Role Play CHallenge: Joao the Restless

[slobberinbear]

Just picked up the thread ... nice concept and game, Mad. Your energy comes through in the posts, and you have clearly mastered the military and diplomatic aspects of the game. Let's hope you can get Restless Joao on Alpha Centauri ... FAR away from the madmen of Earth ...

 

[NintendoTogepi]

150k. I think he's safe for now. Just be sure to grab the media wonders if possible.

Spoiler :

Justinian is really wonderspamming, I took a WB look and the Cristo Redentor and Broadway are almost done and the SoL is halfway done.

Also, while I was reading SlobberingBear's (Excellent) Native American RPC I noticed this quote by Mad

After numerous meetings with Joao in my games, my suggestion is to kill the %$^$&** when you have the chance.

Joao would be so upset with you!

 

[d.a.oconnell]

Haha, nice. I feel the same way about Zara.

Mad, this thread has been very entertaining. I didn't realize Joao's caravel essentially is a galleon - that's awesome. I would say that you need to think about controlling justinian a bit. Keep emphasizing production in order to think about the space race, but keep an eye on Justinian's culture. If it get's out of hand, consider a suicide rush on one or two of his high culture cities (nuke maybe?) Good luck!

 

[madscientist]

A quick non-screenshot update as there is really not much to relate that a few words cannot address.

We are beelining computers for the internet, I believe we can shoot the Spaceship before Justinian gets a cultural victory (as stated earlier, he got all the modern era wonders).

There are three AIs left besides us who are not vassaled, Saladin(friendly), Justinian (friendly), Wang (Pleased).

Here is the kicker, Justinian has "We Have Enough On Our Hands".... Yet he is also friendly with Wang and Saladin as well as us. IS he one of those AIs that declares war on a friendly leader (or player?).

Finally, he does not have Mass Media yet, but if he get's the UN and absorbs Wang and/or Saladin there's not much stopping him from a Diplo win. Oh, and there is no realistic chance at a military action. INHO.

Advice????

BTW: He is friendly with Roosevel as far as I can see.

 

[madscientist]

Well, this is stupid. I ansered my own question, I just signed a DP with Justinian. As I understand, he will never declare on us now, correct???

 

[r_rolo1]

Well, this is stupid. I ansered my own question, I just signed a DP with Justinian. As I understand, he will never declare on us now, correct???

No..... DP is not a fool proof stuff. I had some cases where a AI with a DP with me Dowed me. Those cases are rare and most of the times the AI was already ploting agansit you before the DP agreement. But it can happen.....

 

[Hackapell]

It's more likely that he's going to declare on a vassal that he hates...

 

[siggboy]

There are still many turns left in this game. It is not out the window that Justin will run away here. It has happened in the first of the two shadow games that I've played. How does his power curve look? If he has a lot of military, he can crush pretty much everybody, including your vassal state.

Probably he's going to target neighbouring civs first, not somebody on the other continent. But his vassals, who are on your continent, will still be troublesome if he declares on you.

Since you have a lot of production power, and need to research pretty much everything anyway for a space win, I think you should pour quite a few hammers into making a strong navy when you have the necessary technologies. This will guard against an invasion from Justin.

If he ends up vassalizing enough civs to singlehandedly win a diplomatic victory, he will be close to domination anyway. At least Saladin is going to vote for you and not Justin should that come up (unless he's a vassal of Justin by then as well).

You have a lot of land, and after biology you can grow a lot of population as well. So I think neither Domination nor Diplomatic win is possible against you, without military action. If your defenses are good enough to hold back an invasion, you should be fine.

I'm VERY excited about where this will lead.

 

[r_rolo1]

It's more likely that he's going to declare on a vassal that he hates...

That also happened to me sometimes.... but the point stands: DP is not a no war warranty.

 

[Hackapell]

True, true, although Justinain will never declare if pleased, according to Civ IV reference booklet.

peace prob.(%): 30/80/100/100

 

[madscientist]

Joao the Brazilian: Part VII

Well, here is the segment so far. Things are looking very good for us, although as always there is still a degree of uncertainty.

First of all we made a trade with Justinian.

Our techpath the entire segemnt once we got a ket tech for industrialism and tanks was

Railroad/Combustion/Industrialism/Radio/Plastics/Computers/Rocketry/Fiber Optics/ start Superconductors.

After we build up our production base, we started filling in with science and gold buildings. This skyrocketed our research and finances. By the end we have near 2000 beakers at 80% science on the slider with a gold profit.

A trade with Saladin which opens up rocketry and allows us to build a better defense.

Which allows us to trade a pretty useless tech as far as spaceship production to Justinian for a tech that get's us closer to the internet.

