DM01: Waiting for Huitzilopochtli (Warlords)

[pholkhero]

Though i have been told that this game seems neither fun nor funny =p, i am going to try it as an SG just to see for sure.

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central México the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexicas, which was reflected in the name of the later Republic of Mexico. The civilization has a rich mythology and cultural heritage. The capital was Tenochtitlan, built on raised islets in Lake Texcoco – the site of modern-day Mexico City.

Huitzilpochtli has commanded us to feed him the blood of humans to keep and strengthen his powers. We're going to try and help him out, and try to do so in ways which are 'historically' accurate to the Aztecs.

Civilization: Montezuma of the Aztecs
Rivals: 8
Difficulty: Noble/Prince [up for debate, but I'm leaning Noble to cut city maintenance costs]
Map: Lakes
Size: Standard
Climate: Tropical
Speed: Epic
Victory Conditions: All but Domination turned on, and we can only win by Conquest.

In-game Variants:
* 6 City Challenge (The Aztecs can only FOUND 6 cities ~ hat tip to Conroe)
* No razing of captured cities.

Additional Variant Rules:

Rule #1: Religion

Veneration of Huitzilopochtli (literally, "hummingbird of the south"), the personification of the sun and of war, was central to the religious, social and political practices of the Mexica.

We must found either Buddhism, Hinduism or Judaism, or WE LOSE. We must adopt it immediately and never switch. [To that end, we must build the UN to keep a religion.] We must spread it aggressively. Once any conquered city comes out of revolt, we must whip the city to Pop1, and spread our State Religion. [This whipping does not count towards Rule #2.]

Rule #2: Human Sacrifice

For most people today, and for the European Christians who first met the Aztecs, human sacrifice was and is the most striking feature of Aztec civilization. While human sacrifice was practiced throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, if their own accounts are to be believed, brought this practice to an unprecedented level. For example, for the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days, reportedly by Ahuitzotl, the Great Speaker himself.

We must whip 2x population every 30 turns (starting w/the discovery of BW), where x = the number of cities we currently have (e.g., if we have 5 cities, we must whip/kill 10 slaves). Since we can not survive with perpetually whipping the same core group of cities, we must conquer fresh victims to use.

Rule #3: Slavery

Slaves or tlacotin also constituted an important class. Distinct from war captives, this slavery was very different from what Europeans of the same period were to establish in their colonies, although it had much in common with the slavery of classical antiquity.

Once we discover Slavery, we must revolt there and stay there at all times (UN rule again).

Rule #4: Roads

The main contribution of the Aztec rule was a system of communications between the conquered cities. In Mesoamerica, without draft animals for transport (nor, as a result, wheeled vehicles), the roads were designed for travel on foot. Usually these roads were maintained through tribute, and travelers had places to rest and eat and even latrines to use at regular intervals, roughly every 10 or 15 km. Couriers (paynani) were constantly traveling along those ways, keeping the Aztecs informed of events, and helping to monitor the integrity of the roads. Due to the steady surveillance, even women could travel alone, a fact that amazed the Spaniards since that was not possible in Europe at that time.

All cities must be connected BY ROADS (river connections do not count) before ANY other tile improvements are built. [Our first city can be improved, though, before we found our second.] Each road must be guarded at all times (w/exceptions.)

Rule #5: Nerf Herding

Much has been said about a lack of animal proteins in the Aztec diet. Although the Aztecs had domestic animals, like turkey and some dog breeds, these were few and usually reserved for special occasions. Hunting -- deer, wild hogs, ducks-- was also another source of meat, although the eventual population within the Valley of Mexico precluded hunting as a major food source.

We can not “Pasture” any resource until we reach the Renaissance era. We can not build any mounted unit until Cavalry. Camps on Deer, Beaver and Elephants, are, of course, allowed.

