Role Play Challenge, TNG: Mad Scientist, A New World Order

[madscientist]

MAd Scientist, A New World Order: Espionage and Tech Parity

SO I continued down the Education path, followed by Liberalism.

To start I made a trade with Sulieman to nab Drama and a map.

Sure I could steal it from Gilgamesh but I have bigger fish in mind, and Suleiman provided a nice map.

The last 2 leaders are Wang and Hyuna, both have their original traits.

But what did I do with the Great Spy???

Infiltrate makes the most sense here as I can get some really good techs really fast. I am losing the long term ability of a Scotland yard but so be it, this will help me get to other espionage producing techs faster.

The total eps towards Gilgamesh now

And since we already have a few spies stationed in the enarest city.

I stole both Guilds and Engineering, starting on castles in every city for the espionage bonus.

This leaves us at

And still no one has education. Since Charlemagne and Suleiman have NOT been at war (No you declared war on us diplo penalties) I gotta assume neither Hyuna or Wang are doign well in tech.

I made a commitment to a military city

Good production, a settled GG, and the big commerce from a pair of gold mines is becoming less and less necesary. I also built the National Epic in Bribrate as that looks to be the best GP farm, and nice having it built at double speed! Oxford also will go here.

One more time with espionage

So at the cost of a Great Spy we got Guilds/Engineering/Gunpowder! Pretty good and we still should have education to spin around in trades!

Before I make the education trade I want to close in on libealism first.

Also our espionage against Gilgamesh is not finished yet

I opted for

SO I can see where I stand on the astronomy end of things

I really want astronomy and printing press but not from liberalism. SO I swing a few trades

I could not get astronomy just yet, but I am satisfied for now. Liberalism is far enough along where I do not fear losing it unless I get a surprise from Hyuna or Wang.

The next Great Person was

Now the former Zulu capital of Ulandi has alot of forrests and that is my future NAtional PArk city, and I already have the Fordidden Palace here. I think an academy would be powerful here but at the moment I prefer a Golden Age.

Finally we are first to

The choices

I took replaceable parts for the immediate production improvement to any watermills.

The tech situation now

So we are beginning to have the ability to trade from a position of power here.

And the floodgates of potential trades open up.

I also managed this trade

SO in one turn I traded for everything I need to upgrade caravels to frigates!

Now I did just start the golden Age, so changing civics are an option still, but first let's see

The world is mercantilistic, thus

Every city get's a free spy specialist!

We now made contact with the Koreans

Who appears vassaled to Charlemagne.

Speaking of which the Holy Roman has not been prominant in any trades, however we found this opportunity

Showing that we have 2 good sources of oil

The last leader appears

Who is at war with Charlemagne. IN fact by the end of the segment Hyuna has vassaled to Charles and Suiliman is at war with him! I fear very soon Charles will have that entire continent under his tyranical iron fist!

After I finished researching rifling (Yeah I am more than a little concerned about old Charlie over there).

And I saved here.

TEchs

I really want nationalism, but damned cannot get it in a trade right now.

espionage

Slowing moving back onto Gilgamesh.

And our cities

SO we have a dozen cities. That's 12 free ep from the trait, 4 for the free spy from mercantilism, 2 from the courthouse. Fast Jails/Bureaus/Agencies would really put us over the edge!

Which leads me to the next choice, how to proceed? I am planning a Space Race here, leveraging the Secretive trait to run a late game Specialist-based game which stealing what I need from Gilgamesh and hopefully keep Charles behind enough in tech to defend against him.

Do I go after Communism for the espionage building and possible free Great Spy?

Do I manually research nationalism followed by consitution/democracy or wait for Gilgamesh. I certainly want to run the Nationhood civic once I get it, and representation get's me a big advantage with running spy specialists.

Biology seams like a very big tech here for Secretive.

Also, any/all the above tech pathes means delaying Steam Power/Assmebly Line/Railroad/COmbustion which could be more important if Charlemagne ends up beign a threat. Rifles are great for attacking but they are very susceptible to enemy grenaders which the AI tends to love using.

Save will follow tonight!

