Haj01 - World Domination?

[Hajime]

I'm wondering if I could interest anyone in a Monarch-level SG.

Admittantly, it's for newer players to hone their abilities more then anything, and it's also intended as a trainer. Mind you, this SG's intent is to focus on warmongering at Monarch-level in an unknown map with unknown conditions and a large enough amount of opponents so as to discourage rep hits.

No RoP rape, intentional actions that would hurt our rep, and standard SG rules.

Gametype: C3C 1.22

Map: Randomly generated, but it is a Standard map, with 8 opponents. Everything - barbarians, water, etc. - is completely random, so I know nothing about the map itself.

Let's go for a 12-hour got it, 36-hour post rule (Try to get it up and running a bit faster, perchance? If it works out badly, we can revert to a 24-hour/72-hour rule.)

I have no idea how well this will work, but hey, it should prove to be interesting .

Player goal: Say 4-5? That sounds about right for the map.

Map information: Yes, all of that is flood plains. All of it. It may be a valid tactic to pop rush instead of bothering with shields in this map .

Roster: Hajime
Sourboy
Stoo.W
CivBattle
ProvostZakharov

 

[grs]

number 1: this is online for half a day and only for some minutes in the registry thread - give it a bit more time.

number 2: yes, frankly I'd say the rules suck. That is only my personal opinion and others may think completely different, but good rules are coherent in themselves. You either tell a "story" (look at the dark empire games from deceasedhorse or the recently opened Mic-5 game for example) or provide a simple and straight challenge with some rules to make it harder/more interesting (like maybe Bede's game above you in the registry, or the 2 in my sig). If you want to do a warfare training on monarch why not start a game with conquest the only allowed victory for the team (but all others allowed to the AI) and probably some honorable ruleset like the one LKendter uses or the RBCIV rules?

I personally don't like too many "or we do everything different if you like" and "or something like that"s in a SG opening post. That does not mean some details can't be discussed before the start, but I'd like to get a general impression the sponsor really wants to play the game he suggest.

Just a suggestion, I am not searching for games just now, I even had to pass on Mic-5

 

[Hajime]

Point taken, grs .

The original intent was to have a set of rules that weren't at, oh, say Defiant-level of difficulty, but were stringent enough to result in a game with a good bit of warfare.

This particular difficulty level has been a pain to master in an AW-type game, so yeah.

Heh. I'll just remove those rules, and note a good deal of warmongering intent then

 

[sourboy]

grs comments aside, I'll join the game for "training purposes." I hope you keep things as they are and not modify game conditions to make things harder. If it's too easy, then the difficulty level should be raised.

Anyway, if this is still open, I'm in.

 

[Elmarae]

Sigh... If it was [PTW] I would sign up in in a flash

 

[Hajime]

Yeah, it's still open .

Elmarae: Darn it .

I'll post the roster in the first post.

Sour: I'd like to take the first 20 turns if possible, as they tend to be my strongest of the first 4 or 5 player turns in these games...However, do you have any particular preference on initial play order?

Also, things -will- remain as they are. The pure randomness of the map makes it rather difficult in and of itself to plan out an early game strategy. Rules should pretty much remain the same - the effective goal is to leave our rep as high as possible, while warring as much as possible.

I'd personally like to see a two-front war if possible .

 

[sourboy]

I'll go last, as I'm new to this style of gaming and such. How many more people are you looking for and any idea when about it will start?

I'm all for high diplomacy, and warmongering - but only 2 fronts if neither is a heavy super-power. Last thing we need is alliances against us and be down 5 to 1 or something.

 

[Hajime]

Sour: Understood.

As for people, any amount of people is good. We could start ourselves if you wanted, and let other people join as we get more deeply into the game.

I'd prefer to start with 4 people, but there's no technical reason a 2 player SG couldn't happen temporarily - plus it'd accelerate the turn-speed quite a bit.

 

[Stoo.W]

Hey guys if you're still lookin for players then i would like to sign up. This will be my 1st SG so you may have to guide me through this. i did put my name down for JME02- OCCCCC(Vanilla) SG, but it doesnt seem to be going anywhere at the moment (havent started yet).

 

[Hajime]

Cool . We've got 3 now then, Stoo.W.

Putting you down in the roster .

I suppose there's no real reason why we can't start with 3, and let up to 2 people join later.

Based on what has been said so far, this sounds like the suggested turn order:

Hajime
Stoo.W
Open
Open?
Sourboy


Comments? Stoo, would you rather go later? Sour, earlier?

 

[Stoo.W]

I have no real preference in the order. that seems ok to me unless sourboy wants to go before me! (i am really new to succession, so.... we all take 20 turns? correct? and then we repost the save within 36 hours? correct? and we have to kick everybody's ass while making sure they're enjoying it while we do it so as not to upset them? correct?) So when do we start?? LETS GO!! aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr

 

[sourboy]

Stoo - you mentioned you signed up for a Vanilla game that stalled, right? You are aware this game is for Conquests v1.22, no?

