.
2. But the event asks for a pittance compared to what is in my treasury.
3. And with overflow gold, any percentage bonus to any production will pay off in spades.

So I pay the cost.

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Artificial Intelligence is the next tech step. I'm still working in the computer area.

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With only an 11% chance of success, Corihuayrachina creates a Great Spy. Great Spies and Great Doctors are extremely rare compared to the other Great People. The only guaranteed way to get either is by technology.

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Next time: My next victim.

 

[strijder20]

Yay! It's back!

 

[hoplitejoe]

Needs more global warming.