The Swimming Pool - OPEN THREAD

[Socrates]

NOT for anarres, Beam, Banzai, Kemal, akots, Arghis, Eldakkar, and their possible replacements until the game is over ! Don't read this thread if you're a replacement player, and don't replace anyone anymore if you read it !

8-p PBEM - [u]The Swimming Pool :</u>
version : C3C 1.22
world size : Standard
land mass : custom
water coverage : custom
climate : custom
temperature : custom
age : custom
barbarians : roaming
player 1 - kryszcztov : Byzantines
human rivals : 7 (Dutch, Hittites, Portuguese, Inca, Carthaginians, Vikings, Iroquois)
AI agression : normal
available victories : all except Wonder
difficulty : Deity
culturally linked start locations : No
respawn AI players : [crazyeye]
preserve random seed : Yes
allow cultural conversions : Yes

No Statue of Zeus and no Knights Templar.

map made by : Aggie

This game will be played along rules to be defined, probably close to RBCiv rules (see open thread).

[Socrates]

STARTING POSITION

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/2005129153618_SwimmingPool01 3950BC StartingPosition.JPG
59.43*KB

At last I'm starting this spoiler ! Since it is going slowly, since there will be less lurkers than usual, and since I was lazy, I hadn't got the will to do it so far.

This game will probably be one of the important PBEMs played here ; it's not everyday that 8 players agree to play together. Aggie managed to create us an interesting map suited for the archipelago theme, which feature 7 seafearing civs (some were tweaked from expansionnist to seafearing, or to industrious) and one non-seafearing civ (the Iroquois, un-tweaked). I'm leading the mighty Byzantines, a civ that won't have a great start but will try to do well after a while with its free techs and its powerful dromons.

The starting area was fine, except I was missing some food bonus. But I had a nice lux (silks, the best as for commerce output you can find on flat land), a river, and what seemed to be a gulf. :) With nothing tempting me, I settled on the starting tile, and so Constantinople was founded in 3950BC. This popped the hut, which gave me maps : I suddenly had a good vision of my island, and there were cows out of my city's range !! This would be top priority, since my capital didn't have any food bonus.

Everyone had Alphabet as a starting tech, so I set science on Writing with no convinction of getting it first... knowing that 3 civs were agricultural. [mischief] But what am I expecting ? Just look at my opponents to see that this game will be really hard for me.

[Socrates]

A BEGINNING, OR HOW I MET MY FRIENDS AND HOW I LEARNT HOW TO WRITE

The first thing to note is that everyone settled on the starting spot, except akots, who founded his capital 1 turn after the others. It was almost clear that he had settled on one of his lux, the one by the river, so as to profit from more commerce immediately. Smart move, since it gave him 2 cows in his capital's 21, as a future pic will show. So now I would have to face 3 agricultural civs and another one with an early settler factory. Am I already lost in the 2nd half of the players ? [mischief]

Since we all knew we were on our own islands, the one thing to do was to send ships explore the seas and meet the others. Or you could always stay on your island to improve the rest, but then you had to wait for others to meet you, and maybe lose many trading opportunities. I decided to explore the seas. :D Micro-management decided that I would build a curragh first, done on turn 8, and then a warrior for MP, done on turn 11. Since food was so important, and commerce not so important (I'm gonna lose the Writing race anyway), I decided to emphasize on grasslands and production, rather than commerce. This policy excluded that I would connect the silks soon. It even turned out (in theory) that chopping and roading them was a waste of time. I had to get my 1st settler as soon as possible.

All in all, I only built 2 curraghs in the beginning, the 2nd one on turn 15. You will be able to track down their progression on the minimaps. I first met Arghis of the Vikings on turn 17, after quite a long journey ; I was following the equator to increase the chance of finding someone.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/200512916549_SwimmingPool02 3150BC MeetArghis.JPG
67.39*KB

During the following IT, Beam of the Hittites found me in my own gulf. Welcome mates ! I need you for trading ! [goodjob]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/20051291677_SwimmingPool03 3100BC MeetBeam.JPG
107.78*KB

Just after that, on turn 18, I had already done my 1st trade : I gave Bronze Working to Arghis for his Warrior Code. Maybe I should have waited longer, since I was the only one with Bronze, but Arghis was also the only one with Code. On turn 19 I met anarres of the Dutch. [groucho] I only spotted a Dutch settler, and managed to stay invisible to him.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/2005129161133_SwimmingPool04 3050BC MeetAnarres.JPG
78.01*KB

On the turn-20 IT Eldakkar met me. In fact I had arrived in his gulf during the previous turn, but there was no unit to yell at ! [lol]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/2005129161326_SwimmingPool05 3000BC MeetEldakkar.JPG
76.75*KB

On turn 21 I eventually completed my settler. :) I wanted it by the sea, with at least one cow in range, and a river too. anarres helped me there : I understood we all had the same landmass (in fact Arghis at least has one less tile than the others, I wonder why ?), so I followed anarres, and sent the settler to the same spot than anar's 2nd city (the forest tile where his settler was standing when I met him). On turn 22 I traded Warrior Code to Eldakkar for Pottery. Quite nice to give it to one of Arghis's neighbours ! ;) I also met Banzai on that turn.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/200512916190_SwimmingPool06 2900BC MeetBanzai.JPG
94.33*KB

On turn 23 I set up an odd deal with Banzai : I gave him Bronze Working and Warrior Code, and he gave me Masonry. In fact I was giving him 2 techs costing "3", and he was giving me 1 tech costing "4". So he promised to give me Ceremonial Burial, a tech costing "2", as soon as he would get it. Because it was in his advantage, he gave me 10 gold as a loan, to be given back when Burial would kick in. Tricky, eh ? On turn 24 I founded my 2nd city : Adrianople.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/2005129162348_SwimmingPool07 2800BC TwoCities.JPG
109.4*KB

The last fellows I met were Kemal, on turn 27...

