The world in 1914

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
In my effort it is the beginning of the 1912 turn. There are 38 cities and 75 techs to our credit. And some skulls....

Here is the save

I've down loaded the save, but will have to look at it later since I don't have Civ on this computer.

If Cavebear and Erika post saves we will have 4 to choose from - riches undreamed of a few months ago.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Bloody Monk]

cb,

I have a faint memory of your using the quick reply method in the past and that it kept you from attaching a file. That would be easily fixed if it was the problem this time. Good luck.

Monk

[rjmatsleepers]

I've looked at Monk's save now. As well as being earlier, it has a more secure position against the Celts and Persians. Also more Egyptian and Sioux cities have been taken. On the other hand, the railway network is less complete and I think there are less howies and armour on the Zulu / Viking mainland. And there is a lot of polution to work on.

We need to think about how we treat the Egyptians and Sioux. We could eliminate them so that when we take an enemy capital, their empire splits which leaves us with 2 weaker opponents to deal with. Alternatively we could leave them as a Zoo civ in order to prevent the empires splitting thus enabling us to bring down a space ship by capturing a single capital.

I'm a bit torn (and also worried that there might be an element of hubris in the question).

How are things going Cavebear and Erika?

RJM at Sleeper's

[cavebear]

LOL@myself! I *was* using the 'quick reply'.

BTW, when I checked the save this morning, I discovered that the Zulu spaceship is still flying! I'm confused. The Zulu empire split when we took Zimbabwe, so that had to have been their capital at the time.

[rjmatsleepers]

Yes that was a shock wasn't it. Apparently if an empire splits, the spaceship does not return to earth. I'm not sure whether this was known before - certainly I didn't know it. To bring the spaceship back you have to take the new capital - Ngome. You will need to provoke another war and move your troops smartly west.

Good Luck!

RJM at Sleeper's

[Bloody Monk]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers
Yes that was a shock wasn't it. Apparently if an empire splits, the spaceship does not return to earth. I'm not sure whether this was known before - certainly I didn't know it. To bring the spaceship back you have to take the new capital - Ngome. You will need to provoke another war and move your troops smartly west.

Good Luck!

RJM at Sleeper's

I believe I have seen it happen even where there is no civil war/empire split. I think the key is that the Victim Civ has enough in their treasury to buy a Palace at another site. But my memory is increasingly questionable, and I wonder why there was not a second instant Palace after Ngome fell.

The interesting thing for future consideration is whether or not, when their second s-ship is on its way, a similar thing will happen. Here, I have to agree with a comment elsewhere by RJM that we might want to leave at least one city for each AI. This way there will not be an open color slot for another empire split. These "zoo cities" can be harassed down in size, etc, even though they are not captured. One other point, any new Civs generated by 'empire splits' will most certainly have the techs for s-ship building and we do not need more competition in a space race.

Keeping the captured Zulu (and other AI) cities may not be possible. But the point was to bring down the s-ship. BTW, the Kelt city (Rhayader) was taken as a launch point for a future attack on the Kelt Capital when they have launched their s-ship. This city, or one like it, is an exception to the point just made about the value and need for holding on to captured cities.

Monk

[Bloody Monk]

RJM

I noticed that you have not established embassies. Spies can do this without penalty.

Choose the save you think best suited to your style. My health being what it is, I doubt I will be able to play any time soon. Just getting someone to type these replies for me is hard enough.

Good Hunting!!
Monk

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
RJM

I noticed that you have not established embassies. Spies can do this without penalty.

Choose the save you think best suited to your style. My health being what it is, I doubt I will be able to play any time soon. Just getting someone to type these replies for me is hard enough.

Good Hunting!!
Monk

Good point about the embassies - I concentrated on capturing Gnome and then saving so I'm fairly sure I haven't got an embassy with the new Viking empire. I'm not sure which others I'm missing.

Hopefully, Cavebear or Erika will also post a save so that we have a greater choice. IMHO we can win by either conquest or AC landing from both your save and mine.

I hope things improve for you so that you can again play this wonderful game, but any comments you can manage to make will be welcome.

All the best,

RJM at Sleeper's

[rjmatsleepers]

No action here for a while.

Cavebear - are you going to carry on a bit longer and bring the Zulu space ship back to earth?

Erika - can you spare a little while from your scenario building to play a few turns?

It would be good if we can finally put this game to bed

RJM at Sleeper's

[atawa]

I'll play a couple of turns

Witch save would be best to start from?

[cavebear]

I played a couple of turns only to find that my expectation of stopping the Zulu SS was incorrect. Had I known it would continue to fly, I could have played the turns differently. But I can't replay them, so I have to hope that someone else will provide a better turn-play.

It would be wrong of me to replay them.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by atawa
I'll play a couple of turns

Witch save would be best to start from?

What a good question

There are at least 3 possibilities. You could play on from my 1914 save until you bring down the Zulu space ship (which must be done by 1917 or we lose the game). This would give us a choice of 3 positions to play on from in our "better ball" format.

Alternatively we can choose between my 1915 save (called zulu_bird.sav) and Monk's 1912 save, both of which have grounded the Zulu bird. Monk's save is earlier, and has a more secure position against the Celts and Persians. Also more Egyptian and Sioux cities have been taken. On the other hand, the railway network is less complete and I think there are less howies and armour on the Zulu / Viking mainland. And there is a lot of polution to work on.

My vote is that we take Monk's save and play on from there - say 5 turns?

RJM at Sleeper's

[Bloody Monk]

By all means, please, someone pick up the game and play on.

As to the choice of saves...
If you use the Monk1912 .sav, then you will have 4 turns to get to the end of the 1915 RJM turn.. Many or most of the noted problems and deficiencies will be handled by then and the advantages will have been exploited further. If you then want to compare your new 1915 game to RJ's 1915 .sav, you can still choose to proceed with the RJM .sav, if you like that one better.

(I note that you will have 4 turns to the end of 1915 because the Monk1912 .sav is taken at the beginning of the 1912 turn.)

Then--at the end of 1915--play the 5 game turns to 1920, as suggested by RJM.

Good luck to everyone!!
Monk

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
By all means, please, someone pick up the game and play on.

As to the choice of saves...
If you use the Monk1912 .sav, then you will have 4 turns to get to the end of the 1915 RJM turn.. Many or most of the noted problems and deficiencies will be handled by then and the advantages will have been exploited further. If you then want to compare your new 1915 game to RJ's 1915 .sav, you can still choose to proceed with the RJM .sav, if you like that one better.

(I note that you will have 4 turns to the end of 1915 because the Monk1912 .sav is taken at the beginning of the 1912 turn.)

Then--at the end of 1915--play the 5 game turns to 1920, as suggested by RJM.

Good luck to everyone!!
Monk

Good idea

Let's all play Monk's save until 1920 with a pause in 1915 if people want to. The only real issue with Monk's save is the amount of pollution and there are enough engineers to deal with this.

Incidentally, my 1915 save is halfway through the turn - I stopped and saved as soon as I captured the second Zulu capital. There is some scope for continued mayhem before the end of 1915. Even so, I don't think it will be possible to do enough to match Monk's position.

RJM at Sleeper's

[cavebear]

No luck here in getting at Ngome by 1917. It's not like we should keep replaying until we succeed. I tried it and I failed. So I can't just replay. Better luck to others.