Open RPC Challenge: Morgan Kane - Last Man Standing

[Continental Op]

I have a Role Play Challenge especially for those people in Scandinavia who still remember the legendary U.S. Marshal Morgan Kane series, but also to those who like the western genre in general or just want to try this one out.

As a leader I will choose Genghis Khan - his traits are just perfect for a stone cold ruthless killer and borderline psychopath like Morgan Kane. He even looks a bit like him IMO.

Morgan Kane is American to the core, so I strongly recommend you take America as your civ. But his parents came from Ireland, so Celtia is allowed too.

This game can be played at any level and all speeds. Just take your comfort level and the game speed that pleases you the most.

Morgan Kane wants to be the fastest, baddest gunslinger there is, and he just hates the competition. He wants to kill them all, and nothing less will satisfy him. So all victory conditions except conquest must be turned off. The game takes place in a huge pangaia map.

Of course Morgan Kane's competitors will all be ruthless killers themselves, so you must choose the worst warmongers as your opponents.

There's also this thing about honour, so you cannot shoot anyone in the back (no bribing anyone to war with another civ). And pride, so you can never ask anyone to help you either. And never give in to any demands. And you must never be the first to draw, so you can't declare war on anyone by yourself. You can declare if asked, but only when asked by the civ that was attacked. After all, you are supposed to uphold the law between all that killing off the competition. And of course you can try to fool or irritate them to come after you as much as you like, that's what Morgan Kane does best. So feel free to be the worst bully there is, make arrogant demands, never give in, choose minority religions etc.

 

[dalamb]

Hmm. Well, Monty will attack you eventually no matter what, but are there good general strategies for goading AIs into attacking you? Otherwise you have to hope they're all fighting amongst themselves and keep inviting you to join the party.

If you get down to one last civ that's much weaker than you, it'll never DoW you, though, will it? So you might get into a no-win situation.

 

[Continental Op]

After playing this myself for a while I will alter the rules a bit. When you have so many warmongers in the game they will fight each other like the rabid dogs they truly are. And after a while it becomes impossible to remember who attacked who. So you can forget about the law and assume they're all . .. .. .. .. .. .. .s. So you can attack only when asked, but then you can attack on whom ever. Until there is only one civilization left - then you can declare war on him (otherwise the game might never end).

 

[dalamb]

So you can attack only when asked, but then you can attack on whom ever.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Only start a war by joining when invited, but you don't need to keep track of who started it?

 

[Continental Op]

Exactly. Otherwise the game will be just too damn complicated. When you have ALL the warmongers in, they really will fight each other like madmen!

 

[dalamb]

I think the reason nobody's posting but me may be that you haven't posted a sample game (preferably scenario); if I decide to do this (after my current game), I can post mine if you like. So, here's the parameters as I understand them:

1. Scenario, to let people choose speed and difficulty
2. Huge Pangaea, which means 10 opponents.
3. High sea level, so people are more crowded and thus more ornery.
4. Conquest as the only victory condition enabled.
5. Ghengis Khan. You preferred America, but I really think the Mongolian Ger and Kheshik, for expert horsemanship, makes a lot more sense.
6. "Ruthless killer" opponents. Here's my suggested list:
   Some or all of the 9 aggressive civs:
   1. Alexander (AGG/PHI)
   2. Boudica (AGG/CHA)
   3. Hammurabi (AGG/ORG)
   4. Kublai Khan (AGG/CRE), but he'd need some other country than Mongolia. Maybe China? Or perhaps leave him out, since I don't think he's actually a killer in practice.
   5. Montezuma (AGG/SPI) and a classic kill-crazy
   6. Ragnar (AGG/PHI)
   7. Shaka (AGG/EXP)
   8. Stalin (AGG/IND)
   9. Tokugawa (AGG/PRO)
   Possible additional choices:
   • Catherine (classic backstabber)
   • Isabella (religious fanatic)
   Any changes?

And are there any more options to consider? Aggressive AI? Raging Barbarians? or perhaps a barbarian minor nation? I know that people can change them via Custom Scenario(aside from the Minor Nation), but a good scenario should set a good set of defaults anyway.

I'd base the worldbuilder file on a Monarch save, so the AIs get archery to start with.

 

[Continental Op]

The reason I haven't posted a save is just that I'm such a crappy player still, and I'm trying this with only on Warlord level, my comfort zone. Just came up with this idea at work when I was bored and thought I'd share if anyone was interested to try it. I'm not trying to compete with the great Madscientist RPC's, but those are for Monarch level, while I'm still struggling on Noble (won once, but still...). I thought I would post just the idea, and anyone at any level could give it a go if they wanted.

Your settings sound fine to me. I hadn't thought of the high sea level myself, but it makes sense. In my game I got the most empty space I've ever had - made me feel sorry that I didn't enable space victory, it would have been so easy just to tech while the others were fighting. I think Mongolia is fine too, if you want it that way.

