Cleopetra Rises from the dead, twice

[Toastedzergling]

Deity level, Huge map, all 15 civs, AI respawn off. Me Rome and this is one of the weirdest story about Caesar and Cleopetra

Anyway, I had this early war with Egypt, Roman legionaries marched into Egypt territory and captured Thebes, However, the Roman people are admirers of Egyptian culture, resistance were unusually high. I do not want to ruin my reputation by slaughtering Egypt people so I abandoned a few cities and kept some of the nice ones. When Thebes fell, Cleopetra agreed to pay most of her techs so peace treaties was signed. To avoid city flip, I left most of the attacking force in the garrison, and pop rushed temples, yet one by one the Egyptian cities flipped, and bye bye some of the most elite Roman legions. This made me very angry. After I learned Chivalry I upgraded my hord of horsemen to knights and attacked Egypt again. I didn't bother to garrison any troops in newly captured cities, instead I put a couple of knights nearby so once it flipped I could capture it again. I figured that if Cleopetra is out of the game then there will be no more flipping. Anyway, Persia was fighting Egypt also and the X-man had a much bigger force. When Cleopetra had all but two cities left I signed peace treaty with her. She refused to pay me techs so I got the smaller city and a 40 gpt deal, not sure how she was gonna pay that money from just one city but we had a deal. However In a few turns the Egypt capital was captured by the X-man.

Okay this is when the weird stuff kicked in, Cleopetra was still in the game. I contacted her and the advisor told me that in order to trade with her we needed a sea route to her capital. Since I was in control of the great lighthouse (captured from the Chinese) so I was puzzled. I spent 100 gold buying her world map but she had no cities on the map.

How come? Finally I figured out that she had a settler in one of her galleys, and yes she was still paying me 40 gpt from that lone settler in the sea with nowhere to land.

And apparently she didnt give up, she even declared war with Greeks when she was there sailing

Several turns later Cleopetra showed me why she didn't give up, yet once again one of the old egyptian city flipped and it immedially became her captial.

Two turns later Cleopetra was on sail again because well she was still warring with the X-man

At this point I bought temples and market places (to keep people happy) for the newly captured cities. Since Thebes was very close to American borders and I was afraid of flipping so I bought colosseum for it. a few turns later the culture border expanded and I thought I was safe.

Guess what, about 20 turns later I tried to switch from monarchy to republic and during the anarchy period Thebes flipped once more to the charming Cleopetra and she immediately named it her captial

Since we had a peace treaty so I could do nothing but watch when the X-man claimed Thebes with very little effort.

500 years later we are in the industrial age, finally Cleopetra settled on an tundra island. Her new capital is surrounded by glacier and she can never build a settler from it. However, she is still not giving up. and if I were Cleopetra, I wouldn't give up either, if you can squeeze 40 gpt from a lone settler then anything can happen, who knows

 

[sealman]

I wonder how she was earning her gold....

 

[sabo]

Yeah I want the number to her accontant..

 

[wohmongarinf00l]

ur story explains why i don't capture AI cities. the risk of flipping is too great and the constant worrying about when the next flip will occur gives me the jitters. i usually keep a spair of ~20 settlers during an upcoming war for this reason. the AI real estate is usually very well improved. any cities captured get at least 2 units outside the city for centuries to come.

 

[wohmongarinf00l]

Originally posted by sealman
I wonder how she was earning her gold....

u need to know how she is earning her money first

 

[Hades]

I once had a war with the Japanese for 3000 years, they spent 2000 of those year with nothing but a settler on a galley. When capturing the last city, they were still floating in the ocean. So I ended up using an ICBM..... gosh, it was an over kill. Nevertheless, I do admire AI's shameless cling to their marginal existence.

Unable to whip people to death is another disadvanges on monarchy. I normally just whip people down to size 1 or 2 to produce temples and libraries under despotism. I have never experience a revolt with size like this. How developed were they when you first capture those cities?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Like I always said, the AI is capable of doing many many inexplicable things incl the teleporting of captured workers, flipping cities in the middle of your empire, using 'ghost' money etc etc.

In my recent game, the AI landed on a small island owned by me and captured 3 of my workers. In the same turn, the workers disappeared into thin air! I didn't see any transport or what.

 

[TheNiceOne]

Toastedzergling, interesting story. I guess the morale is that military force alone isn't enough in CIV3, you need to balance it with cultural influence as well. That's a good thing IMHO.

Regarding the last city flip during anarchy: You inspect every city during anarchy and make sure that there will be no disorder, do you? If not, then that's a good reason for the flipping.

 

[TheNiceOne]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
Like I always said, the AI is capable of doing many many inexplicable things incl the teleporting of captured workers, flipping cities in the middle of your empire, using 'ghost' money etc etc.

I thought it was a pretty well-known fact that the AI can have a negative gold flow and no treasury at the same time on the hardest levels. Isn't this also true for the human on the easier levels?

Except for this, the most inexplicable is that you accuse the AI for cheating without having proof, and without having bothered to read the correct explanations...

In my recent game, the AI landed on a small island owned by me and captured 3 of my workers. In the same turn, the workers disappeared into thin air! I didn't see any transport or what.

In your next game, try right-clicking on a unit and look for a command named "disband". Did you know that the AI can use this command as well? And I'm quite sure that when the AI captures a worker from you it always disbands it unless it can move it to its own territory the same turn.

