R:I. My personal spin-off

[TheBirdMan]

The Natives are hostile I guess..... because it's hardly a cousin party they're on their way to.

Spoiler Is this the Pesians definition of Peace, Love and Understanding :

What to say but: RUN

And I did - better get out while you can than be dead.

The cities I'm going to loose (Magnesia and Gambela)

I hope and guess I can stop them at my fort - just as I have done many times before. Meanwhile I can continue to learn the Roman a lesson - not to declare war before they are ready to back it up with sufficient number of troops..... More to come here.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Spoiler Battle of Fort Hill :

 

[TheBirdMan]

Spoiler The 1st of the Epic battles at the Fort of the Blood-red Hills :

More than 15 minutes took this battle. Some of my longbowmen got as many as 3 promotions after this.

 

[TheBirdMan]

My war against the Roman was a success, winning 4 cities.

1 of those were a seaside city, which gave access to the "closed" western area of this world. This showed me, that my "dear" neighbor to the north - The Vikings or Scandinavians (call them what you like) had spread their long "sticky" captive arms much further away than I imagined.

But I also got contact with 2 - until now - unknown civilizations. 1 in the top and 1 in the bottom.

Say Hello the Spain - no 2 in this world.....

 

[TheBirdMan]

And to continue an old story - the Persian crusade against me.

I do not know, why the Persians doesn't like me - I say: I do them no harm. Actually I do nothing - I even don't speak to them - except when I reject their strange demands such as "That their God and faith is better than mine"...... They are strange..


However this behavior seems to upset them quite a bit.

Spoiler Here we go again :

 

[TheBirdMan]

Of course I "abandoned" my 2 cities on the peninsula (again), as it was obvious the Persians would capture them no matter what I did. Well - therefore I did nothing but leave the arena in time.

During the preparations for another epic battle at the Fort of "The Blood-red Hills", I experienced for the first time - as far as I remember - being bombarded by an AI in an area not owned by anyone..

Some screenshots have been posted here in the official R:I thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/realism-invictus.411799/page-521.


Luckily the Persian only had 1 bombard to start with, got 1 more later. Else this might have ended quite different than it did.

 

[TheBirdMan]

My starting army 107 units including 17 bombards. Persian starting army +250 units including 2 bombards. The battle itself took 20 min plus/minus a minut.

My 107 defenders were - probably because of their location - more than the Persians would attack. That's probably why they started by only shooting at me - it didn't help them though. On the other hand, I was quite interested in them attacking me. Uphill and then well protected in a Fort...

So to bait them, I moved 2 units out every single turn until they "bite" the hook. As I recall, I had a little over 90 units when they finally decided that now it was time. But they should have waited a lot more turns I think.....

Spoiler Screenshots from this battle: :

Now next is to hunt the remaining troops down and this time - where I'm not at war with anyone else - kick them in their ..something..... as long as I can.

 

[TheBirdMan]

The Persian war is still hot, but I'm sure now that my most "insistent" enemy will lose in the slightly longer term. So far I have recaptured my 2 cities as well as taking 1 Persian city on the mainland and 3 on a nearby island.


But - my nation is still very far behind the biggest and strongest. So I better not step "the big guys" on one of their gouty toes - at least not yet.....

Ohhh - I nearly forgot this: The first of my great highways are now under construction. The idea is that first a coherent network must be established between my large cities from east to west and from north to south. Then we will "see" when an expansion around the cities can come into question.

(Author's note: Remember that Highways have been moved and now require "Administration". In addition, it costs more work and time to establish each individual part of a highway).

 

[Drakarska]

Looks like a 6 tile spread between cities, is that correct Bird?

 

[TheBirdMan]

Looks like a 6 tile spread between cities, is that correct Bird?

Close to. It's 5 tiles. I have tried 6 tiles but it seems like the AI is more unwilling or hesitant to establish new cities. Maybe I only see "ghosts" where there are none - but....... But on the other hand: 5 tiles is actually appropriate for the size of map I play on I think.

However, I believe I read "somewhere" that in one of the other "official" Mods of Civ4/BtS, 6 tiles are used as standard. I can't remember which mod or where I read it though. But as written: It's only something I think I can remember - and at my age the "rememberer" may fail a little once in a while.

 

[Drakarska]

Close to. It's 5 tiles. I have tried 6 tiles but it seems like the AI is more unwilling or hesitant to establish new cities. Maybe I only see "ghosts" where there are none - but....... But on the other hand: 5 tiles is actually appropriate for the size of map I play on I think.