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/2005129162457_SwimmingPool08 2670BC MeetKemal.JPG
74.3*KB

... and akots, on turn 34.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/2005129162531_SwimmingPool09 2390BC MeetAkots.JPG
67.86*KB

It showed me I was right, as for akots's capital placement. In the meantime Adrianople built a warrior and a worker, so as to improve the nice tiles that now were available. Constantinople was ordered to build a granary, completed on turn 37. This was a much needed improvement, but I felt it was more important to have a 2nd city (with cows !) as soon as possible.

On turn 38 (2230BC) I eventually discovered Writing, but not first, since I got a refund. My options were now open, but I decided to go for Philosophy. Maybe no one would try it since it was obvious, and BTW I got Writing before many people ! :)

[Kingreno]

Nice spoiler! The progress is not too bad is it? with 8 players I believe you are all doing quite well pace-wise. Nice to see how this is developing, though more spoilers would be nice to hear the story from 8 sides.:)

Oh, one tiny hint: Those are not spices next to your Capitol![:p]

[Socrates]

Spices changed to silks ! [blush2] But they're still the best lux on flat land for commerce. ;) Oh, and akots also has silks, otherwise it would have been useless to settle on his lux, as a quick calculation will prove.

The pace was rather fine for months, but it went horrible as winter arrived. :( The current turn (#54) is breaking a record (nothing received since January 16). This is what you get when you stop hassling the players. [blush2]

[Aggie]

Great spoiler :) I am following this one with more than normal interest. Dunno why [:p]

[Socrates]

Aggie ! :) Good to see you lurk about Civ games. Especially... the ones you created, ô Master. :D I have more turns to comment, I'll do it soon. After that, you'll have to be patient, once I've catched up the current situation.

[Socrates]

I lost all my data (saves, screenshots, log text) in my HD crash. Here is a summary of what happened so far (from my memory).

I researched Philosophy, but wasn't the 1st one to find it of course. So now I'm researching Literature, but Kemal told me he was on it too. :(

I now have 5 cities, but next turn I'll have a 6th one. :) The problem is that they're all low on population, and that I somehow didn't connect my lux yet (didn't see the need).

Agricultural civs are rocketing, and agricultural Kemal declared war on settler-factorian akots a while ago, destroying 2 Punic cities. [eek] Many guys have Map Making, something I should try to get soon, as my settlers will soon be sent to the islands...

On the diplomacy front, I signed many peace deals, but since I lost all my data, I'm waiting for everyone to refresh my mind, and then I'll post them. On the whole I built some security, releaving me of some stress, but it will also prevents me from attacking anyone soon. I have many warriors for MP and for barb check (didn't have any !), and my neighbours are scared of it, lol. The race for land will first have to be peaceful. I hope someone will be kind enough to give me Map Making. [cry]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/kryszcztov/200532818353_SwimmingPool101 1525BC HDCrash.JPG
162.2KB

[Aggie]

So there's a war already? Wow, Kemal is progressing fast! It's indeed vital to get Map Making in this game. A lot of nice land to grab overseas! As you already know :)

[Socrates]

"Thanks" to my rant, the game has resumed on a decent pace. [mischief]

We're a bit past 1000BC now. I have settled my own island, and very recently founded my 1st colony, next to some iron. You'd think it's good, but some have a great advantage. anarres, for example, already has 8 or so colonies, he even settled on islands that are closer to me. :( Anyway, there is no way to compete with agri civs in this game, I'm constantly at 9-10% population, whereas the leaders are at 19-20%. [mischief]

On the good front, I'm scientific, and so I managed to have a monopoly on Literature. I've already built some cheap libraries, and Constantinople built the Colossus a few turns ago. I'm researching Republic, but I'll get it after a few players, so I expect a nice discount.

Diplomatically I'm playing it safe, I only have 1 dromon ! I made peace until turn 100 with everyone, peace deals that had some more clauses sometimes. But now I dread the moment where anarres and I will go to war against each other. I think it isn't avoidable. Chances for tech deals are slim, I can only count on Arghis, akots and Beam (even Beam I don't know). akots is being conquered by Kemal, so he'll soon lose. I regret that agri civs feel so secure now, because no one wants to attack them.

My only hope is to continue my slow expansion and quick development, and build a wall of dromons to protect my lands. I fear that the die is cast already, all the more as Eldakkar (anar's other neighbour) told me he made peace with anarres for a long time.

[Socrates]

This game also died long ago, people not sending saves in the end as well... I managed to fill up my island, and started to settle on other islands, but some players had already got a lead over me in particular, like Kemal (at war against akots, and razing some of his cities), anarres (settling everywhere towards me !), and Eldakkar. If you ask, they are the 3 agricultural civs, no comment... I was expecting anarres to declare war on me not very late from now, but this was just an assumption (I might discover more when I read people's spoilers !).

But the fun was away already, the pace was so slow that I couldn't remember where I was standing each time I opened a save ; this is the signal that a game is dying, no ? And Aggie, in his Civ grave, is not even there to see this. Oooh, what ever happened to CDZ ?


EDIT : LOL, I've just realized that, between my latest post (July 30) and the latest save played by one of the players (October 5), ie. a bit more than 2 months, only 3 turns were played, so don't blame me if I've just repeated myself in this post (I didn't read my previous posts carefully before writing tonight).