[LP] Goldilocks and the 3 Runaway Diety Bears

[aimlessgun]

edit: State of game twitch VOD. Also added some mspaint touches to initial screens, a theme that will continue

This is a story about trying to switch victory conditions in the Atomic Age against 3 runaway AIs on a huge map. It's going to be an orgy of modern warfare. Save attached.

It is 1728 AD and you are the Doge of Venice, a peaceful commercial empire with a globe spanning network of trade routes. Your people are happy, industrious, literate and very rich. Life is good.

But while your port may be the envy of the world, your civilization lies in the shadow of 3 behemoths: Greece, the Iroquois, and mighty Rome. You planned to steer through these dangerous waters with shrewd diplomacy, eventually leveraging your wealth to control the United Nations and become the unlikely leader of a superpower dominated world.

Alas, that is not to be. A gifted psychic foresees that the Romans will finish an interstellar spacecraft within 100 years, with Greece and the Iroquois following shortly thereafter, while the enormous spending power of Greece and Rome frustrates your attempts to ally with the world's various city states.

After five millennia of peace and thousands of gold saved by not having any military to speak of, bloody conquest is the only path open to you wise Doge.

tldr: The superpowers will win science victories before we can win a peaceful diplo vic, so we have to blow some stuff up. Three AI superpowers heading to a spaceship at the same time puts us on a clock that is hard to stop. Also, I'm morally opposed to nuking people

State of the Game

Spoiler :

We have one city, 2 puppets, a battleship, a horseman, and a couple other military units. The Romans have hundreds of units and fifty cities, and the Greeks and Iroqs are also very large and powerful. Our cap is completely surrounded by Rome.



We are slightly behind in tech and the gap is quickly growing.



Here are the scores and map:



Russia, Shoshone and Germany are dead, Assyria and Portugal each have one city and exist at Caesar's sufferance. The Zulu are the only consequential AI other than the big 3, but they are behind in tech and economically weak.

Each of the big 3 control a continent, but Hiawatha has captured several cities near Greece. Caesar is currently at war with Hiawatha thanks to our bribery. This could turn into a 'real' war, or it might end in 15 turns with few casualties.

Settings: Huge Communitas map, Epic speed, Diety.
How does one begin to conquer the world?

 

[aimlessgun]

twitch VoD of the first 2 hrs. The first 15 min or so is going over the state of the game, after that things are slow, my computer is not the greatest and its a huge map, so its not particularly exciting footage!

Screens/text for that period tomorrow.

 

[aimlessgun]

Summary of the State of the Game Vod

Challenges
-GPT is based on trade routes, war with a superpower will lead to massive trade route pillaging (especially vs Rome).
-Military requires lots of oil and aluminum, which is supplied by CS allies. These allies are spread all across the huge map, making them extremely difficult to defend. Going into negative strat resource at the wrong time could be devastating.
-Not only are the CS allies hard to defend, capital and 2 puppets are spread out and not in good defensive spots.

Enemy Cap Assessment
Greek and Iroq caps are coastal, so relatively easy to take in a sneak attack. Roman cap only 6 tiles from my cap's borders, but ringed with many units. Still possible to take in a quick sneak attack. However, holding the caps afterwards would be very difficult.

First Course of Action
Even after spending 10k gold, military puny compared to big 3. Seems wise to liberate some CS from Shaka while building military: this gets us XP, great generals and admirals, positive diplomatic rep, and more strat and lux resources from liberated CS allies.

 

[Heerlo]

This looks to be an interesting game. Not sure if I wanna take the time to watch these longs videos, but I'll probably try to keep tabs on this somehow.

Good luck!

 

[redwings1340]

Judging by the screenshot, I gotta say that attacking here looks like suicide. With 9500 gold, you really can't snag a diplo victory before they finish? If they're building their spaceships then the world is almost definitely in the atomic era. Are you not going diplomatically because of runaway AIs stealing some city states, or because the vote isn't coming before they win?

 

[aimlessgun]

Shaka it Like a Polaroid Picture
Shaka is behind in tech, so he should be pretty easy to fight despite his larger army. With 3 Battleships, 2 carriers and 10 planes, at the very worst I can play defensively and farm some XP.


First, I have to pick a new Social Policy.

