The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
Taian: How about trading for MM instead of trying to research it... find something the AI doesn;t research. Pre-build using the Palace.
Catt: I noticed Germany too... a question for SR when he dries off.
The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.
My guess is that Sir Ralph got so sick of Germany from the floods, that he punished them in the game.
I fit 11 cities on the mega-banana and 3 on the mini-banana. I was forced to ICS in my own bananas after England beat me to the Great Lighthouse. There's no way I was going to start suicide missions a-la-Theseus with loaded galleys.
It's working out pretty well. After missing all the Ancient wonders, I got all of the Middle Ages wonders except Leo, and Bach: It's a builder's paradise on banana island!
The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.
I'm not sure how bad my game memory can get, but this game is testing it. I finished just now (summary later) but in the process of playing out the last of the game reacquainted myself with what happened early in the game (lo so many turns and days ago) through F7 (wonders), reviewing some of my screenshots, etc. I built the Colossus in 1200 BC or so which undoubtedly helped me build the GL in 500 BC or so (sorry, Jawa Jockey - my GA sparked by the Colossus probably makes a slight difference () in my ability to build the GL - also means that I stoped off for Bronze Working amidst the "beeline" to MM). Also, turns out that I had 10 cities on my main Banana, not 9 as I previously said.
I will say (after reviewing my screenshots) that the Tale of Banana Isle for me was a cold war in action - lots and lots of espionage missions failing (and how many succeeding?) -- far more than I've seen in past games.
And I'm spending as fast as I can... rush buys ever other turn in all disadvantaged / corrupt cities.
The power of Visa, uh, I mean resources.
The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.
I'm getting similarly rich in my game. I think it's because the islands prevent the AIs from building loads of units, killing them in wars, and then building more units to replace them. Instead, they build improvements, get rich, and happily buy techs from us with these crazy gpt deals.
The luxuries help, but I'm sure I don't own as many as the suicidal galley ferryman formerly known as rpodos. I have only four of my own.
I think I maxed out at 8 exploring galleys, and lost all but one.
Soren said this would happen... give the AI's enough time to grow, and they'd be healthy. I think this set-up separates them too much though, due to their weakness in overseas attack. I'm holding off on war until they've had Transports for a while, to see if that makes a difference.
At some point though, there's gonna be a massive Tankfest!
The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.
I waited until 1000 AD to do any major attacking apart from the occasional scuffle over Englands side island, at that point was when I went after Germany. As soon as my peace treaty is finished with I intend to finish him off.
I decided to try to aim for a culture victory, Delhi is currently producing 36 culture a turn, sitting at 3 thousand and something and Im working on Bach. Im also going to pick up Shakespeare's theater later for that extra 8 culture. I cant wait till I have a moment for Delhi to stop building wonders and build some of those culture producing improvements!
England was second out of the gate with Astronomy, thankfuly I stole her iron and horse supplies so she realy cant invade me with much even if she tries.
Germany, Japan and Russia are all stll in ancient era, though Russia is approaching the my era, Japan and Germany keap begging for Literacy!
Ive also noticed the massive amounts of spending money this game, though its one of the first games where I went for Republic instead of Monarchy, and soon will upgrade to Democracy.
And I'm spending as fast as I can... rush buys ever other turn in all disadvantaged / corrupt cities.
The power of Visa, uh, I mean resources.
Originally posted by alexman
I'm getting similarly rich in my game. I think it's because the islands prevent the AIs from building loads of units, killing them in wars, and then building more units to replace them. Instead, they build improvements, get rich, and happily buy techs from us with these crazy gpt deals.
Wow - my game (monarch) was the opposite. Occasionally England would amass a few thousand gold through selling a tech to others, but a series of industrial and then modern age wars seemed to leave most AI civs financially crippled. Even the Japanese and Egyptians (religious) were hobbled, and seemed to fare poorly in war - the non-religious civs got stuck in Communism or Monarchy and of course that meant fatal stagnation.
I actually did much less trading than I normally would on an archipelago map, and when I did trade, it was usually a series of mass trades to all 7 civs.
