Games thread - the epic of the epics - for Civ3

[Socrates]

This is where I'll post a little summary of all the multiplayer games I will be involved in. This 1st post will be edited from time to time, as I start and finish new games. The next posts will be some kind of abstracts about the games, once they are finished.

This is a closed topic, it just acts as a reference.



I actually started one PBEM before coming here : heihojin's game #9. It is subject to no rule at all, though I'll try to play like I usually do (no cheats). No AIs means less rules to have, but still...

8-p PBEM - [u]heihojin's game #9 :</u>
version : PTW 1.27f
player 2 - kryszcztov : Chinese
human rivals : 7 (Romans, Carthaginians, Ottomans, Egyptians, Americans, Persians, Vikings)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Regent

current status : I retired from the game :(



1v1 PBEM #1 - [u]kryszcztov v Skyfish :</u>
version : C3C 1.15b
player 1 - kryszcztov : Persians
player 2 - Skyfish : Iroquois
AI rivals : 6 (unspecified)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Emperor

current status : LOST by conquest in 130AD :(



1v1 PBEM #2 - [u]kryszcztov v Killer :</u>
version : C3C 1.15b
player 1 - kryszcztov : Byzantines
player 2 - Killer : Spanish
AI rivals : 6 (unspecified)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Emperor

current status : Killer retired from the game :(



1v1 PBEM #3 - [u]Stapel v kryszcztov :</u>
version : C3C 1.15b
player 1 - Stapel : Mongols
player 2 - kryszcztov : Chinese
AI rivals : 6 (all other militaristic civs)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Demigod

current status : LOST by abandon in 610AD :(



1v1 PBEM #4 - [u]Aggie v kryszcztov :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
player 1 - Aggie : English
player 2 - kryszcztov : Carthaginians
AI rivals : 6
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Deity

current status : LOST by abandon in 640AD :(



1v1 PBEM #5 - [u]kryszcztov v Beam :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
player 1 - kryszcztov : Byzantines
player 2 - Beam : English
AI rivals : 6 (unspecified)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Demigod

current status : WON by abandon in 1180AD :)



1v1 PBEM #6 - [u]kryszcztov v akots :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
player 1 - kryszcztov : Greeks
player 2 - akots : Ottomans
AI rivals : none
available victories : all except Wonder and Diplomatic
difficulty : Emperor

current status : LOST by abandon in 550AD :(



8-p PBEM - [u]The Swimming Pool :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
player 1 - kryszcztov : Byzantines
human rivals : 7 (Dutch, Hittites, Portuguese, Inca, Carthaginians, Vikings, Iroquois)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Deity

current status : in progress



1v1 PBEM #7 - [u]kryszcztov v Paalikles :</u>
version : C3C 1.22, "Ancient Mediterranean" mod v2.5j, "Mediterranean Large" map
player 1 - kryszcztov : Macedonians
player 2 - Paalikles : Romans
AI rivals : 6 (Persians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Assyrians, Egyptians, Goths)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Monarch

current status : WON by abandon in 1875BC :)



5-p PBEM - [u]The Tower of Babel :</u>
version : C3C 1.22, "Ancient Mediterranean" mod v2.5j, "Fertile Crescent" map
player 5 - kryszcztov : Babylonians
human rivals : 4 (Minoans, Phoenicians, Persians, Egyptians)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Demigod

current status : in progress



1v1 PBEM #8 - [u]TheCat v kryszcztov :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
player 1 - TheCat : Arabs
player 2 - kryszcztov : French
AI rivals : 6 (unspecified)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Emperor

current status : dead - TheCat doesn't play anymore :(



4-p PBEM - [u]RoR-Deity PBEM (to be changed) :</u>
version : C3C 1.22, "Rise of Rome" conquest
player 1 - kryszcztov : Romans
human rivals : 3 (Macedonians, Persians, Carthaginians)
available victories : Conquest, Domination
difficulty : Deity

current status : dead - by consensus :(



1v1 PBEM #9 - [u]Stapel v kryszcztov, part II :</u>
version : C3C 1.22, "Wars'r'us" mod (tweaked)
player 1 - Stapel : Germans
player 2 - kryszcztov : French
AI rivals : 6 (unspecified)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Demigod (tweaked)

current status : LOST by abandon in 280AD :(



1v1 PBEM #10 - [u]Darkness v kryszcztov :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
player 1 - Darkness : Sumerians
player 2 - kryszcztov : Dutch
AI rivals : 6 (unspecified)
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Demigod

current status : LOST by abandon in 230BC :(

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #1 - [u]kryszcztov v Skyfish :</u>

This was the 1st PBEM I completed, and I must say it was quite a surprise for me. It was played on Emperor, but the AIs had some good time with a lot of space to settle and build wonders. I decided to build my cities rather packed together, and produce some immortals to do some conquest. Roads were essential, and widely used by my units. I built my FP close to the capital, sending lots of settlers everywhere in the north, where I wanted to build a new primary core. I would need a leader to rush a new palace, and so tried to get one against the Aztecs, whose borders cities got destroyed by my immortals. But suddenly the game took another shape ; Skyfish had chosen to send me several SoD in a limited timeframe, just as I was settling in the north and finishing my FP. I was in the middle of an active building phase, and my little immortal army couldn't match the deadly arrows of his mounted warriors. Despite some resistance (did you know spearmen can actively defend pretty well ?), Skyfish quickly outnumbered me with his retreating units, and I soon lost the fight. The Persian Republic definitively collapsed in 110AD, as its last city, on an island, was captured.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #2 - [u]kryszcztov v Killer :</u>

