Mad Scientist's RPC summary

[madscientist]

I am thinking of another RPC game before Playing Hammarabi, but I want everyone's opinion as I fear it could be percieved as stepping on someone's toes which is NOT my intention.

Qin is one of those leaders I like to play as yet I cannot come up with an idea, so I propose the following

Since Sisiutal has temporarily stopped the ALCs while taking care of real life issues, perhaps in homage to our grand game poster I could do the folowwing

Role Play Challenge: Sisuital of China!

Where I play the game as Sis would, basing alot of decisions on advice given by the community. There would be no RPC rules except to play as Sis. I would up the difficulty to emperor (Immortal is too tough for me) and back the speed to epic to mirror an ALC game (the only time I will play other than marathon).

Should I try this, or simply stick to the RPC-type rules? It would be a one-shot deal, hell Sis is a CIV legond he warrents his own RPC-style game!

 

[Joshua368]

Sounds like it'd be fun. First you'd need a ten page discussion on moving the warrior. And don't forget to change civics about twice each round. Mysterious two week long gaps between updates optional. That enough sisiutal cliches yet?

 

[BakingTheArt]

Either Ramsses or Boudica would be better choices for leaders.

Anyway, here's a game for Qin.

Great Wall Challenge
Rules:
You MUST build the Great Wall
After building the GW, you cannot expand any farther than the boundaries of the wall. The only exceptions are if the Great Wall is split in two, in which case you can unify China with a city between the two sections of the GW, or cultural expansions, which are fine.
Guidelines:
Turtle as much as possible. Think Tokugawa, but less so.

 

[Sian]

hmm ... might be impossable ... the wall is on both sides so he wouldn't be able to backfill either and if waiting on getting enough cities to actually manage to pull a win out of it others would certainly have built the wall allready

 

[semirami]

I am thinking of another RPC game before Playing Hammarabi, but I want everyone's opinion as I fear it could be percieved as stepping on someone's toes which is NOT my intention.

Qin is one of those leaders I like to play as yet I cannot come up with an idea, so I propose the following

Since Sisiutal has temporarily stopped the ALCs while taking care of real life issues, perhaps in homage to our grand game poster I could do the folowwing

Role Play Challenge: Sisuital of China!

Where I play the game as Sis would, basing alot of decisions on advice given by the community. There would be no RPC rules except to play as Sis. I would up the difficulty to emperor (Immortal is too tough for me) and back the speed to epic to mirror an ALC game (the only time I will play other than marathon).

Should I try this, or simply stick to the RPC-type rules? It would be a one-shot deal, hell Sis is a CIV legond he warrents his own RPC-style game!

Well, I vote no. You're Madscientist, not Sisiutil. RPC series are competly different, than ALC series, you have different audience, different style etc. Just stay as you are. This is your power.

 

[Jaaboo]

I think it would be pretty funny, Mad, to do a RPC in honor of Sisiutil, but I'm not sure how it'd turn out in execution. At best it would be just taking over for him on ALC and meh. Semirami is right, the RPC & ALC games are unique.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Sounds like it'd be fun. First you'd need a ten page discussion on moving the warrior. And don't forget to change civics about twice each round. Mysterious two week long gaps between updates optional. That enough sisiutal cliches yet?

This.

Unless you want to do this, I'd vote no . Besides, while I could certainly shadow an emp/epic (until very recently all my games were emp/epic, although now that I'm in HoF gauntlets and working immortal u's a bit and running different speeds I'm more flexible), it isn't as fun as finding cheap ways to conform to your RPC rules!

Of course you can certainly do a walkthrough like that, but not in lieu of an RPC .

Qin could be interesting...

Force him to unify China. Put 2 Maos and another Qin near the player start position, and a couple european countries a little further off. The european countries get a historically inaccurate advantage here, starting off with more techs to make china's unification and world opposition a little more challenging! It would probably be best on an earth2 map or something, some optional extras:

- Once China is unified, Qin can't attack anyone, he can only attack Chinese leaders all game. These leaders can be named to perversely reflect romance of the 3 kingdoms or something like that possibly.
- A giant tidal wave has crushed Africa, and now all that's left is a slightly larger Madagascar, with Shaka stranded there with ZERO starting techs.
- The new world exists. China can't go there though.
- Qin can't trade with Europe until China is unified.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

It could be interesting. Madscientist would have to put his posts through a spellchecker of course, Sisiutil is an English teacher (could be history, I dunno) is he not

Also, muse about playing Canada one day if that's not too controversial

 

[madscientist]

I think I will forgo the Sis game. Not every idea I have is that good and I cannot see how to play this out other than a regular posted game. Besides, I refuse to spell-check my games!

