Kingreno vs Beam # 2 *** SPOILAH ***

[Kingreno]

Settings, archipelago standard, roaming barbies, demigod.

Beam: Byzantines. Boooooooo
Kingreno: The Dutch!! Ole ole, hup holland hup. Wat zijn die Duitsers stil, wat zijn...uh, sorry.

Map is made by Kemal. Thanx and[thumbsup]

The start!



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005128204445_start.jpg
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No cow! No wheat! But perspective enough! Most certainly since Beam probably does not have a bonus either meaning my agritrait is even better percentage-wise, producing a whopping 50% more food per turn under our current government. Nonetheless, I showed beam what happens if you do not fully profit from the agritrait in our last game. It can and will backfire in the endgame! It is therefor importnat to land troops in his area as soon as possible. His Dromons need to be taken care of though...we'll see!

[ERIKK]

No curragh as first unit?

[Kingreno]

Yes, even two curragh's as first units!

turn 39. Brave Ducth sailors have ventured out into the world to find out that everyone can be reached by coastal tiles! We find ourselves in the Northwestern part of the world where the evil Byzantines are on our opposite side. To our west are the Romans. The rest is "between" Beam and me. But first things first. Barbs. I hate them. period.
I spotted a barb boat on turn 12 or so, and some warriors a turn later. They had a camp on the only nearby cow![aargh]



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200522205538_20barbs.jpg
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Luckily the wheat provides a good second citylocation. The Southern warrior defeated both barbs (incl the camp). The northern won his fight too but had to capitulate when a horse appeared a few turns later.[hmm]
This allowed for the southern cowland to be officially free of barbs and the third city was founded there.
The good news is in techs and exploration. I met the romans very soon and the Mongols a turn later. This netted me som every nice trades. Meeting Iroquois and America a turn later helped again effectively making me techbroker. The Inca were next and they are on the same island as the Iroquois. If they go to war and one wins...it will be a very powerfull civ.
On turn 34 or so Beam met me. Beam the backwards![evil]



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20052221210_34beam.jpg
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Please note I have HBR and Mysticism as well. I am also 12 turns from Philosophy here. I established an embassy.



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20052221337_35embassy.jpg
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Beam did meet most of the world. He probably knows Egypt.


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20052221318_34f4.jpg
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Beam is probably doing Math and he might very well make that. If he does he's back in the ballgame. In the meantime I want my island free of barbs and get Philo first. After that it is republic.
The Minimap:



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20052221744_35mm.jpg
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next update will come soon[goodjob]

[Rik Meleet]

And if you win the Philo race and choose the tech Beam is researching ? By trading that around you delay his catching up.

[Kingreno]

@Rik, it was a possibility but Beam told me he discovered writing "finaly". That was enough for me to know!

The Iroquois are top dogs in this game. My good friend Kemal gave them a not too bad start (when is the next time I make a map for him, let's see...6 cows for shaka?[rolleyes])

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200523121015_45embassyiro.jpg
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Please remember that both Bean and I did not have any nonusresource at our startingpositions...Hiawattha has 2 cows, 2 Game, gold, Ivory and 4 BG![eek]
But no matter, I am sure The Inca will attack them and ...uh...win?

On the Domestic front::D

Turn 48!

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200523121239_48philo.jpg
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We got there and we got there first. Now the Iro and the Inca know Mapmaking. The rest of the world know nothing I don't know. I had to choose between CoL and Poly, the first being more usefull the second having some more value. I chose:


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200523121415_48Col.jpg
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As beam is now a Grand Canyon behind (which he will make up naturaly) I want Literature next, for the simple reason Iro and Inca will not pick that yet so I can trade again. Why no Republic? Well:



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200523121530_48area.jpg
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My empire is simply too small for that. It will have to wait till after literature.

[Kingreno]

[cry][cry][cry][cry]

NOT GOOD!