Rule #6: Education

The Mexica, one of the Aztec groups, were one of the first people in the world to have mandatory education for nearly all children, regardless of gender, rank, or station. Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpulli. Periodically they attended their local temples, to test their progress.

We must build any science buildings that are available, before any other buildings. The exception to this is to build units.

I know it *seems* like a lot of rules, but it won't be too complicated. I'll keep track of them for us.

Roster in next post.

 

[pholkhero]

Roster:
1: Pholkhero
2. Picardathon
3. Xtream
4. RoboKai
5. Rem
6. Remconius

Alternates:
1. Open

I'm looking for folks with whom i've NEVER played with, and those with an empahsis on reporting, screenshots, etc.

I am also utilizing a "3 Strikes and You're Out" Rule. After 3 "no show/no calls," the offendign player will be booted. [This does not include those who ask for a skip; only those who go AWOL.] Harsh, i know, but what can you do.

So, any takers or is this really a crummy idea?

 

[Conroe]

we can only win by Conquest.

In-game Variants:
* 6 City Challenge
* No razing of captured cities.

lurker's comment: Maybe I missed it somewhere, but these all seem mutually exclusive to me. How do you have a 6cc without razing?

 

[pholkhero]

sorry, good point ~ we can only FOUND 6 cities thanks!!

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Lurking my tuchus off. Huitzilo...er...o..po-ch-whozit?

 

[Rem]

I'd be up for this, although with school right around the corner, my schedule will most likely be pretty cramped up at the start while I get things organized, so maybe stickin me as an alternate would be a good idea (although if you have any trouble filling the roster I'll see what I can do to play as a regular)

 

[picardathon]

Well, I'm playing with you, but I'm up for this one, so if your willing to take me I'd love to join.
I thought of doing a SP game with this type of variant, but I though "Nah, WAY to crazy"

 

[pholkhero]

@ Rem: I'll slot you in as an alternate for now, but if troop levels are too low, prepare to be drafted

@ Picard: well, as i'm techniically in advisor mode (and that SG has seemed to die), you're in, too. Making it so.

 

[pholkhero]

And here's the start I 'rolled' ~ i WB'ed a bit to get that lake config, but didn't add any extra resources; we actually lost those pigs



Note, too, that I went with Noble difficulty.

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

hey ill join

 

[pholkhero]

that's fine, you're in. Hopefully you won't bust your warlords disc, too

 

[pholkhero]

@ Rem ~ you've been drafted. i'll slot you in at the end of the roster, but let me know if that's okay. I don't mind if you need a skip now and again, just please let us know as as you can when you need one.

i odn't mind playing with just 4 (though i guess this means SpriteSODA was right and the idea just isn't 'fun or funny', i like it very much). So, if ya'll are up for it, i'm going to play the first 30 tonight, then we'll go 25, 20, 15.

if you'll notice, i'm heading for another scout first since it's noble and i'd like to grab as many huts as possible. AFter poly comes in and we found Hinduism (hopefully), i'm going to grab some worker techs, so that we can develop Tenoch before we found our next city.

 

[Meatbuster]

Yeah, it's not fun or funny, but trying to be 'historically accurate'?

Put me in. I want to start a Warlords SG but it seems not many have it yet.

 

[pholkhero]

okay, and so the great quest for blood has begun. Huitzil...Huitilz...God has commanded us to feed him the blood of our conquests, and who are we to argue with her?

I sent our initial scout out and about, let's tout his stout....er...clout? He wanders into a nearby village:

Lucky for us their baubles are worth 100g! Nice, thanks guys.

Ahhh, god has sent us an enemy who ALREADY comes equipped with his own spike to impale his skull upon.

Now, if we find someone with a salad-shooter, we can have a banquet.

Tenoch.'s borders pop in 3760, so i MM a bit to grow a little faster. I didn't think we'd be in much danger of losing Poly at this level.


Ahh, more food for god ~ i think he's on a low-carb diet, too.



Ah, more tribute. How kind of those cowering simpletons!


