LotR10: Scouting Sid

[Skyfish]

1355 : renew silk for wine deal

1360 : mongols want 100g + TM , we give in Ottos declare on russia
Spain is a good target for steals even though they are the only polite civ towards us, we have enough money and nothing to lose : I go for a safe steal and succeed
I take Atomic theory. We want Espionnage dont we ? well we need Nationalism for that...
With the Hittites who alledgedly are Commercial, AT does not even get me Rep parts, or Steel, or Refining :argh:
Same with Russians.

So first to Portugal : Indust, Sci Meth, WM, 1300g +49gpt for Nationalism :crazyeyes:
Then I want some money back : sell them The corporation for Sanitation + 457g
Mongols : sell AT for Rep parts +627g (all they have) one more tech would cost us all our gpt (aro 275), they also refuse
to pay us 1 single gpt.
Russians : sell AT for Espionnage +210g (all they have), they refuse to pay 1gpt on top


Back to Portugal : sell Rep parts for all their gold (831) + 25gpt
Now only the Hittites (and Portugal but they have nothing left) dont have AT : getting Steel or Refining is
costing us all our gold (2150g) PLUS 80gpt on top of AT : too pricey sorry. I'd rather build some money up and train some spies ASAP rather than giving all this money to the AI.
So I sell AT to Hittites for all their gold (791) plus all their gpt (28)
All the big guys have Electronics of course.
Net result : for around 1700g we got Sanitation, Atomic Theory, Rep Parts, Nationalism, Espionnage and aro 25gpt.
No way I am taking risks anymore in this round...
Switch core cities from wealth to Hospitals. Min Sci set on Electronics.

1365 : Bang! Thats it ! our target is Uskudar -> the Ottos build United Nations !
Spanish switch to SETI.
The Ottos are really hurting the Russians, maybe we can make a big gpt deal with them soon

1370 : I mm our IronWorks city to get more shields, railing some hills in the core to get more shields, rush Libs in our Aztecs colonies for culture.
Spain and Hittites lack coal AND rubber ! Russians lack Horses, Iron, Salpeter,Coal and Rubber
the Ottos still have not made any more progress vs them though...

 

[Skyfish]

1375 : Ooops the hittites are cooking something am sure about it, the price they are willing to pay for rubber is just going down everyturn and stacks of transports have shown up near our waters, our southern colonies are being watched by SoDs of Cavs as well
This not good, I need to take insurance : I upgrade all our Swiss Mercs (13) to Infantries and a few Spears too. It blows our treasury of aro. 3000g but this is needed because... I sell Rubber + 197gpt to Hittites for Steel !
Our economy is wrecked but will strongly recover in 6 turns when we get 310gpt back.

1380 : The Hittites SoDs move back to their waters
Most hospitals complete, Wall St completes and we start Intelligence Agency.
MM around for growth. Playing around with Civil Engineers : they can really help in mid-corrupt towns, the bank in Enschede
(who was employing a tax collector) goes from 42 turns to 25 Courthouse in Tilburg goes from 29 turns to 6 with 2 of them (its at size 12) Breda Marketplace from 18 to 8

Notice that there are NO mpps at all in this game !


1385 : Just as I type that the Ottos and Spain sign an MPP
Ottos declare on Mongols
Spains declares on Russians
Ottos declares on Aztecs

[dance]

1395 : With bigger cites we need more lux the only one available is from Mongolia for 500g+16gpt, I buy it. We have no clowns employed anymore.

1400: I have to renegotiate the Ivory deal to Ottos and have to pay 10gpt now.
Aztecs are in Modern Age : there seems to be no progress on any
war fronts, no losses of cities by anyone.

In 2 turns we get 310gpt back plus we will not need coal or Iron soon as our whole land will RRed...maybe an opportunity there. Spain and Hittites are still not roaded !

With everybody Fascist or Communist and some major war going on between the big guys we still have a fighting chance COME ON !

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/LotR10-1400_AD.zip

 

[Bam-Bam]

Nice work Skyfish! I think we have a reasonable shot of making it into the modern age! Who'da thunk it?

 

[Reagan]

I see it, but may not get to it for a day or two.

 

[Arathorn]

Reagan -- UP NOW
Gothmog -- ON DECK
Arathorn -- waiting his chance

Now that the holidays are over, let's try to keep this one on a bit faster of a pace, OK?

Nice turns, Skyfish. We're making good progress on techs at this point. Having the IA and the ability to steal while at war will be a nice benefit. We definitely want Espionage.

A number of infantry is also a good sign. SOME defense against the wolves of the world (i.e. everybody but us) in the form of infantry is also nice.

I see two avenues for us to try to win this game.

Choice 1:
UN! Diplo. Build approximately 100 bombers and get them into position to strike Uskudar, while simultaneously fielding a unit or 10 in the neighborhood. Take Uskudar, pillage all the roads leading to it (also probably with bombers), maybe even plant forests to slow movement, and hope to hold it long enough to get a vote.

