Charlemagne Emperor Cookbook!(EC)!! Let the games begin!!!

[Gumbolt]

I was thinking Ethiopians or the dutch. Sitting bull could be interesting but you need a map where he wont walk away with it. Great people bulbing can give a huge bonus to any save.

The trick on maps on the cookbook is finding the right balance between easy starts and complicated difficult starts. Putting Sb on a food hungry map doesnt work as the Ai struggle!! Putting SB in the middle of some warmongers on a pangea could be interesting. We have not had a cookbook where we have had to deal with diplomatic relationships much. See how people use dog soldiers and archers to their full strength!

 

[kossin]

SB is philosophical = quite strong imo.
Zara and Willem are also strong leaders.

So far, the rebooted cookbook featured...

Napoleon (Org/Chm)
Shaka (Agg/Exp)
Charlemagne (Imp/Pro)

Traits unused so far: Cre, Fin, Phi, Ind, Spi
If you want to play a combination of those traits, that leaves:

Willem (Cre/Fin)
Louis (Cre/Ind)
HC (Ind/Fin)
Liz (Phi/Fin)
Pericles (Cre/Phi)
Hathshepsut (Cre/Spi)
Mansa Musa (Fin/Spi)
Gandhi (Phi/Spi)
Ramesses II (Ind/Spi)

All pretty strong leaders one way or the other!

Of course, both traits don't have to be in the ones not played so far...

I'd cross out HC because of Quechuas though...

I'd say Elizabeth, Gandhi or Louis could be interesting, but that's just me and I'm not playing

Thanks to silentouce for pointing out Spiritual trait...

 

[silentounce]

SB has a weaker trait combo than those listed above.

You forgot Spiritual.

How about Saladin then? Spi and Pro. That should be a challenge.

And you wouldn't have to cross out Incas if you gave us an isolated start.

 

[kossin]

Ah yes, I knew I was forgetting someone - thanks I'll edit it in.

 

[Gumbolt]

This game isnt over yet!! 2 votes left. Be unfair to close it early really.

Not the French we did them recently. Indians could be a nice option.

 

[mjg5591]

@max I don't have a slight tech lead. I have a nice tech lead. Physics gives airships which is a big advantage when I go after SB.

anyway to the voting,

My votes.

1. Tough call here between Dual and lymond. Went with Dual as it's prolly fgaster to win. Has vassals and power edge on rest of rivals. Also Dual only 1 university? Not even one in capital? Which means no OU. But going domination or conquest they might not be needed.

2. Lymond Nice teching here. SoL already built. Agressive to settle islands. But war not started with anyone. Nice peaceful save here though. GT in weird city though.

3. Max Like he has cannons and went after SB first. But should be in war mode. Some cities builing infrastructure still. Kremlin complete but can't use if not in US. SB has airships also. But doesn't have RP yet.

I will also be playing my save. About to attack roosey and hannibal. Then SB with infrantry is my thoughts. Should be done fast. Although I think any save from here should be fast.

 

[mjg5591]

My thoughts for next EC.

3 leaders I would like to see.

Churchill- I like redcoats. Also nice trait combo for them.

Gandhi- Nice warmonger

WVO- Nice to play a finicial civ. Also creative is nice.

Honorable mention SB wouldn't be to bad either.

 

[Gumbolt]

It would be nice to use Willem or Ghandhi. Just make sure Willem doesnt have 3 gold in BFC! We dont want to see 1000ad rifles!

This round is fast heading towards a tie assuming dual votes 3 points to Lymond.

if I made a deciding vote it would go to Dual. Purely as his save is likely to finish game much quicker. Lymond has some pretty impressive teching though. Downside is we will be fighting off Sb with Rifles and he has not started any wars.

Do we wait for Duels vote?

 

[mjg5591]

I played my save til the end. 1838AD Conquest.

Spoiler :

I copuld have won through the AP alot earlier. I was the AP holder and never choose diplo win option even though I had enough votes to win.

I declared right away on Roosey and capitulated him around 1560AD. Then went after Hannibal and capitulated him after taking 2 of his cities, one being his capital.