 

[BakingTheArt]

hmm ... might be impossable ... the wall is on both sides so he wouldn't be able to backfill either and if waiting on getting enough cities to actually manage to pull a win out of it others would certainly have built the wall allready

What I meant was:

If the cities are like this:

..._------_...._------_
..|..........|o|..........|
..|..........|..|..........|
...–__.__–....–__.__–

You could put a city on the O, but once the cultutal borders are touching, expansion is out. And the hard part is getting out enough cities before the Great Wall is built, while still building the GW. Probably be best on a standard rather than a large map, as it's going to be the equivalent of a OCC

 

[Joshua368]

Just pointing out that the Great Wall can't be split in two, except by coast. If any cities aren't directly connected by culture to the city that builds the Great Wall, the wall won't surround them. (though they'll still have the effects of course)

 

[BakingTheArt]

Oh. ****. Well, New rules:

Great Wall Challenge (Qin Shi Huangdi)
RULES:
1. You must build the Great Wall
2. All cities founded before the Great Wall MUST have continuous borders, so the Great Wall surrounds all of your territory.
3. After building the Great Wall, you cannot found or capture any more cities. Only naval units and scouts can go outside your borders.
4. You cannot declare war. If someone declares war on you, you must fight defensively.
GUIDELINES:
1. Turtle as much as possible.
2. Go for a diplomatic victory (Probably hard as hell while turtling, but that's the point), although cultural or Space Race are OK.

I like to think of it as a combo of the Huayna Capac, Gandhi, and Asoka (With doomsday machine restrictions for all of the units) games.

 

[bestje]

thats sounds like an interesting game, would suggest setting barbs to raging if you are beelining the great wall then turtling behind it

 

[BakingTheArt]

That'd kinda be cheating. Then again, the other civs don't have the restrictions, so...

 

[madscientist]

To start up so discussion for the next RPC, I post this as a "Pre-Game Thread"

LAwless Hammarabi, Batte of the Warlords!

Map: Pangea, pressed shoreline, tropical, Agressive AI turned on

Opponants (All those with the Agressive trait)

Montezuma
Stalin
Ghengis
Ragnar
Alexander
Boudica
Shaka
Tokugawa


On a standard sized map things should be interesting and close nit

Rules
1) We cannot tech Code of Laws, not get it via trade.
2) Civic limitations: Any government, Vassalage or Nationhood, Slavery, Any economic civic, Theocracy.
3) Hammarabi cannot accept vassals (he is too much of a Lawless free spirit to accept that stuff), and he cannot ever build any espionage buildings (including ep producing wonders, like the GW). What he captures is another thing although if he ever accidently gets a GSpy, he can only be used as a permanent "scout". Also, he cannot build spies.
4) He cannot do anything to affect War Weriness. Thus no Police State from the pyramids, no jails, etc... Finally, He can never adjust the culture slider as he is Lawless and NOT a cultured guy!

I think some stiff rules and a good challenge here. Makes up for the walk in the Park RPC of the Wonderhog Ramesses and the BULBS**TTER Suleiman.

 

[madscientist]

Another item to discuss, the Hannibal idea.

I love Hannibal but have had difficulty coming up with an idea. So I have 2, and they are night and day

1) Hannibal the Trade Master: Archeopolego or island map. He has to get the maximum trade routes in each city before he can win (6) and he must try for the GLH and Colossus wonders. I view this as an easy RPC and designed to pummel the competition.

2) Hannibal the Land Lubber. A pressed shoreline Pangea map. Hannibal hates the sea and cannot ever work an ocean/lake tile, nor build a city on the coast. He cannot trade for seafood resources. I am willing to say no sailing either but I want to know how this affects the tech tree (I still want Hannibal the ability to go to space). I view this as a harder RPC as we are deliberately going against Hannibals UB and strength.

My preference is for option #2 but wanted to see what everyone thinks.

 

[madscientist]

Oh. ****. Well, New rules:

Great Wall Challenge (Qin Shi Huangdi)
RULES:
1. You must build the Great Wall
2. All cities founded before the Great Wall MUST have continuous borders, so the Great Wall surrounds all of your territory.
3. After building the Great Wall, you cannot found or capture any more cities. Only naval units and scouts can go outside your borders.
4. You cannot declare war. If someone declares war on you, you must fight defensively.
GUIDELINES:
1. Turtle as much as possible.
2. Go for a diplomatic victory (Probably hard as hell while turtling, but that's the point), although cultural or Space Race are OK.

I like to think of it as a combo of the Huayna Capac, Gandhi, and Asoka (With doomsday machine restrictions for all of the units) games.

Another turtle game for another Protective leader (similar idea to Wang and Churchill), and I see no reason not to go ahead with it.

Some preliminary rules for Qin

1) We must build the Great Wall.
2) We cannot settle or capture any cities AFTER building the Great Wall, unless the cities are within the culture border of the empire. Example, if we settle 2 additional cities, if I can fir more into the culture borders, I can. Thus the GW gives us a culture limitation for expansion, but no limiting tiles to work and population.

I have a few problems with this idea and want some suggestions on how to address them.

