Cleopatra, Queen of Thebes

[Zachriel]

Cleopatra, Queen of Thebes, Queen of Egypt

As Cleopatra is the Queen of Thebes, so Thebes shall become the Queen of Cities.

** WARNING ** SPOILER **

http://www.zachriel.com/gotm9/

This web site is graphic intensive, typically 2-3 minutes per web page on a phone modem.
You should use a 1024x768 size screen for best viewing.

 

[Exsanguination]

my god! I found the Japanese in something like 70 BC, but thats not the scary part - how were you able to colonize on their island? By the time I contacted Tokugawa he had thoroughly settled his homeland... lucky (or does 15 turns really make that much of a difference?). then again... this is my first emperor game.

Oh well... can't finish - I'm still playing mine. 800 BC and I'm still in the ancient age...

 

[MOE]

Zachriel - it´s so much fun to read your "civilization-adventures"!
You had a very strong army in proportional to your territory size.

Well done!

 

[Sullla]

Nicely done, as usual!

I didn't play this game and I still found your game to be very entertaining. Since so few people go for cultural victories, it's theoretically possible that you will win a medal, although not likely. Looks like an entertaining game, though I doubt I would have been nice enough to keep giving Xerxes his cities back waiting for a 20k culture victory.

And, if you have some time, maybe you might be interested in reading about my latest Deity game...

http://www.kalikokottage.com/civ3/sullla/

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Sullla
Since so few people go for cultural victories, it's theoretically possible that you will win a medal,

As you know, I don't play for score, but for the dramatic possibilities.

I doubt I would have been nice enough to keep giving Xerxes his cities back waiting for a 20k culture victory.

It was actually much easier giving them back than trying to govern them. Plus, I had never yet had a City Culture Victory, and it suited the storyline. http://www.zachriel.com/gotm.htm

And, if you have some time, maybe you might be interested in reading about my latest Deity game...

Interesting how in your GOTM7 everyone ganged up on Russia. (It doesn't just happen to the human player, as some have claimed.)

Great ending. Unanimous UN victory.

 

[Creepster]

Zachriel,

Once again a great story.

It is always interesting reading your story line over the life of the game. Matrix should give out a special award for the best story of the game. It certainly makes for a lot more fun reading it this way, than looking at the threads.

 

[Sullla]

Originally posted by Zachriel
Interesting how in your GOTM7 everyone ganged up on Russia. (It doesn't just happen to the human player, as some have claimed.)

Great ending. Unanimous UN victory.

Sorry to butt in on your thread, but I was talking about my latest Deity game, one with the Romans on a large map. Spaceship Victory in 1250AD - would have been good enough for fastest spaceship victory if it had been GOTM7.

 

[Txurce]

Zachriel, your presentation is as awesome as your game. What an effort, in every regard.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Sullla
Looks like an entertaining game, though I doubt I would have been nice enough to keep giving Xerxes his cities back waiting for a 20k culture victory.

Actually, it was natural to give it back. They were worthless cities to Egypt, probably unruly, and valued highly by the Persians. But when Xerxes attacked, the buffer zone made a great battleground! Here is what Cleopatra contemplates in 1828 AD. The picture is called "Task Ahead," but it didn't make the cut for the website. But the job looked huge, culturally complex, and unprofitable -- at least to Cleopatra. Instead, she established a long term presence in coastal colonies; then later when hostilities broke out again, a buffer zone was created around Persepolis and Egypt would war in the buffer zone.

Battlegrounds are breeding grounds for Great Leaders.

Egypt's had 157,522 culture.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Sullla


Sorry to butt in on your thread, but I was talking about my latest Deity game, one with the Romans on a large map. Spaceship Victory in 1250AD - would have been good enough for fastest spaceship victory if it had been GOTM7.

This is a great shot from your game. What a tour de force of diplomatic skill!

Contradicts those who say the AI's always ganging up on the human player. The silly grin on Caesar's face is a good touch.

 

[simplybag]

Finally, it's up! Took you much longer than last month's game but it obviously was worth the effort GOTM means 50% playing to me and 50% reading Zachriel's adventures!

