[PC] Of Spock and Communism: Civ IV Succession Game

Alright, looks like Turbo's not taking the turn, so Hawkeye, feel free to jump in and do yours if he's not quick about it.Turbo and Hawkeye aren't taking their turns, so I'll do mine here in a bit.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I take the reigns of a civilization which is well on its way to cleansing the homeland of all outside influences. All that remains to complete our conquest is a last, isolated holdout of the yellow scourge in the North-East, and a growing barbarous influence on our Southern border region.


Wishing to complete our conquest and claim all of this great land for our children's children, I quickly move to smite the wayward spawn of the Nile with all that our people can muster.


At the same time, I also begin a campaign to win back the hearts of our discontented populace, who have strayed far in their veneration of heathen totems. Cast out your wayward gods and spirits, embrace the Buddha's belly and know true contentment.


Unfortunately, minor discontent is the least of our worries, as we have vast tracts of new lands to control, which are peopled by warward curs who can't appreciate the great new life they've been given in our kingdom in the sun. As penance for their lack of appreciation I take all the food from their homes, all the butter from their bread, and let them starve until they can realize the perfection of our existence. Thebes is the most resistant holdout, but even they see the light after they have buried half their city. Reflect on your foolishness.


The pitiful resistance of the defenders of Burgundian is no match for the fierce blade of our warriors, and they fall like wheat to the scythe under our relentless assault.


While I contemplate the next step of our path towards ultimate victory, my scribes come running telling of great discoveries by our learned men and the wonderful things they will mean for our land.


Not two moments later, the whole palace is shaken like the world had become water, and we head running through our halls to find the disturbance. In the quarter of study, an astonishing sight greets me, as half of the quarter is no more, and only a great black char marks the scrawl of bricks and lumber. The force that could unleash such destruction would be a wonderous thing in our grasp.


Unfortunately, I will not helm the ship that steers that course, as my time has come for this chapter of the world, and I pass of the wheel to those who would come after.


I've got troops heading down towards Bronzington to support an assault on the barbs, and I've also got a bigger pack heading towards Psi to get on the boats that are there and assault Alexandria.

Since I think Pang's still not back from the Meet, I believe you're up Rychord. Say differently if you're around Pang. The save is here: ML200804573AD-1850

Also, unless Turbo and Hawkeye say differently, I think they're going to start having their turns passed, as they've missed two straight, and waiting for them is starting to get old.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Not a problem and I've sent Pang a note telling him its his turn if he wants it. For the first time in several thousand years, things actually appear to be on an upswing for our little civ. Now if we could only get rid of this war unhappiness, people would be dancing in the streets.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well, here's the original tech tree, I've hidden it, as it's super wide and breaks frames like crazy.

Spoiler:

We don't even have philosophy yet, which puts us at a minimum, six advances away from Communism / State Property, and seven advances from Facism / Police State. That's not knowing exactly how the progression moves besides the direct arrows.

At that rate, we'd be better just to wipe her off the face of the world and be done with it. As long as she doesn't found thousands of additional island cities we should be fine.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

God damn Kublai Kahn, can't leave us alone with our new land for five whole seconds without jumping in to steal a piece. I'm of a mind to attack that fucker.

My turn may be slightly delayed, as I've got a long work shift tonight and then I'm hopping on a plane tomorrow morning for distant operational support duties. Have Civ 4 in the CD drive though, so hopefully something from the hotel once I arrive.

If anybody else wants to jump in between Rychord and my turns, feel free, otherwise, I'll take mine in a day or two.

Additional Spam:
Actually we had an abort at work, so I'll likely be taking my turn tomorrow as travel is canceled for a while. Time to crush the barbs, Egypt, and KHANNN!

FELIPE NO

Beginning the turn, all of our people have for some reason become happy as fuck. I have no idea what's going on, but last I remembered we were on the hairy edge of unhappiness, and now many cities have 8+ happiness. There are of course a few holdouts, like the ever disasterous Missoura, but they'll manage. Alexandria's actually not that bad of a place if you can avoid the motherland syndrome, and Thebes is just amazing in its production levels.


First off, I send some of our boats to head up to Giza to see what the fortifications are like. There's some Pikemen, and its a true one-squarer. Bleh. Meanwhile, I have the other boat ferry troops back and forth across the channel.

