Is anyone going to try 'Feed the Beast' with GnK?

[nokmirt]

This has to be just an insane way to play domination. With Gods and Kings I bet it will be unreal.

The special rules for Feed the Beast are:

The game is played in phases:

Phase 1
- You have to become the absolute ruler on your own continent. This means you have to own all cities and be allied with all independent city states on your continent.

Phase 2
- In the first turn that you finished Phase 1 and have met all opponents, the "Beast" is defined. The Beast is the strongest civ at that turn (general score).
- You have to conquer all other civs except the Beast and gift all captured cities to the Beast in the same turn that a city is captured.
- This phase is finished when all cities on the other continent(s) are in possession of the Beast or they are independent city states allied with the Beast.
- If you are attacked by the Beast in Phase 2, you may defend but you may not take any cities from them.

Phase 3
- In the same turn that you finish Phase 2, you have to declare war onto the Beast and win a domination victory!

The ultimate goal
- Achieve world domination victory!

General remarks:
- The game is played on continents map, any size, pace or difficulty.
- Islands belong to the nearest continent.

If anyone is interested in how this all works, a link to a simultaneous multiplayer LP of a 'Feed the Beast' game is here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPHySuft5HU buzzdowan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZFZn4cUkYc&list=PL07BE168BE59C8B69&index=1&feature=plpp_video HJTenchi

These two players are playing the game simultaneously.

 

[nokmirt]

Of the new civs, I wonder what the best new civ domination play civ will be? I was thinking of trying these 'Feed the Beast' rules as Carthage.

 

[smallfish]

Ethiopia!

 

[nokmirt]

Ethiopia!

They would be an excellent choice, when you have to defend yourself against the beast in phase two.

 

[Shurdus]

This seems to be a completely random way to play civ... Is this some silly thing to make the game harder or something?

 

[nokmirt]

This seems to be a completely random way to play civ... Is this some silly thing to make the game harder or something?

Not sure never tried it. I am watching the videos. I imagine it will get quite intense as the game goes on.

 

[Volapyk]

I don't get the idea behind this to be honest. After you get to phase 3 you are still only 1 city capture from a victory.

 

[nokmirt]

I don't get the idea behind this to be honest. After you get to phase 3 you are still only 1 city capture from a victory.

That's the whole idea. It is getting to that point that would be a challenge.

 

[buzzdowan]

Hi nokmirt! This is an interesting proposal. Honestly, I never thought of what it would mean to play Feed the Beast with GnK expansion. I also feel I do not know enough (yet) about GnK to make a decent projection. I will try it once GnK comes out.

Religion and espionage are new mechanics in this expansion. The question is what kind of influence would religion and espionage have in this scenario? Does religion expand over continents? Can you send spies to another continent (or do you need a special tech for intercontinental travel)? At the moment I can not answer these questions, because simply I know too little about GnK, but surely there is a lot of people around who already have this knowledge and maybe they can shed some light on the subject.

I would pick Ethiopia or Huns, the two militaristic civs. That way I would try to minimize the time needed to finish Phase 1. Time is important in Feed the Beast (as in almost every civ game). If you have some sort of military advantage in the early game, your can complete phase 1 quickly. If you finish phase 1 quickly, you have an opportunity to catch the strongest civs on the other continent (including the Beast) off guard. As the game progresses, AI builds more and more advanced units, you should do everything to prevent that, you should act quickly! I believe Ethiopia or Huns would be best for that purpose.

Let me know if anyone tries this, when GnK comes out!

 

[KillingMeSoftly]

Surely you can send missionaries to the other continent.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Can't see why not. As RedRover57 pointed out in the thread itself, the outcome was determined in phase 1. Once half of the native continent was subdued, the rest became quite linear. I'm sure continent dominance will be possible in G&K.
That being said, I haven't finished watching, and might change my mind. Although I doubt.

 

[Buccaneer]

I'm sure there are ways to make religion irrelevant or at least neutralized in G&K, particularly domination ones.

 

[nokmirt]

Hi nokmirt! This is an interesting proposal. Honestly, I never thought of what it would mean to play Feed the Beast with GnK expansion. I also feel I do not know enough (yet) about GnK to make a decent projection. I will try it once GnK comes out.

Let me know if anyone tries this, when GnK comes out!

Hey buzzdowan,

What I am going to do is play a few games with GnK and learn more about it. I also want to try the 'Into the Renaissance' scenario. When that's finished, I'll try out 'Feed the Beast', perhaps first on a small continents map, with all new civs.

If anyone tries ths idea I'll give you a shout.

 

[fuzzatron717]

To watch all those videos could take 18-20 hours! but at end you're king

 

[Glassmage]

The problem I have with this is what if the highest score person is on your own continent? You have to kill that guy because of phase 1, but if you do that then you are highest score yourself.

 

[buzzdowan]

The problem I have with this is what if the highest score person is on your own continent? You have to kill that guy because of phase 1, but if you do that then you are highest score yourself.

I have to explain, since everybody keeps asking that question

The Beast is defined at the end of phase 1. The Beast is the top AI (excluding the human player) on the last turn of phase 1. Practically this means you pick the top AI from the general score list, when you clear your own continent.

 

[Buccaneer]

Sometimes they are one and the same but I would also consider going after the one with the top military.

 

[buzzdowan]

Sometimes they are one and the same but I would also consider going after the one with the top military.

Yep, a nice variant of the scenario. If you want even more challenge in your life, you can try 'Feed the Beast with Steroids'. A variant of original scenario, where human player becomes completely helpless upon entering phase 3. Here are the rules:

-= Feed the Beast with Steroids =-
Phase 3 is modified as follows:

- Upon entering into phase 3, a player must gift all gold to the beast.
- A player must gift all military units to the beast in the shortest time possible.
- Take the capital from the Beast and win a domination victory!

Additional general remarks:
- Disbanding military units is not allowed during Phase 2 and 3.

I recorded an alternative ending of the original game which starts here ....

 

[Gyathaar]

Or to make it harder, you could simply state that you cant attack the capital of the beast AI until he has no other cities remaining

 

[buzzdowan]

Or to make it harder, you could simply state that you cant attack the capital of the beast AI until he has no other cities remaining

How would you call that variant? .... Feed-the-Beast-and-then-starve-it ?