gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Today's Giants game was giving me ulcers, I had to play phone tag with two ophthalmologist offices over my authorization for tomorrow's visit with Yet Another Doctor. Honestly, I feel like I'm getting passed around the Bay like a hot potato.

My solution? Play Civilization VI. Comfort food, Trajan on Prince, huge map. Early on Kupe of the Maori popped up and built a city right where I was going to build my gold-churning port. Suprise war! And five turns later, No more Maori in the game.

Now, I have a mod that gives more realistic names for cities, and as a fun bonus, if you conquer a city that has a name in your Civ's language, it will change it to that. For example, if the Romans took London, it would be called Londinium.

Of course, this only works for cities that have programmed alternate names. Roman and the Maori never crossed paths. So I was left with the original city name.

This would not stand. So I changed it.

To Hobbiton.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
The Giants won today, and so did I! Playing CivVI on King Difficulty on a Huge map as Germany. Won a Cultural Victory in 1958, which was an achievement, as Sweden was also in the game, and Kristina usually mops up on culture. I was playing with the Corporations, Secret Societies, and the Barbarian Alternate settings.

Only fought a few border wars with the Ottomans and the Netherlands. I kept my Army large and up to date to discourage adventurism. At the time of my win, I was halfway to landing on Mars. Good game.

But I'm amused by the fact that what put me over the edge was a performance by the band Renaissance Genius. "Oh, sure, Germany has great museums, national parks, and wonders right and left, but dude. . . did you see that show?"

Speaking of accomplishments, I picked up a new one. Germany controlled the world's jade supply.


gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
I had a great game going, Alexander, Standard-size Pangea map, King difficulty. I had already eliminated the Netherlands and Korea and was just lining up Poland in my Early Infantry, Heavy Artillery, and WWI tanks sights. I was pulling in over 200 Research points a turn, about 300 gold a turn, and my army was the strongest in the world.

I even kept people happy with entertainment districts and luxuries.

Then the game crashed. No error message, so hopefully it's still there, but I am quite annoyed.

I did find a fun tactic. If you're playing an aggressive civilization (Macedonia, Mongolia, etc.) and you play with the Secret Societies mode on, and you get the Voidsingers, chose Crusade when you get your religion. Because the Old God Obelisks that replace the Monument pump out +4 Faith a turn, and have a Great Work slot. So build up an army of Missionaries, go covert, then attack with a +10 for attacking a city of the same faith.

Really pissed. I've invested about 14 hours into this game.

So I have embraced conquering a bottle of Corona. Victory is mine!
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
The latest DLC for Civilization VI dropped last week. We got as a new Civilization, Babylon, under the benevolent rule of Hammurabi. Just finished my first game with him, Diplomacy Win in 1974. Large map, Prince difficulty.

Each civilization and leaders have different strengths and weaknesses. For Babylon, it all comes down to Eurkas. As you research new technologies, or just play the game, certain actions or events will give you a boost to specific technologies. Kill a unit with a slinger, get a boost to Archery. Settle on a coast tile, gain insights on Sailing, and so forth. Such boosts can influence your decisions on research and planning. For example, if you find iron in your borders, building a mine on it not only starts your stockpile of iron but gives a Eureka for Iron Working.

Hammurabi changes that. Now, gaining a Eureka grants the technology. Which leads to some spectacular leaps up the technology tree. The problem is effectively making use of these new discoveries. But this comes at a price, as the usual Science generated by your civilization is cut by half, giving you longer research times. It makes for a nice balance.

I found that strategically building Campuses for maximum science output, building every wonder that increased science, and taking policy cards that increased science helped balance the 50% cut. But when playing Babylon, getting Great Scientists is your goal. Each of them gives 2-3 Eurekas when activated. So building Holy Sites just to harvest Faith for buying scientists out from other leaders is a strong plan. Also, build a strong economy.

One very nice new feature, the game scoring system now recognizes that playing peacefully is worth rewarding. My only war came when Trajan declared war on me due to an Alliance. But he was on another continent and my Missile Crusier made short work of his frigates.
gridlore: Photo: penguin chick with its wings outstretched, captioned "Yay!" (Penguin - Yay!)
I just finished a very successful game of Civilization VI. Playing Rome on King difficulty, continents map, and I was using the Secret Societies game mode.