Next up, I send out an advance scout spear to see what the hells going on in the North-East. What he finds is two pitifully defended cities with one-two longbowmen apiece. Hooray. I proceed to muster overpowering forces to make sure the game doesn't cheat us. Meanwhile, I also focus on upping our infrastructure, since we've got a breather while our navy gets bigger. Speaking of which, I start in on Caravels at Pi-Ramses. And most importantly, I raise our research from the god-awful 20% to the respectable 50% through micromanagement of our cities to remove inefficiency. This leads to us getting Astronomy in 5 turns, rather than the projected 33 turns.

To make things even better, Ben Franklin comes mewling and screaming into the world, and promptly picks up a hammer to aid the workers. I direct him towards Thebes, where he can assist their already reeedickalous production levels.

Turning back towards the plauge of the Egyptians, our forces have gathered, and I send them out into the desert, where they suddenly note that the cockmaster Alexander has set up his own little bitch haven on our shores. FFfffFFfFFffff. Gah.

And my turn ends on that note.

Rychord, here's the save for the next turn. I have waves of troops bearing down on the Barbs and Egypt. After considering it, I'm actually in favor of just taking Khan's and Alexander's cities with culture, as I really don't want to be fighting a three front war.
Save Game

How ya doing, buddy?

Thanks for the heads up on the turn, and looking forward to it when you can crush the last remnants on our continent.

Hawkeye, its unfortunate to hear that you're going to be dropping completely, but as I'd already assumed you and Turbo were out due to the lack of turns its not that big a deal. I "hope" the game is actually finished up before school starts. Even at 1 year a turn, we really don't have that many turns left.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I actually wouldn't be opposed to letting Khan do our work for us and take the heat of those amphibious landings. The penalty on those really sucks, and everything that Egypt has now is a 1 square island I think. Bleh.

I assume the Egyptian town was raised because that location is pretty suck? I'm hoping we can extend culture enough to stop them from just recolonizing it, but we may have to jump it again.

Also, with the turn rotation, Pang's up.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Wow, fast work on the captured cities Pang, and great to see Egypt is nearly laid low. I agree that once they go down we probably are going to need to either pick a fight almost immediately to retain our initiative, or disband a whole lot of troops. If we pick a fight, my thoughts would be for Greece, as they're close enough to settle our continent, and fairly close to us in power, so we won't be fighting Riflemen or Infantry right off the bat. Fighting intercontinental wars really sucks though until you can do airdrops with airports.

Time flies eh, although I am pleased at how fast 400-500 some odd turns have screamed by, even with drops, day delays, ect...

Speaking of which, I'll try to take my turn tonight or tomorrow before face-to-face gaming.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The bitch is dead. I dance a little jig as they string her up.


And in the space of a turn, suddenly everybody's happy, we're making money at research 50%, and we're making headway on culture bombing the greeks and Khan. We've got Rhodes down to only 1% greek population. Revolution is in the air...


To deal with Khan, as he's now got two cities, I'm turning all the surrounding cities into culture factories. I've got two artists a piece in each city, and we just got another artist as our great person, so I'm having him go join them. Perhaps as a +3000 culture addition.


Finally, I've started exploring to see what we're up against in terms of distance, and people. Alexander is to the left, and Montezuma is to the South, with a little bit of England. Also, everybody has Riflemen but us...


Also, our points are skyrocketing now that we're finally done with war. Save file is here (1946.Civ4SavedGame), Rychord, you're up.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Just have to crank the artists or build wonders like nobody's business. If you do, culture can actually get things done in close proximity without too much waiting. This is almost precisely the kind of situation its good at. Also, good call on building the Globe Theater near Greece, whichever one of you two that was. That has singlehandedly crippled Rhodes.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm all for picking a fight with Alexander, as he had the temerity to found cities on our continent of all things, plus your logic seems fairly sound. One issue is that I think Khan is going to become even less pleased with us if we manage to culturally dominate the two cities he stupidly founded directly in our midst. Speaking of which, how are those going?

Overall, crazy turn, but glad to see there's enough chaos external to us that they won't have an easy time focusing on and attacking us.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Thank goodness, we finally got a damn priest. Couldn't have happened at a better time. Totally forgot about the impending switch to Mercantilism, which can be a bit of a crapshoot, due to its high upkeep. If we have or do swap a lot of our free people over to Merchants it might work out positive, and then use artists or other such things as need be.

Most amazing jew boots

I was skeptical, but Merc has been working out welll. Huge picture chain follows.

