RBD 24 Grab-the-game SG: Cold and Lonely

[Carbon_Copy]

EDIT: The game format has changed since the original ground rules that I drew out. Here are the current ones

Here's the setup:

Civ: Egypt
Difficulty: Emperor
Map size: Large
Age: 3B
Landform: sparse Archipelago (80% water? I can never remember what percentage is represented by each of the 3 choices)
Climate: cold, dry
Opponents: 8 Random
Barbarians: Random

Victory conditions enabled: Conquest, Spaceship. Diplo also enabled, but not allowed as a player victory.

Depending on starting positions, this game could be a lot better or a LOT worse than your typical Emperor game. Hopefully the fewer-than-max civs, poor land, and research penalty for a large map will slow down the AI tech advancement to something less extreme. If we're lucky, we'll draw a non-polar start with access to one or two other civs. If we aren't, we'll be by ourselves on a pure tundra island at the south pole across 10 squares of ocean to our nearest neighbor.

The map conditions (3 billion, small archipelago) also will suggest that we (and probably everyone else) will not have sources for all ship-building components or strategic resources on our home island, so I doubt that even the spaceship victory will just be as simple as sitting back and building parts in peace.

The play format will be as follows:

Anyone plays. Nobody can play twice in a row, though. State your intention to play the game, and you'll have 8 hours to complete your turns and post. Simple

Remember, only say you have it when you are ready to play NOW. You have 8 hours to get a turn played or the ball gets passed (unless you can get it posted before someone else grabs it). Also, remember that while Diplo is allowed as a victory condition for the AI, we are NOT allowed to win by diplomacy (but we SHOULD strive to control the building).

Good Luck.

 

[sealman]

I am interested in joining but my time is limited due to a hectic evening schedule. If this is an open SG, I may be ablet o grab it on some weekend days (or days I decide not to go to work ). I have spent most of my time on regent (or whatever the 3rd level is.)

 

[Kevinicus]

Gimme gimme gimme! I'm ready!! Hit me!! Dü it! Put it in! Go go go! Do it now! Post it! Damnit me wanna play! Go go go go!! Now!!

 

[Carbon_Copy]

The format is open, but within a predefined set of players. At the start, everyone will take a turn, then after that anyone in the pool can grab as they're able. This is Emperor difficulty (the second-highest one, two steps above Regent, but below Deity), and is decidedly more difficult. The AI has a significant bonus, extra units, and other whatnot, but once the game is off the ground things are not quite as noticable, with the exception that AIs will trade techs amongst themselves like it's going out of style, so tech progression is much faster.

In general, you should be fine if you just keep your aggression level up (complacency can be deadly in Emperor) and stay alert, which is a LOT easier to do succession than solo.

 

[egil]

Hi CC.
The game seems like fun and the one - step below Deity should make it less daunting than Deity games. I am not one of the RBD crowd but if you take outsiders I would like to join. If not I can always read your story as the games unfolds.

 

[Schnarrd]

I'm already in almost more games than I can handle, but . . . it's in a grab-the-game format, so I'd still like to sign up.

 

[smegged]

I'll give this one ago. Just don't make me second on the roster in the first rotation.

 

[meldor]

Sign me up....

 

[Carbon_Copy]

My midterms are over, I will be generating the game shortly. I won't actually play out the first ten turns until sometime tomorrow, so if anyone wants in, make yourself heard before "sometime tomorrow". I'd especially like to get maybe one more vet of the early RBD games, but I know they're all pretty much booked. With so many RBD games still up in the air, I'm not suprised, so that's why I made this one grab-the-game, they make great between-feast snacks.

As for the opening round, unless there are objections it will be in the order you signed up, so:

Carbon
Sealman
Kevinicus
Egil
Schnarrd
Smegged
Meldor

Then grab-the-game, 10 turns, 8 hour turnaround between start and finish. Fewer than 10 is always okay (and probably necessary if we get into a big conquest scenario).

Everyone play 10 turns, 48 hr. turnaround from the posting of the last one. If you can't make it, you'll just get left behind until it becomes grab-the-game.

