The Mad 2.42 Succession Game

[Scouse Gits]

Just me ranting ...

Musketeers are defensive units - I'm a rabid rodent I want Clads and Crooks - we have the Crooks and Gunpowder is off the tech path for SteamEngine - and Leo's turns vet Clads into green Destroyers -- of course there are many perfectly valid approaches to the game that take the GP - Leo's - Explosives route - it just isn't MY favourite - so that's what's going on - you are missing nothing - just an old fart crying in his cups

SG[1]

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
Just me ranting ...

Musketeers are defensive units - I'm a rabid rodent I want Clads and Crooks - we have the Crooks and Gunpowder is off the tech path for SteamEngine - and Leo's turns vet Clads into green Destroyers -- of course there are many perfectly valid approaches to the game that take the GP - Leo's - Explosives route - it just isn't MY favourite - so that's what's going on - you are missing nothing - just an old fart crying in his cups

SG[1]

Just remember who it was who researched Navigation for you, SG[1] (so you can build that nice boat for Mr Magellan, leading to your Super 'Clads) when I start stranding ships on mountains

STYOM, torn between ICSing and SSC'ing (AT)...

edit: I actually ACCEPTED peace with the Babs on my last turn - I was going to refuse it, but changed my mind, thus the typo in my log, above

[Straybow]

Much catching up to do

The last heir of the Second STYOM Dynasty "retires" to an undisclosed location with enough money and a detachment of Palace Guardsmen to avoid the historical fate of so many transitional Kings.

A dark horse rises to the throne (apparently after paying off the STYOMite King, seeing the advantages to a bloodless coup). He claims descent from Straybow the Mad by way of bastardy. An ancient document and an equally old royal seal are authenticated by historians in ScouseHolme.

The Second Straybow Dynasty begins. The merchant family finds members nepotized into various positions of power. Scousia is scoured for new talent and blood among lesser noble families. A great census is taken, and the assets of the kingdom assessed.

(Aaargh, I hate vBulletin. Went back to pg 4 to get ye_a20 so I could see better what's happened lately. Three attempts to return to page 5 never got to the bottom. Pressed "Reply," which seems to bypass caching.)

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
[old fart mode]

Damn misguided Scientists !
Damn Leonardo !
Damn Gunpowder


Who wants defence when we could have had SteamEngine by now!!!!!!!!!!

Damn Perfectionists
[/old fart mode]

SG[1]

Remember this is a MAD game and smile

(in fact, I'm just as sad as you are; think of that: 'sailing a fleet of vet ironclads along Straybow's Canal'; would make me feel like Ferdinand de Lesseps *)

(* = the Frenchman who initiated and directed the building of Suez Canal)

[Straybow]

Second Straybow Dynasty

Straybow the Enlightened reigns in ScouseHolme. He finds the kingdom in some disarray. The glorious capital isn't even connected to the Eastern half by roads, the farms struggling at the mercies of capricious rains when irrigation could bring plenty.

Trade with foreign nations is lacking. War is pursued against enemies too distant to bring the weight of the kingdom's might to bear, yes, even the Mongols. What is a king to do? It is agreed to take the Mongol city of Kashgar, as it may have some strategic value or be reduced into a useful Settlers unit. Then the Mongols might pay us a ransom for peace.

For a while, these over-reaching war plans shall cease. Our citizens shall be put to work, and shall make our cities great. We shall open a sea route to our Northern neighbors, that we may conquer them speedily.

0600 Productions altered and tickled.
0620 Barb king disappears; Silk->Kells bring 72 gold.
–––– Erie Dye and Suez Silk sent to Persepolis, there to
–––– find transport across the sea to Spain.
0640 A Mongol Elephant advanced upon Persepolis from the
–––– North, dispatched by Crusaders. Did it slip by, or
–––– come from an undiscovered city above the hills?
–––– Settlers produced and set to work.
0660 A clever chap posits the Theory of Gravity, advancing
–––– our science to degrees never imagined. Our greatest
–––– minds are set to work studying medicines.
–––– Soldiers in Kashgar sally forth, routing our Musketeers.
–––– Our Diplomat persuades a Mongol Phalanx to defect. Now
–––– next to the city, he plies his trade. For 171 gold
–––– they cede to the glory of Scousia. Too isolated to
–––– be much good and out of position, it shall produce
–––– Settlers to build a road for future conquering forces.
–––– The city contains a Trireme, and it is loaded with
–––– a Phalanx to probe Mongol coasts.
0680 As predicted, Mongols are willing to give 25 gold for
–––– peace, a third of their pitiful treasury. ScouseHolme
–––– produces a Coal caravan. Which is more useful: send it
–––– to a large city in hopes of remuneration, or use it to
–––– help Sir Isaac establish a college without peer in the
–––– world? The latter has the highest and quickest return.
–––– Whalebane is founded to thwart barb spawning.
0700 Not much worth describing.
0720 More moving of caravans and ships.
0740 Sir Isaac's collegues find secrets of Medicine. They
–––– next set to work on Physics. More tickling Caravans
–––– towards completion.
0760 Tight Passage founded.
–––– What a surprise, the Mongols sneak-attack. Exchange a
–––– Musketeer for an Elephant. Discover that when Leo made
---- the shipboard Phalanx into a Musketeer it was closer
---- to Kabul than anything else, and became a NON unit!
0780 More tweaking, shifting, and shuffling. On the way to
---- Madrid a Copper caravan encounters Barcelona. It
---- Copper as well, but is small and without roads to give
---- good trade value.
0800 Two caravans invested into Sir Isaac's College bring
---- the cost within reason. I have left it to my successor
---- to do the honors.

