Brett's Games

The One True One

Great Prophets Galore!


CIV IV
Beyond The Sword

Game Save & Replay Files
023-one-true-one-saves.zip

In Game Notes
023-one-true-one-notes.txt

Stone, Corn, Floodplains, and Hills. Not a mega concentration of resources as I might like, but it has Stone, which was fairly hard to come by

The Starting Save

The XML has been modified and is available in the 023-one-true-one-saves.zip.


Priest Specialists Galore
Each of the Big Three Religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) have Super Powerful Religious Buildings, which get both Free Priests and Additional Priest Slots at the following rates:

Temple +1/+1
Monastery +2/+2
Cathedral +3/+3
Shrine +5/+5

Thus, if one builds all of the above for each of the Big Three Religions in the same City, they would have a City with 33 Free Priest Specialists with Slots for 33 more.


Permanent Buildings
Buildings are not automatically destroyed on capture. I do not know for sure if this means they are not destroyed... or just not automatically destroyed. Either way, I expect more buildings to remain after capture.

{Note: This did not turn out as intended. Instead, I made it so All Buildings are Destroyed on Capture All of the time.}


Modified Holy Roman Empire

Modified Deity
I want to fight a late game war. But I know I am not up to a full-on Deity challenge.


Preselected Opponents
Gandhi
Bismark
Hannibal
Joao
De Gaulle
Zara


Custom Continents
Standard Size
Temperate
Medium Sea Level
Ancient Era
Marathon Speed
4 Continents
Cylindrical Wrap
Standard Resources


Options
No Barbarians
Aggressive AI
No Tech Brokering
Permanent Alliances
No Tribal Villages
No Random Events


Victories
Time
Conquest
Domination


Beyond the Sword with the 3.19 Patch


{Note: I looked at something like 121 Maps prior to selecting the present. So, those who are keen on choosing their own (and competing) can start with the Seed Game included in 023-one-true-one-saves.zip.}

Self-Imposed Rules

Yeah, it would be sweet to hard code this, but something like that will have to wait for another day... and/or lifetime. As it stands, these are Self-Imposed Rules, designed to counteract some of the advantages I have given myself.

Oh, wait!

It's so ingrained as an assumption, I forgot the most important rule.

Prior to Settling or Capturing another City, ALL existing Cities must have both a Temple and a Monastery of the appropriate Faith (Judaism, then Christianity).


Victory in Faith

In addition to Time, Conquest, and Domination Victories, I win (flat out, no questions asked) if either of these conditions hold:
  1. All Competitors are of The Faith
    • So, if everyone on the board is running Christianity as their State Religion, I win.
  2. Every City has some Christian Presence
    • Thus, I can spam Missionaries to win.
Though, if either of these feel cheesy and not hard fought, I'll likely change my mind. Well, I won't change my mind when it comes to that First Alternate Victory Condition, as Converting everyone will not be easy. But if the Second Alternate Victory Condition turns out to be a cake walk, I'll have to think about it at the time.

{I forgot completely about these Alternate Victory Conditions. I would have had an easier time winning had I not.}


Pre-Game Strategic Huddle


I am not the best of players... not by a long shot. But I have had a few weeks to think about this game. And as follows is my tentative strategy.


Research: Masonry -> Polytheism -> Monotheism -> Meditation -> The Wheel (as infill)

Keeping in mind that I do not want to Found (sorry, cannot Found) either Buddhism or Hinduism. And so, I do not want to be (i.e. cannot be) the first to discover either Meditation or Polytheism. But Founding Judaism is hyper-important. So, I will switch to Researching its prerequisites mid-stride if need be.


Builds: Worker -> Monastery -> Temple -> The Pyramids -> Oracle (for Theology) -> Settler (as infill)


Worker: Mine Hill -> Build Quarry -> Connect Stone

Great Prophets

I can Bulb both Theology and Divine Right. And I anticipate using Great Prophets (if available) for both, which could consume upwards of three Great Prophets (1 for Theology, 2 for Divine Right).

There are three Shrines in which I am interested, so that's three more Great Prophets used up.

If we assume all three Religions are Founded in the Capitol (wouldn't that be nice), after building the Temples, Monasteries, Cathedrals, and Shrines, I will have 33 Priest Specialists in the Capitol (and at least nine in most other Cities). Thus, the Capitol will pump out tons of Great Prophets:

100 Base
100 Philosophical
100 Pacifism (at some point)
 50 Parthenon
=================
350/Turn

And if we assume I can manage this rate for 1,000 Turns (keeping in mind that even if I can't, I should land one or two Great Prophets from my Secondary Cities), that means I will generate something along the lines of 350,000 Great People Points.

350,000 / 300 = n(n + 1)/ 2

Where 300 is for Marathon Speed and n(n + 1)/ 2 is the equation for a Magical Triangle (or some such nonsense), which is the equation (I believe) needed to compute the number of Great Prophets given the Total Number of Great Prophet Points.