Starting off, we're running 50% sci / 10% culture, and I fiddle with that to see how much of a difference its making in the areas where we have culture conflicts. Near the Khan, each of those cities is gaining about +1 cul. a turn, while down near Eretria, they're pretty much hosed anyways, as they only have a few % greek left. Deciding I'd rather gets lots o' tech, I shift us back over to 60% sci.



Pang's forethought on the Courthouses starts paying off almost immediately, and throughout my turn there are Courthouses being finished like they're going out of style. I help out the trend, and build them pretty much anywhere that we've got a bad income to cost ratio or just super high waste - which is pretty much everywhere without a Courthouse.



Its not long I have to wait before I start being rather glad I swapped science, and this is only the beginning of good things. Tech number 1, Constitution.



Still pulling out the micro, I've been systematically going around to our cities seeing whether they're being retarded, and stick Merchants in several places where they for some reason have chosen a common laborer, or in a few cases a scientist that's basically useless. In my travels I'd like to note that Rhodes is complete and utter ass.



Man that city sucks. I think they're going to plateau right after they hit 10, and then do little else.

Continuing on with the trend of why I hate Alexander, not long afterward, the douche cancels a treaty for open borders, which has the wonderful benefit of trapping one of our boats in Khan's territory. Figuring there's nothing better to do, I dump all of the Knights out of the boat and start having them explore the continent. Meanwhile, a combination of micro, courthouses, and banks has gotten our costs to the point where we can run 70% sci. Fantastic.



Very shortly thereafter, the second tech of this 10 year set rolls in. Bam! Edumacation. All our people can now learn them some books.



While I'm blissfully noting, and building, all the wonderful things this has opened for us, like glorious Universities, and Oxford, I am scared out of my wits by a combat report telling us we have lost Frankfurt! The hell?!? Apparently we have allied with Fredrick? and he is getting his sack crushed by Montezuma. Oh well.



Before I convert our capital over to learnin, I have used it for several turns to pump out Buddhist monks, which have spread the teachings of his Holiness across our empire. This has resoundingly wonderful effects, as we get compound money from happiness, from the Wonder, and from random "Yay, Emperor!" days. If the capital ever gets bored we ought to pursue this some more, as our Buddhism spread is pretty poor.



And to spice it up one further notch in tech, we get yet another discovery, this time Economics. We're really screaming through these things. Partially this is due to our capital putting out 100 sci a turn.



Finally, on a culture wrapup, we're making progress. We've reduced the Greek city in our borders, Eretria, down to 0% Greek. I can feel another Greek city swap coming in Rychord's turn. The Khan's city in our midst is starting to slide. Its currently at 70%. Plus, the city we apparently built our Great Person artist at is about to culture-splode, so hopefully that will push things even further.







The knights I let off on the other continent have almost completed their work, and some of the explorer boats will need to pick them up. Overall, pleasant set of turns, as we moved from middle of the pack to within 10 points of being in first place. If we keep blasting through the tech tree like this, and work our advancement well, we could very easily move into first and be on our way to a win. 1976 though. Not much time left.



Right, save files too: AD-1976.Civ4SavedGame Rychord, your turn.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Guess it depends how you look at it. Going back over mine, they actually were incredibly uneventful turns. Built buildings, got some tech, explored. I was just super jazzed that we were finally doing well. I think we fell behind right after Warriors and have only now caught up from there.

Also, you folks mind taking a detour after Assembly Line and getting Music? As Notre Dame is just sitting in Thebes being useless without it. Forgot about it during mine, and if nothing else, I'll do it when it comes back around to me.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Needs moar tech.








Plus, when we got Liberalism, it was apparently a tech that lots of computers skimped on, so we immediately got offers for trades from all over. Divine Right plus a good bit of money seemed reasonable from Fred, who's been a decent bud, so I went with that.




Also, we had 1500 gp, so we're running 80% research now with positive money flow.

Largely spent my turns on upgrading towns (a huge swath of factory production), researching stuff, and getting troops moving so we can pour into the lands of Alexander and crush his pitiful remains. Gotta do it quick since we're running out of time, and Khan's got the same idea. Need to head off Khan before he builds up enough base to outdo us on points, although I think unless we do something dumb, we'll win just on points if nothing else.