First, beam caught up completely comming LEVEL with me. well, at least I am leading the republicrace by at least 10 turns. Aceeptable but not as good as it was. I "should" have traded Lot arround but I had to wait for more then a few gold to come up. oh well. There ARE worse things.



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200524145336_65Mongolslanden.jpg
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The Mongols (we are at peace...) land an archer next to freakin Amsterdam. [aargh]

I join a woker, and move the just produces galley with Warrior from Groningen. It fortifies for a nifty 1.85 defense. [cry]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200524145433_65noodmaatregelen.jpg
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As of unkowm reasons:


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200524145549_65diploFUCKER.jpg
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I cannot ask him to move or declare![aargh]

If Amsterdam falls game's over for me.

[Kemal]

Wow, and to think they are at about the exact other end of the map...

Good Luck!

Btw, don't want too put your spirit down even further.. but I'm pretty sure the fortification bonus - in PBEM at least - doesn't come into play until after a full turn has passed. :(

[Banzai]

Oops!

If you warrior is fortified you will have a defense of 2.1 (grassland +10%, city +50%, fortified +25%, attacker crosses river +25%).
Both units have 3 hp, so you have a 52.3% chance to win!

Good luck!

[Aggie]

I had the same in a game vs Jack Merchant, where you can't order a civ to leave just like you experience now. But for me it was by far not so dramatic :(

[Kingreno]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200524153612_65mongolsverliezen.jpg
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Pfffffffffff

[col]

Bah - I had an elite 5HP archer v 3 HP spear against Killer's capital and lost. c75% victory chance

Trust the RNG.

[Kingreno]

Of course, it can still get worse.


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200525133434_69romaland.jpg
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My newly found city with only Iron resources I will ever get. That is if I connect them in 436 turns of hard Mountainroadbuilding. Mind you that me and Ceasar are trading. That is the mofo gave me spices for CoL. He was polite as well. Next turn:



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200525133617_70romewar.jpg
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Well, better lose this one then the one with the Mongolian Archer. Arnhem was razed the next turn. Ceasar also sunk a galley of mine.
There are now 4 Roman galleys entering my lands and if these are full of archers I qam dead. Oh, there are also some Mongol ships comming my way, and no I do not give up Groningen for peace. It has my single horses resource.[cry]

[Kingreno]

Ok, new tactic: Don't own anything the AI does not have. Including techs, money and resources. It works!:D

I finaly was able to settle an acceptable peacetreaty with both Rome and the Mongols. Mongols landed units in my core and I had to kill them off first and in a rare moment where there were no enmies in my area I went to talk with them. I gave both Rome and Mongols Currency for peace. I then traded both Monarchy and gpt for a lux. They went to polite, both.
I myself had revolted to Republic and that was needed, my research 100% at Feudalism.
This also meant that all are now in the next age! This happened when brave Dutchmen discovered Currency first in the world! They sold it arround and several turns later Beam followed to the next age as well. Beam, being the only scientific civ in the world now had a monopoly on Engineering, which he decided to keep instead of trading to the AI! ooooopps.[evil]

A few turns was all it took for Egypt and the Americans to demand this tech from him and he refused, to both.


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528101841_102f4.jpg
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In the turn after that the Iro's also demanded Engineering and he gave in! Unbelievable from my PoV but I guess he did not need MW's at his party too. I was estatic OTOH as I grabbed a monopoly on Feudalism that turn! [smirk]
This gave me a great opportunity to bleed the AI dry (as keeping it will not be allowed due to lack of military), not to mention beginning trade with the Iroquois gave me Engineering too! A tech most civs lack as well. I trade for cash and luxes:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102154_102f4trades.jpg
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[cool]



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102223_102luxxx.jpg
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A healthy financial situation:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102212_102f1.jpg
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I used a large sum of cash (700 gold or so) to rush four Libraries and a Marketplace. I plan on rushing more as a build-up of cash is simply not an option due to the lack of military. This, sadly, will not improve soon as I willnot get iron. For a very long time. This in turn explains my research on invention as that allows me to finaly build a dreamunit: the longbowman[blush]. Better then nothing but Horsemen just ain't gonna prove good enough if the AI land again, though I will build some of those too. After Invention I will go for GP. Muskets. yay. If I have saltpeter.......
I will acquire the upperhalve of the techtree by trading. My advisor says I am advanced.
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102626_102f6.jpg
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My lands and beams land to compare. Massive difference in citysize!!



