Realms Beyond Emperor: The DSG's

There's been plenty of other threads where the actual game didn't start until the third page; that's nothing unusual.

The thing with Jags not upgrading is that the AI will continue to have them available and therefore waste time building them sometimes for the entire game. So will the player - giving us an advantage if we want to crank out dozens of units for, say, flip suppression. How about having jags upgrade to conquistadors? I've never seen the AI build an Explorer...

How about the Hwacha? We could disable artillery, to play with the Korean UU for longer, and make for a more interesting (and somewhat less horribly unbalanced for the AI) industrial age. I'd like that, I think.

There was also the proposal of disabling ALL non-unique units for the player's civ (doing so for the AIs would be a Bad Idea, since Musketeers haven't a chance against Sipahi.) I'm in favor of this, if anyone else is. How well can we do with muskets, Sipahi, and Hwacha against infantry? That'd be heaven for use of combined arms tactics! :)
 
Hmm...I still think the "letter of the law" guideline for non-UUs has the best overall balance. UUs are all made from scratch, but upgrade to the next non-UU, except for the Jaguar warrior who messes everything up otherwise so we have to handle it specially, player is allowed to upgrade to non-UUs and draft conscript defensive troops, but can only rush, whip, or build UUs in cities.

The upgrade tree would look like this:

Impi, Numidian, Hoplite -> Musketman -> Rifle -> Infantry -> Mech. Infantry

Musketeer -> Rifle -> Infantry -> Mech. Infantry

-Spears and pikes disabled for all civs. Also note that we'd only ever have as many veteran defensive troops as we'll have Musketeers, Impis, Hoplites, and Numidians barring conscript promotions. We can always build Cossacks for defense if we start running thin, though those are a bit on the pricey side.

Jaguar Warrior -> either Immortal or does not upgrade.

-I would normally suggest upgrade to sword, but I want to have swords and Medieval Infantry disabled for all civs and the Immortal is essentially Ancient Era MDI, so that's where I'd put him.

Legionary, Immortal, Gallic Swordsman -> Guerilla

-Each of these three units has something on the MDI (defense, cost, movement) that would make an upgrade a regression, so just have them upgrade to guerilla directly and disable MDI.

War Chariot -> Knight ->Cavalry

Mounted Warrior -> Knight -> Cavalry

-Normal chariots and Horsemen disabled for all civs (possibly allow horsemen back in since they can cross mountains and jungle w/o roads but otherwise have the same stats as WC).

Ansar Warrior, Rider, War Elephant, Keshik, Samurai -> Cavalry

Cossacks and Sipahli (sp?) do not upgrade, naturally.

Bowman -> Longbow -> Guerilla

Berserk -> Guerilla

-Archers disabled for all civs

Panzer -> Modern Armor

-Tanks disabled

Catapult -> cannon -> artillery

Hwach'a -> artillery

Either that or have our Hwach'as not upgrade and just never build artillery. I'm personally worried about what would happen if we captured an artillery piece when they aren't allowed for our civ, and we might want to design the scenario for re-usability to play a less restricted variant than "only UUs".

As for ships, Frigates should be removed and replaced with Man-o-War, but allow the player to build any sort of seagoing vessel in the variant rules.

As for planes, replace jet fighter with F-15, enable all the other planes for all civs, but do not allow the player to build non-F-15 planes in the variant rules. Flight and Rocketry are close enough on the tech tree that you can get away with that, compared with Mapmaking and Magnetism and the lack of a personnel-carrying boat UU.

One last thing we should do for completeness is to change the barbarian units to Jaguar Warrior and Mounted Warrior. This would make Barbs quite a bit more dangerous being able to pounce on your settlers and workers from out of the fog at all times, but as long as we're disabling the normal units for everyone else, they might as well receive the same treatment. (and since all of our cities will likely be defended by Hoplites, those barbs would otherwise never stand a chance with the player's bonus on Emperor and below). For similar reasons, we need to change the starting AI units from warriors to jaggies.

