Replay #5 A history of heroes!

[Seraiel]

Episode 1 - Part IV
"Only 2 Golds, are you kidding me? Screw this game, I'm going snowballing ."​

I just notice that the title of the episode should have changed to "Only 3" golds after the capture of Washington, but wayne.

Lincoln: Dead. Frederick: Dead. Status of the Incan Empire: 5 cities, 18 Checkers (2 being Heros and 2 being Rambos) , in war with the evil english empire led by most evilish Viccy who cheats at Settler-building (this is the accusation of the Inan people towards her and the reason for the war ) .


The date is 2430 BC! It's the time, when Churchill and Roosevelt already became Jews, and it's the time when 8 brave Checkers are rdy to attack the home of the evilish Victoria, the capital of the evil english empire, the city of York!

Viccy is running Slavery and whipped York after war had been declared. Anyhow, she doesn't consider the 8 Checkers to be serious threat, so she moves the whipped Archer out of the city . Time to play 8 vs 3:

3 Unpros fall before a frightening Archer people tell about, that he had some special training on City Defense. The Heros are wanted by the Checker-forces, they want them to take this guy out, and so the Heros do. York falls with the mentioned losses of 3 Unpros, the two Rambochecker also gain some XP and become the 3rd and 4th Herocheckers, the conquest brings in 100 gold.

In the Battle of York, a Great General with the name of "BigBossPlayer" is born:

He's sent directly towards the english front. People tell about him, that he has great healing skills and that he could lead an unexperienced Checker and teach them to become Paramedics while he himself works as an emergency doctor, the moral of the Incan troops is rising as they are awaiting him, they're already talking like "I will let myself get wounded a little, I heard this Doctor has something called Morphine with him, people say it kills any pain" .

Exploration has gone a little further, and the good news, Viccys hills city was the only one. Here is a nice clearview of after the conquest of York:

Screen basically saying everything necessary, the troops need time to heal, I have some Scout-Checkers making sure that Viccy has no Strategic Ressources in her other cities, there is an enormous stream of reinforcements, I've copied the Scoreboard also onto the screen so that you can see how huge the snowball Huayna Capac and I have launched already is, I'm #1 and have twice as many cities as the AIs have (impossible if playing with any other Civ) , and the best news of all is again, Viccy got only 1 city that is lying on a hill. so it looks very good that I'm going to be able to take everything from her with normal losses (1 Checker / Archer) . And, I've already decided that York will become the HE-city, it is low on Food but has 6 hills + plains Cows, which defines it as a great production site.

2390 BC, Roosevelt reaches Writing, he's the 2nd Civ after Washington, and again, it's very late for that. I think about researching Sailing as it would greatly help the auto-spread of my Religion but I decide against it, because it might become necessary that I research Writing myself and after that, I still have Maths to be researched before I can Oracle Currency.

2380 BC, the troops have healed up, and I leave York undefended hoping that I can lure out some Archers from the other cities, trying to re-capture it, and beat them on the open field. Plan is successful, some Archers want to become Heros, and they die with me having 1 loss. Well, with so many won 60-70% fights, it's no wonder that I lose one.

2370 BC, I make a relieving discovery, I don't only have Stone, I also have marble, it was on one of the last possible tiles in the very south, have a look at the Region:

Region looks really nice, doesn't it? Furs and Deers as rare-Ressources that one not always has access to, Marble, some Fishes, and the best is, that this land-tongue is completely blocked so I can settle it whenever I want!

I decide to take the hills-city from Viccy before it gets its borderpop and becomes even more dangerous, in 2350, a bunch of Checkers is rdy to attack it:

5 Checkers against 3 Archers in a hills city? Yer, I'm mad, but it actually doesn't look that bad imo, because 3 of the 5 Checkers are highly promoted Hero Checkers, and believe it or not, but those have 70%ish odds against the Archers! "TSCHACKA TSCHECKERS!"

The Unpros have 2% chances against the hills-Archers (which are OP!) , they do almost nothing, but then come the Heros. 1st Hero wins, get's heavily wounded though. 2nd Hero wins, but also get's heavily wounded. No the 3rd Hero comes, his name is "Bastian Schweinsteiger", but that is only known to the Incans. He attacks, and: Oh noez, he fails! The city survives this round of attack with one heavily wounded Archer in it! I order the Checkers farming at York to help at Oxford.

In 2310, the attack on the last Archer, who's now a Death-Machine CG2 hills-Archer starts. It makes no sense to let any Unpros attack him now, even the Heros only have like 15%ish chances against him, I'm expecting heavy casualties:

One Hero dies, but he dies with dignity, heavily wounding the Death-Machine-CG2-Archer, so the next Hero that attacks has 90%ish chances and is able to take the city, giving 90 gold again.

It's good now, that I've already promoted one Checker to Medic2, because otherwise, healing would take forever now, but like this, they're rdy to attack Warwick in 2290 BC!

You can see, that the famous "BigBossPlayer" has already reached the frontlines and is with the troops now. He has taken lead of the Paramedic-Checker and works as an emergency doctor himself (Supermedic) . He's also known to learn very fast, he's a "Champion" in that (unit promoted to Championship) , so it's expected that he'll also get a very highly promoted Checker in near future. The Checkers attack:

The city falls without a single loss, all Checkers win! The capture brings in 124g, so I now have over 800g in the treasury, enough to research Maths completely with 100%! I'm still lacking Writing though, and time is running out:
I'm thinking about my options. I have to start researching again now, otherwise, I'm going to risk Oracle, and after so many captured cities and so much luck, I'm not in "funk you stupid AI" mode anymore, I'm taking this round serious. My options are:

• Research Monarchy and Oracle Feudalism
• Wait to meat a Civ from the other Continent, I know they send out Workboats very early, but will they reach me in time?
• Start on researching Writing now, and hope that I can conquer enough cities so that I can also research Mathematics completely. Pericles offers himself as a Target, sitting in the west of Viccy. I got enough production, but does he have strategic Ressources? Diplomacy is already hit quite harsh because of all the "wars against their friends" , but Pericles has only two friends, with whom I don't have -3 yet. I don't wanna get -4 because that would mean that the Civs would be annoyed at me and I would get Worst Enemy status, that must not be.