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102740_102area.jpg
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and Beam:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102838_102beamland.jpg
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Though not a very clear view of his land, I guess the difference is seen easily. This results in the following stats:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528102924_102f11.jpg
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Two adjustments: MFG is low because the Hague and A'dam are using lot of Coasttiles this turn. I reach place 3 in productive mode. This does bring GNP down to 3rd as well.
Noteworthy are population and landarea, 1st and last! Nice combo. This for some reason also results in the last place in military service, but that was expected [:o]:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200528103222_102f3.jpg
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I do have 3 Roman slaves as well!![hmm]

Finaly to finish this spoiler:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20052810335_102mm.jpg
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I'll keep you posted!

[Kingreno]

As turns pregressed and the world got into more wars we keep pursuing the goal of Gunpowder. We still lack Iron and have no chance of getting that without Muskets/Longbows/(but actually Cav).
As fortune was with us we reached both Invention and Gunpowder first! This traded me Education and Chivalry in the upper tree as well as 100 gpt, that makes 140 gpt total

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005213221922_116f1.jpg
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It also gives me enough luxes as can be seen, but there is however also very very bad news:


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005213222037_116f2.jpg
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NO SALTPETER AS WELL![aargh]

Do I conquer the world with Horsemen?

I do not get it at all[cry]

This also means no Frigates so no way in hell I will stop beams Dromons if they come to me...it is also clear I have no chance of Coal (who needs that without Iron anyways???) as that will also be on some other shitty island. Oh, and forget a GA, that is a nono forever.[sad]

The lands...



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005213222348_115area.jpg
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Needless to say that I am solely waiting for a "we have discovered a new source of iron/saltpeter" to make this game even remotely winnable. I may even considder surrendering soon as I see no chance any other vic then Diplo is an option.[wallbash]

[Rik Meleet]

This sucks...

[Kingreno]

After months of counceling getting over the fact that this Spoiler "sucks" we continue spoilering any way. ;)

I am an evil whore. [:o]

Several things happened, let's begin where we ended last time. WE got Gunpowder and lacked SP. That was expected a bit as it continued in the no-iron-too-way this game was in. Giving up was an option but I rightfully decided there is always a way. The worst case could be I would be overrun by AI, or worse, Beam, but I felt confy I could handle both on the diplomatic front.
As you know, having no military concerns whatsoever has the advantage that one can focus on building and diplo. When the possibilty of ememy invasion is neglectable (as I cannot prevent that with warriors and Longbows) science is the path that may lead to glory. here's how this whore kept himself in the game:
Beam. Whine a bit. Make sure I am inferior yet no glory can be gained by eliminating me. This was helped by constant AI-agression towards him. He has been (and is) at war with a minimum of 2 AI during the last 60 turns. This has both kept him on defence and also prevented him getting many luxes or great tech deals. Beam also whined back requesting a techdeal which I granted.
The AI. I monopolysed the following techs: GP, Chemistry, Banking, Physics (with abe, same turn, I got to trade it) and Magnetism. ToG was obtained by Abe first but he did not trade it. I easily whored all these techs to all AI so beam was (and is) a bit backwards. None of the AI are scientific, so at the start of teh Industrial age we were all equal except for Beam:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531893625_154beamdiplo.jpg
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By itself doable since he is Scientific. However, I also Monopolysed Medicine! I picked this tech as I have no iron for RR any ways and my 6 AI friends (ALL gracious!) would pick Nationalism as a researchpath. The pick above is taken the turn I made this trade. Iro's and America have just researched Nationalism. All AI expect Egypt also have Democracy up on me.

