Succession game "The Morons"

[randommushroom]

From a discussion in the General Forum earlier, I got an idea for one of those RBD variants seen at CivFanatics. Here's the basic stuff:

Standard Map
8 Civs
All victory conditions enabled
First player 40 turns, 2nd player 20 turns, 3rd player 15 turns and everyone 10 turns thereafter.
Continents, largest amount of landmass, temperate, normal, 4 billion years old
Regent level difficulty

Now come the ideas that need to be hashed out still:

--Our civ may not be Scientific (we're morons!)
--We may only use Monarchy or Despotism (we don't read well enough to understand advanced concepts like Republic or Communism)
--Research will be at 10% or lower. When our Science Advisor recommends what to research, we take what he says, and let him go his merry way with the little money we give him.
--We can't build libraries, universities, etc. The opposing Civilization that builds the Great Library must be razed from the face of the planet. For the somewhat lesser offenses of Copernicus and Newton's, we only need raze those cities.
--Although unlikely from the setup, we lose if we get a cultural victory



So now if you're interested in this, say so. If you'd like clarification, or have other ideas to suggest to roundout this Moron variant, put them in writing


Roster:
1. Randommushroom
2. Skilord
3. Open
4. Open

[civman2000]

hmm...moronism doesn't just mean science...How about automating all workers, giving governors full control of everything, and never talking to other civs?

[Sovy Kurosei]

*Shrugs*

Sarcasm or neigh, it doesn't look that fun, and I could say so far for myself, that it looks stupid...

[dunk]

Hmmm...

Sounds like this civ wouldn't last very long. The only way to possibly survive would be to trade for techs. But, then again, you're morons, so why would you pay for technology?

Interesting idea though.

[dunk]

Originally posted by civman2000
hmm...moronism doesn't just mean science...How about automating all workers, giving governors full control of everything, and never talking to other civs?

Eventually the governors would build libraries and such.

[randommushroom]

Automate all workers? Heh, I may be a moron, but I'm not a masochist. That, along with the general dictum that automation isn't used in succession games (because it makes it hard for the successors to figure out what all the units are doing) would mean no automation.

This is winnable. I would point people to look at the Cretan Army variant being played in the Stories and Tales Forum at CivFanatics. It has also inspired some intersting discussion about game mechanics. That's what I find compelling about these variants where the human player(s) restricts himself: they can provide insight to the game and also force one to consider some new strategies.

So anyone who finds something along these lines interesting is welcome to join. Of course, I have no delusions that all, or even anyone would--I myself have seen a few variants that I didn't like. No biggy, I just kept my mouth shut and let those who were interested enjoy it.

[SKILORD]

i'm in... why not

[randommushroom]

Excellent and welcome Skilord! I guess I'll begin putting a roster up in the first post. When we get 4, we'll get going.

Any preferences as to a Civ? Remember, no one scientific.

[SKILORD]

anyone Millitaristic..... maybe the japs cause their religious quality helps alot..... just a thought but we'lll need millitaristic to win this 1

[randommushroom]

Yah, I was thinking the Japanese would be a good choice for this. The only thing that makes me think not is that the Japanese are religious, and since we are confined to Despotism/Monarchy, we'll lose one of the big benefits of Religious, being able to change governments quickly if needed.

Still, I liked the Japanese, won a lot of games with them and Samurai are lots of fun.

We'll go Japanese.

I should have time tonight to begin the game. Even though I would like to have at least 4 signed up before starting, posting a saved game and the first look at a map could draw more interest.

[randommushroom]

Okay, I must be doing something stupid. I try to attach the zipped savegame and it doesn't show up.

[randommushroom]

arrghh.

[SKILORD]

Originally posted by Sovy Kurosei
*Shrugs*

Sarcasm or neigh, it doesn't look that fun, and I could say so far for myself, that it looks stupid...

don't be so quick to judge... you never know

[Tarquinius]

This looks like fun to me
Can I join you guys??

Question: are we allowed to build wonders of the world?
Maybe only the crappy ones (Great wall, Oracle etc.)

[randommushroom]

Sorry about my disappearance, but my home computer got super-floogled. Now let's see if I can attach the saved game.

[randommushroom]

And we'll be glad to have you Tarq. I'll put you third on the list, after Skilord. So our current roster looks like this:

1 randommushroom (Just played the first 40 turns)
2 Skilord--play 20 turns (Now up, please confirm when you download and have the saved game)
3. Tarq (on deck)


I forgot to bring the text file I had as I made notes of our first 40 turns. I can give this quick summary from memory. We are Japanese, we have met the Iroquois to the north and west, and Zulus, but don't know where exactly Shaka is located. The Irqs have horses, so we'll want to keep them on our good side because Hiawatha will have mounted warriors.

