Role Play Challenge: GREED THREE!!!

[Kev]

This could be a good time to lay low and play nice.

Does seem quite difficult "Keeping up with the Joneses - or Montys - or Peters" having to keep the slider to the point of making money. Surely this puts a damper on expansion - though there are a number of good sites that are tempting. Those gems would be nice if you can beat Pete there. Still, at the start more cities are going to seriously drive the slider down.

With stone, why not make a bee-line to the Pyramids. Would enable US and you can use all that gold for buying stuff at least.

Perhaps, if you were really feeling energetic, you could go for the Oracle. I say this only because it would be helpful if you could nab some sort of trade-able tech for later catching up. Possibly using it for COL or MC (COL could give a religion that you might be able to spread to Peter and cause strife?)

 

[budweiser]

You are going to have a problem with cash. Get pottery going for a few cottages. Then tech to priesthood then writing. Do open borders with monty and hope his religion spreads. Try for an oracle slingshot to metal casting. This will open your UB and allow for a production edge if/when monty strikes. All the while build UU troops and brace for war with monty. I would try for 1 or two more blocking cities before looking north. Clear the jungle away from Djenne as soon as you pick up IW. Put in some walls on your border towns.

 

[NcNikke]

In your picture, it says "after BW" and in the picture it shows that you have just started researching it.

 

[PaulusIII]

Monty will probably dow on Izzy sometime soon because she tends to neglect military in the early game, she's probably trying to get her own religion.

Peter is a good tech trading partner, but like every Russian be ware of . He's really easy to bribe so you can point his armies somewhere else *coughMontycough*

And I agree with the mids. With all that surplus gold you want US now - before Monty or Peter starts demanding it.

 

[madscientist]

In your picture, it says "after BW" and in the picture it shows that you have just started researching it.

I changed the descriptions. After BW should have been after AH! Either way we have no copper but did find horses after fog busting a bit.

 

[vicawoo]

You don't really need iron working. Walls aren't that important either, jaguars aren't going to break skirmishers.

I'd want to see if those gems are still available.

Do you only have one worker?

Espionage to montezuma.

 

[CivCorpse]

Mad, I am glad your mother is doing better. I lost my father 1 1/2 half years ago and it sucked more than anything ever. I am really happy you get to have your mother around for quite a while longer.
Unfortunately for you however, I started playing your map last night. and when i say "started" i mean i am 2 techs from tanks on marathon speed LOL. So i can not give my highly praised and rightfully valued advice on Mocha statues this game. LOL, I also deficit research since I am just playing the map rather than an RPC. An absolutely great map to play. You have an insane neighbor, a religious fruitcake and a backstabbing techwhore as rivals (atleast the ones you have met). The map is nicely balanced with advantages and disadvantages so it will not be what determines whether you win or lose. I am having a blast with it. Though my game went in a different direction in just about every way possible. LOl, I settled the capital and every city in different places than you did. My tech path was different in order rather than techs picked. Though I popped fishing from a hut. Wish i had gotten gold. Enjoy the game. I know I have.

 

[CLST]

I would block off Monty in the southwest as you suggest, but also try to settle on the plains near the rice on the river near peter, and also further down (maybe south of the gems) towards the east coast. That would block the entire south, and give you some nice space to work with, and when you fill on the north side, you'll have a nice chunk of land to work with.

 

[madscientist]

GREED THREE!!!: Part II

Deja Vu!!!! Another brutal war for Mansa Musa, however this is NOT Julius, MONTY is just plain stupid! Plus the Jag is no PRAT!

Let's talk techpath: Mysticism/Pottery/Masonry/writing/HBR/IW. Gotta say HBR ahead of IW saved out Malinese butts here, who said HAs are poor military units!

First we settled to the east, to claim the wheat/floodplain and potential cows.

We made a run at Stonehenge and teh Great wall, all of which were missed but MM got some extra gold. NEVER have enough!

we got this random event giving us a free shield to melee units. Too bad we ain't got copper!

FINALLY, after the entire hemisphere adopt Buddhism, the enlightened one pays us a visit.

We open borders with all, hoping for a Buddhist lovefest until old MM can out tech the field and run amock with rifles. At least that was the early plan.

