[RPC] Hannibal's business

[Navarre]

A Great Scientist appears in Carthage. We make him build an Academy, because Carthage is still our main and almost only source of research.. We begin to research Nationalism and then Constitution.

People keep begging for stuff, they still didn't get it. Joao keeps asking our map in tribute, probably to know where we are and attack us if we refuse. The man is an endless source of entertainment.

We notice a recrudescence of military activity in Justinian's borders.

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He's friendly, but still, we're not sure his heathen vassal Mansa won't get him to declare war on us, so we increase our military training as well and begin to cross fingers. If he declares war on us, that might be a problem. A big problem.

But...

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Now we must say we didn't expect that one... not too much at least. We lose Chehalis but his army is decimated, there's only a maceman left to keep the city. Our mighty expeditionary corps which was guarding the northern border of Co takes it back. We begin to research Military Tradition and decide to make money speak :

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This should keep her off our back and strenghten our relations.

Mansa comes back AGAIN :

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We tell him to bugger off again, but now he's annoyed, and so are we looking at Justinian's army. But Justinian decides to declare war on Augustus and his vassal Frederick instead. We're now as safe as we can be from our own continent, but the others are about to get gallions, so we begin to research Chemistry.

The war with Huayna Capac isn't going anywhere, and we're about to make peace, but then we have an idea and decide to wait for a while, until...

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Muahaha ! Didn't except that one Capac, did you ? Superstition might have its uses. Our "brothers in faith" now positively love us, and that's good. Even Mansa stops frowning at us.

After building cothons all over the place, we wonder why our harbormasters don't look happy, and we remember they want 5 caravels too. We remember that just before discovering Chemistry which lets us build frigates and privateers and obsoletes caravels ! Since our harbormasters want caravels and nothing else, we change our research to Replaceable parts and build caravels like crazy.

It pays :

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Lots of wealth ? Where do we sign ?!

We finish RP and Chemistry and begin to research Military Science. A Great Artist appears in Hadrumetum. We think about keeping him for later use (Jewelers), but instead decide a Golden Age would be nice, and change our civics to Representation and Caste System. We test Free Religion, but Justinian looks sad and we come back to Pagan Buddhism to cheer him up.

Victoria makes peace with Huayna Capac, so do we and we sign a defensive pact with the English. Military Science is discovered, we begin to research Steam Power and to train grenadiers to protect all these coastal cities we have. We bribe Victoria into Representation to strenghten our links, since somebody told us it's her favourite civic.

We notice she has discovered Military Tradition, so we decide it's time to destroy our wonders.

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That's a lot of money and we'll be able to run full research for a while with that.

A Great Merchant appears in Carthage. We're not too sure of what to do with him, and think about sending him in Portugal to make money, but the oceans aren't safe since Victoria has canceled our defensive pact to declare war on Huayna Capac and we're open for an attack, so we keep him for further usage.

Steam Power is discovered, we begin to work on Communism to have a Great Spy. It's not that useful since we don't run any espionage but we could use another Golden Age later.

It turns out we were right :

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Isabella sneaked on Hadrumetum and declares war on us. We're a little bit nervous because we know she's competent at war and loves to raze cities, but our defenders resist and repel the attack.

Joao still struggles to understand the basis of economy :

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"Small gift" he calls that. We tell him... well, you know.

Communism is discovered, a Great Spy is born in Carthage, and we're made an indecent proposal :

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THE DEVIL ! THE DEVIL I SAY ! We pray the Holy Coin to make that nightmare go away.

We begin to research Rifling. Isabella pillages two fishing boats and comes to her senses. We make peace and she pays what she broke.

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Victoria has made peace with Huayna Capac and offers us another defensive pact, we agree.

Rifling is discovered, we begin to research Steel and see that our generals have once again celebrated a little bit too much :

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"I got an idea ! Let's attack our allies to take them a source of that copper we gonna have anyway soon from our next settlement !"
"Yeah, let's do that !"

Winos. We hide the alcool and everybody goes to bed.

 

[Navarre]

Our wealthy empire :

North :

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South :

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Co :

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I'll make one last settlement 1 NW of the cuirassier to grab that copper.


Cities :

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Carthage :

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Too many cities to post all the screens.


Foreign advisor :

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I'm leader in tech if Mansa isn't too far in the Electricity path.


Power graph :

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Not too bad, and that's gonna be better since I'm the most advanced in military techs.


Demographics :

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Best GNP already, highest pop.


