Merz02 - Emperor Island Empire

[Merzbow]

After tearing up the joint in Liq-01, it's time we jumped up a couple levels to Emperor, where I predict we will get our asses summarily kicked.



Or not. I have no idea how to win at Emperor, actually. I've won it OCC but a standard win? But I know that together, we will raise up an army of Bigmen to conquer the world. Or to launch a spaceship. Or to hold foreign leaders' heads underwater in diplomatic office restroom toilet bowls long enough to convince them to vote us to victory.

So it's Ice Age, high sea, small islands, large size. I love Ice Age maps and I find this combo has some nice features for this game. It will force us to develop our naval abilities and will insulate us a bit from enormous AI Emperor-style armies.

I'm thinking most likely we should go for spaceship. Cultural and diplomatic could be backups. I don't know how viable a military victory can be on this combo of map and difficulty level; we'll have to play it by ear.

So let's discuss civ and any variant rules. It will be at least a few days till I start this game so take the time to go send up some prayers to heaven, because we'll be needing them.

Currently all slots are reserved for players that were in Liq-02. I mixed up the turn order. If you're listed below and you don't want to play, let me know and I'll open up the slot to others.

Merz02 - Emperor Island Empire

'Large' Ice Age map
High sea, small islands
Normal speed
8 opponents
Emperor difficulty
Ancient start
Victory: ANY

Variant Notes

None yet.

Roster

1. Merzbow (reserved, comfirmed)
2. Luv Muf (reserved, confirmed)
3. S.ilver (reserved, confirmed)
4. Scowler (reserved, confirmed)
5. Liquidated (reserved, confirmed)

10 turns each

24 Hour 'got it'
48 Hour 'play'

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Reporting in.​

"The time has come for someone to put his foot down, and that foot is me."​

 

[Scowler]

Oh boy, this looks like it's going to be another wild tale of lunacy. Count me in!

 

[Liquidated]

Liq confirmed? must have been the nyquil talking as per normal!!!

one stipulation I must add.. auto patch if a *documented* patch comes up (yeah liq remembers 1.09 hahahahahaha) Good chance we'll see a patch come in during this sg so might as well state it explicitly here.

also where the hell does muf find these amazing pics? all liq has is..

so cute.

good to know even merz misspells things!


don;t mind liq he's still reeling from that last liq 1 round... so boring.

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[Merzbow]

Misspell? What did I misspell? I would never do something like that...

 

[S.ilver]

Aww... that's adorable Liq. I need to find that picture now. So cute.

Oh yeah, count me in. But no baby harp seals on the frontlines.

 

[Liquidated]

google images!!!

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[IceLion]

lurker's comment: Lurker reporting for duty, this should be interesting, if for no other reason than to watch you get your asses summarily handed to you

 

[Merzbow]

So let's talk about civ... I think expansive and organized are the two best traits for this game. Expansive gets us +2 health and double production on granary and harbor, while organized gets double production on lighthouse and courthouse (along with reduce civic costs). Since this is a water map, we'll want harbors and lighthouses in every city, and granaries will help with whipping. The benefits of courthouses are of course unquestioned.

One civ in particular has both traits, starts with fishing to boot, and has units that 'rape at iron'. I think civ choice is a no-brainer here:

 

[Merzbow]

OK Liq01 is over. We need agreement on civ to start this, and also need to hear from Sir Toma regarding his spot.

 

[Luv_Muffin]

I think Julie makes sense, when you explain it like that.
Nice photo, is that you in the pic Merz?
Heh heh.

As for Sir Toma, last we heard he was out of SG's until further notice.
I'm not sure if he will be available for this one, maybe we keep him as an alternate?

 

[Merzbow]

[EDIT]

Is he out? OK, I'll bump the roster down to 5 slots, I think 5 is best for SGs. If Sir Toma responds before the first few turns, he can still jump in.

I'll create the game late Thursday night if there aren't any more open issues by then. We should spend Thursday discussing the civ (although I think Julius is a no-brainer), and more importantly discussing possible opening strategies. I'm fine with no variant rules given this is gonna be hard enough as-is. Chopping won't be much of a help on an island map. What wonders should we go for? Tech path? Anyone in this game have any non-OCC experience at Emperor?

 

[Merzbow]

And no, that's not my pic. A free dancing banana to the first person who guesses where that pic is from... a hint:

http://www.worle.com/humour/romany.html

 

[Liquidated]

send a pm to that complicated name from merz 1 let me check...Thormodr!!!! more than 4 letters in a name and liq stops reading.

He was great in merz 1 and we need someone in the pac time zone to complete the world domination concept.

Julie sounds good btw. Have yet to play an sg with him. that and barney colored borders is super!

oh and merz is the dork on the left obviously muf.

as for the link...

less smoke icons for a long life fwee of widicule.

Cheers!
-Liq'd

 

[Luv_Muffin]

What about the additional rule conditions?

City flips from culture/after conquest?
-- I like 'em, my vote is a yup.

I just checked what the map looks like. Gee, there is a fair amount of land, but islands are smallish. It will be great for naval operations! Distance to the capital might be a problem though.

I thought about city razing, I think we should keep it, because of the last few games. While I like to keep my captured cities, it's been shown to me now that sometimes keeping a conqured city is harmful to the empire. Phooey!

