Role Play Challenge: Asoka and the Doomsday Machine

[madscientist]

@Rolo, I alredy placed teh tank thanks. I zoomed in on the capital so it filled the screen then quickly entered WB. Asoka did got a very faint "vision" on the Pangea map, a blessing from the Gods!!!

@ Ormur> Thanks for the feedback. Yes the tank will make an interesting diplomatic tool. Consider it's Pangea with alot of knuckleheaded leader who like war and troops, with teh agressive AI on! A good test indeed to see how respectful the Ais are of the powergraph numbers!

 

[madscientist]

Asoka and the Doomsday MAchine: Part II

Wow!. This has gotta be one of the most uncomfordable position I have been in a long time. We shall see indeed just how much protection Asoka has from the god's!!!

First of all we teched agriculture after founding Buddhism. We build warriors and a settler earlier than usual because we are getting pretty cramped already. Remember the random map generator gave us a cold wrold ontop of the Pangea Map, which means to me a very tight and comfy situation.

First we meet another AI

He is probably the one I did not want right on my doorstep because of the creative trait.

However, he is still pretty damned close

Yike's!!! Me Shaka, Al, Kublai and jungle!!!!

We also met another leader

Good, let some other AI buck heads with that guy.

After agriculture we went BW (none)/hunting/archery/wheel/AH/priesthood/masonry/pottery/IW and then saved. SOme interesting decisions to come up.

We are already getting cramped from teh west by AL, so we settle in order to assure access to the Jumbos which I pretty sure we sill need later.

We settled our third city just before AH. A risk but the map, neighbors, and agressive AI dictate otherwise.

We also meet comrad Stalin

Who has founded Hinduism. NOw my experience is that Stalin is not very religious so little diplo penalty there, but an unfirgiving soul if you declare war. So we need to see where that goes.

I do not have a screenshot but we do have access to horses. SW of the capital where no AI will settle yet. We at least have chariots.

A war broke out pretty early

And Kublai founded judaism. OK, maybe we can get Shaka in our pocket at some point, if Buddhism ever spreads to him. So far he is the only one NOT to convert to anything yet.

We did manage the oracle with earl;y priesthood and access to marble

We took metal casting. Forges for production is what we need here !!!!

The map after teching IW.

We have iron but right on the border with Al which is in danger od culture flipping!!!

Our power graph numbers.

OK, the tank only goes so far here. We need some troops.

Speaking of the tank, there was one goody hut to the south that I sent the tank after (nothing in the rules forbidding nuetral ground). Somehow those primitive native knew a great deal about tanks that they gave them free combat promotions! We went along the barrage route, so we can max collateral damage against any stack. A modern era tank with barrage II, blitz, and can keep up with Kesiks and Impi, yes the god's have indeed blessed Asoka!

All have converted to a heathen religion except Shaka who is our only potential ally right now. HE is also the one crowding us badly, taking that barbarian city.

So my goal is

1) To build th shrine (between the oracle and a priest specialist it will not take long)
2) Military, get the iron mined fast and build units before it flips. Chariot too.
3) Techs. writing for now (maybe I can actually get a missionary out) and I am thinking HBR/math/construction beeline. Guess why!

Also we have yet to find JC!

 

[absimiliard]

I thought the rules only allowed the tank to enter neutral grounds if it could return to your cultural lands before the round ended?

Or was the hut right against your borders already and the tank just stepped out and back?

-abs

 

[madscientist]

I thought the rules only allowed the tank to enter neutral grounds if it could return to your cultural lands before the round ended?

Or was the hut right against your borders already and the tank just stepped out and back?

-abs

The hut was right next to the borders, so the tank went out and back in 1 turn!

 

[absimiliard]

Sweet!

And XP as a reward no less. Damn.

Lucky hut. For the tank XP is probably the best hut thing you could get, shy of some abusive tech like BW or MC or somesuch.

-abs

 

[bestje]

the tank is worth a lot of power isn't it, guess the AI are scared of it and might leave you alone for the early game
nice going with the free xp as well
Have you considered settling a city on/ near the iron to stop it flipping?
It looks like alex might be your best bet to get some more land from, unless the war keeps going between zulus and mongols

 

[dragomaster]

Have you considered settling a city on/ near the iron to stop it flipping?

A great question. if that is possible i think you shold do that madscientist.

 

[ConanKND]

I think he won't be able to, too close to the G(r)eek city. Maybe 1 tile west and spread Buddhism - Run Artist there? (If you have CoL). What's the culture presentage? How much culture is Alex's city producing, and, this doesn't look like a cold map! It has jungles!

Last, a small Buddhist note. Buddhism does not have gods (Not in the Jewish, Christian or Hindu sense), so the MA should be a gift from the Buddha - Heaven - or, a merit for your good deeds.

 

[madscientist]

The iron is too close to Big Al to settler on. I will definitely try and settle right next to it. Looking to also settle on the sourthen shore.

I think the heathen Greeks should be the first to fall, but hopefully I can get Shaka on my side before that.

@ConanKid, yes you are correct but I reserve the right to bastardize these RPCs anyway I like!!!!

 

[dragomaster]

What I meen with posible is if the capitol is to close. there is a corn resours to work but what is the rules about settling near capitol three or four squares aside? three is great then you can work the corn and loan the cows for prod to put culture in the city. you have meditation, pristhood and wrighting so I think you could out produce that city pretty heavy with culture after building library, monestrary and tempel. one more thing is to build a missionary to convert shaka before it's to late.

 

[madscientist]

I think the rule is you need to be more than 2 squares from any city, the capital is irrelevent.