Top 5 cities :

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Mansa turned wonder-hog and built everything in Timbuktu, his powerful coastal city with like 2 longbowmen in garnison. Soon Justinian will be too backwards to protect him from me if I decide to pay him a visit. Burn a city with 10 or more world wonders to the ground must be funny...


Financial advisor :

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Civics :

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The world as we know it :

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A list of the demands I refused :

945 AD Joao 390 Gold (Tribute)
960 Isabella 180 G (T)
980 Huayna Capac 130 G (T)
1015 Joao Code of Laws
1065 Izzy Philosophy
1150 Justinian Education
1195 Joao World Map (T)
1205 Frederick Drama
1250 Augustus Philosophy
1285 Huayna Capac Paper
1290 Isabella 100 G (T)
1320 Mansa Musa Economics
1406 Isabella Printing Press
1408 Joao World Map (T)
1418 Victoria Printing Press
1428 Isabella Clam (T)
1528 Isabella Military Tradition
1530 Augustus Education
1554 Mansa Musa Military Science
1572 Joao 4200 G (T)
1592 Huayna Capac Replaceable Parts

And numberless "stop trading with ...".

Sorry people, nothing for free.


The future :

Normally I'd research Assembly Line right now, but I want to secure Mining Inc and Sid's Sushi first. So that gonna be Steel > Railroads > Biology > Medecine if nobody goes Biology first. Then Physics > Electricity > Radio to get a resource-producing wonder if Mansa hasn't hogged everything yet, in which case I'll work on taking his capital to my own benefit. UN Victory seems to be out of reach due to the numberless demands I refused, so I'll go Space Race I think. Or Joao will finally find his courage and dow on me with a stack of ultimate doom, but somehow I doubt it. I've never seen him do anything good in warfare. Well, we'll see.

Comments, constructive criticism and suggestions welcome.

 

[PaulusIII]

Joao and Izzy never learn, do they... Joao in particular will always try to get something for free. Is there no way to oust these beggars from the great Carthaginian business? (I'd even say that a 'Stop trading with Spain/Portugal' request sounds reasonable now. No beggars in the shop!)

And since your military is on the rise, I'd say go for Assembly Line nonetheless, train some infantry, then start planning some hostile takeovers. Mansa is IIRC likely to go up the electricity path rather than railroad or medicine (especially now he's wonderhogging) and the rest is even further behind in techs.

Oh, and I don't know what Joao might be up to. He might be sending some mobsters to you to extract some money. Sink all Portuguese vessels at sight.

 

[Navarre]

I have military techs but I still lack the production to build enough troops, and it's supposed to be a peaceful game around commerce. We'll see what happens.... Suspense....

The next round is played, I'll post it as soon as the pics are uploaded.

 

[Navarre]

Hannibal's business chapter 3 : Corporations ! (1594-1903 AD)

(At first it was supposed to be a short segment, but one more turn...)

Mansa Musa has discovered Democracy and started to build one BIG statue. We wonder where the people live in Timbuktu, with all these huge useless buildings. Our diplomats tell us he's now researching Biology. We keep on researching Steel, but think we'll have to delay Railroads if we want to discover Medecine first.

We pay a guy named Herodotus to write a book telling how advanced we are :

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Everybody is impressed.

Mansa Musa builts another huge thingie, called Versailles, right next to his capital. Another wise use of production, as ever.

The one mountain we have in our southern lands decides to go volcanic on us, and destroys a pasture, a lumbermill and a mine near Hippo.

Our last city is settled, right on the copper in Co to be sure it stays ours.

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As you can see, the commerce it runs on the sea pays more than the city costs us in maintenance. Man, do we love the sea... And the commerce, of course.

We discover Steel and make some preliminary research on Railroads. Turns out Mansa Musa is now researching Medecine, so we trade Biology with Justinian, cutting us own throat by giving him Replaceable Parts, Military Science and some gold. We begin to research Medecine ourselves. We're now running a better research than the Malinese, so it will be ours.

Another Great Merchant is born. Together with our Great Spy they unleash a Golden Age. We can use that to try that Emancipation thing, once we have Democracy ourselves. We know the English work on that, and they'll probably trade it to us.

We discover Medecine first. Mansa Musa finishes his huge statue, Victoria discovers Democracy and we trade it with her, giving her Biology. We adopt Emancipation and wait for our Golden Age to end to found the mighty Sid Sushi's corps !

Carthage is still our most wealthy city by far, so we think about founding our corporation there. But we don't like the idea of a coastal HQ, it's too easy to sneak onto it. We found it in Leptis instead, which can use the extra culture and food and will become worthy of Wall Street after that.

