HAM-01: The Hanseatic League

[GreyFox]

Trading is trickly business ... not only do you have to watch your "trading partners" ... (be it trading resources and gold, or trading arrows and bullets), you must also watch your employees (read: populance) who are bringing you the resources with which you trade with.

As such, I have reassigned the employees abit in various offices (read: cities) so that the union will not organize a strike again.

I have also made the following trades when opportunity arises:





The last was a mistake. Should have saved it for someone else ... since I am going to cancel the free-of-charge rice soon ...



... so I should have waited and sell the rice to GK, and sell the pig to someone else (like Toku or Izzy).

To further boost employee spirit, I gave out a Employee-of-the-Year Award ...



"Congratulations, Mr Zhang! You are hereby named Employee-of-the-Year. Not only that, I am reassigning you to headquarters in Danzig to be our resident specialist in Merchanting".



Research-wise, I got us Liberalism, Gun powder, and Econs:







But I was so busy attending to other matters that I forgot to announce the planned Company Policy change to an equal opportunity employer (i.e. revolt to Free Market and Free Religion) ... so next CEO, please remember to do so.

Now, what could have caught my attention that have me forget such an important organization restructuring? For one ting, we are listed at the latest Forbes list:



For another, our trading partners. Didn't I mention one should watch our trading partners in our line of profession?



This spell troubles, with our two best business partners deciding to go for an all-out competition between themselves.

One more thing before I step down from the board, I am preparing to introduce welfare system to the Brunges Office by bringing them even more food ...



Congratulation, Mr HamtasticPigswill, you are hereby to succeed me. May the money flows endlessly to you. Here is your official letter of appointment as the next CEO.

 

[Cosmichail]

Catherine and Saladin at war that can't be good. I think she has Cossacks too. Nice trades and that chain irrigation is exactly what I was thinking too we could do. More food the better. That's two more GM's so that is now a total of 3 so far.

Also Pigswill is up according to the roster and Hamtastic is "on deck".

 

[GreyFox]

Opps, sorry ... I keep thinking I am the last player on the roster

As to "2 more GM" ... no, there is only one. I was puzzled as well, since as I recall we were talking abt where to settle a GM in between yours and sooo's turnset ... then, when I opened up the save, I can only see one GM in Danzig.

 

[Cosmichail]

You're right Fox the other GM was merged in Lubeck/one during Soooo's turn merged in Danzig and one during your turn also so that makes a total of 3.

Cathy is going to have Saladin for breakfast if she does have Cossacks. That could mean she will dominate considerably and prove to be a problem at some point.

 

[pigswill]

Dear Mr Greyfox,

I am afraid that Mr Hamtastic is not currently available to assume the role of CEO and I have been appointed by the Board to oversee the interests of the Hanseatic Trading Company in his absence.

I have indeed received the forwarded letter of appointment and I am in the process of reviewing the current assets and liabilities of the Company.

On behalf of the Board I would like to thank you for your endeavours.I am afraid that due to pressing commitments we are unable to arrange an official presentation ceremony but rest assured that your gold watch is in the mail.

Yours Sincerely

Mr Pigswill, Acting CEO

 

[pigswill]

As you will no doubt be aware from Dr Greyfox's last memo and my reply (dated 1725) I have been appointed as acting CEO in the absence of Sir Hamtastic, KCTL (Knight Commander of the Teutonic Lodge).

I would like to take this opportunity to report to the Board on the activities of the Company under my tenure.

On being appointed in 1725 my first action was to implement the reorganisation that Dr Greyfox had considered but had been unable to complete. I introduced the Free Religion human resources policy as well as the Free Market trading strategy.Regrettably our production suffered for the next five years though this had of course been predicted and a rigorous cost-benefit analysis had demonstrated the long terms profitability of these reforms.

In 1735 Catherine of the Russian Trading Federation and Saladin of Arabia Inc tried to interest us in a hostile takeover bid.






I carefully considered their proposals but concluded that the lost revenues would disadvantage us and thus declined their overtures. While this move has cost us some loss of repute the overall diplomatic balance is still in credit with both parties.

In 1750 our Danzig branch completed the construction of a Grocer aided by selective deforestation and began to develop a Harbour to increase our trade revenues.