This is actually the first scenerio I've played.... only playing on Monarch (Still a wimp when it comes to emperor/diety ) but it's fun so far, I managed to plonk a city down on the persian mini-bannana (sent 5 galleys each with one settler, only 1 made it through). Not within range of any resources, but suitable as a staging point.
The english captured one of my cities earlier in the game, and founded one on my main banna, I booted them off and they havn't caused trouble yet...
Anyway, I think that when the special advantage comes along I'll take the persian mini-bannana, the English also need a good beating but I cant see that happening until I have better ships... the random number generator has been really screwing with my galleys.
A word about memory – I played this game over almost a week’s time, and frankly am having trouble remembering clearly how I played the early game. A wealth of screenshots and reloading some old saves helped crystallize for me how the game proceeded, but some of the history detailed below is very much like RL history – just good guesses at what was actually going on. This game was played on Monarch level.
The Tale of Great Banana Isle
The movement of Indian labor to the grazing cattle did not reveal any nearby fresh water sources so Gandhi settled in his start location, enjoying a nearby herd of cattle, and a good mix of grassland, mountains and forest for production. It was not surprising to find a start location on the coast as the tribulations of Banana Isle would certainly involve an island map?
Upon the founding of Delhi the Indian watchmen could discern a faraway village to the north – one of the first tasks for Gandhi’s new city would be to make contact with the village, so Delhi began building a warrior. Expecting a watery world, Gandhi decided that mastering sea travel would be imperative, and set his scientists to work on the secrets of Map Making. Their first research effort would focus on Writing, and would take 2000 years (40 turns). Two hundred fifty years (5 turns) following the founding of Delhi, just as the first Indian warrior unit completed his training, barbarians appeared in the forests north of Delhi. The Indian defensive unit fortified in Delhi and withstood the attack – Gandhi thanked the Good Mother Banana that he had elected to build a warrior first! After the battle with the barbarian, the Indian warrior moved north to reach the first known village in the hopes of securing friendly immigrants, new technologies, maps or gold from the small encampment. Alas, no such luck.
Before long, Gandhi’s people had explored and then settled all of Great Banana Isle. After Gandhi’s scientists had discovered Writing, they set to work on Pottery. Having amassed a large treasury (+/- 200 gold) while researching Writing in 40 turns, the Indian scientists were able to discover Pottery very quickly, in perhaps 6 turns. But Gandhi was rapidly running out of potential city improvements – Delhi already had a temple and soon after Pottery would have a granary, so rather than proceed directly to Map-Making, the scientific research effort was focused on Bronze Working – this would allow the construction (or use as a pre-build) of the Colossus. Bronze Working, too, was discoverable in 6 – 8 turns through deficit spending and due to the burgeoning Indian empire’s gold production. In 1200 BC, the Indians erected the Colossus in the port of Delhi and the Indians entered a Golden Age. The Indian Golden Age contributed to rapid early growth and allowed the Delhi to discover and settle Banana Isle Minor and then build the Great Lighthouse in 550 BC – that same year a foreign folk known as the Germans completed a wonder they called the Pyramids, and shortly thereafter, in 530 BC another foreign tribe known as the English completed a wonder called the Oracle.
Gandhi’s scientists, informed that the Indian empire was apparently alone on Banana Isle, ignored technology advances focused on military matters, and instead focused their research efforts on the Arts and Sciences – mastering Literature, Mathematics, and Currency. While the citizens of Bombay labored on a Great Library, the Indian scientists labored to bring Indian society to the point where representative government might flourish. In the meantime, with the maritime skills imbued in Indian galleys through the power of the Great Lighthouse, Indian sailors set forth into the treacherous seas in search of the foreign tribes whose names had only previously been whispered in dreams. Indian galleys first discovered land to the west, and there met the curious English peoples. The Indian explorers also reported back to Gandhi that the English had discovered a Banana Isle Minor of their own, and when Gandhi established an embassy in London, the surrounding terrain began to suggest something to Gandhi – perhaps the English were located on an island not too dissimilar from the Great Banana Isle? Indian galleys continued westbound, and soon discovered the Japanese empire. Additional Indian galleys proceeded eastbound from Great Banana Isle and successfully made contact with the Persians. Around the same time Indian galleys located a sea lane to the southern hemisphere from south of Banana Isle Minor. Discovery of the Roman, German, Egyptian and Russian empires soon followed and by 210 BC Gandhi had met and established embassies with all the world’s peoples.
