NEW Civ2 Tournament August 16 - September 14, 2004 : SPOILER Thread

[solo]

A new mystery, I think. After resuming my game, the purple civ did not respawn. Why not?

After I complete my game I want to run some tests and try and figure out causes.

No black clicking nor helper programs here, but I was unaware that bribes were considered taboo. One of my favorite tricks is to take capitals first, causing corruption in easily bribable secondary cities.

Hats off to LaFayette! I am unsure of doing as well even with my diplomats.

No dragoons yet, SG, as they are still about 30 turns away, unless the Vikings learn Gunpowder before I do.

[Scouse Gits]

Drat! Conquest in 1520! Drat!

The Crooks simply could not get down to Siouxland fast enough - bad logistics and planning on my behalf.

Herewith my somewhat sketchy notes:

Tech Tree
Ceremonial Burial
Horseback riding
Alphabet
Code of Laws
Monarchy in 2200
Bronze working - EXchanged
Mysticism - X
Warrior code - Tribute
Pottery
Currency
Map making - Hut
Writing
Polytheism - X
Trade
Feudalism - H
Iron working - X
Literacy
Masonry
The wheel - X
Philosophy & Monotheism
Construction
Mathematics - T
Seafaring - T
Bridge building - T
Astronomy
Engineering
Republic - X
Invention
Gunpowder
Banking - Captured
Chivalry - C

Time Line

3850 - Athens & Sparta
2850 - Thermopolae
2050 - Establish Monarchy
1950 - Corinth
1800 - Delphi
0900 - Pharsalos
0825 - Hanging Gardens
0800 - Knossos
0750 - Argos
0575 - Mycenae
0450 - Herakleia
0400 - Ephesos
0250 - Colossus
0160 - Thesalonika
0100 - Rhodes
----
0100 - Sun Tzu
0180 - Eretrea
0260 - Kashgar - Destroyed
0300 - Michaelangelo's Chapel
0400 - Bokhara - D
0520 - Karakorum - Captured
0540 - Samarkand - D; Troy
0600 - Nishapur - C
0640 - Tabriz - D
Mongols toast (Sioux spawn as I discover later)
0660 - Marco Polo
0720 - Satsuma - C; Frankfurt - Bribed
0740 - Edo - B
0760 - Kyoto - C
0800 - Valedolid - C; Kagoshima - C
0880 - Osaka - C; Sverdlovsk - B
Japanese toast (Babylonians spawn)
0920 - Saragossa - C
0940 - Cadiz - B
0980 - Yakutsk - B; Isaac Newtons Workshop
1020 - Babylon - D
Babylonians toast (Zulus spawn)
1060 - Tbilisi - C
1100 - Cordoba - C
1140 - Berlin & Pyramids - C
1160 - Salamanca & Kiev - C; Leipzig - B
1180 - Hamburg & Vladivostok - C; Barcelona - B
Germans toast (no respawn)
1200 - Moscow & The Great Wall - C; Toledo - C
1220 - St Petersburg - C
1240 - Novgorod - C
1260 - Seville - C
1280 - Krasnoyarsk - B; Smolensk - C
1300 - Minsk - B; Odessa - C
Russians toast (Celts spawn)
1320 - Madrid & Lighthouse - C; Bilbao - C
Celts toast (Romans spawn)
Romans toast (Russians spawn)
Russians toast (no respawn)
1360 - Valencia - C
Spanish toast (Aztecs spawn)
1380
Aztecs toast (no respawn)
1420 - Marathon - Tribe
1440 - Shanghai - C
1460 - Zimbabwe - C
Zulus toast (no respawn)
1480 - Canton - B; Beijing & The Library - C
Chinese toast (no respawn)
1520 - Little Big Horn - C
Sioux toast - game over

231% Apolyton the Magnificent

Sadly, a rather average game - bad planning in the latter half of the first millenium led to two centuries of delay - I reckon that 1350 would have been possible - so I was never really in the running - ah well it was great fun!!!!

Stu

Edited to include Ike's Shop - oops

[La Fayette]

Stu,

Wait and see: I don't think that many players will finish sooner than you did.

Yet, IMO, Marco much sooner would have been good for you.

[Scouse Gits]

Thanks LaFayette, you may well be right - but I had horsemen out early and was already in contact with the Mongrels, Japanese, Russians & Germans so it did not seem to be a high priority until tracking restarts became essential.

Stu

[La Fayette]

@Monk

Stu = 7 respawns
LF = 6 respawns

You were right: there is in fact a luck factor.

Perhaps solo gets 20 respawns


@solo

No bribe is my personal choice. Anyone is perfectly free to play otherwise. I won't complain.

[La Fayette]

@stu (about Marco)

1) A map is much better than a contact when you want to plan an attack.

2) Marco may also provide techs (I would swear that solo acquired at least 5 or 6 when he built it ).

[Elephant]

Bloodthirsty

Are there no peace-loving OCC or EL players here?

[debeest]

I'm giving EL a shot. No telling whether I'll finish within the deadline, though.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Out of practice attempt...