2250 BC is the year of an important discovery, and the year of an important decision: First, the decision: I want to Oracle Currency, I will start on researching Writing with 100% now, and if the money isn't enough, I'm going to take it from Churchill!

Now why Churchill and not Pericles like said in the options? Well, that is because of this discovery:

A worker mining a plains-tile with nothing on it? Churchill must have either Copper, or already Ironworking and that is Iron there. I instantly order a nearby Checker to interrupt the Worker.

Now I have to prepare to be in war with two Civs at the same time. i'm quite sure that the Checkers which are in the north in Viccys territory can take the remaining cities, but I now need additional forces to play with Churchill for a while, maybe even conquer a city. What I need is, an even higher production. Now I'm lucky that Judaism was founded in Washington and has already spreaded to all the other cities using the connecting river and the AI-built roads, and that Washington has riverside Gold, because this means, that I can convert to Judaism, have a Happy-cap of 6 in all those cities, and by that get enough production to have a chance against PRO-Churchill. I do so.

While the Checker is on interception-course for the mining Worker, another bunch of Checkers is rdy to attack the english city of Hastings in 2230 BC:

On this screen, you can see what I've told before, I'm researching Writing with 100% and an amazing 73 per turn (Cuzco is size 4 already, so all 3 Golds are online atm. ) , and what was expected, Mansa is seriously pissed at me for having converted to Judaism, I got -3 through that, he really is a Religious-Nerd, but as long as he's only annoyed and I'm not his Worst Enemy, I don't care.

The attack starts:

And the city falls with the loss of 2 Unpros, giving 70 gold. I already don't have enough gold to research Mathematics fully, so I cannot keep any more cities, that's why I raze the city! In the attack, a Hero has lvled enough to reach 1337 status (lvl 5 Checker = Elite) .

You may have seen already, that the other group of Checkers, the one that attacked Warwick, has proceeded further to the city of Leeds, 1 turn later (2220 BC) is the time of the attack:

1 Unpro dies, but another Hero earns himself 1337-status. The city auto-razes and brings in 40 gold, doesn't matter, would have razed it anyways.

It's also the turn where I declare war on Churchill and move in the Interception-Checker. Again 1 turn later, I pillage the mine and on the following turn, also the road to make 100% sure, that Churchill is and will remain being without any Strategic Ressources!

2200 BC, I've almost finished Writing, I'm meeting the first Civ from the other Continent -.- . "Great timing pals!"

2180 BC, Darius converts to Islam.

2170 BC: 1 turn before I could have opened borders with Mansa, I become his Worst Enemy, I got -4 through having the "wrong" Religion now. -.-

2140 BC is a glorious and a sad day: It's the day of the attack on Viccys last city Dover, an attack in which an 1337-Checker dies with 90%ish odds .

As you can see, the city is heavily defended by 4 Archers. Anyhow, the number of Checkers that have gathered around it is just to great so this could fail:

The city falls with 4 losses, one being the mentioned 1337-Checker, but it's a great day, the evil empire of Viccy is destroyed and BigBossPlayer has reached lvl6, he gives a great party for all the wounded Checkers with free Morphine for everyone . But, what do I do with that city? It has a settled GG...

I think quite some time about this. Normally, I don't raze cities that have GGs settled in them, and it's the point that I neither can't support this city, nor that doesn't have any Food that leads me to the decision to raze it. Anyhow, 120g earned through conquest again.


Three empires down, time for another clearview:

Date: 2140 BC
Number of cities: 8
Number of Checkers: 16 Checkers (1* 1337, 1* Rambo, 1* Named (BigBossPlayer = Supermedic + Champion + Morale)
Number non-military units: 6 Worker + 1 Settler (yes, I produced a Settler as soon as it was possible because I wanna settle the Stone to build the Mids)
Economics and Research: Researching Maths with 100% at -70 GPT with 80 BPT, 12 turns still needed, treasury lasting for 6
Player status: Full AGGRO mode but having begun on concentrating because the round might develop into one worth playing

-----------------------

This is the end of Episode 1 "Only 2 Golds? Screw this game, I'm going snowballing ." The snowball was launched and has grown quite large already, I could have 10 cities but decided to raze some as I noticed that with keeping them, I would not be able to Oracle Currency, the empire has a decent worker-status and even a Settler, the Checker-status is great because of the insane production, the cities have awesome sizes between 5 and 7 now, only thing that has to be done is showing Churchill the power of the Incan Checker-forces.
Next episode is called: "All Checkers attack the PRO-Archers behind the Walls and come back! No... no... nooooooooooo! I said come back you stupid idiots, not let yourself get farmed...



Make sure to read that one, it's gonna be quite different. Till then, cya

Seraiel

 

[Seraiel]

I don't do fog-gazing, but I understand certain ways of fog-gazing are frowned upon, even banned in some circles.

Uh? Banned? Is it false to use the eyes humans are born with? I aggree that fog-gazing is somewhat exploiting a little, but exploiting is ok imo, bugusing and cheating isn't, what's the problem of those idiots? Do they have small *****?

Gold is gold and that is it. It doesn't give you breakers or gold like Commerce does. There is a huge difference. Cuzco has less rivers, and green tiles. Cuzco has 9 cottage spots plus 2 gold, while Washington has 10 cottage spots plus one gold, and 2 Incense. That comes out to your working like 15 more commerce or so. How is it not better? You could say Cuzco is better early, but why would that matter when you are thinking about the city in the long run.

Also cottaging your Wallstreet city for me has become a huge no no. As most of the time you wont be multiplying the cottages commerce with your gold multipliers. Having a workshopped, and watermilled city with Wallstreet is going to put out it's multipliers for the Shrine much much earlier, thus leading to it giving you a couple thousand more gold or so by the end of the game. Also by doing this you won't have a useless city when you need units.

