Civilization 4 succession game: WAR!

[happyturtle]

I've done a few of these succession games in the past, and though the world has moved on to Civ V, my computer, alas, really can't handle the requirements.

So who is up for a Civ 4 succession game? Each player runs a set number of turns before passing the save game off to the next person, and writing up a narration of events. Recruitment finished!

The theme is WAR and the human player must win by conquest. The AI can win by any method.

Possible variations:

1. Our people come from an area sheltered by the mountains with only a single mountain pass allowing access to the outside world. When we finally discover what lies outside, we have but one idea: This has GOT to go!

(One City Challenge, Always War, with a worldbuilder'd map to create the sheltered city with lots of resources. The AI will send stack after stack of units at the pass, creating massively promoted veterans. Eventually when we break out, every city we take is automatically razed since we can't keep it. If we win, we rule an entire world - that we've destroyed and depopulated. )

2. The Golden Horde sweeps over the known world with its armies of Keshik horse archers, conquering all in their path. Living for the saddle and the open sky, the reality of empire management is a necessary evil. War is a virtue in itself.

3. Early rush with a Civilization with an early unique unit: Native American Dog Soldiers, Incan Quechas, Persian Immortals, Zulu Impis, Roman Praetorians... the goal of this game is to be fast and get those units out to take nearest capitals while they're still lightly defended.

4. Any other war-based theme. Speak up with your ideas, whether you're a participant or spectator!

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Anyone interested? You have to own a copy of Civ 4: Beyond the Sword, but all skill levels are welcome. In fact, succession games are a great way to hone your skills. It's limited to 5 players, and each player will have 3 days to finish their turn. If RL gets in the way, you can request a pass or swap with another player.

Players:
1. Happyturtle
2. Murska
3. Terraoblivion
4. The Final Stand
5. Winthur

[Terraoblivion]

I'd be up for it and of these themes I'd say go for the Golden Horde, sweep the soft, settled people off the plains and let them tremble in fear of the khan!

[Murska]

I'll play. An interesting possibility for a theme would be the Great Powers - let us develop ourselves with a pre-arranged handicap of some sort (such as artificially keeping our Power too low) until either Riflemen or Infantry without being allowed to take any cities from enemy civilizations, then declare war on everyone at once and defeat them in a modern-era blitzkrieg. It might be either too easy or too difficult depending on our difficulty level though, as I wouldn't want us to be ahead in technology when the war begins (at least by much) but if we're too weak we won't even reach that era. Also it'd create a pretty long build-up phase without much interesting action.

I just like modern era warfare. :P

[The_Final_Stand]

I'm utterly terrible at war where I don't have overwhelming firepower and technological superiority, and am fairly terrible even when I do, particularly in Civ 4, so it goes without saying that I'd like to be signed up for this.

[Eldariel]

Huh. I wonder if Winthur would play. I might be interested too, but for now I'll just take the bench slot and only play if there are less than 5 applicants; last we did these I was dreadfully boring so I'd rather take lessons in storytelling

[Winthur]

Huh. I wonder if Winthur would play.

Yes, would he?
(The answer is yes)

[happyturtle]

Cool! That's five players then.

Okay, one vote for Genghis Khan, and another for modern warfare. So let's get some input from the other players.

If we do late game, then we could consider civilizations with unique late game units: The US (Navy Seal/replaces Marines), England (Redcoat/replaces Riflemen), Russia (Cossak/replaces Cavalry) or Germany (Panzer/replaces tanks).

Let's talk difficulty levels. I play at Prince or Monarch, but can only win reliably when I'm going for culture. Murska is Monarch and good at war. How is everyone else.

[Terraoblivion]

Been a while since I played, but I tend to hover around Monarch and be a peaceful type. I find that I play better when being part of a succession game than when on my own. The need for discussion, judging what others have done and knowing that my decisions are being judged as well helps me think deeper than I usually do.

[Murska]

Any of the four civilizations mentioned could be interesting from a roleplay point of view. From an UU point of view, I do love my Navy SEALs as Marines are the key unit for my modern-era naval battles, so I will definitely not vote for them. Redcoats are fancy, especially if we are to leave the enemy equiv-tech, though then they'll have Grenadiers anyway. Panzers are not really much in my experience, as I haven't seen much armoured warfare that wouldn't be rather one-sided anyway. So my vote would go to Russia and their Cossacks if we use that scenario, because of a few reasons - one, I'm not too used to cavalry-based armies, two, our declaration of war upon everyone could be fluffed out as the Communist Revolution, three, funny accents.

[Terraoblivion]

Hmmm, funny accents and fighting the glorious revolution of the working class do sound appealing, tavarish.

[Murska]

Do remember that we will be doing our best for Mother Russia and the Glorious Tzar... at least until his rule proves untenable.

[happyturtle]

Leader preferences?

