Sisiutil & Lord Parkin (Multiplayer Team Game)

[Jerrymander]

Very interesting playthrough. I've never played multiplayer team games.

Props to LP and Sis. o/

 

[Lord Parkin]

Session X: 1718 AD – 1786 AD​

With all the wars for the present finished for us, we spent the early part of this session just building up our cities, to improve our economy, production, health and happiness. The AI civs at the bottom of the score table were still being their usual demanding selves, but we just ignored them.



In 1732 AD, we completed Radio, and began working on the associated wonders right away. Two turns later, Ectabana completed the Wall Street wonder, and with two corporation HQ’s in the city, my economy suddenly skyrocketed. Even with my large world-spanning empire, I could now run a healthy GPT profit on 90% research.



My corporation HQ’s at this point had also managed to bring a third Persian city into the top five:



We were starting to eye up Willem/Huayna’s lands for a potential future invasion. We upped our espionage considerably against them, so that we’d be able to check out some of their cities. Here’s what we were seeing in 1736 AD:





We deliberately went for Mass Media so that we’d be sure to beat Willem/Huayna to the UN and Hollywood. We got the tech in 1740 AD.

A couple of turns later, we got some interesting news – Ragnar/Saladin had declared war on Peter/Isabella, with Ragnar immediately getting a Great General. Presumably Ragnar had been the driving force behind that decision, since Saladin had nothing much to gain from the war given his island location.



In 1750 AD, we completed two wonders: I finished Rock N Roll in Bactra (my Ironworks city), and Sis completed the Cristo Redentor in Brundisium. Sis immediately made use of the free civics changes to switch to Representation, which he felt was better since he’d now bought all the improvements he wanted. On the other hand, I stayed in Universal Suffrage – I liked the hammer bonus from all my towns, and didn’t think the extra research from specialists was necessary at this stage.

The next turn, the Eiffel Tower was completed in Persepolis, which provided a handy cultural boost, especially to our newer cities (which could now employ Artists). We also finished Flight, and the next tech choice was between Industrialism and Artillery. We figured that Tanks, Marines, Battleships and Aluminium were more valuable than Artillery, so we went for the Industrialism route.

1754 AD was a turn of action on the Viking-Spanish war front. Firstly, Ragnar captured the city of Tekedda from Isabella (who had previously taken it from Mansa).



Ragnar also recaptured the city of Uppsala (which Isabella had captured from him much earlier in the game).



Isabella did manage to net a Great General in amongst these two battles though, so 1754 AD was not entirely a turn of loss for Spain.

A couple of turns later, a Great Scientist was born in Persepolis. By this stage of the game, we were automatically saving all Great People up for Golden Ages, so the Great Scientist was simply put into the stockpile for future use.

In 1762 AD, Shaka/Justinian declared war on Peter/Isabella (again!), and Justinian quickly generated another Great General. Things looked very bad for the Russians in particular, with only one city precariously remaining on the Zulu/Byzantine mainland.

Things were going well for us though, with the discovery of Industrialism the next turn. I also received the good news that the German and Celtic cities located on the Persian island to the west of my homeland had gone into cultural revolts. Sid’s Sushi was certainly proving its power simply as a cultural corporation – let alone the bonus food! Boudica’s city revolted to me the very next turn, and Bismarck’s city two turns later.





We finished Artillery in 1770 AD, and set our sights on Plastics for the next target. Sis also completed Hollywood in Neapolis this same turn, so that helped considerably with happiness for both of us.

Next turn, the UN was completed in Rome, and so the Secretary General vote came around – it was between us and Willem/Huayna. We of course voted for ourselves, and hoped that our recent greasing-up to the other AI’s might sway a few votes our way. (Recall that we hadn’t ever won an election for the Apostolic Palace, from the time we built it until the very turn it was obsoleted!)

Across the world, it was no surprise to hear that Peter’s city of Novgorod had fallen to the combined Zulu/Byzantine army. Peter was now left with just a single city on the edge of Isabella’s continent – by far the weakest nation in the game.



We’d been considering for a while whether Willem/Huayna would be a good target for us to war with next. We figured that it would certainly be good to take down the team that was giving us the most pressure in terms of the tech race, but we were still slightly undecided – debating whether heading for an easier target first might be better.

However, Sis generated a Great Prophet in Rome in 1774 AD, which clinched the decision: with a Shrine available, that Christian holy city was too attractive to hold off on conquering. We immediately began the necessary preparations for war – many more Marines, Tanks, and particularly Battleships would be required. It was going to take a while to build up a significant enough army and navy to take the Dutch/Incan team on, but we’d at least settled our sights on our next target.

The next turn, the results for the UN election came around. Most of the teams voted for Willem/Huayna, but we’d managed to convince Bismarck/Boudica to vote for us – allowing us to win the election for Secretary-General!



