[DRN-001] BtS Any Which Way You Can

[yena]

I decided against a pre-emptive strike, since it is so much easier to defend than to attack. Catherine didn't attack anyone, so I mainly built space ship parts and more military units.

526:

A lucky break in Washington.
527: Sitting Bull is being crushed by the Celts and begging for help. Sorry, old chap. Too busy winning this game...
528: Gah, a volcano eruption close to San Francisco and a mining disaster in Washington Good thing that we have workers and money on hand.
531: UN secretary election...

532: which we lost. Catherine is the new boss.
533: Our first space ship part (docking bay) leaves the factory.
537: Sitting Bull capitulates to Brennus
539: Catherine calls for a vote on environmentalism...
540: which unfortunately fails

We are now 9 turns from a space ship launch! Or maybe we should delay a bit if anyone is into modern warfare?

I don't think there is any risk of a diplomatic victory for Catherine, but I could be wrong. Do we have an expert on diplomacy among us?

The save: View attachment MDR AD-1945-January.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[azaris]

No chance Cathy can get a diplomatic, Zara will never ever vote for her. The only risk is that Brennus or Cathy force capitulation on Zara in the next 25 turns. If they invade Ethiopia we have to attack to draw their forces away.

EDIT: Guided missiles are useless if your opponent doesn't have air superiority. Better to upgrade to jet fighters and shoot down Cathy's fighters, then spam bombers. You can get a bomber for the hammers it costs to make two guided missiles.

 

[doronron]

Got it. Will play and post today.

 

[doronron]

Inherited Turn (1945 AD) - Six turns of Golden Age left. Brennus has outstripped Cathy in Power. We're still third.

Turn 1 (July 1945 AD) - I notice one of the new features. We're now dealing with years lasting multiple turns. San Francisco wants to join Babylon. Why? I tell them no. Akkad wants a Courthouse. It has a 22.82 gtp maintenance cost. I go ahead and tell it to do so once the Mobile SAM is done.

The borders of Akkad expands.

I can tell thisis going to be a largely hands off turnset for me. We'll be launching the Sapceship in eight turns, provided we're not attacked.

Turn 2 (January 1946 AD) - Chicago finishes its SEAL. I start a Gunship. Seattle trains a Gunship. I start another one.

SS Casing complete in LA. I start a Mobile Artillery. Buffalo begins a Bomber. I begin upgrading our Fighters, Infantry, Cavalry, and SAM Infantry.

Turn 3 (July 1946 AD) - Most of our forces are modernized. I continue to build up and begin to save money once again for the next wave of upgrades.

A source of Aluminum has been discovered near Babylon!

Catherine completes the Apollo Program. Brennus adopts Universal Sufferage.

Turn 4 (January 1947 AD) - Stealth discovered. Futer Tech begun. An SS Thruster and an SS Engine is complete.

Time to check our diplomacy. Everyone except Roosevelt is cautious towards us. Good. We need no wars for a while.

Turn 5 (July 1947 AD) - Mining accident for Gandhi. Volcano for Roosevelt. We finish our SS Thrusters. All that remains are two SS Casings and an SS Engine.

Turn 6 (January 1948 AD) - Our Golden age ends. We are now at -17gpt. Stalin adopts Universal sufferage. Ethiopia suffers a mining accident.

Since we've completed the tech tree. I drop our Science to 0% and crank up our culture and espionage by 40% each. We are now at a +204gpt gain.

Turn 7 (July 1948 AD) - Sitting bull wants us to cancel deals with the Celts. No.

Resolution for Free Speech. Yes.

English have a mining accident.

Turn 8 (July 1948 AD) - Nothing.

Turn 9 (January 1949 AD) - Free Speech Resolution fails. Hammurabi, Gandhi, and Victoria defy the resolution.

Our Military might is edging towards Cathy. Brennus is still outstripping her.

Turn 10 (July 1949 AD) - Russia (?) loses some roads to a flood.

We've built our final component, the SS Engine.

ETA 16 Turns (or 8 years -- when did we discover FTL drives?)

Spaceship Launched!

Now we just have to survive another 16 turns!

I immediately check our foreign affairs. No change.

Turn 11 (January 1950 AD) - IBT I watched an airship fly over Washington headed towards Seattle and Buffalo. I cannot find it.

Turn 12 (July 1950 AD) - Greatest Civs popup. Brennus is first, Cathy second, and we are third.

We get a donation of close o 187 gold to our treasury due to a stained glass random event.

India and Russia (?) suffer a diplomatic falling out as an arranged marriage collapses.

Our first stealth destroyer is commissioned. It is sent to supplement the Washington Channel fleet.