I also spent a big chunk of our money upgrading all of our Grenadiers to Infantry, as they were the only troop where the cost wasn't Obscene. (1100 gp for a Spearman to Infantry, 400 gp for a Musketeer to Infantry...wtf)


Finally, we continue to press on the culture, and are slowly winning the day, although the fact that we haven't grabbed Alexander's last town by now just boggles my mind. Its been at 0% for half a century it seems.



We've got Infantry producing, I'm trying to move boats back and make new ones, and working towards Steel right now so we can either branch for Tanks, or just head towards Space Flight. Unfortunately, I think AC is a lost cause at this point, since the game will be over too quickly, and we should probably just crush fools as fast as we can to win.

Also, we have a ton of civics if the next person wants to change. I'm kind of liking having all these extra specialists, and having Bureacracy might actually make them even more effective without dropping our happiness too much.

Also, save file: ML200804573%20AD-2006.Civ4SavedGame and Rychord, its your turn.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Actually, you're totally right. I had forgotten that I had turned off timeout victories, so no hard limit on years. Use that information as you will. Right now we're at 27% for a Domination, and nobody has any Space Race progress.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Seems like we ought to have a discussion then about what we're aiming for. I agree that we're close to the start of the Space Race. Unfortunately, we're not particularly competitive in that arena yet.

So first up, combat or space?

I'm in favor of combat. But i'm always in favor of combat. However, reason.

To win the space race, we have to make it all the way to Fusion so that we can get an SS Engine, plus get a crap ton of other techs. By my estimation, it will take us around 100 turns to get to Fusion from looking at my last game file. Even with how inefficient the computer is, by that point I expect them to be done, as that's a hell of an uphill climb.

On the other hand, we can have Tanks in 10 turns, and we meet all the prereqs, although I'm not sure on our Oil situation. I know we have one off the coast.

If we then go for Flight (Airports), with a detour for Off Shore Oil Rigs if needed, we can start paradropping units into all of the foreign continent cities with a single beachhead.

Further, assaults on some of the larger nations will force them to start moving into a combat mode rather than working on Space components.

The first beachhead I would propose be Alexander, as he's been a douche, and he's right next to Khan. Two birds and all that. His death will also get us that much closer to a Domination win, and silly Khan will let us walk right through his stuff. Heck, we can probably store a huge mass of troops in Khan's own territory to prep for the assault. Plus, with a beachhead on Khan's land, if we go for him, its less likely that he'll try to land troops on our own continent.

Up till we hit Tanks, we could spawn a steady stream of Infantry, since I figure we can put out ~2-3 of them per turn, along with whatever our most current seige weapon is (cannons?)

Also, is it possible to push research to 90% now?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

My only issue with shooting for the Internet is that it is 2000 (1000 w/ our Copper) to make. I think the best town we have right now is like 25? resources / turn, which is still going to put it 40 turns past Fiber Optics (maybe 30 w/ specialists or bad estimate), and you can't rush Projects. I'm cool w/ having a city working on it, I just want to optimize our parallel efforts, and if our best city's doing it, then that city's not upgrading or making troops.

A Navy Seal / Tank / Artillery mix is probably the best we can hope for at this point, since Modern Armor and Mech Infantry are a ways out. I would like Airports though, as the ability to paradrop is a huge bonus on late-game fights, and Flight is so close.

On the choice of combats, we may be hosed either way. Alexander is so low on happiness, that him jumping us is about as likely as Montezuma doing it. Neither has a defensive pact with Khan, and both have Open Borders with him. This based on my diplomacy last I saw it. Not sure what our massive shift in Civics has done.

Khan will probably fight with us on both options, since he's like +20 the last time I checked. We also have Open Borders with both him, and with Fred/Liz, so no issue there for landing troops. Montezuma might be a reasonable choice, since if Alexander opens war, Khan will be right there to screw him. However, Alexander's also wimpier, and I worry about Khan getting his cities, whereas Montezuma might actually be a fight.

Also, hooray that Eretria finally saw the light! and double hooray for 90% research!

I was speaking idiomatically.

When Pang has a chance to take his turns, he could try making all kinds of crazy tribute demands from one or the other. That should be worth a -1 or 2. Could always go piss on their lawn too. Honestly, I thought stealing two of Alexander's cities might be enough to up the "Border Tensions" negative to WAR levels.

How ya doing, buddy?

Actually, it doesn't seem like we're all that unpopular. We've got three of the five AI's in our camp right now, which isn't a bad ratio with how this game can go. Khan is super friendly, and Liz and Fred are both semi-friendly. (I believe "cautious" on both, although I covered up Liz) We've had trade relations with most of the people at some point except for Montezuma I think, which has helped.