I understand the argumentation behind Washington being a better city in the long run than Cuzco. Incense is a great Ressource, giving awesome Commerce, it can be regarded as "the better Gold-Mine giving Food available with Calendar" .

Anyhow, cottaging the WS-city in this game was definately the right decision, saying it's a is just stupid. To understand it one has to understand, that once Sushi is available, no Research via the Slider is possible anymore (constantly at 0%) , therefor, Cottages are the best one can get! Workshops and Watermills would be worse, because those don't get multiplied by WS itself, and Farms for more Specialists doesn't work either with Sushi, because +40F are more than there are Specialist Slots, even in a 7 Merchant-slots WS-city, so in this case, Cottages = right decision.

An excellent start so far, with some fortuitous fighting. Sometimes it feels like 70% is more like 30%. Even 80 or 90 make me uncertain, when it should in the vast majority of cases be walkovers.

Looks like religion may become very important in this game, with tons of money from shrines. Won't be too surprised if you create a missionary-pump city. One of the things I saw in Replay 4 was the quite early specialisation of cities, so will be interesting to see how that develops here.

Just a small chip on my shoulder. You write so well most of the time, but have a knack for writing "rdy" instead of "ready". Maybe I just have an irrational dislike for txt-speak, but it jumps out and hits me in the face

I aggree on the fighting, that was very fortunate, but that's what is needed for a HoF game beating the ultimate Highscore. If I had been unfortunate, I simply would have given up and played another map, but because it was fortunate, this game developed into what people can see in HoF .

You're also right about the Religion-thing, on Huge maps, Religion becomes ultimately precious, a Shrine can easily create over 100 of income, not including multiplier buildings. Religion also plays a great role when it comes to Diplomacy, but in this game, it would even play a greater role because of Espionage. Having a Shrine is very powerful, having a Super-Shrine on a Huge map sometimes cannot be valued with Words, it's WTFZOMGTROLOLOLOLOROFLMAO.

Rdy is a commonly used acronyme of the MMO-scene, you won't get that one out of me It's like saying "inc" for "incoming" or "zerg" for "massive bunch of ...." and similar terms that are deeply integrated into my word pool today.

I'm familiar with the concept in HoF play. I'm not sure however that the term isn't a German idiom that may not translate well.

Going to have to side with Seriael on this one. "Snowballing out of control" is a well known idiom (at least in the American west - ok, at least I knew it, and I am not an English major). In this case, obviously not "out of control" but using the term "snowball" as a verb to mean "increasing on its own like a snowball rolling down a hill" is also used. IE, "Sales will snowball after the product launch".

Seriael, keep up the excellent writing, and don't worry. Also, I am amazed by your dedication. I tried to sushi a large map on normal difficulty but ran out of steam, I don't know how your brain is wired to allow you to pull off HUGE Marathon sushi, but I am certainly glad you can.

I thought that the word snowballing actually was present in the english language. It is, right?

Concerning how my brain is wired: I learned to play the Violine, the Piano and I learned to sing in my childhood and my adoloscence. From those hobbies I know, that one has to be veeeeeeeeeeeery patient and that one needs HUUUUUUGE persistency to reach ones goals, and about 1 year ago, I played the Asia-grinder "AION" , a game, where one needs 2 months of constant playing only to reach max-lvl, not that that would mean anything, max-lvl, as many said, was just the beginning of the game, and with constant playing I mean 6h+ every day, breaks not included.

But believe me, even I often think "no, I can't, this is going too far" but then I take a break, I drink some coffey, I do something else, and it takes me only about 5-10 minutes till I've regained my energy and yearn to go further. I set myself small points I want to reach on a day, like in AION "just a half-lvl today" , and so it is in these insane Sushi games once Sushi has been reached, I say to myself "ok, today I'm going to play 10 turns, and tomorrow I'm playing again 10 turns" , and after I've said that 5 times to myself, I've advance far enough through the game so that something changes, and so that it becomes playable again.

Hope you understand me better now

Cya, Seraiel

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

I understand the argumentation behind Washington being a better city in the long run than Cuzco. Incense is a great Ressource, giving awesome Commerce, it can be regarded as "the better Gold-Mine giving Food available with Calendar" .

Anyhow, cottaging the WS-city in this game was definitely the right decision, saying it's a is just stupid. To understand it one has to understand, that once Sushi is available, no Research via the Slider is possible anymore (constantly at 0%) , therefor, Cottages are the best one can get! Workshops and Watermills would be worse, because those don't get multiplied by WS itself, and Farms for more Specialists doesn't work either with Sushi, because +40F are more than there are Specialist Slots, even in a 7 Merchant-slots WS-city, so in this case, Cottages = right decision.

Ah, I forgot that you are a silly fish lover, and don't understand he amazingness of all for one, and one for all! I totally blanked on the fact that you completely crash your economy after SS, and don't run a high slider. In this situation I will agree with you that cottaging your WS city for this instance is good, but in a non SS abuse game it's not.

What mostly made me flip a table was saying you, and Happyturtle saying Cuzco was a better cottage spot. The math just does not add up on how it could ever produce more commerce. I will give you that it will grow onto it's cottages slightly slower, but it is not that much.

 

[coanda]

"Snowballing" is definitely a very common term in game balance / game mechanics discussions; it's less common but still used in other contexts (in the USA at least).

 

[BornInCantaloup]

I thought that the word snowballing actually was present in the english language. It is, right?

Right
The term exists in a variety of languages, including the Cantaloupian.
When snowballing, just keep in mind you wanna aim for the eyes : if your target is slow to react, you may blind her and secretly run hide in the woods. Enhancing your nose with a carrot also helps, as is common knowledge

...

To snowball may not be as elegant in English as in other languages but the term is convenient for its generic meaning. It also happens to be a verb.
Alternatives would be to use :
- exponential growth... which may be misleading since there is rarely a particular formula one can refer to and... is that growth really "exponential"? Better talk about non-linear growth but that doesn't say much ;
- amplify/-ication... a generic and abstract term but unclear if used as a stand-alone qualification. More demanding on the syntax than the ball of snow.
- insert other.