I buy Nationalism from Iroquois for 60gpt, 170gold and Medicine

Sell Medicine to America for 120 gpt and 86 gold

Sell Nationalism to Mongols for democracy, 72gpt, WM and 5gold

Sell Nationalism to Inca for 88gpt and 174 gold

Sell Nationalism to Egypot for Furs (deal just expired, nice timing to renew it!) 16 gold and WM.

Rome is kept in the dark.

This balances to:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894123_154f1.jpg
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If I get Steam before Beam gets in this age...I can totaly neglect his free tech! 9 turns...
The units upkeep...I am annoyed that my little shitty mili costs me 34gpt!

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894456_154f3.jpg
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some other thingies, the diplomatic screen:
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894257_154f4.jpg
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Very hard for him...I do not know what happens if these nations start landing rifles near his cities...

My area:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894515_154area.jpg
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Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague are all on 20spt. Eindhoven has 15 spt, Utrecht and Groningen have 10 spt. I have a lux deal with Rome that expires in 10 turns. In 12 turns I will have close to 30 cav, upgrading one horseman per turn. Rotterdam will start a Palace prebuild for ToE. Hoover is pretty pointless, so I will not go for that.

And my two Saltpeter islands, far away and vulnerable...that's why I got two:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894813_154salp1.jpg
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http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894827_154salp2.jpg
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Last, the minimap:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200531894835_154mm.jpg
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Sorry for the long delay in updates.[blush]

[Kingreno]

I will take back what is rightfully mine. This island was found by the Dutch and taken by Caesar. 3000 years later we took it back.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005329214556_155eilandterug.jpg
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The Roman attack was planned very carefully and a turn later 16 Dutch Units, 13 cavs among them, landed near the Roman Core. This, and the fact that iron gave me access to Swiss Mercs, led to the demise of Roman cities, now halfway through their lands.



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005329215735_171GA.jpg
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With cavs now in 2 turns in all cities Rome will fall soon. What? in all cities? yes, no matter the produced shields, we will buy what is not made by hand.

On the domestic front, Steam Power was obtained by us as first in the world and besides this good news we seem to have coal, and thus Railroads, we also sold it...

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005329215957_155f1.jpg
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A whopping 695 gpt from the AI, netting 500 gold cash at 100% science! Electricity, in the GA, is now in 3 turns, and after that it is ToE. A prebuild in Rotterdam is already unde construction!

stay tuned!

[Pastorius]

Wow. Beam is prettier than I remember from the party pics [lol]

Way to get out of the dirt and back into the game man. Nice trading!

[Kingreno]

And the trading continues. remember the Electricity "gambit". Well...

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20054121205_174f1.jpg
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[eek][eek] That is massive.

In two turns some deals will end and it will all go back to an adorable 600gpt.

Rome is losing, though rifles on hills still suck.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200541212128_174rome.jpg
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American culture expansion has taken my Saltpeter, wel one of them, but the other one I was trading to America (the irony). I now cannot build Cav. bleh. I switched all cities to Hospitals.

to end:



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200541212338_174mm.jpg
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[Kingreno]

Well done Beam! He traded himself back into action by getting a monopoly on Industrialization!![cry]

He traded for all techs he lacked not even just parring with me but with me lacking Indus I am now suddenly the backwater civ of the game.[lol]

Not for long I say. As Beam got to trade I decided to sit on my Scientific Method Monopoly. Rotterdam needed 8 more turns to complete it (yeah I know lousy timing, but at the right prebuildtime the Palace was just 300 shields...). This gave me the chance to do repparts in 7 and just hope no-one got SciMeth. That worked and the turn before Rotterdam would finish I sold RP (shared mono with America and the Iroquois) and ScI Meth for Indus, The coorp and Ironclads.
I was happy to see:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200542212646_187ToE.jpg
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I picked Steel and Refining as free techs and am just 7 turns away from Destroyers now. [evil]

