Role Play Challenge: Charlemange the Blessed

[madscientist]

Charlamagne the Blessed: Part II

Bah!!! Looks like this game has to potential to become another Asoka game minus the Tank and agressive AI.
But we shall see how CHarlemagne does in spreading the faith.

We start by switching to christianity, which we probably should have waited on.

We then finished priesthood and teched the following: pottery/monotheism (partly)/IW (Partly)/HBR/comstruction. Yeah you can see where the games going already.

We started on the oracle ASAp, chopping most of it out

We took metal casting as discussed. We still have forges as of the save, we are fine in happiness and simply have not had time.

And after getting open borders with Mao and preparing to spread the faith, we get this

We found Justinian to our NW, and made this trade

Yes, I am trading away MC as much as I can.

In order to trade it away for this

Now, the thing is Khan has 4 cities and no metals so he's a little stuck. That's fine by me, even after peace he's unlikely to get past Mao at me.

After IW we found

2 sourcess!!!! We quickly start a settler to fully get the northern one before Justinian get's any ideas.

Mao takes this for peace

And soon we make this trade with Wang

Now we have been spamming christian missionaries (we adopted OR) into Byzantium hoping to convert Justinian, but nothing yet. I see we shall need some spies for that. Also note we are the only christians. Justinian spammed Hindu missionaries like crazy, remember he was first to monotheism.

We also declared war on Mao at Khan's request, but soon enough got peace for monotheism.

Then out of nowhere, the dredded expected visit.

Shake sent a decent sized stack at Vienna, but the protective trait, hill, and Wall (who said NEVER to build a wall) easily fought it of destroying the entire Zulu stack.

Now, we do not have the forces to launch a large attack on Shaka, we can pillage quite a bit.

And we made one more trade with MC.

So basically we got

Monarchy
Meditation
alhpabet
monotheism
Iron Working
Sailing

All for a free tech from a Prophet produing Wonder. Not bad at all!!!

Shaka come to his senses.

And it's at this time that IO sort of realize HBR and construction may be better techs than currency/CoL *which we can tech as Wang got there first).

We did have dangerous event, a barb uprising

Which captured the Byzantine city (which Justinian took back) and we fought off the last wounded Swordsman.

And after building a temple in Archen and running a priest to go with the orcle we got

Which really helped the economy.

Unfortunately, this request

Sort of hurt our diplomatic situation, dropping Justinian to annoyed.

OK, The northern lands

And the sourthern

We are building a settler to claim the crab/silver location. And I think that's enough settling for now.

Techwise we are doing very well with the oracle free tech

And diplomatically

OK, we will take some cautious AIs.
Also power number wise, shaka and Justinian are tops!

SO right now we have techs to build Jumbos and cats witha nicely funder shrine to pay the costs. Time to build an even better army and convert some heathen chinese or Zulu, they ar eboth pretty dangerous.

Also I am teching towards currency/CoL, then I think hitting machinery and engineering for the UB. My thinking here is that the liberalism ravce is NOT going to be in our long term interest. And of course we need to protect the Byzantine border.

Why do I get the bad feeling that the world is ready to just dogpile us.

Help, I need my tank!!!!

 

[NintendoTogepi]

Geez....hmmm...I'm not really sure where to go from here. I see a diplomatic crisis coming up very, very, soon....

I hope we don't have another failed game...

I like to play as Charlemagne...his traits are lousy but the UB is great...

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Will shaka or Mao open borders? Wang and Justinian are unlikely to switch from their religions as they founded them. Ghandi and Genghis are good targets to missionary spam. Either way this looks like a tough game. A nice medieval war is perfect for Charlemagne though.

 

[Commodore Nate]

It's too bad the Confucian bloc is composed of such good trade partners, they'd be prime targets if they were closer.
Good luck with converting someone, and I'll be following this one

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Sounds like a good strategy, basically
1. Take out the Chinese, the Mongols already helped you with that, and China is more dangerous to your UU (their CKNs are the weakpoint of Landschnechts)
2. Hold on until Engineering, and Zulu should be easier to mop up than them (their UU is a real problem for a construction rush)


One nice thing, you don't actually Need Feudalism for your mideval war as protective crossbows (on the way to the UU) are pretty good...city defense they are almost as good as a standard Longbow, but slightly more effective)

 

[madscientist]

@ NT Oh Ye of little faith!!! Read on with the next report.