Finally, I'd recommend disabling the Golden Age trigger and reserve that for Wonder-Building only.

How does this one sound?
 
Carbon, I tried what you suggested - that was my intial thought as well. The problem is that you cannot upgrade a unit to one that your civ cannot build; so for example if we don't allow the AI civs to build muskets, then they can't upgrade hoplites to them. And the other thing I've discovered is that if you give the AI civs the option to build both muskets and musketeers, the AI will build both of them even though the musketeer is clearly better. So what you proposed in the above post just can't be done, unfortunately. I do like the idea of replacing barbarian warriors and horses with Jags and Mounted Warriors, that's very clever and should be done by all means! :goodjob:

I finished out my test game as far as I wanted it to go last night, and the results were quite positive. I had an enormous amount of fun attacking with the combined arms of immortals supported by gallic swordsmen, with the gallics ranging ahead to scout and support the stack of immortals protected by hoplites. The AI countered with immortals and bowmen on the defensive, and had hoplites in all its cities as well. I unfortunately didn't have any horses to play around with those units, but the overall impression was very favorable. The AI civs will use the UUs if they are forced to do so, and can use them in a reasonably intelligent fashion. Not as well as a human of course, but at least no more stupidly then they do with the non-UUs.

I'm pretty much ready to start up a game whenever everyone is ready to do so. The one thing I'd like to know so I can make the final adjustments to the mod is what civ we would like to play as. I think I'm going to make sure none of the opposing civs are expansionist, as that trait really becomes useless in this mod with the ability of everyone to build Jags. Would anyone object to having AI cost factor set to 70% or 60%, like what T-Hawk did in his semi-Deity game? That would make things a bit more even while avoiding the Deity AI bonus settler. I think everything except our civ choice has just about been covered at this point (unless someone has serious objections to the upgrade chains I proposed), so we can start soon if that's what everyone wants. :)
 
I knew about your first point, I was allowing Muskets to be built by all civs in the upgrade chain I proposed. And for those units where the AI will build the non-UU instead of a UU, often those are similar in their primary stat (e.g. all knights have the same attack power, muskets and musketeers have the same defense), so except for longbows and cavalry, where there is an important stat difference between the normal unit and the UU, it's not as important if the AI doesn't build the UUs, and even then, The Siphali and Berserk cost more than their normal counterparts so it might be wiser in some circumstances to build the normal ones if given a choice. But to compensate for any bad build orders it uses, we should probably spot the AI some extra cost factor.

Regarding scouts, in PTW, those scout units can actually be important. Popping huts with scouts is the only way an expansionist can get a city from a hut, and Expansionist civs can get better chances with huts overall (I assume we'll play with barbs on in some form). However, I will agree that it won't be as powerful for the AI as other traits.

And for our civ, let's try Rome. I've not played as Rome in a long time, and half the time Caesar is in the game, he never bothers to hook up his iron or build temples. And for our opponents, We should get an assortment of traits and temperments, how about India, the Celts, Greece, China, Persia, Carthage, and the Vikings (just to get one expansionist in there to see how he does). That gives two or three of every trait except for expansionist, which only has 1, and mixes some aggressive civs with some non-aggressive ones.
 
re: changing the barb units

I played one game once, on REGENT, with the barb basic unit a swordsman and their advanced unit a knight. Even with the Regent bonus vs. barbs, they were slaughtering my units. Especially when a barb swordsman starts chasing your warriors in the early game, b/c warrior is all you know how to build yet!
 
Well, no one had any comments to make on my proposed suggestions, so I will take that as passive confirmation. :) As a result, I'll be creating the Menagerie game as RBP4 and starting the ball rolling against tomorrow, once I finish moving my computer home and get it hooked back up to the Internet again.
 
Well, I WAS planning to play in this one, but my PTW CD doesn't seem to be working. So, I'm afraid I'll have to sit it out. :(
 
As the next couple of RBP games wind down (mid January??), I would like to try Jaffa's Army game variant (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18222&pagenumber=1) on Deity (in PTW), possibly incorporating Charis' "no guff" attitude (RBEpic-19).