Spoiler :

I think the Exploration unlock is a must for extensive sea warfare, especially the +1 sight. (ps, yes my policies are kind of a hodgepodge mess. First time playing Venice!)

As I build up and move units from my cap, it seems I might not have to declare war on Shaka after all...

Spoiler :

That's a suspicious amount of planes you have there Shaka. A Shaka sneak attack might also threaten some key city stakes, like Cahokia.



Yeah...


I buy what fighters I can and hope reinforcements can arrive in time.

Shaka in his element.

It's quite a furious assault! twitch vod

Spoiler :

After one turn my city is in the red, my battleship is put into the red, but somehow no units are lost. I manage to pop his infantry to prevent a disastrous capture.



But Shaka keeps on coming.



Luckily my second carrier from the capital has arrived, along with a couple battleships, and I manage to stabilize the Belgrade situation. Wellington however is not so lucky.

After 5 turns of fighting, I force generous concessions from Shaka as he offers me peace terms.



Surprisingly, I refuse. Later today, we go on the offensive

 

[aimlessgun]

Judging by the screenshot, I gotta say that attacking here looks like suicide. With 9500 gold, you really can't snag a diplo victory before they finish? If they're building their spaceships then the world is almost definitely in the atomic era. Are you not going diplomatically because of runaway AIs stealing some city states, or because the vote isn't coming before they win?

I'm 18 votes short atm, and there are only 7 unclaimed city states. And yeah, the AIs keep buying CS away from me, Greece with its CS focus and Rome randomly gets 6 influence per turn on a bunch of CS thanks to Gunboat Diplomacy and its huge army.

 

[cpm4001]

Haha! Loving the story (especially the "annotations" on the photos)!

 

[aimlessgun]

Operation Liberation
But first, in other news, Attilla loses his last city to Greece. I don't think I've ever seen an Attilla AI do really well.

With Shaka's invasion force scattered, I heal up and move on offense.

Spoiler :

The capital has made a small submarine wolfpack which will move on the Zulu from the west to sweep for traderoute killing privateers.



Meanwhile, I need some ground troops to actually take cities. I like Marines for this job. With the medic promotion, they are amazing for healing your planes even as your fleet moves around.



First we have to bypass a bunch of worthless cities. Our 4-sight destroyer scout reveals some obselete units to bomb senseless.



And Shaka develops even bigger problems...



Greece AND Rome declare on him. This is actually almost a bad thing if they get to my intended targets before I do! The race is on.

Meanwhile my wolfpack has finally come halfway around the world, leaving a trail of sunken Privateers in it's wake.

Spoiler :

The Associated Press has conducted a power poll. Guess who's number 1!



My military is way bigger than before, but the big 3 still dwarf me. However, Shaka has been totally decimated, and I retake Wellington and liberate Ragusa while Alex rolls up the carpet of bad cities to the south. twitch vod



Quick illustration of why winning a diplo victory is pretty hard in this game: Caesar stealing an ally randomly. This happens constantly, and I have to keep 1000 gold on hand at all times in case they steal a CS supplying key strategic resources like Cahokia.



With Shaka on the run, I easily free my last target.



This time, Shaka is even more generous in the peace talks. I graciously accept 180 gpt after trying for 240 + lux + cash.



Shaka has 99 problems, and even though I ain't one, that is small consolation.

I consider sneak attacking Alex here while his forces are sitting ducks, but Rome is building spaceship parts and I need to get back to my capital to prepare. All in all a successful little war. Zero casualties, two generals and an admiral generated, and lots of nice promotions gained (logistics air repair bombers!).

While I build up my forces to levels which can take on one of the superpowers, I see if Alex is interested in causing Caesar a little pain. Sadly, his services are a little pricey...



Next time, prelude to a suicidal invasion.

 

[Heerlo]

I know you're not using nukes, but if you were, nuclear subs are good at hiding nukes under the ice until you're ready to fire them.

Anyway, nice job on defeating zee Zulus. I bet Rome's gonna be a tough one to tackle.

 

[redwings1340]

Ask Ceaser to declare war on Alex. The service is probably extremely expensive because of the army strength gap, not the fact that they aren't totally willing to blow each other up. Also, if you declare war on Rome, all the gpt you were going to pay can stay in your treasury anyway.

I love all the annotations to these pictures. They are very funny and awesome.

 

[Pydgie]

Awesome story, subbed!