 

[UWHabs]

I'd probably go Communism to try to nab the free spy, then bio to build up, then go towards Democracy.

 

[CreeDakota]

i would hold off on nationalism, once Taj is gone there is a chance Suli will trade it. You may also want to investigate if Suli is worth trying to prop up as a foil against Chuck or if he is doomed. If he has a solid chance, gifting him rifles may create some balance of power overthere and allow your enemies to inflict even damage to each other in wars. He may also become friendly enough to give up nationalism and ecomics then.

I cant see what Gigalmesh is researching but obviously you need to avoid going along the same paths. If he is researching rifling right now it is probably worth trading it to get him started on something to steal.

+1 for UWHabs Tech path. After that i would probably head towards Combustion.

 

[MadmanAtW]

Another vote for becoming a commie.

 

[madscientist]

Md Scientist, A New World Order: A Stand Against the Inevitable

Moving along with the next segment here. We started by researching Communism to unlock the first of the three fast espionage buildings and try for the free Great Spy.

The next Great Person we got was

Which we used to build an academy in Ulandi.

Continual espionage brings ever more interesting techs to plunder from Gilgamesh

We were first to Communism

And used the Great Spy to build Scotland Yard in Ulandi.

At this point Suliman is taking a beating from Charlemagne and capitulates. However the tech situation is getting much better

And I decide to initiate a few trades

The bad news is we lack Uranium

We research Constitution, and at this point techs are

We make a trade with Charles for Steam Power

Who just got to "We Have Enough On Our Hands!"

Oh boy, the options are limited for who Charles will attack.

I start researching Democracy and I have NOT swapped civics yet.

But do we have coal??

Yes we do!

espionge nets us another tech

And after Democracy

Stealing Railroad certainly looks tempting here, as machine gunners can provide pretty good defense against potential rifles and we are one tech from combustion.

But for now we are spamming Jail/Bureau/Agencies while building rifles and start researching corporation followed by Biology.

After Democracy we also make a MAJOR civic change

Representation as I plan to run ALOT of spy specialists (4 beakers, 4 ep)
NAtionhood for +25% ep and emergency drafting.
State Property for even more food
Free Religion to keep Charles off my back for now.

The biggest problem is that Gilgamesh is not that friendly anymore, but he is still trading

Meanwhile we are starting to really benefit from espionage now.

The extra food from the secretive trait is also allowing me to run extra spy specialists.

And just as we finish Biology, we have enough eps to

Time to start researching Combustion for destroyers. Charles is slow right now and getting a large navy of destroyers cna keep Celtia safe, for a while.

Two of our major cities are Bribrate

Which has alot of excess foor with OXford and Scotland Yard as well as the NAtional Epic.

Ulandi

Has many forrest preserves and will be swimming in free spy specialists very soon.

After combustion I saved to decide what tech we research next

Techs

Gilgamesh is one turn from Assmebly line. We can steal either electricity or Assembly line very soon. I am thinking of Flight for airports and an airforce to repel any Holy Roman Attack.

eps

Well perhaps I can get both Electricty/Assmebly line fairly soon!

Either I am going to make a mad dash towards space or I am going to have a very long modern Age war.

 

[Yared]

WOW 700 per turn? Damn.

 

[UWHabs]

Well, this is sure a nice way to use the secretive trait!

 

[BigTime]

I love how you're stealing all these higher-level, expensive techs without even touching the espionage slider.

 

[madscientist]

Mad Scientist, A New World Order: The Holy Roman War!

A rather difficult segment here with the game almost collapsing. However, thanks to the supergenius and intellctual abilities of our leader here, things may yet work out.

We start by looking very closely at tech, Charlemagne's empire, and his we have enough on our hands. Mod or not, I have played against Charlemagne enough, so I decided to reduce the science slider to 0% to build gold and upgrade the frigates to destroyers

Chalres is still without combustion and we should be able to sink his navy if he is foolish enough to attack us.

Unfortunately, Chalres got combustion real fast and upgraded his own navy! Sure enough he brought a superior naval forces, sinking the Mighty Celtic Navy, and landing a Holy Roman Size invasion force on our eastern shores. Unfortunately, machine guns only go so far!