Clearly, it would be in our interests for the next while to keep Bismarck/Boudica friendly with us, to ensure their votes stayed on our side – at least until their population made them the rival candidates for Secretary-General.

Meanwhile, Willem was busy fortifying his border near us… or was he?



Boudica started her Golden Age in 1778 AD, using a Great Engineer which she had generated the turn before. The very next turn, she and Bismarck declared war on Sitting Bull’s backward and now-weak nation. Clearly it was a war of opportunity, and probably a good decision for them – although it did mean less easy land for us to conquer later, if we were going for that domination win.

Bismarck soon got a Great General, and Boudica quickly captured her first city from Bull.





Meanwhile we’d finished Plastics and started work on Refrigeration, for the Supermarkets and extra naval movement points. On the other side of the world, Justinian’s Golden Age began – he had used a Great Merchant he got the turn before.

Here’s an overview of our homeland military buildup-in-progress at the end of the session:



I was also airlifting Tanks each turn to my island city off Willem/Huayna’s coast in preparation for the upcoming war.



An overview of the Persian islands to the west and north, and the southern island cities that I conquered from Mansa at 1786 AD:





Notice the sharp increase in our power ratings in the last few turns:



The Persian empire had been enjoying a huge population boom in recent times… just check out the crop yield ratings!



Persia was also leading in almost all of the important demographics ratings (Rome had the #1 military, of course):



The top five cities as at 1786 AD:



Ectabana was rapidly becoming one of my most important cities, with a huge gold input from the corporation HQ’s, and an impressive production yield despite having only 2 mined hills.



Rome was also a pretty decent city for Sis, even despite the lack of Universal Suffrage for the towns.



We were getting pretty close to the necessary population for domination now, although we still needed a lot more land.



Next time – we begin the war with Willem/Huayna, the most technologically advanced team in the game besides ourselves. How will we fare? Keep an eye on this thread to find out!

Cheers,
- Lord Parkin

 

[Shoot the Moon]

Me thinks you guys played on too easy of a level. I'd say this game has been won for quite a while.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Very interesting playthrough. I've never played multiplayer team games.

Props to LP and Sis. o/

Thanks.

Me thinks you guys played on too easy of a level. I'd say this game has been won for quite a while.

Maybe, although I believe there was quite a bit of starting location luck involved in making our bid for victory easier.

Anyway, regardless of how difficult you perceive this game to have been, it's still been a lot of fun to play (and to write up).

 

[Strato]

Anyway, regardless of how difficult you perceive this game to have been, it's still been a lot of fun to play (and to write up).

And to read also. It is nice to read a team game which seems to me as though it has a different dynamic to most games played and posted about (ie: single player with no teams) especially with one AI dragging another kicking and screaming into war. Well, I guess that happens with vassal states

I was wondering why you are running priest specialists in Ecbantana over merchants until I noticed the amount of coin coming in each turn. I guess it would be fairly redundant to add an extra 12? coins to that pile.

Looking forward to the war, were there any decisions made as to who gets what cities beforehand, assuming you break off into two distinct stacks, and go after one team member each, considering there are about equal footing on power.

 

[CivCorpse]

Thanks.


Anyway, regardless of how difficult you perceive this game to have been, it's still been a lot of fun to play (and to write up).

Hear hear, best thing you can ever say about any GAME.

 

[Sisiutil]

Looking forward to the war, were there any decisions made as to who gets what cities beforehand, assuming you break off into two distinct stacks, and go after one team member each, considering there are about equal footing on power.

Part of that was dictated by geographic realities. I had the longest shared border with Willem and especially Huayna, while LP had some cities on islands where he was cheek-by-jowl alongside the Incans and/or Dutch. So as you'll see in the next post, I focused on the continent while LP focused on the islands.

Until a random event changed things...

 

[Lord Parkin]

And to read also. It is nice to read a team game which seems to me as though it has a different dynamic to most games played and posted about (ie: single player with no teams) especially with one AI dragging another kicking and screaming into war. Well, I guess that happens with vassal states

Yep... I guess it's sort-of like "forced" vassal states, in a way. Except neither civ is the master.

I was wondering why you are running priest specialists in Ecbantana over merchants until I noticed the amount of coin coming in each turn. I guess it would be fairly redundant to add an extra 12? coins to that pile.

Yeah, that was my thinking at the time. By this stage, we had a significant enough tech lead that I felt it was safe to tone down the economy for a while in favour of some extra production. (We had Angkor Wat, remember, so those Priest specialists were better than Engineers.) Extra production was also particularly important since we were gearing up for war.

And besides, "toning down" my economy still meant that my GNP was about 3 times my nearest rival's. So it really made very little difference.

Hear hear, best thing you can ever say about any GAME.

Yep, indeed.

Looking forward to the war, were there any decisions made as to who gets what cities beforehand, assuming you break off into two distinct stacks, and go after one team member each, considering there are about equal footing on power.

