MONTY The Mad Scientist

[futurehermit]

I think it could be worthwhile to send the scout S-SW to see if there is any seafood. If seafood turns up 3 W of the settler it could be well worth it to settle 1W as you would still get the fresh water bonus and keep the visible resources in the BFC.

You'd lose a turn, as well as some hills and some chops (that could potentially be claimed by other cities), but gain a food source that otherwise would go to waste and food is, well, great of course.

 

[TRJS]

Seafood schmeefood. Moving the settler seems to intelligent for Monty.

 

[CivCorpse]

Once Monty has access to tech trading he must demand as tribute any tech not in red. If no techs are available, he must demand gold. If he starts a war he must demand everyone join in. No trading....just intimidation.

 

[madscientist]

Bah, this is not the Mighty Khan's game where he feared noone. Monty is a coward and craven. I promise to bully any weak civilizations or Gandhi.

 

[iamnleth]

Regarding the Frankestein issue, that story gives us Mad Scientists a bad name. While Victor in the story did violate the boundaries of live and death, he was repentent and generally good. A true Mad Scientists wants to rule all with little regard for the morality of it. Also I am looking foreward to bullying the weaker AIs. We will allow the AI to make vassals though

Even if you disregard the "mad scientist" aspect, I think you should give it some serious thought for a future RPC, it would be very interesting, and would require skill to pull off.

If you settle in place, send the scout 1E 1NE. If you decide to look for seafood, do as futurehermit says. I would probably look for some seafood. Either way, I'd probably tech animal husbandry first.

 

[madscientist]

I'll consider the vassal game in a future RPC but likely called something different than a Victor Frankestein game. Perhaps vassaling all AIs at the end of the game using a leader like Charlemange. Can you vassal eveyone without killing any or getting a domination win? I guess we could turn domination off.

As far the start, unless omeone convinces me otherwise

1) Move the scout south to scope out for any seafood.
2) Settle inplace unless there is seafood out there.
3) Tech AH for the two pastuers, followed by Mining for the gold. After that either the wheel, archery or BW depending on resource we find. With the gold hooked up I say IW sooner than later for the resourceless Jaguars.
3) Build order worker/warrior/Warrior/warrior, well you get the idea. Have I said before I am a big fan or Snaaty's settler/worker spamming. Add a workboat if we get seafood.

One final note, and I do not have the game on my work computer. I think the scout is sitting ontop of a plains riverside insense, very unusual.

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, plains riverside incense is very rare like plains fur and usually only happens in the capital where no desert/tundra tiles are generated yet resources are (or something like that).

Sounds like a good start. It is possible to vassal everyone without getting a domination prior to doing so, however doing so will result in domination victory as I did this exact thing a few games ago. The trick is you need to have a large enough remaining unclaimed landmass after vassalizing the next-to-last victim. This doesn't always happen, but you can try to leave the largest til last.

 

[madscientist]

MONTY the Mad Scientist: Part I

Before we start I would like to state one thing. This thread already has half the number of views that HOLY SAL had for the entire game. AND WE HAVE NOT STARTED YET!!!

Goes to show you what people want here: bloodshed, human sacrifice, and war rather than peace, religion or culture. Way to go guys

I will try to post this through my own view while keeping some of MOnty's ranting in parenthesis (RANTINGS, WHAT rantings???).

First of all we moved the scout south as suggested to scope out the shores in search of seafood, and find none (We couldn't burn them anyway). Yes, well we then decided to settle in place as we have fresh water and plenty of hills. We also find another nice resource

Another gold (Minions, build me a palace of gold!!!!) resource. Well between two gold hills and a plains rirgated incense we have a dam nice comemrcial capital, who needs cottages (evil things).

Very soon we meet our first advesary close by

(KILL HIM, LET HIS FLESH BURN ON THE ALTER) Ok boss, go kill some cows or something. OK we Ragnar pretty close by.

It is a short round ans we teched the following

AH/archery.Mining/BW/wheel/IW

OK, so we went military techs considering we need sacrifices to keep the boss happy plus a rather ruthless neighbor and we are playing agressive AI, did I mention that earlier??? Well if I didn't you know now!!

And after AH we find horses.

Intersting spot (MORE GOLD!!!!!). Yes sir, more gold but horses are worth much more than gold (Huh). Trust me on this big guy. But they are fairly close to Ragnar. Definitely our first settlement is there. Actually I cracked the whip to rush the settler to ensure we get the ideal spot.

We also did decent with our scout and a second we built. A map, 45 gold, some XP which were useless since the scout was eatne by a lion right after, and...

