RBC4c - Mesoamerican Aztecs (Sid)

[T-hawk]

There is yet a dwarf in Middle America who still draws breath. We've got the Incan population down under 50%; all we need to do is keep it there until we get our own Silent Hunters down there and hit a couple of cities. Now would be the time to dump workers into any possible city, like Texcoco, Tzintzuntzen, Potonchan, Malinalco. I'd also suggest not skimming workers off our size-12 cities as we may not be able to afford a single turn with them at size 11.

Remember the Maya are at war with the Toltecs, so the Maya will accept our gold-per-turn. So next turn we can buy Espionage, and by the end of Speaker's turn we can have a half-dozen Hunters on the Incans' doorstep. We can still do this...!

 

[Grimjack]

This is an exciting and close game. Do keep up the hard work and detailed comments.
It is a great opportunity to learn.

Grimjack

 

[Coffee]

Remember the Maya are at war with the Toltecs, so the Maya will accept our gold-per-turn. So next turn we can buy Espionage, and by the end of Speaker's turn we can have a half-dozen Hunters on the Incans' doorstep. We can still do this...!

Where's that hammer thingy when ya need it. Great result Ridgelake. I assume we are talking an alliance vs the Toltecs & Inca plus some gpt for espionage. Getting the last Toltec city will help immediately.

 

[Arathorn]

Is cultural win enabled? How close are the Incans to that (either 2K or 7K)? I would expect they're quite close there as well, are they not? Do you have half their culture? Has anybody checked?

Good luck with the rest of this game. Do you have enough slaves and a high culture city so you could try for 2K yourself, as a last-gasp measure?

Arathorn

 

[Speaker]

Got it.

 

[T-hawk]

I've been keeping an eye on the 2k cultural condition, yes. No chance for us - Tenochtitlan is at 455 and we've only got about 20 slave workers. Chichen is the leading AI city and is only at 954 now, probably not going to reach 2k in the remaining 60 turns.

7k however could be a real problem, as the Inca are at 6382 now. We've got less than a third of that, and judging by the histogram the Maya aren't within a half of that either.

Well, there's only one way to find out how we're going to lose, of course...

 

[Charis]

I would NOT rule yourself out for that 2K win! If you have a sacrificial altar, each slave is worth *40* culture points! (I think that's why the lurkers were calling this scenario insanely easy while apart from this loophole it is a bear of a scenario)

So if you now have 454, those 20 slaves would give you 1254.
You're only 19 slaves away from victory! That's just the razing of a small set of cities, and they could be from any civ. Or if anyone is selling, you can buy some. That 7K, otoh, may come REAL soon. Did someone in another thread say the AI was pulling in something crazy like 180 cpt? Or was it 80? Still, that's just 3-9 turns from their victory??

Still, if speaker survives the turn it will be a minor miracle.
Good luck!!!

Charis

 

[Speaker]

My mission:
1) Stop the Incas from winning by population/area
2) Win by culture before the Incas do

IT- Two cities are building workers, but we cannot afford a drop in population if we want to hold off the Incas from winning. Tenochtitlan goes to Sacrificial Alter and I am going to recall all our foreign workers back home. Unfortunately we can't sacrifice our own workers, because we have 21 of those, and that would be enough to win.

*hit enter*

Incans build the Temple of Kukulcan in Cuzco. There's another 3cpt.

1205AD (1): A bunch of money gets freed up and I purchase Espionage from the Maya for 117 gold and 54gpt and get their WM for free. Silent Hunters dialed up all around. [Incas 35/49, 6631 culture].

1210AD (2): Sacrifice several workers and continue moving troops toward the Incans. [35/48, 6880]

And uh, that's it...

I'm not sure what we might have done differently? I guess maybe if we had waited until Jags to take out the Olmecs we might have picked up more slaves, but without the Mayas building culture, I don't see how we could have held off the Incas. I think they may be a bit overpowered in this scenario. Good playing all. It just wasn't to be.

 

[Ridgelake]

The only thing that I can think of that might have helped was for the Mayans and Incans to go to war early and often.

They were making 250cpt at the end. I was shocked when T-Hawk answered that they had over 6300 culture at the end of my turn. They were in the 4000s at the start of my turn. It was so low that I didn't pay it any attention thereafter. Whodathunkit?

Ah well, my first SG loss. Not a surprise with a first try at Sid. Twas an enjoyable game with good teammates though. An honor to play with the three of you.

Ridge

 

[T-hawk]

Some of that had to be sacrificed workers, right? No way were they actually making 250 per turn. That's like 12 per city that they had, and all the improvements in the game add up to about that.

Anyways, 'twas a fun game, although disappointing of course. BTW, during the last couple days, I played this scenario myself as the Aztecs on Sid, going for a 2k victory all the way, and did it very easily with 34 total worker sacrifices. So it's certainly winnable on Sid that way; I think going for a harder tack was more fun for the SG.

So, when does Fall of Rome start?

 

[Coffee]

I really enjoyed this game and enjoyed playing with everyone. I think playing Sid scenarios will prove to be huge fun. Excuse my smokin and if there is to be another I'd love to play. Hey, Sid is better than taking a break

 

[T-hawk]

Speaker and Coffee, would you be interested in taking a shot at the Mesopotamian scenario on Sid? I didn't yet have Conquests when the RBCiv games for it were running, but I'd love to take a shot. Not that I'd expect to win, fighting against 60% discounts on the wonders...

 

[Speaker]

I would, but unfortunately don't have the time. I'm already in 4 games (2 ending soon), but will be adding two more soon (Fall of Rome and one other idea I've been kicking around with a fellow CFCer). Sorry!

 

[Coffee]

You bet. I'm ready to lose a few more to win just one. @Speaker I hope you can somehow play.

 

[Kylearan]

Good game and good read, guys! Too bad you lost, but I still think this scenario just isn't winnable via domination on Sid, at least as non-Inca.

I wonder if it's by design that some Conquests are not balanced but have one dominating power, like the Incas in this scenario, and Persia in the Rise of Rome? Anyway, I think the initial assumption that the level of difficulty for scenarios is lower than for standard games seems to be wrong. I haven't seen more lost SGs than with the Conquests...

I hope the Mesopotamian scenario on Sid will happen, that will be an interesting read as well.

-Kylearan

 

[T-hawk]

Oh, it's winnable by domination on Sid. All you need to do is get the Temple of the Moon - we only missed it by about 5 turns of prebuilding - and get Military Tactics and Espionage with it. That'd have us bringing Silent Hunters to our opponents around turn 80 instead of vice versa.

Another strategy towards winning on Sid as any of the three civs is probably to keep the other two at war with each other at all times (once you somehow get Military Strategy.) Harder as the Mayans-in-the-Middle, of course.

Scenarios are still easier than epic games on Sid, definitely. Remember the archer rush we pulled on the Olmecs? Impossible in an epic game, of course.

Coffee and I seem to be the only players interested in Mesopotamia on Sid -- are you interested in playing, Kylearan?

 

[Kylearan]

T-hawk, while I'd love to play an SG with you (and Coffee!) I must decline. I'm in two SGs already and don't have time for more, and after one and a half losses (Rise of Rome and RBC4a), I need a slightly easier game next. I think Sid is a little bit over my abilities.

-Kylearan