First tech to research? Sailing? Then start on the Great Lighthouse?
After Sailing, then what? A religion? Oooh, so many variables, and we haven't even started yet!

 

[Merzbow]

I looked over Arathorn's famous Immortal Civ4 SG where they pulled out a win. It appears the most important thing at these difficulty levels is staying on the top of the tech curve via smart tech trading. Once you fall behind by a certain amount, you're permanently screwed because you'll never be able to trade again.

So it'll be important to research techs not only for our own purposes but because of trading value, which means close examination of who has what before choosing the next tech.

As for wonders, I would say Great Lighthouse and Colossus are hard requirements. I see little chance of getting the 'rids unless we start with a city on a biggish island with forests to chop and stone (unlikely). Great Library too if we can. If we have some forests but no stone, I think the Oracle would be a good idea.

Sailing first for sure. We should also go for early alphabet to get a leg up in the trading race, alphabet is going to be our savior in this game.

Thormodr would be great, but he looks to have dropped off the Civ4 bandwagon... his last activity on the boards was a week and a half ago.

 

[Merzbow]

What about the additional rule conditions?

City flips from culture/after conquest?
-- I like 'em, my vote is a yup.

I just checked what the map looks like. Gee, there is a fair amount of land, but islands are smallish. It will be great for naval operations! Distance to the capital might be a problem though.

I thought about city razing, I think we should keep it, because of the last few games. While I like to keep my captured cities, it's been shown to me now that sometimes keeping a conqured city is harmful to the empire. Phooey!

First tech to research? Sailing? Then start on the Great Lighthouse?
After Sailing, then what? A religion? Oooh, so many variables, and we haven't even started yet!

Re-flips after conquest? Are you serious? I don't think it would matter in this game anyways since the cities will be far enough away that I don't think any will flip.

I thought about city razing, I think we should keep it, because of the last few games. While I like to keep my captured cities, it's been shown to me now that sometimes keeping a conqured city is harmful to the empire. Phooey!

Yeah, definitely allow razing, I remember the ill-fated Aggressive Gandhi game also.

 

[oldbustedjorn]

Lurker Request: Can you post a link or the name of that Immortal game with Arathorn? Thanks...

 

[Merzbow]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=147428

Stunning win.

 

[Merzbow]

Pre-turn (460 left):

OK here's our start:

http://nryan.com/Civ4/Merz02/Turn01/Merz02_BC-4000.Civ4SavedGame

We have eight opponents. You can't see it but I turned on random seed to prevent cheating (which I know you guys would never consider anyways, but this should always be on in SGs IMHO).

As you can see there are two hills/plains within 1 move, which are great for young cities due to the extra hammer. But both of those tiles lose us the fresh water. I chose to settle where I am. And it's a good thing I did, because I can immediately see marble AND clams in radius.

I start Rome on a warrior.

So what about tech? I want to get the Oracle due to our marble, but Sailing is of paramount importance in this game, so I start on it first.

There's little room for expansion on our small island - one more city to the west at most, I think.

Turn 1 (459 left):

Zzz.

Turn 2 (458 left):

Zzz.

Turn 3 (457 left):

I fortify the warrior in the west for barb duty.

Turn 4 (456 left):

Zzz.

Turn 5 (455 left):

Borders expand, and our island is now completely revealed:

Turn 6 (454 left):

Zzz.

Turn 7 (453 left):

Zzz.

Turn 8 (452 left):

Rome: warrior -> work boat (for da clambake)

I fortify the warrior in Rome.

Turn 9 (451 left):

Zzz.

Turn 10 (450 left):

Zzz.

Turn 11 (449 left):

Rome grows to 2. Work Boat in 8, grows again in 12, Sailing in 3.

Turn 12 (448 left):

Zzz.

Turn 13 (447 left):

Zzz.

Turn 14 (446 left):

Sailing -> Mysticism

I'm gonna nab Mysticism here because we'll need an obelisk for our second city and because it's on the path to the Oracle.

Turn 15 (445 left):

Zzz.

Turn 16 (444 left):

Zzz.

Turn 17 (443 left):

Zzz.

Turn 18 (442 left):

Zzz.

Turn 19 (441 left):

Rome: work boat -> lighthouse

Rome grows in 4. Plan is to put 4 turns on lighthouse, switch over and crank out a settler for the western half of the island, then finish it.

Turn 20 (440 left):

Buddhism FIDAL.

To next player:

Work boat is en-route to the clams. Again, I suggest putting 4 on lighthouse, then cranking out a settler. Settler before worker is good here since we have nothing for a worker to do until we research Bronze Working.

Proposed tech path... our immediate wonder priorities are GL and Oracle. After Mysticism go for Masonry, which will let us build the GL and let us quarry the marble. Then Polytheism, because it's on the Oracle path and if we're lucky we can grab Hinduism. After that, Bronze Working so we can chop and because we should grab Metal Casting as our free tech from the Oracle (which will let us eventually build Colossus). Then Priesthood for the Oracle. After that, we should beeline for Alphabet and trade, trade, trade!

Next player, play 15 turns, then we go to 10.

http://nryan.com/Civ4/Merz02/Turn01/Merz02_BC-3200.Civ4SavedGame