In 1755 the benefits of our incentive policies were demonstrated by Danzig's speedy completion of the Harbour. I had received a memo from the Research Directorate that the Chemistry project was nearing completion and decided to increase our cashflow in anticipation of the new opportunities for our Security operations.
The Lubeck office also reported the building of a Grocer and they also were instructed to maximise revenue. The Kiel branch completed a Library to enlighten our employees' minds and started the construction of a Temple for their spiritual benefit.

In 1760 the Chemistry Project was completed. Danzig and Lubeck immediately started to recruit security personnel for the new Grenadier units.
I contacted Catherine with a view to mutually advantageous trading arrangements. Not surprisingly she tried sexual harassment in her bargaining strategy:


Despite this distraction she agreed to trade 660 gold and a peace treaty with Saladin in exchange for Chemistry. I approached Saladin who agreed to exchange the results of their Nationalism research for Chemistry though insisted on 340 gold for the copyright as well.
Catherine also agreed to pay 11 gold instead of 8 gold for our quality clams while Genghis made an inflationary adjustment to 6 gold for our pork products.
In view of our financial priorities I mothballed the Research Department to divert resources to more immediately profitable endeavours.

George Washington of the American Neo-Colonial Corporation made a trade proposal in 1765 which we declined:


Bruges completed a bank in the same year, employed several former miners and farmers as financial assistants as well as recruiting towards a Grenadier regiment.

In 1770 Rostock and Zwolle both completed courthouses with an immediate benefit in reducing the fraud and corruption that seems to inevitably occur in our smaller branches. Rostock started to construct a bank and I have dispatched some of our workers to start logging operations. Zwolle's branch manager suggested that the populace would benefit from increased culture and I approved her proposal for a Theatre.

In 1775 our cultural improvement policies bore unexpected fruit with the emergence of a Great Artist in Bruges, no doubt inspired by the classical influence of the National Epic.

Obviously no report would be complete with a budget statement:

 

[GreyFox]

Good continuation of the story, pigswill(fly)! I especially like that gold watch

Although it seems unlikely we will achieve any of our variant objectives at this point in time, the game must continue. How do we propose to win this game? Diplomatic? Military-path seems unlikely.

--

 

[Cosmichail]

Yep Pigswill your stories sure got a lot better since remembering the first time you posted in HN-power of religion. (quite well done indeed)

As to victory mmmm diplomatic we will need some friends for that which we have except for GK/Isabella/GW. Either Cathy/Saladin will be the competition unless one of the other civs builds. May I recommend if we do get any GE's save him for UN if that is our goal. (yep I burned the last one but I felt we needed to get moving on with guilds/banking)

Anyways it's about fun so let's do that and see what kind of wealth and GM's we can amass.

EDIT: Hamtastic you are up.

 

[hamtastic]

General Memo to the Shareholders:

I am pleased to see that over the last 80 years we have revolutionized the way we do business. With the death of the trading league has come the rise of a modernized formal organization.

I am also pleased to serve as your next Chief Executive Officer. During my watch, I pledge to work for three goals: steadily increasing revenue streams and finding new goods to trade with our trading partners, working towards new technological innovations that will help us keep ahead in the market, and working towards the establishment of a world government organization that will help us keep the peace and improve worldwide trade.

Sincerely,

John Hamtastic III

 

[Cosmichail]

Hamtastic are you playing? You're last post gave me the impression that it was a "got it". It's been well over 24 hrs but since you are the CEO will wait of course. If you don't post tomorrow this time I will go ahead and play to keep the game moving. I did see you logged in and thought that maybe you were going to post but alas nothing.

 

[hamtastic]

Err. Yeah, sorry, I've been busy. I'll try to play tonight. If I can't, I'll post a note. It was indeed intended as a "got it" though.

 

[hamtastic]

I'm sorry, but I really can't get to this right now. I've been quite busy at work with a bunch of stuff. I know it's bad form to ask so late, but can I get a skip after all. That would put Cosmichail up. I'll be back next round though!

 

[Cosmichail]

Ok this "I got it" and will play later on tonight.

 

[Cosmichail]

Memo

To: Shareholders
Fm: CEO

Date: Sept. 1775

Due to other duties the CEO is needed elsewhere and appointed myself Van Helsing as interim CEO. One of the first duties I took upon myself was our security and the city of Zwolle which is being adversely affected by Spanish culture. Fortunately we have a Great Artist who will head over there and merge with the city to give it long term culture and compete against the Spanish influence.

