AU 103: Island hopping

alexman · August 7, 2002, 21:22

You are Tourist Tina (sorry guys

) of the English. All you want is a little vacation and relaxation in foreign lands. Unfortunately, you don't know where any of those lands are. Not to worry! Exploration is what tourism is all about. Just pray that the locals speak English, and not Greek or Latin or some other weird language you don't know...

Settings:
AU MOD 1.0
Monarch
Standard
Archipelago
80% Ocean
Normal
Temperate
4 billion
Raging Barbarians (no, not sedimantary, ha, ha)

Tourist Destinations
Rome
Greece
Babylon
America
France

Goals

Win the game. Any victory condition will do.
Explore. Uncover the entire map as fast as possible.
Rule the seas. Build AND use (not necessarily for combat) at least 1 of every naval unit until the win. Build at least 10 Privateers. Gold star for innovative use of MoWs, subs, blockades & interdiction.

And don't forget your sunscreen!

alexman · August 7, 2002, 21:25

Here's the same map with standard rules.
(pure Civ3 1.29f)

alexman · August 8, 2002, 01:05

Great Lighthouse = Instant Golden Age

Nice dilema... build it fast or wait until you're not a Despot and risk missing it? Hmmm...

Harovan · August 8, 2002, 05:08

Before anyone starts playing: Lockstep has posted a bug report here, can this still been fixed before we start or should we play this one with the bugs? Alexman?

Killerdaffy · August 8, 2002, 05:20

Quote:

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Before anyone starts playing: Lockstep has posted a bug report here, can this still been fixed before we start or should we play this one with the bugs? Alexman?

Seems kind of important in a game based on naval power...

alexman · August 8, 2002, 09:54

Sorry about that upgrade bug... I'll have a new save up in half an hour.

Killerdaffy · August 8, 2002, 10:02

Hm, of yourse I couldn't keep my hands off it and started already. On second thought it's not too bad, I'll keep on playing anyway.

alexman · August 8, 2002, 10:06

Bug fixed. Sorry if you started playing. But I think both you and the AI won't be able to upgrade your ships with the old version. Is that true?

Killerdaffy · August 8, 2002, 10:06

Quote:

Originally posted by alexman
Sorry about that upgrade bug... I'll have a new save up in half an hour.

Oh, or are you going to make a complete new game?

lockstep · August 8, 2002, 10:15

Quote:

Originally posted by alexman
Bug fixed. Sorry if you started playing. But I think both you and the AI won't be able to upgrade your ships with the old version. Is that true?

AFAIK, yes. Upgrade rules should work the same way for the AI and the human player.

alexman · August 8, 2002, 19:26

Did you know that the Colossus, contrary to what it says in the Civilopedia, triggers a GA for commercial civs in addition to expansionist and religious?

Serves me right for never playing the English...

If you're by any chance planning to get all the Wonders in this game, prepare for a despot GA...

Theseus · August 8, 2002, 19:42

I just logged in with the same warning!! The damn thing is evidently commercial AND expansionist.

btw, alexman, you have a sadistic streak in you!!

But... A Woman Called Intrepid.

[reference to a famous book about Churchill]

Arrian · August 9, 2002, 10:13

Oh dear. Then again, an early GA may be necessary just to hold our own on this one (dunno, haven't downloaded it yet).

-Arrian

alexman · August 9, 2002, 12:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
btw, alexman, you have a sadistic streak in you!!

More like sadomasochistic (since I am also playing it)

The options were an easy Emperor map or a hard Monarch map. It's not my fault you chose the latter!

I don't get your Intrepid Woman reference, BTW...

Played up to 190 A.D. and Caesar's the top dog!

Amazing what building something besides units can do for a warmongerer...

Theseus · August 9, 2002, 14:52

There's a famous book about the activities of the British Security Coordination group, which was sort of the equivalent of the OSS, in supporting Churchill as he guided England through her darkest hour. It was written by the head of BSC at the time, whose code name was INTREPID. The title is "A Man Called Intrepid."

Anyway, once I figured out the immediate map, I knew that this one's gonna be tough, and that title came to mind.

Game stuff:

Yeah, Rome is top dog for me too... except Tina!!! I got off to a blazing start, especially considering circumstances.

Colossus and Lighthouse... now for my earliest ever intercontinental attack!!

Haven;t found the island yet...

alexman · August 9, 2002, 14:55

Despot GA? I tried to avoid that situation so I missed the Colossus.

Island? What Island? Hehehe...

Theseus · August 9, 2002, 14:58

Yeah, it triggered, so I just sucked it up, and committed to playing it out... it did, however, get me into the tech lead, where I have remained.

Theseus · August 9, 2002, 18:58

Oooooh, you are a tricky devil!!!

I found Traps #1 and 2.

Theseus · August 9, 2002, 19:00

I know Printing Press, Music Theory, Education, Astronomy, and Gunpowder...

YOU BASTARD!!!

alexman · August 9, 2002, 20:31

Wouldn’t you declare war if you were the Romans and an English tourist refused to tell you how to build aqueducts and coliseums? How embarrassing! So Caesar declared war, even though he had no idea where England was.

The entire English army consisted of exactly one Warrior and one Spearman. We promptly upgraded the Warrior to a Swordsman, loaded them both into a Galley, and dumped them onto a mountain in Rome. The goal was to kill a few Romans, and perhaps get a Great Leader in the process.