 

[coanda]

- insert other.

Positive feedback.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Positive feedback.

Very cute

A pity it's not a verb but still...

 

[Ozbenno]

Very enjoyable read, look forward to seeing where this leads...

 

[vranasm]

crap wanted to tell you about the zoom-out trick to see cultural borders, but gotten beaten by WastinTime

your reports get better and better... loving the ministories of Incans ;-) and why the Evil English were so Evil!

 

[Seraiel]

Episode 2
"All Checkers attack the PRO-Archers behind the Walls and come back!
No... no... nooooooooooo! I said come back you stupid idiots, not let yourself get farmed..."​

Still awake and still writing, here is the next episode of "Replay #5 A history of heroes!" beginning with a summary of the last episode:

In the last, the first episode, I conquered 3 Civs via Checkers. First was the American Civ led by Lincoln, then came the Germans led by Frederick and after him came the conquest of the evilish empire Victoria owned. I've already began on razing cities, because 8 cities are near the maximum I can afford on the way to Oracle Currency. Anyhow, I have built a Settler, because I plan on settling Stone asap to have a shot at the Pyramids.
My own continent is underdeveloped, the first Civs got Writing in 2400 BC which is very very late, so I decided that I have to research it myself. What a farce, 2 turns before completing it, I met the Civs from the other Continent, and some of them have already Alpha... Well nothing I can do now.
The treasury is still lasting for 6 turns of 100% research, I need 12 turns of that to reach Maths though, so I still have some conquering to do. Because of that, I've declared war on Churchill, who is sitting completely blocked in the south of Cuzco or the East of Washtington. Declaration had to be rushed, because he wanted to bring Copper (or Iron?) online in his 4th city, of course, I didn't let that happen!
Religion-wise, I converted to Judaism which I founded myself. The Religion has already nicely spread between the southern cities that once belonged to Lincoln and Frederick. The cities also have access to Gold, so their Happiness-cap is decent. Most of them have reached it already, but I'm still letting them work the Food, because I don't take Churchill that seriously, having almost 20 Checkers, and once I'll have BW through techtrade, every population-point that can be whipped into Granaries and Workers / Settlers will have been worth it.

The plans for the future are:

• Settle the Stone, build the Pyramids.
• Build the Great Lighthouse (GLH) .
• Conquer Churchill "on the fly".
• Oracle Currency.
• REX like a madman.

And here is how it develops:

8 Checkers have survived the war against Viccy. Those are on their way towards Churchill. The cities having nothing of higher importance to do, produce Checkers (higher priorities than Checkers are a two Workboats in Berlin atm. , Workboats I need for scouting the coast to let Religion-auto-spread-mechanism go crazy, and, Washington is building a Jewish Monestary, because Missionaries will play an important role in this game) . 4 Checkers have been produced in the southern cities in the meantime, 2 are 1 turn before completition, the rest I need as City-Garrisons, that makes 14 Checkers that'll be ready in near future. I'm paying quite a ridiculous amount for unit-maintenance, 12 GPT atm., I still plan on keeping up the Checkers production for as long as I cannot produce anything like Granaries or similar.

Most important though is, that some Civs from the other Continent have Alpha, let's see if I can conduct some trades... (even though having gotten 2 basic techs out of Goody Huts, I still lack the most of them, i. e. The Wheel, Masonry, Bronzeworking or Sailing) :

I hate that trade, but I have to take it. I already am short on Commerce, difficult to reach Maths in time, it's late, it's 2140 BC, I should complete Oracle in 14 turns as a latest (2000 BC is somewhat the deadline for Oracle on Deity Marathon) , Sailing will not only give me foreign Traderoutes, it'll also help my Religion spread to others, "Ok Lizzy, you're lucky, I know Peter hates you but I really need Sailing so here you have my most precious tech Priesthood and you get Masonry on top, but don't think you'll get the Oracle or the Pyramids, my people are great when it comes to constructing Wonders, yours are *mumbles something of english have 2 left hands* *laughs* Well, thx and goodbye".

The trade gives +9 and -3 relations with Peter!

Anyhow, I can now begin the Construction of a Lighthouse followed by the GLH in Berlin. I esplore the territory Churchill owns with a single Checker and...

... find that the territory is totally crappy! 2 of 4 cities lie on hills, 2 of 4 cities don't have Food, 1 city has Walls . Don't overlook the awesome diplomacy I'm conducting this round, I'm the Worst Enemy of 4 Civs already :suicide: .

I realize that getting Maths for Oracle Currency will get more difficult than expected, because Churchills cities are, well, "somewhat unconquerable". Therefor, I set all cities to work maximum . I go so far, that even the city of Berlin, building the important Lighthouse required for the GLH, may not work the plains-Cows it has but works a 1 3 costal tile instead! Like this, I break the 100 which is ridiculous at 2000 BC, but well, that's just Incans.

2050 BC, my Settler has arrived at the Stone-spot in the Jungle north of Cuzco. I found the great city of Tiwanaku: Notice the 3 Workers that are already waiting to build a Quarry on the Stone. Notice also how I got absolutely no money left to research Maths at a decent speed. What I can afford atm. is 20% research which means 20 BPT, but like that, Maths is going to take another 20 turns .

2030 BC: 8 Checkers have arrived at the walls-city of Churchill: Coventry. (see Screen above if you don't know which city.) It's defended by 4 Archers. I decide, that it's time to send in one Checker to see if the city really is that hard that the combat-calculator tells me. Basically, this is like a hills city, and against hills-cities, fighting with Checkers is pure luck, now if the first Checker has only a little bit of luck...

1st Checker dies with scratching the defending top-Archer!

"This must have been bad luck, lets send in another Checker, perhaps he has luck...

2nd dies with scratching the top-Archer further!