We met another, more rational AI

And then after we tech BW

Ragnar controls that one copper resource

We meet another AI

OK, that is three financial leaders (KILL THEM, kill them and their evil cottages). Yep, you bet we will.

But first we need a little more help, after teching iron

And that's when I saved the game!!!! Iron in our capital. We useless for Monty early but definitely useful in the middles ages.

At this stage we are teching agriculture, and building a third settler. Made a try at the Great Wall but lost it fast (It's that cursed Incan, I know it was) but still got about 100 gold.

So the million dollar question is how long do we wait to sock Ragnar? I say at least a quick Chariot strike to knock out the ciopper and move in with a conquering force. The rules say we should keep him alive with at least one city for sacrificing, but then again we can break any rules we want.

Also, suggested tech after agriculture? I am looking at writing for libraries to get the SE going and pottery for graneries (but no cottages, right?). Yeah boss, no cottages. Afetrwards we could go med/priesthood to open the oracle and slingshot CoL (ALTERS, yes wemust have them), which woulkd at least keep the chief happy and out of our way for a bit.

Finally where does city #3 go? I am thinking to the south where is elephants and stone is. Once we have 2 cities going perhaps we cna make a run at the pyramids with the stone. The capital certainly has enough hammers.



What does everyone say???

 

[futurehermit]

That is a stupendous capital. Very nice. Good second city placement. Imo 3rd city should be Ragnar's capital? If you feel a burning desire to build another city, 1N of the sheeps to start getting some specialists going could be a good idea. An academy in the capital is a big deal with 2 gold pits.

Tbh I wouldn't wait to sack Ragnar. Ask Sisiutil about that

 

[TRJS]

Agree with Futurehermit. Ragnar can be a pain. Rush him and make his city number 3.

Other city option could be sheep,crab,iron corn.

 

[absimiliard]

I am always in favor of making your neighbors capitol your second or third city.

With a chariot rush you could get there fast, but it might be late for one of those. A jag rush would work too......

-abs

 

[Charou]

The capital is going to be a bit short of food, not sure you will be able to work both of the goldpits at all time.
Mecanics is going to be needed in order to build windmills in you capital.
don't you agree ?

you could share the second gold with another city.
NW of the cow could make a decent one.
you will be able to swap the second gold spot between your capital and this city.

 

[vicawoo]

Windmill? Just farm early on.

I'd have gone worker time mining to finish with the worker, this would have sped up teching like 5+ turns.

The sheep/corn/iron/crab is a fine city, especially once you have code of laws. I'd go after ragnar with chariots/swords and a shock axe. Your altar gives you insane production capabilities with food surpluses.

 

[King of Town]

Just to make sure you are constantly pillaging you should impose an 80% science minimum. That way you have to be getting money by pillaging, or bullying punks like willem around by demanding gold from them to keep your empire afloat.

 

[madscientist]

LIke I said before, a bloodthirsty bunch!!!! To comment on a few comments

1) I agree that the northen iron area would be a great city, but can settled later. I am thinking the sourthen area since I do not know where Will and HC are. I prefer to cut them off and settle the north at our leasure (we already have iron).
2) Jags/axes/chariots/spear, yes we will bring it all. I think first some jags to block the forrests and prevent Ragnar from expanding by pillaging (YES, YES) his resources. The copper is near our border, I doubt he has a second and doubt if he got IW that fast considering we beelined it and had 2 gold. So early Jags to initiate things while we build an early SoD.
3) Regarding capital food. Pork goes a long way, We were running a food surplus at 6 pop and working both gold. That is without working the two grasslands which we will farm.
4) Regarding windmilling the capital. As I look at it, we are getting ALOT of commerce and production while working minimal tiles, so ramping to population up very high is not too much of a concern. We can focus on teh SE through the second and third cities (both would have abundant floodplains.
5) Old MONTY went into some sort of trance and determined the Viking capital would make a fine 4th city. Personally I think he read the above posts first but he insists it's his idea (It was mine!!!).


Very rare to be pumping out Swordsmen, well the UU but you know what I mean, in 2000 BC.

Now down the promotion line any suggestions from the warlords out there?

I was thinking of giving the first few Jags woodsman II and settleing them into the forrest arround Ragnars empire once war starts. I would follow that up with a stack of CR I promoted axes/Jags with flanking chariots and one insurance spear unless the scouting Jags find no horse.

A seager as I am, we still have not hooked up horses or even finished the monument in the second city. (NOW, do it now). OK MOnty, time t go take a nap.

