Role-Play Challenge: Nature-Boy Gilgamesh

[madscientist]

Ridiculous restrictions? Why of course, it's an RPC!

Seriously, I went after space in the Sitting Bull game because that was the most difficult victory condition for pollution and required us to explot the pollution aspect.

Regarding Gilgamesh, I think culture IS the most difficult (well space is not much fun here). Military seams too easy and diplomacy soso.

AND, don't forget trade route comemrce and the value of good relations!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Of the VC's culture is probably hardest. You could run artists with sistine (built or just captured), and build the multiplier buildings. With enough smacking of other civs you'd win eventually but not easily. Since you can see my 1 AD spoiler now you probably have an idea how I intended to take this at the time .

Military isn't THAT easy, though. As you expand you'll find commerce somewhat lacking, and courthouses, even our cheapo early ones, only do so much. NO hammer multipliers means markets + merchants are probably the best source of cash, but that slows down tech and our production isn't spectacular. Military is definitely doable of course, but "too easy", huh? Why don't you show us how easy it is then, since I took the TRUE easy way out to win this time .

 

[bestje]

you could run a begging economy if you are popular enough with the AI: where you request their gold as often as they are likely to give it to you?

culture sounds pretty tough though, it will probably require those really expensive corps and may be quite late on in the game

 

[madscientist]

NatureBot Gilgamesh: Part IV

I really think that Gilgamesh was wood for brains. NOT the best RPC I think although we are probably doing better than I elt on. Suffice to say that the entire world is erupting into warfare yet for some reason I cannot fathom we have stayed under the radar.

So let's take a look at this rather short and uneventful segment

The techpath: Aesthetics/Lit/Music/Drama/MAchinery/Paper. I think perhaps the culture techpath was a mistake as we missed out on all the culture wonders AND the Great Library.

Nevertheless, early on we made a few trades

We also trades Philosphy to Toku for metal casting.

And as you can see, these close border bring out the best in the AI

In this RPC I gotta say MenInTeam was certainly right in his approach in the Shadow. I should have rammed Vultures down everyone's throats. Ah well, the price payed for losing one's thoughts in the more pleasant things in life!

I now decided a few things

1) We cannot realistically assemble an army to conquer the world unless you think vulture will outlast rifles.

2) Diplomatically I stand no chance as too many leaders want me to join their wars and there is not exactly any natural borders here.

3) If I plan to march down the Culture road I had better start

Which netted us

We culture bombed the GA in this city to fight some culture wars against an Athens loaded with wonders.

I must say our techpath was terrible and tech pace abysmal with little hope of recovering. However we did manage to steal

We revolted to try and keep Justinian and Saladin fairly social. Justinian is friendly and sal is cautious.

After machinery we see

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

We opted for Paper to make a desperate attempt at Liberalism. Hey, you never know.

I figured let's get another Great Artist, or perhaps a Great Scientist to bulb education. We got

OK, not the end of the world. I sent him off for a 3300 gold mission so I can get the slider above 20%. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After Paper I saved witht eh tech situation as

I can get Civil Service from Pericles for Paper and 500 gold.

However, on the military side

Pericles is not too popular, and neither is Sal.

So I am thinking to stop worrying and enjopy life here. Sure it may come to a bad end, but perhaps I should just enjot the environment bueaty of the game, keep up the god diplomatic front, and make a run at Education/Liberalism.

My goal is to get

Education
Liberalism
Printing Press
Sci Method
Chemistry
Biology

and then ramp up the culture slider

That is SIX techs, and somehow to defend ourselves with crossbows and longbows!

On the other hand I lose the monestaries at Sci Method so perhaps I should stop at liberlaism???

 

[Joshua368]

You'll also want to pick up Medicine before it's over. (requires Biology and Optics) Environmentalism will let you get some nice commerce from all the forest preserves, you'll want that for the culture win. Plus if you pop a great merchant you might be able to use him for Sid's Sushi which is a super culture corp if you have enough resources.