Turn 13 (January 1951 AD) - Hammurabi wants Combustion. I give it to him. He is now pleased.

Great Engineer born in Miami -- we need two more for a final Golden Age.

Riots have broken out in the Babylonian capitol of Nippur.

Cathy adopts Environmentalism.

Turn 14 (July 1951 AD) - Sitting Bull births a Great Engineer. Aksum has its food stores ruined by Vermin. We're building a group of Stealth Bombers.

Turn 15 (January 1952 AD) - Miami wants to join Roosevelt. I say no. Cathy suffers a mining accident. Civilized Jewelers spreads to Chaco Canyon.

Turn 16 (July 1952 AD) - Oops! I go over my turn limit. Mining accident for the English. Famine relief sent from Adwa to Burgundian provides a diplo boost.

There was a vote to assign Dur-Kurigalzu to us before I realized what turn it was. I voted yes. Why not?

NINE TURNS TO VICTORY!

Note: The unit icons shown in the picture of Dur-Kurigalzu are actually our forces stationed in Washington...

HERE is the save.

 

[njorls]

Very good Donoron. Looks like the next turnset will wrap it up.

 

[azaris]

9 turns? Let's just finish this thing off.

Cathy can't touch us. I turn all cities to build Research to grab a few Future Techs for added score. The job is made easier when I learn that Great Prophets can lightbulb Future Techs (must make sure to stockpile lots of GPs just for this purpose in my next game). We get up to FT2.

I gift our faithful vassals our techs - they can play with them after we go to Alpha Centauri. I rush Red Cross and found Cereal Mills because they're wonders and we can. Then just as the space ship arrives I get this inane quest:

Zero different types, you say? Done and done.

(yes, that's what Lincoln looks like on my machine)

All in all, a rather peaceful game where we made good use of our land without needing to conquer many cities from the AIs. I'm of the opinion that even without Solver's fix corporations can be extremely powerful, especially in the space race. This game sort of demonstrated that, but of course this was just Prince difficulty.

Hope to see the lot of you in many SGs to come!

The final save:

 

[pigswill]

Good stuff. Fun learning a bit more about BtS. Harmony and a general absence of acrimony always make a game more enjoyable.

Gamewise the early and succesful rush against Justinian (edit: Charlemagne and Aachen/Aix) probably was the turning point; after that it was about exploiting our advantage.

 

[doronron]

Great game. Good finish, azaris!

Yeah, the Charlie and the HRE looked like a huge threat in the beginning. Their fall was somewhat quick and unexpected. That's probably what netted us the game.

In fact, considering most of the rivals were trapped on their own islands is probably why our game was such a low key one.

In a few days, I'll likely start another SG -- a game on a real world map if they run OK under BtS. Not sure what the difficulty setting will be, though. Prince seemed to be rather easy, but it could've been the map.

 

[njorls]

Great game everyone! I agree that the successful rush on Charlemagne was the turning point. He managed to build 1 archer and 1 warrior in the time it took us to build a chariot rush. Having 2 capitals that early gave us a big early advantage. Another limited war and vassalage of Hammurabi after taking his capital (with shrine), along with a peaceful AI, sealed the win.

I learned a lot in my first SG. I started putting signs on my cities saying production/commerce/etc like Pigswell did to show city specialization.

Great game and thanks again!

 

[yena]

Good game, and the fastest SG I've ever played. See you in another SG!

 

[Sorceresss]

Gee thanx, guys, for the "good game" !

I was the weakest player on the team, for the following reasons :

1. From mid-January 2006 to mid-July 2007, I had not played at C4 ;
2. I had never pushed a game beyond the Middle Ages, because I like to restart games and enjoy the pre-modern epochs all over again ;
3. It was my very first Succession Game.

Unfortunately, it might also be my last SG, for the following reasons :

1. I have other games to play, and C4 is not my favourite one ;
2. I don't enjoy C4 when gunpowder arrives on the scene ;
3. I am not an experienced enough player to be on a non-n00b SG team ;
4. University restarts on Sept. 4, and being in French Lit., I will have a lot of books to read, and eventually, lots of term-papers to research & compose (consequently : very few free evenings, being an ambitious straight-A student).

I thank doronron, in particular, who has taken the time & trouble to send me a few PMs to offer very positive support & advice.

 

[pigswill]

Sorceress: Your lack of confidence was more noticable than your lack of ability. I hope you don't give up on C4 SGs altogether.

 

[yena]

Sorceresss: You played well enough and believe me, I've seen *much* worse SG players. Some lack of confidence is natural when you play your first SG (check out mine if you want to see panic attacks and some really bad moves ).