1) Qin may be limited on national wonders as we cannot get the needed number of universities/forges/theater etc...

2) What if we miss out on the Great Wall? Restart? Failed RPC? One reason I dislike the requirement of a Wonder.

I had earlier suggested the idea of a paranoid and cowardly backstabbing Qin, But I think I have found another idea for that with Zara.

I like the divine intervention games out there and perhaps may open up Zara to be like them. Except with the rule that Zara is completely paranoid everyone is out to get him, so we expect changes to the saves that are crushing (although still winable, so don't give Shaka 2 dozen modern tanks in the BCs). Who can wreck Mad's game the best!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

To start up so discussion for the next RPC, I post this as a "Pre-Game Thread"

LAwless Hammarabi, Batte of the Warlords!

Map: Pangea, pressed shoreline, tropical, Agressive AI turned on

Opponants (All those with the Agressive trait)

Montezuma
Stalin
Ghengis
Ragnar
Alexander
Boudica
Shaka
Tokugawa


On a standard sized map things should be interesting and close nit

Rules
1) We cannot tech Code of Laws, not get it via trade.
2) Civic limitations: Any government, Vassalage or Nationhood, Slavery, Any economic civic, Theocracy.
3) Hammarabi cannot accept vassals (he is too much of a Lawless free spirit to accept that stuff), and he cannot ever build any espionage buildings (including ep producing wonders, like the GW). What he captures is another thing although if he ever accidently gets a GSpy, he can only be used as a permanent "scout". Also, he cannot build spies.
4) He cannot do anything to affect War Weriness. Thus no Police State from the pyramids, no jails, etc... Finally, He can never adjust the culture slider as he is Lawless and NOT a cultured guy!

I think some stiff rules and a good challenge here. Makes up for the walk in the Park RPC of the Wonderhog Ramesses and the BULBS**TTER Suleiman.

When I was on my way to work today I was wondering how I'd win this challenge and thought "well, easy. Get a good core of hammer cities, oracle feudalism, and vassal everyone". Guess not.

I now have 2 ideas on how to beat what will be a pretty rough challenge:

1. "Money grubbing": Guilds/banking line. Medieval warfare, cottages, whipped markets/grocers/banks. Whore holy cities like no tomorrow and get so big the AIs can't compete anyway.

2. "The race against time": Make 3-4 cities. Charge the AIs, relentlessly razing everything but power commerce cities and capitols, which then just make more units. Don't pass go, but do collect techs via pointy sword research. No wasting time on weak AI cities that can be had/taken later - just the best couple then peace. Move quickly and maybe it's possible to stab every single AI on the map in the eye this way. Might win, but also a decent chance to fail spectacularly. Awesome!

It sounds like one of the harder challenges you've done, on par with the first Liz game. Good luck from a shadower .

 

[bestje]

I like the idea of the Zara game, but I think you want a few independant adjudicators to make sure its fair.

the hammurabi game is going to be tough to win any way you try.
culture seems out or at least very difficult, diplomacy seems possible through diplomination though any millitary victory will be diffcult to obtain because of crippling city maintenance

for the Qin game you are going to have to try for a lot of early cities if playing a standard map at least 5 before you finish GW, there is nothing in the rules to say you can't build it to within one turn of completion and then put it on hold until you are ready

in terms of it being needed for the win this also allows the cheesy reload from save the turn after an AI builds it to make sure you get it first, but I think you should set a date to build it for say 1500BC (this seems to be about when the AI builds it) and if an AI builds it before then reload

 

[madscientist]

I like the idea of the Zara game, but I think you want a few independant adjudicators to make sure its fair.

the hammurabi game is going to be tough to win any way you try.
culture seems out or at least very difficult, diplomacy seems possible through diplomination though any millitary victory will be diffcult to obtain because of crippling city maintenance

for the Qin game you are going to have to try for a lot of early cities if playing a standard map at least 5 before you finish GW, there is nothing in the rules to say you can't build it to within one turn of completion and then put it on hold until you are ready

in terms of it being needed for the win this also allows the cheesy reload from save the turn after an AI builds it to make sure you get it first, but I think you should set a date to build it for say 1500BC (this seems to be about when the AI builds it) and if an AI builds it before then reload

I was thinking of this for Qin also. Build the Great Wall to within one turn, then settler spam. I like the 1500 BC rule and I can just reload if the AI builds it faster. I may try several maps until I get one with stone, or perhaps wonderbuild it in.

Zara I look at a very wide open game. He's one of the stronger leaders and can handle alot. I would need a signup sheet from reliable posters. I also would encourage creative and amazing changes, examples: destroying all courthouses, giving an AI 1 Nuke in the middle ages (NOTE ONE!!!), changing the leaders on my (can this be done!?) say changing my best friend from someone like Fred to the insane Montezuma. Meant for stickly laughs and enjoyment, like the Sury game.