"Uhm..." *enters funk you stupid AI mode again* "Lets see if any Checker can at least get 1 Archer killed"

8 Checkers die, following the orders of their leader being in funk you mode, some scratch the Archers in the city further, but not a single Archer gets killed even though the last Checkers had 30%ish odds!

*laughs*

"Well, at least now I can research with 30% again . All I have to do is wait for the promoted Checkers to arrive, with them, the tide will turn, and 8 lost Checkers, doesn't matter, I got insane production on this map." I tell myself.

What I forget is, that I've severely lvled Churchills Archers, and that they won't be so easy even if I attack them with my promoted Checkers...

2000 BC, Washington reaches Alpha. I gift some minor techs to him to get diplomatic bonuses, and am able to trade Masonry vs TW:

TW is very important for me, because it means that I can connect the Stone to Cuzco, the city I want to make a Great Engineer Farm by building the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens in it. Now all I still need is BW.

Next turn I trade Sailing + PH vs Pottery + Hunting with him:

From 2000 BC onwards: Due to some of my Checkers threatening Newcastle (the hills city at the entrance of Churchills empire) one Archer after another tries to reach to defend it, and I farm him open field. Here is a screen of the spot that's known as "The Fin-Spot" or also as "Avalon-City" to the Checkers: (To understand this joke, you must have been playing the most famous MMORPG "Dark Age of Camelot", there, the "Fin-Spot" or "Avalon City" were the areas with the most Monsters where one could lvl ones Char extremely fast. )

I'm crawling towards Maths... "Come... On... Just... Three... More... Turns..."

...
..
.

TADDDDAAAAAA! Oracle Currency 1970 BC!

"Omg, now all I have to do is get rid of this stupid Churchill..."

I switch the cities from maximum away again. Production instantly rises back to its old, insane value:

Almost twice as high as the other empires... Well, that's Incan power with very high-production land.

I also trade Maths against BW + Archery, again with Washington:

I choose Washington because he's one of the few I can trade with, and Maths will be safe with him for quite a long time. My calculations are saying, that 5 Civs have to reach Maths before he will be trading it.

Having BW now, I switch to Slavery instantly. I got lots of important things to whip and my cities are large, I need more Workers to chop out the Wonders, I need Granaries to fasten up the regrowth, I need some more Checkers, I want a Library in Cuzco and Berlin and I need a lot of Settlers.

While the Workers have completed the Quarry and build the road to Cuzco, I also discover that Churchill tried to connect Copper, I now know that it was no Iron, and in addition, Pericles would have had Copper, lucky I didn't chose to attack him.

Out of Revolution, I make the following whips:

• 3pop Settler-whip with 70 OF in Hamburg (that city was size 8 and unhappy, perfect to reduce population largely) that go into a Worker.
• 2pop Worker-whip in Washington, OF again goes into another Worker.
• 2pop Worker-whip with 90 OF going into another Worker in Philadelphia.
• 2pop Lighthouse-whip with 70 OF going into the GLH
• 2pop Worker-whip with 90 OF going into a Granary in York.

I don't whip in the Capital (Cuzco) , because that city shall not get whipped at all and reach its maximum possible size to function as a mega-Research-city that gets Oxford with running Burocracy. Not whipping the Capital at all and letting it grow continuasly, again is Luxury only Incans can afford.
All other cities regrow on either Granaries or Checkers (if having a Granary already) .

I also found the city of Macchu Picchu in a place I wanted to settle asap because I find it awesome:

2 Golds, an Oasis and it can share Food with Berlin? That's nice... On the screen you can also see that 11 Checkers are in attacking position and that they're well promoted. From this you can see how well the farming at the "Fin-Spot" went . Will the attack on the hills-city of Newcastle be another suicide-maneuver? You'll find out, if you keep on reading... Just a short clearview of the status of the Incan empire at 1880 BC:

Number of cities: 10
Number of Workers: 10
Number of Checkers: 20 (1*GG-Supermedic-Moral-Chapion / 1* 1337 / 3* Rambo / 2* Cover)
Economics and Research: Research stopped for the moment, Economy at +30 GPT, treasury 300 rising
Leader status: Funk you mode but beginning to concentrate again


[continued in next post]

 

[happyturtle]

I'm also puzzled how fog-gazing could be considered cheating. If it wasn't meant to be part of the game, it could easily have been coded-in that black tiles would be completely concealed.

Why did you decide to DOW on Churchill now when you can't keep cities? Just to finance your economy with city plunder? My apologies if it was in the post - I just didn't see it.

Oops, I completely missed that there was another update that explained it. Derp!

 

[iggymnrr]

I thought that the word snowballing actually was present in the english language. It is, right?

I was more curious about a German idiom being translated. "I'm going snowballing," sounds like performing a sexual act or engaging in a form of drug usage.

 

[vranasm]

I'm also puzzled how fog-gazing could be considered cheating. If it wasn't meant to be part of the game, it could easily have been coded-in that black tiles would be completely concealed.

Why did you decide to DOW on Churchill now when you can't keep cities? Just to finance your economy with city plunder? My apologies if it was in the post - I just didn't see it.

the post probably referred the "flying camera" trick, where at T0 you can judge the land in the fog by the game playing sounds when moving around

 

[Seraiel]

Ah, I forgot that you are a silly fish lover, and don't understand he amazingness of all for one, and one for all! I totally blanked on the fact that you completely crash your economy after SS, and don't run a high slider. In this situation I will agree with you that cottaging your WS city for this instance is good, but in a non SS abuse game it's not.

What mostly made me flip a table was saying you, and Happyturtle saying Cuzco was a better cottage spot. The math just does not add up on how it could ever produce more commerce. I will give you that it will grow onto it's cottages slightly slower, but it is not that much.

Opinion accepted . I'll keep tracking the Commerce-status of Cuzco and Washington, once Calendar has been reached, though I don't think it's really that fair, because Cuzco, as a Research-Capital with Oxford had a much higher priority than Washington for me. I also got Calendar extremely late iirc.