If there is interest please let me know...

JMB

PS - I have no clue how to change these things in the editor... But, there is plenty of time to learn. *smile* If anyone has any tips, let me know.
 
I've played Civ1, 2, 3, and PTW for over eight years now. I'm very interested in playing a DSG as soon as a new one starts. I'm more of a builder type, but wouldn't mind getting some experience with a more militaristic crew if the situation is right. As you can see from my registration date and post count, I'm more of a lurker than a poster because I generally try to post only when I have something useful to say.

Anyway, here's my qualifying game. Please let me know if you need any further information.

my winning game

edit: cleaned-up the picture attachment
 
Toward the end of last year I sought input on SG ideas and said I would start
a Defiant Nationalist (DEFN) and a Perpetual Oscillating War (POW) game in
the new year... With RBE5 finished... it's time to start one :P

The Defiant Nationalist one is based on ideas from Iteen, ukrneal and a fun
game I played using similiar rules as France on Emperor diff.

A 'Defiant' civ takes "no guff!", never giving in to tribute demands or paying for peace
The Nationalist in Civilization has a supreme view of itself as a nation, putting its own
interests first above all others, shuns globalism, and with a keen view of independence.

The proposed "Defiant Nationalist" rules are:
* No giving in to tribute, ever. That includes never paying for peace.
* May never sign mutual protection pacts, military alliance, right of passage, or embargo
* Any troops in your land must be told to leave immediately
* No capturing of foreign cities or demanding cities in tribute (flips/propaganda are ok)
* No qualms about dastardly actions in the best interest of our nation
(e.g., steal tech, military blockades, wars of aggression, neutral pillaging...)
* There can be no peace until any city of yours that has been captured is recovered
* If an AI razes one of your cities, it must be eliminated (timeframe up to you)
* Foreign workers may never be added to your cities. They can do labor while/if at
war with another civ, but afterwards must be sold back or used for outpost/colony/tower
* If a civ expands borders onto your unit and demands you leave, you must either
refuse (declaring war, considered a sneak attack) or comply but declare war
as a non-sneak attack as soon as you can leave his territory.
* Nationalism must be first tech researched or bought, on entering industrial era
* Every city size 7+ at this time, and subsequent cities reaching size 7 for first time,
MUST draft a unit for defense of that city. (So eventually, a conscript in every 'city')
* Victory conditions for player: cultural, space, domination, conquest.

International reputation is simply not a high priority, although treaties are not
broken for simply monetary gain. Under the rules described though, I can't see
getting in situations where you would have to cancel a treaty early,
since you have no RoP, no alliances, tell troops to leave rather than openly
declare, and have 20 turns to 'prepare' for required action. The above list of
rules is longer than I like, but I hope the "spirit" of the game is quite clear.

Game details for RBE6:
- Difficulty: Deity
- Map: Standard, medium pangaea, random attributes, restless barbarians
- Foes: Random
- Civ: ?? Rome, Japan, Vikings, Carthage, Ottomans, Zulu, Aztecs, China ??

Refusing tribute and having no alliances is going to make for a MAJOR challenge -
expect at least one "dogpile" on us, which won't be pretty :) I'm not sure which
civ to choose. Rome was my first choice earlier, but that was before Sirian's game
and the Menagerie. (For various reasons, I would prefer not Celts or Mongols)
If for some reason this game sounds too easy, we could choose all the 'highest
aggression' civs for opponents ( :eek: )

I thought I would tidy up the rules and get interest hear rather than start a
new page and not start the game unti page 3 :lol: Feedback and suggested
changes are welcome, civ suggestions, and I would like those interested to reply.

Charis

PS Reagan, Yndy, congrats on your deity wins :hammer:
 
Looks like fun, but it also looks like it would be 'always war' under a different name. In every Deity game I've played, the AI has a tendency to trample the human player's land with scores of units.

I'm not convinced that I would be good enough to play this game. I might give perpetual oscillating war a try however.
 