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Sushi in a bun anyone ?

We discover Railroads and found Mining Inc in Carthage. Now, what happened to that "No coastal HQ" will you ask... Well, do we ask you how you run your business ? Carthage deserved a Corp, that's it.

Spoiler :

Time to research Assembly Line at last.

Did we mention that Joao keeps asking stuff ? Well, he keeps asking stuff. But we try once again to teach him the value of commerce and trade Physics he has for Communism and Military Tradition. Now he can threaten us with cavalry, aren't we nice ? But since we'll soon have Infantry we don't care, and we need Physics now that Mansa Musa is researching Electricity. He'll hog all the wonders if we let him, we know the man.

We still lead the Palace thingie and decide to show to Isabella who still doesn't want to trade with us what it means to be the king. Everybody on our continent stops trading with her. That'll teach her.

In 1712 AD we pay another dude to write another book, and everyone is still impressed, but a little bit less. We're still the most advanced, ain't that good ?

Victoria has a lot of fun hitting on Isabella apparently, and we don't want to disturb her. So when Justinian cames to offer us a defensive pact, we agree. And another volcano makes fireworks to show how we're happy, this time on Co. We lose several improvements near Chehalis.

Since we've founded Mininc Inc Joao became even more a jerk, and we have to buy his silver always at higher price. That kind of sucks, but we need it.

Assembly Line is discovered, we give a shot to Fascism to have that Great General and Carthage start to build the Pentagon. We settle the general in Carthage to show the youngsters how to do and we begin to research Electricity. Mansa Musa has discovered it but doesn't want to trade it and is now researching Fission. His research has dropped a lot, and our agents tell us Malinese scientists are now learning to sing. Someone's going cultural Mansa ? You do that.

Justinian declares war on Augustus again, and Augustus comes to Carthage.

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The man sure knows how talk to us. We must say, we're tempted. But we don't agree, and sell Caesar a sushi instead.

Mansa Musa keeps asking us to convert to Hinduism, whatever that is, and Joao keeps becoming more of a jerk with his silver. It gives Mansa an idea and he becomes a jerk with his crab. How are we supposed to do business like that ? That's cutting us own throat !

We discover Radio and begin to research Mass Media. We start working on the Christo Redentor, it looks really cool.

A Great Scientist is born in Hippo, we keep him for a later corporation. Another mountain goes volcanic on Co and we lose again some improvements. That's becoming kind of old.

Carthage has built the Pentagon :

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Haha, fear us ! We start working on some good old Rock'n'roll. The people says a miracle happened, and pilgrims begin to come to visit the walls of Carthage. We sell them lots of stuff, that's good.

Mass Media is discovered, and we found Civ Jewelers in Leptis. We trade Electricity for Combustion and some goodies with Victoria, and begin to research Industrialism.

Joao becomes so much of a jerk we decide not to buy his silver anymore. People in our empire are pissed, we have to run some culture (10%) and riots destroy improvements near Avar, on Co. That's the moment Isabella chooses to declare war on us again. She attacks Chehalis and loses his army and his fleet.

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Her frigates don't do so well versus our destroyers, so we don't care until we notice this :

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Looks like old Augie got himself some ideas... For what we know :

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That's stupid ideas. He gonna go medieval on us, our infantry doesn't believe it.

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Macemen and trebuchets don't do better versus our infantry. Too bad Augie !

Well, now that Augustus declared war on us, we've lost several trades with him and our people are even more pissed. We increase our culture and buy Joao's silver, cutting us own throat.

We use the Palace thingie once again and everybody on our continent declares war on Augustus, so we can sell weapons. That's good business.

Spoiler :

Soon after, The Christo Redentor is built (forgot the screenie). Wars have strenghtened our links with Victoria and Justinian enough for us to forget about superstition, and we declare everybody free to believe in which superstition he chooses. People are happy and we don't have to run culture anymore.

And now, they're dancing !

Spoiler :

We need some broadcast towers with that, so Carthage starts building a huge one, we'll call it the Eiffel Tower. Kerkouane starts working on making movies. Industrialism is discovered, we begin to research Artillery.

Oups, forgot ! We're still at war ! Well, let's end this :

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Augustus is ready to make peace too, but everybody on our continent fights him and we don't want to singularize. Artillery is discovered, we begin to research Rocketry.

We lose the AP to Justinian. Hmm, too bad, looks like we'll have to defy resolutions...

We're now making show business !