And rather than doing the math, I'm just going to approximate it as:

(n+1)2 = 2 * 350,000 / 300
n = √ 2333 = 48

So, rounding again, I'm expecting upwards of 50 Great Prophets!

I really do intend to Settle them all in the Capitol. But come the late game, if there is anything left to Bulb, I will do that instead. Well, there's always Future Tech. But that's not any fun. So, I will settle them all.

And that's the pre-game analysis.
  1. Beeline Monotheism
  2. Bulb Theology
    • Or get lucky with The Oracle
  3. Bulb Divine Right
  4. Stay Alive in the Early Game
    • Dominate the End Game
Truthfully, if I can manage not to die in the first 500 Turns, I don't see how I can't win.


Game Highlights

So don't read beyond this point, if you don't want to know.

Serendipity

Hannibal Blocks Left! I Go Right! The Reinforcements Land! All without having to Declar War!

Hardly strategic, but this was fun. I was transporting my troops to Attack the Franco-Indian Block (well, not so much Attack, as allow them to slam their troops into my Well Defended Hill City) when Hannibal comes along, takes over a Bangalor (that newly Captured City in Revolt), and eliminates the need to Declare War prior to Garrisoning my City (Alamo Taunt) as the Ocean Tiles I needed to cross suddenly became Neutral Territory.

I should mention that back when I only had Muskets, De Gaulle did a number on my Troops. So, I'm not fooling around this time.

Also, in 2 Turns, I get Fascism. And I don't want being at War with both France and India to muck up (all last minute) the Permanent Alliance with Joao that I have been working towards the entire game.

All the difference One Turn makes. My ships could get in, but at blocked on exit.

And here's the situation one Turn later.

My way is Blocked!

France has re-exerted its control over the Ocean.

Of course, it doesn't really matter, as I am Declaring War next turn. But I find this sort of thing to be highly pleasing... shows off the nuance of the game.

No Buildings

Upon Capture, Paris had no Buildins. I thought I had changed the XML so all buildings would be preserved. I guess not.

Paris should have a Building or two in it by 1380AD. Thus, instead of preserving all buildings, when I made changes in the XML, I ensured all buildings would be destroyed: the exact opposite of what I intended.

I don't think this was the reason I lost faith in the game. I think it had more to do with the tediousness of mopping up the board. Either way, I quit a few turns later.


Self-Imposed Rules Recap

I played this map four times.
As follows is my feedback concerning all those Self-Imposed Rules, in relation to the Fourth Game.


But that doesn't take into account The Big One.

Prior to Settling or Capturing another City, ALL existing Cities must have both a Temple and a Monastery of the appropriate Faith (Judaism, then Christianity).

This caused problems... as expected. Though, by the Fourth Game, I knew where I wanted my Cities and Joao gave me enough time to nab the critical one. For whatever reason, he never Settled on the other side of my Territory. And as such, I had plenty of time to Found my Third City.

In time of War, this rule was a major handicap and is likely part of the reason I lost interest in this game. Sure, I had the Power to take over City after City, but I couldn't. Razing was the solution. But that's even more tedious than taking over Cities.

I should have paid closer attention to my Home Brewed Rules. I could have spammed Judaism everywhere and saved the day. Of course, that's pretty tedious, as well.


Further Notes & Consideration

Of a More General Sort

Faulty AI

Actually, the AI is probably pretty good... in that it is designed to play a certain style of game and does so effectively. But knowing that style of game in advance, good human game-play has come to mean playing in such a way that the AI cannot cope, adapt, or keep up.

Some Faults:

Diety Difficulty

The biggest difference I noticed was in the massive (truly massive) Number of Troops the AI was able to assemble... probably, twice what there was at Noble Level.

Also, I would think that a Continent Size Empire (as Hannibal had) would win the Tech Race. But I think his Maintenance Costs got in the way... you know, from all those troops.

Maybe someday, I will go down into the code and delete some functionality, like removing:

Great Persons

I had Mad Numbers of Great Priests this game. Bulbing was fun. And I should consider Bulbing more often in future games; as overwhelmingly, I Settle my Great People. And Settling is likely a very ineffective strategy. Still, I like the continued effect. But even with Representation, a Great Scientist takes 500 Turns (roughly, gauging on Marathon) to break even.

Oh, yeah. And in a Non-Barbarian Game, The Great Wall is a colossal mistake as it dilutes the Great Person Point Pool. I got three Great Spies in a row on my third play through. Awful.

Permanent Alliance

All in all, getting a Permanent Alliance was not worth the effort. Almost always, I would be better off eating my early neighbours. Though, if I have two early neighbours, I can see befriending the one and eating the other.

That said, it certainly is nice to have folks like me. I've gotten fairly good at getting folks to like me. And it's not that difficult:
While I'm at it, I'll say that it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that Cities Settled or Captured after that first Astronomy Rush (whatever that means) are hardly ever worth it.


Using the Better BAT AI MOD, I'm pretty sure the next game will be played as Takugawa, favouring a very aggressive policy of World Domination.

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paufler.net@gmail.com