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I've read from somewhere on these forums that everyone has their own style of writing reports. My style is simple - write what you were thinking at the moment. The way this report was written was that I would periodically pres Alt-Tab to write exactly what I was thinking. Any editing would be to refine my English, not any change in content. This way, a reader can relate to the player in first-person view, and really connect with the mental state of the player. I also don't like screenshots. If I really need to show something, I would post a save-game.
First, I must thank the sponsor for being so considerate to our real lives. Personally I have thought of this idea myself sometime ago, but decided that Civ4 players would have went for a real-time strategy game if they wanted some quick action. I could go back to playing Sins of a Solar System, a real-time game that feels more like multiplayer Civ in pacing. But good ideas should not just be held in the mind – they must also be acted upon. For this, I give my second reason for thanking the sponsor, for creating ever more interesting games, and for taking the risk of being bombarded by negative comments when it messes up. This is especially the case when many ideas have already been played, and one would have to go further to create the same level of interest. We’ve all been over-critical lately.
Having said the above, I also figured that if this game sucked, I would not have wasted much time on it anyway.
The problem, though, is that this variant makes report-writing impossibly awkward too. Unless someone could somehow edit the game such that autosaves occur every 5 turns or something, and that the autosaves do not become removed. That way, after the game, we will all get to look back and start writing down what we were thinking.
Did I say thinking? I did, and that was silly, actually. The way I see it is that this game will become a click-fest, a real-time strategy game that is a test of dexterity. You don't really have time to think, you simply act. It’ll reflect your style of playing, the way you instinctively manage your empire on autopilot mode.
Strategically, my instincts spell out cultural victory and wonder-spamming. Cultural victories tend to boil down to pressing enter repeatedly, and wonder-spamming does slow down the AI a little, even if I don't believe that they are amazing enough to make for the term wonder economy, which I don’t believe even exists for most practical purposes. My instincts are usually domination and conquest, but no-city-razing does stick out like a sore-thumb for anyone that tries. But more importantly, I really don’t like warmongering if I don’t have coastal trade routes to pay for it. That’s also why I didn’t try domination in the winter wastelands scenario.
I could automate some things, but one thing that I will not automate are workers. The AI is hopeless, and continues to be hopeless, in this regard. I will set a few to connect resources and turn on the ‘leave old improvements alone’ option. But the farms, cottages and mines would be my own. I would even automate cities. But workers... just NO.
Spiritual helps with diplomacy, religion and temple-building. Mostly the temple-building, which is one of the most tedious parts of a cultural victory, as well as keeping track of which city has what religion, and which missionary to build, from where, and to where. It takes micromanagement to get that part right. Then again, space race requires micromanagement too. Imperialistic I see no purpose for though. I'll be busy wonder-spamming, so I won't be building a lot of settlers. Plus Sulla did say no city razing, so I cannot raze and then resettle them in better sports. I don't see why, honestly, I really don't see where is the necessity for that rule, but since that's the rules, settlers or any chances at a warmongering victory becomes pretty useless. I don't need to REX to secure happiness resources anyway, as the hippodrome gives ridiculous happiness anyway, even though health would be a problem. But then, if I am shooting cultural, I will never hit factories or coal mines, so it is much less of a problem.
As for the economy, I'm thinking that the cultural victory would be at least partially specialist-powered, rather than relying solely on cottages. Cottages take time to grow, and Sistine chapel gives you +2 culture per specialist anyway. With high maintenance costs, you might not even be able to crank the cultural slider high enough for towns to generate more culture than specialists. Hence, if possible, I would shoot for pyramids. I really look down on that wonder and the opportunity costs it entails, but this time it might actually be sensible.
Finally, the real question is what happens if I meet a bunch of aggressive AI's, or if I find myself without strategic resources (elephants don't count - they are only 8 strength with no defensive bonuses). Usually in cultural victories, you turn your tech off once you hit a certain point. My point would be military tradition, for defensive pacts. Find a religious partner, adopt his/her religion, then once I sign the pact, I'm set.
Oh, and a side note: I have some suspicions that the timer may be a little bugged when it comes to saving and reloading. I'm sure someone would do it, and I really don't know how to get around it, other than requireing everyone to post the number of load/saves they had. To avoid complications and to keep this game "fun", I would play this in one sitting. If I don't win, who cares. I'll play to win, and have fun whether I do or not.