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Rocketry is discovered, we begin to research Refrigeration to keep sushis tasty.

We found Standard Ethanol. We don't need it and we're not too fond of it, but that's one more thing the others won't have.

Justinian uses the Palace thingie to ask if we want to declare war on Augustus. Since we've just made peace and are trading, we answer Never !

Refrigeration is discovered, we found Cereal Mills in Carthage for the heck of it and begin to research Ecology to get rid of all that pollution our factories and coal plants produce. Environmentalism is taboo for us so we've been suffering of unhealthiness real bad since we've discovered Assembly Line.

We begin to send executives in other countries to spread Jewelers. This way, we'll make more money. Justinian is our first target, and Victoria who has founded Creative Construction does the same thing. We send an expeditionay corps of 4 executives on the other continent to found a branch there, but almost everybody is in State Property or doesn't have what it takes to make jewels. We have to found our branch in Portugal. Joao will probably become even more of a jerk with his silver, if that's possible.

We have the highest population in the world and some solid friends, so we've decided some time ago to build the United Nations in Carthage. We should be elected and that will give us some commercial opportunities, which we like.

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We're opposed to Augustus, and win the elections, 781 versus 612 votes.

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Ecology is discovered, we begin to research Superconductors and soon decide it's time to kill the Palace.

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Now we're the great leaders of the world, and do it our way.

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More, more, always more money !

Superconductors is discovered, we begin to research Computers to build an Internet ! That way people will buy more stuff online.

We trade Flight with Justinian to sell sushis by plane, discover Computers, begin to build the Internet and research Robotics. We also propose another resolution.

Spoiler :

Business with everybody, like Mother Money wanted us to. Robotics is discovered and we research Satellites, because we're now thinking about a new business plan

But that's for later.

 

[Navarre]

Our wealthy empire :

South :

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Victoria's influence is no longer a problem thanks to Sushi and the Creative executives she sent.

North :

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Co :

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Carthage :

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68 Gold from trade routes and soon 80 with the airport. Now is that making business or what ?


Foreign advisor :

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Still first in techs. The ones on my continent keep up mainly because I autorize them too and offer them trades.


Power graph :

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Ridiculous but anyone attacking me would face an instantly drafted and rush-buyed army of mech infantries, so I don't care.


Demographics :

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Good enough.


Victory conditions :

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Nobody can win a Diplomacy victory, Conquest and Domination are out of reach too. Victoria and Joao have built Apollo but are lagging behind in techs, and Mansa will never achieve 150000 Culture in his three cities. Even if it was possible, Timbuktu is still coastal and I can now build level 4 Marines...

Looks like it gonna be easy from there...

 

[Navarre]

Hannibal's business chapter 4 : Sausages in space ! (1903-1957 AD)

We decide to propose a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, just in case Joao is even more a jerk than we think he is.

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According to Machiavelli, we're still the most advanced. Then something strange happens :

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Now what was that ? Revenge of the sushis ? We decide to investigate what's going on in the space around our planet, to see if someone out there is playing tricks on us.

Satellites is discovered, and we don't see anything shifty. We wonder if there are others customers out there in deep space, so we begin to build a spaceship and we decide to build a huge Elevator.

We begin to research Composites. Isabella declares war on Augustus. Well, that keeps them busy and at least while they're fighting each other they don't declare war on us. Too bad, she gets whooped and capitulates soon after.

Composites is discovered, and we begin to research Genetics. Our most productive cities work on the spaceship and the others well developped ones build mech infantries to protect us from a stupid idea from someone.

We love Free Religion, and decide everybody should give it a try. The others agree.

Spoiler :

(I was expecting Justinian and Isabella to defy it, I wanted to cripple them a little bit.)

Joao beats us to the Internet. Unexpected, but we didn't rely on it. A Great Scientist appears in Hippo, and we found Aluminium Co.

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Genetics is discovered, we begin to research Fiber Optics. Justinian has discovered Advanced Flight and is willing to trade it, so we give him Ecology.

We're reelected in the UN, which shows how wise rulers we are. Hannibal's happy.

After Fiber Optics we begin to research Fusion, the last tech we need to build our spaceship. The Space Elevator is built :

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We have an idea to boost commercial traffic in Carthage :

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(The debug event you see is the BUG mod's reminder. I used it to know when it was time to run another counter-espionage mission.)

Fusion is discovered. We change our civics for Universal Suffrage and Bureaucracy. Universal Suffrage will allow us to buy the buildings we don't have yet in the cities on Co and will make our cottages more productive, and Bureaucracy will allow Carthage to build one of the two engines for the spaceship faster. We shut down our research for a while and stack money to buy the buildings and modernize our army.

