Merz01 - Monarch OCC, Straight Up

[Methos]

Forgot you were in Korea. I was thinking 'he said he was going to play this tonight'. BTW, it's 8:23 am here.

Great job. Looks like this is in the bag! I wonder if there is anyway to see how many super specialist we have? I'm really curious.

@Merzbow: Can you save the game the turn before our victory? Can you also upload the Civ Replay file? I believe that having the Replay file in the Replays directory is what causes it to appear in your HoF. Thanks.

Now take us to the moon!!!

 

[Thormodr]

Hee hee. I sometimes forget where I am too.
Ummm...when you build the Apollo Program is it assumed that you went to the moon? I figured the spaceship was to go to Alpha Centari. Not that it really matters.
If you guys are up for another SG let me know. It has been a distinct pleasure to play with you guys and I have learned a lot as well. A positive life experience.

 

[Merzbow]

Pre-turn (90 left):

We're at 29 population and still growing! With about a billion hired specialists! Man this is insane. It was definitely the right decision to farm over those towns. 812 bpt still, not bad at all.

We face no competitive danger from anyone else; we're gonna win barring a huge last-second invasion. I sic Mao on Cyrus for 3k gold to at least prevent those two guys from doing so. We just have Capac to worry about, but I'm sure he'll just putter merrily along like he does in every game (and he calls himself aggressive?).

Turn 1 (89 left):

Now THIS is interesting:

Looks like they sabatoged our oil well, lol. Good that the AI is at least smart enough to do SOMETHING with their spies.

Turn 2 (88 left):

One turn away; I take saves and screenshots:

http://nryan.com/Civ4/Merz01/Turn08/Merz01AD-1962.Civ4SavedGame

Turn 3 (87 left):

Ivan the Terrible?

http://nryan.com/Civ4/Merz01/Turn08/Merz01_AD-1963_38.Civ4Replay
http://nryan.com/Civ4/Merz01/Turn08/Merz01AD-1963.Civ4SavedGame

 

[Merzbow]

We did a really great job on this guys. Just a partial list of the stuff I learned in this game that contributed to the win:

1. Building of Rock&Roll/Broadway. Opens up ENORMOUS trading possibilities, plus those 4 specialists are awesome for da bpt (even though they are artists). I will never play OCC without beeling for these two again.
2. Sticking to and spreading a religion. In my private games I always went with Free Religion. But the benefits of Pacifism are incredible.
3. Expansive. Essentially gave us an extra specialist through most of the game. Although I still think some other traits that come along with Industrious are perhaps just as good, like Spiritual.
4. Deviation to grab Economics/Free Market. Seemed to pump up our economy at a crucial time.

Also:

1. Balanced map SUCKS for OCC. Copper and aluminum were outside any realistic culture borders. Bah.
2. We got lucky with the neighbors we had. If Sally and Izzy were next to us it would have been hairy. Even Monte and Alex are better neighbors in OCC since you can at least convert them.

 

[Methos]

Btw, anyone here still feel that +2 health from expansive wasn;t keen?

It does appear to have its advantages. I would consider using it again for an OCC game.

Great game everyone! This was a lot of fun!

Several things I’ve learned:
-Going for a religion is a definite plus for OCC, but only if you maximize its effects. Diplomatically this helped us very well.
-Broadway and Rock N Roll really showed how valuable they are. Two builds and we have ten commodities. A definite necessity for OCC.
-I learned a lot this game on how to manipulate your AI opponents. Ah, the ruthlessness of my fellow teammates.

This was a great game. Makes me wonder how hard it would be on the next difficulty up (Emperor?).

Yeah a balanced map didn't seem that balanced for an OCC game. I'm not sure though what map would be. I also noticed that a few turns prior to the end we hit legendary status with our culture.

I’m curious, any plans for a Merz02?

 

[Methos]

BTW, just checked, any by putting the civ replay file in your replays folder auto puts the game into your HoF. I had assumed that but this is the first time I've ever done it.

 

[Liquidated]

sweet win guys, would sg with either of you again thor and menthos.

I learned a ton here as well

Chopping at the start is a highly viable strat.. gave us a huge boost at the start and we never let it go.

Culture bomb with first artist seems no brainer to me now.. We expanded our max borders and they never once errodded. Considering that netted us coal alone was well worth it.

For ooc, getting the free artist from music seems like an important milestone to consider, it alows us to get the optimal number of artists (1) without polluting our great people points.

Knew all about rock and roll lol so nothing new there. Their flexibility in trade is just insane.

Gold is very important but beakers are more important. Imo we found a perfect balance of cash in but keeping beakers 100%

Super specs of all forms are very powerful under representation, only deviation would be a single shrine and the science academy imo, rest specs by default.

Gaining a late game religion is good. The income it generates is multiplied by our buildings and wonders to allow us to fund 100% science.

Early cottages are the win. the commerce they allowed before we had our super spec army up and going were crucial you our success.

Farming over the cottages AFTER we could hire 4+ engineers was a very stong move. Imo building ironworks is the major mile stone to farming over cottages.

Starting forests are very important... +3 health and a huge hammer boost when the space race started. For only haing one hill tile, we had a really nice hammer output.

Great game guys, goofing around with liq01 so not sure what merz wants to do.

next level ooc sounds like a great way to get our faces kicked in! lol

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[Merzbow]

Yeah at some point we'll definitely do Emperor or even Immortal OOC. Not immediately, but in a few weeks since I want to take it easy for a while...

 

[Methos]

You realized we played this game in 14 days!?! From Dec 30th until Jan 12th.

Wow that was quick.

Yeah Merzbow, if you and Liq decide to do this again on a higher difficulty level I'm sure both Thormodr and myself would love to try it with you.

It was great playing with you all. This was a very exciting game. I really enjoyed this one a lot.

 

[Thormodr]

Yes, count me in. Sounds like fun.

 

[Col.Tarleton]

I've just sat up all night reading this game.I'm a fan of S.G's and have been reading them for years (I dislike the term,Lurker,look it up in the dictionary.)
This has been one of the best games that i've read,lately.You have an excellent team,well written,informative and entertaining.You even completed it in double quick time.I'll be keeping an eye open for your next game.Thanks for the entertainment.

 

[Liquidated]

hehe thanks tarl.

as for the term lurker... yeah the classical definition isn;t that great but well english is a virus, and meanings change.

Glad you enjoyed the SG

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[Thormodr]

Thanks Col. Tarleton. It was fun to play with a bunch of nice people. I hope it was an interesting story we created. It certainly had a happy ending.