Civ5 GMR 12: Imperialism, ho!

[Narkis]

Personally, I'd be okay with an increase in the turn timer.

And I'll take my turn momentarily.

Hadn't we incresed it already for your camping trip?

[Illven]

Hadn't we incresed it already for your camping trip?

Nope. I asked, but Orcus probably forgot/wants revenge for 4 It's why I set vacation mode.

It's still at 2 days.

[Narkis]

Alright. Orcus, if you see this, I'd appreciate an increase for this weekend.

[OrcusMcP]

Can do, no problem.

And no, Illven, no revenge.

[Illven]

And no, Illven, no revenge.

I know, I know

In all honesty I figure it was one of.

1 You forgot to.
2 You were too busy to.
3 You figured that since no one else agreed, that they disagreed.
4 Didn't realize I had set vacation mode for games that turn timers didn't increase, and figured two days wouldn't have been a problem.

[OrcusMcP]

I know, I know

In all honesty I figure it was one of.

1 You forgot to.
2 You were too busy to.
3 You figured that since no one else agreed, that they disagreed.
4 Didn't realize I had set vacation mode for games that turn timers didn't increase, and figured two days wouldn't have been a problem.

More forgot/was distracted. Sorry about that.

[Illven]

More forgot/was distracted. Sorry about that.

It was fine, Narkis reverted anyway, so no harm done.

[DodgerH2O]

Spoiler: Inca

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We wish to explore your lands but our people do not yet have the proper framework to make a treaty with yours. The soldiers in your area are merely protecting our mapmakers.

On an unrelated note, do you have any plans for the salt flats southwest of your westernmost settlements?

[Narkis]

I'm back now, you can set the timer back to normal. Thanks for waiting!

[The_Snark]

I'm going to be away from Monday through Saturday; if we could keep the turn timer extended until then, that would be lovely. I don't have anything particularly interesting going on right now, so missing a turn or two shouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't want to give the AI several turns in which to mess my empire up.

[Illven]

I'm going to be away from Monday through Saturday; if we could keep the turn timer extended until then, that would be lovely. I don't have anything particularly interesting going on right now, so missing a turn or two shouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't want to give the AI several turns in which to mess my empire up.

I'm also actually going to be away from Thursday to Sunday, so keeping it extended sounds great!

[OrcusMcP]

I'm back! Forgot to say!

[The_Snark]

Back from vacation.

[OrcusMcP]

Isabella the Holy has heard tales of horrible sacrifices happening in the lands of the Aztec, and such activity is not to be tolerated in the civilized world. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to educate them in the ways of proper faith and civilization.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yep, this sure is a lot of money we're sacrificing. Look at this giant pile of treasure here, just asking to be spent on stuff.

Also all those people from that one city-state, but mostly the enormous mountain of silver.

[Illven]

It's been too long since the last update. Let's fix it.

Spoiler: Bonus spectator update

Show

The city state wants us to remove a barbarian camp.



And the first war between Europe, and the backwater tribes.



Jamestown reports no problems.



Scouty gathers more info for us.




Our cargoship starts trading with New Amsterdam.



Our tech tree. May start going for Frigates and Privateers next.



A map of the capital.



Our first colony.



And our second one.



Our policies.



Best in GNP, Approval, and Literacy!






England intelligence.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Spoiler: Spain

Show

Knife goes in, heart comes out. Knife goes in, heart comes out.

As it's clear from the small number of inexperienced soldiers the Spaniards have sent our way, their cowardly slave-poaching, and their poorly-considered attempts to flee into the Mexican forests, the other civilizations of America have nothing to fear from Spain except some light economic pillaging. That said, their nearer neighbors should likely keep an eye out for similar underhanded tactics, as Spain most likely intends to enslave their labor force rather than ship it over.

[DodgerH2O]

I'll be gone until Sunday/Monday, we've got a decently long timer and I just took my turn so I'll probably be safe, but just a heads up.

[Illven]

Spoiler: Bonus update time!

Show

The pious people of France tell us to stop getting friendly with one of the minor tribes.

We suspect this is due to something called Steampunk AI.




Our new crossbow squad comes out of the gate, experienced and wary.



The settlement of Jamestown grows.



They also want silver.



And a minor tribe wants to hook up with the progressive people of the world.



Our scout flees for freedom!



Our admiral scouts out the coast line.



Jamestown's defenses report no hostilities with the local tribes.



England's tech level is strong.



As is our capital.



Roanoake island is growing.



As is Jamestown.



And policies.



We are best in GNP and Approval.