 

[madscientist]

MONTY the MAD Scientist: PArt II

A short round but I would like to put the next step to a vote. read on to find out why

First our tech path: Agriculture/Fishing/Sailing/Writing/Pottery/Math/Construction in process

We finished the settler in the capital and sent them south to claim the stone, fish and Jumbos. Good land and I was sort or persuaded about the elephants (WAR ELEPHANTS!!! Muhahahah!!!). Right!

A little cultural pressure from a Barb city for the crappiest lan, no problem. I am still shooting for the pyramids but see as we go on.

We built Jag while our workers brought the iron and horses on-line.

Our eastern city border popped revealing Ragna rhad the copper hooked up. I ahve seen enough and send our 3 Jags into Viking territory pillaging the copper and road thus isolating the viking city.

Planted the Jags in forrests between the cities (Alright, who questioned MY JAGS as being week). Ragnar has three cities and actually popped one in the north by the iron (Ha, the fool).

We also got one of those very nice random events.

So every Jag starts with combat I, woodsman I, CR I before theBarracks promotion. GG where are you!!!!!

We also opened borders with the other three AIs. We also had to defend against quite a few barbs in the sourthen cities.

Which helped us get some nice CG II promotions but slowed hooking the stone up.

Also the two core cicites, by the way I can never remember the Aztec city names, just bear with me on this.

We eliminated the few spears and axes that wndered into land, then sent our SoD towards the eastern Viking city

we kept this as it has copper and corn in the BFC and can share the gold with the other city.

Stopped producing troops in the capital and switched to a library anticipating starting on the SE.

Ragnar settled the northern Iron area which was razed by a single Jag, sorry but it was an automatic raze, guess we have to build a settler.

The city north of the Viking capital was taken with a lone Chariot becasue there was only 1 axeman defender (I told you it was a good idea to have multiple miliotary units!!). Right boss, your a genius.

So the final SoD aarives outside the Viking capital which is on a hill. And saved the game.

So the question for all,

Do we exterminate the Vikings and very early impose rule #1 (YES YES, KILL HIM)

Leave The capital for future pillaging, the city may be too clos ein our empire, Oh well!

Wait until we get catapults to minimize the loss of our experienced troops. We can continue warring or sue for peace while we wait.

 

[TheArchduke]

Bah, it´s so early in the game, it just pays off too much to have Nidaros.

So, kill him. And then pillage some other lands, imo.

 

[vicawoo]

So those are 3 woodsmen 2 jaguars, who can't do much damage, 1 chariot, 2 axes, and hopefully 3 cr2 jaguars. Hmmm, defensive bonus for archers, +50% walls, +75% hill, +50% archer city bonus, for a total of +175% without promotions. Ideally, against cr2 jaguars, that's +130%, so 6.9 strength, without, it's 8.25. An archer is showing vs your stack, so he has no axemen, which would completely kick your ass.
Even with catapults, since he has a wall, it will take a long time to take down and they still receive +125% bonus without promotions, and if he gets longbows, you're going to lose a lot of catapults.
So, if he has less than 4-5 archers, attack and you should win. Otherwise, pump some more troops out or lure some out.

 

[madscientist]

Bah, it´s so early in the game, it just pays off too much to have Nidaros.

So, kill him. And then pillage some other lands, imo.

I sort of agree. Nidros is within my core. If I take that we can block a good stretch of land, and the south is mostly jungle which we can defend a very long time.

There ar eplenty of Incans, Russians, and Dutch for the alters.

 

[madscientist]

So those are 3 woodsmen 2 jaguars, who can't do much damage, 1 chariot, 2 axes, and hopefully 3 cr2 jaguars. Hmmm, defensive bonus for archers, +50% walls, +75% hill, +50% archer city bonus, for a total of +175% without promotions. Ideally, against cr2 jaguars, that's +130%, so 6.9 strength, without, it's 8.25. An archer is showing vs your stack, so he has no axemen, which would completely kick your ass.
Even with catapults, since he has a wall, it will take a long time to take down and they still receive +125% bonus without promotions, and if he gets longbows, you're going to lose a lot of catapults.
So, if he has less than 4-5 archers, attack and you should win. Otherwise, pump some more troops out or lure some out.

I do not recall how many of each, but I know I have a significant number of CR II Jags due to the random event. Hell, all Jags are at least CR I.

Unfortunately, Ragnar has his last axeman housed in Nidros. Ragnar has no commerce so getting Fuedalism is a non-issue. Cat's too. I guess my question is do we wait 32 turns for cats. It's probably faster as the capital's library should be done soon and we can run a pair of scientists to speed up construction.