Open Game Emperor Challenge

[shyuhe]

Hi folks, we did a few of these a few months ago and I'm thinking of kicking off a new set of open game challenges (these aren't isolated starts or anything of that sort - just some interesting map layouts/settings). I'm starting this one off at emperor to see how much interest there is - future ones will probably run in the emperor-deity range for difficulty level. There aren't really any rules - just pick up the save and play the game and post your notes/thoughts in spoilers. Feel free to reload etc.

For the first game, I chose standard map settings on pangaea. However, I did fiddle a bit with the map via WB, mostly to just make sure all of the civs can reach each other without boats. I'd rate the map as a slightly harder than average map layout. The civ that the RNG gave us is Ethiopia (a great civ) that should offset the map difficulty. I have hand selected all of the opponents to be imperialistic - time to see how much of an impact that makes on AI expansion rates!

The starting position:

Spoiler :

And the save
View attachment Emperor Challenge BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[pawelo]

Jumping in !

I love Ethiopia, and instead of going to break my teeth on Monarch like everyone else would do after prince, I decided to jump two levels

Wish me luck so the game doesn't go like this :suicide:

 

[r_rolo1]

Good Will try if/when I got time ( LHC BtS VI will start saturday and the KotW open game with India is almost jumping out, not mentioning the SGs.... )

 

[pawelo]

Good Will try if/when I got time ( LHC BtS VI will start saturday and the KotW open game with India is almost jumping out, not mentioning the SGs.... )

Yep.
You should start cutting on the sleep time - makes wonders
Or install civ @work

 

[MrFelony]

this is my 2nd night playing civ instead of sleep and you are correct pawelo oh to be a college student lol

 

[r_rolo1]

Yep.
You should start cutting on the sleep time - makes wonders
Or install civ @work

Too much makes me ( stupid, isn't it? ) and most of working time is passed far from a computer ( mainly outdoor ). No easy solution....

 

[MrFelony]

just get a handheld console and play civ rev when it comes out . but in all seriousness i may take this one up if i take a break from the earth 18 civ doms

 

[shyuhe]

You should give it a try MrFelony I think this map is quite fun - I started playing it last night and realized that it plays harder than it looks on paper. Being cramped with imperialistic civs is an interesting combination...

 

[50_dollar_bag]

So we just take the save and play our own version?
I'm in.

 

[MrFelony]

Pawelo, we're more than willing to give advice if you need it . everyone believes that everyone else wants to hear their opinion after all so i'm sure most people would be happy to give it to you just put everything in spoilers since i'm not sure when i'll get ot play it. i've already put off writing my paper and studying for my 2 midterms next week enough as it is...

 

[MrFelony]

So i took a stab and it's going very well. after playing as rome in the earth 18 civ map a lot, i've become very appreciative of the organized trait and have put it up there as one of the strongest.

Spoiler :

I'll just give a brief synopsis. played until turn 131 and currently in the lead. I'll be honest, i reloaded since i didn't see rome's 2nd city was on iron and my archer rush was, at first, a terrible failure. after the reload, instead of rushing the capital and pillaging the hell out of it, i sent my mass squadron of archers to capture his expansion and claim some iron. I then sued for peace and built up an army of swordsmen. I also got the swordsman quest and got the free City Raider I promotion for all swords. after the 10 turn peace treaty ended, i finished conquering Rome and moved on to grabbing 3 different barbarian cities that formed along the coast. It was definitely a challenge trying to expand towards cyrus and joao who both beat me to the spots I wanted. currently have 9 cities and am at war with victoria just to use my troops . my economy has taken several nose dives, but has recovered nicely. got the Great Library and have the SoZ 1 turn from finishing and the pyramids 6 (was just looking to get money from these lol). got CoL from oracle and built the shrine. converted Cyrus who is 2nd in score. researching CS and then Construction then Machinery for maces/cats to take over Cyrus. This game is definitely going very well

 

[shyuhe]

I've started my game as well. Being boxed in by imperialistic civs isn't a very fun feeling.

Spoiler :

I went AH --> BW and got the nearby source of copper. Augustus had praets by then (he got them very fast thanks to his gold) so I decided to turn my attention westward. Cyrus had immortals so I didn't want to deal with him until after construction. Instead, I decided I would go pick on Joao. In all of my games so far, Joao has always been at or near the bottom of the pecking order - maybe it's his trait combination or his emphasis on espionage? Either way, I'm warring with him right now but he only has archers with no metal source (pillaged) so it's just a matter of time before I take him down. My economy is pretty strong at 50%, but I will probably start needing courthouses soon. I will report again once my war is complete. On a side note, Catherine has been spamming Judaism everywhere so the diplomatic front has become very easy. If the AP is built Jewish, I think I can easily get an early diplo win.

 

[MrFelony]

Spoiler :

Catherine did the same thing, but she beat me to the pyramids by one turn..got me 540 gold! Islam, which i spread to cyrus, has helped beef up our relations, but for some reason catherine decided to vassalize to him :/. I was planning on taking out catherine and stealing her pretty wonders

 

[Giaur]

I hate those big units.

I will try my skills, definitely play this map ...

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Spoiler :

I've played and finished, Domination 1790AD.
Got pretty lucky in the early years, popped AH from a hut after 2 turns research, the popped HBR a couple of turns later. Pretty much spelled the end of Augustus, settled the tundra city down by the horses, and another in the floodplains and just spewed out HAs, took Antium off AC and took a while to get rome but I kept him to 1 city for ages, mad a really good wonder city, I think I chopped about 4 wonders out.
Then set my sights on Joao who was the score leader, but was beaten to it by Genghis and then Catherine declares on him. I jumped in on Joao when Catherine asked me, he was pretty powerful so took a while to make some progress.
I eventually vassalized Joao, then Catherine voluntrily vassalises to me . Next was Cyrus, he was quietly building up quite an army, but when I got assembly line with Liberalism and he just got rifling there wasn't much of a contest. he got vassalized around 1750ish.
Next was victoria, she was practically at war for everybody for the last 1000 years or so, so 1 city down and she vassalises for the win.

All in all got very lucky, nuff said. Lib was still available in 1500 AD with only Catherine even close and I could direct her research.
Had fun though.

 

[shyuhe]

50$, what did you think of the imperialistic civs? Did they box you in at all?

 

[MrFelony]

i think they stole a lot more city sites i wanted, so in a sense they did block me in. however, I also focused on spamming 10 archers instead of expanding past city 2 at first so i think that helped them a bit

 

[autopsy-turvey]

just downloaded, giving it a go

that plains/floodplains tile in the default starting point's fat cross is an interesting bonus, did you do that in the worldbuilder on purpose?

 

[MrFelony]

i was wondering the same thing

 

[shyuhe]

That was a mistake that I failed to correct. It was originally a FP and the wine was 1 tile north. I was shuffling some resources around and forgot to undo the FP bonus. It makes for a pretty ridiculous tile but oh well.... it was too late to fix it when I noticed the error.