A mini tourney- Spoilers

[Theseus]

GOD, that SUCKED!!!!

I give up... I tried to gut it out, but have given up in 1515AD.

I am so far behind in tech it's laughable; everybody's running around with hordes of MI, and I'm no where near Panzers.

I orchestrated a MONSTER war (like 400 units) between France and Russia, on my territory so I got to watch, but then they BOTH turned on me.

Too depressing.

I'll read everybody's stuff, and when I've recovered I'll try to make some observations.

BTW, Emperor is not usually this hard.

[nbarclay]

Dateline: Cairo, Egypt, 1290 AD

“My Queen, I have bad news, and I have worse news.”

“Well, out with it,” Cleopatra said.

“Bismarck has enlisted allies against us. The Romans, the Iroquois, the Aztecs, even the Russians, though why in the world Cathy would go for it I’ll never know.”

“So the whole world’s against us. I hope that’s the worse news.”

“It’s not, my lady. The worse news is that Bismarck secured his alliances by selling or giving them Replaceable Parts.”

“Oh $@#$#%#%.”

[I was afraid Cleopatra might set up mutual protection pacts to draw other nations into the war, thereby depriving me of my access to the remaining luxuries, so I decided to get there first. I just hope I can handle 20 turns of a mostly defensive war, or however long it goes before my allies make peace, as a Democracy. (I seriously doubt that they’ll be able to take Egypt out, seeing as Egypt seems to be the world's second greatest power.) Unfortunately, this draws my tech lead back down to just a single tech. Also, it looks like I’ll get beat to Universal Suffrage, which would have been nice to have in this kind of situation.]

Nathan

[Alkis]

From my experience, I think you will have no unrest unless you invade Egypt yourself. Replaceable parts on 1290 AD, hmm

[Harovan]

I invaded Egypt too, with Panzers, just to trigger my GA, to secure a spice colony and to raze 3 cities around it (including Thebes with the Great Library) to make the colony flipsafe. Ain't I a bloodthirsty and anti-cultural barbarian?

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Alkis
From my experience, I think you will have no unrest unless you invade Egypt yourself. Replaceable parts on 1290 AD, hmm

Thanks. The plan is for no land action against Egypt other than killing any more units that try to invade (since I won't have panzers before the alliance ends, and Egypt should be happy for peace by then). But I do plan to do some damage with whatever ships I build and can get in the right place before the war is over. (Not that it's likely to be all that many unless Egypt forces my hand; most of my coastal cities still have better things to do with their time.)

Actually, I got Replaceable Parts several turns before the war. It's very high on my "must get ASAP" list because of the speed boost it gives my workers while I'm building my rail network. But it's not exactly something I'm eager to trade under the best of circumstances, much less when most of the AIs hate me. (One of the deciding factors in forming this alliance was a desire to improve relations with the other AIs. There's nothing like a common enemy to bring nations together.)

Nathan

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Theseus
GOD, that SUCKED!!!!

I give up... I tried to gut it out, but have given up in 1515AD.

I am so far behind in tech it's laughable; everybody's running around with hordes of MI, and I'm no where near Panzers.

I orchestrated a MONSTER war (like 400 units) between France and Russia, on my territory so I got to watch, but then they BOTH turned on me.

Too depressing.

I'll read everybody's stuff, and when I've recovered I'll try to make some observations.

BTW, Emperor is not usually this hard.

I think I'm gonna throw in the towel as well. I don't think I was in quite as bad shape, but chances of winning were incredibly slim. Arg.

I'm thinking I may try Emperor some more, but with better civs (sorry Germany fans, I think they suck).

Congrats to those who won. Good job! I'm impressed.

-Arrian

[DaveV]

I don't know how you guys found the time to finish this game so fast. I've played to 130 BC, capturing three English and two Russian cities (including both capitals), but the French have a HUGE culture lead. The next expeditionary force will be targeting Paris and Rheims (the latter city contains the GL and the Colossus). I feel like I'm doing pretty well (just auctioned off Monotheism to regain tech parity, I have lots of swords and a few horses, with about 16 sleazy cities). But at the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to finish this decade ...

[Harovan]

Arrian and Theseus: No shame to abandon this game. It was very hard and if I had not that darn luck to vassalize the English and weaken the Russians so early, I probably would have got the same problems. Seems, I made early on my good decisions, and met my bad decisions later.

DaveV: I finished so quick, because I got addicted by a huge war at the 2nd evening and played nonstop from 7:30pm till 5:30am. Then slept 2 hours. My boss loved me for every yawning at this day.

[Arrian]

Sir Ralph,

You're just as bad as I am!

I have stayed up to 3:30am during the workweek playing civ more times than I'd like to admit.

-Arrian

[Catt]

nbarclay: hoping you'll keep the stories coming . . .

DaveV: sleep deprivation -- the only way to go!

Arrian and Theseus: I'm sure you're not happy with the outcomes of your games, and it may be a bit painful to try and write a summary, but I for one would love to hear in more detail how your games progressed. I have always learned more from my defeats or near defeats than from my wins.