[The_Snark]

Spoiler: the Aztecs

Show

While we wish you luck in defending your homeland, we fear the Spaniards might see any open declaration of support as a gesture of hostility against them. Their weapons are too powerful, their colonies and garrisons dangerously close to our cities; our only hope lies in diplomacy.

That said, we would be happy to offer clandestine support, such as trade deals or military intelligence. For instance:



(There's another Conquistador just offscreen, right above the Briefing button.)

(Also: I meant to modify the deal to just embassies, but forgot - feel free to resend, or I can on my next turn if you need to negotiate with someone else.)

Spoiler: Spectators

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As usual, it's been far too long since my last update - about 5 months and 45 turns. Fortunately, progress in the early game is slow-ish, and nothing too dramatic has been happening in Inca territory. Mostly just infrastructure building.

Behold, the capital!



Now rather larger, and thoroughly improved with mines and terrace farms. Speaking of which, sharp-eyed observers may notice something odd - those terrace farms are producing faith, which is not normal. This scenario features a number of changes from the base game: the tech tree has been altered, traditional social policies have been replaced by what amounts to Colonial and Native ideology tenets, and a lot of the civilizations' unique abilities have been tweaked or replaced outright. In particular, each civilization has some bonus applicable to their victory conditions - gold and exploration for the European civs, religion for the Americans.

The Aztec have their usual culture-per-kill bonus tweaked to produce faith instead. The Mayans get two pantheon beliefs. The Iroquois have stolen the Celts' faith-from-forest-cities ability, which seems lackluster to me, honestly, but maybe I'm missing something... The Shoshone have access to a unique faith-producing improvement, the Tipi, which can only be built on flat plains (and never adjacent to another Tipi). The Inca are almost unchanged; in fact, I didn't realize they'd been altered at all until I started work on a terrace farm, and noticed that it was producing faith as well as food. The faith output scales based on adjacent mountains, just like the food output does.

So... if the Aztecs are rewarded for playing aggressively, and the Shoshone are encouraged to claim wide expanses of flat land, then the Inca are clearly aimed at turtling and playing base-building minigames. I'm okay with this.




My satellite cities are doing pretty well. They're not as optimized for faith as the capital, but they're still .



My newest colony, founded for the sole purpose of exploiting the terrace farm bonus as much as I can. Luxury resources? Strategic resources? Psh. Don't need those.

(Actually, I really don't seem to need luxury resources, as my current happiness attests. I could found a couple more cities if I wanted to, although I don't plan on it - Spain took the nice port location north of Machu, and while the salt-plains to the south are attractive I already have salt. Also, no mountains there.)



The Aztec want to be friends. Unfortunately, the Aztecs are at war with Spain, whose colonies are right next to my borders. I'm a pretty easy target if Orcus decides to be hostile - my 'army' consists of a few spearmen and slingers, which will be useless against gunpowder units - so I am not about to do anything that might antagonize him.

Judging by what I can see, the Aztecs are in for a hard fight to keep Cerro de Potosi, but I hope they can pull it off. If nothing else, they're distracting Spain from me.

Trading with Spain will also help me catch up in tech. Once I have crossbows, some decent fortifications, and maybe knights for harassment, Machu will be a decent chokepoint, and I might be able to stop bowing and scraping to the Spanish. Maybe.



The demographics are weird because colonial and native civs start out on an uneven footing, but let's take a look anyway...

I think I'm doing okay in population, although it's hard to tell; the European civs start out with a single large city, but the Americans get 3 settlers, and new cities get a starting pop of 3... if the Europeans get a head start, then 6th place is pretty good for an American.

I'm doing well in production - objectively well, not just well-for-a-native-civ. Nice. That's an important stat.

I'm behind in wealth. No surprise there, given that the Europeans get a head start and a lot of incentive to maximize their income.

#4 in Land is not as good as it looks - the native civs start with 3 settlers while the Europeans get 1 established city, which gives the natives an edge (once they've used all the settlers). I am most likely fourth among the 5 natives. Oh well, I'm playing tall anyway.

My army is the worst in the game. (China does not count - they don't have any units in this scenario.) Spain, meanwhile, has the best in the game. Good thing my strategy for fighting Spain is "don't".

I'm pretty happy with my scientific progress - the Europeans get a huge head start here, so 6th place is the best I could have at this point, ahead of all the other American civs.


Overall: I'm in the middle of the pack, points-wise. I'm pretty close to everyone but the Mayans (who have built a couple wonders, I think) and the English (I have no idea how their score is that high). My empire is small but growing.

