RBD22 SG - Silk Traders

[Sirian]

In the words of the immortal Carbon Copy, "Hey, what's with all this variant crap?"

RBD22 SG - Just Your Normal Game

That's right, this is the carryover game for surplus applicants for RBD20. Similar concept here, but slightly different conditions and a decidedly different start.

Civ: India
Difficulty: Monarch
Map Size: Standard
Landform: Continents, 70% water
Climate: Cold, Wet, Flat (and yet... a dry start!)
Barbarians: Raging!
Opponents: Maximum Aggressors
Victory: Any

Standard RBD arrangements: 10 turns, 24/48, no automation, etc etc.

Uh... basically, we're throwing you to the wolves. Shaka, Otto, X-man, Toku... yet where RBD20 is set up to cram them in like sardines, this game offers a little more breathing room for you, at the cost of a less hospitable homeland.

No variant rules, just a normal game with some (slightly) abnormal conditions. Map is random, I haven't messed with it. This is a "step back to normalcy" for those who missed out on the normalcy of the early RBD days, before we wandered off into left field. This game is just like RBD20, only a little less "in your face" and a little more "with lemons, you make lemonade".

Your motto: "Just win, baby!" Any way you can.


ROSTER:

Carbon Copy
Chinese_rider
Arizona_Steve
Readylander
Melle


All slots are reserved. However, if anybody fails to check in and confirm they are playing within 72 hours, we'll put some alternates in their place.

You guys drew a far-south start on a cold map, you know what that means, right?

COULD... GET... UGLY...



But it's Monarch, you can handle it. Right? Sure you can. You're starting right on top of the mother of all silkworm colonies, and you've got Carbon Copy to anchor. Lots of goods for trade! (Uh... if your aggressive neighbors pause long enough in their warmaking to want to trade, that is! ).


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

Silks, lots of silks. Hey, it's better than nothing, right?

 

[Sirian]

Carbon, if you're in, you can take the first batch of turns, up until 2550BC, and by then we should have a final roster. If you're abandoning these poor folks to the harshness of Old Man Winter, I'll have to find someone else to anchor! You did kinda seem disappointed you didn't have a shot at RBD20, though, so this is your chance. "Hey, what's with that variant crap! I'm still enjoying the normal game!"

- Sirian

 

[Carbon_Copy]

Well, this isn't the best of times for me to be the anchor of a new game. There's a big fat midterm coming up for me tomorrow night, followed by ANOTHER ONE the next night. The next two days are right out for playing Civ 3. So unless the group is willing to let me sit on this one for two days prior to playing, I would have to pass on the opening turn.

 

[Thrawn]

What happened to rbd 21? Did you miss it? Did you not count correctly?

 

[Arizona_Steve]

As someone who beats regent without too much effort these days, I am looking forward to the challenge.

Bring it on X-man!!

 

[smegged]

Well, part of the reason that I suggested we have the concurrent games running, was that CC could get his beloved Egyptians. Oh well, such is life .

 

[Carbon_Copy]

Smegged, you're talking as if starting a game costs money or something . Since CC1 and RBD10 go slowly, and I've probably played my last turn in Infantry, I probably have room enough for another game, maybe I'll start an Egyptian game as CC2/RBD23. How would a grab-the-game from a pool of available players format "grab" folks? Would Emperor difficulty be a problem? Any requests for landform/opponents/barbarian settings? I think I promised some folks an archipelago game way back when at the end of RBD2 (which I just reread, and am still amazed at how well that went).

And in unrelated news, is Charis going to acknowledge he's got Infantry, or is he going to leave us all in suspense until he posts the victory?

 

[smegged]

It's probably best to submit all thoughts to the rbd succession game ideas thread .

 

[chinese_rider]

I am in.

 

[Melle]

How long ago was 72 hours? You are starting new games too fast for me!
Well, I'm in.

 

[Carbon_Copy]

...tomorrow! Dead tired tonight, tomorrow will be when the game-playing commences. You have Carbon Copy's written-in-triplicate guarantee on that.

 

[Readylander]

Carbon,
I hope the mid terms went well.
And hopefully we can get a good start on this game over the weekend.

