KotW #9 Pregame Thread

[Kev]

If you want to liven it up, why not set some parameters for yourself to make it more interesting? Perhaps some WB changes from the outset, or play a level higher, or restrict yourself to a limit of units that you can field and any one time to a certain age... etc.

I'm sure you'd get a plethora of suggestions that you can implement at the outset - and then play the game and keep your own time frame and running commentary we all love.

 

[UWHabs]

Playing as Rome, you could even just play it like normal, but with a "Ignore europe" strategy (ie. you're not allowed to attack any European power in Europe, except for defense). So the only way to grab the great European cities would be through culture, then. That might make it challenging enough for Rome to not run away with an easy victory.

 

[tycoonist]

just play it on deity

 

[Jaaboo]

There's a scenario to consider - that Rome shares a religion with her neighbors. This is very likely in fact since Isabella often founds (at least) one early religion. I imagine that Rome's god is not likely going to be happy with Ceasar if he attacks his fellows in whatever religion they may share.

That being said, it may be worth chasing an early religion to guarantee exclusive access to a god apart from the Buddhist love bloc of Europe. Then again the God of Europa may make life living hell for the Etruscan people if they follow another.

 

[Abegweit]

just play it on deity

I would have suggested Immortal but I agree with the principle. Definitely do not downgrade.

As for the concept, I like it better than the typical DI but I'm still not convinced. Get some people who are good at story-telling and it might work.

 

[Kev]

Sorry, double post

 

[dutchfire]

You will need to get good "gods" or this will fail.

 

[nanomage]

you should also take into account that until Neal grabs a religion (confucianism it probably will be. if not even later one), all the god would be bound to act against him, as their holy cities would belong to other civs. So i conclude that some of them will surely remove iron from rome and make some other nasty things.

Still, maybe it makes sence to play this game with Better BtS AI mod or Agressive AI turned on, so that european AI's would not be so easily rushable?

 

[Gooblah]

i Call Hinduism!

 

[Capellan]

I'd much prefer some kind of madscientist-RPC-style restrictions if Neal feels the need to make the Roman game more of a challenge. I don't enjoy reading DI games at all: they bear no resemblance to a 'standard' game.

If we wanted to stay with the DI "theme", but limit the impact, I'd prefer to see something like this:

1. The Romans cannot found a religion; they can only borrow someone else's (much as they actually did in real life).
2. Each time a religion is founded, Neal ends the round and posts the save. One person then performs a limited edit: say granting one new resource in the holy city's BFC (with the improvements to harvest it), as well as adding one free building (not wonder) to the city, and 3 free units. The building and units must be ones for which the founding civ has the requisite techs and resources (but then, you can add a resource ...).

Since Isabella is likely to found an early religion, this could make her a tougher nut than normal to crack. Especially if the three free units she got were say a worker, a settler and a garrison unit for an early 2nd city ...

 

[CynicalMagician]

I'd much prefer some kind of madscientist-RPC-style restrictions if Neal feels the need to make the Roman game more of a challenge. I don't enjoy reading DI games at all: they bear no resemblance to a 'standard' game.

I agree with this 100%. DI is entertaining but real games are cooler. If you want to play Rome just bump it up to immortal, roll through europe, and go for domination or conquest.

 

[oyzar]

Rome are best for when you are moving up a level imo...

 

[tycoonist]

my advice: do not pursue this course of action. civ4 is a strategy game, and corrupting saves removes any level of long-term strategy

 

[CreeDakota]

The hard part with these is that the quality of Posts and changes from the Gods is an unknown. We are familar with Neals quality of play and posting and he has proven to be worth reading. I have read some of the DI games and found it hard to follow due to wild variatiation in the level of detail provided to the audience. One point is that we cant all open a save to examine the world for changes after every intervation; if Gods give a good write up with screen shots and details I think this could be blast.

Finally the gods either need to be rather honorable and reasonable to make a fun balanced game or have a strict rule set of 'powers' they can use to mess with the world.

Possible God powers; each god may use one power per turnset, each power may only be used once:

Flood/volcano/rain/iceage etc: change a medium size area's terran type, say a BFC worth.

Pestilence: kill off alot of population in an enemy city

Holy War: major diplomacy shift

Blessing: add a major resource/Unit/building to a Holy or Capital City

Infidels: Barbarian Invasion

Crusader: Gift some units to a Civ

Divine Prophetss: Gift some missionaries or a Great Person

Oracle: Gift a tech

Inspiration: Start a Golden Age for a Civ

Just a quick suggestion Neal and his appointed Gods should have a final say.

 

[fugazi]

I can play Taoism

It sounds like a fun idea. My initial thought was 'ah no, just play a normal one!' but it sounds like a good break from the usual for once. That Shaka game was great and now we get to mess a little with you!

.. and yes I understand that Taoism comes rather late and I'm fine with that.

 

[Sciguy001]

This seems like lost of fun to read! I totaly agree with this, but I think that you should keep this a little seperat from the KotW series, like name it King of the World DI 1 and make King of the World 9 a real game.

 

[BakingTheArt]

I don't like the idea of putting a lot of restrictions on it. Common sense and the DI rules should stop a lot of shenanigans, and that would make it less hectic and crazy, which is the soul of the DI game. As long as none of the gods go overboard, I'm fine.

 

[sophie]

Sounds pretty neato, for added fun you should put on the choose religions as well.

Also, are you going to pre-select which religion you are shooting for? Or perhaps for added challenge don't take a religion (balances things out considering how overpowered Praets are).

Another thing to note to the above post: I think Neal's suggestion works fine, because, although it limits the amount of people able to mess with your game, it keeps things structured, this way things stay controlled, and changes are not contradictory. Also the problem I always seem to have watching/following DI games (case in point mad's recent one) is that I get confused by all the updates, and by the time the next round comes about I can't remember what got changed.

Also, are you going to make restrictions on what gods can mess with? Otherwise you might get epic wars between gods with one god spilling over into another gods realm, plopping down units and generally clusterf***ing trerrain, etc, only for the other god to remove it all and do the same to the other guy (or not remove it and just do even worse)

So yeah, just my thoughts.

 

[Ormur]

I think it's okay to sacrifice Rome to DI because we all know how it would go. There are other RPC that have been done with Rome on this map so I think a bit of intervention may even be needed to spice the game up even if it sacrifices some of the flavour of other KotW games.

 

[Belisar]

my advice: do not pursue this course of action. civ4 is a strategy game, and corrupting saves removes any level of long-term strategy

I agree.
And play Rome, no problem, but notch up the level.