However, I believe I read "somewhere" that in one of the other "official" Mods of Civ4/BtS, 6 tiles are used as standard. I can't remember which mod or where I read it though. But as written: It's only something I think I can remember - and at my age the "rememberer" may fail a little once in a while.

Ok, wasn't sure. Hard to tell without the grid lines. I also try to run about 5 tiles as well. Never can tell when a resource will pop at the corners.
Not to sure about official mods, but 4 mods I play will pop out to 3 rings. One of those 4 will pop out to 4, which is pretty impressive mod skill wise.
Rom AND2, CoM, C2C, have mechanics that will expand to 3 tiles, while VIP mod will expand to 4 tiles.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Now the game "works" pretty much the way I want it up to and including the Renaissance, so the next task is to create a little better coherence and consistency. And then, of course, I have som errors and loose ends, that I have to fix......

I have made an update on page 1, which describes a work-around for how the AI in my games will use its early artillery (early ones are from Bombards to Artillery with a relatively short range (1 tile range)). It is tested and it's works. The AI is using it and do it well.

 

[TheBirdMan]

I think I've found the "bug", that gives a fort located outside cultural boundaries with seemingly enormous defensive potential.

When I changed the Chinese canal from being something to use for irrigation of fields to a navigable canal for ships, I removed the section "Act as a city" for forts in the improvement.xml..

This change might also have "removed" the attack advantages that units with the city-raider promotion have when attacking forts in the un-modded version of R:I. Thus, a "free" fort became almost impossible to capture.

Does this make sense????

 

[TheBirdMan]

Played and changed a lot on "My Personal Version" of R:I. the last 3 months. Walters latest version 3.61 from Dec 2023 is the most stable version I ever had played with - and that includes the "original" BeyondTheSword....

Even that I know the next official version of R:I will include changes, that I simply will not miss - I will continue with my work. I still have some "things", that I want to include in my own version. Then sometime next year I will have to decide which parts of my game I want to "carry over".

Now, let the show start. This time I'm trying the Greeks - perhaps for the 1st time. Mapsize 200*120 with 8161 landtiles. 15 nations including my own. Starting units: 1 Settler, 1 Scout and 2 Archers (same number for all the AIs too).

Spoiler Here we go :

Edit: New screenshots added:

Spoiler City #2, #3 and #4 :

Now after the Barbarians have shown up, a Palisade is the most important building to make in any city, since building a CityWall can't be done yet. A CityWall demands Masonry - which again demands Limestone with a Quarry and a Stonecutter.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Big maps makes lot of space for the Barbarians as you can see below. So if you are not prepared then...... well, then this is the reason why so many "civilized" (mostly AI) cities turn towards babarism

Spoiler Here comes the Barbarians :

 

[TheBirdMan]

Then I guess I'm ready for the "Next Chapter" in the Greek struggle for dominance.

Right off the bat, there doesn't seem to be any more options for a "free" expansion of my land. I have Germans and Scandinavians to the north of me, Turks and Saudis to the south and east of me, and finally Romans to the west of me. Plus some more further away from me.

Now I have to "see" how long peace lasts in this world.

Spoiler Present Worldmap - anno 936 BC :

Spoiler Who knows who - and who's at war :

 

[TheBirdMan]

Status on the WorldWonders.

I have not been able to get any yet as I have not enough of the needed resources (it takes time to get access to what-ever needed).

Spoiler Status on WW - some screenshots from earlier games included here :

 

[TheBirdMan]

War.

Spoiler 1st war - 1st city lost. And taken back. :

 

[TheBirdMan]

While I was preparing a strikeforce to attack - and hopefully take - the nearest Roman city, the Germans kind of "joined" the war. And the took that city I had in mind to take.

So.... I turned my army and walked from the northwest to my Capital, when I had started gathering galleys and sailboat. Enough to lift my army when it arrived - and quite important too - enough to protect my sailboats from pirates and enemies when crossing the water. End of this war was, that I gained 2 of the Roman cities. The Germans did take another city too, so they also got 2.

I saw the Germans attack a 3rd city, where they lost most of the army and retreated - only 2 units survived (that told me - better get a peace now than push forward). As thought - so done. And I got a pretty fine "offer" from Rome, one I couldn't resist. I say 1 Gold in my hand is better than 10 gold that might disappear into the "blue air".

Spoiler 1st. Roman War :

 

[TheBirdMan]

Guess I did right yesterday. The Germans did reach too far out towards the south, to far away from their homeland. Specially while they were at war with the English too.

Spoiler The Romans took back a city from the Germans :