Everything was going as planned. But after about a century of hiding in the mountains, swarms of legionaries started hunting us down. And as if this weren’t enough, Rome completed the Great Wall, making it all but impossible for us to attack their cities. ‘Later Caesar! We’re outta here! Call the galley service! No great leader, no captured cities, but for the price of one spearman we killed about 10 Roman units and forced Rome to sign a peace treaty shortly thereafter. Such a victory would have been unthinkable without the Royal Navy to bail out the raiders!

alexman · August 9, 2002, 20:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
YOU BASTARD!!!

sadistic bastard, to be precise...

Catt · August 10, 2002, 02:30

I downloaded earlier today and am now far enough along that spoilers won't spoil it. BTW - downloaded the standard version since once again the killer AI version had a solid download lead over the standard.

alexman - did you rework the map extensively? A devilishly clever map for a naval exercise. Rarely do my random archipelago maps produce such challenges.

******
SPOILER BELOW

******

Only a few spoliers I'll give now: (1) After my recent experience with a despotic GA with Hippie Sam I vowed that it wouldn't happen again - Tourist Tina built the Great Lighthouse shortly after emerging from anarchy as a Republic; and (2) Rome is also the early leader in my game - but would have to be, right? With all that land. I may have discovered the enitre map (landmasses anyway), but I've found enough one-tile islands out there that I suspect that I could be missing a few. It's about 200 AD and I'm researching Engineering with one scientist and the Great Library working for me

. I have the tech lead, and I may not even get many free techs from the GL since I've refused to trade my communications with others and seem to have a solid tech lead, but I like the culture and the opportunity to stockpile cash and rush buy everything I need

).

Catt

alexman · August 10, 2002, 18:27

Catt, you know that this time there are more differences than just AI build preferences between the two versions, right? The one in the initial post uses the AU MOD.

Speaking of which, there is another bug in that MOD. Because we made musketeers upgrade to infantry, musketmen are also affected. So you can build musketmen and riflemen at the same time. And musketmen upgrade to infantry too. This was not the intent, and I'll fix it for the next AU MOD version.

Actually, I already fixed it, and made another change too: Coastal Fortresses, not harbors, now produce veteran units.

So here's the same map with those changes, in case anyone hasn't started yet and wants to give it a try.

Theseus · August 10, 2002, 18:58

... eeeeevil sadistic bastard!!

Although you did leave some 'backdoors' to the traps. I'm trying not to put up too many spoilers, but it's hard.

Here's one cool naval screenshot though... I've helped the Greeks cut Rome in half.

alexman · August 10, 2002, 21:24

Well Caesar declared war again because he wanted our Territory Map.

What to do this time to make him give us some peace? How about a fur raid?

Theseus · August 10, 2002, 22:29

I'm just at the point of massive Privateer fleets... any suggestions?

It seems to me that the strength of a powerful navy, including 'hidden nationality' units (btw, how great is it that in RL somebody thought that up), is in three parts:

* Projection of force
* Colonization (alexman gets a Sid Meier Valorous Cross)
* Disruption

Re the last, disruption, I believe that I'm on the verge of total control of the seas... I will say that a lacking point in Civ3 is not just the overall weakness of naval issues, but the absence of trade routes, whether from actual trading (I miss the caravans), or from the RL impacts of seasons, prevailing winds and currents, etc. That said, I have enough Man-of-Wars to keep an eye on the key approaches, and they are strong enough to deal with most anything threatening.

Anyway, the game is mine... I just need to decide where to strike next.

"Because it has a navy; because of this, the English go where they please and strike where they please and this makes them great."

And for a future game:

"My lord, I think... I think your book is right. The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped and on this ocean the Bedu go where they please and strike where they please. This is the way the Bedu have always fought. You're famed throughout the world for fighting in this way and this is the way you should fight now!"

Objectivist · August 11, 2002, 00:11

This picture proves the value of naval forces, once you eliminate the opposing civs navy (which most comp civs and players keep rather small) your free to destroy many centures worth of worker and city improvements. (The Babylonian continent I surrounded was covered in railroads, irrigation, and mines)

Many people in MP would rather give into any tech/money/reasource demands made of them then have to deal with losing centuries worth of work in the cities and surrounding countryside. If they refuse the use of the fleet to cut their rail lines will make it impossible for them to concentrate their land forces against any land forces you bring to conquer their territory. In addition, the destruction of their city economic improvements and the elimination of their roads will hurt their economy badly, severly limiting their ability to suporrt their units, and maybe causing many of them to be disbanded, making it even easier to conquer them when you bring in land forces. All in all, any intelligent MP player would just give in to the extortion and hope to make up their disadvange on another day. Its hard to believe that people think that you can't eliminate land units with naval units.

[IMG]c:/download/navalpower.jpg[/IMG]

Long live Her Majesty's Navy! (If only she had a better name then Tourist Tina.........)

Theseus · August 11, 2002, 11:33

No picture, O.

Objectivist · August 11, 2002, 13:08

Ooops, forgot to attach the file and I accidently reposted the topic with the picture in a new forum topic. If I cant delete it just go on over there and view it.

Theseus · August 11, 2002, 16:07

Blockading for fun...

See the new American capitol of Houston...nothing goes in, and nothing goes out. Pesky privateers!