@BB No and Yes. Read on


@CN, yeah too bad

@KK. Nonessense. Charlemagne is peaceful loving guy. Spread in Peace, give it a chance.

 

[r_rolo1]

You can always take a slice on Shaka... he'll get behind surely and with his power graph ( I bet that is enourmous ) he'll think that you're easy prey.... but HRE UU eats impis and axes for lunch

But you in the middle of a situation. You're stuck between Mao and Justinian and none of them loves you.... BTW Justinian has horses?

 

[madscientist]

Charlemagne the Blessed: Part III

I am just going to say one word

DIPLOMACY

Thankyou. Yes we have really established some nice diplomayc to get ourselves out of a pickle at teh start of this segment to a position of strength!! well, we hope.

First of all the techpath: Currency/CoL/Machinery/Engineering/Theology

Now throughout the entire segment we really have been poor in building our cities up, constructing a military, and we got NO great people. What we do have is the true Faith!!!!

First of all, we did start building catapults and Jumbos. Unfortunately Shaka and Mao started building them too. I guess we did not look like pushovers because.

I guess Wang looked like a pushover!!!

Great, that keep Shaka and Mao off my back. Still no open borders, but Genghis is willing to make some trades.

And pretty soon Justinian jumps into the fray

Not quite sure what Wang said but he obviously ticked off someone.

My chief concern here right now is theocracy and who I can spread christianity to

OK, Justinian built the Scwhan Papa but the othgers are in OR still.

This is too good to pass up, we declare war on the heathen Koreans, getting some nice diplo points with the crazy Zulu and allowing this

Sometines, a tech is worth much more than it first appears. Also the war with Wang allows me to finally open borders with Shaka AND Mao!!!

At this point I build very little infrastructure, but build christian missionaries and defensive military. Every Zulu city became christian, so I hope he stays that way. Hope so because shaka has gotten his hands on teh Confiscian Holy City. Remember that there is no city razing here.

Mao is also fairly reasonable. Although not as much as I would like.

We also traded with the pathetic Indian leader

Pretty soon the fun ends.

Khan also finally declared war on him too, making it a complete dogpile. Dam you Wang, I expected a better performance from you!!!

Then we got this request.

Since I am pretty certain what happens with a refusal, I decided to cave in.

Justinian did ask for machinery which I refused, but he soon came arround with this neat trade

OK, we have access to protective crossbows, longbows, and the nice UU.

Now, if you notice we are actually running a slight profit at 100% science on the slider thanks to the well funded shrine!!!!! I have built only 1 Rathus, sort of wasting the nice ability of that UB so far.

Since I do not think it's a good idea to leave old Shaka idle too long.

And perhaps you want a view of our capital

Like I said, nothing too exciting except that loaded shrine.

I continue to trade well with Ghengis.

We finally declared war on ghandi and after a stronge dogpile he capitulated to Shaka. Now it may look like Shaka is getting big, but remember he has to pay for those far away cities as he cannot raze them!

Power number wise, we see Shaka and Mao are dead even with us trailing behind sadly. Khan will not declare on Mao because he's scared of his military might. Jeezzzzzzz.......

I have said mush about civics because, I haven't adjusted them at all since adotping OR. Well, now we adjust them, mostly for diplo points versus Justinian. I am still holding out that he adopts christianity.

Now that Shaka has himself a vassal, I am a little concerned. So I initiate this

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got the two AIs with the largest military to go head to head. Hopefully we can get Ghengis to join in.

I saved here and want some advice.

THe northen lands

And teh sourthen

And the final diplomacy screen

OK< we just revolted to theocracy so what do we tech next.

Also the million dollar question is, do we attack Mao???? Rules state I must help a Christian ally if they request it, but I do not have to automitically join in.

Also, we teched theology and I have a decent chance at the AP unless someone like Gandhi build it. SO how fast can we get that thing built and where?????????

Finally, what do we tech next!!!

And one final thing. I may have done somthing VERY stupid and quit the gaem before saving. SO I am going to try and find it, via the autosave or a different name.