*****
You see, it all started when a few centuries ago, the Spanish decided to abandon our defensive pact to pursue some fruitless war against the French, presumably upon the request of the Americans. Oh, there was a city on the cost, but it was pretty much drenched in our culture anyway. Never mind that their Buddhist creed was supposed to be pacifist either – they were not above bashing Hindu heathens either. Don’t know why they did it, but that did leave us sorely undefended. And then, many nations saw our weakness, and began sending masses of armies to capture our splendid cities, works that these barbarians could only dream of making.
See, back in those days, we were the most advanced and most civilized empire, with many firsts and many proud achievements to boast of. We constructed many wonderful edifices in our many magnificent metropolis, beauty and splendor fitting for the descendents of the deities. Militarily, we fielded deadly crossbows, the legendary cataphracts that can run even run over spearmen like other knights could not, and gunpowder, the chemical that revolutionized warfare ever since (note: I was first to gunpowder, surprisingly). We could have forced our young men into war, killing the beloved sons and fathers of other peoples and despoiling the cultural achievements of others.
But at that moment, at the zenith of our empire, our people shared a vision… of the future.
Of a future world covered by tortured, despoiled landscapes. Forests fell, hills are scraped bare, and world-shattering weapons would kill millions in ways that weapons wielded by the natural force of men could not. Culture and philosophy, things that make us humans and not merely animals, would be lost, and all scientific achievements would be bent towards power, not adding meaning to our lives. We refused to live in that future, so from that point onwards, we decided to grace the world with our culture, to overwhelm the barbarian peoples until they are fully convinced that the Buddhist creed of love and peace is the only way.
We have also neglected our military tech developments completely, for centuries. What a grave mistake…
First, the Chinese decided to attack us by throwing everything they had at us. I am not really sure if that was even everything they had, knowing how populated their land was, but seriously, that was a large army, or at least large in terms of having to move it half way across the world before the age of coal-powered ships. 13 platoons of trebuchets, around 15-20 brigades of their accursed repeating crossbows, and around half-a-dozen wings of their elite Mongolian knights (note: I don’t remember exactly, but the numbers were pretty close. Yes, the stack was that big). Our muskets fought valiantly, died, and won, forcing them into peace. We mourned for the loss of our men, but we were also saddened by their losses, which numbered many times that of our deaths. Soon they saw the folly of war, and decided to call off needlessly throwing lives away.
Then the Confucian French, now having developed a hatred towards all Buddhists, attacked us almost without warning, presumably because we got into their way for getting to the Spanish. Or maybe because we were a far juicier prize to begin with, who cares, those were excuses anyway. Yeah, we should know, we founded their state religion; the journey that our first high priest took to spread it to their lands was the stuff of legends. But none of that mattered now: their grenadiers, at least two-dozen units of them (note: AT LEAST. It was so huge I didn’t even know how I survived it.) We lost over half of our Northern Army, and many of the rest were wounded, unable to stand to the ferocity of the barbaric French with our primitive muskets. But we did live to see it through, as they also suffered greatly. What’s more, their previous war with the Americans left them sorely backwards technologically, almost as backwards as ourselves. Besides, like the Chinese, they are now suffering from massive anti-war protests, partly inspired by the pacifist writings of our great philosophers, edged on the ivory pillars of our Statue of Zeus. We agreed to a cease-fire.
After two invasions, our government was torn. On one hand, we are seeing our neighbours becoming more influenced by our pacifist teachings, and as a result, it is becoming more difficult to force their people to keep fighting each other. On the other hand, difficult does not mean impossible, and if the second invasion already cost us so many, the third would most likely destroy us, and end our efforts to spread our ideals to humanity. But we persisted with our original creed: pacifism is the only way. Most of the world agreed with us… except the Sumerians, and their dreaded weapons, some sort of muskets that could shoot 200 times faster than ours, I don’t even know what do call those things…
*****
Result: Cultural victory in 1864AD.
Time: 1 hour 34 minutes.
Now, being under attack by technologically and numerically superior armies when you are just about to finish cultural victories is normal. That’s what you get for turning off the commerce slider for a couple centuries. The idea is that if you can generate that much commerce or that many specialists, you could’ve won by space race too. For this reason, cultural victories are not for the faint hearted.
But this game went way over the top when it comes to excitement. Sure, the whole game lasted in less than two hours, but for all intents and purposes it felt like trying to win by wonder countdown in Age of Kings or something. That Sumerian stack would’ve razed my capital if I were two turns slower.