"Snowballing" is definitely a very common term in game balance / game mechanics discussions; it's less common but still used in other contexts (in the USA at least).

Right
The term exists in a variety of languages, including the Cantaloupian.
When snowballing, just keep in mind you wanna aim for the eyes : if your target is slow to react, you may blind her and secretly run hide in the woods. Enhancing your nose with a carrot also helps, as is common knowledge

...

To snowball may not be as elegant in English as in other languages but the term is convenient for its generic meaning. It also happens to be a verb.
Alternatives would be to use :
- exponential growth... which may be misleading since there is rarely a particular formula one can refer to and... is that growth really "exponential"? Better talk about non-linear growth but that doesn't say much ;
- amplify/-ication... a generic and abstract term but unclear if used as a stand-alone qualification. More demanding on the syntax than the ball of snow.
- insert other.

Positive feedback.

Very cute

A pity it's not a verb but still...

I was more curious about a German idiom being translated. "I'm going snowballing," sounds like performing a sexual act or engaging in a form of drug usage.

I still don't get this fully. I neither know what an idiom is, nor can transfer snowballing to a sexual act or any form of drug usage. Till now, I do not even understand from which language this term derives. I heard it first from someone on these forums, that's why I thought snowballing was common language here, meaning "action -> result causing another action that's benefit is bigger than the first ones because time has past -> action again multiplies because of passing time -> snowball rolling down the mountain getting a lawine.

The only other situatioin from which I know the term "snowball" besides "the real snowball" which one throws at someone else (but one shouldn't ) , is the holy rabbit of innocence named "snowball" from southpark. That episode relates to the church, and describes the time around easter and somehow is a little related to drugs, but don't ask me how this fits together, I just laughed about it as I laugh about almost any southpark episode, definately not getting all of what the writers are thinking .

Maybe iggymnrr can explain what he means.

Very enjoyable read, look forward to seeing where this leads...

Well, keep on reading, I'm not going to spoil anything I have not already spoiled in the 1st post

crap wanted to tell you about the zoom-out trick to see cultural borders, but gotten beaten by WastinTime

your reports get better and better... loving the ministories of Incans ;-) and why the Evil English were so Evil!

Thx The more one writes, the more ideas come to ones mind. When I wrote that FIFA-Manager story, it also became better and better with the time passing, experience helps a lot, the more unsure one is, the more frightened one is of the task, the more blockades come, once one has written enough, those fade and the fun can begin Knowing that this will also be the last Writeup from me for some time, motivates me a lot.

I'm also puzzled how fog-gazing could be considered cheating. If it wasn't meant to be part of the game, it could easily have been coded-in that black tiles would be completely concealed.

Why did you decide to DOW on Churchill now when you can't keep cities? Just to finance your economy with city plunder? My apologies if it was in the post - I just didn't see it.

I tell you happyturtle, people against fog-gazing = have small ******* .

To understand the DoW of Churchill: The limitation to 8 cities was only before Oracling Currency. After that, with developing the economy and the possibility to completely stop research for at least 500y, + the possibility to beg money from the other Civs once I got Alpha (or cheaply sell techs) , that limit of course doesn't exist anymore. I wanted to conquer Churchills cities before he could expand on the islands, because then, conquest would become longish, I had no idea that it'd get so difficult...

And yer, conquest of Churchill is also to get some money .

Regards, Seraiel

 

[happyturtle]

You can look up "Snowballing" on Urban Dictionary for the sex act, but it's really gross.

An idiom is a phrase that, if translated literally, would make no sense in the other language. If I said someone was "in the doghouse" it means they are in trouble with their girlfriend/wife, not literally in a dog house. But I'm a native english speaker, and I haven't noticed any words or phrases in your writing that I had trouble understanding, except for gaming terms which I asked about.

 

[Seraiel]

I've googled "snowballing translation" :

Translation:

grow larger at an accelerating rate; throw balls of snow

Examples:

It is time for the governments to be honest and tell their citizens that this decision is going to lead to a snowballing of the Community budget.

The Commission would first use the new appropriations in order to avoid any snowballing of successive carryovers.

ll this abruptly changed on the 18th as a massive wave of long liquidation and snowballing stop loss selling hit the market, taking silver to just $12.46/troz by the 19th (a low for the month).

-------------------

So the term does exist in the english language with exactly the meaning I had in mind.

And to the urban dictionary:

Sera

 

[Choggy]

8 Checkers die, following the orders of their leader being in funk you mode, some scratch the Archers in the city further, but not a single Archer gets killed even though the last Checkers had 30%ish odds!

Lol! This made me laugh. Burning up an entire stack because you didn't like the combat odds the computer was telling you!

I don't attack if the odds are under 20%. Two reasons for this - firstly in my experience anything below 20% attack odds means it's quite likely your attacking unit won't even scratch the defending unit, which means the attack was pointless and all I've done is added 2XP to the defending unit if he survives the round.

The second reason for this is because of how the XP gains work for winning a combat round. My first attacker (which ideally would be a level 3 unit) gets up to 4XP depending on the odds if he wins. If he loses, my second/third attacker (which is usually level 2) will get 2XP for the win, assuming the win odds are less that 95%. Either way, I get a a unit half-way promoted to the next level and on average I get half my units to level 3 this way. Level three is a killing-field for my units, I reckon there's only a 10% chance of a unit surviving from level 3 to level 4, however I only need one level 4 unit for West Point and there isn't a lot of difference in terms of combat odds between the two levels. CR3 melee/siege units and Combat 2/Pinch gunpowder units are pretty awesome.

 

[iggymnrr]

So the term does exist in the english language with exactly the meaning I had in mind.

And to the urban dictionary:

Not to beat a dead horse but yes. Snowballing is a verb but can also be an activity like swimming is both a verb and activity. Watch enough crime dramas on TV and you will eventually hear snowballing used in a drug context.