My own choises for the leaders were Shaka, Monty, Toku, (those three are a MUST), Alexander, Ragnar, Stalin, Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Mao Zedong (Don't know if he's really a warmonger, chose him because in real life he was such a villain. In this bunch he looks like pussycat though). And I forgot to make the final choice, so the computer made it for me - Kublai Khan of the Babylonia. I was actually impressed by the computer's choice - not bad for a warmonger game, and definitely better than Mao Zedong, who seems to be a coward. But your choices are fine too IMO.

I think aggressive AI could be interesting too, if you want to get to the fighting part earlier. Don't know about those raging barbarians though - the regular ones are annoying enough to me.

 

[dalamb]

Edit: this map turned out not to be so great for warmongers, so I now have an alternative.

Here's a scenario file that fits the outline I gave above. I used the WBCleaner on it.

Starting location:

Unfortunately your settler scout may start in a different place than in this screen shot; there's a way to fix that by hand, which I haven't mastered yet.

It will be a few days before I'm up to a high-warfare game, since I just finished one of those (replay of GOTM 39) but I expect to get to it eventually.

 

[CHEESE!]

Isn't it Scout that changes, not Settler?

 

[dalamb]

fixed

 

[michmbk]

I messed with this WB save for awhile, since I can never resist a Genghis game, but it's really not an optimal warmonger game for one reason:

Spoiler :

Genghis is in one corner of the map, with only one other civ even remotely close by (Toku). There's enough room to peacefully expand towards him, develop a number of cities, and really, if you want to, avoid war for a long, long time.

I played until about 50 AD on emperor epic and went the normal Genghis way, going for early HBR. Easily took out Toku, but then no one else was close enough to really have too much fun. I'll try this a second time peacefully tonight - I bet you don't even have to worry about war for a long, long time in this game. Everyone else is too far away.

Maybe a smaller map with Genghis in the middle would be a better one than this for warmongering.

 

[dalamb]

@michmbk (worded to avoid spoiling): Mea Culpa -- I should have examined the map more carefully instead of just trusting the auto-generation. Since there have been few takers so far, I wonder if I should build a better map that I examine carefully to avoid the disappointments you had?

 

[michmbk]

Here's one I generated in a normal save that I played for awhile - it's fun. On emperor-epic - It may look a bit easy in its current state though, as the start looks like this:



Obviously, two gold and two corn in the BFC make for a fast start, but it's a small map with low sea level and 10 other AI on the map. Aggressive AI is on, no huts or random events. Even with the gold and corn, there are some challenges, most notably:

Spoiler :

Horses or metals are difficult to claim - you have to be aggressive and fast to do so. You're generally in the center of the map too, with surly AIs on all sides. My least favorite neighbor is right next door as well.

I haven't yet learned how to WB a 4000 BC save, so if you want to tinker with this to make a more interesting challenge, it's a good start.

 

[dalamb]

Creating a worldbuilder file ("scenario") is not too hard, especially if you ignore the optional steps below:

1. (Optional) Change the leader name to "Morgan Kane" and maybe the civ name, too.
2. Enter the worldbuilder; it's one of the things on the load/save/options menu.
3. (Optional) Inspect the map and make any changes you like. For this particular game you might want to make sure horses are close to the capital or a 2nd city. Also apparently it's best for Morgan to start in the middle of the map, which you can achieve by swapping his initial units with someone else'.
   Spoiler how to modify the map :

   1. Find an AI in a suitable location.
   2. Erase his units ("enter erase mode", somewhat red/orange button with corners, 2nd from left in 1st row of buttons).
   3. Put back in whatever bonuses and resources this erases ("map mode").
   4. Enter your units ("player mode").
   5. Repeat back in your original location to eliminate yours and add his.
   6. Click on "reveal mod" (button with a cross) and click the "unreveal all tiles" (button with an "X")
4. Click on "save", which is the button in the upper right corner that looks like a globe with an arrow pointing SE.
5. Run the WB cleaner to allow all possible difficulties and speeds. Leave "allow all speeds," "clean up teamreveal," and "clean up cities" checked. Don't check "clean up civ" because that will eliminate your chosen name. I usually leave "clean up units" checked but there are some complexities involved in this decision that you should probably ignore for now.
   Spoiler complexities :

   If you leave it checked, the extra units the AIs got if you start your game on Monarch or above go away for people who select lower levels of difficulties, which is essential for it to be playable by all levels of difficulty. On the other hand, the initial scout or warrior your civ gets will wind up in random locations, like in a normal game, which makes your initial screen shot inconsistent with what some players will see in the game. You can get exactly the results you want by editing the file by hand; see TheMeInTeam's thread about it.
6. (Optional) By default a scenario lets you choose any leader. If you want to make sure players only get the one civ you wanted, edit the WB save file with any text editor and change "PlayableCiv=1" lines to "PlayableCiv=0" except for the one civ you want people to play.