4000 BC: Athens founded - a whale is a whale.
3900: Hut - 25g.
3750: Sparta
2500: Thermopylae
2200: Corinth
2000: Delphi Monarchy discovered.
1850: Form Monarchy
1200: Trade
775: Hut - supported Legion.
750: Greeks - Most Advanced.
725: Pharsalos
625: Hanging Gardens in Sparta
550: Knossos
525: Copper(d) Delphi>Sparta, 16 g.
475: Colossus in Sparta. Barbarians appeased near Thermopylae, 75 g. (Should have had a diplo nearby. )
325: Mongols spotted lurking east of Pharsalos.
275: Peace with Mongols bought at the cost of Alphabet and Pottery. Greeks=Supreme (so giving techs to the Mongols is a good thing, right? ).
100: Mycenae Barbarians sack Delphi.
75: Delphi bribed for 58 g - netting a diplomat and an Archer. Mongols sneak attack, killing a Horseman.
50: Philosophy>Polytheism
AD 40: Herakleia
AD 80: Dye(d) Sparta>Thermopylae, 24 g.
100: Ephesos
120: Mongol attacks at Pharsalos and Argos repelled.
200: Beads(d) Knossos>Sparta, 24g.
260: As our troops mass near Kashgar the Mongols offer us Map Making for a ceasefire, and we accept.
340: Wine(d) Sparta>Thermopylae, 34 g.
380: Shakespeare's Theatre in Sparta. Kashgar bribed, 208 g and Mathematics. We extort a ceasefire for Iron Working.
520: War provoked and Bokhara bribed for 260 g and The Wheel. We accept a cease fire for 200g, and take a further 50g for the peace treaty. Bringing the net cost down to 10g.
Thessalonika founded.
620: War provoked again - Aleppo revolts for 267 g and we gain Warrior Code. Mongols offer 50 g for a cease fire; we accept and make peace.
680: Michelangelo's Chapel in Sparta
740: War provoked - and Nishapur is bribed for 192 g netting 10 back and Astronomy
780: Meet Japanese near Nishapur. They are Receptive - we sign a peace treaty, ask to exchange knowledge ("Not interested") and demand tribute. They leave, and give us 300 g!
800: Japanese appear to have captured Tabriz, a Mongol city, since we are inadvertently encroaching there.
820: Hides(d) Athens>Sparta, 36 g.
940: Republic formed, to facilitate celebrations in Sparta.
980: Tabriz subverted from Japanese at some expense. They have no new tech Gems (d) Corinth>Sparta, 60 g. Sparta size 8.
1060: Hides(d) Athens>Sparta, 68 g.
1080: Japanese declare war after we refuse them Construction.
1140: Peace with Japanese
1200: Mongols sneak attack.
1220: Silk (d) Thermopylae>Sparta, 78 g.
1240: Hides (d) Corinth>Sparta, 68 g. Sewer rushed in Sparta.
1300: Silk (d) Knossos>Sparta, 48 g.
1340: Silk (d) Sparta>Karakorum(M), 216 g , Dye Athens>Karakorum(M), 39 g.
1380: Meet Spanish (Receptive) - they offer swap of Bridge Building (their only unknown tech) for Invention, which we take (we are already well on the way to Leo). Offer alliance, accepted. Maps shared. Spanish gift 200 g. This would have been so much harder on MGE. Hides (d) Athens>Sparta, 38 g.
1400: Gems (d) Mycenae>Codoba, 46 g, Salt Delphi>Cordoba, 15 g.
1420: Japanese sneak attack
1460: Leonardo's Workshop in Sparta. Sparta size 20.

1500. Gaah, I've made a hash of this. The application of some force to the Mongols and Japanese would eliminate them, but I've been unable, as usual, to focus on one goal. I'm trying to conquer, but stuck in Republic because I want Sparta to keep growing. My internal trade strategy hasn't paid off. My build orders are 1/3 Caravans, 1/3 Crusaders and 1/3 Diplomats, and I know that focus is the way to win quickly. Oh well. I'll win, but not impressively.

To be continued...

[Scouse Gits]

You said it yourself - lack of focus!
But it sounds a fun game & that is the be-all and end-all of this wonderful hobby of ours.

Stu

[solo]

Well, you guys will like this. In 320 AD, the Russians captured one of my advanced tribes and took Gunpowder as plunder! This was shared around with other AI, and now my knights were facing horrible mouseketeers instead of archers and phalanxes.

I lost something like 8 or 9 knights trying to take Cordoba, so ended up taking the low road and bribed the city later on. Walls make a huge difference, since cities without fall with hardly a fight.

The Japanese were the second civ eliminated, and respawned as the Babs, whose settler was found and killed quickly. The next turn a Zulu settler respawned in the exact same place. Too bad for him. No more green respawns since, so 4 civs remain.

Dragoons finally came in 580 AD at which time about 60 knights were promoted. Now it's 780, with about 7 or 8 visible AI cities left, but still 4 AI alive and kicking. Most of these cities are too large to bribe, though, and may be tough to take if they have walls, which is likely by now.

Only about 20 turns left to catch La Fayette. I have not built enough triremes (only 12 or so). Instead I was wasting time with settlers on a Ho Chi Minh trail leading all the way to Kyoto. I suspect I'll have trouble tracking down respawns, if there are many more to come.

[La Fayette]

Dragoons against musketeers at 600AD = early conquest solo's way

Looks like a real fun game

[Scouse Gits]

Trust solo to bring a new dimension to all aspects of the game!

Dragoons - wow

Stu

[Scouse Gits]

solo

Was the dual respawn on the jungle outcrop to the West of the main Spanish holdings?

I had three spawns there..

Stu

[solo]

Stu,

Nope, it was on the island west of the Chinese. I hope remaining respawners are this easy to spot. Well, it's back to the game...