CHUK1 The conquest they all hate

[zurichuk]

but I love

Looking to see if there is any interest in the following

Fall of Rome variant

Objective - to win the game without taking any Roman / Byzantine cities, ie let/diplomatically make the AI knock out the 2 Roman civs but win the game with 35000 VP before the other civs within the time limit, the civs that take out the 8th Roman cities will probably have to be our initial targets, of course we could attack the other AI earlier but there will be less AI to beat up on the Romans.

Level - I think Emperor/Demigod but this is open to discussion, maybe any lower on the level and the AI may not be up to the job

Would ideally like 5 players and as this game has 150 moves I would suggest rounds of 10 moves up to move 100 and then rounds of 5, there is alot of military to move around later in the game and it is essential that there are no more than 1 turn goto commands due to possible plague spreading and other relevant reasons.

Civ - again open to discussion - but I would suggest the Franks / Anglo Saxons or some other central civ

I'm not sure of the difficulty of this SG, part of me says it's not too difficult, another part says it could all go horribly wrong, who's game for it? Please register your interest below, usual SG rules, got in 24, play in 48, although over the Christmas period this can be heavily relaxed.

 

[Bede]

z,

Would be interested.

 

[Rubberjello]

Well, it *could* go horribly wrong. I played this once as the Celts and while I quickly did my part by taking out the Romans and was accumulating a "decent" score, the Byzantium Romans were taking all the other AIs to the freakin' cleaners. The other AIs had not conquered more than 2 Byz cities total, and they were at war with them most of the game. I had to force march all my forces in a desperate bid to not lose, and I conquered the 8'th Byz city when they were only 2 turns from winning the game (I had to conquer 6 of their cities by my lonesome.)

Good luck. I really think you could easily end up losing in this variant by taking the "hands off" approach.

 

[zurichuk]

i know, i played this yesterday on monarch and it was also close (up to a point and then it was a walkover), but where's the fun if you win each time, i'm thinking as it is, the stand-alone conquest is not too difficult as a central civ, the Celts will likely get the 4 Western cities in the UK, the civ down the bottom right could help with Eastern Rome and did for me, the other central civs can help in the middle, I think the key is diplomacy, keeping enough cash to keep them at war, while making a beeline for writing and/or the tech that gives warlords I don't mind losing but I also think it's possible

The Celts is one of the more difficult choices though

btw Bede if there is enough interest you're in

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Also intrested.

 

[Bede]

Looking forward to it

 

[zurichuk]

DH you can join as well if you want

I tried another trial this evening on Emperor without all that excessive mm that we do in SGs and I won't spoil the SG but I think it is possible but not a given, even if the AI destroy the Romans it would be difficult to get the 35000 VP before the end but still possible to win

anymore interested, I would suggest Emperor level (which probably isn't as hard as Emperor in a regular game)

so far
zurichuk
DeceasedHorse
Bede

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Well, if no one else wants to play, we can go with just 3 if we have to. It is a fairly short scenario.

Oh, and what about playing as the Huns? It would make sense, historically, since our expansion would force the germanic tribes west and into conflict with Rome?

Plus we start with a whole lot of Horsemen.

 

[barbslinger]

I have yet to play this scenario but your goal sounds very interesting and tough to do. Good luck to all of you.

 

[zurichuk]

ok DH I'm happy with 3 and the huns unless there are some other volunteers, i'll sort out something tomorrow

 

[Bede]

Sounds good

 

[Jaguar Hunter]

I would be interested

 

[zurichuk]

I thought this had died because RL reared its ugly head for me and i informed the others by PM, however I have a bit of time I'll see if they are still interested, if so I'll restart it JaguarHunter, it will be Emperor or Demi-God as the AI need to grow fast and the Huns were suggested

 

[Jaguar Hunter]

When are you gonna restart it?

 

[zurichuk]

ok i'll start it tonight, off out for a meal now

we have

zurichuk
DeceasedHorse
Bede
Jaguar Hunter
Elvis1985

 

[Bede]

Enjoy your dinner

Looking forward to this one

 

[zurichuk]

thanks Bede, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's nice to get out, after living in always_something_happening London for 5 years and then beautiful Zurich for 5 years the little town I'm in now is frankly quite boring, probably reflected in my increased Civ playing

OK to business, here is the generic start

I still haven't decided on the final level, Emperor or Demi-god, Emperor can work but it may be close, also it may be worth increasing the AI aggressiveness or this could be a mistake if they start fighting amongst themselves, so before I play I'd like some opinions please

We start with 12 migrants and 15 horsemen so 12 cities and lots of early contacts are possible, I would like to think 20 good cities well worked in the first 50-70 moves is what we are looking for

There are 5 wonders in this scenario

The Great Lighthouse available with Map Making
Hagia Sophia - Christianity (with silver and gold)
Justinian's Leadership (with Military Training)
The Scourge of God (Barbarian Leadership)
St. Peter's Basilica (Christianity with silver and gold)

more to come, a couple of PBEM's have come in

 

[zurichuk]

we start with
bronze working
iron working
pottery
warrior code
horseback riding
mysticism
barbarism

ok i normally make a bee-line down the bottom tech line and have always got The Scourge of God whenever I've played it (up to Emperor so far), to me it's the equivalent of an extra productive military city, the other wonders i've never bothered with, comments?

barbarism - marauding - pillaging - sacking/barbarian leadership

but writing will be important also for diplomacy reasons

Military training later is important for the fast moving Heavy Cavalry, a couple or more armies of these, hmmmmm, tastes good, so my lan is 50-75 turns of building up, research, trading etc, also letting the barbarian AI build up then bam, i think we should be allowed to attack Roman units but not cities

So I will play tomorrow after reading any comments /advice

 

[Bede]

Emperor or Demi-God OK with me Not having played this scenario other than straight up can't offer any other suggestions

 

[Jaguar Hunter]

Btw I'll only be able to play on weekends