Thanks for the "congrats" message. Your idea sounds interesting but I'm the type of player who generally only goes to war when absolutely necessary (pre-emptive strike, to trigger a GA, to "acquire" resources, etc.). For that reason, you probably don't want me on your team unless you're willing to tolerate a teammate who is not used to significant amounts of combat. If you can overlook that, I understand how Civ3 combat works, have good analytical skills, and would be interested in playing.

May I suggest using the Japanese for your civ? The structure of the game sounds like it is going to put you in a warring position for much of the time. That could lead to a lot of government changes and difficulty trading for luxuries. Having the Religious attribute's benefits of short anarchy and cheap religious buildings could help deal with that until annexation of other civs' territory provides the luxuries you need. They also have a well-timed UU that can double as a defensive unit during the time of Musketmen (although they'd have been really sweet if the bonus point had been put on the offensive side). Just some thoughts . . . .
 
Arizona, it will be rough, and we might well see a period where we just wished the AI streams of units will stop, but this is a *huge* step easier than always war, trust me. With France, smack in the middle of a pangaea full of militaristic civs, I laid down the smack on Emperor diff and ate their lunch. It would have been a *much* harder game as AW. It was intermediate between POW and AW actually. I was "often" at war, and the fun part was that the 'timing' was not of my choosing! But I also had extended periods of peace (when I was strong enough that they didn't threaten me), and could extort techs and goodies from beaten civs, unlike AW.

Reagan, I hear you, this one will be bloody :D I have a game that I think you'll really like that I'm working with Sirian to sponsor as an 'Epic', a real builder's game! :P

I also tend to agree with your thoughts on Japan as a great choice. The added defense will be nice, the 'mil' essential,' and the religious a nice bonus too. The other factor I need to consider is... what civ will we want for the POW game and for a deity AW game (if we ever do go there :P ). The same 'list' of civs will come to mind for all of these, for the same reasons, and it would be great if I could pre-plan what civs would be used for each of those to avoid using the same one due to game similarities (I'm thinking Germany for the Always War, due to great starting tech, great techs, and uniquely important to the AW game, better scientific ability, as we'll need to research for ourselves there! The POW game should have a strong 'offensive' UU and the DEFN should likely have a balanced or defensive UU - making Japan once again a great choice. The Chinese or Ottomans would work better for POW than for the others)

Charis
 
I think Carthage, the Zulu, or China would be good choices.

BTW, I wouldn't mind playing... (but, my warfare skills aren't particularly good (sort of like Reagan). This might however, be a good game to get more experience...)

JMB
 
Having won a solo deity always war game (I admit, it had a superb starting position), how can I refuse? According to my 5 tries for a deity always war game, I want at least a very good starting position. Trust me, I know what we might face!!!

I consider Greece, Carthage or Rome being the best choices for this kind of szenario. An early superior defensive unit is extremely valuable and may be necessary once the foreign units attack our empire early in the game in an endless stream.

Urugharakh
 
Charis: I like the idea of playing a "trigger edge" war scenario and I especially like
the idea of having a theme or rationale that makes it easier for you to put yourself
in your civilization's shoes and decide what to do in tricky situations.

Since I haven't posted in a long while, let me introduce myself. I have played and won
an Emperor game where the rules were: I couldn't build a settler, ever. I eventually
got 5 cities through friendly huts and flips and won through culture in the modern age.
It was a bit tricky trying to avoid getting nuked by the world super-power while still
not allowing them to totally defeat a smaller civ (the super-power was stuck in communism
and mobilization).

I have won one game at Deity and and am in the middle of 2 more Deity games, one I think
is in the bag because I'm already #1 in economy and shields just entering the modern age.
The other is trickier because of my incredibly bad land. I took out my neighbors the Americans
to set up my 2nd core with FP there. Now I own 2 main islands and 2 colony islands and
not one tile can be irrigated! Also I do not have a single luxury and a grand total of 3
grassland tiles! In spite of this I am #2 in economy and #3 in shields and am tied with
the leaders in tech at the start of the industrial age.