 

[Zachriel]

Here is an interesting and unexpected culture border. This actually kinda of screwed up my advance for a turn or two. After capturing the surrounding cities, I would normally expect to have road and rail. In this case, it took a couple of extra turns to continue my forward deployment. (In some circumstances, this could have led to a flip if I had been counting on moving up the garrison from the rear.)

(Note the infantry line advancing on the high terrain.)

 

[Marx]

Very Nice Spoiler !!! Great work. I stopped my game when the Yapanese started to attack me. I am learning much with this spoilers.

 

[Zur]

v. interesting writeup! Learned a thing or 2 too!

 

[Ronald]

Hi Zachriel,

I enjoy your stories very much, they teach and entertain at the same time. Hopefully we all can read more of them in the future!!!

Ronald

 

[Zachriel]

This image is from Matrix's cheater thread (edited to remove the apparent cheat).
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29324&pagenumber=4

I liked the image and decided to see what my game looked like in 1575 BC. The multi-tool doesn't seem to work anymore for some reason, but this should provide the gist of my position.

First, notice that cracker has six towns, Cartouche Bee has seven! I only have four, but am catching up quick (settlers huffing and puffing, rushing into position). In a couple of turns, my position will somewhat resemble crackers.

Also, I was only 29 turns from the Great Pyramids, and hoped that would give me a boost later on. I built the Pyramids for aesthetic reasons, but they paid off in the end.

Meanwhile, notice the difference in the Japanese position between cracker's and Cartouche Bee's games. Fascinating!

 

[cracker]

In the replays, I noticed the differences in the start positions as well.

If you look at my game vs CB's game, you see the Aztecs are at 3 cites while the Japanese are at 7 in CB's game and then in my game the Aztecs are at 5 and the Japanese are at 5. These positions add up to the same totals fairly well which indicates to me that something random and slightly disruptive happened to the Aztecs in CBs early game while a similar event happened to the Japanese in my game. This could have been barbs from a hut versus a tech, or it could have been a lucky combat sequence that fell to barbarians near the Aztecs and stunted them in CBs game while the lucky outcome shifted against the Japanese in my game.

These civs are too far apart to have been influenced by any direct action by each other and since I did not make contact with the Japanese until circa 630BC, I interpret the differences to be the result of random outcomes from the RNG. Since the RNG seed is preserved it is like there is a fixed string of of numbers that come out of the RNG and depending on the sequence of who pops what the good results can fall to one guy while the bad results fall to the other guy.

One thing you have to watch out for is taking too much infor out of a difference of just one or two cities because the snap shot in time may not show you who or what is running around in the form of settlers etc. Your example of having two settllers running fast and getting ready to settle towns to take you up from 4 to 6 is a great illustration of this point.

I have also been playing a large number of opening sequences where I compare the automated AI functions that control the workers, settlers, and explore units. I have played about 40 different positions with 10 to 15 different permutations per start position. (This is a preview of the next website info pages that may get released at the end of this month ) Just running a stray barbarian into a square near these early automated units can distract them from their primary tasks for 5 to 7 turns and cause them to abandon lots of effort and shift near term priorities.

The minor variances due to the RNG outcomes add excitement to the games but they only serve to reinforce that nothing in the game is truly the same between two different game progressions after you have passed through 50 to 100 turns of active RNG events.

 

[Serg]

In 1575BC I founded only 5 cities but all of them had or almost have the tempe and Thebes have granary.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Yep, while you were building temples and Zach was building Pyramids I was building workers to link my cities, improve trade and add to my main cites to increase core production. Increasing the rate of production increases the rate of settler production and I don't waste my population by pop rushing settlers.

Each method ended up producing the desired effect, getting into a position to win the game.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Serg
In 1575BC I founded only 5 cities but all of them had or almost have the tempe and Thebes have granary.

Interesting. I only had a temple in Thebes (pop nearly six). I didn't build many temples outside Thebes until my expansion ended.

After reexamining the game, I was too heavy on warriors and too light on workers. Of course, I didn't know right away if Egypt was isolated or not, so I was preparing for possible military conflict. At least the excess warriors were good for military police as the population increased. By 1575 BC, all the Egyptian towns were connected, and most working tiles had been improved, including around Thebes. One worker had already been added to Thebes to help build the Pyramids. Still, a look at the game reveals many possible tweaks that should have improved my position.