 

[Loki Strikes]

I'd say atm I see two culture options:
Stop at lib, free speech and GA farm everywhere and erm pray.
Go to Medicine go enviro and use forest preserves for commerce, however I don't know if the time it takes getting there is worth it compared to if you had been running culture slider for that period.

 

[UWHabs]

I'd go for environmentalism/forest preserves giving commerce/culture corps (not spread widely, since env and corps suck together).

 

[Killroyan]

Woohaa, we need representation badly if you want to go the cultural road and still need some decent research. I would definitely get CS since you are way behind and the capital could use the boost. I would not already go full culture slider after liberalism. You need some of the cultural corps to get stuff going, the national park in a good city, environmentalism, but then again, cultural will come very late. How many religions did you obtain already?

 

[madscientist]

NatureBoy Gilgamesh: Part V

Well, a little action here, and moving along our determined tech path!

we start by pulling the trigger on this trade as discussed

For which we were greatly rewarded with

So we ran some of our outdated forces towards Pericles

While he sent some inefficient stacks against our CG III defended cities. In a nutshell, it was a push that we got peace at the cost of 300 gold.

We popped another GA which we used to bomb borders on the third culture city.

And we proceeded to build some cathedrals as we could

Techpath went: Education/Printing Press (partial)/Liberalism (NOT first) and saved

After education we are in a good tech hole

I bit the bullit and traded it arround to the Hindu leaders.

Leaving us at

Seeing the next GP to pop would likely be a Great Scientist we started teching Printing Press which no one had.

We bulbed the remainder of PP and looked at techs

we unloaded as mush as we could

Not bad. we then teched Liberalism to get to Free Speech.

Next GP was a GA

Another culture Bomb with the next GP to come out being 100% chance of a Great Artist.

One more trade after liberalism

Leaving us at

I saved here looking at 4 techs we need. Chemistry/Scientific Method/Biology/Medicine and perhaps somewhere along the line Corporation if we can get a GM.

A question is what civics do we want now

FS is a no brainer. Which helps diplomacy right now, FR or Theocracy. Justinian is now Christian, Sal and Pericles Hindu, the others Buddhist.

Looking at ALOT of Great Artists if possible.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Great game to watch Mad, may I suggest pacifism instead of Theo or Free religion though? Justi will stay pleased or above with shared religion boost, Sal and Pericles are heathens and you can probably keep them busy with someone (like Just) while you pop GAs like no one's business. I don't see much reason to go FR as your diplo would suffer quite a bit, Justian alone would probably drop to cautious if he lost religion and civic bonuses.

 

[z0wb13]

got to agree with Loki_Strikes and pacifism. free religion isn't a good civ for a cultural win. however, it will depend on whether or not there are some theocracy-as-favorite civs.

 

[Low Beau]

Good luck Mad, I would go with:

HR, Free Speech, Keep it on Caste, Merc (for a free Artist specialist) and Pacifism to help boost GA birth rates.

Man, your restrictions are insane on this one!

 

[bestje]

the advantage of FR is that all religions produce culture, granted its not much but an extra 2/3 culture/ turn does add up.

however I agree that pacifism is the best choice as GArtists are what you need right now

 

[semirami]

There is a long way to Medicine. This means neglecting some important military techs like Rifling and Steal. He still needs to defend himself and he must do it with obsolete units, so he needs a lot of them. Pacifism will just kill his economy. I'd stick with Theocracy here. More promotions and you make the both zealots happy. Another thing. You desperately need Scientific method. Why not try to produce scientist next to lightbulb part of it. One artist less will not make any huge difference.

 

[Loki Strikes]

His diplo is fine, the Buddhist bloc won't attack him and if he keeps the hindu bloc otherwise occupied with the Buddhist bloc he can afford pacifism just fine, the best defense is good diplo.

 

[semirami]

His diplo is fine, the Buddhist bloc won't attack him and if he keeps the hindu bloc otherwise occupied with the Buddhist bloc he can afford pacifism just fine, the best defense is good diplo.