A Great Engineer is born in Carthage. We know that another Great Person will soon appear so we decide to keep him for a Golden Age. We already have two merchants. We settle one in Carthage, since we don't need money enough to send him on a dangerous trip around the world. Later, we'll have another Great Merchant, so we'll settle all the Great Merchants in Carthage and the Great Engineer in Thapsus, which has West Point and the Heroic Epic.

We decide to emancipate the world.

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Since we're in Universal Suffrage, Victoria doesn't approve our choice of civics anymore, and she finally looks less friendly. So we decide to make her an offer she can't refuse.

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She's friendly again and we trade Laser for Composites.

We discover a source of gems near Carthage and soon after a source of copper near Sicca. We've been mining these hills for like 6000 years, it's about time it pays.

Suddenly our defensive pact is canceled : Victoria is at war. We don't know what's going on but it's time for another UN resolution, so we propose to stop the war against her.

Turns out she has declared war on Justinian. That's one of the drawbacks of the Free Religion resolution, or she was drunk. We wait for the results of the resolution :

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Ok, so she was drunk. Justinian is now furious towards her, so we decide we don't want a defensive pact anymore.

We discover Stealth, and begin to research Future Techs. We're not sure what they are, but they seem interesting nonetheless.

Finally, our spaceship is built, and we lauch it to see if there are business opportunities on Alpha Centauri.

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We switch back to Free Speech to make more money.

We try to convince the others to do the same thing but...

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Looks like Isabella doesn't like people saying stuff on her.

The gems we discovered near Carthage give our jewelers an idea :

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More sales, more money, that's the kind of idea we like.

We propose the others to give a try at Universal Suffrage. They agree.

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Gibbon tells the world we are the whealthiest civilization there is :

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Well, I guess everybody figured that out a long time ago, but it's always good to see it.

Our obnoxious friend Joao asks a tribute for like the 692172834245th time :

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We tell him once again to go away and we learn that our spaceship has reached Alpha Centauri !

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We meet our first alien customer :

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And sell him a sausage in a bun. Cutting us own throat, as ever.

 

[Navarre]

Hannibal's business : Appendix

Score graph :

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Demographics :

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Best GNP : check.
(Best import/export : check.)


Cities :

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Mighty Carthage :

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81 Gold from trade routes, that's what I call commerce.


Buildings :

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Markets, grocers and banks in every city : check.
(Cothons and Customs houses in every coastal city : check.)
No monasteries, temples and religious world wonders : check.


Financial advisor :

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Civics :

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Adopt Free Market and stick to it : check.


Foreign advisor :

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I've been willing for ages to sell Medecine to Isabella to get her at Cautious and make her open her borders, but she never had any gold and I couldn't give her a freebie. Since I was trading with her nonetheless with the Open Markets resolution, it's not important.

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Access to every luxury resource on the map : check (One day you'll die for that silver Joao !)

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(Trade with everybody : check, for a total of 591 Gold.)

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Joao has had value for his hammers with the Internet. Anybody telling me the Internet is not worth it either for gaining techs or denying the AIs to gain techs will need solid arguments.


Corporations :

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Found and spread at least one corporation : well, lots of check. I milked Justinian and Joao so much that they switched back to State Property before the end of the game. In a normal game I would have forced them into Environmentalism with the UN and would have been raking in the bucks.


Final score :

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All RPC conditions : check.

I hope reading this RPC entertained you. I had fun playing it, and appreciated the random events which were really in the spirit of the game. I'm not sure about its educational value, but I'll try to summarize the main points.


What can we learn from this game ?

Note : it's aimed towards Noble and below players. I don't have anything to teach to anyone concerning the game, but I'll try not to be too stupid, for once. More skilled players are more than welcome to share their toughts about the game.

1/ Uneven tech trades :
If you recap, I had only one fair trade in techs : Construction versus Calendar. All the others were rip-offs, but I did them nonetheless. Why ? Because it's more important to get those techs than to have fair trades. When I moved up from Noble to Prince and Monarch, the thing which was bugging me the most was the ridiculous trades the AIs were willing to offer. But if you research something nobody has, you can trade it with everyone. The total balance of the trades per capita is uneven, but you gain a lot of techs and end up giving less techs than you gain, so it's a win. Besides, every trade you make with an AI is a trade another AI won't do : for exemple the trade where I got Horse Riding from Victoria was made specifically to prevent Mansa Musa of trading my techs with her. Last but not least, you gain some "fair and forthright trades" (cough !) diplomatic modifiers which can be handy.