Catherine: Imperialistic (cheap Settlers, 100% great general emergence), Creative (2 culture per city - auto popping borders, cheap libraries, theatres, coliseums) This is definitely a REX combo here. Grab lots of land early.

Peter: Philosophical (100% bonus on great people, cheap universities), Expansive (cheap granaries, workers and harbours, bonus health). This combo is a little odd. Expansive is good for productivity in the late game when factories and forges make your cities sick. Philosophical doesn't really synergize with it, but is still a good trait.

Stalin: Industrious (Cheap forges, 50% bonus on Wonder production.) Aggressive: (cheap barracks and drydocks. Melee and Gunpowder units start with Combat 1) These two traits are both good ones, but don't particularly synergize. Also, Cossacks won't get the advantage of the free promotion since they're Mounted units.

I'm looking through CivFanatics to find a good map of Europe that is standard size, since anything larger tends to bog down less than stellar computers.

[Murska]

I wonder if we could somehow switch from Peter or Cathy to Stalin mid-way...

[happyturtle]

We could change our name and start acting like Stalin.

Do you know any pre-made Europe maps that aren't Huge, Murska?

[Winthur]

I'd say Catherine seems the best for the job. Catherine is overall pretty fun for warmonging, she's fast, she's fun, comes with cheap theatres for war weariness, doesn't need to build monuments and has more Great Generals. Stalin was only cool in his The Tick incarnation. Also, my brother upon seeing his face in Civ4 had a giggling fit and just kept saying "Why is Mario in this game", and he's got a degree.

[Murska]

I don't know any maps like that, sorry. I usually play with random maps.

[Terraoblivion]

Catherine should be fun. And, yeah, speed and cheap theaters are both nice and she have them.

[happyturtle]

After digging around, I have discovered that it is FAR too much trouble than it's worth to get a map of Europe with civs in their historical starting positions.

So what sort of map do we want? Pangea? Continents? Old World / New World? Any other random map?

Do we want to select our opponents, or let them fall randomly?

What difficulty are we playing at? Shall we stick with monarch, or try and move up to the next level up? *gulp*

[Terraoblivion]

Random opponents, no real opinion on map type and if our more experienced players think we can do it together, I'm fine with moving a step up, if not I'm fine with Monarch too.

[Murska]

Archipelago would be interesting for a change, or Fractal. Random opponents, and do stay at Monarch, I'm quite rusty.

[The_Final_Stand]

... let's stay as Monarch. I've never even played above Noble, and the times that I do play at Noble I am crushed.

[happyturtle]

I'd rather stay land based with Russia and Cossacks. We could do a sea power game another time. Staying at Monarch sounds good to me.

[Murska]

Perhaps a basic Continents then.

[happyturtle]

Yes/No:

• Barbarians
• Raging Barbarians
• Goody Huts
• Aggressive AI
• Random Events

Most of the other options are kind of meh. Also, I'm going to disable Domination victory, since it's hard to win Conquest without tripping the Domination victory along the way.

[Murska]

Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes

[Winthur]

Most of the other options are kind of meh. Also, I'm going to disable Domination victory, since it's hard to win Conquest without tripping the Domination victory along the way.

Yup, it's kind of a silly design because other than extreme early game (whoop whoop Quechua rush on tiny maps makes me a Deity player!) all it does is just forcing you to raze cities so that you don't reach the land area limit. Works for me.

Yes/No:

• Barbarians
• Raging Barbarians
• Goody Huts
• Aggressive AI
• Random Events

We aren't playing anything competitive so I second Murska's post.

[Murska]

What voluntary handicaps should we have to avoid getting overly powerful before modern era?

[Winthur]

What voluntary handicaps should we have to avoid getting overly powerful before modern era?

No Slavery.


(Which would be okay in Medieval and later starts because that's when Serfdom becomes OP, but shhhh.)
Any suggestions from non-masochists?

[happyturtle]

Rule out a few of the more powerful wonders, like Pyramids or Great Library?

Is it possible to play without slavery?

[Winthur]

Is it possible to play without slavery?

Lincoln tried it and he got killed. Dumbass.

Serious answer: Yeah but it makes the production early on clumsy and forces you to rely on hammers for production instead of the food which you should be focusing on early on anyway. It's like, food is super-good in early game for any purpose you might want while production can't get you commerce or higher population, so it's a handicap of sorts.

What this means is we probably just won't maximize our outputs early on. Once Caste System sets in, we can run specialist farms, and later on Caste System makes Workshops godlike.

Then again, playing the Russkies without Slavery is a little bit off.

Rule out a few of the more powerful wonders, like Pyramids or Great Library?

Unless we are playing peacenik early on, I don't think that's too much of a deal; with Cathy we are Imperialistic, and forest chops + Settlers = lots of potential for aggressive expansion. It might have made more sense if we had been Stalin but then why pick Industrious when you can't build wonders?