Of course, as expected, we have no rubber.[cry]

This is a serious disappointment since I cleansed the Roman homeland and now have a chunk of the world large enough to have at least 3 Rubber. Well, there is one rubber unclaimed.[:p]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20054221403_187rome.jpg
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My 3 cavs proved too much for ceasar and next turn I got them. Romans eliminated

A slaveworker was sent to the Rubber and harbor-lib will make sure we have Rubber in Amsterdam, a welcome fact for many a visitor there.[cool]

This is a huge pic of Beams land:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/20054221293_187beamland.jpg
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At this moment he has just gotten his Iron connected so he's probably building facs everywhere, and RR. This last issue though is not so easy I think as clicking his tiles shows that many tiles are unimproved!! It looks to me like he has a sever workershortage due to the wars...not a nice time to have to build workers when there are so many other essential builds (Facs-hospitals-stocks-Policestations). I will keep a close eye on city sizes as to know what he is building.

To compare a bit, my lands.


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200542213210_187myland.jpg
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Noitice also that the dense build of Beam is starting to counter him here compared to my very loose build. Former Rome has still a good rate of production and after buying CH and Policestation in Rome I will build the FP there asap.
The core, Hospitals are in all cities now (except Rotterdam due to ToE). I then bought Factories as soon as I got Industrialisation and one turn of shields invested. It is great to have some turns of GA left with factories! After that I am going for "perfect" cities in the core, even building Temples and cathedrals as size means I can use them (but do not need them), but focussing on Police stations and SE's. Wall street and Battlefield med will follow.
My cash counter still reeds 4000 gold or so and I plan to invest 3000 in infra in the core. I make 400 gpt as well, but that will be upgrade money.
The roman land needs heavy development and the FP is needed there. From there on it will be simple. Market/lib/CH/Fac/ps/harbor/rax and the such.

da mm

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200542214352_187mm.jpg
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[Kingreno]

The time of TANKS!

In theory that is.

Dutch research is massive. We monopolise a rather large ammount of techs only to sell them for huge gpt from the AI. Mass Production gave me plenty but the real cash cow was Mot Trans:

First up mister "I am very very rich":

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200541523224_210irotanksdeal.jpg
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fllowed by his neighbour "I am a little bit less rich but still very rich":

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005415232259_210incatankdeal.jpg
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Please note I timed spices to these deals as that will make it far less likely they will declare war.

Of course there are 4 other civs, but they are on welfare at the moment as only teh Mongols gave me a measily 34 gpt for the knowledge of Tanks. I gave Egypt and America Mot Trans as well to prevent Beam getting it in a good deal. :D

Now what does this do for our economy my dear Minister Zalm? Well:

[cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool][cool]


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/200541523269_210f1.jpg
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About 600 gpt will expire in 7 turns...just when the next tech comes in (though I do think someone will get it sooner...).

Domestic, we finished the FP in Rome!! This gave a solid MFG boost and made most Roman cities more productive. I bought Factories (hey, what else can I do with the money?) and most are on CH/lib/Uni now.
Also, most of the land is railroaded.
The core is "perfectionised". the 5 biggest cities have all improvements,yes that includes Cathedrals, but no colosseums. I have Police Stations too and in the event of a longer war I hope this will benefit me more then the few extra units I could have built instead. Fact remains that I need zero luxslider while Beam needs 20% last time I checked.
Small wonders include the Battlefield Med (very very good SW), Intel agency (with 10k in the vault we may be tempted) and the to be built Wall street (5th SE is not done yet).

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005415233253_210areaKR.jpg
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Compared to:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005415233314_210beamland.jpg
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I seem to have the upper hand...the only thing that could realy screw me is Beam's free tech, it could lead to all kinds of messy stuff and I don't want that. I do estimate however that I can research roughly 1.7 times his speed so any free tech can be caught up in say 25 turns (about 10 turns per tech in Modern era).