Finally, I was one of the players in LOTR2 Zealous Zulus started by Arathorn which was
one of the first "always war" games. This one can actually have peace in it!

I hope you don't mind a couple of comments on your list of rules, feel free to ignore
them if you want to.

* There can be no peace until any city of yours that has been captured is recovered

Sometimes the best way to recover your city is thru extortion, cultural pressure, or
propaganda, so I think the goal should be getting our city back, whether thru war or peace.

* Foreign workers may never be added to your cities. They can do labor while/if at
war with another civ, but afterwards must be sold back or used for outpost/colony/tower

Why not keep them as slaves during peace also? They do the same jobs whether at war or
peace so I don't see much of a distinction. I like the idea of no foreign nationals in
our cities, that justifies both not capturing cities and not adding foreign workers to cities.

* If a civ expands borders onto your unit and demands you leave, you must either
refuse (declaring war, considered a sneak attack) or comply but declare war
as a non-sneak attack as soon as you can leave his territory.

Comply? Rubbish, we should never give into demands, whether for tribute, peace, or
the locations of our troops.

* Nationalism must be first tech researched or bought, on entering industrial era

How about the goal should be to get Nationalism ASAP. For example if civilization A has
Nationalism and civilization B has Nationalism and Steam Power, then its more efficient
to buy Steam Power and trade for Nationalism than to just buy Nationalism directly
(although Nationalism is extremely pricey, having just traded for it in my second Deity
game described above).

Anyway, if you have an open slot I'd like to join in. By the way, I really enjoyed reading
your Christmas story of the 5 city Celtic conquest win. That was an awesome performance!
 
I would add one additional rule to bring the challenge level up:

No representative governments allowed and we must always use the most advanced form of non-representative government available. Meaning we win the game as Communists.

War weariness doesn't fit well with the Defiant-Nationalist theme. Defiant nations wouldn't have whiny citizens but instead ones that blindly follow (or are forced to follow) their leaders. We can't have our people upset over defending our borders and enacting revenge against cities being razed or Diety ROP "agreements" that lead to war. And as communist corruption would better be represented in a society where everyone is equally proud to contribute to the common good.

I think that change will complete the theme quite nicely and force most of us to play outside our comfort zone.

Either way I'd like a spot in this one.
 
> I think Carthage, the Zulu, or China would be good choices.
> BTW, I wouldn't mind playing... (but, my warfare skills aren't
> particularly good (sort of like Reagan). This might however, be
> a good game to get more experience...)
> JMB

Hehe, there's a man who likes trouble :P Cool. Let's see
how much interest. If for some odd reason we get 4-5 builders looking for a game we can start another one too, or we may find our more bloodthirsty comrades might be in busy mode right now.

> Urugharakh Having won a solo deity always war game...

:D You da man!! I also must say you pulled a Charis! Here I go telling Lee that the Celts were a poor choice for deity 5CC, then go off 'just to test' and find out the map had just the right magic I could pull it off -- you were, iirc, one who felt Deity AW was impossible :lol:

In any case, you're a "must in" for the diety AW when we get to that game! (And yes, a 'good start' site is a good idea, to be preferred over deeper changes like map edits)

> I consider Greece, Carthage or Rome being the best choices for
> this kind of szenario. [ scenario ] An early superior defensive
> unit is extremely valuable and may be necessary once the
> foreign units attack our empire early in the game in an endless stream.

I agree completely. I'm leaning toward going high defense with one of those three for the AW, high offense like Ottoman or Viking for POW, and a balanced one or fast one for DEFN (Japan, Rome, China, Zulu)

(BTW, hadn't seen you post in a while, Urugharakh, good to have you back online!)

> Charis: I like the idea of playing a "trigger edge" war scenario
> and I especially like the idea of having a theme or rationale
> that makes it easier for you to put yourself in your civilization's
> shoes and decide what to do in tricky situations.
...
> I have played and won an Emperor game where the rules were:
> I couldn't build a settler, ever. I eventually got 5 cities through
> friendly huts and flips and won through culture in the modern age.