Part of that was dictated by geographic realities. I had the longest shared border with Willem and especially Huayna, while LP had some cities on islands where he was cheek-by-jowl alongside the Incans and/or Dutch. So as you'll see in the next post, I focused on the continent while LP focused on the islands.

Yep, that was the basic idea. Sis went for all of those inland continental cities, while I went island-hunting. However, I also had a very large amphibious strike force, so I managed to take quite a few coastal cities on the mainland too. (As you'll come to see, I'm quite a big fan of amphibious invasions. )

Until a random event changed things...

Indeed... and you'll all hear more about that later.

 

[oyzar]

You realize you can give coins to sisiutil so he can run higher slider right?

 

[Lord Parkin]

You realize you can give coins to sisiutil so he can run higher slider right?

Of course, but what would be the point? I have more research multiplying buildings so I can better use the commerce than Sis. Plus, research isn't our priority at the moment anyway, given our tech lead.

I do make the occasional gold gifts to Sis to help upgrade his units. But gifting him gold for research is pointless, and would actually slow our research rate (because I could use that gold better with my research multiplying buildings). So I don't quite know why you're suggesting this, all in all.

 

[oyzar]

You should be researching at 100% anyways.. Then you can gift whatever gold you have leftover to him... I don't see why you need to keep so much gold(you have like 4K between you now right?). No other reason to research faster than to finish faster right? I doubt you can finish domination as fast as you could space race at this point anyways...

 

[Terrance888]

I found you Sis! Great Game I see! Relaxing before the next uber update right?

 

[Lord Parkin]

You should be researching at 100% anyways.. Then you can gift whatever gold you have leftover to him...

If I research at 100%, I go severely into the red and go broke in a couple of turns.

Trust me - I do actually know roughly what I'm doing in this game.

I don't see why you need to keep so much gold(you have like 4K between you now right?). No other reason to research faster than to finish faster right?

Firstly, I believe we both try to keep at least 1000 gold in the bank at all times (automatically 2000 gold) in case the random event for lowering inflation occurs (which HAS occured for Sis). Secondly, we're in the middle of war preparations, so a lot of that gold is spent from turn-to-turn on upgrades of older units. And finally, it's always good to have a small amount of money on hands for emergency upgrades in case of a war declaration by some other civ.

4000 gold is almost nothing between two civs, if you stop for a moment to consider the price of unit upgrades (and technologies).

I doubt you can finish domination as fast as you could space race at this point anyways...

Just watch us work.

 

[jerVL/kg]

I have a question. How does the game handle close culture borders between Rome and Persia? In particular, it looks like several tiles owned by Susa & Ecbatana are in danger of being lost to Neapolis. Has this been a problem, or does playing on a team automatically protect the tiles in your BFC from your teammate?

 

[Lekdevil.NL]

As far as I know, the BFC of a city in team games will always be assigned to that city, regardless of infringing culture from the team member. The same holds for permanent alliances with the AI. Resources "lost" due to culture outside of a city's BFC can simply be gifted to the team member if necessary.

I'm not sure what happens when the BFCs of two team cities overlap, though.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I have a question. How does the game handle close culture borders between Rome and Persia? In particular, it looks like several tiles owned by Susa & Ecbatana are in danger of being lost to Neapolis.

Actually, it is the other way around - Neapolis is pumping out much less culture than Susa and Ectabana, and were it not for the mechanics of team play, Persia would control all of the tiles west of that city square.

Has this been a problem, or does playing on a team automatically protect the tiles in your BFC from your teammate?

Team play automatically protects the tiles in your BFC from your teammate. It's like vassal states, except it works for each player. If two cities from separate teammates have their BFC's overlapping, the game automatically gives each city control of the closest tiles to it. The order of "priority" for tiles is as follows:

Each city gets first priority to the 4 tiles immediately north, east, south and west of the city square, then second priority to the 4 tiles diagonally adjacent to the city square. Third priority goes to the 4 tiles two spaces north, east, south and west of the capital, and finally fourth priority to the remaining 8 tiles of the BFC.

If two cities have a tile which is at equal priority with respect to each of them, then culture wins out for control of the tile. For example, if C represents a city, and X and O represent controlled tiles, then in a situation like CXOXC, tile O goes to the control of the city with the highest culture in that square.

 

[Lekdevil.NL]

Well, there you have it. Perfect timing.

 

[Matthew5117]

So... have we given up on this game?

 

[Sisiutil]

No, I've just been busy with other things this week. No ALC update yet either.

 

[Matthew5117]

So, I noticed.

Anyways, I am a long time lurker, but a first time poster in your (or Lord Parkin's, which ever) threads. They have really helped my games (I didn't even know you could change what tiles you could work in your city). I really enjoy them. Keep them coming!