And here is a view of Braga, where we kept most forrests, built forrest preserves, and the national epic and park. It is now a very good GP farm, producing GPs which can pop late game GAs!!! THe infrastructure buildings went along fairly quickly once the NP was built.

And we made this great trade with our the Old World

Too bad by the time he teched another tech we needed, we didn't need to make the trade. Sound odd, read on.

As I mentioned earlier, Justinian is gearing up for war (I think) and this random event helped

OK, Brennus was alreayd Furious at us all game, but the +1 bonus to Justinian helped.

Finally we tech computers (Justinian teched it 12 turns earlier) and we start the Internet in our Ironworks city.

ONe thing we have is ALOT of highly productive cities. One of those spacerace games where production is NOT really the limiting factor, the tech pace is.

Finally we get our first BRAZILIAN GP

Which we use to intiate a Golden Age to rush the internet and Apollo missions.

At this point Saladin declares war on Wang

We wait to see if Justinian get's involved, but he stays out and they eventually declare peace. Sal keeps asking for DPs from us, mostly because about 5 spies have been caught by Justinian tarnishing thier relations although they are still friendly at each otehr.

As far as Demographics

Doing very well although I think the Golden Age is altering this abit.

And we got a very nice random event

5% to spaceship production? Looking very nice!!

Finally, we actually beat Justinian to something

And we immediately get Fascism/Flight/Medicine/Military Science for free. All we need is for one other AI to tech robotics, satellites, refridgeration to get those for free. Ourselves, we shall pursue the techs only open to ourselves and Justinian. Let's see where this goes.

We saved here,

Tech situation

A trade for cash

Victory conditions

Culture does not seam as much of a problem, but if the UN falls into Justinians hands it may be tight.

Our cities.

Diplomacy of the world

And let's not forget

Justinian is friendly with Roosevelt. That helps. I seriously doubt Saladin attacks Roosevelt, but you never know.

So there you have it. Tech Superconductors for labs, we are already building airports for the +1 trade route. We have a greta engineer from the GP farm and looking for a different type for the GA. NExt tech is probably ecology for teh recycling plant and extra health (to compendate for the labs and Airports) then Fusion for the free GE. That allows us to build the most expensive parts first. Hopefully a GA will help finish techs AND quickly produce the casings/thrusters.

 

[siggboy]

Two things

1. You DO know that you can tell Roosevelt what to research, don't you?

2. You can use the Great Engineer to rush a later wonder, possibly the United Nations (or Cristo Redentor, if you don't have that already). This seems like a better use to me than starting another Golden Age.

Other than that, great game! Very nice tech rate and good production to boot. The Crashed Meteor event came just at the right time (I got it when my ship was already underway, which was utterly useless).

 

[madscientist]

Two things

1. You DO know that you can tell Roosevelt what to research, don't you?

2. You can use the Great Engineer to rush a later wonder, possibly the United Nations (or Cristo Redentor, if you don't have that already). This seems like a better use to me than starting another Golden Age.

Other than that, great game! Very nice tech rate and good production to boot. The Crashed Meteor event came just at the right time (I got it when my ship was already underway, which was utterly useless).

1) Yep, but there was no need. Roosevelt seams to be picking the right tech on his own.

2) A GA will rush SS parts construction for all the cities. I will likely end up with another GE from first to fusion anyway. THE Cristo redentor has also fallen, the only wonders left are the Space elevator and Hollywood (an option as happiness may be an issue).

Thanks, I think fleeing to space is a perfect ending for Joao. HE tried the new world but the other idiot AIs are still bothering him.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

It looks like Justinian doesn't have enough on his hands right now. But if he attacks anyone, it's definitely going to be Wang. While he's friendly with Wang, he's annoyed with both his vassals, so that averages the relationship out to cautious.

Maybe you should gift wang artillery and assembly line so he can defend himself? Right now he's a sitting duck for when justinian dows.

 

[bestje]

wait till he has enough on his hands as he has decided to attack and who to attack then gift the techs as this gives wang time to sort his defences out but doesn't make him less likely to be attacked

 

[madscientist]

Joao the Alpha Centurian: Part XIV

Old Joao found out that life in the New World was no more peaceful or quiet than in the origional Prtugese lands. So he ended leaving the worl behind totally, leaving his trusted friend Roosevelt to honor the Portugese tradition. THe ultimate explorer has gone out to explore space!!!!

Things got very interesting in the old world, however we maintained complete isolation from it. Addressing necessary issues with our Vassal Roosevelt and using the power of trades to limit Byzantine expansion.

We teched along as we discussed until we got another GP

To start another Golden Age. We actually got 1 more but after the Spaceship was launched.

