Passing the Torch

[Rex Tyrannus]

"It's the philosophers, it's the scholars," he continued, "they're the people who pass the torch, who keep the light burning by which we live."

The Voyage Out
by Virginia Woolf

It is a lesson we all learn, as we grow old, that life has a built in mechanism for youthful inspiration to regularly seed our culture with ideas and ideologies that those more set it our ways can not dream. And so it is with this game, as Arathorn and I attempt to pass hard-learned lessons to Sid Meyers' next devout generation, and make way for our children to grow into their own.

Roster
Rex Tyrannus
Rex's son (justinious), age 9
Arathorn
Arathorn's son (screen name TBD)

All other settings to be discussed in thread, though I'd like to advocate for a difficulty setting of Noble. My son typically only plays on easier difficulties and I'd like him to realize some of the strategies involved when the game takes away certain opportunities.

It is absolutely critical to understand that this game is about having fun and education, where we can all ask questions without fear of criticism. Further, the typical rules of timeliness will be suspended for this game, with the adults likely playing during the week and the children playing on weekends. (School comes first.) We want the kids to have an equal contribution and to learn as much about the the strategy in turn-based-strategy as possible.

With no further preamble, I'll let the players introduce themselves and provide their thought on leaders, opponents, map types, strategies, etc.

 

[Arathorn]

OK, first, if my other son were playing, he'd be jealous of the justinious name -- that'd be his choice!

Second, LOVE the opening quote. Very appropriate. Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Rex.

Next, the one thing I'd like to really push for is being pretty strict about number of turns. I think many of us in the Succession Game community have found how the act of writing up the situation helps clarify it in our mind. If we "play to a good point to pass", trying to make sense of the chaos and interweavings of the game is lost (or at least lessened). 30/20/10/10/10/10/10/10.... would be my suggestion (standard speed). That way, understanding of the situation can hopefully be achieved (by all).

As for introductions, I've been playing Civ games for a long time. Heard about and played almost one game of the original before Civ2 came out. Played a fair bit of that (semi-poorly) but grad school was a huge time sink. For a while, my Civ3 exploits were legendary. Civ4 hasn't been quite the hit for me the others were, but it's still a fun game and I'm happy to be passing the torch. Not that any of this means I'll be dropping out of sight!

Beyond that, I think I'll let the younglings weigh in.

Arathorn

 

[ruff_hi]

Is the roster open or closed? Would love to play but it would have to be ...

Ruff
Ruff's dog Dixon

I am pretty sure that Dixon wouldn't have the first idea re how to play. Most likely, he will just lick the mouse and ask if it was time for a walk. Good luck folks - looks like you should have fun playing this one.

 

[Ozbenno]

What a great idea. Would love to join but my 6 year old just likes opening the diplomacy screen and talking to the AI, will lurk and offer advise instead.

 

[justinious]

I would love to participate! I like

Spoiler :

USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But still, I'd love to play,
no matter what.

civ!
It is

 

[Rowain deWolf]

A grerat idea Rex & Arathorn

And welcome and good Luck to justinious & arathorn jr.

 

[arkenstone]

hey this will be fun! i would like to make a couple suggestion for who we can be and an enemy well i kinda want to be Bismark and i would like to get revenge on memed the second he is destoring me in one gamei am called arkenstone bacause ark is my anitials spelled and i sound very powerful. so i hope we do good! hope you know me well enough. i think i did a good job.

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Great, we now have a complete roster, and we have one vote for Bismark and one for someone American. First, though, let's talk about what sort of game we want.

In Civ IV, each leader has two traits and each civilization has a unique unit and a unique building. The combination of traits, unique units, and unique buildings makes each leader better able to play games differently. Where Montezuma of the Aztecs is well suited for some early conquering, Isabella of Spain might make a great leader for a diplomatic victory.

So, we can start with a leader in mind, understanding that we're probably in for a specific type of game. Or, we can decide that we want a certain type of game and pick the leader from there.

If we look at the leaders so far suggested we have...

Bismark -- Expansive and Industrious
Washington -- Expansive and Charismatic
Roosevelt -- Industrious and Organized
Lincoln -- Philosophical and Charismatic

Expansive +2 health per city; Double production speed of Granary and Harbor; 25% faster production of Workers.