I declared on SB and Rags his vassal around 1650AD or so. Got nice stack of infrantry and artillary. I took peace at some point to heal then redeclared 10 turns later. All the time I had all but 1 city building infrantry and artillary. Watching TMIT live civing showed me how powerful this combo is against almost anything. I also had nice pile of airships.

War with SB was slow as his power was still .6 to me. Also he beelined AL also. After 2 cities I was fighting Infrantry. No matter as I just kept plowing through. Rags broke free from SB and I made peace with Rags. Had to take 12 cities from SB before he capitulated. Was slow as me GG medic died when I met SB stack. Had 2 stacks at end of war taking his cities.

I then declared on Rags took 1 city and he capitulated. Conquest win.

Was fun game. A better Micro manager would have won earlier prolly. But all in all fun game. Dual's save should even be faster as his rivals haven't got rifles. But SB with Protective infrantry was slow going for me.

Only took final game screenshots.

Thanks to Gumbolt for keeping this seioes alive. Been a nice educational series so far for me. Really learning alot seeing other people's play styles and such.

Also thanks to Kossin for the map and advice through the game. Nice touch on the ECIII.

Also thanks for everyone who played the game. Nice to get input on your game and give your input and thoughts on other people's games. This also helps learn different stradegies and play styles. Makes your all around play better I think.

 

[kossin]

gj mjg5591, not a bad score either.
But you haven't completely found out the EC III secret

 

[Gumbolt]

Overall it looks like Mike has already completed his save.

I am away for the next few days. I suspect Duel save can be completed by conquest by around 1800 ad or so.

just took a peek at Mikes save and he had finished off zara and justin and another by 1500ad.

Lots of decent games out there this round.

I am now closing this round and declaring Duel the winner.

Congratulations on Duel for winning this round.

I am happy for everyone to finish their own saves.

The next round will be played to a finish and I suspect a conquest victory. I have set no time limit on this.

We will play a new cookbook in the new year once everyone is recovered from the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL.

Thanks for taking part in the cookbooks over the last few months. Its been quite fun really.

Kossin: As for next map lets try Ghandi. Give us the peacemaker and a world where diplomatic relations will make or break a game. (Dont stick us on some far corner of a map where the Ai cant find us.) lol

 

[kossin]

Gandhi it is!

 

[GreatEngineer]

Gandhi it is!

Hey everyone. I've been following this game on my own, though I started so late that I didn't bother playing it out and posting. I wouldn't mind doing the new EC, though, and I was going to put in a vote for Ghandi because his counterpart (Asoka) is my favorite leader. I figure the transition would be smooth to a powerful leader I've never used.

About the next map, can we turn on random events and such? I feel a little cheap without them and huts on because it's just not realistic. At any rate, would the next one be at emperor also?

 

[kossin]

This series is about the Monarch->Emperor (and in some cases Emperor->Immortal) move so yes, it'll be on Emperor.

I've just finished the map and tested it. It's not going to be a cakewalk as this game but it's quite winnable is all I'll say.

Events/Huts are turned off for comparison's sake. If a player pops Iron Working from a hut on turn 53 and then manages to pull a Swordsman rush with Iron, it's not a good comparison with the other save that popped 7 barbarians from the same hut on the same turn because of a different RNG roll.

If you want though, I can provide you a different save where they are turned on, but it would not be eligible for voting.

 

[GreatEngineer]

This series is about the Monarch->Emperor (and in some cases Emperor->Immortal) move so yes, it'll be on Emperor.

Wow I feel like a noob for my post right before yours -- I've been following ALC games (which have varying difficulties) simultaneously and forgot that the Emperor's Cookbook game is by definition on Emperor...

Events/Huts are turned off for comparison's sake. If a player pops Iron Working from a hut on turn 53 and then manages to pull a Swordsman rush with Iron, it's not a good comparison with the other save that popped 7 barbarians from the same hut on the same turn because of a different RNG roll.