And the Internet continued to work

Also Joao was delighted to hear about this new, obsessive game. He donated all the proceeds to the locla universities which actually was enough to shave 1 turn off the tech rate.

And simple trade for a little more cash, just to run the science slider a bit higher.

Now Saladin attacked Wang which he vassaled releasing Wang Vassals. We got this comical offer

Oh yeah right. Buddhism is mighty man, Justinian/Saladin/Joao are the three Buddhist brothers. All others are mere vassals. Take a hike Toku, become someone elses lapdog.

Just gotta love the internet

Robotics were too late for the space elevator as Justinian finished it just after we got the tech. MY guess is he released it to his vassals for defense.

The this occurred

Dammit, this is what I talking about. Joao is just disgusted by the old world nonesense. There has gotta be someplace where he can get some peace.

After a quick look at the Victory screen we realize that we cannot allow Justinian to roll over Sal.

So we offer this trade.

Sorry Sal, we cannot offer you a DP but we'll bail you out.

Then we got this from the internet.

Hmmm......... That is the one source of potential trouble.

We finally get the last part of the Ship built

30 turns I have found in BTS can be a LONGGGGGGGG Time.

At this point we gift every tech we have to Roosevelt except Fusion. I should note that I kept asking Roosevelt to adotp theocracy to get friendly with Sal and Justinian. Eventually I had to trade techs. 10 turns he was OK, then revert back, then I would trade again to force him back. Damned idiot, can't he realize I am trying to save his head from both Sal and Justinian.

With 11 turns left the UN pops up.

We abstain.

OK, between us and a ticked Saladin it's unlikely Justinian pulls out a diplo win. But Justinian still has other ideas, immediately after the vote

Come one Guys!

And to avoid any problems with Roosevelt another minor trade

Finally.....

Farewell Earth, Joao is exploring the Final Frontier!!!!!

Some views of the game

Power numbers

THAT is just plain scarey!!!!! See how far a little, or a LOT of diplomacy goes!!!!

Demographics.

Solidly #2 behind Justinian, but #1 where it counts!!!!

And the final Polaroid, Sent back to earth just before the Ship lands!!!!

I hope you enjoyed this RPC. Quite a challenge, but alot of fun!!!!! Sometimes, only ONE RPC rule is needed to get a good game out!

Recap to follow!

 

[Solon70]

Awesome job and a great read. Very nicely done!

 

[madscientist]

RPC recap....

RPC Rules:

Well there was not much we could do to cheat in this game. We spun the Old World off more than a century before 1776! Brazil was born!!!

Game rehash, why we won.

1) First of all, we started off with a piece of garbage land., Sure Lisbon was a great GP farm (the biggest thing we missed after spinning the old world off) but we had basically 2 other decent cities and alot of ice.
2) Sword Rush of Sury. Man does that feel good!!! and all that gold, cottaged floodplains, and furs gave us enough enouhg commerce to easily absorb the Khmerian lands.
3) We really had little close border problems and once we joined the Buddhist block diplomacy was pretty easy. Shaka was the one issue.
4) Early optics and settling of South American. North America was production heaven but the south had alot of good coastal regions when combined with the Portugese UB allowed us to have a stable economy once we spun off the Old World.
5) Speaking of which, we worked in reverse this game. Most of the new world cities, particularly the north we build up the production base with forges/levees first, then at much cheaper hammer rates went after science and gold.
6) Through greta diplomacy and an ocean we could limit our military and maximize research so we teched past Justinian for a Space win.

I hoped everyone enjoyed this RPC. The next one will be

Brennus, a Simple Man. Charasmatic Brennus is loved by all, he is a very jovial guy, ready to laugh and have fun in peace or laugh and have fun in battle. Nothing sours his mood, even war. While being big and lovable, he is none too bright though. He can only build farms and mines, plus improve any appropriate resources. He can build roads (and eventually railroads) but cannot build cottages, watermills, workshops, windmills, or lumbermills. He won't waste his time on any World wonders but will build national wonders. He can run limited specialists, but caste system is forbidden and thus the classic SE game. This is a Farm/mine economy and Brennus is plenty willing to try it out!!!! Note, he MAY build research and wealth!

 

[Groogaroo]

Another excellent game, well played . I felt it was another game of ups and downs from the rather rubbish looking starting land to rushing suly and all the highs and lows from the heavy maintenance costs you began to get as you settled the new world to finally pulling a fine victory out of the bag!

Nice!

I'm looking forward to the Brenus game, It'll be interesting to see what you can achieve with just mines and farms and... No Wonders!!!

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

The Brennus game pretty much needs to be on a global highlands map. On a standard map you're going to have way too much food if you're farming all your grasslands and can't run caste system. A global highalnds map will give you enough hills to counteract all the farms.