We pumped out another settler and decided to stretch our economt even more to claim those 2 gems.

Foolish? perhaps, but then again this is the RPC GREED game!
2 gems baby, how can we pass that up.

It may be hard to see here, but that's an Aztec stack heading our way!

Monty came after our city and the first Jag took out the defending Skirmisher!!!! I heald my breath, but that was the last we lost. using chariots and skirmishers we held MONTY off pretty well. We actually managed also to

Settle another city!!!

We kept counter attacking MONTY with chariots and a few skirmishers, not caring how many we lost since we ar elimited on the science slider.

We did have some major problems with barbs to the north of out capital

Our corn and pigs got trashed, plus a 6 hammer tin mine (random event)! We managed to beat them off, and Monty.

Monty really started to pour it on, surrounding DeJenne, but we used HAs to fight him off, and do flanking damage on his catapults. Yes, Monty has construction!

We launched a small counter attack to pillage with 2 chariots and 2 skirmishers which did a little damage, but Monty was still asking for DeJenne for peace!

The random Gods did help out the Mali

we popped silver from a mine in Timbuktu which allowed us to get the slider up and speed along IW!

As Monty's attacks slowed we launched a 6 HA counter attack looking to pillage Monty into the ground, note I added one skirmisher to protect the stack from spears.

THAT knocked some sense into our dense Aztec friend.

Note Monty and us have about the same number of cities, meaning with the financial trait we should catch up and surpass him. We also got a GG out of this (too bad we missed the GW wonder) which we settled in DeJenne which shall be our military city, for now.

Monty asked to open borders which we agreed to. Let him warm up to us and attack someone else. After teching IW we find

One source within our capital's cultureal borders. We saved here

OK, things to do

1) get the Iron and those 2 gems mined and hooked up, fast.
2) Finish the pyramids in the capital. If we can nail them, we can really abuse the spiritual trait, moving between Representation and US depending on what we want to buy!
3) Continue to settle to the north. REX baby, All three of the CIV IV african leaders can REX as good as any Russian!!!!

As far as Monty, I will have a decent army continually on hand, and look for the first chance to backstab him. Right now Issabella and Peter are very friendly with him, gotta watch the diplomacy front with those 2!

 

[schwartz]

This makes me want to scream

The random Gods did help out the Mali

we popped silver from a mine in Timbuktu which allowed us to get the slider up and speed along IW!

Working 3H forest+plains hill rather than 4H tin+plains hill and also working 2F1H forest+grassland rather than 2F1H1C riverside grassland hills pig.

Other than that you're in great shape, you've sealed off a bunch of land to settle at your leisure and of course you've built a huge gold stockpile
Keep it up!
EDIT:
I'd get some cottages down at the capital as well. It can support all the hills along with up to 4 cottaged plains and as many cottaged grasslands as you want. It'll need ~4 farms to grow to size 20 pre-biology though.

 

[CLST]

You gotta go and embarrass him

 

[madscientist]

I will say I caught the 4 hammer hill versus the 3 hammer hill a few turns later. The extra commerce, well I was sort of distracted by old MONTY!

 

[schwartz]

I will say I caught the 4 hammer hill versus the 3 hammer hill a few turns later. The extra commerce, well I was sort of distracted by old MONTY!

An understandable situation
I guess when you play on Marathon it's not that huge a deal to miss one commerce for a few turns, anyway.
I'm curious about the RPC rules though, is Universal Suffrage legal (I mean rush buying) or not?

 

[paulthebug]

This makes me want to scream

Working 3H forest+plains hill rather than 4H tin+plains hill and also working 2F1H forest+grassland rather than 2F1H1C riverside grassland hills pig.

Other than that you're in great shape, you've sealed off a bunch of land to settle at your leisure and of course you've built a huge gold stockpile
Keep it up!
EDIT:
I'd get some cottages down at the capital as well. It can support all the hills along with up to 4 cottaged plains and as many cottaged grasslands as you want. It'll need ~4 farms to grow to size 20 pre-biology though.

I was thinking of the same thing.
Bad MM, MS.

