Zulu Government escapes to...

[Gregonar]

Ulundi!

Hi everyone, I've experienced a peculiar problem while playing the GOTM100...I have a spaceship due to reach in 1942(12.8)yrs, but the Zulu have one that would reach in 1940 (6.7yrs). As such, I planned an attack on his capital Zimbabwe....only to find that it would escape to Ulundi, then Bapedi, then Mpondo....time out and I lose.

Out of fury I reloaded and found that I had to take 5 cities before their spaceship finally crashes. I never needed so badly to sack someone's capital before so I never noticed anything about this....any ideas?

 

[Terrapin]

I don't recall if there is a game setting which would prevent a capital from being moved like that. My only piece of tactical advice would be that, if you have plenty of money, use spies to buy the cities other than Zimbabwe, then lay your siege.

I don't think you are supposed to reload in GOTMs, but that is not my isssue.

 

[Ace]

As long as the AI has the coins to instantly build a new palace, it can move its capital as many times as it has cities left. Eventually, it will run out of coins, or cities, and the spaceship will crash.

 

[Magic_gorter]

If you know an AI civ has enough techs to build a spaceship try to bring them down as soon as possible. Perhaps only the capital as petcity. When you launched your ship there is no longer the need to stay all the time in democracy. So you could revolt just before an oedo year and start attacking and switch back to the government you like.

But normally I try to avoid giving the ai enough techs to launch a ship. If that is not possible I just build the fastest ship to be sure to win.

 

[Gregonar]

I reloaded AFTER I admitted defeat...it's just that I've never lost like this before (in fact I don't think I've lost a civ game vs AI since I was 15). I saw that it was an island map and I had a chance to build for a quick space race. As it turns out that I was way behind in tech b/c of the Chinese but I was determined to played a short perfect non-aggro space race game...

Hey magic, can I submit even if I lose? Also, there must be a rubric for knowing what happens when you sack a capital, like how many times it can escape OR even more amusing, the empire splits in half.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Please submit. I will look at the rules if it's ok and how to calculate the score. Make sure the final save is just before the Zulu's win.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

It costs 1000 gold to move a capital as described; if a civ has less than that amount, it can not do so. Avoiding taking an enemy capital is also a way to maximize your plunder.

 

[Gregonar]

Thanks Garfield, you're right of course, Zulu had 5300 Gold before I started taking capitals...and I took 5.

 

[Jacen_Fel]

I think the amount goes up to 2,000 in Diety as I had a Diety game where I took the Chinese capital and they relocated and were then 2,000 gold short (They had 2532 before and only 532 after). But then I guess they could have spent it on other stuff that turn as well.

Yea, pillage is great when the person your pillaging has a high amount of gold .

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've never played the GOTM or at the Deity level, but is there a rule forbidding you to just nuke the enemy, take the city, repeat as often as necessary (if you can't bribe the other cities), and clean up the pollution later?

 

[Ace]

I've never played the GOTM or at the Deity level, but is there a rule forbidding you to just nuke the enemy, take the city, repeat as often as necessary (if you can't bribe the other cities), and clean up the pollution later?

No. Have fun!! The only snag with nuking (besides the cleanup) is if you use spies to plant nukes and your in Democracy, you will probably get an "incident" and your gov will fall. However, if your at war, no problem, nuke em til they glow!

 

[Gregonar]

Out of curiosity, anyone know under what conditions a civ splits into 2 when you take a capital? I remember it happening in the original civII WWII scenario when I took Berlin AFTER the Russians wiped out the Turks.

 

[Ace]

IIRC, the civ has to have a higher power rating than you, and there has to be an empty slot for a 7th civ to appear. If there are 7 civs in the game, a split cannot occur.

 

[Peaster]

It costs 1000 gold to move a capital as described; if a civ has less than that amount, it can not do so.

This is a good rule of thumb, but I have seen exceptions. Possibly [I didn't check], the AI in my games were already in the process of building a new capital when I sacked the first one, thus avoiding the 1000 gold price tag.

Also, the answer to nuking .... is it correct ? I think nukes cause pollution [or even global warming], which affects score. I may be wrong - I very very rarely have used nukes.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Yes nukes cause pollution.....

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Also, the answer to nuking .... is it correct ? I think nukes cause pollution [or even global warming], which affects score. I may be wrong - I very very rarely have used nukes.

Of course, nukes cause pollution. Yes, too much pollution will give you global warming, which will turn your beautiful farmland into swamp and you will have to fix that ASAP or your cities may starve. Yes, your score will be affected. The cost for pollution is -10 points for every polluted square.

However... that's why you never nuke anybody unless:

1. It's your last resort.

2. You have a small army of at least 6-12 Engineers ready to move in and clean up the pollution ASAP (yes, you will need that many to do it quickly). Make sure the Engineers are out of the danger zone; you don't want your cleanup crew nuked along with the city!

When the pollution has been cleaned up, your score penalties for pollution will be canceled.

 

[forkshy]

a good way to solve this problem is to switch your government to communism and demand tribute in the diplomacy dialouge.

when cpnfronted with a superior civ the AI will generally give up all its gold for a cease fire.

no gold = no palace building = no capital

then, the next turn take their capital and switch back to democracy.

I think the amount goes up to 2,000 in Diety as I had a Diety game where I took the Chinese capital and they relocated and were then 2,000 gold short (They had 2532 before and only 532 after). But then I guess they could have spent it on other stuff that turn as well.

Yea, pillage is great when the person your pillaging has a high amount of gold .

AI's will buy in two cities sometimes when they only need to buy one.

 

[Sharwood]

IIRC, the civ has to have a higher power rating than you, and there has to be an empty slot for a 7th civ to appear. If there are 7 civs in the game, a split cannot occur.

This is correct, but it makes me wonder something. I seldom play with less than the full 7 Civs - not since my very early days of trying to figure out how to play, at any rate - and I don't believe I've ever caused a civil war in one of those games. I would assume that you still need to eliminate one or more rivals in a 6 player game before a split can occur, rather than the numbers increasing to 7?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I would assume that you still need to eliminate one or more rivals in a 6 player game before a split can occur, rather than the numbers increasing to 7?

No. The reason there must be less than 7 civs in the game is because the game can't handle more than 7 civs at a time. There was at least 1 game of the month where someone purposefully caused a civil war in order to "create" the missing civ colour.

 

[Sharwood]

No. The reason there must be less than 7 civs in the game is because the game can't handle more than 7 civs at a time. There was at least 1 game of the month where someone purposefully caused a civil war in order to "create" the missing civ colour.

Cool. I may have to try that soon. Maybe I can start with 3 civs, and work my way up to 7 that way? Be an interesting experiment during my week off.