Buddhism is FIDL and a turn or two later, Izzy converts:


Oh yeah, Izzy's here, too. AND she's nearby, AND she's a heretic


What else can happen??

 

[pholkhero]

Ragnar comes a'callin' and he's got TWO spikes. Man, life is just too convenient sometimes.

[ed note: anyone notice that there's a preponderance of warlords leaders in every random game now??]

Hinduism is founded by us!

For some reason, i don't get any tech splashes now! I uninstalled and reinstalled, and still nothing. Hmmm...it sucks, but...what can you do. Nichevo.

Our scouts keep exploring:




Yet another Warlord!

Yes, yes, peace in our time, yadda yadda yadda. I'll bet you taste like chicken.

Okay, and now it's 3100 bc already! Here's our lands:


We've researched Polytheism > Agriculture > Mining (which is almost done). After the scout finished, I built a warrior for defense, and then a worker. He will be finished shortly to hook up that rice, gold and elephants, and we can start thinking about next plans.

Do we want to just take out a nearby enemy quickly or found our 6 citites first?? I'm leaning found near copper, and take out Izzy rather soon. After that we should found our other 5 cities. The good thing is, though, we could probably keep a good star-pattern with them and still get good sites.

In the end, we're going to need LOTS of commerce to support our ass-load of cities, and of course, State Property will be our best friend forever.

 

[pholkhero]

@ Robo Kai ~ you're IN!!

Roster:
1: Pholkhero > just played
2. Picardathon > UP NOW
3. Xtream > on deck
4. Robo Kai >
5. Rem [hope you don't mind, but as an 'alternate' i thought you'd prefer the last slot]

And we're still looking for one regular since Rem has a real life ~ imagine that, a life OUTSIDE civ??

Here's the save:

 

[Meatbuster]

Woo! I'm in! Maybe you should edit the roster on the 2nd post...

I do have a question about the human sacrifice. Once Slavery has been adopted, how does it work?

A. the current player must ensure that a cummulative total of at least 2xCities worth population has been killed every 30 turns (easier, so we can kill anytime we need production)
- OR -
B. that 2xCities worth of population must be killed at that 30th turn? (deadlier)

Also, I assume Emancipation will destroy us, so maybe winning the game before democracy is up is a good idea?

???

(...and I've played at least one random game where there were no new leaders, so it's cannot be proven that there exists a conspiracy by Firaxis to require adding at least 1 new leader if a random slot is available.)

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Pholk, when 1.61 first came out, all of us who used eotinb's autologger lost all tech splashes and wonder movies. Ruff later fixed it, but if you're using the standard autologger, it could be that. Otherwise, there's a setting in the .ini file for disabling splashes. Have you checked that?

 

[pholkhero]

@ Robo ~ already you're second post, and making demands?! FINE! Roster editted, happy now

the slavery variant is Option B. Every 30th turn, after the intial whipping once we adopt slavery, we need to whip 2x population. It also doesn't matter if the whip is done on the first turn of a build either to kill more people. Think of it as a Religious Ritual that comes around at a certain time every 'year' ~

re: Emancipation -- i forgot how many bonus happies we get at the Noble level but Emancipation unhappiness may not be a huge problem. we could raise the culture rate or whip out the unhappies

and i don't believe you about no new leaders. it seems like i get almost EVERY one in a new game. It's gotten so bad that i randomly determine my opponents w/dice rolls beforehand on SP games.

@ Rex ~ yeah, i remember that with Vanilla, but i'm not using the autologger anymore. i took off everything but the saves from my drive and reloaded both Vanilla and Warlords and still no splashes. II also went into the .ini and put On no "tech splashes" b/c it was off, saved it, and then turned them back on and nothing! grrr...

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Do you know how to clear the cache? I *think* holding down shift while launching the app clears the config cache. The actual way to do it is around here somewhere. Though the fact that you uninstalled tells me that maybe there's something in the registry.