Another problem is that Byzantine Railways seem to be out of business...there must be an AI unit on that mountain. He used to get Iron from Egypt but some moron's cultural border stole that from Cleo (and Beam).[fdevil]


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005415233653_210beamsiron.jpg
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Also, Beam is trailing slightly at the moment but bagging either Flight or electronics will get him even easily. In the end I decided to give Beam Iron for several reasons, first, it will guarantee peace and since I am bigger the longer it takes the more powerful I will get. Second, if he lands Rocketry or fission he is one step closer to Nukes. He will be less inclined to nuke me when we trade (though this psycho factor is debatable)...

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005415233618_210irondiplo.jpg
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stay tuned.

[Pastorius]

If I was Beam, I d nuke just for good measure. He is the [devil]

quote:
First up mister "I am very very rich":
(...)
fllowed by his neighbour "I am a little bit less rich but still very rich":

[lol]

PS: I notice at least 1 speeling error [:p]

[Rik Meleet]

I would nuke you if I was in Beams position. What's there to loose for Beam ? According to your report he has been at war with most civs on and off, so the instant war-declarations don't hurt him a lot; he can't get good trade deals from Furious civs anyway.

On top of that; Beam would surely realise that nuking you is a good way to slow you down when you are so far ahead and do not have -yet- the nukes to strike back. If he doesn't; he'll be slipping further and further behind with no chance of catching up. His empire is just too small for that compared to yours.

So: be aware of strange things flying high.

[Kingreno]

Thanx for the feedback guys (Paal, you are correct, spelling could have been better but it was also late[blush]).

I don't know how Beam sees this situation. It is not that bad in a way and he has not been at war with any AI for a very long time. Also, he probably knows I have cash, meaning I could easily steal a tech of his. Add to that the construction of the Manhattan Project is still needed for Nukes...
The point is probably that this game was so carefully built up from my perpective that nukes would only see a waste to me. There are many tactical possibilities and conventional warfare is a lot more fun then nukes. With my cash I will likely beat Beam to Nukes and since I outproduce him (not to mention you can buy nukes as well) I will probably win if I go for nukes. Just not that kind'a game it is, I will keep looking at the skies though [thumbsup].

[Kingreno]

And so the deal was made!

Beam and I agreed on no nukes in this game. We also agreed on no UN vic allowed but that will mean we must also prevent the AI from building it. Oh well, we'll see.

What happened?

All of a sudden Iro's and America entered the MA! Abe got Flight and a turn later Iro's got Electronics! They swapped and I found myself lacking 2 techs. With only two turns from Electronics myself I bought Flight from the Iro for an easy 250 gpt and Gems, which I traded against Incan Electronics. The Dutch are in the MA!!! A turn later Beam made his move, as expected, investing heavily in gpt deals to buy AT, Elec and Flight to get his free tech, Computers, and get all the gpt back, leaving me trailing! Of course this new "secret" was obtained by the Dutch as well:[fdevil]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005416142740_212stealcomps.jpg
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This did cost me a sluggish 3400 gold but selling this tech to Incans, Americans and Mongols got me 270 gpt in return making this a rather healthy robbery.
On the domestic front all builds were changed to Research Labs and those that were not complete within 2 turns were bought. Rocketry now in 7 turns, I hope to nail it as the Iro can master a massive 700 gpt I would like to see comming my way. Minister Zalm was not very pleased by all this AIVD (Dutch CIA/MI5...or they think) spending and the vault now has a mere 7000 gold left.[coool]

To make sure we all start this age on an equal basis, we're ALL on tech parity now:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005416143226_212f4.jpg
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Only one war and it is a small one. Egypt is large and my neighbour and also the first target of my forces, it will take a while though till we can attack her...

On the domestic statistics front:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Kingreno/2005416143355_212f11.jpg
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This looks good. Former Rome is still growing, so I expect to remain 1st in MFG for some time to come now. Of course other stats seem to be rather nice as well.