 

[Seraiel]

Episode 2 - Part II
"All Checkers attack the PRO-Archers behind the Walls and come back!
No... no... nooooooooooo! I said come back you stupid idiots, not let yourself get farmed..."​

In the first part of this episode, I have been reporting how the empire was crawling towards Oracle Currency, how I sacrificed 8 Checkers on a city that had Walls without killing even a single defender, I founded a few cities in very good spots, settled Stone and began on constructing the GLH in Berlin and the Mids in Cuzco, and heavily whipped the extremely large cities down to get a decent number of Workers which are needed for some heavy chopping. Oracle Currency happened in 1970 BC, not that much later 11 Checkers have gone into attacking postion on Churchills-hills-city "Newcastle" , which is defended by 2 Archers:

The attack starts in 1880 BC: The first "Unpros" get ridiculous odds of 0.04%, how will this end?

4 Unpros fall before the frightening PRO-Archers that are heavily fortified in the hills-city, but then it's time for Rambos, even for them, the odds are only 50%, but they want to get Heros, win their fights, and conquer the city:

The first of 4 cities is down and gets razed because it has no source of Food. The plundered 80g wander into the treasury of the empire. "That wasn't so difficult, was it? What was the problem of the other Checkers at the walls-city, did "BigBossPlayer" had to come so you're able to fulfill your duty Checkers?"

Same turn, I 2pop-slave some additional Workers without any mercy. Reason is, that I need at least 4 Workers chopping out the GLH in Berlin, and I need another 4 chopping out the Mids in Cuzco, would be nice if it were even 5 or 6 there. I only have 10 Workers atm., having enough Workers is the backbone to a growing empire and can become the bottleneck in developement, but no problem, the cities remain in stati where they can work their , so they'll regrow fast. To ensure that, I whip some Granaries afterwards, now the cities have reached their minimal operational sizes.


While the Checkers heal, it's time to give you a clearview of the cities:

And the first view at the worldmap, coast uncovered by an exploring Workboat so Religion can spread:

I hope you can read what I wrote in the text-boxes on the screens, otherwise, use Ctrl + Mousewheel to zoom in.


1860 BC: Lizzy discovers Code of Laws . Damn, she's really fast, while my continent is underdeveloped, the other continent is running away. Willem is researching Currency with 70 BPT which I know, through conducting trades with him every-round and seeing the gold offered by him change by a certain value. So my monopoly won't hold very long, I have to watch out when his research is complete to get the most out of the Oracle-tech.

1850 BC: I realize (also mentioned on the screens above) that I have to build some Missionaries to convert some techers, if I want to stick to Judaism. The diplomatic situation is horrible atm. , the other continent is completely Buddhist and running away, and I'm still disliked by the Islamists on my Continent and even Mansa's worst Enemy... If I could get Alpha somehow to gift everybody a few techs for diplomatic bonuses... And... this:

I don't know what's wrong with this map, only 3 Civs have Alpha still... I begin researching Alpha myself to trade Math + something for it... This could have been so much easier if a 4th Civ had reached Alpha, I have all basic-techs to offer on top of Maths, but I'm waiting for over 10 turns already now... As I know my luck, some Civ will reach Alpha just when I've researched enough in it to get it for Math...

Yer right, what do you want from me? You have a "go-to-war-rate" like Ghandi, here, that's my middle finger for you!

1820 BC, still no other Civ has reached Alpha, anyhow, I've researched 1/3 of it in the meantime, so I'm able to trade Math + 90g against the rest with Lizzy:

This must be the latest time I ever got Alpha in a round, but on this map, I'm still one of the first 5 Civs to have it! Finally I can polish my diplomatic relations a little by gifting small techs to everybody...

And because I have Currency, I now also can sell minor techs for money...

Sum of the trades conducted:

• -2 with Peter because I traded with Roosevelt who is his new Worst Enemy, I prefer to make friends with my neighbour Roosevelt and Peter, he sits on the other Continent and has nothing to offer to me and he himself is the Worst Enemy of half of the Civs, very difficult to not get bad relations with him, but it doesn't matter atm., and once he and I am running Burocracy, he'll get to cautious again.
• -1 with Washington and Darius because I traded with Louis, but hey, I need some friends in this round, you have the wrong Religion, not Louis or me!
• 600 earned.
• I get 4 AIs (Willem, Louis, Roosevelt and Hatty) to pleased, I lose my Worst Enemy Status from Mansa so can trade Monotheism from him:

I'm lucky that Louis doesn't get pissed of this trade, he hates Mansa, but I don't even get -1 with him for this trade.

I gift Alphabet to Pericles...

Now Pericles is also pleased, and because one of his cities is jewish, I can beg from him to become a Jew...

Yes, Pericles converts to Judaism, now I got a strong techer that has my Religion so I got chances to get him on friendly status and by that have a better Mansa.

Having Monotheism from Mansa and a well spread Religion I already follow, I of course switch to Organized Religion!


1790 BC, the Checkers have healed up and got a few reinforcements, they arrive at Churchills 2nd city, the one whichs walls are still blood-stained from the 8 Checkers that ran with full-speed against them:

LOOOOL, 5 Archers -.-. NN to even try that with those Checkers, even the 1337-Checker only has 25% chances against the defenders. If I want to conquer that city, I do not have to build just some reinforcements, I have to build a ton of reinforcements, and atm., I'm seriously having other priorities.


1780 BC: After having buttered all Civilizations with Techs for diplomatic bonuses, now Louis gets to be the new Worst Enemy of the Civs that don't have Peter as Worst Enemy XD. I cancel the Open Borders Agreement with him. No need to get maluses with the others because I have open Borders with someone hated by 4 or more Civs.

I've also accumulated enough Gold to start researching again, Research goes 100% into Aesthetics as nobody got that till this moment.

1770 BC, Mansa shows why I selected him to be in this round, he has Ironworking! I trade it from him against Mathematics:

Ok, now Louis is pissed, -1 with him, I lose pleased status... Diplomacy is really really ugly in this round, what should I have done again? Not take Ironworking and not be able to improve my Jungle-cities? Research it myself?