We should be able to secure our own sources of iron and horses, and when I stepped down, we had our first three cities established.

[SKILORD]

if i can get it done in the next 20 minutes i'll post probley not, but i'll try skip me if i'm not done by tommorrow afternoon.

[randommushroom]

To clarify the Wonders:

We can't build any science or knowledge related wonders. Great Library, Newton's, Copernicus, Seti, and Theory of Evolution is out. I'm also inclined to say we can't use any of those for pre-building purposes either. In our limited view, those sorts of things just really shouldn't exist, which is why we must destroy the civ that builds the GL, and raze the cities of the rest.

[dunk]

Originally posted by randommushroom
To clarify the Wonders:

We can't build any science or knowledge related wonders. Great Library, Newton's, Copernicus, Seti, and Theory of Evolution is out. I'm also inclined to say we can't use any of those for pre-building purposes either. In our limited view, those sorts of things just really shouldn't exist, which is why we must destroy the civ that builds the GL, and raze the cities of the rest.

Perhaps even more justification for being a religious civ.

[dunk]

By the way... I'll play in your game if there's space.

[Tarquinius]

Thanks. Sounds good randdommushroom! I am looking forward to my turn! Though I hope you will be able to play today or tomorrow. Btw, can you post a screenshot randommushroom. I don't know how to do that, but if someone explains it to me I will try it with my turn too

[randommushroom]

Dunk added to the roster.

When I get home from work today, I'll see if I can't post the screen shots I took, along with the text file I wrote while playing my turns.

Roster:

1. Randommushroom
2. Skilord
3. Tarq
4. Dunk


Sorry bout shortening Tarq and Dunk's handles, just trying to write this fast at work and my memory for names can be awful.

[dunk]

That's ok, the 999 is only there since "dunk" is rarely available on internet things. On Apolyton, it is. I should have checked first.

[randommushroom]

Okay, here's the tale of our first 40 turns:

(1) 4000 BC -- Kyoto founded, near two cows and a river. The morons under me didn't feel like
moving any farther, and said they liked the closeby steaks. From atop the rock I now call my
palace, I see desert floodplains to the south. Worker will be dispatched to make a road to the
cows, and I order the morons to get some clubs so they can go out and beat on things.

(2) 3950 BC -- Even though I have trouble counting on my fingers, something tells me to tell everyone
it is 3950 BC. A balding idiot comes to me (though he was good to call me Great One) and says
we should research something called Bronze Working. I say "Okay" and send him away, and tell
the treasurer to give him only a little of my gold.

(3) 3900 BC -- Very boring. I push a strange key that has the inscription Enter on it.

(4) 3850 BC -- It hurt my head looking at Enter, so I hit the big bar thing at the bottom. Works
the same, and time warps forward.

(5) 3800 BC -- It took 200 years, but the guys finally got their clubs together. I send them to
go find out what those mushrooms things are to the north and west. I tell the worker dudes
to begin carving out big ditches because our cows need watering. The warriors find a bunch
of poli, uh, pauli, uh some other guys and they tells us about some hills of gold to the west, and
forest to the north.

(6)3750 BC -- I decide to have the warriors move along, hoping to find future good sites for our
people to settle.

(7) 3700 BC -- Nothing exciting or new

(8) 3650 BC -- Our warrior spots more mushrooms to the northwest of a mountain. Will investigate

(9) 3600 BC -- More club guys produced in Kyoto. Worker sent to work more cows. Worker disturbs mushroom
patch, and a bunch of club guys get angry. No problem and we now have elite moronic club guys.

(10) 3550 BC -- The elite ones find some four legged creatures near a river. They aren't good eating, they say,
but could be used to ride upon. Interesting.

(11) 3500 BC -- The people are getting good at making clubs. And with all the food coming in, I decide it's time
to get another bunch together that can settle elsewhere.

(12) 3450 BC -- Club guys continue to explore.

(13) 3400 BC -- I stop to think though it hurts my head. If I water these cows in three turns, will an unhappy citizen show
up before they are gathered into a settling unit. Go for it--I think it'll be safe.

-- Our warriors find a whole bunch of huge creatures they call elleefunts. They seem very happy about them, and I wonder
if they could be used in our cities. Another warrior spots a strange purple wall to his west.

14 3350 BC -- nada

15 3300 BC -- We spot a place called Salamanca. Why didn't the polywhatstheirnames tell us about them?

