Try-03: The Viking Conquest

[Trynthlas]

So, something different this time, hopefully fun!

Game rules/etiquette (borrowed of course):

Spoiler :

Alpha: The quality of your report outweighs the quality of your play. We’re here to have fun, and, of course, winning is fun, but losing in style is preferable to a boring win.

Bravo: Reports should be detailed, with plenty of screen shots and player commentary, explanations, musings, etc; an auto-log dump will not suffice. Shots of the F9 screens and overview shots of the empire are nice too, once in a while.

Charlie: Punctuality rocks! “24/48” means post a "got it" within 24 hours of when the last save was posted, and play within 48 hours of that ‘got it.’ Waiting 47 hours to ask for a skip is lame. Punk out two times in a row, and you’ll be dropped from the roster. Skips and swaps are fine, but try to let us know sooner, rather than later.

Delta: Major game decisions (war/peace declarations, religion swaps, city placement, etc) should be arrived at via group consensus.
1. If the team disagrees with you, either argue your case better, or do it their way. Do NOT just blow them off and do it your way because it's your turn.
2. However, if there’s no consensus and you’re up, do it your way and explain why. Conversely, if someone else is up, don't whine when they do it their way.
3. Similarly, overruling techs or city builds is rude and should be done via consensus, barring an emergency.
4. In extraordinary situations, sometimes an opportunity presents itself that the group didn't foresee. If the consequences of it are great, players should stop, and refer the question to the group.

Echo: Being a better player does not give you the right to belittle anyone else or their play. Other people are going to disagree with you on major decisions; get used to the idea, and play nice. If not, take your ball and go home.

Foxtrot: Thread spam is good. Trash talking, poking fun, gentle ribbing, virtual noogies, and generally horsing around are all encouraged, but don’t be rude.

Golf: Automate sparingly.
1. Workers should almost never be automated, except perhaps late-game or building a trade network. However, if you have to, set your game options to “disallow automated worker forest chopping” and “keep previous improvements.”
2. Use of the “Emphasis” buttons is fine, but let the group know and explain your reasoning (specialization is a major game decision). If you prevent growth in a city, let the group know and remind them to take it off. Do NOT let the governor select build orders.
3. Sending units on go-to routes that last beyond your set is acceptable only if they’re heading for a rally point or if you otherwise inform your teammates.

Hotel: NEVER fortify Great People. Is it so hard to push the spacebar 15 times??

India: Sign spamming is rude. Signs can be helpful reminders, but too many signs makes them easily ignored. Once a sign is no longer valid, delete it. [The only exception to this are city specialization signs.]

So, here's the idea for the game:
We are mighty Ragnar of the Vikings! The world is naught to us but plunder and glory, and Europe will tremble before the might of our armies!!

- The game is a 'Custom Scenario' type, on the Europe map (Huge).
- Monarch Difficulty
- Epic Speed
- 10 opponents, all European civs (but we don't know which leader): Rome, Holy Rome, Carthage, Byzantium, Celtia, England, Greece, France, Spain, Portugal
- No barbarians (that's us )
- Choose Religions
- Time victory disabled
- BtS 3.17 using HOF mod 3.17.001

Requirements for us:
- Scorched Earth! We cannot ever capture an AI city, we must raze them all!
- The Vikings must win by Conquest!
- We hold to the old religion! The Vikings cannot adopt any state religion and must stay in Paganism.


Here's the start:

Spoiler :

Ragnar is Aggressive and Financial, and the Vikings UU is the Berserker (aka uber Maceman). The UB is a modified Lighthouse, of which we may or may not get much use.


Roster:
==========
Raskolnikov
Simon_c
pigswill
PaulusIII
Thy_Spellcraft
Trynthlas

alternate: Ralph_Jackson


Already moved the scout, but not the settler. If you're on the roster (or are going to lurk ) feel free to start talking about plans!


edit: added that we're using BtS with the HOF mod!