On the bright side, let me showcase our spectacular National Epic/National Park city

The security Bureau will allow us 2 more spy slots!

Fortunately, espionage cna be a great nuertralizer of brutal enemy agression.

Unfortunately the stupid Celtic spy was captured, forcing us to send more spies and steal it later. Meanwhile Charlemagne is not slowing up the attack to give us a chance to steal Assembly line.

I managed to use airships, cannons, and rifles to slow down this attack.

At teh same time, Gilgamesh plays the opportunist to perfection.

I gave in to the demand knowing I cannot survive a 2 front war here.

we popped another Great Spy

And build a scotland yard.

5 turns later we managed to steal

And once again dropped the science slider to 0% to upgrade rifles to infantry.

Here you can see Charles took our coastal city and is bearing down on teh capital. Fortunately I was able to get enough infantry and rifles (Through the draft as we are in nationhood) and destroyed the massive Holy Roman army that approached.

we did use espionge to steal

I was planning to ignore Military Tradition, however flanking II cavalry is the best way I know to pick apart an enemy stack loaded with seige weapondry.

Once Charlemagne's main army was destroyed, we initiated our own counter attack.

At this point Charlemagne was willing to talk peace.

Of course he wanted to city back which is why I offered Communism.

Now we finished flight and closing in on rocketry (more for the SAM units than a desire to get Apollo fast). We then got a Great Merchant

When combined with a saved Great Scientist allowed us to start a Golden Age.

Thnigs got interesting as Gilgamesh finished the UN

Charlemagne got the chairmanship and is a little too close to a diplomatic win for my taste. Perhaps next segment it may be prudent to take down Gilgamesh and raze the UN city, but we shall see.

We got a good random event

Every fighter now starts with the range promotion.

Using espionage we managed to steal

And started researching Industrialism rather than medicine. Battleships and tanks are more useful right now than hospitals.

The tech situation now

And espionage

Hell, that's a pretty fast recovery and we should be able to get something else soon.

We popped yet another Great Spy, and considered where to build the next Scotland yard.

One of the Former Zulu cities seams best

And with espionage we managed to steal

Note we are researching Industrialism now. Also note that Charles "Has Enough on His Hands Again"

We did have problems with teh UN though.

Not taking a chance, we defied it and got the -5 unhappiness. I hiked the culture slider up to 20% to compensate.

After Industrialism we find we have 2 sources of aluminum.

I saved here, looking to build up military while trying to tech and steal towards space.

Techs

espionage

And our cities

SO I looking at researching Plastics/Computers for the ever popular internet. Leavign Shaka alive may have been the best thing I did this game as Gilgamesh is giving him all techs, thus I can easily backfill alot by using the einternet.

Of course providing I can beat off the Holy Romans. With the UN vote I really need to consider defending Gilgamesh if he's hit rather than me!

 

[MyOtherName]

Have you considered settling the great spy?

 

[BigTime]

The internet would net you a lot of techs and with your amount of land and Charlie being backwards you could try to run out to a space race win. That or go and take on the beast in Charlie or secure your continent with the killing of Gilga. The internet should be able to get you a nice modern stack that could easily take out the backwards Charlemagne.

 

[Wacky_Warrior]

Excellent game. I had no idea tech stealing could be so potent. I don't imagine I'll ever play this mod, but I'm still learning quite a bit about empire management that I can use in my unmodded games.

Cheers.

 

[Yared]

Have you ever considered backfilling some of the land?

 

[madscientist]

@MON, for this game, no. I have done the settled Great Spy thing before but I wanted this game to play out differently.

@WW, While the Secretive Trait has certainly helped here, you can certainly steal alot of techs via espionage. Look at my classic RPC games Mao II and peter III which stole alot of techs. Peter staole the entire tech tree after Code of Laws.

@Yared, I considered it but frankly I have enough good cities to do what I want although more espionage points are always a bonus here.

Looking to start the next segment!

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

have you considered settling the great spy?

+1 qft

npm

 

[madscientist]

Finished the game and look for the update in a bit.

All I can say is that this was one of the most brutal games I have played in a good long while!

