The King of the World Throne Room

[Neal]

The King of the World series focuses on playing Civ IV leaders on Earth maps in order to better understand them in their historical contexts. It sacrifices the exploration phase of the game for consistency and a chance to explore the various opportunities and challenges faced by the actual civilizations represented in the game.

This is the Throne Room, a convenient hub leading to each of the series' previous game and a meeting-place where I can confer with my court (that's you guys) about future leaders and other such meta-strategy.

King of the World #1: Montezuma (Earth18, Monarch, Normal, Warlords)

Spoiler :

Space Race, 1848 A.D., 34082 points. We smashed Roosevelt early, vassalized Huayna Capac later on and basically turtled up, cottaging over South America and heading off to a tech lead and victory.

King of the World #2: Frederick (Earth18, Monarch, Normal, Warlords)

Spoiler :

Abandoned, 1858 A.D. A failed attempt at a kill'em all, let God sort'em out game. We survived early on and earned a respectable lead through ridiculous luck and AI idiocy, then got bogged down in a miserable war with Persia. This game nearly turned me off to Civ IV for good

King of the World #3: Tokugawa (Earth18, Monarch, Normal, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Apostolic Victory, 1862 A.D., 98954 points. A romping conquest game that ended with me controlling all of eastern Asia, the Mediterranean Coast, and most of the Americas. I ended up taking the religious win in order to wrap things up and move on.

King of the World #4: Mansa Musa (Earth18, Monarch, Normal, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Space Race, 1954 A.D., 19596 points. A tough win. I kept my head low early game, then took over Egypt and Spain and colonized South America. The spaceship landed just as the world erupted in epic AI wars of conquest that I'd never seen before or since.

King of the World #5: Isabella (Earth18, Monarch, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Conquest, 1510 A.D., 251567 points. Featured Choose religions. Started with a Warrior rush of France and Germany and ended with the Capitulation (and Conversion to Christianity) of the entire globe.

King of the World #6: Huayna Capac (Earth18, Monarch, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Space Race, 1910 A.D., 25005 points. A basic isolationist Space Race win. fought off South America's barbarian hordes, then cottaged up and headed for the stars. Featured a fun little late game world war.

King of the World #7: Saladin (Earth18, Emperor, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Domination, 1818 A.D., 129973 points. A rollicking no-vassal romp that ended with pretty much the whole of Eurasia and Africa being painted green. Began the tradition of opening up South America and moving Isabella to the coast.

King of the World #8: Shaka (Earth34, Emperor, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Cultural Victory, 1762 A.D., 42541 points. We took over (but never left) Africa and turned the capital and Egypt's two Nile cities into cultural centers for the win.

King of the World #9: Genghis Khan (Earth18, Emperor, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

U.N. Victory, 1812 A.D., 152572 points. A straightforward, fun little Diplomatic-as-Domination victory. Featured the colonization of Australia

King of the World #10: Charles de Gaulle (Earth34, Emperor, Epic, Beyond the Sword, OCC)

Spoiler :

Died, 1866 A.D., 0 points/Space Race, 1955 A.D., 10406 points. A tough game that featured a little bit of war, a lot of snivelling diplomacy, and even our first genuine loss!

King of the World #11: Darius I (Earth14 Ancient, Immortal, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Domination, 1700 A.D., 289987 points. Another massive wargame featuring three great empires: Us, Rome, and China. Great military showdown with Caesar.

King of the World #12: Sitting Bull (Earth16 Non-Vanilla, Immortal, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

U.N. Victory, 1812 A.D., 167556 points. Much as with Genghis, Diplomatic-as-Domination in 1812 A.D. Reverse Colonization and way too much creative writing for my own good.

King of the World #13: Asoka (Earth17 Medieval, Immortal, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Cultural Victory, 1806 A.D., 43239 points. A scary early game fraught with Barbarians and a scary Justinian that wrapped up with a friendly lovefest! Probably my best Diplomatic effort to date.

King of the World #14: Earth18 (Earth18, Noble, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

An experimental game in which we bounce from leader to leader after each round. Lost to (Won with?) Qin Shi Huang's U.N. victory in 1950 A.D.

King of the World #15: Ragnar (Earth18 Ice Age, Immortal, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Lost, 16,900 B.C., 0 points. A humiliating defeat by the Raging Barbarians. Guess we bit off more than we could chew!

King of the World #16: Julius Caesar (Earth18, Deity, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Apostolic Victory, 1130 A.D., 640392 points. A fun little romp as the most broken leader on the toughest difficulty setting.