 

[chinese_rider]

carbon, I am ready to play some Civ.
Are you going to DOT the map as all those RBD games?

 

[Carbon_Copy]

Okay, here's the scoop of what we did from 3950 BC till 2550 BC.

We built two warriors, one to stand guard in Dehli, the other to go exploring. A settler was produced, and Bombay was founded near the end of my turn.

We made contact with the Zulus ( :aargh3: ) before the first ten turns were even up, and they either have contact with somebody else, or they got real good draws on goody huts, because they had Masonry, Ceremonial Burial, and Mysticism by the time we made contact. Could...get...ugly...

To our west we have enough room for a zero-overlap fishing village, and to our south there is little else but tundra (though thankfully there are liberal amounts of game in those tundra spots), while up by the Zulus it is mostly plains. We will have to get on our horses to settle the only two palatable sites that I can see to form a border with the Zulus, or we'll never leave our tundra paradise.

We discovered Bronze Working and Pottery from research, currently researching writing (in anticipation of going for either Literature and the Great Library or Map-Making and getting the Lighthouse). And we can put ourselves on a good research clip if we can work the silk squares. Chopping down the forest on one or two of those silks so we can get two food out of that square could help out our research immensely. When I last checked Shaka, he wasn't being reasonable with any of his tech offerings, but we should probably look into buying some techs off of him since he seems to have so many.

Dot map to follow.

 

[Carbon_Copy]

Okay, here's the known world. You can see how close the Zulus are, and how much better their land is.

The red dot is probably the one we'll most likely be able to settle, while the yellow one is mostly wishful thinking, but not completely outside the realm of possibility. If the river and the lake weren't so close together, I would have put red dot on the hill (and if we obviously can't get another town on that river, then we should found on top of the hill instead of next to it). Also, once our border with the Zulu is established, we can found a town on the very tip of that peninsula to the west of Delhi. It won't ever be the most productive town, but it's better than nothing at all.

We should try to get both of the spots I marked (which may or may not be feasible), or at least the red dot. They overlap each other by three squares, but it's the best I can do and still have them both on fresh water, which is the important thing.

 

[chinese_rider]

Looks like we will have a lot of fun since Shaka is so close to us. We will need to go to war sooner or later, and I say sooner. I will play my ten turns tonight.

 

[chinese_rider]

Here is my ten turns:
Lower science. It is cheaper to buy from Zulu.
Built spearman in our capital, hurried temple in Bombay.
Found a hut behind a mountain, but it is deserted.
Spearman chased out a bab. village, upgraded to veteran.
Exchange Alphebet+27gd for warrior code.
One of our brave warrior reached behind Zulu, and hope to find some new tribes.

 

[Arizona_Steve]

I will take my turns tomorrow morning and therefore post within the next 18 hours.

 

[Arizona_Steve]

Short and sweet, as there's not that much to write home about.

Inherited turn:
OK... where's that dot-map. Bring it up and make a mental note of the proposed city sites. Red dot is the priority.
Military is woefully inadequate. We need more warriors urgently.

(1) 2110BC
(2) 2070BC
(3) 2030BC
Our warrior beyond Zululand spots a barb camp.
Delhi completes a settler. Starts a warrior.
Zulu's build Bapedi right on Yellow Dot. With all their good land to the East, why do they HAVE to expand in OUR direction?

(4) 1990BC
Spearman waits in Bombay to escort the settler.
Barbarian warrior kills our warrior. UGH!

(5) 1950BC
(6) 1910BC
Spearman and settler head to Red Dot. Our worker is building a road in that direction.
Shaka demands alphabet. With only one warrior and one spearman for defence I have little choice but to cave in. They are already four techs ahead of us. I buy The Wheel and Masonry from them for 115 gold and 4 gold per turn. Hopefully the gold per turn deal will keep them from declaring war, and keep our treasury low to minimize extortion from other civs.

(7) 1870BC
(8) 1830BC
Dehli completes a warrior, starts another.

(9) 1790BC
(10) 1750BC
Steveopolis founded at Red Dot. Spearman fortifies.