 

[Karasu]

Toastedzergling: your story is amazing!

Nothing like that ever occurred to me: I'd love to have the privilege to play so incredible a game.

Now, we could spend days debating yet another version of the "AI cheating" topic, but we would entirely miss the point: a game that can take such an unexpected, schizofrenic turn is -in my opinion- more than a simple strategy game.
It almost has a sense of humour of its own...

Or would we rather play a dull, predictable game where poor Cleopatra is simply obliterated from world's history never to haunt us again -rather than being able to witness her endless Odyssey and her unnumbered rebirths?

Happy Civ everybody!!

 

[JuicyCivNewbie]

Originally posted by wohmongarinf00l
ur story explains why i don't capture AI cities. the risk of flipping is too great and the constant worrying about when the next flip will occur gives me the jitters. i usually keep a spair of ~20 settlers during an upcoming war for this reason. the AI real estate is usually very well improved. any cities captured get at least 2 units outside the city for centuries to come.

Yeah, wars like this make me feel like a real ethnic cleanser. Raze the cities, put the remaining population to work as slaves, and resettle their land. Hitler would have been proud. Wonder if PTW will have 'death camps' (add your captured workers to these and they disappear, but you gain cash and dead bodies in return) and a special Waffen-SS unit (helps supress cultural revolts by gunning down the population).

Oh well best dash, more pressing issues at hand - like carving out Lebensraum for my Babylonian citizens.

 

[Toastedzergling]

Originally posted by Karasu
Toastedzergling: your story is amazing!

Or would we rather play a dull, predictable game where poor Cleopatra is simply obliterated from world's history never to haunt us again -rather than being able to witness her endless Odyssey and her unnumbered rebirths?

Happy Civ everybody!!

Thanks, it's a great game indeed. The story goes on!

After Cleopetra was banned from the continent Caesar found Roman people technologically backwards. Over the past thousand years a lone scientist was responsible for all Roman scientific research. Even the poor Chinese people (who was reduced to two cities courtesy of Roman Legionaries) was technologically advanced! However, Caesar had a master plan: Close to the Roman borders there is this great library built by the Azetecs. Rumors that many many secret cooking recipies was kept in the library. "If only Monty allowed me to have a peek," Caesar murmured to himself after war brokeout between Rome and Azetec. Montezuma had a fairly small army even though he had mastered the secret of gun power, presumably from the great library. Xerxes the immortal, Alexander the Great, and Lincoln the businessman eagerly joined the fight against the poor Azetecs. Xerxes was like a hungry mosquito that smelled blood. Legions of Persian knights, immortals, longbowmen and pikemen were sent across the continent to Azetec territory. "Oh, poor Monty, please don't die just yet, I heard rumors that even as we are fighting this war, the librarians is still busy collecting new secret scrolls, is that true?" Around thirty Roman knights were ordered to "protect" the Azetec capital from the bloodthirsty Persians. They formed a close circle around Tenochtitlan to make sure no other forces could infiltrate. The sad thing about this "protection" is that a lot of innocent Azetec people died of hunger. For the next few centuries Caesar quietly built libraries, marketplaces and colisseums in his cities, trained knights, pikemen, catapults, and accumulated a huge amount of cash. Meanwhile no matter how bad Azetec people begged, he wouldn't withdraw his knights. Not only did he want the old secrets, he would also like to have the new ones that was still flowing in. At around 900AD Caesar felt he's ready for some technology influx so he ordered his knights rushed into the library and read the recipes. Vola! the Roman people is now in the industrial age and has just learned how to build railroads. What the hell?

 

[Barker]

Has anyone ever checked the number of workers an AI has before and after capturing your new workers? I have, on the odd occasion been able to re-capture my own workers the very next turn.

Perhaps the AI disbands the workers, since it knows that it will be unable to provide them safe passage. And, it is much more valuable for the AI to deprive you of your own workers than have them re-captured by you next turn.

 

[JuicyCivNewbie]

I disband AI workers if I collect them in the middle of enemy territory. Quite an impressive move by the AI, actually.

 

[stalin006]

the thing happened to me too, i was in a conquest only win game.....and everyone was kille but mao adn joan of arc! adn tehy would not sell me their maps for nothing!!!!!! so i spent like 200 years in a massive naval search w/ batleships, it was soooo anyoing, but when i fould them i followed them adn nuked tehm all

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by TheNiceOne
I thought it was a pretty well-known fact that the AI can have a negative gold flow and no treasury at the same time on the hardest levels. Isn't this also true for the human on the easier levels?

Not sure. I'm staying on monarch nowadays mostimes during the few times when I do play Civ3...

Except for this, the most inexplicable is that you accuse the AI for cheating without having proof, and without having bothered to read the correct explanations...

In your next game, try right-clicking on a unit and look for a command named "disband". Did you know that the AI can use this command as well? And I'm quite sure that when the AI captures a worker from you it always disbands it unless it can move it to its own territory the same turn.

Doh! I never even thought of that. Quite a smart move for the AI. Now I know where those workers disappear into.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Toast: that is one hell of an idea on how to keep the Great Library alive a long long time.....

as for your Cleo story: the AI can do things with money........ another thing where Firaxis out in un-even rules but didn't tell us.... so do not be surprised here. That Thebes became the capital comes from the old no-capital-no-corruption exploit - now, even if you capture a town the first (only) one becomes your capital.....