We shall continue to build influential buildings to bring Zwolle into the limelight of culture once again. With this merged artist we already see an improvement as it has extended it’s boundaries taking a few ocean tiles. During this time we mostly were doing day to day duties such as building modern defenses for our cities and placing more cottages and farms. At one point our engineers were complaining for lack of work so we researched Replaceable parts to give them something to do and improve our productivity. Our coffers are doing well nearing the 7000 gold mark and with no science earning about 523 gold per turn.

We seem to be staying well in the tech game since others only have a few techs more and it is possible that Replaceable parts can be traded. The Japanese are behind us quite a bit and really haven’t got much to offer.

We have been in touch with all our neighbours and could not find any method to increase our income since none had any extra gold to offer. At one point we noticed Catherine moving troops through our land and wondered what she was up to. After discussing it with her it appeared she was pretty much getting along with everybody and I concluded she was headed to a barb city south of Rostock/Zwolle. Our forces had a look at this city and felt moving troops there would be a waste and offer little in the way of commerce.

As to our commerce we were able to run 100% science and still earn positive income which is excellent. We now have employed 11 merchants 5 stationed at Visby and 6 at Bruges. Bruges will provide another Great person in the next turn and hopefully this time it will be a Great Merchant. We also built a grocer in Bruges for health and improvement of wealth. We can purchase techs from the AI but quite costly. Catherine offered constitution for 3930 gold, which is a real bargain pardon the sarcasm.

During this time we also upgraded some of our soldiers to keep our power rating at a reasonable level although I do believe we are fairly low. We do have a lot of gold and can make quick upgrades should the need arise.

The turn set was very quiet and uneventful ergo no pictures. We started an ad campaign selling our wares as the Christmas season is upon us. This is a busy time for our corporation and obviously this is just the quiet before the storm. My stay was for 15 years since I felt that 10 went by so quickly.

Signed
H. Van Helsing
Interim CEO
(Security dept)


Here is the Data disk with the sales stats:

 

[Meatbuster]

Catherine offered Constitution for 3930 gold, which is a real bargain pardon the sarcasm.

Wow, first time I've ever heard of buying techs since Civ3! Excellent!

 

[pigswill]

Seems like we have failed!

 

[Cosmichail]

Yes Pigswill that was inevitable. There was no way we could amass 50K and 8 GM's in so little time. Also our coin for trade isn't anywhere near the 100 gpt per turn. SO yes we have failed.

The question is do we want to continue trying for another victory. Perhaps diplomatic as suggested by Greyfox. I don't know, we aren't going anywhere unless we take somebody's land like Isabella as she is backwards. But that's not an option according to the variant. Cathy's got Cossacks now but she likes us so we should be alright. GW and Ghenghis I am not so sure.

Hamtastic was that a swap and do we continue with the roster. If that's the case Soooo's up.

Personally I would like us to try again with another map not like this one. We missed the boat on economics which Soooo pointed out and was a major goal for us. I even think this is much more doable starting at ancient age. Vanilla isn't near as hard as Warlords patched so we should be able to pull this off. Again think about using Liz this time as it would still fit within the them of the League since England also participated. Having a leader with philosophical/financial would do the trick. Bismarck really isn't that good for this theme and we haven't made use of his industrious trait which other than what colossus which is obsolete rather quickly.

I am quite willing to continue playing but would rather restart.

 

[pigswill]

I have to say that I have no enthusiasm for carrying on at this point. I agree with Cosmichael that an ancient start would allow us to develop more of a strategy and a better chance of acheiving the goals.
However I'm tied up in a few more games at the moment, for me I'd like this one to rest and restart possibly in the new year from an ancient start, I'm quite happy with Bismark but would certainly consider another leader.
Obviously if you want to carry on I shall continue to lurk but will not take an active part I'm afraid to say.

 

[Cosmichail]

Sorry to hear that old chap. But I do understand your reasoning and the need to prioritize SG's.

 

[GreyFox]

Hmmm ... those who knows me knows that I frowned upon leaving a game unfinished ... but that's just me.

As to victory conidtion, as I see it, there's really only two real option: diplomatic or time victory.

When we do restart (no question about that, we should do this again, question is whether we finish the current game or not), I do agree that we should start on an ancient age. In fact, I think Civ4 is designed primarily with anicent start in mind that any other later starting period is poorly-conceived.