JB2 - Neo-Fascists (C3C Deity)

[JustBen]

Version: Conquests 1.15b
Difficulty: Deity
Civilization: Byzantines
Aggression: Normal
World Size: Standard
Landmass: Random
Terrain: Random
Barbarians: Roaming
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Roster:
Ben
Improviser (resigned)
Kuningas
TedJackson
Mad-Bax (resigned)
Greebley

Concept: This will be a modded game based on some suggestions by a fellow CFCer who goes by the handle Ision. The basic idea is to make the AI a little smarter on its early game development, and then give it a shot in the arm late-game by making the popular Fascism a better government. Several common tricks are also banned. I’m very interested in how all of these play out, but I thought it would more enlightening to explore them with other players and involved a dialogue than to just fool around on my own.

Modifications:
* The “Build Often: Growth” flag has been unchecked for all AI civs.
* The “Build Often: Workers, Trade, Production” flags have been checked for all AI civs.
* The “Emphasize Production” flag has been checked for all AI civs.
* Babylon’s aggression level has been reduced by 1 (to 2)
* China’s aggression level has been increased by 2 (to 4)
* Iroquois aggression level has been increased by 2 (to 4)
* Fascism uses paid labor and experiences minimal corruption
* Fascism technology deleted
* Fascism now available at the same time as Communism

Special Rules:
* We may never switch to Fascism
* No “suicide galleys” exploit
* We may not build the Theory of Evolution
* We may never have a Military Alliance with more than 1 civ at a time (but may ally against as many enemies as we wish)
* We may not merge workers into cities of size 7 or greater
* All exploits banned by the Realms Beyond Civilization folks are off-limits, too.

Please reply if interested, along with a civ preference. I'd like to use one of the new or modified civs, but I'll keep an open mind.

24 hours to "Got It", then 48 hours to play.

 

[Kuningas]

JB01 - Generic Random Deity was very intensive SG, count me in this one. Suppose move to version 1.13. Any of the new civs is fine.

 

[Improviser]

If you don't mind that it would be my first succession game- then sign me up. I have just recently acquired civ 3- the first game I played seriously was Epic 37, which I won... (diety difficulty, with emperor starting units- starting an age behind in technology).

If you are happy to have me, then can you please slot me toward the end. I wouldn't feel all that confident starting off in one of the leading spots.

As for a civilisation, a seafaring civ would be out of the question with the no suicide galleys rule (as all the Seafaring trait does really is promote that rule). Any civ would probably be fine though- although maybe one of the new conquests civs might be best. I still haven't played a full game with any of them yet. The one game I did try with an Conquests civ was with Portgual, I was right next to Rome, they had an outstanding start position- mine was awful. They had iron, I didn't. They could expand across the whole island (room for about 20+ cities), I had room for 3 cities.

Needless to say I lost that game...

I am interested in this game, though I can understand if you prefer not to have me.

Improviser

 

[Greebley]

It looks like two of my games are ending very soon, so I have room for another. I would like to join as well.

[Edit: Also I propose using the most recent 1.13 patch as it seems to fix the last of the corruption issues.]

 

[mad-bax]

Well, if Greebley isn't sick of the sight of me I'd like to take a slot if poss.

Haven't played C3C at all yet though.

 

[ducki]

I'm new to Emperor level, so I don't know if this is beyond me - also, would be my first SG.
Willing to try, but if you prefer, I can wait for someone to start an Emperor game and lurk a bit more.

On the Civ, I would actually suggest seafaring to be advantageous - I don't generally suicide anyways, so 3 move curraghs and 4 move galleys really help getting across those narrow straits with a bit of probing. Spain has been really good to me lately, though, so maybe I'm biased.

Anyway, maybe count me as an alternate?

 

[Greebley]

No chance of me getting sick of you Madbax Glad you can play. It looks like a good team so far.

Justben,
I like your solution to the worker exploit. It allows us to merge workers and also removes the exploit.

 

[TedJackson]

I'm in if there's still room

I would suggest that the 1.13 patch is a better base to start from as the FP & corruption bugs seem to be fixed.


Ted

 

[JustBen]

With apologies to Ducki, but Deity is scary. Get a handle on Demigod first, and I'll be glad to Deity SG with you another time.

I've tried to list us from east to west, which should help move the game along quicker. I've assumed that Mad-Bax is somewhere in the Americas, though. Speak up if this is not so.

No one volunteered a civ for us to play, though. I'd rather not do it randomly, since I'd prefer a new/modified civ. I'd rather someone else suggest it than me just declaring whom we are.

Iroquois, Celts, and Byazantium are all interesting civs to me. The Vikings are born to be Seafaring, too. Any seconds? Or other preferences?