This scenario judges scoring a little differently from the standard game. You still get points for cities, wonders and all that, but the European civs get points for: accumulating wealth, discovering China/wonders of the New World, and bringing treasure units (produced by razing native cities and/or claiming natural wonders) home to the capital. The native Americans get bonus points for accumulating faith (at a much higher rate than the colonial points-for-gold reward).

The Europeans tend to dominate the early game, with a massive tech advantage... but they have to cross an ocean before they can start settling, which gives the Americans a bit of time to get established. As the game progresses, the natives tend to catch up in technology (especially if they trade with the newcomers, which profits both sides) and score (their point-reward conditions are a lot easier/more stable than the Europeans).

So. I want to survive, and I want a prosperous, inoffensive, pious empire. If I can amass a large faith income and defend my territory, I have a shot at winning - I don't need to expand or conquer or any of that.

The Spanish are my biggest threat right now. My plan is to be as friendly as possible, send trade units their way, and hope they decide I'm worth more as a friend than a conquest... or at least that I'm not worth the trouble. I'm an easy target, but not a particularly rewarding one. Fortunately, Orcus seems to have decided to focus on the Aztecs (and Cerro de Potosi) for now.

Once I have crossbows, walls and maybe knights/castles, then Machu will make a decent chokepoint. Until then, I am Spain's best buddy.

And... that's pretty much it as far as foreign relations are concerned. The Aztecs are too busy with Spain to pose a threat, even if they felt like being hostile. The Mayans aren't that close, and like me they seem to be focusing inside their borders. I haven't even met the North American civs, and I'm not likely to anytime soon, since we seem to be separated by deep water. I've met most of the Europeans, but only Spain has settled anywhere nearby. I assume they're all busy on the northern continent, which is fine by me. Exploring and expanding is not a priority for me.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Spoiler: Inca

Show

Understandable! Not everyone can be as awesome as we are, and we lack any decent terrain whatsoever the resources to extend our protection over this whole continent as of yet.

We thank you for the intelligence, and will resend the deal with just the embassies.

Also, I think perhaps we might want to turn the turn timer back down from 3 days? I am not the fastest player in the world, but getting to go at least once a week is my preference.

[OrcusMcP]

Changed the timer to a day and a half.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Changed the timer to a day and a half.

You're a gentleman and a scholar when you're not plundering my lands and enslaving my people.

[OrcusMcP]

The Spanish Empire has needs and interests beyond what the simple, parochial people of the Aztec people could comprehend. If they could only see what we dealt with, they would join us without struggle, without hesitation.

Beyond even such humble designs, the sacrifices and intentions that the Aztec priests have for their people are beyond the pale. Let us Spaniards teach you the ways of the One True God, and you may yet know both peace and salvation.

[Ryuho Tsugu]

Spoiler: Spectators: Turn 50 update—100 turns remaining

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The meager Portuguese Empire:

Lisbon, the capital city. Higher population than the other European cities; all the useful tiles are worked and all the specialist slots are filled.
Porto Seguro, the city of sand. There's not much more I can do here until my borders encompass some of those far-off hills.
Sao Vicente, the recently founded city of unremarkability. Having to rely on lumber mills for production is a drawback.

Scientific progress: Finished Religious Orders a while back, just finished Gunpowder; next is Royal Guards for a fifth trade route, then either the Warships or Treasure Fleet lines. According to the trade route overview, I currently have three techs the other Europeans don't, compared to one each of them has that I don't (my guess is it's the same one for all of them, maybe Treasure Fleet; definitely not Piracy, though, as that would be obvious).

Future plans: to be honest, I don't have any concrete plan right now. I know I want to knock England down a peg or two, but military preparation is a long time away...

[Illven]

Spoiler: Bonus spectator update!

Show

The Cherkoee willingly give us their iron stores.



A pack of savages are eliminated. The Colonies can live without fear.



And England gets brought down to normal.



Our great admiral explores the southern continent.



We would have sent our settler west.



But the Dutch colonized the Fountain of your already!



So we go to settle south.



Jamestown reports no problems.



And the scout engages in a epic battle.



As our ships return home.



Our tech tree.



Our Capital.




Our colonies.



And social policies.



Best in approval. Worst in nothing.

[Illven]

We interrupt your scheduled game to advertise for another game I'm starting.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...9#post20039019

[DodgerH2O]

I'll be away from my computer this weekend Sat thru Monday morning. If the timer could be extended temporarily I'd appreciate it.

[OrcusMcP]

Timer will extend. Let us know when you're back

[DodgerH2O]

Much appreciated. I'm back, taking my turn right now.