The next round, Judaism has spread to one of Lizzys cities, time to convert her to Judaism aswell via giving her the IW I got from Mansa:

The diplomatic situation after all those trades and conversions:

Doesn't look that bad anymore, does it? 5 AIs on pleased, Roosevelt shortly before friendly, 4 people that are Jews besides me and Churchill while not more are from another religion (4* Islam 3* Buddhism) , Mansa is annoyed, well, doesn't matter, he's the peacemonger of the peacemongers, with Lizzy and Pericles I was able to pull some very strong techers on my side, with Louis I have a meatshield should Darius attack, and Roosevelt could develop as a 2nd Mansa once I have him on friendly. Too bad Hatty and Ramesses have different Religions and sit on the other continent, those two are really easy to get to friendly, but maybe I can achieve that even with having a different Religion, the favourite Civic bonus through OR from that two is huge...

And a look at the tech-situation in detail:

Also looking good now, especially as I was able to make Lizzy convert to Judaism, maybe I'll get CoL from her in near future? I only lack 1 diplo-point to have Roosevelt on friendly, so Calendar is also in reach, and the other Civs aint't got anything I don't have!

Strange map I'm playing this time, never got Alpha so late, never had such a large tech-lead over most Civs so early, this map is really really slow I say to myself, or, Incans are just way faster than I memorized them.


1700 BC: The Mids!

Except for the 8 Checkers that suicided themselves on Churchills walls-city, everything in this round is developing to my favor. I switch to Representation for the higher Happy-cap. Cuzco continues as planned with the construction of an Aquaeduct, which is needed for the Hanging Gardens (remember, Cuzco = Great Engineer Farm, Washington = Great Prophet Farm, Berlin = National Epic powered Great Scientist / Merchant Farm) .

And after luck follows luck, not? 1 turn later...

"Of course Roosevelt, here, take Monotheism, but now that we're friends, how about trading Calendar?"

"You wanna construct what first? The Mausoleum of Maussollos? Well, of course I can wait till you have completed that, I will send some of my elite-forces to celebrate with your cute little people! Nono, of course we're friends, I said they're going to celebrate with your people, we Incans are a very friendly Civilization, don't worry, just hurry up and make sure that you construct it really well, we don't want to have any flaws in it when we arrive at the party, just continue as planned my friend!" XD

One Worldwonder less that I have to construct myself, really lucky to have Roosevelt as a neighbour and that he's so friendly to build my favourite World Wonder for me XD.


But now, what do I do with Churchill? Nothing for the moment. I don't have any War Wearriness, he's completely blocked, I'm just gonna let the Checkers camp at the chokepoint which is the entrance to his empire. Once I'll have expanded enough and have free resources, I'll roll over him, he's in full Archer-build-mode anyway and is unlikely to expand to any islands in near future.

Being in war with him without doing anything for that doesn't mean, I cannot get diplomatic bonuses for that! I bribe Louis against Churchill with the help of Monotheism:

Regrettably, he is the only one I can bribe against Churchill. I really love it, when I have the plan to completely exterminate someone from the map, to bribe some Civs against him and prolongue the war, just to get some diplo-points through shared war, and once their troops have reached the target, I grab the cities myself and they come home with empty hands.

So the Checkers are camping at the "Fin-Spot" and from time to time, some Archers from Churchill come there. My troops continue exping and the 2nd GG is born. I settle him in York in 1620 BC:

In between, Aesthetics has finished and I found the great city of Ollantaytambo:

The city is in a really nice spot having double Food. Double Food? Yes, I'm going to steal that Bananas from CRE-Pericles. I know this sounds ridiculous, stealing from a CRE-Civ, but Incan Terraces are so plain powerful, that this will be possible without any problems. It's a little early for that Jungle-city not having Calendar, but I really wanted that spot because I like all cities that are directly around my Capital, due to maintenance reason and due the the defense the Capital gets through such Buffer-cities.

Maybe I should show you the Dotmap I've developed, so you see which cities I've planned:

Black: Supernice Spot with double Food, a river for Commerce and Copper for some Hammers. I wish I would not have had to raze Viccy's city which was already in the right spot there.
White: Another nice Commerce-rich spot that has enough Food and some hills.
Blue: A spot that's a little low on , but it has just so many Forrests . If I get white, that spot is blocked for quite some time, I plan on chopping out the Taj Mahal in that city.
Purple: A coastal city with the last missing Grain, Wheat. I need more coastal cities, especially having the GLH now but mainly because I need a lot of Shipyards (having only 1 Shipyard in Replay #4 was not enough imo) .
Green: Yes, an ugly number of ugly Plains, but also an ugly number of Forrests. That city I want to settle in near future, because with the Forrests, it'll multiply the Settler used for it and the Workers needed for it in no time. City has only got 2 good tiles (the Horses and the Cows), but that doesn't matter, I can need a size 2 city with strong production potential for Workers or Missionaries.

Purple: High priority city because it has got the only source of Marble in reach. I need Marble for the various (national / world) Wonders.
White: I'd really like to have those Furs. Besides that, and like Purple, this is another important coastal spot, important, because I have so few coastal cities yet.
Green: Again Furs, which are also awesome Tradegood, enough Food, Forrests, what more can I wish for?
Black: Definately the spot I'm going to settle last, mainly a filler-city.


[limit of 30 pictures reached, to be continued]

 

[Seraiel]

Lol! This made me laugh. Burning up an entire stack because you didn't like the combat odds the computer was telling you!

Please read the part I just posted 11 Checkers were attacking a hills-city, which has basically the same defensive value as a walls-city, the initial Checkers only had 0.04%ish odds, but there, everything went according to plan, 2 Checkers / Archer died (4 in total) , after that, the Checkers won.

I'm glad you laughed though, me too, and I really don't wanna nit-pick, but it was only half of the empire's forces, but don't worry, it's gonna be no time until I sacrifice the other half also .

Keep on reading,

Seraiel