No need to comment a game that will never be completed. I founded cities, got my starting continent, built improvements and wonders, did some research, got Republic fairly soon... well, just another Civ game, so to say. It ended as human fights started to occur. Even though I learnt from what we played, a huge waste of time.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #4 - [u]Aggie v kryszcztov :</u>

A very nice map by Skyfish, featuring dozens of tiny islands with resources on them. The starting island was no exception : enough land to found 2 cities. And so I made a crucial mistake : I went for the Lighthouse soon, but couldn't make it because the wonder cascade ended before Map Making was discovered. Pelago maps surely play very differently. And so I was late in settling. Meanwhile Aggie got strong, and completed both the Lighthouse and the Great Library. We then settled many islands around. I was infrabuilding like mad, using money to rush improvements. And I tried to get as many luxury resources as I could get on other islands. This brought war against the Vikings : I had to destroy their threat (berserkers soon to come), and get back some land I had lost. But Aggie was preparing a huge SoD for me, and I abandonned after 2 turns of invasion, in 640AD.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #3 - [u]Stapel v kryszcztov :</u>

Another game which started well and looked promising and ended with death. I was the Chinese, in the middle of a nice inland part of the world. The capital was used for a settler + units factory, while other cities were dedicated to workers and defense. I achieved building almost a double core this way, while doing no research at all. I just had to do some nice trades, and later capture the Great Library. After building many spearmen, it was time to build swordsmen, and go for a militaristic way. So I fought the Aztecs, got many leaders, more or less well-used. The Aztecs took me much energy and time, and were the symbol of my decline to come (at least, the end of my rapid extension). It was then time to fight the Germans, to eventually rush an FP there, but I was becoming late for such a plan. Many small or medium mistakes had already too much polluted my game when Stapel knocked on the door, didn't even say hello, and struck me bad in a couple of turns. I felt no need to continue a game into which I slowly lost confidence.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #5 - [u]kryszcztov v Beam :</u>

I took the Byzantines again, and had to face a strong England on the other side of the ocean. I failed to get Philosophy first because I wanted to get Republic as the free tech, but I managed to build the Great Library. I settled my whole continent except for one place due to some volcano presence, and also many islands around. In the Middle Ages I outgrew and outresearched Beam, so that I could complete some wonders (Newton, Magellan, Smith, Evolution, Hoover). Then Beam sent many man-o-wars and bombarded a lot of coastal tiles, which took dozens of turns to recover. I got my Golden Age after Beam's one, but it was obviously partly wasted. I began to crank out many ironclads so as to keep any invasion in check and do the same damage to Beam. The retaliation move was a failure, so I waited for destroyers. After a massive upgrade I sent 44 destroyers towards England and started to cripple Beam's land. In the meantime Beam sent a significant invasion squad, that I failed to sink before landing, though it could have been possible. I was preparing to face some counter-destruction as well when Beam decided to abandon, leaving me with my 1st PBEM victory ever !

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #6 - [u]kryszcztov v akots :</u>

This was a no-AI game with akots as only opponent. We removed the huts from the map, and started on our own land masses which were to be exactly identical. So this would be a kind of test-match, to see if I could outgrew a strong player in the first 100 or 150 turns. The least I can say is that I failed in such a task. Our games already diverge on turn 1, since akots moved his settler twice. Things were not so bad until akots built the Mausoleum of Mausollos in his capital and started to join workers inside. A decisive element that would eventually lead to a clear superiority for akots's Ottomans. Meanwhile I made many mistakes and played very passively, and couldn't adapt well to the environment of a tiny map. The outcome was logical : I abandonned when akots started to pillage my tiles on my continent, at a time when, even in my Golden Age, I was almost behind him in every category.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #7 - [u]kryszcztov v Paalikles :</u>

We used the TAM mod on the large Med map with barbs, Paali being Rome and me Macedon. I immediately understood that the game would be about "early" wars, due to our close starting positions. Still, it was very unpleasant to meet no one for sooo long. Too many barbs on steroids and a struggle for expansion in this mod prevented us from making the usual friends. When I started to have a good feeling about the mod, I could follow an interesting strategy : harm Paali from time to time, without delaying my development and expansion by much. The 1st real attack came with axemen and archers, but I made a mistake : instead of razing the 1st city on my way (which would have cost me my stack or so), I went for Rome and land pillage (not time to proceed). I eventually lost my stack, but Paali also lost many units. Fortunately, 2 units were lost behind, and Paali got a spearman killed by one of them : a brave axeman who spawned Philip, a leader ! Too much for Paali who had several reasons to stop this game. My special spawning units (companions) were on their way, and ready to be filled in the army-to-come. Rome would have suffered a lot...

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #9 - [u]Stapel v kryszcztov, part II :</u>

We used KingReno's excellent "Wars'r'us" mod. I played the builder and Stapel played the warmonger. The warmonger prevailed.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #10 - [u]Darkness v kryszcztov :</u>

I played the Dutch, Darkness the Sumerians, on different continents. We made a foolish wish to the mapmaker, ie. to have a sucky start on DemiGod. It resulted in me playing badly and losing to the Zulu. Darkness played better, and thus deserves victory.

[Socrates]

1v1 PBEM #8 - [u]TheCat v kryszcztov :</u>

I played the French, TheCat played whatever civ, I don't remember, the Arabs I think. I settled on a huge place, building almost no military. Then TheCat stopped playing.