 

[dalamb]

OK, here's Morgan Kane II: as the original but, to ensure there are opponents nearby, I did the following:

• Added Napoleon, because he's pretty aggressive in the few games I've seen him in.
• Added three "humble townspeople" who need to be protected from the bad guys.
• Swapped Morgan into a more central location.

The idea is that for an optimal win, you need to vassalize these three instead of conquering them, and, ideally, need to prevent anyone else from conquering them. Thus the map is more crowded.

Starting locaton:

 

[michmbk]

I don't know what it is about Genghis, but I can't resist a good Genghis game. I went for a relaxing game - monarch epic to 10 AD - REX Temujin style!

Spoiler :

I tried something a little new for my start – AG, Pottery, then AH/Mining/HBR/BW. Decided to try to get cottages up and running early in my capital and use my second city to hopefully load up with keshiks. I popped two scouts in my first two huts, and proceeded to load up on huts as a result. Gold, fishing and archery as a tech – always nice with Mongols.

Met Rags, Stalin both early. Rags is close and will certainly die first. Settled two cities and decided to build a bit of infrastructure before keshiks.





I was able to scout a lot of land and three cities is fine for the keshik build. Thanks to the gold and the early cottages, I was first to alphabet while massing my keshiks. Rags is first – here we go.



Ten keshiks, hopefully enough to get both nearby cities. He’s cottaged up his copper, which was not smart. He quickly paid the price:









Bang – 4 cities, three kept, and one razed. Total casualties – 1 keshik. Sooo….We mustn’t slow our pace to currency and COL. Hello Boudica:





3 cities total – I did lose 4 keshiks this time, but decide to “backfill”



She can keep her one city for 10 turns or so. Meanwhile, this hadn’t been built:



It was a few chops, and got me to COL. Courthouse whipping /chopping while attacking our Celtic friend. She managed an off the coast island, so I’ll have to leave her be for awhile. I’ll keep building a few more cities around my capital – I’ve claimed enough land for now. Or not:



Barb cities are cool. And hey, keshiks aren’t meant to be city defenders – Stalin has nearby cities:





Take one, burn a couple, and extract some peace gold. By now the economy is in good shape, so start building a few more settlers and workers to fill out my land. But it's so much easier to build keshiks and let Stalin settle for me:





That's where I cut off - 10 AD. 16 cities, and a settler on the way to settle my 17th in 2 more turns.





Economy is ok - I can afford some turns at 0% while I build some infrastructure. Other than cottaging my capital, it's been farms and mines, mainly. Tech and build:





The power of the keshik...only 22 of them built, but I took about a dozen AI cities with them. Now I can either overwhelm everyone left with keshiks, or settle down, speed toward cavalry and overwhelm them with heavily promoted cavalry. I liked the pottery early - seemed to get me to HBR pretty fast when I combined with the gold.

 

[michmbk]

Since no one else seemed to play this, I'll just post a quick wrap on the game - keshik romps are so much fun!

Spoiler :

I actually started to get some really bad luck with the RNG – lost a bunch of keshiks on Stalin's last couple cities to archers, which is unusual. But he died, and I got his great wall, which was useful. I had 22 cities at 280 AD, and was losing money at 0% the entire rest of the game. No worries, as I could have always built wealth if I needed to, but chose to war instead.

Nappy caught me with my units not nearby with a war declaration. He turns everybody around and retreats fast when he sees this coming:



I also had whipped about 6-7 other keshiks to scare him back. Even with his stack of 4 spears, he gets very afraid. I burn one of his size 1 cities and he quickly reconsiders:



I hit literature, got the HE up and running, and then time to continue to attack. Sheer magnitude of keshiks overwhelmed everybody from this point forward. War with Shaka, Alex and Nappy all at the same time, and keshik stacks everywhere, supplemented by catapult support. I love this shot of the defenses coming!



That was sheer accident as I had all my units directed towards my city near Alex, but it was such a cool shot of the keshik swarm! Cathy wouldn't open borders so I could fight Shaka, so I took care of that problem the old fashioned way:









That started the onslaught. Shaka was too proud to cap, so he went night night:



Alex capped, and then it was done:



Check out the keshik builds:



At the end, it was keshiks against knights, pikes and longbows...didn't matter. Nothing pre-gunpowder can stand up to keshiks. Next time I try a keshik romp, I may even go with 0% research after alphabet. The only risk is maintenance pre-COL, but it didn't seem to matter this game. Score was 192k. Fun game - I intentionally played it at monarch to enjoy it more, because I love keshik romps!

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

I'm going to play this game when I finish the Victoria LHC. I'm longing to win with Genghis. Is Justinian around?

 

[michmbk]

I'm going to play this game when I finish the Victoria LHC. I'm longing to win with Genghis. Is Justinian around?

No justinian, and in fact, the neighboring AI aren't that bad. Sets you up reasonably well for a fun keshik game. I'm surprised no one else played this - there are a lot of people who usually like some good old mongol fun.

 

[dalamb]

Still slogging through Noble's Club Victoria -- I'm really, really slow at combat, apparently. But I do plan on this one eventually!