Tonto Succession Game, Page 2

Marius, 9/4/02

And the turn.

750 BC (0) - Chief Marianus II comes to the throne of France after poisoning the old chief. Looking around, he notices that Paris is BOOMING. There is also a settler heading for what appears to be the site of Green Dot from one of the ancient maps. Furthermore, France is well on the track to Republic, currently researching Code of Laws. Sensing that what the French people need more than laws is literature, however, Marianus switches research to literature, dreaming of a great library that will be the repository of the world's knowledge. Militarily, France is almost doomed. Similarly, France is smaller than all her neighbors, and good land is rapdily running out. Noting that Paris has a giant population surplus, Marianus commands that all homeless people be rounded up for settlement elsewhere.

730 BC (1) - Barbarians attack Rhiems, but are obliterated by the might of the French army. Orleans produces a spearman and grows. Chief Marianus spots a worker who had just irrigated and roaded an out of the way spot and orders them to stop slacking. (Gotta watch where you're going with those workers, Berrys... ;) The surplus warrior guards from Orleans are sent to the site of Red Dot, and Orleans begins producing a worker.

710 BC (2) - Lyons produces a barracks, and begins producing another worker.

690 BC (3) - Orleans produces a worker. Production is started on a temple. French explorers begin exploring Persia, risking the wrath of Xerxes.

670 BC (4) - <yawn>

650 BC (5) - Xerxes shows his displeasure, and the French explorers move to the other side of Persia to begin explorations. Tours is founded on the site of the green dot and immediately begins construction on a temple to honor the gods.

630 BC (6) - Paris completes a settler, and Lyons completes a worker. Paris immediately begins construction on another settler, while Lyons begins building another temple to honor the gods. The new settler begins moving not for red dot but for a location far to the north above Lyons. The worker, meanwhile, begins reconnecting the iron near Lyons.

610 BC (7) - Barbarians are spotted near Rhiems. News comes from the Iroquois lands that they are building the Oracle. A warrior is garrisoned on the future site of red dot.

590 BC (8 ) - Barbarians attack Rhiems, and are repulsed by the mighty garrison, who are promoted to veterans.

570 BC (9) - Chief Marianus writes a song, called "I've Been Working on the Road." Publicly praised, many in private think it's missing a certain something.

550 BC (10) - Rhiems constructs a spearman and immediately begins construction on a temple. The iron at Lyons is reconnected, and the worker there begins constructing a road northwards. The aging Chief Marianus is overthrown during spontaneous riots by the poor in Paris, who fear being sent off into the wild. His body is dragged contemptuously through the streets and left to rot in the local garbage pit. Later history would refer to him alternately as Chief Marianus II the Pious and Chief Marianus II the Builder.

Here's a map of France as of 550 BC:

Map

The fortified warrior by the worker is the site of Red Dot. I think the Parisian settler now being produced needs to go there pretty quick. I realize it's got a lot of overlap with Tours and Rhiems, but there are those hills right there, and it's got a lot of food from the flood plains. And we're going to need shields like mad in this pit. Our northern settler is heading for the site of blue dot above Lyons, which is a good spot, and will claim some land we desperately need. Beyond that, note purple dot over to the east. It's a godawful spot, but it's quite simply the best we can come up right now. Also in the demented ravings of Chief Marianus II, note the turquoise dot above Paris. Not great, but it's another city and uses some land, and we need that right now.

Beyond the settlement plans, I'm building lots of temples because we're going to need the culture. About the one modification I'd make to that is to have Rhiems switch off temple for a moment and crank a worker to improve it. Then send the worker now roading it to build a road from red dot to Tours, but NOT roading where the warrior is now, since it'll waste turns. That'll give us a good road network, and the worker can then improve Tours. Similarly, once the Lyons worker gets done roading to blue dot, go irrigate Lyons and get it bigger.

Also similarly, once Orleans finishes it's temple, I'd have it produce a placeholder until Literature comes in, then switch immediately to the Great Library.

All of this, you'll notice, leaves almost no room for a military conflict with the Iroquois. That's because, quite simply, we'd get slaughtered. They've got us outnumbered for cities, and those are BETTER cities than anything we have. Babylon and Persia are in the same sort of situation. I think our best hope is to sit, colonize any habitable scrap of land, and build for a while. The time to take out Hiawatha will come, but I don't think it's now. Any war right at the moment will annihilate us. To that end, I propose that we try and make nice on the diplo scene. Trade for techs, and if somebody makes demands of us, cave. As much as I thirst for Hiawatha's head on a pike, we're not ready for it yet.

Final notes: Rhiems' warrior is heading SE, which is where the barbs have been attacking from. I've also got the Persian warrior on a massive goto through Persia, which shouldn't make Xerxes angry, but if he kicks us to some inescapable spot, just disband the poor fool.