Haj - I'll go before or after Stoo. I'm not a new player by any means, but just haven't played an SG before. I guess after the first couple rounds I will have the hang of it, so it really doesn't matter to me.

Also, what Civ are we? What are the available victory conditions? Accelerated Production on/off? Culture flip on/off? Aggression level normal or higher/lower?

I'm okay with starting and letting others join later, but I would rather there be a cut-off, say the end of the Ancient Age - for "team" purposes. I mean it would suck to have someone join early Industrial Age and try to change our victory approach.

One more thing, are we going to talk over general play before passing the game? I mean like "hey we should focus on this or attack them" or are we just playing 20 turns and passing the game with some comments on what's going on at that point?

 

[Hajime]

Sour:

Everything is unknown untill the game is started. That's intended .

Culture flip is on. That's the only thing that I remember at this point anyways .

I'd also recommend talking over general play.

I would also recommend Sour go second, Stoo follow, then me and Sour swap turns (I'm not good for 4th turn. I have difficulties there that are best left out of a SG.)

Basically, here would be the first 9 turns.

Me
Sour
Stoo
Sour
Me
Stoo
Me
Sour
Stoo

 

[Stoo.W]

play order looks fine. Yeah i have conquests 1.22 sourboy! talking over general play is good, i dont want to make any stupid mistakes when we talk about important decisions. I also agree with the cut off point. what govt are we gonna work towards? no point waisting time getting unnecessary techs to get democracy for example. I suppose this is one of the things we can talk about when the situation arises.

 

[CivBattle]

I'm in if there still a open spot, Hajime. I'm also a SG "online" newbie. thx for reply Hajime.

Anyone of you good at Micro Management and Ring City Placement?
Want to learn how to how to get a 4-6 settler factory going to perfection!

CivAssist been my big help getting new victory conditions in! Used get to many domination wins.

 

[Hajime]

Okay, cool .

Hajime
Stoo.W
CivBattle
Sourboy

New turn order - that look good guys?

CivBattle: I'm decent at it....I can get one going, but I rarely have enough map area in the games I play to benefit from one unless I start going on massive wars/razing and replacing.

 

[CivBattle]

Hajime: Nice I'll exploid your jugdment on city placement.
Then I'm in a military build up, nice fits my early resource capturing.
The rep rule fits my playingstyle. I like have nice rep nearly to the end...
Is it random civ we are playing?

 

[sourboy]

CivBattle
Ring City Placement only works up through PTW. Conquests adjusted corruption equations against it, so if you're playing in this succession game, I'm guessing you have Conquests & thus that's why you're struggling with Ring City Placement.

As for worker factories, there's a great article in the War Academy about it, but basically keep in mind that you should found your capital (or second city) next to a fresh water source and near cattle, wheat, or flood plains - so that you can grow fast. Just make sure you have enough shields to build the settlers as fast as your population can grow. I think ideally you want a couple cattle or wheat and a hill to accomplish this.

I suggest reading that article and playing in the editor. When you understand the tile properties in a mathematical way, you just have to pause a little at the start of each game to add up tiles and find the 'sweet spot' - then just expand like a virus.

Haj
We ready to start then? I'm getting anxious.

 

[ProvostZakharov]

I'd like to sign me up. This will be my first SG too, but I usually play at monarch single player. Sounds like fun.

 

[Hajime]

Yes, we're ready to start.

FYI: This area could be -perfect- for a settler factory. The amount of food plains, plains, grasslands, and mountains is absolutely perfect for one if the culture expansion is decent.

My playing style is one of resource monopolies.

If I can get a monopoly on one resource, I'll do anyting to get that monopoly and protect it. If you can succeed with a decently used resource - iron untill IA, Saltpeter at IA, rubber or oil at IA+ - then the comp is a sitting duck.

And yes - we are playing a random civ.

As I said, everything is random . I'm actually playing a difficulty level or two below my current skill level (I'm currently at Deity. I may be ready to levelup in a week or so.), so I'm using that to increase the difficulty of the map for me without making the difficulty go beyond a decent training SG.

I'll start play today. We'll decide playing order with another method I want to experiment with - first person to post 'got it' that hasn't gone in that turn order gets the next turn series.

Now, for AA, the first turn will be 20 turns. Subsequent turns will be 10.

Once we hit MA, this will end up changing a bit. We'll probably go to 15 turns then.

Once we hit the IA, we'll go up to 20 turns apiece.

Wait for commenting between turns, however, please. As one person noted, ring placement does -not- work in Conqests, and if you rely on it, it will hurt.

I personally ignore corruption when I play Conquests. Optimal city placement can be obtained, but with the new algorithm, optimal city placement can't be obtained as easily. Even at Deity, my current level, I find that worrying about absolutely perfect city placement takes more time then it's worth. But that's just my opinion.

Now, early game plan. Since the experience here with SG's is limited, might I suggest an early game phil->Lit slingshot, with a Glib pre-build?


A few rules of thumb: Do NOT trade writing untill we have Phil at 1-2 turns left, or complete. Do NOT trade Literature untill Glib is nearly complete (4-5 turns max)