2/ Religion in the early game :
Important for culture and happiness. Being Charismatic the happiness cap has never been much of a problem, but not being able to build monasteries and temples crippled my research, and even more so my expansion. I lost tiles to Victoria until Drama and from there had to run artists in my southern cities until I founded Sid's Sushi. These citizens would have been more useful working cottages or as scientists. People, don't neglect religious buildings in the early game. However, it seems that we can survive and even win without any religious civic, building or wonder. It just takes longer.

3/ Value of trade routes :
I think we can say I leveraged the cothon UB and the Great Lighthouse : 12 coastal cities out of 16. Even after the GLH became obsolete and without cothons, the trade routes of the cities I settled on the northern landmass were paying more than the maintenance cost of the cities. More importantly, I've been able to maintain 6 cities on a different landmass despite the colonial expanses. Getting intercontinental commerce up and running ASAP should be a priority for the builder. Even tough being Financial and working cottages in coastal cities, each one of them was making much more commerce by the trade routes than by the tiles. It's emphatized by the cothon, but even without it would still have been the case.

Madscientist made a RPC with an economy based on trade routes. I didn't know it when I started mine and I still didn't read it to avoid being influenced in my game, but I'm pretty sure there must be some interesting things to learn about trade routes in it. Check it, it's here.

4/ Joao is a jerk :
Well, we all knew that already.


A final word to thank Terry Pratchett, for his Cut-Me-Own-Throat character, the quotes in my signature, and his books.

That's all folks. Hope you've had a good time reading this.

 

[matthewthegreat]

Good job on your RPC! I'm glad you won! wow thats a lot of gold you had at the end!

 

[Commodore Nate]

Congrats on a great game!

That uneven trade thing is something I never could deal with... I guess I'll start up a new game and try it out.

Well I guess I'll load a game and try the stuff you did here. Great job again

 

[PaulusIII]

Good job on the RPC, keeping to the RPC rules even when other civs *coughPortugalcough* don't seem to take a hint.

And the uneven tech trades are indeed likely to come up in your favor in the end. Trade at the earliest possibility, because if you don't trade the tech they'll get it from Mansa anyway. And that way, you end up with a tech yourself and a positive diplo modifier.

 

[Navarre]

Uneven trades indeed do come in your favor, even if that's not immediatly apparent.

Let's just think about a normal situation in a Prince or above game : You know three civs, and each one of them has a tech. You have one too. All the techs cost the same amount of beakers. These AIs are trading, but none of the Ais will give you an even beaker-for-beaker trade, because they have a discount of the research and you don't.

So you have civ A with tech 1, B with 2, C with 3, and you have tech 4.

What happens if you don't trade ?

Civs A, B and C have techs 1, 2 and 3 one turn later. You still only have tech 4. You slowly fall backwards.

What happens if you trade only with civ A which gives you the better deal ?

Civ A gets 1, 2, 3 and 4, civs B and C get 1, 2 and 3, you get 1 and 4. You're falling backwards, later civ A will broker your tech and get a lead, and you can't broker tech 1 since civ A has already traded it.

What happens if you trade with all AIs ?

Everybody has the 4 techs. Nobody can broker your tech. You paid a little bit more than the others, but you've still had 3 techs in exchange of yours, you prevented an AI of running away and are still in the race.

So, what's the less harmful for you ? Trading, even if it's uneven. And by making an habit of checking who has what before a trade, you can choose to give techs the top dogs already have in exchange of the techs you want, preventing them of buying one of your techs from your trade partner. You climb the tech tree, they don't.

It can be quite an exercise, and of course you need to watch the diplomacy to avoid trading with the world's worst enemy even if he has the techs you want, but once you've got the trick it's all good, even if the deals are not.

Besides, since the AIs get discounts on production and troops upgrades too, you can't compete in power without diverting too many hammers, hammers you need to build buildings to compete in the tech race. So you need these diplo modifiers if you intend to play a peaceful game. That's one of the good sides of being swindled all the time, everybody loves you and it's easier to have good friends.

 

[Aaron of Mpls]

Another interesting (and entertaining) game! Good commentary too! (I've been reading quite a few of the SG and RPC threads lately, and it's been keeping me away from actually playing ... )

Uneven trades indeed do come in your favor, even if that's not immediatly apparent. [...]

Hmmm, I'll have to remember that about "unfair" trades in the future.