Berrys, 9/4/02

Good work Marius. :)

I agree about the Great Library - hopefully we can steal some techs and not get left too far behind.

Shame we haven't swallowed up those horses, but building the temple at Orleans will hopefully allow our population to expand enough to do this.

Blue spot is a really nice place (well, about the best so far). You're probably right: we should just build as many cities as we can, even if it means colonising the desert :/

BTW, those two workers were building a road in anticipation of connection with Tours (the route looked beter than having to build a road through the mountains).

Shame about the Pyramids, but we're probably too far behind now to be able to build it ourselves :( although it's a great one to have (probably the single best Great Wonder IMO).

Stormboy, 9/4/02

I still can't believe we lost all those archers :O. Damn those Civ3 combat mechanics :(. (I just lost three veteran Immortals to a single regular warrior in another game *sigh*)
_Marius and _Berrys, did either of you consider rushing military units in Paris at any point? Horsemen perhaps, after sacrificing a worker to build a colony? Normally I wouldn't even consider pop-rushing and I rarely use colonies, but perhaps it was worth a try in this case. Now that the war is over, there's not much point in doing so of course.
Temples are nice, I always try to build them early if I can. We do need to watch our military strength as well. The Babs were already making demands, and if we fall behind much further they'll be knocking on our door again real soon (along with the Iroquois and the Persians).

Berrys, 9/4/02

That was my main reason for getting the peace treaty with Hiawatha after the Babylonian demands - I was figuring that they might be the real problem very soon and that we'd need time to build up some strength. I was taking a bit of a chance by telling Hammurabi to get stuffed, but hey ...

Stormboy, 9/4/02

Err..guys, I did something really stupid and I could use some advice here. I started playing the 'save' that Marius sent me, only I was in a particularly violent mood and my brain was sort of stuck in 'RTS mode' ;).
I didn't feel like playing properly, so I thought: "let's just go crazy with it for a few turns, you can always play it for real later" (I know, it's cheating, but well..hmm..err..no excuse really). I switched most of the econ to producing military stuff, getting ready to do everything I just said I wouldn't (colonizing those horses for starters, I didn't get round to pop-rushing though). The first civ that even dared to breathe in my direction was gonna get it. The Babs were kind enough to oblige, trying to extort me on the very first turn :).
The thing is, that in my mad frenzy, I kind of managed to produce a Great Leader :). I made peace with the Babs, got Map Making in the process, things look really great now. We can build the Great Library or any wonder we want in 1 turn.
The problem is that I was racing through the game, and I didn't keep a log. I can reconstruct about half of my turns with the autosaves, but the first part is just a big blur.
Should I keep this save or should I play it again properly (when the effect of those 7 coffees I drank has worn off :)?

Marius, 9/4/02

Thanks Stormboy. You've made my morning. I'm chortling to death in front of my comp. :)

Oh, what the hell. Keep the save. We can REALLY use the leader, and if we've got the library ready or almost ready... Oh yeah. I'd say if you've got turns left, do em, otherwise pass it, and we can all rejoice at the leadership of Chief Stormboy the Mad.

Berrys, 9/4/02

That's fine with me too. :)

Just one thing though - maybe we should go for the Pyramids instead? Those granaries are damned useful.

Marius, 9/5/02

Definitely thinking the library would be more useful.

Berrys, 9/5/02

_M: You're probably right, at least we can steal some techs - if we go for the Pyramids everybody else will switch that production to the great library anyway.

_FB: we had our entire army twatted by two spearmen! It would have taken another 10-15 turns to assemble another army. If I'd got luckier I would have carried on to Niagra Falls and tried to build a new city where Allegeheny was.

Berrys, 9/6/02

It seems that in the mists of time, the annals detailing the reign and achievements of Chief Stormboy the Insane have been lost (or possibly destroyed in order to protect the innocent.)

Here is the latest installment in the saga. It's not very interesting since it's pretty much a quiet period of recovery and consolidation:

330 BC (1) - Chief Stormboy the Insane is officially pronounced "Mad as a hatter" and replaced by Chief Berrio, a distant cousin of the distinguished line of the Berrie de Beret's. He immediately orders that Paris start producing workers to improve the area around Paris. The fertile areas around Marseilles are also irrigated.

310 BC (2) - The great leader Napoleon is sent to Orleans in anticipation of encouraging the people there to build great wonders. In honour of Stormboy the Insane, a battalion of swordsmen are created at Lyons, the company goes by the name "Stormboy The Magnificent". The area around Chartres is irrigated.