King of the World #17: Peter (Earth18Shuffle, Immortal, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Space Race, 1858 A.D., 59449 points. A peaceful game as Russia-in-England, beelining to South America and riding State Property Watermills to the stars!

King of the World #18: Lincoln (Earth34, Immortal, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Abandoned, 1090 A.D. Another absolute slog that turned me off to Civ IV for a good, long while.

King of the World #19: Qin Shi Huang (Earth18 Always War, Monarch, Epic, Beyond the Sword)

Spoiler :

Conquest, 1792 A.D., 134990 points. A diplomacy-less slugfest on way too low a difficulty setting. A fun romp.

King of the World #20: Pericles (Rhye's and Fall, Monarch)

Spoiler :

Historical Victory, 710 A.D., 16536 points. A quick little dip into RFC, culminating in a trip around the world!

King of the World #21: Charlemagne (Earth 1000 A.D., Emperor)

Spoiler :

Abandoned, 1665 A.D. The game was won, and life got in the way, so this one was called prematurely.

King of the World #22: Gilgamesh (Ice Age, Emperor)

Spoiler :

In progress.

 

[Hereditary Rule]

This has been a great series

What are you thinking for your next game?

 

[Civman33]

Play as America! America America America!

 

[Civman33]

Ok... I said it enough. An American domination victory would be awesome. Vassilizing HC, taking over the Americas execpt for Huayna's last city, taking over the mainland of the old world... Yeah. Oh, and could it be on the 34 civ map?

 

[royal62184]

Time for Immortal

 

[Neal]

I'm wanting to cap off my time on Emperor with a France OCC... I'm just torn between Earth18 with Louis and Earth34 with De Gaulle. I gotta say, Charismatic is a bit more useful than Creative in an OCC, and Earth34 has a lot more cities to fall to Paris' insidious culture. But "The Glories of Paris" just screams Louis to me...

Oh, and CivMan, don't worry... America is coming sooner rather than later.

 

[fugazi]

America! A late domination using lots of carriers, stealths and other bad ass military.

 

[r_rolo1]

India .... India .... India .... India .....

 

[nanomage]

Well, let me be patriotic for a time.
Play Peter I Russia and do not forget to turn the raging barbs on

 

[Kadazzle]

I'd like to see an English Apostolic Victory. That'd be legit

 

[Matthew5117]

Poll, Neal. Poll.

Way too many demands. We need to finish this once and for all!

 

[Ai Shizuka]

In the poll won by Shaka, Ragnar was second. So it's his turn.

Just kidding, play whatever you want. The leader doesn't really matter, it's your style that makes this serie so popular.

 

[Gagonite]

How would Charismatic help in an OCC? If its for the happiness, Globe Theatre nullifies unhappiness

 

[Joshua368]

Yeah neither Charistmatic or Creative are very helpful in a OCC... you could do Earth34 and mod the French leader to be Louis. I agree a more crowded europe will be fun.

 

[r_rolo1]

If you don't think that Cha is useful in OCC, you should try OCC AW But i digress.....

 

[Sciguy001]

My choices:

1. Louis game no war
2. Lincoln game* (or Roosevelt)
3. Viking pillage-focused game*
4. Rank the difficulty to Immortal and play as Rome or Persia

*If you do the 34 civ map, you HAVE to eliminate or move the Celts, Sumeria, Holy Rome, Portugal, Ottomans or Byzantines, and maybe the Netherlands. Games are not that much fun when these civs are there to cram Europe and the turky region.

 

[capnvonbaron]

My votes, considering this will remain emporer difficulty:

1) Russia or USA-- establish RL borders and go for space
2) India -- super-peacenik game, VC of your choice
3) England or Scandenavia -- conquer of the new world (w/ or w/o new world tribes in place... your call. Raging barbs if the home tribes are gone)

 

[Matthew5117]

You kidding? CHA helps a ton more than CRE! Wait, as a disclaimer, this is my own opinion...

CHA not only gives you plus 1 , it also provides -25% exp required, and in a OCC, you can still be a warmonger!

CRE, on the other hand, you get culture already from the palace, and since your IND anyways, building Wonders will be much better than relying on the culture provided by CRE.

 

[sophie]

I'd still love to see a Viking game where you go pillage happy; romp across the world destroying everything not nailed down. It'd be pretty fun if you ask me.

 

[Sciguy001]

Is there a poll yet? I want this game to get started soon.