The Cliff Barnes Challenge

[SanPellegrino]

This idea came up in a thread in the general forum these days http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40640 and all the credit goes to totoro. The idea is to play in a mediocre way, have fun and learn more about AI strategies you would never see in games where you handed their butts to them.

The name is from a TV series (if somebody remembers Cliff Barnes, the loser from "Dallas", who always was bullied by J. R., and there was even a band named "Cliff Barnes and the fear of winning". He always accomplished his goals nearly but failed in the decisive moment).

Don't try to win this game, don't use deity smashing strategies, play like you were on regent or something or you will be expelled from the Cliff Barnes Fanclub.

Submitted saves should show interesting/funny situations you didn't saw before.

the settings:
Deity
English
large, continents (wrote pangea first, sorry mistake)
cool
12 civs (not the easiest you can bet)
all victory conditions turned off
a random map of course

oh, and I disbanded the scout, so that you don't have to do so much tedious micromanagement

all ideas/criticisms welcome!

 

[SanPellegrino]

aarrgh, where is the attachment

here it is (PTW 1.14):

 

[SanPellegrino]

Excerpt from Totoros original post:

Originally posted by Totoro
Now try this. Just once. Ignore everything you've read @Fanatics regarding the big win. Try to suppress your urge to 'play right'. Instead, play like a superpower's ugly sister. I'm from Canada so I'm familiar with the feeling.

Don't be the superpower yourself in any of the stats. You're not playing to win because technically and historically, no civilization has ever 'won'. Everything goes in cycles so treat your timeline to 2050 as a blink of the eye in human history.

When you're the best, everyone licks your boots. When you're the among the worst, others come to take your lunch money. But if you're, say, fourth or fifth or sixth among fifteen, then you have some interesting dynamics.

When you're not playing to win but rather just playing just for respect, there's actually a lot more to think about with regards to diplomacy.

When you can't just flex your culture muscle or stack up a dozen tanks at will, asking ol' Liz to move it or lose it is heck of a lot more interesting than if you already know what her answer is going to be.