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Hi Trynthlas,

Checking in! Seems a really cool idea!
i will post my first thoughts when I get back home in one or two hours...
Do you have a save?

Cheers,
Raskolnikov

 

[Simon_c]

This sounds fun.
I've been involved in a couple of SGs before. I'll dig out the threads if you want to view my reporting style I tend to report as I play, and then upload the pics.

I'm a solid prince player and can normally win an Monarch if I concentrate. Occasional I've won at Emp level.

Occasionally I may have problems posting the write up in time, especially late in the game. If things get too busy in the later game then I would take the teams view on dropping turns of posting a little late.

I will be unable to play between October 23rd and November 2nd.

So, if you'll have me, I'll play.

 

[Trynthlas]

Simon, I'd much rather have a summary report with a save posted than an amazing detailed report full of pics and such if you are in a time crunch. Obviously, if you've got time, more detail is better

Personally I'm a (rusty) Prince player, but with a team I think we can handle Monarch

Anyway, you're in!


Suppose I should post my unavailable days as well...

Oct 18 (convention)
Oct 24-26 (out of town)

Possibly more in Nov, but not sure yet. Those are pretty short durations though, so I should be able to catch a turn within the 72-hour timeframe if it happens to be my round to play.

 

[pigswill]

I'd like to have a go at this if I may. Competent at noble, hopeless at immortal, variable in between (ok monarch/emperor).

Is the Europe map standard with the same resources in the same locations every time?

Can we build cities on the smoking ruins of our enemies pitiful hovels?

 

[Trynthlas]

Definitely be glad to have you along, pigswill!

As to your questions, I'm fairly sure the resources are the same (static map layout), and yes, we can indeed build our own cities over the ruins if we so choose.

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

Here would be another one for filling an open slot..
Unfortunately I don't know this HOF mod. So in case I'd been taken for the roster and this mod is truly needed please give me some download link..

 

[PaulusIII]

If you do not mind I'd like to sign up. I need to dust off my rusty skills as shown in other SG's.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

If you need another (or an alternate / lurking / applying the commentator {as roster now looks fullish}) then sign me up.

Ralph

 

[Trynthlas]

Here would be another one for filling an open slot..
Unfortunately I don't know this HOF mod. So in case I'd been taken for the roster and this mod is truly needed please give me some download link..

I prefer using the HOF mod because it is required for the Game of the Month competition, so playing with it makes conditions very similar (and thus good practice!). Download here. Note you have to be fully updated to BtS 3.17 to install/use the mod.


As to the roster, assuming that Thy gets all that set up then I'll call it filled. I think it'd be a bit too slow for everyone between turns with more than 6 in line, so Ralph, we'll have you as an alternate for any skips needed (and feel free to comment and strategize with us).

 

[Trynthlas]

So...thoughts on initial moves - where to settle, do we want to scout around a bit first?

I'm thinking I'd like to move 1 NW and settle there to get the advantage of all the hills for more production in the capitol. We also still have the silver and wheat in the BFC, plus whatever else is around. It's likely (guessing from the blue circle) that there's some other resource closer to the coast SE/S of our current position, but that can always be grabbed with a second city.

Silver right next to us with a financial civ = I'd say that lends itself pretty obviously to a straight shot to BW as far as techs.

 

[Simon_c]

ok. here are my thoughts

I'm wondering if 1SE is a coastal tile. I don't know the huge europe map at all. Should I research this ?


as to the long term plan and tech paths.

we need to use lake to power our initial research until we can get Silver online.

We're vikings. Our cities should get most of their resources from the sea. So, how about going for a early metal casting + the colossus ? 4Gold per sea tile

IF we can get that, then how about trying for a machinery slingshot after that ? We've enough trees to chop wood to get the Oracle I'd have thought, and we should have Col powered lakes + oceans by then.

So, we'd go
Mining, Bronze working, agriculture, metal casting, Myst, Meditation, priesthood.
we need to get a worker out to chop the colossus a settler and some troops. Do we try to fit Archery in there ? Probably, cos with Iron we can then get xbows out. Trying to get two early wonders means we'll be behind in troops, and maybe cities, so it may not be feasible depending where out start is.