EDIT: Charlemagne is truely blessed! THe last autosave was the turn I saved on. Ended same way, with SHaka at war with Mao.

 

[r_rolo1]

Also the million dollar question is, do we attack Mao????

Is that a trick question? You took all that work putting Shaka in your side and you'll waste a chance of strenghtening the friendship? And Charlie should avenge that unprovoked DOW not long time ago ( Charlie AI would )

 

[madscientist]

If I wait a little bit I can

1) Let Shaka beat him down a bit

2) Get Justinian alittle more happy because of the Favorite Civic, then bribe him into chrsitianity.

3) Prevent Mao from bribing Justinian into attacking me.

Of course I will not refuse Shaka's request, but Mao is no Wang or Gandhi in this game, he is quite powerful and has CNKs

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

If shaka asks you to join in on Mao you definitely should. It's Shaka, you know he'll ask you before long. But don't dow on your own. If you can get Shaka to friendly then you'll no longer risk an attack. Also you need to get bigger if you want to win a diplo AP win. Right now Shaka looks like the most likely winner. Who does Genghis like more, you or him?

 

[semirami]

The Apostolic Palace must be christian! Hey Justinian, forget these heretic hindu idols and accept the true faith!

BTW, nice game Mad!

 

[GoodGame]

Actually I say that's a nice start, and Charles is good for both some early REXing (courthouse UB+cheap settlers) and an archer (free Drill 1) rush against weak starting civ.

I'd take a look around though. Settling on the start hill is attractive, especially with all those nice river tiles (2 big rivers!!! yeah), but I have a hunch there is another bonus in the vicinity.

I'd aim for early production techs first (agg, mining then husbandry and possibly pottery), and try to clinch Monotheism before the AI. If you miss it, then try for Stonehenge to get a GP to bulb Theology.

I wouldn't let the roleplaying force you for too early a religion though the quick money from a shrine+REXing is attractive. Charlie is a production economy guy in my book---big fast empire by land grabs or archer/longbow/pikeman UU war. So focus on that over cottaging/farming.

The build order sounds goods.
After that, I suggest you REX settlers until you run out of good land or have to cutback to about 50% research. At four cities, and with neighbors you want to pre-empt, I'd consider launching some limited war.

Not so bad. Charles is one of the toughest leaders to start with, but I think the cows and jumbos offer us a little headstart.

I say we try for polytheism, then AH.

Build is scout/scout until the population hits 2, then a worker.

What do you all think?

 

[Oni of Chaos]

I've shadowed some of your games, and I figured now I should say some things

A) What are your tech options?
B) Is the place where AP being built the highest production place atm?
C) Don't forget every civilization must vote to get a Diplo win with the AP.
D) I would let Shaka and Mao duke it out for a bit, and have your armies waiting to swoop in on Shaka's request.
E) You can change a file to make Civ autosave every turn.

 

[Groogaroo]

Nicley played! Its good to see you have a couple of followers of the faith, and they are both aggressive leaders! Nice, a pair of pet dogs! Although Genghis is looking a bit like a wuss in this game. So maybe this won't be a total Asoka bloodbath after all, and rely more on some excellent use of diplomacy.

You economy is really strong in this game, are you sure your MadScientist?

 

[CivCorpse]

You economy is really strong in this game, are you sure your MadScientist?

He said it, not me.

 

[madscientist]

Charlemagne the Blessed: Part IV

Well, a very interesting round that brought us some game turning events.

I think we will have no choice but to either alter the victory conditions or call the game at an end, but I really think we should proceed as the true flavor of teh RPC is definitely alive a kicking. Although there is an eventual question as to whether we will be alive and kicking!

First of what to do with Comrad Mao,

First we get a visit from GK

Reasonable, we close borders with Mao.

Then

Of course we declare war. Rules state we cannot refused a request from our warring maniac brothers of the faith.

We launch a minor stack of units onto Shanghai and capture it

We also got this nice random event

So now several cities have 1 military specialist, nice.

Now notice that jumbo in Justinian's lands?

I spent about 10 minutes here thinking of everything to do. Unfortunately that SoD is coming towards us. We also are NOT in slavery and we have maybe 15 turns until the AP is done. So we withdraw as many units as we can to that key city.