Catt

[Alkis]

Davev,
I don't know about the others but the reason I finished so quickly is because I have nothing else to do

-

[Alkis]

Arrian and Theseus, can you please post a save where you abandoned the game. I am really very curious to see what a player like you considers a lost game.

- Please

[alexman]

Bismark the warmongering scientist

It looks like this is going to be my first win on Emperor. (Although I have won once on Deity - CivFanatics GOTM7)

Here's my log:

Expansion: 4000 B.C - 1675 B.C
Zero research, building warriors between settlers. Medium city density (about 4 tiles apart). Buying Wheel and Iron Working to see the strategic resources. Buying Literature in 1675.

Buildup: 1675 B.C - 650 B.C
Building chariots for garrison, and libraries for culture and border expansion. Research still zero. In 650 B.C. we buy Horseback Riding and upgrade 20 chariots. All cities now building spearmen (had none so far), as horsemen are too expensive. Ask the Russians to leave. They don't. Big mistake!

Killing Kathy: 650 B.C - 290 B.C
Horsemen becoming elite from war. In 310 B.C Moscow, the Great Library City, falls and we finally get a great leader. (Game won here) Leader immediately builds FP. Our culture is many times greater than anyone else's from all the libraries. Not one temple yet. Peace in 290 B.C. Russia still has three cities.

Builder's catch-up: 290 B.C - 340 A.D
Observing the still ongoing Anglo-Russian war. Building like mad. Marketplaces #1 priority. Also aqueducts, temples. Researching Republic. Switching as soon as we get it. Researching Chivalry. English take Minsk.

The Low-tech War: 340 A.D - 460 A.D.
Ask English to leave. They don't. Big mistake! Our obsolete units take the former Russian, former English, now German city of Minsk. Then they take the rest of the Russian cities. Kathy moves her belongings to an island to the West. Then we defend against the English hoardes from the North trying to move through the jungle, while we use our roads. We make peace with everyone.

Age of Enlightenment: 460 A.D - 720 A.D.
Building Universities everywhere, but ignoring all Wonders. We become the most enlightened civilization in the World! This tech lead we will never lose. Especially focusing in developing a Millitary Tradition. Meanwhile being friendly and trading with everyone.

Eliminating Elizabeth: 720 A.D.- 850 A.D.
Upgrading all veteran knights and elite horsemen to Cavalry. Unleashing furious attack on the English. After the first battle, we get a Great Leader. He immediately leads a Cavalry Army into battle. We capture London and Sun Tzu's War Academy. We graciously allow the English to survive with one city.

Industrializing: 850 A.D. - 1350 A.D.
Leading the world into the Industrial Era. Our people have access to all eight luxuries through trade, and our empire is in constant celebration. Lots of leftover cash to buy improvements in former England. We build the Theory of Evolution and enter a golden age. We quickly discover Electronics and build the Hoover Dam. Scientists are talking of a hot new weapon: the Panzer!

The Continent of Germany: 1350 A.D. - 1390 A.D.
Our Panzer Armies roll through all of France in just ten turns. We get several more leaders. One of them builds the United Nations. We capture Bach's and Sistine in Paris! England and France are no more. Kathy is still in exile. Europe is now a lonely place!

I have not finished yet, but the modern era looks like it's going to be smooth sailing to Alpha Centauri.
[Edit: Launched in 1560 A.D. with 6274 points]

Let me just say, I love the added dimension of civ traits in Civ3! It truly affects strategy. Playing this game like you would play Japan, for example, is really hard. I tried to take advantage of both traits to the fullest, and it worked like a charm. Build libraries, not temples. Build universities ASAP for the solid tech lead. Fight until you get that leader. Then fight some more for the next one. Of course it also depends on the map. Panzers rock!

[Harovan]

Great game, alexman. As far as I can see, you did best of all so far. Wish I had the insight to build the FP in Moscow instead of London, where it was mediocre. I picked on both English and Russians early, but maybe waited too long to finish the Russians, who had the clearly better terrain.

[nbarclay]

Definitely an impressive game, Alexman. You probably hit Motorized Transportation at least close to a century before I will. (I'm still in 1315, and I have exactly five techs to go after having just finished TOE.) Then again, I deliberately compromised my medieval science pace to pursue a strategy that ended up taking the continent (at least for all practical purposes - I'm allowing three small foreign towns to survive on the fringes) a good bit earlier. I'll be interested to see how our finishes compare.

Of course if it weren't for the four-turn minimum, I could catch up in tech a lot more quickly. I'm actually going after Steel in four turns with research at 50% (and that's without the boost of a golden age - I had mine a lot earlier). Oh well, that leaves plenty of gold to keep rushing stuff.

I agree that the civ traits add a very nice dimension to the game. What I like most is that they encourage and facilitate certain styles of play without actually saying you're SUPPOSED to play a certain way.

Interesting sidenote: Alexman and I are the two who seem to be having an easy time with this game, and we both got the Great Library and a Great Leader out of an early war. Think that says something?

Nathan