That's a good point, and something I obviously failed to consider. I don't think it'll be necessary to give me a separate map: I'll make do. Though, when you say you're making the map, are you just making a fractal and then adding some extra resources here, an isthmus there, and maybe an Easter egg or two? Surely it's not completely from scratch...

 

[kossin]

Wow I feel like a noob for my post right before yours -- I've been following ALC games (which have varying difficulties) simultaneously and forgot that the Emperor's Cookbook game is by definition on Emperor...



That's a good point, and something I obviously failed to consider. I don't think it'll be necessary to give me a separate map: I'll make do. Though, when you say you're making the map, are you just making a fractal and then adding some extra resources here, an isthmus there, and maybe an Easter egg or two? Surely it's not completely from scratch...

Basically yes, although sometimes I move leaders around and redraw a part of the map.
For instance, this map didn't have a peninsula (the jungle part was an island) and the coast was 4 tiles away from the settler. More trees and hills were there as well.

Sorry I can't post more, I'm on my ipod at a hotspot!

 

[Gumbolt]

Events on??? No no no no! I think Kossin has answered that one already.

 

[dualmaster]

Hey, sorry I didn't vote on that last round, had a bunch of Christmas stuff going. I'm kinda surprised to see my save won as I played pretty loose and fast and didn't have the greatest teching.

Last week I had actually gone ahead and played from my own 400AD save just for the sake of comparison. I think I kept the screen shots so I'll see if I can post here - it's kind of interesting to see how it played out a little differently.

 

[dualmaster]

This is playing from my own 400 AD save. Perhaps the biggest difference between Gumbolt's and my save is that SB happened to be significantly weaker in my save.

To 1100AD:

Spoiler :

No war yet. Army consists of only a few cuirassiers. I was too busy using OR+whips to get all the key infrastructure throughout the empire. The three river cities focused on cottages to keep tech going and everything else was farmed/mined in preparation for whipping out an army.

Rifling in 3 turns so this will be a cavalry war starting with SB (who is pretty far behind).

You can see that Oxford is due in 10 turns - this, along with bureaucracy and a capital that had focused on growing cottages kept my tech rate pretty strong. For the rest of the game.

To 1500AD:

Spoiler :

Built up a stack of maybe 20-30 cav before going after SB. Sliced right through him and only encountered one large SoD, which was massacred by my cav. Best he had to defend with was pikes. Took a bit over half his cities before:

After that, kept rolling toward the Americans:

He capped after I took the mainland cities. The whole war was 5 turns? Maybe 6? I figured that was the end of my cav spree as Zara and Hanni now had rifling. However, I noticed Justinian didn't have rifling yet (though he had RP) but I decided to take a chance:

He didn't even pretend to put up a fight. At this point everyone else had rifles so I'd need more firepower to take down Zara. Thus I headed for AL and arty. At 1500 the tech looked good - AL next turn and arty shortly after:

An AP vote for diplo victory actually came up near the end of this round with it being me vs Hannibal. At first I thought I had won because Zara was friendly with me and his votes plus mine would have taken it. However Zara had a few more +diplo with Hannibal and voted for him.

To 1615AD Diplo:

Spoiler :

Finished teching AL+arty, mass built factories, coal plants, etc and was just beginning to mass produce infantry and artillery. An AP vote popped up which I thought nothing of. But then the next turn I found out I had won. Turns out Hannibal had switched to Free Religion, losing a lot of diplo with Zara, so Zara tossed his votes my way. Silly AI.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this played out. From the very beginning I had laid out 3 riverside cities that would be commerce/cottage focused. These cities were critical in maintaining the economy and tech rate through the expansion and conquest phases. The rest of the cities were positioned and specialized to have the basic critical infrastructure established in time to whip up a mounted army (actually the basic infrastructure wasn't finished until cav which is a little late, but that is partly due to the fact that tech was pretty fast).

Anyways, I thought it was an interesting comparison of games.

Thanks to Gumbolt for keeping things moving.

 

[GreatEngineer]

Where did Izzy come from? Did some cities get liberated and she was someone's island vassal?

BTW, nice game: your wars were pretty insane. Given that you basically wiped out 3 nations, it's ironic you won a diplomatic victory.