I dont think so. Not in this game. Victoria is a backstaber and will attack at pleased. Not to mention, that she'll adopt free religion soon. Justinian will drop to cautious, without Theo and Sal will drop to annoyed. Not to mention Toku with his ultimate gunpowder units and unlike most games, now he is doing well in tech. Very soon Mad will be like a sitting duck and he wont have anything to offer to keep the AIs busy.

btw, Mad do you know that Sal will trade Chemistry, if you temporary adopt Hinduism. I think it's worth 2 turns of anarchy.

 

[madscientist]

Nothing to offer! What about some beautiful landscaping!

Very good point about sal and adopting Hinduism. I have been thinking of swapping the religion but sticking with theocracy to keep Pericles off my back. Toku is a lost cause so what difference is religion there. Roosevelt and Victoria and so so on religion and Justinian will stay at least at cautious due to theocracy. By the way, I think pacifism is out of the question here, for the reasons Sem has highlighted.

Busy weekend, I plan on restarting teh game tomorrow.

 

[alfon]

Adopt pacifism and try to always get monopoli techs to trade and to keep everyone busy. Don't forget to tech rifling if you can for defensive purposes

 

[madscientist]

NatureBoy Gilgamesh: Part VI

Another pretty non-eventful segment for the Nature Lover although some interesting developements. Be forewarned, there is ALOT of trading here which is pretty damned amazing considering the science rate we are stuck with.

I started by adopting Hinduism for diplomacy with our neighbor Pericles and high man on the Totem Pole Sal. As predicted by Sem this trade became available

We then swapped civics

And targeted Scientific Method and Biology, filling in ALOT witht rades.

Such as

The continent erupted into war, leaving us and the pacifist Greeks out of it.

So on the diplomatic front this segment, by the end we got

Friendly or pleased with Sal, Pericles, Justinian

Cautious with Victoria but she's pretty far away from us and hates too many others

Toku and Roosevelt are vassals.

So we poured on the trades, wanting techs and not caring to make equitable trades

Personally I think all these leaders simply enjoyed sitting in Gilgameshes wonder woods during negotiations.

we popped another GA for a culture bomb

Finally capturing that elussive and now irrelevant copper source

I made this trade which I sort of wish I had held off

My thinking was to pry rifling off Sal for democracy, but he would not budge. Still we found a use later for democracy.

We were not without problems though. We totally crashed our economy while also having happiness issues from no emacipation

(Note the sliders here)

We are running caste and adopted representation (for science) so relieving happiness was difficlut. I finally bit the bullet and hiked the culture slider up, which did fine. Also we have some forrest preserves and thus additional happiness.

We got into one last round of trades while we finished up biology

And then while the world was at peace we opted for this

OK, this is chancy if Justinian or Victoria attack Sal. Then again it just may be enough to keep the other Ais off our back.

we solidified peace with teh Greeks with this random event.

Finally getting

And we saved there, starting on Medicine next.

We started on the national Park in the capital

Hopefully we will have a very strong number of Great Artists late in the game.

Current tech

My big question here is do I unload Biology for Rifling from our Arab friends???

And to show that everything is NOT roses

That is alot of culture pressure from Athens considering we have the hermitage there and dropped two culture bombs.

And Victory conditions

Looks like we have some competition for a cultural win!


So a few questions here

1) Do we trade Biology for riflings???

2) Do we keep the Arab defensive PAct???

3) Do we start adjusting GPs to pop a Great Merchant for Sid's??? To be honest it looks to add maybe 9 culture points and there is not much we can trade for more seafood.

 

[UWHabs]

Tough game so far. Without cottage spam, gonna be tough to get lots of culture.

One thing I found in my current game, for the National Park, it only counts forest preserves that are actually usable (ie. if you have a forest preserve shared between 2 cities, you need to have the preserve "active" in the NP city to get the free specialist from it).