 

[Silv Something]

You finished? The suspense is killing me!

 

[madscientist]

Mad Scientist, A New World Order: The Brutal Ending!

So as I continue to rebuild the army/navy and direct all eps towards the Summerians to the south, I started teching

Plastics/Computers for obviously the Internet.

However, using a submarine to scout a bit we find

Yes, that is a fleet of doom approaching from Holy Rome.

You can see the massive stacks he dropped off in the background.

Meanwhile we utilize our espionage again

Really too bad we do not have Uranium.

In a viscious war, Charlemagne manages to destroy our entire navy as we slaughtered the entire invasion force.

No good came from this, a total waste. Stillw ekept our coastal city this time.

And looking at our cities

You can see I have begun Apollo.

Next tech we stole via espionage

With many Holy Roman soldiers laying dead on Celtia shores Charlemagne is willing to talk peace, for a price.

Frankly I am happy to start building again although very soon Charlemagne Has enough on his hands. This time I am building a MAssive army on the west coast.

The next Great person was a Merchant

Which was great timing as I sent him off on a trade mission for $2250 gold allowing us to increase the slider to research computers faster.

Then a really fortunate event occurred!

We popped Uranium from a mine! Got a second source soon after on teh adjacent hill! However, I did attempt to construct the Manhatten Project, but apparently Gilgamesh did.

we got this crashed airline random event

Although an extra 1000 eps is tempting, I opted for the +1 diplomacy option.

Once computers were researched, we began building the internet and researched superconductors and genetics. The question came up earlier if the AIs could use these new traits effectively. well Gilgamesh is also Secretive and managed to steal both COmputers and Superconductors!

However, I kept up the espionage pressure myself stealing

Another random event

And I chose the last option for +3 diplomatic points with Gilgamesh.

Charlemagne continued to try and force through civics that would hurt us, but we voted NO rather than defy

Because it seamed like Shaka was determined to defy everything anyway!

The horns of war start blasting again, and I am pleased to find out that Charlemagne has a new whipping boy

Not a wise move considering Gilgamesh built the Manhatten Project. After nuking teh devil out of the Holy Romans, Gilgamesh comes by with this request.

we declared war on Charles in order to help prevent Sumeria from being overrun and also for a bit of vengence!

Yes I have a few dozen Nukes that I deliver to Charlemagne.

With a pwoerful defense on our shores and non-stop nuking, espeically his coastal cities, Charlemagne soon looks for peace

It cost me 200 gold and Sumerria and Holy Rome stayed at war for a long time. Meanwhile, utilizing espionage once again

And I started SDI as soon as I could knowing some day Charlemagne would retaliate. You would think I would be set, huh!

To Be COntinued......

 

[madscientist]

Mad Scientist, A New World Order: The Brutal ending!

So here is the tech situation one turn before we finished hte Internet

Slam dunk Space race win right! You would think...

First of all, when the screne flashed the new techs available with each stolen tech, we accidently opted for Police State

I could have reloaded but said the hell with it, 5 turns is nothing now and I cna build an army a bit faster.

So I continued down teh space part path with composites/Fiber Optices/Fusion while building space parts as needed. However one serious problem is happen to NOT have a slam dunk stronge production city and have to utilize a few pretty good ones, like Bribrate and Ulandi.

However, now with espionage I can slectively steal techs that no one else has due to the internet, such as

followed by internet theft

we are amassing a crazy number of eps

With less and less to steal. However, those eps are absolutely critical as you shall see!

The last Space tech we got via the internet!

And I changed the slider from science to espionage! The main reason is that Gilgamesh is teching VERY fast and nearing the end of Fusion, plus has alot better production and has built the Space Elevator!

The Next Great Spy I used for an infiltration mission.

Because I spent a lot of espionage on sabatoging all of Gilgamesh's space parts

See the Victory screen

We may have beat him to Fussion but he will get the Space Ship Engines built first!

So while I am in a battle of wits with Gilgamesh, each of us sabotaging each others space parts (at least I am alot better at it than him).

Things got real bad!!!!!

To Be Continued!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[UWHabs]

Crazy ending here so far...