290 BC (3) - Paris produces worker and starts on temple. Rheims produces archer. Orleans produces horseman and starts work on The Great Library. Napoleon whips the people up into such a frenzy of activity that they can complete the project in 20 years.

270 BC (4) - Orleans completes the Great Library and starts on settler. Tours completes archer and starts on temple. Road started to connect Chartres with tours.

250 BC (5) - Orleans threatened by barbarians. Great Library brings us construction. The people rejoice because now we can build aqueducts and bring at least some sanitation to the stinking cesspool that is Paris.
230 BC (6) - News reaches Paris that the English city of London have completed the Pyramids. Chief Berrio orders science spending to be increased to 100% (this gives Polytheism in 5 turns). Lyons starts temple.

210 BC (7) - News reaches Paris that the Babylonians have completed both the Great Wall and the Oracle. (they must have got a great leader out of the battle with Stormboy too).

190 BC (8) - News reaches Paris that the English city of York have completed the Colossus. Rheims starts work on temple. Roads completed to the vineyards at Rheims. Horseman destroys barbarians west of Orleans and gains 25 gold in tribute.

170 BC (9) - Road completed from Chartres to Tours.

150 BC (10) - Orleans produces settler. After a successful reign of 200 years, chief Berrio abdicates and devotes the rest of his life to the cultivation of fine grapes, producing wines of distinction at Chateau de Berrio.

The settler produced at Orleans is heading northwestwards at the moment, whilst a warrior is traveling southwestwards to jon him. Although they have no idea where they are going, it appears that there might be more fertile and productive lands to the west of Orleans. Even if there are not, it's got to be better land than that bloody desert to the southeast. :/

Marius: you might want to change production at one or two cities from Temple to military units or settlers. Chief Berrio was a bit of a religious Zealot and entertained ambitions of being raised to god-hood. ;)

France in 190 BC:

France in 150 BC:

Marius, 9/6/02

150 BC (0) - After the abdication of Chief Berrio, the people of Paris cast about for someone to lead them. They soon set their eyes upon a young descendent of the line of Marianus II, and name him Chief under the highly imaginative name of Marius II. Looking around his new empire, the new Chief pondered once more WHY his family chose to stay in France, as opposed to somewhere with a slightly better climate, like Babylon. Talking to his foreign service, Marius understood: France's stock with the world was WAY down, except for the Iroquois, who were somehow France's best friends. Noting the massive profusion of temple building started by Chief Berrio, Marius II decided to keep building them, since honoring the gods was a good plan, and even switched production in Marseilles from swordsmen to a temple. Similarly, noticing that France was breaking the bank trying to research Polytheism, Marius turned down the science budget a bit in order to bring in more gold.

130 BC (1) - French military units begin exploring the southwest. Initial word is favorable - Beyond the mountains there appear to be forests, and hopefully a lusher land than France itself. In the mountains themselves were iron, the fuel of the French war machine. Settlers were immediately dispatched, even before explorations were complete. (Thanks Berrys! :)

110 BC (2) - Our warriors are attacked by barbarians, but slaughter them easily. Chief Marius, browsing through the Great Library, suddenly hits upon an idea, and drafts the first code of laws for the French people.

90 BC (3) - Exploration reveals that beyond the mountains is a lush paradise of grasslands, forests, and jungles. Chief Marius is elated. He is less than happy about the hordes of Iroquois archers streaming by Rhiems, but they appear to be on their way to deal with some errant barbarian encampments in the French paradise, so Marius lets all eight them off with a warning.

70 BC (4) - Wandering the Great Library again, Chief Marius has a number of highly profound thoughts, and writes them down in a book he calls his _Philosophies_. It becomes an instant best-seller, although nobody really understands what Marius is talking about.

50 BC (5) - Exploration of paradise continues, revealing dyes in the jungles. Riotous parties are thrown in Paris.

30 BC (6) - Settlers are produced in Orleans, and begin the trek to Paradise. The barbarians in Paradise are obliterated by the mighty French warriors.

10 BC (7) - Settlers found the town of Paradise in a particularly lush area of the larger Paradise. Explorations continue.

10 AD (8 ) - Exploration continues.

30 AD (9) - Still more exploration.

50 AD (10) - A clerk at the Great Library, seeking a better way than chickens to collect on overdue library books, devises a system of currency, which quickly spreads throughout France. Chief Marius promotes the man to Head Tax Collector. It is generally agreed by most than with this invention, France has entered a new stage in her development. To celebrate, Paris, Rhiems, and Tours build great temples to the gods. Paris begins creating settlers, while Rhiems and Tours begin work on spearmen. The people, celebrating the reign of Chief Marius II, add a second level on to the palace. The first maps of Paradise come back to Paris, and are eagerly seized upon by Marius II:

In the margins of the map, Chief Marius scribbled the following notes:

"In the tradition of the other Chiefs of my line, I have marked out a number of settlement sites that it seems to me are good land. The first of these, marked with a green dot, will give us access to more iron, as well as be a somewhat useful city. It may be wise to move it somewhat to the west, giving us a port on the western ocean. The second location, marked with a blue dot, will give us control of the isthmus there, shortening travel time by ship and forming a barrier to any hostile people that may attempt to cross. The third site, marked with a red dot, is on lush grasslands, and has iron and gold rich mountains nearby, as well as access to the sea. I believe it to be a most excellent site."