Industrious Wonder production increased 50 percent; Double production speed of Forge.

Charismatic +1 happiness per city; -25% XP needed for unit promotions; +1 happiness from Monument and Broadcast Tower.

Organized Civic upkeep reduced 50 percent; Double production speed of Lighthouse, Factory, and Courthouse

Philosophical Great People birth rate increased 100 percent; Double production speed of University


Bizmark is great for building wonders or armies
Washington is great for building huge empires that kill stuff
Roosevelt is great for building huge empires that build stuff
Lincoln is great for large cultural empires




Alternately, we can hit the random button and play with what the game gives us. That's my vote.


In either case, we can set one of the opponents to Mehmed. I certainly understand the need for revenge.

 

[justinious]

Let's do Washington!!!!!MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Arathorn]

Alright, cool! We're all here.

I guess I'll propose some other parameters:
- Continental map (so we can practice overseas invasions)
- Standard size map (enough foes but won't take forever)
- Most other things random, so we have to discover some things during our early exploration phase

Justinious, I'm fine doing Washington (or random), but if you want to convince me, you have to convince me with something more than laughter! *WHY* do you want to use Washington? What about his traits or unique building or unique unit do you want?

We can look at each leader and discuss, or we can go random. In either case, though, we want to understand what the unique characteristics of each civ helps us with. Because, as you move up in difficulty (from settler to noble, which is a BIG jump), you need to emphasize the strengths of the civ you use.

Arathorn

 

[admtanaka]

This is a great and inspiring idea for a game. I'll be following with interest and I wish you all luck.

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Yes. This is certainly one of those times in life when shouting louder doesn't make you more right. Washington is a great leader and one of my favorites, but is he as good as Mao? You'll never know unless you play someone other than Washington.

(For those not living in my house, Justin always plays as America.)

I agree with Arathorn's suggestions on map and size, and would like to add in standard pace. I usually play epic, but this game will take long enough and we're dealing with (potentially) shorter attention spans.

I also think each of the kids should give arguments on leader and whoever makes the most convincing case is the one we'll go with.

 

[ruff_hi]

... we're dealing with (potentially) shorter attention spans.

Dixon whats to know who you are calling short?

 

[Ozbenno]

If you're looking for something a bit left field, how about Suryavarman (Creative/Expansive), was involved in a discussion about the best leaders recently (and I was sticking to my Darius guns) when someone threw out Sury because

A civ with great expansionist synergy: cheap Workers and Granaries combined with auto-border pops. On top of that you start with Scouts and get a decent UB later on in the game that in many cases lets you work an extra tile/specialist and recover faster from whipping.

So you could explore two often dissed traits (Creative and Expansive) and how to use them in a game.

 

[arkenstone]

Well there are 2 ways i would like to go since i like early blowes for special units i ould like to go with the arabs with a huge camelarcher/ trebuchet/ catapult/ axeman or maceman depending where we are/ pikeman or spearman also depending where we are/ or if we are going for a late pow then Bismark so we can have pazzers that have a built in bounas asgainst tankes and can defend themselfs from other unitsthat with an invation including machinegun/ infatry/ paratroopers/ and hopefully machinerized infatry. sound good to you guys? sorry about the late suggestion. hail our gr8 hearos and civ. four!

 

[arkenstone]

wasington sounds good to any empires that can kill and buid stuff

 

[arkenstone]

ohh wait i would like sain for a middle blow that don't seam to like very much i would also like her for a early and late blow wich is my fovorite 2 blows2x the fun!

 

[arkenstone]

lincon sounds good as well

 

[arkenstone]

well what kind of game do we want is another and enimies is something i think we should also discuss well still have no suggestions for enimies but do we want great plains for easy concouring or do we want islands so it will be hard to exspand and hard to conquer or contenents so exsporeing gets in our way i would be fine also with random i mean i don't really care i will be watching posts

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Wow. You only want all that? Let's pick just one leader for this game, and maybe next time we'll play with everybody

So far we have justinious wanting Washington and arkenstone wanting Bismark, Stalin, Washington, or Lincoln.

Sounds like we're probably going down a warrior path. You guys want to just play an all war variant?