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

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.

FELIPE NO

If you don't mind, I'll give Pang until Tuesday to claim his turn, since I'm working today and tomorrow and I might not have the time or energy to play my turn until then anyway.

If he hasn't claimed it by Tuesday though I'll definitely play on that day.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad 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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

We might want to see how far off we are from communism and the police state, otherwise we could make peace with the Egyptians once we've secured the continent...

















...If we were pussies.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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

I guess it is a bit too far off. Getting the Internet should probably be our main focus then, seeing that we aren't exactly the most advanced Civ and that the space race seems to inevitably be the way this game is going to be won this late in the history of the world...

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

As my rule started, a messenger brought me news of the world's civilization, and the cultural wonders that were part of it.




And so, as my first act I decreed that all our cities should know the wonders of theater, and have wondrous ideas to ponder. This land would not fall because it's people lacked food for their imaginations, I staked my life upon it.

Though our people felt secure, I was well aware that the barbarians were still at our doorstep, and so I proceeded to make their city of Yua Che a part of our great empire. However, a new group of travelers, led by their warlord Kublai Kahn, settled on the northern shores of our empires, and unease once again started to settle amongst our people.



Hence, to keep their minds occupied, I gathered what troops were at the ready and sent them upon our small naval fleet to prepare for the daunting task of chastising the Egyptians once more in their island capital, in hopes of making them see that what little respite they had gotten from our lack of naval preparation would not last very long and that the only way they would be able to live in peace would be to bow down before us.



The founding of a new city upon our eastern shores was cause for great celebration, and our new found vantage point would surely permit us to keep more unwanted visitors from settling on our lands.



After seeing how lovely this new settlement was, I decided to fake my own death, by using a trick I had learned from from an actor in one of our newly built thaters, so as to pass the burden of ruling upon my next of kin that he may choose the best course for our people to take. I would wait out old age in my newly founded coastal paradise. I left him this map to help him orient his efforts.



(I set our research path in a direct line to computers since as I've mentioned, it seems like we will require the internet if we are to finish the space race before the more advanced Civs. As always, feel free to change it as you see fit.)

Civ 4 savegame, AD 1870

I was speaking idiomatically.

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!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

http://www.saxypunch.com/miscimg/ML2....Civ4SavedGame

Captured Alexandria at the loss of 4 artillery, not bad. Recommend we shoot for the Egyptian/Barb settlements to the east for now while we assemble a less embarrassing navy.

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?

Sorry about the fizzling out of my playing, everyone. I'm not using the internet much lately and won't have any access at all for the next month, so just continue as you were. I'll hopefully return to GFF once summer is over and I'm back in my usual routine.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Goddamn it. That's... (Talking about the game, not your reply, Hawkeye)

Oh well, I'll hopefully be able to take my turns tomorrow after work, and continue this wondrous adventure into the invasion of a homeland.

Good work on the micromanagement by the way, I too often forget to check out the details of our cities' production.


Edit: Well, I forgot I had to jam tonight so I didn't get a chance to play my turns. Tomorrow night (sunday) is the night!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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

And so, it came to be that my ascension to power came at a time where our empire had a great number of knights able to conquer cities easily, yet very few musketmen to defend them once they were taken. I embarked upon my journey as ruler determined to remedy this pitiful situation. Hence, the training of these fine soldiers was one of my main concerns.

Culture, also, was of importance, as new cities had sprouted around us in the last century where the people's beliefs and customs differed quite a bit from our own. The most dangerous aspect of this was the fact that they answered to rulers from far away lands. Engraining our great empire's history into their minds would remedy this situation.

A few of these cities fell to our mighty horsemen, and one city was raised for the impudence of its people.




In Pi-Ramesses, the first of many great galleons to come was brought to completion. Hence, the She-devil, the remainder of her kin, and any others who dared oppose us would come to know the magnitude of our wrath very soon thanks to these terrors of the high seas.





[Very little of note happened during my turn besides the capture of the barbarian Magyar and the razing of the Egyptian town to the north of it. Our economy should start picking up quite a bit very soon, as the printing press will allow us to build banks for mucho $$$$$. It should also help our research speed up quite a bit. Also, Kublai Kahn declared war on Hatshepshut, so we should hurry in capturing as many Egyptians cities as possible.]