-- I meet a guy named Hi-awhuttuh. I can just see he wants to stick guys on top of horses, if he knew about them.
He offers me pottery if I tell him how to make round rolly things, or masonry if I tell about the round rolly things plus almost all my gold.
I decide to wait.

16 3250 BC nothing exciting

17 3200 BC Kyoto produces a settler. More club guys ordered.

18 3150 BC Continued exploration.

19 3100 Continued exploration. Settler arrives on top of gold deposit. Will build city next turn.

20 3050 BC Two more mushroom patches found. Osaka founded and set to build a warrior.

21 3000 BC Warrior in Kyoto. Order construction of training grounds called barracks. The people get excited and improve my palace.
Worker finds something called pottery in a mushroom patch.

22 2950 BC Warrior finds nothing a mushroom patch. Worker starts to complete the road between Osaka and Kyoto.

23 2900 BC nothing exciting

24 2850 BC nothing exciting

25 2800 BC Osaka completes warriors. Temple ordered to help spread our influence out to some wheat.

26 2750 BC I trade the wheel and 19 gold to Hi for Bronze Working. I have a feeling that a city in the proper place could let me
build something that'll make lots of money. There's lots more horses about, so while it'll be good to keep Hi from them, I don't have
to worry that he gets them exclusively. The science dude starts checking something out called Warrior Code. Ky settlers

27 2710 BC nothing much

28 2670 BC Horrors. Club guys lose to some rabble. Hi still wants most of my gold for Masonry and Alphabet. I decide to wait some
more

29 2630 BC --

30 2590 BC -- Our warriors find some Mystical magical mushrooms. I trade Mysticism + 80 gold to Hi for the Alphabet so I can
make the science guy happy.

31 2550 BC -- Settlers finished. Kyoto order to build spearman for better defense. I am faced with a tough decision where
to send the settler. Do I am for a coastal location and Colossus, do I stay closer to Kyoto and go for what could be good food,
a river and hills for production, or do I send the settler far to the north and west to get the horses that are closest to the
Iroquouis?

32 2510 bC --

33 2470 BC x

34 2430 BC x

35 2390 BC Tokyo founded

36 2350 BC Warrior defeats Babs outside of Osaka. We learn Masonry from some mushrooms. Man those things are good sometimes.

37 2310 BC Kyoto ordered to build another spearman.

38 2270 BC More exploring.

39 2230 BC Babs try to attack Tokyo. Warriors win and the people rejoice! Our warrior meets a guy named Shaka. He tells us how
to use iron when we give him Masonry + 128 gold.

40 2190 BC Osaka builds a temple. With the growth rate capped at 2, I order another worker to help improve terrain around our cities.
The Iroquois did settle those horses to the north and west. We will want to maintain good relations with Hi until we get to samurais.

Ended turn, and set Kyoto to build temple, but I'll leave that to your judgment, Skilord. I didn't do any whipping. To the east of Kyoto
is the Ivory, and we'll definitely want to get a city for that. As you'll see, I decided against a coastal location with the second
settler--the Colossus would be nice to have but isn't a priority, I think. So I settled what looked to be a good location near
a river. My advice is that we'll need more settlers so we can establish a good core of cities, a city to secure some horses. We do
have iron that'll be available when Kyoto's cultural borders expand or if you establish a city to the south and east that claims the
mountain.

I suggest that we stay on Hiawatha's good side. He's going to have Mounted Warriors, and those things can be nasty. I'm glad
the AI will be handling those and not a human being. I've contacted the Zulu, but don't know yet where they are on the map.

Good luck.

[randommushroom]

Let's see if I can get this screen shot to attach:

[dunk]

So, I guess we can trade for techs, just not research them ourselves?

I love the terms "roly things" and "mushroom patch".

[Tarquinius]

The starting position of the capital is a nice one, but there aren't many good sites for new cities. Ah well, maybe we will just bash the Iroqouis for good cities

[randommushroom]

Yah, it's a decent start position, if not the greatest. Though I think with the flood plains we should get some good population growth, and hopefully we'll be able to expand our number of cities fairly quickly. War with the Iroqs will happen some time, but they can be tough in the ancient era. I've been playing a game as the Americans using an ICS method, and got in a short war against the Iroqs. I ended up making peace with them because those Mounted Warriors with their retreat ability was making progress impossible. So I beat on the Germans instead. And went back to war with the Iroqs when knights came around. Trying to get a great leader so I can rush build a Forbidden Palace.

[dunk]

Are we playing?

[randommushroom]

According to Skilord's post above, he said if it weren't posted by this afternoon to skip him. So we'll call on Tarq to grab the game.