OK, Justinian, let's see if the HRE UU is as good as we think it is.

We basically sent evey damned Landketer to that city. Now there is a very interesting feature about this unit I never realized, when it attacks it bypasses war elephants, HSs, swords, axes and targets catapults!!! Yes we ewre able to take out several cats, reducing teh chances of collateral damage. We also got some nice work on mounted and melee units, but taking out the seige is what maintained the city!!!

We also had a spy stationed in Byzantine land which we used to force Justinian into christianity, which he has kept all game!!!

Meanwhile we have been teching towards guilds, and took the education/liberalism path.

The real annoying thing is

we lost the AP to Mao by 2 turns!!!! The AP is a Hindu thing now, ARGGGHHHH!

Also by the save we lost liberlaism to Justinian by 2 turns!!!!!

Also remember this is marathon, 2 turns is a real close shave!!! Damm, Damm, Damm!!!

But the good thing is we got peace with Mao and fought Justinian to a standstill.

Shaka then asked us to go after Mao again, which we agree to

GK is a big friend here, helping us out with fillin techs.

Once I get a tech I try and trade it as I cannot deny a request from GK, Shaka, or Justinian now.

Yes, another trade form GK

And finally Justinian come to his senses.

After a few turns he is pleased, we have open borders and start trading techs. All is forgiven.

As I mentioned about the AP

Mao has complete control. Well, we have started to build Hindu Missionaries, just to have some voice in the AP. Nothing in rules about spreading other religions, just have to stay in Christianity!!!

The results of teh vote

And that whole gifting of techs thing to brother christians

With Justinian nuetralized, we launched a decent stack against Bejing

And got there JUST in time

I am glad Shaka did not get it!!! IT has the AP and old shaka may have adopted heathen ways to leverage it. SO we have ownership of it, but it is still Hindu. rather useless to us.

After Bejing fell, Mao capitulated to Shaka. We then make this trade, giving the big guy what he really wants

Talk about a leap of faith trading Gunpowder to Shaka!!!

Forgotten Gandhi finally opens borders with us and we make this trade,

Time to spam christian missionaries to the few Indian cities left.

And distributing GP more

To Be Continued

 

[madscientist]

Charlamagne the Blessed: PArt IV continued

We got several of these reassignment vote which we defied, to no penalty because noone else supports it.

Let those wonderful cities go back to the Pagan Chinese, never!!!

We popped our SECOND GP (our land sucks, no good GP farm) and used him for a GA to try and nab liberalism.

Too bad MAO did not have the Museum in Bejing, we could have made it then!

After teching liberlaims we saved,

Techs

Justinian will be the biggest problem here. I know Shaka is big, but his empire is split and he will continue to build military.

Diplomacy

Justinian and GK are in our pockets, but Shaka is only please. That is a problem as I fear he will eventually look our way in order to get a domination win. Frankliy I see no way arround this except, to pray!!!

And the victory condtions.

At this point it is IMPOSSIBLE to get either diplomatic win. Shaka will block the UN, Mao has control of the AP since he is the only HIndu.

SO I can either stop here, or try for a Space or Culture win. Not sure I can out tech all those leaders, but shutting down the science slider now and trying a culture win seams like a good idea.

And finally the world!!!

OK, so what does everyone suggest!!!!

I cna settle new cities all I want, but we will NEVER get enough population to challenge the Monsterous Shaka empire fo a Diplomatic win.

And of course, if we go diplomatic, well it's a LEAP of Faith that we can keep the big three happy with us and the renegade CHinese do not break loose from Shaka and come after us.

What do you all say!!!

 

[BornSlippy]

Long time lurker reporting in. Great game so far, really enjoying it. I've been a fan of your RPC's for a long while. Could you show us the % of Christians, maybe? Can't help you with advice, though, this is way beyond my skill level.




Edit: In fact, wouldn't it make sense to make a home-made victory condition? E.g. if x % of the world is Christian, you've won. Not as good as a 'real' victory condition, I guess, but still. Such a shame the AP is Hindu.

 

[Orzio]

If I remember corectly AI count his vassels relationship aswell as his own towards other. And since his vassals are anoyed and furious with you isent there a big risk he will attak you very soon?