Also, I had no idea that tribute could go that far. I figured if you just did it over and over there was some relatively low cap on anger. You may be right though. They'd be looking at a fight with the two largest world powers at once. Montezuma might be the most likely to try for it, since he's on a different continent, although I don't know if they use logic like that.

FELIPE NO

Have the file, and I'll see what I can do about taking the turn later tonight, as I won't have much chance later in the weekend. Also, during the next week, I'm going to be a bit sporadic on checking this, as I'm on work travel, and will have to be taking turns from the hotel after I get back from days on site.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Quick update this round, as I'm a bit pressed for time. First off,

Originally Posted by Nixon in China

The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow

When we look up
The fields are white
The fields are white with harvest in the morning light
And mountain ranges one by one
Rise red beneath our harvest moon
And mountain ranges one by one
Rise red beneath our harvest moon
Rise red beneath our harvest moon
When we look up
Mountain ranges rise beneath beneath the moon and fields are white

The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow
The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasants' plow

We moved into the modern age with the aquisition of Rocketry, which changed our music to some of my favorite tunes.




Then, within a couple turns, we also gained the ability to fly, which was a nice change. Airports began construction.



Shortly thereafter, I began the process of creating the Apollo Program at Missoura, which is amusing due to its original location in 'Bama. This occurred after both a Great Engineer was added to the city, and the Iron Works finished there.

Next up, was yet another tech, with Plastics rolling in, on our way to space parts, which I have queued the chain of.



Overall, not a huge amount happening. I spent a decent amount of my time getting further boats down to the SE corner of our landmass so that we can have a reasonable expeditionary force, and starting moving what troops we had there. I'm building Tanks in several cities to support this effort. If we go for Liz, or really any of the other characters, we don't actually need much amphibious assault, so we can hit one large city in massive force, and then use that city to put out an airport and ferry in further reinforcements.

Looking at our happiness though, I'm not sure we can honestly support war weariness and still create the Apollo Program as well. People are already so close to unhappy that it would be crippling.

Finally, your moment of zen with the world.


How ya doing, buddy?

Damn, forgot the most important piece of information. Here's a link to the save file. AD-2036.Civ4SavedGame. Well timed with a break in work.

How ya doing, buddy?

Generally what I was planning. Since Khan's got a few years on us, I'll probably be having every reasonable city in our empire pump out space parts while staying largely out of any mess that develops unless they directly come after us. Might take the turn today, as I've got a few hours before I have to be on site, otherwise, later tomorrow.

Additional Spam:
Figured better to squeeze in the turn today as not sure when I'd have time later. Starting off, Khan's got 2/5 Casing's and 1/3 Thrusters done. We shouldn't underestimate his en-masse potential for building though, as he finishes them all in the next turn. However, he also had a Golden Age going on that ends shortly thereafter. It should be noted though that we are, and will continue to be, doing better on the techs necessary for winning, as Khan doesn't have many of them beyond Satellites. Elizabeth actually has more (although unwilling to trade)




I don't mess with much during our last turn of Golden Age, as I'm happy with being a communist that allows free speech.

It appears that after a lifetime of being uncultured bar-bars, our people have finally decided its the right moment for culture. Within two turns we get both Rock 'n Roll and the Eiffel Tower and our happy, cultured people hit the streets in celebrations all over the place.




Figuring to keep the pace of all this construction, I also fire up the Space Elevator, to give us that extra edge in construction (and a few more points).



This ends up being timed well with the discovery of Fusion, which gives us a Great Engineer, who can be added to project and makes it imminent during then next player's turn.




A string of other tech achievements follows, with both Ecology and Satellites also being discovered, and good progress made on Refridgeration.




Unfortunately, I also note some minor problems, in that Alexander is creating yet more cities in our NW landmass corner, and our capital is so dirty that its people are starving to death.




By the end of my reign, we are well into production of the spacecraft, with all Casings complete, and every other part except for the Stasis Chamber under construction. Research will be roughly 6 more turns to reach Genetics, and then we can build that as well.



While Khan has completed more parts than us currently, we have far more in progress from a quick scan of his island. I don't believe he has actually teched enough to compete well with us, and we're building in a relatively efficient manner. If it comes down to a race, we'll also have the elevator to help.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.