Watch this space for our starting location soon. Remember, only the "classic" victories, Space and Conquest, are allowed, but Diplo will be in there as a possible AI victory (so be sharp when modern times come around, and we shouldn't have problems building the UN).

 

[Kevinicus]

We have easter break now for 2 weeks!
So i will be availible!

 

[Carbon_Copy]

Haven't played yet, but here's our starting location. It is almost impossibly lush for the map parameters, the one terrain type I wasn't prepared to see for our start was jungle. Hopefully everyone else got much worse. We started almost in the dead center of the map, just a little south and east of the equator/prime meridian. Plus there's a silk not too far away, so we won't be killing ourselves early running high lux to avoid our cities rioting. My 10 turns will come this afternoon.

 

[sealman]

Are we using 1.17 of 1.16 patch?

 

[smegged]

1.17 in all rbd games

 

[Carbon_Copy]

Yes, this and all other current RBD games will requires 1.17f. Also, in the other ground rules department:

1.) No whipping exploits. I didn't say no whipping, but the specialist town + worker farm exploit is right out.

2.) No worker automation. Exception: Shift-P for pollution cleanup in the late game.

3.) Don't put things on goto that will not arrive at their destinations by the end of your turn. This is more of a general guideline than a rule, but if you do have something on a goto that will arrive on someone else's turn, specifically mention what it is, where it is going, and why you are sending it there in your turn report. Still, in general, it is much preferable to not have turn-spanning gotos, anyhow.

 

[sealman]

Do we load SG's as scenerios or like regular games. Can you tell I am a newbie at SG's?

 

[Carbon_Copy]

When the save is posted, download the zip file and extract it to your saves folder (you can make subdirectories of this folder, which helps organizing all your saves immensely). Be sure to do this before you start up civ 3, because the Civ 3 file browser sucks (IMO, they should have just opened up the standard OS dialog box instead of that clunky monstrosity that we use now).

When you play it, you go to "load game" (not load scenario) and select the save file you just downloaded. It will then load normally.

 

[Carbon_Copy]

1) 4000 BC:
Thebes Founded, warrior started

2) 3950:
Bronze Working started, road work to the silk begun

3) 3900:
zzz

4) 3850:
zzz

5) 3800:
zzz

6) 3750:
Warrior built, another one started

7) 3700:
zzz

8) 3650:
We see that, indeed, there are not one but several silks by our starting location

9) 3600:
zzz

10) 3550:
Second warrior built, this one goes exploring, settler queued


The worker should have the road to the silks built in 5 turns. We still don't know enough about the map to do any plotting for future cities, but hopefully we'll find something that catches our eye. We still don't have a clue who any of the other 8 civs are, so whoever gets those early game reports of largest/happiest/most advanced civs or whatnot, take note before you close the dialog!.

Doh! And check F11 (forgot to do that), that will let us know at least a partial list of who we're up against.

Sealman, I wish you luck. You'll probably not get a whole lot to do this turn, your entire turn will almost entirely be moving the worker around to improve tiles, exploring with the warrior, and waiting for the settler to be built. By the time this comes to grab-the-game, there should be a lot more to do with your turns.

 

[sealman]

Yippy. I'll grab it at home tonight

 

[sealman]

3500 BC: Borders expand. Silk fields are now under our control.

3450: Exploring

3400: Exploring

3350: Road to silk field is established. Citizens happy.

3300: Exploring

3250: Exploring

3200: Goody Hut sighted, Warrior sent to investigate.

3100: Local Tribe shares with us maps of region (still nothing worthwhile out of the goody hut for the sealman ). We appear to be on a small island all to ourselves. Another silk field is sighted.

3050: Exploring

2000: Settler from Thebes is built. Moving towards the hill w/gold where they can eventually catch some fish in the water. Kevinicus, feel free to change locations, the settler just left Thebes.


___

Really not much happened. It took my whole turn to build the settler. Thebes has begun work on another warrior. We are going to be needed mapmaking in a huge way! Here is a screen shot of our island. I think it is a small island unless there is a small landbridge just out of sight.

 

[sealman]

Here is the save