 

[bestje]

the city is also closer to the iron than the greek one so should have no difficulty keeping the iron unless a GA gets used there

It would be worth converting shaka as it makes him like you more and then with your decent power rating he's more likely to attack someone else, especially as otherwise you could end up surrounded by the jewish bloc which makes a dogpile look very possible

 

[madscientist]

the city is also closer to the iron than the greek one so should have no difficulty keeping the iron unless a GA gets used there

It would be worth converting shaka as it makes him like you more and then with your decent power rating he's more likely to attack someone else, especially as otherwise you could end up surrounded by the jewish bloc which makes a dogpile look very possible

Yep, just as soon as I get writing. Nothing in the rules preventing an opeb borders with an atheist. I do need to build a settler for before the buddhist missionary to cement the iron city. Or build alot of chariots and take AL down. The only problem is that Phalynx eat chariots for breakfast.

 

[ConanKND]

I'll tolerate it, but Asoka the Great King won't! (j/k)

You should sieze the opportunity that Shaka is still heathen now! It's a gift from the .... divinity! A few hammers spent on the monk results in a loyal pet dog, a war ally, and a Shaka smiling to you, what a great package. Do any of your cities have a monastery?

And note, in your opening post guideline, you mentioned you'll build the Swadolyn Palace? Is it the Shwedagon paya, the Sistine Chapel, or the Versailles Palace? Or all three in the same city?

 

[madscientist]

I'll tolerate it, but Asoka the Great King won't! (j/k)

You should sieze the opportunity that Shaka is still heathen now! It's a gift from the .... divinity! A few hammers spent on the monk results in a loyal pet dog, a war ally, and a Shaka smiling to you, what a great package. Do any of your cities have a monastery?

And note, in your opening post guideline, you mentioned you'll build the Swadolyn Palace? Is it the Shwedagon paya, the Sistine Chapel, or the Versailles Palace? Or all three in the same city?

Yep, a happy Shaka is a happy Buddhist diety!

It's the Shwedagon Paya, forgive me. I spell like I talk, with a NYer accent!

 

[dragomaster]

Yep, just as soon as I get writing. Nothing in the rules preventing an opeb borders with an atheist. I do need to build a settler for before the buddhist missionary to cement the iron city. Or build alot of chariots and take AL down. The only problem is that Phalynx eat chariots for breakfast.

as you say that attacking plan sounds like a dead one already. build iron city and attack him with axe and swords instead.

that however whod be a great filler city that can work alot of cottages for capital.

 

[madscientist]

Asoka and the Doomsday MAchine: PArt III

Well this RPC is alot of fun so far, no telling where it will go. Asoka thanks the gods, er I mean the heanens, no the Budhha. Oh the hell with it (yikes is that a bad curse) you know what he means. That gift is just plain often. We got into many wars in a short period of time. We have no friends, plenty of enemies, and pretty good army. Oh we also have an AI capital, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

First of all after a good while Shaka finally get's Buddhism to spread to him. I am rewarded with the following!

Just great. I quickly send the doomsday machine off to Vanijara (whatever it's name is).

Also while dealing with Shaka's attack we meet the last of these thugs.

Hey JC, so glad you are on the other side of the world.

Shaka made alot of attacks towards that northern city, which resulted in alot of experience for our Doomsday weapon.

Impis are good, but rather ineffective against Modern Armor, didn't even chip the paint!!! Basically I blasted his stacks and sent some Chariots to mop up after collateral damage. Right now our tank is up to Barrage III and drill I. We are going to go up the drill line to prevent as much damage to shiney toy.

Now we dropped that new city right next to the lone iron supply. Then an rare but rather annoying thing occurred.

Big Al popped an iron from that formerly forrested hill. HE now has iron, well no question here. We sent that stack into Sparta.

Took it pretty easily.

Then we got dogpiled

Yikes! Kublai pretty much was a non-issue and we got peace by giving him meditation.

Stalin was much more of an issue taking Sparta from us and leaving alot of troops there. Slowly we built up some troops.

I should mentiuon the techpath

Writing/horsebackriding/math/partway through construction. Yep, cats and Jumbos!

Basically Stalin kept sending some troops into our borders which we mowed down with the tank hoping Shaka will leave us alone.

We got peace with Big Al for polytheism.

We recaptured Sparta for good.

And gopt a good deal for peace

I quickly checked the power graph

Al is very weak, he likely has no metals

We march our troops in for the kill

Corinth has a Phalynx but Athens is all archers and warriors.

We capture Athens, great city and a future GP farm.

We take peace with Al, biding our time

We saved at this point, awaiting discovery of construction for Cats/Jumbos.

We also got a GP so we shrined the Buddhist holy city.

Techwise we are doing OK, remember we cannot make any trades with the heathens (which is the entire world).

And Diplomacy, HOW WE DOING??

The map

And finally Our Allimportant powergraph numbers

So where do we go. I say more military is better. The even more. Forget about tech, it's a slogfest right now.

With Shaka at war with Kublai I am looking to build a fast army and hit Shaka. He'll nbever be our frien and dealing with him sooner than later is best.

OH, and we also need some buildings like a library and perhaps some more workers (since we lost all during the wars).

Civics I will switch to OR once I am at a position to build missionaries or buildings.

I see a very long a military orientated RPC here. Asoka's gonna have to be converting the heathen via the sword.

 

[Mesousa]

Did you declare on Alexander or he on you?

I expected a peaceful game, silly me.

 

[madscientist]

Did you declare on Alexander or he on you?

I expected a peaceful game, silly me.

I declared on Al.

Peaceful? Whatever gave you that idea.

All heathens, agressive AI, and the usual arrortment of idiots and war-mongers.

 

[futurehermit]

I take it you're not going for a diplomatic victory this game?