Upon the creation of his map, Chief Marius II followed the example of Chief Berrio, and retired, this time to become the Mayor of Paradise in his remaining years.

Oh, the goodness of my turn. Yay yay yay. CoL, Polytheism, Philosophy, and Currency all in my turn. We're on our way to Monarchy. With luck, we'll pull Monotheism out of the GL after Persia and Babylon hit the Middle Ages, and as long as we stay away from Education, we should be doing great.

We've got a much nicer military than previously, too. Not enough to go to war again, really, but we can inflict some hurt if Babylon gets pissy at us. Hiawatha's happily our best friend somehow, which I won't argue with.

But landwise. Oh man. Paradise is like everything we ever dreamed of, and shows every sign of just getting better. The only way it could possibly get worse is if Shaka came charging up the next hill. There's at least 3 or 4 good cities worth of room down there, with what looks like more to come. Back in the homeland, we're starting to pick up increased culture borders, and our horse colony is now gone. <shrug>

All in all, things are looking up up up.

Stormboy, 9/8/02

The reign of Stormboy IV has been rather uneventful, this in sharp contrast with that of his illustrious ancestor Stormboy the Insane.

The world is at peace, but we've noticed many foreign troop movements. We've established embassies in all neighbouring countries, that way we'll be informed if and when conflicts break out. Our ambassadors can call upon other nations for help, should we ourselves be attacked.
For the moment, none of them seem to have hostile intentions. We're nevertheless building a small, but mobile force of horsemen.

The Iroquois have started building a Great Lighthouse in 90 AD. Other than that, our neighbours didn't accomplish anything noteworthy.

Scouting efforts were severely hampered by barbarian activity. Consequently, little more is known of the world today, than when Stormboy IV ascended the throne in 50 AD.

Our workforce keeps improving our infrastructure, especially our road network. Only one new city was founded: Avignon, on the west coast. Settlers are moving towards the areas that were recommended for development by previous rulers.
Investment in research remains high. We're now very close to inventing a monarchic system of government, which will no doubt bring us many benefits.

In 250 AD Stormboy IV, probably the last chief of the French, dies in his sleep. A king will follow in his footsteps...

Our neighbor's capitols, 150 AD:

Babylon
Persepolis
Salamanca

Berrys, 9/11/02

Sorry for the delay in getting my turns sorted out (I actually played them on Monday, but have not had chance to mail the game back to Marius until this morning).

The next thrilling installment:

260 AD (1) Following the death of Chief Stormboy the Consolidator, General Berrio attempts to usurp the throne and the French nation falls into a period of anarchy. During this time chief Hiawatha of the Iroquois, sends emissaries to Paris to oportunistically demand the secrets of polytheism. The French wise men tell them to get stuffed.

270 AD (2) General Berrio is declared by the wise men of France to have the divine right to rule all the peoples of France and is declared to be the first true king. His first order as king is to increase science spending to 70% of GDP. Settlers are advanced towards the isthmus near Paradise. Workers are commanded to improve the lands lands.

280 AD (3) Yawn – King Berrio sits back and gets fat.

290 AD (4) Avignon produces warrior, change to temple.

300 AD (5) Yawn

310 AD (6) Paris produces settler, switch to barracks. Tours produces horseman, switch to worker.

320 AD (7) Maseilles produces horseman, switch to barracks. Besancon founded at the Isthmus.

330 AD (8) Rheims produces horseman, switch to barracks.

340 AD (9) Chartres produces horseman, switch to worker. The wise men of France, whilst rummaging through some ancient manuscripts in the Great library discover that there is an alternative form of government known as "The Republic". King Berrio immediately orders those wise men crucified and the manuscripts destroyed.

350 AD (10) Tours produces worker. King Berrio, after a successful reign of 90 years as king of the Franks, trips over a champagne bottle one morning and breaks his neck. There is consternation in the royal court as to the successor - will it be his young nephew Marius, the offspring of the union between king Berrio's daughter and the line descending from Marianus II, or will it be the young pretender the Duc de Oiseau du Feu, the bastard son of king Berrio's now long dead sole male heir?