Welcome!! Boy are you in the right place!! :hammer:
(By all means, check out our Realms Beyond Civ site and the Epics series, some ones are coming up there you definitely won't want to miss! http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/egamelist.html )

> I hope you don't mind a couple of comments on your list of
> rules, feel free to ignore them if you want to.
I don't mind at all, and know when to do the latter :naughty:

> * There can be no peace until any city of yours that has been
> captured is recovered
> Sometimes the best way to recover your city is thru extortion,
> cultural pressure, or
> propaganda, so I think the goal should be getting our city back,
> whether thru war or peace.

This gives more flexibility and simplifies the rules (something that, cough, my games usually need). Probably a good idea.

> * Foreign workers may never be added to your cities. They can
> do labor while/if at war with another civ, but afterwards must
> be sold back or used for outpost/colony/tower

> Why not keep them as slaves during peace also? They do the
> same jobs whether at war or peace so I don't see much of a
> distinction. I like the idea of no foreign nationals in
> our cities, that justifies both not capturing cities and not adding
> foreign workers to cities.

This is in part colored by my test game where I could never keep the workers, and in part just from the Nationalist being kind of Xenophobic, they just don't want them foreigners around, at all. During war time they're rounded up into prisoner camps and set to labor, but after the war, deport 'em.

> * If a civ expands borders onto your unit and demands you
> leave, you must either refuse (declaring war, considered a
> sneak attack) or comply but declare war is a non-sneak attack
> as soon as you can leave his territory.
> Comply? Rubbish, we should never give into demands, whether
> for tribute, peace, or the locations of our troops.

:lol: Well, you have a point, and I surely agree with your reasoning, there's just one problem. If you refuse, unlike any of the other refusals, your reputation will be tarnished and you will be considered a 'sneak attacker'. It will limit your ability to pay gpt for deals. That kinda frosts me in that it's a case where you have a unit in *your* land, fortified, and they make a claim to the territory. It should NOT be a rep stain to not accept their claim of expansion, but... that's the way it is. If others wanted this rule dropped, I would be ok with doing so - it's one of those special case / exceptions that clutter the rules. Probably best to drop it, and to just avoid putting yourself in a situation where it's likely to occur.

> * Nationalism must be first tech researched or bought, on
> entering industrial era
> How about the goal should be to get Nationalism ASAP. For
> example if civilization A has Nationalism and civilization B has
> Nationalism and Steam Power, then its more efficient
> to buy Steam Power and trade for Nationalism than to just buy...

Shoot, I was unclear. I meant to allow what you suggest, as yes it's a good idea. I just meant to say that you can't set research to Nationalism in 40 turns, then go on a buying spree up to Replaceable Parts in the long time it takes to finish research.

--> "Nationalism should be learned ASAP once you enter the industrial era, whether researching it at the maximum feasible rate or buying the tech quickly."

> Anyway, if you have an open slot I'd like to join in.

I hope so, it sounds like you would enjoy and do well in this one!

> By the way, I really enjoyed reading your Christmas story of
> the 5 city Celtic conquest win. That was an awesome performance!

:D Thanks, it was fun! Being tossed into the 'stories' forum was a blessing in disguise, as I got to push the 'role' and story a lot, which always adds a lot to the game for me.
Charis
 
At the moment, I'm expecting to have my fill of combat in the Menagerie game. For that reason, the Defiant Nationalism and Always War concepts floating around would not be for me. :) But if there is interest in running a Deity-level builder's game among several people, I'd be willing to organize something along those lines. Another thing that was discussed at some point in time in the past and never tried was the concept of the "Naked Civ", one without any civ traits or unique unit. That could make for a good concept to try in a builder's game - playing against the Deity AIs with no civ traits at all. Kind of like playing as the English on steroids. ;) I don't know whether such a concept would appeal to anyone or not, as the other games being run sound excellent as well.
 
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