[Straybow]

Straybow retires to his home town

I, Straybow the Twiddler, have endeavored to disband Sticky Mouse, as it is so far that corruption and waste render it nearly useless. Finish it off and found a city in a useful location. I thought to road the Gold near RMIUD, but that may be a folly. Many Settlers can now be diverted to roads along the route to Mongolia. Let us build more ships to bring our Crusaders and Musketeers to their shores, that they may be crushed.

Roads now abound, and farms are irrigated. Selflessly I have invested in ScouseHolme, leaving my ancestral lands around Straybow neglected. Let my successor remember my deeds, and make the lands about Straybow a garden of delight.

A ship loads the caravans encamped at Persepolis, and Persepolis has produced one as well. A ship carries ScouseHolme Wool and SilkyFish Copper to Caernarfon and Kaupang. A ship brings fine UpBabsNose Wine to Panama Hatt, that it may be sent on to ScouseHolme to produce a route of lasting value. Caravans from Sarzana and SilkyFish move to the coast to await transport across the sea.

Babylonian Settlers have intruded upon our lands near Panama Hatt. A Musketeer blocks them and an assault from Hatt would dispatch the problem, should Hammy refuse to remove it.

May the One God bless my successor, and destroy our enemies.

[Straybow]

Forgot to say that I have taken no diplomatic actions this turn.

I'll let one of the Gits post the play order.

[Mercatia]

Mercatia sobs...."No more StickyMouse!!"

She vows to rise to power again and rebuild her!

[Scouse Gits]

In my Liverpool Home

I had a dream that we were playing a sensible game. In my fantasy ScouseHolme was a size 12 city reaching this size by virtue of food caravans. Careful placement of all the capital's workers brought the research rate down from 6 to 4 turns. As a result of a big first city all the caravans to/from this location brought in greater returns, whilst all the cities having trade routes with the capital saw their trade increase.

My slumbers then took me to the achievements of our scientists. With 32 techs in Democracy had long been discovered and the Statue of Liberty overlooked the great river Mersey and occasionally winked at the Birkenhead ferry! The Lady had provided a Communist - corruption free government - as a compromise between the warlike rodents and the perfectionists. Veteran Ironclads patrolled the home coasts and abroad threatened the enemies of the people. Leonardo's Workshop was converting all settlers to engineers…and a sleeping Scouser was upgraded to one awake…

------------------------

SG(2)

---

Play order ...
Is given on the first and last pages ...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Re: In my Liverpool Home

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
I had a dream that we were playing a sensible game
SG(2)

Yes, why did we build all those crusaders (instead of caravans and settlers) and why haven't we learned Republic by now, which would make those food Caravans redundant with WLTPD!!

STYOM

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Mercatia
Mercatia sobs...."No more StickyMouse!!"

She vows to rise to power again and rebuild her!

Bravo! That's the true spirit of the MAD succession game!

[Cyrion]

Excellent "tutorial"!!

Sorry to intrude, but 2 things:

1) great thread, I'm learning a lot even without playing! too bad I only got MPGE and no longer 2.42 as well...

2) a question about the following

Originally posted by Straybow

0760 Tight Passage founded.
–––– What a surprise, the Mongols sneak-attack. Exchange a
–––– Musketeer for an Elephant. Discover that when Leo made
---- the shipboard Phalanx into a Musketeer it was closer
---- to Kabul than anything else, and became a NON unit!

Do you mean that when Leo upgrades an unit it re-homes it to the nearest city? I never noticed that (but must admit I didn't pay attention...). Is that always the case, or sometimes, or did I get it wrong?

[Julius Brenzaida]

Re: Re: In my Liverpool Home

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man Yes, why did we build all those crusaders (instead of caravans and settlers) and why haven't we learned Republic by now, which would make those food Caravans redundant with WLTPD!! STYOM

I am afraid that in this mad game, republic is not an option anymore. Is sanity just a contraction of sanitation or yet a word that might apply to our strategy

What puzzles me, though, is that despite going in every direction, we are still easily ahead of the AI

From my experience, ICSers and/or warmongers always get the edge in succession game. You can turn a 8 city republic in an ICS flood in a few turns (did not Dave V build about 80 cities in 10 turns once ?) but not the other way around. And once you have swords instead of infrastructure, it is tough to catch up

[Scouse Gits]

Cyrion - good to see that even lurkers can get some benefir - you do realise that you can still download and look at the game with MGE? Unfortunately were you to play the resultant save would be incompatible with v2.42. In answer to your question - no they most certainly don't rehome as a matter of course - it is possible that the original Phalanx was a NONE - but that will have to be investigated

Julius - we have been very good so far - no massive expansion and I only buillt one Crook - to ward off a Barb attack - your observation is well founded - it is hard to disband 80 cities and for many players such a game is no fun

SG[1]

[La Fayette]

successor now in the starting blocks