 

[madscientist]

An understandable situation
I guess when you play on Marathon it's not that huge a deal to miss one commerce for a few turns, anyway.
I'm curious about the RPC rules though, is Universal Suffrage legal (I mean rush buying) or not?

Yes, we can use US to rush buy buildings. My thinking is that speeding up improvements to the city is good for getting more gold! Emphasis on courthouses, mints, markets, grocers, banks!

 

[CivCorpse]

First off, i now hate you...Your name is the third highest in my high score list. I am now officially rooting for Monty. J/K, was a great map...I ran away with the game post medievil. As for the MM boo-boos. I play marathon too and early in the game you sort of click end turn a lot. So you forget the evil city govenor is doing bad things.
Since the mean ole barbs beat up your pig pasture, I would suggest mining that hill until you get HR to raise the happy cap. You can use the 2 food from the city center to feed the worker on the tin hill and work the mined pigs and grassland cottages with your other citizens. you'll be food nuetral. You can repasture when you get some happiness. If you want a couple specialists instead of cottages then you can work the corn for the 2 scientists you get with a library.

 

[Rubbaduck]

3) Continue to settle to the north. REX baby, All three of the CIV IV african leaders can REX as good as any Russian!!!!

Nobody can REX as good as Cathy(not even joaoaoaoa.)

Nice play, good ol' Monty being himself is alwyas entertaining, especially when he gets nothing done.

 

[ANewGuy]

Hm...

Get the Mids done, and settle to the North, while getting Military in the other cities to prepare for Mansa Musa vs. Monty II With Maces and Trebs.

 

[madscientist]

GREED THREE !!! Part III (heh heh)

well, these RPC rules are tougher than they appear! At least in my play style (whatever that is!). Nevertheless, I played the game out and got terrible results, picking poor techpaths, doing dumb things, I had another off-line game in my head whioch in volved a catastrophic war against Monty which tainted this game play (it happens). So I restarted from the previous save and things are going better although the game played a little different. In the future I shall stick to monarch difficluty for the RPCs, this changing back and forth is throwing off my game.

But the good news is that we are on tracj with this game, although not very easy. Then again, GREED comes at a price!

First thing, the capital city screen as we start on the pyramids.

One of those flexible capitals, can go production/specialists/commerce.

Techpath went : fishing/sailing/alphabet/currency/ and start CoL. The Currency issue was the major change as we desperately need it ASAP, and the alphabet route is the fastest.

We also started to get the gem mines active for some needed commerce to edge the slider up.

Now you can see that Jag in this screenshot

Well, it's another of Monty's SoD coming at us. And I had just sent a stack of HAs off to claim a northern Barb city. Time for an about face.

And as expected

Follwed by some extra rubbish

Peter was rather easy to fend off, no real big stacks like Monty, and we got peace soon at the cost of 100 gold. Sure MM is heart-broken at losing some gold but as another poster pointed out before you can'y make too much of a profit dead.

However, we managed to lure Isabella into the fray.

That distracted old Monty for a bit.

Soon we popped the Pyramids.

OK, alot of options with this wonder here. US to rush buy some buildings, Police State for a fast army to rip apart Monty, or beakers via representation. We elected for US for now.

Monty's cities were too well defended to attack, so we ent on a pillage raid to get some of our gold back we gave to Peter for peace.

Eventually Monty has to go down, and Mansa Musa has his eye on that Holy City.

After peace Peter was still pleased and willing to deal.

We finally took peace with MONTY.

And constinued to build military for a future attack, particularly swords since we get the shield promotion for free from an earlier random event.

We then moved against that northern Barb city.

After currency we saved. A view of the total land area of our empire

Note we settled another city on the coast near the iron. Several more good spots we probably should focus on, MONTY can be such a distraction.

And tech

MONTY declared war on Isabella, and he will also give us Mathematics AND polytheism for Currency which I think we should take.

Now I say we go CoL, followed by construction. With cats we agressive try and take out Monty in on very strong attack!

Well, what do you all think?

 

[PaulusIII]

Never a dull day with Monty

I agree that he must be taken out. Mansa just must get his hands on Tenochtitlan. The gold, oh the gold...

Unless izzy founds her own religion and adopts it she's probably friendly until FR. That would give you time to deal with the Russians before Peter backstabs you again.