 

[ducki]

No worries, JB. I think I was just getting impatient waiting for an Emp game to come up and forgot there was another level in there.

At any rate, no offense taken.

 

[Greebley]

Ok, I vote for Byzantium. I haven't tried them yet.

 

[TedJackson]

Byzantium's OK with me (praying for Archipelago map )


Ted

 

[JustBen]

Two "ayes" for the Byzantines are enough for me. All settings were input as advertised in the initial post for this SG; for those of you playing along at home, the seed for this map is "neofascist".

Here's our fabulous starting position:

And here's my initial 20:

4000 BC
Moving the worker 1 SE reveals nothing interesting. Found where we stand, start a Curragh. Research Pottery on full.

3950 BC
3900 BC
3850 BC
3800 BC
3750 BC
3700 BC
3650 BC
Curragh > Warrior
Our boat is send northwest, since the fertile land appears to be southeast (for our warrior to scout).

3600 BC
Ivory is spotted by our noble Curragh! We may actually have a shot at the Statue.

3550 BC
3500 BC
Warrior > Warrior

3450 BC
3400 BC
3350 BC
Warrior > Barracks (prebuild for Granary)
I send this last warrior out to recon the immediate surroundings of Constantinople, but he's ultimately supposed to be our garrison, so he'll stay close to home.

3300 BC
3250 BC
Pottery comes in. Full research on Warrior Code begins (so we can put up a fight against barbs).

3200 BC
3150 BC
3100 BC
3050 BC
3000 BC
Constantinople grows to size 3, just in time for our MP to get back home.

Not Istanbul

We have our back firmly planted against the sea in this map. It's a solid strategic position. I still have no idea whether we're working with Pangea, Continents, or Archipelago. Regardless of which it is, the Curragh will greatly accelerate our acquisition of contacts.

Check out the peninsula west of Constantinople! We don't just have Ivory, we have a lot of Ivory! My hope is that we actually have a monopoly, which would guarantee the Statue of Zeus for us. Of course we'll only know for certain by finding out the hard way, but it seems a reasonable middle-term goal for the team.

We have a lot of good land, but it all needs worker improvement. I think we should expand up to the edge of the jungle, where we can still get the 2-food grasslands. After that we'll want to secure the Ivory Peninsula so that no mean AIs poach our precious elephants. The plentiful sea bonus tiles (along with our seafaring commerce bonus) gives us strong incentive to settle carefully on the coast.

Finally, don't forget just how awesome our Dromons are. No naval units have a defense stronger than 2 until Ironclads, and we have a lethal sea bombard of 2. Happy hunting!

Roster:
Ben
Improviser (up next)
Kuningas (on deck)
TedJackson
Mad-Bax
Greebley

Roster obviously isn't set in stone; like I said, I'm only guessing that going east-to-west will be smoothest. Speak up if you don't like it.

 

[JustBen]

I see 1 or 2 spots where we can build on both freshwater and coastline to the south, but I can't decide on a dotmap until I see more of the jungle. The best spot for our second city is going to be the grassland square that is in between an Ivory and a bend of the Constantinople River (2 SW, 1 S of the capital).

But here's a dotmap of the Ivory Peninsula. The absence of freshwater makes this place a low priority, but we will want to grab it in its entirety.

The red dots are demanded by the presence of whale bonuses. Past that, either the blue pair or the yellow pair will work. The yellow pair lets us share the wealth of fish, but the blue pair avoids the painful move of building on top of a grassland square. I don't know which -- if either -- is better.

If it turns out we're on an island by ourselves, the game is going to get really weird. No suicide Dromons!

 

[Improviser]

Got it.

Improviser

 

[Greebley]

One additional point of your lower red point is it allows a short cut for boats to avoid going around the peninsula. If it didn't do that, I would choose one that does, even though it might mean no whale. Given that it does both, it seems a very good site.

I think I would first settle towards the where we expect the other players and then grab those spots. I tried to make a dot map of where I would settle. The red dots seem higher priority as they may be contested.

 

[JustBen]

Greebley, I like all your dots except the red one on the southwestern coast. I think it's worth moving it 1 square NW to grab the whales out there.

 

[Greebley]

Yeah, I missed seeing the whale. I agree that moving that one dot NW a square is better (putting it 6 squares SW of the capitol - I should have numbered my dots).

 

[Kuningas]

Colossus\Great Library get high priority if we are alone in this "continent". Otherwise we may find us falling behind in tech race.

 

[a space oddity]

Originally posted by JustBen
I've assumed that Mad-Bax is somewhere in the Americas, though. Speak up if this is not so.

Since nobody bothered, I'll answer this one: MB is located in the UK. I'll be lurking this one, I'm sorry to have missed it's start. Have fun!