I'm no good at working out what happens on what turns, so I've no idea how feasible this is with what we have.

I don't think we can get a civil service slingshot any more as we need maths and writing.
However, I think a Grt merchant can pop Code of Laws but if we pop a Grt Profit then we'd probably end up with Theology. There's no way (I think) of getting Civil Service before Theology with a GPr .


I'm not sure how far along that plan we can go, or want to. But I like the idea of the colossus

 

[pigswill]

I must admit that I prefer Great Lighthouse to Colossus. So much so that I'd advocate moving to the seaside, get sailing early to start the trading post(TP) then BW/masonry to whip the TP and chop out Glight. I think we should do this even before we build our first settler. We don't have barbs so don't have to worry about fog-busting. We're on a huge map so its unlikely there will be an immediate race for land. What would slow us down is going broke through over-expanding. If we focus on coastal cities with three trade routes each then we can build a lot of cities.

Simon c: I think your plans may be slightly over-ambitious for Monarch. On the other hand I am probably being over-cautious for Monarch.

 

[Trynthlas]

I doubt we'll have time for MC + Colossus before the Oracle gets built as this is Monarch...however I could be wrong, I'm not that experienced with it. As to GLight v Col, I'm not a huge fan of either but if I had to pick I'd choose the lighthouse.

I have a feeling that a lot of the resources we want will be inland, meaning sticking to coastal cities will likely not be feasible once we get started on wars. While I've played this scenario before, I don't remember the map at all, other than that it looks pretty much like Europe (and no, I don't want to cheat and 'explore' it by looking at the WB or playing another game with the same map...if this game goes well I already have an idea for another variant on the same scenario and we can use knowledge gained at that point!)

I don't dislike the colossus, and maybe we can get both? (probably not) However, MC isn't usually a high priority for me on the tech list.

Anyway ... will be home in an hour or so and can post the save. Who'd like to go first? (doesn't have to be in order as listed above)


I think we need to get a consensus on whether we want to jump coastal and head for the GLight wonder (meaning Sailing and Masonry tech path) or go inland and head straight for BW to grab the Silver.

 

[pigswill]

If the silver is 1N of the settler and the tile 1SE (blue circle) is coastal then we get both. Maybe the scout could head SW to check it out before moving the settler.

 

[PaulusIII]

Knowing the AI, it's probably 1 tile off the coast.

If it would be coastal it's a great pick though.

 

[Trynthlas]

If the silver is 1N of the settler and the tile 1SE (blue circle) is coastal then we get both. Maybe the scout could head SW to check it out before moving the settler.

Scout has already moved, perhaps just move the settler to take a look?

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Hi everyone!

I think one south east is coastal (judging from the coast) so we could move the settler and see if the spot is better (if not, we loose only one turn)... I agree with Pigwills about Colossus +Great Lighthouse: I feel it's over ambitious, but one of them would be fine (and the lighthouse is more flexible in terms of tiles worked)... The initial spot doesn't seem to have much production so we should aim either toward slavery+HR or toward workshop+Caste... Finally, I have the feeling that we should learn feudalism (to vassalize people) sooner than later otherwise we will be building tones of cities...

I hope I can post tomorrow morning about initial tech path, but I need to sleep right now…

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

 

[Trynthlas]

So, based on opinions so far I moved the settler 1 SE, found that it was indeed coast, AND there was fish - so I settled there. Visible in our BFC is Wheat, Fish, and Silver.

Not sure on tech path or first build choice, so let's hear it!

Here's a screenie, and the save is attached.

Spoiler :

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

I got the mod.. Thx for the link!
I'd prefere the GLH as well.. But I think heading for BW immediately and starting a worker right in time for building the silvermine should be highest prio 'cause this seems to be the only source of hammers in our BFC, and even for the GLH we'll need a few of them .