Gandhi was pleased to discover that no other civilization had yet discovered Literature – the people of Bombay completed the Great Library in 110 BC. The Indian scientists continued their research efforts, albeit at a somewhat slower pace; while doing some research, the Indians were also building a large treasury in order to pay outrageous overtime pay to Indian citizens in order to more quickly build a solid civilian infrastructure. Gandhi’s goal for his people was the building of all of the Great Wonders that he coveted – among the most prized would be the Hanging Gardens, Leo’s Workshop, Sistine Chapel, and Adam Smith’s Trading Company. Gandhi also knew that only he had the benefit of contact with the world’s civilizations, each of the other seven leaders were familiar only with Gandhi, and no other. Gandhi kept it this way, buying world maps but never selling them, and never selling contact with other civilizations.
Of the seven competing civilizations, England was consistently the leader, though a far cry from the glorious Indian empire. In addition to building the Oracle, the English built a Great Wall in 500 AD and Sun Tzu’s Art of War in 1080 AD. But the Indians succeeding in building the Hanging Gardens in 650 AD, Leonardo’s Workshop in 1140 AD, the Sistine Chapel in 1200 AD, both Copernicus’s Observatory and Smith’s Trading Company in 1420 AD, Magellan’s Voyage in 1425 AD. But perhaps the Indian cultural dominance was strongly resented by the other empires? As soon as Gandhi’s diplomats determined that Elizabeth of England had discovered Astronomy, in approximately 1300 AD, Gandhi contacted her and every other leader in the world, and methodically sold world maps and diplomatic communications to all comers. This brought tremendous additional gold into Indian coffers, but also highlighted to the world’s leaders the significant “Power” and “Culture” lead of the Indian empire, albeit one enjoying only a smallish “Score” advantage.
The first of the foreign powers’ naval vessels that Gandhi saw off the coasts of Great Banana Isle were English caravels – England and India had entered into a mutual right of passage agreement some time ago, and the English caravels (about three turns apart) proceed north along the western Indian coastline. Although Elizabeth had always been Polite with Gandhi, the devious wench apparently had secret, devilish plans for India. After landing an attack force of an archer, a spearman and a warrior at the northernmost tip of Great Banana Isle, Elizabeth declared war in 1350 AD, and a turn later landed a musketman and two warriors just north of Great Banana Isle’s southern plains and deserts.
In fairness to Elizabeth, conquest seemed to be the order of the day in the 1300’s and1400’s AD, and an Indian attack force consisting of eight caravels loaded with musketmen and war elephants was just off the coast of Persia’s pale imitation of Banana Isle Minor. Gandhi had determined that Xerxes was mismanaging his own empire, and that the ivory on Persia’s Banana Isle Minor should rightfully be controlled by the wise Indian merchants. In fact, so should the furs located in the south of Persia’s main island. Depriving Xerxes of the iron needed for his beloved (and dangerous) immortals was just a bonus. The Indian offensive went well, and the defensive against the English proceeded well also, but Great Banana Isle was somewhat under-defended as much of the Indian armed forces were fighting in Persia. Elizabeth continued with a surprisingly steady stream of naval assaults and landings on Great Banana Isle, and Gandhi’s home forces held them off, but there were moments of concern, and there were times when Gandhi exhorted his people, every last man, woman, and child to take defensive positions along the coastlines to prevent English forces from landing. Elizabeth also effectively used her slight lead over other rival civilizations to motivate further warfare – but that hardly mattered as bloodlust seemed to be in the air after 5000+ years of enforced peace among the seven rival civs. One after another civ declared war against India, sneak attacked (violating RoPs) and/or allied with England against India. Gandhi had not bothered to seek allies because he preferred to preserve his freedom to make war or peace, and because he was skeptical of his rivals’ abilities to wage effective inter-island warfare. The world degenerated into one declaration of war after another.
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