This will require getting to Flight and maybe the tech for carriers as well, depending on where, exactly, Uskudar is (I've not looked at the save file since Skyfish's turns), plus building TONS of military units, primarily to defend Uskudar once we have it.

Choice 2:
Space Race. Test out and see if the AI has gotten much better at getting into space. This should also make for a pretty long game and the longer the game goes, the more the human advantage of intelligence comes into play. They changed some of the techs required for certain SS parts (I don't remember the exact details off-hand), so it should last even longer than before.

This will require a zillion techs and continual stealing, 2fering/3fering, and continuing on the minimal troops but maximal income route. We might well consider getting Communism, too, for police stations, which will help with income in a number of places.


We've another turn or two before we need to make this decision, but once we have Flight, we'll need to decide whether to build a couple bombers and fighters for protection or start a horde for attacking the UN city.

What does the team want?

Arathorn

 

[Gothmog]

Good play from Sky as always.

The Diplo option assumes that we could win the vote. Does the AI still always vote for a civ with an MPP or MA? Could we afford those MPP's and MA's? I need to see just where Uskudar is too.

The Space Race option is attractive as long as we don't get a monster AI and war continues as a stale mate.

So for either option we currently need techs and continued war between the AI. Now that we have infantry war is much less risky for us so we could start to get involved in some aliences to set the table for a Diplo win.

 

[Skyfish]

We definitely want Espionage.

We already got it, Boss

...and the CIA in 4 turns

ps : Diplo win please

 

[Speaker]

I would tend to vote for the Diplo route. With all the AI wars, I think we could win the vote. I don't know how feasible space is, since Spain et al have such a head start on us.

 

[Reagan]

I'd like to try the diplo route, too. I'll wait until the team's consensus is finalized before picking the game up and playing. I should be able to play tomorrow.

 

[Bam-Bam]

Diplo.

 

[Reagan]

Oh yeah -- I started to play and then realized something. I have fully patched C3C and have no desire to revert to the old version. Have we patched this game yet?

 

[Speaker]

I played it unpatched. Not sure what Skyfish did after me.

 

[Skyfish]

I played patch to 1.12.
I am already patched to 1.13 by the way but I guess you all might be by the time the turen gets back to me

 

[Datsekkar]

A little comment from a lurker who just can’t keep quiet… THE DIPLO ROUTE, PLEASE!

That would really be spectacular! It is possible that I’ve not read the right treads, but I’ve never even thought of that option! To capture the UN to PREVENT a loss, yes, but to ACHIEVE a victory… Really funny in a real-life historical perspective

Good luck! Hoping to see some screenshots…

 

[Skyfish]

Here is a screenshot I wanted to post in my report of how far Uskudar actually is.
It could have been worse and be way down in Spain, it' not too bad.
There are no hills or mountains near it though which will not really help a beach head...
If Aztecs or Russians get further destroyed by the Ottos, we should have a settler ready to poach a site closer to Uskudar in order to maybe use the Speaker-Uber-Bomber to get to the cities, if there is a site in range....

 

[Gothmog]

I have been playing completely unpatched. I guess since we never built a FP anyway the importance is somewhat lessened. Didn't they change the RNG too?

 

[Arathorn]

I thought we'd come to a consensus to not patch.

They did not change the PRNG's effects for 1.12 (claimed but not verified to my knowledge...I've not tested yet). Same for 1.13.

gpt bug fixed in both.

1.12 corruption:
FP affects distance corruption only and increases OCN by 10%

1.13 corruption:
FP has not completely explained effect on corruption -- appears to affect distance corruption significantly, increase OCN by 50% (or so), does not influence city ranking at all, and the FP city has "special" rank characteristics somehow to get its corruption really low

In 1.13, building the FP ASAP in first or second ring is HUGE and has an effect beyond what I think Firaxis maybe understands. Anyway, the "two core" concept is out for 1.13.

I've still got original and 1.12 available to run (just saw 1.13 this morning) and would prefer the original. I'm not sure I like either of the corrections much beyond the original. Is Civ3 dying in my heart????

I'd rather play with the original. If you think the AI civs are monsters now, wait until they get the mega-effects of the FP. Of course, we could build one very fast in our IW city and get good benefit, but it REALLY changes the game dynamic really fast in the middle.

Arathorn

 

[Skyfish]

Sorry I thought we were holding on the patch because you were not sure I could get it in Europe so I changed once it was available

I do believe 1.12 is better than 1.00 though Arathorn only if it were for the gpt bug correction ! I noticed that now Ottos are stuck at 125K and dont go up anymore...

As to 1.13 well its even better I believe but lets not get into an argument cause 1.14 is already out

 

[Reagan]

OK -- I have 1.12 but have not done 1.13 (or 1.14???). I should be able to play tonight. What are we doing for this game? I intend to move to 1.13 (or higher) ASAP, so if we're keeping this game at 1.12 I'll play my turns and then patch.

 

[Speaker]

@Skyfish: Where is 1.14?