Minitourney III - Industrial and Modern warfare

[Harovan]

Here's the set up:

- China (Militaristic/Industrious) at Monarch
- Standard map size, large continents (60% water)
- Normal, warm, young (3 billion years)
- Restless barbarians
- Concurrents are Japan, America, Egypt, England, France, Russia and Germany
- Diplomatic, Cultural and Spacerace victories are off.
- The rest of the settings are on.

Thema is industrial and modern warfare.

The starting spot looks nice, but I haven't made any turns to prove the map settings. In the first two ages pretty much all will be like it always was. Everybody will strive to be the biggest fish at the home continent, may be even to take it completely. The difference comes later. No cultural, diplomatic and space race bail out. Meaning, who doesn't want to play till 2050AD, must invade. No tech race, so there is absolutely no excuse not to build marines, paratroopers and modern armor this time. And missiles. And nuclear subs. And invade! If my civ calculations come true, the other continent will be Europe. German Panzers, anyone? Happy invading!

About spoilers: They are allowed, as soon as the player's civ enters the industrial age. I will prepare a special spoiler thread later today. Sharing strategies and maps is explicitly allowed (as by this time everybody knows the map anyway) and is considered to be part of the fun. Who invades in the medieval age with Knights and Cavalries and wins by this time, may be an ace, but has no right to post a spoiler . The main goal of the game, as it was in its 2 predecessors, is to share and evaluate strategies, to learn from each other and to have fun. The latter is the most important.

Here's the game. Enjoy!

[alexman]

I can't wait to try it! Thanks Sir Ralph!

[nbarclay]

I'm sorely tempted to see if I can't dominate the world with cavalry again (using riders until cavalry become available), but I think I'll play the game thematically instead. Toward that end, I'm imposing a couple extra constraints on myself. Others may or may not choose to do the same, but I figured I'd post them in case anyone is interested.

Specifically, barring a strange situation that makes an exception seem necessary, I (1) will not attack any overseas continents until I reach the industrial era and (2) will not launch any transcontinental invasions with cavalry (or anything earlier) as my primary offensive force. Islands adjacent to the home continent are, of course, fair game in any era using any type of troops.

Exceptions would include things like starting on a small continent by myself, starting on a shared continent where two civs are stuck sharing a land mass that's hardly even decent for one, or not having a resource needed to build tanks. There may conceivably be others I'm not thinking of offhand. In the case of a small home continent, the nearest known neighbor continent (allowing for a preference for safe movement prior to Navigation or Magnetism) becomes fair game. In the case of a resource problem, targeting the needed resource becomes fair game, as does taking a type of land the resource is likely to appear on if I know I don't have any suitable terrain myself. (And taking out the surrounding nation to eliminate the risk of culture flips is also acceptable.)

Since I have no love for slogging it out in WWI-style infantry warfare, barring land area or resource problems, this should result in my using tanks or modern armor to spearhead my first transcontinental invasion. Good luck, everyone, and have fun! And thanks, Sir Ralph, for setting this up!

Nathan

[Alkis]

After a second thought I downloaded the file and started the game. I don't know if I will play it till the end, but in any case I will be in a better position to understand your stories.

[Txurce]

I'll be starting this game as soon as I finish Nathan's June tourney game, which has been a lot of fun, in a very mellow, Civ2-ish way.

[Chemical Ollie]

This looks like my kind of game! I hate spaceship races and have only bothered to go through it once. I rather stick to my old Civ2 gamestyle, where I did a REX expansion until I was out of free land, took the rest of my continent by force when I felt ready and then played a peaceful builder game until AD2000 when I conquered the rest of the world with modern units.

I gained my Civ3 highscore that way, as Hiawatha on a large map with a few continents. My score was over 6000 on Emperor level, triggered by culture.

I have never had the opportunity to use late modern units like smart weapons, radar artillery and Aegis Cruisers. Anywhone know why they are in the game at all, as you always win or lose before you get them? I used stealth bombers for the first time in Nathan's June tour. They rocked, but what is the use for stealth fighters? They just seem to be low-budget bombers, as they never intercept any enemy aircraft.

I don't totally like the scoring system of Civ3, as it gives unbalanced benefits to early conquerors (like zergling rushers in StarCraft ) Those rusher guys never get to enjoy the fun of rolling over longbowmen with modern armor. Why can't you get score for things like possession of a wonder or total years of peace, as you did in Civ2?

[Txurce]

Sir Ralph, why no posts until after the industrial age? Isn't the strategy for the early- and mid-game just as important to the achievement of victory in the end game?

[Theseus]

Txurce, look for a PM.

[Harovan]

Txurce: Just not to lower the fun of exploration for those who aren't yet so far. No need to reveal the map and resource locations. If you can write spoilers without revealing this information, go ahead and post them in this thread.

For example, imagine somebody would post: "I met the Germans north of my capital". If somebody would read this, who didn't start the game yet, it would with no doubt take influence to his opening strategy. But after entering the industrial age, everybody knows the map and all land is claimed for sure.

[notyoueither]

Why don't we see more of these people at the demo game?

Theseus? We need a sh*t disturber who knows the game.

Come on. Sir Ralph and I seem to be maintaining a lonely vigil. There seems to be a shortage of people who can conceive of a strategy and carry through with it without being distracted by the next screen shot.

You want a challenge? Try to help guide a game on emperor with 160 emperors all pulling in different directions (only most of them play on Regent and Monarch). That's a challenge!

Sorry to invade your thread SR.

[Harovan]

No problem, it's for a good purpose . C'mon, lazy jerks!

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Why don't we see more of these people at the demo game?

Theseus? We need a sh*t disturber who knows the game.

Come on. Sir Ralph and I seem to be maintaining a lonely vigil. There seems to be a shortage of people who can conceive of a strategy and carry through with it without being distracted by the next screen shot.

You want a challenge? Try to help guide a game on emperor with 160 emperors all pulling in different directions (only most of them play on Regent and Monarch). That's a challenge!

Sorry to invade your thread SR.

I've thought about joining the democratic game, but frankly, I don't think being a member of a huge committee trying to run an empire would be as much fun. In a game like this, instead of arguing over what technique will be best, we can each try our own approach and see how the different ones turn out.

Nathan

[Arrian]

:nods: Yeah, that's kinda how I feel too. I would be up for a succession game with a certain few players and a defined strategy - and that's as far as I go.

I have not yet started this mini tourney, for a couple of reasons. I will probably not get started on it until tomorrow night, but I hope to catch up fast.

Right now I'm actually working on a Chinese game I started shortly before this tourney started. It's going so well I just can't abandon it (once I stop playing a game and switch to another, it's all over). Let me put it this way: I'm so powerful that I'm still in Monarchy in the late middle ages, getting tech in 4 turns with a healty surplus (3K+ gold saved up too). Yeehaw. I may not switch to democracy for a while. I've destroyed the three civs on my continent and have eaten 1/2 of France, which is an island just offshore. Total of 6 great leaders, and counting. I have just upgraded to Cavalry, so poor Joan won't last long (10 turns, give or take).

-Arrian