Here's the new savegame: Civ4 savegame ad 1926

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

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Araes

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.

Bingo. The location was absolutely horrid. Snow tiles, far from the capital (which means high upkeep) on top of shared production tiles with the newly conquered barbarian city meant that keeping it would have been more trouble than anything else.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

http://www.saxypunch.com/miscimg/ML2....Civ4SavedGame

Captured Al-Amarna and Byblos, churned out quite a few more units than we'll probably need to capture Giza which I expect is the last of Egypt. We might consider turning our guns on Germany or Greece as long as we've got this military stockpile sitting around.

FELIPE NO

1936 already? I have to say though, you guys are doing pretty damn well so far. Then again, I do suck terribly at Civ. I shall demonstrate quite how badly when you finish this and start up another game!

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

Actually, I'm pretty sure you could jump in now if you wanted to, seeing that we are down to three players from the original five.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Rychord

Actually, I'm pretty sure you could jump in now if you wanted to, seeing that we are down to three players from the original five.

Nah, although I've been following your progress in-thread, without having actually loaded up any of the saves I think I'd be a bit lost this late in the game, plus I need to play a bit more Civ IV to really get the hang of it. I'm certainly in if you do this again though.

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?

It looks like we're officially back in the game! I wasn't expecting our culture to be effective so quickly, but if we can get it to the point that we don't even need to attack any of these invaders precociously it would be good. I'll most likely take my turns tomorrow as I'm off from work.

If I can get enough exploring done, we may be able to start plotting a worldwide conflict by convincing some of the other Civs to fight each other.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Araes

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 took my time deciding where to build it, and I'm glad I did, because the results followed shortly after:



As I suspected, the other civs have started to put pressure on us to pick a side quickly, and studying their relationships to each other was the main focus of my turns, besides figuring out a way to update our cities' defenses. Through the discovery of chemistry, we are now able to start building grenadiers, which effectively negates our enemies' riflemen.

During my turns, all of these things happened as far as the democratic relationships of the world go:









After offering Alexander some eyedrops with a "no hard feelings" style demeanor, I accepted the Kahn's defensive pact, seeing no possible negative consequence in having the most advanced civ watch our backs. I declined Elizabeth's request, as I doubt she has the means to make us regret it in any way.

For now, one of the options we have is to join in on the Anglo-germanic effort against the Greek empire with the certainty that Montezuma will come in and defend his butt buddy Alex. This would also have a bit of a negative consequence on our relationship with the Mongols, though I doubt the declaration of war on Alexander would be enough to get them to turn on us. Another option would be to declare war on Germany or England, though we can be certain that the two would band against us and that we can't expect much support from anyone besides the Kahn. Our final option is to keep going for a Space victory by staying our course for building the Internet, which, in my estimation, could be easily achieved as long as we keep our cities defended to the best of our ability, so as to not invite the warmongering Aztecs to attack us. In my opinion, declaring war on the Greeks would probably be our best option, though I doubt we have the military might to get on with it just yet. Giving the other two European civs a chance to weaken Greece's defenses certainly won't hurt anyway.

Our island cities are very poorly defended, so getting them up to par should be a top priority in the near future. We should also try and convince the Kahn to stop trading with the Greeks, though I can't recall his exact opinion of them.

I shifted our research towards getting infantry. I figured we would most likely need them to get a military edge should we decide to go back on the warpath. I believe we could shift our attention back to getting the Internet after getting the assembly line and still be able to get it before any of the other civs. As always, if you guys see a better direction we could head in, don't hesitate to change our research to whatever suits your fancy.

Pang, I'm sorry that your first turn will be one of revolution, but I discovered banking on my last turn and mercantilism seemed too good an advantage to live without for even a single turn. Also, since the Kahn seems to want to be all buddy buddy with us, you might be able to kindly ask if he would be willing to show us a tech or two free of charge.

Here it is: GFF Civ 4 savegame, 1956

FELIPE NO