This is fun, there are four secret societies, the Voidsingers, the Owls of Minerva, the Sanguine Pact, and the Hermetic Order. Each has benefits and adds a new level of play. Early in the game, I was offered a chance to join the Voidsingers.

The Voidsingers follow a dark religion of ancient gods and sow chaos to control adversaries. Joining them unlocks the Old God Obelisk, which replaces the Monument. It has all of the Monument's base effects and provides additional Faith and Great Works slots. The Voidsingers also have a unique unit, the Cultist. Purchased with Faith, Cultists can spend a charge to recruit followers in enemy cities, reducing the target city's Loyalty by calling its citizens to madness.


The fun part is that every city Rome builds starts with a Monument, so all my new cities started with the Old God Obelisk already in place, which meant a quick +4 Faith from each city even before I built a Holy Site! When I did, I used a custom religion called the Eye of Madness. I also didn't stint on the research. As a result, I won a religious victory in 1560 after conquering 6 or the 11 rival states and converting the others. In the end, I was pulling in over 300 Faith a turn!

As I won the victory, all I could think of was the vine-choked Imperial Palace in Roma, past the hollow-eyed guards and the gibbering priests, to where the withered husk of Trajan, the Imperatoris Aeterna, rises from his throne for the first time in centuries, his dry voice echoing with eldritch force.

"The stars are right."
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Saw something cool while playing Civilization the other day. I had downloaded a mod that names cities in their native language. Moscow becomes Moskva, for example.

Anyway, I was playing a game and encounter Sulieman and the Ottoman Empire. First time since installing the mod. Up until now, the home city of the Ottomans was Istanbul, which annoyed me, as that name wasn't formally adopted until nearly 400 years after Suleiman's reign.

But when my Scout found his capital, it was Kostantiniyye, which is the name used after the Ottoman conquest up until 1923. This made me absurdly happy.

EDIT: An idiot just got pushed out the airlock for mentioning that song. Guess what? My day is now fucked. I can barely type, forget reading, because one asshole can't read and after dozens of requests, still went there.
gridlore: A Roman 20 sided die, made from green stone (Gaming - Roman d20)
Just finished an amazing game of CivVI. Trajan on a Large Continents map, King difficulty.

As an aside, King is a good challenge for me, and the new computer has solved the slow play issue.

I started with the Cree and America to my South, Kongo to the Southeast, and Persia to my Northeast. I really lucked out in terms of a starting location, as there were plenty of mountains making high-yield spots for campuses and holy sites.

Because I was on King, I built four warriors quickly (I use mods that give you a starting scout and warrior.) Some nice villagers gave me the Holy Lance, so I very quickly was able to select the pantheon that gave me a Settler. As I was building one already, Rome quickly had three cities, and a strong flow of money and Iron.

Which was important, because Poundmaker of the Cree is an ass. He attacked America, taking Washington. I responded by taking Washington, and all of his cities. I gave Washington back to Teddy Roosevelt. But it kept getting conquered, in the end, it and New York were Roman, and America was a backwards state stretching along a pretty barren cost.

Fast forward here. I eventually met the folks living on the other continent. . . the Maori, Sweden, and the Ottomans. Spain had existed but was swallowed by the Ottoman Empire.

But Kongo was becoming my problem. He kept declaring war on my ally America! As I had Mechanized armies and jet bombers at this point, I took about half his cities along with wiping out his invasions force (We had a little WWI recreation of cavalry vs. emplaced machineguns. It got ugly.) and settled so I could develop those cities for myself.

Then he did it again. This time, I had a Giant Death Robot and I nuked one of his remaining cities. Evacuated art from a theater district threatened by rising sea levels and went back to a twin-pronged victory approach of both a Science and Cultural win.

Which is when Darius of Persia began demanding tribute. He had three poorly developed cities and no armies to speak of. Whereas the Grim Death Mechanized Army had all the possible promotions. It was a joke, I literally took each of his cities with a single turn of fighting. So that made four capitals I had conquered.

Which is when Kongo declared war on America. Again. This time, I went Dr. Strangelove on him.

Took about five days of playing, and I got the highest rating possible. Science victory in 1996 or thereabouts.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Just got finished with a nearly all-day marathon Civilization VI game. I was supposed to be playing D&D, but my guts flared up again and I didn't want to be the guy missing huge chunks of playing time while answering the utterly unreasonable demands of Mother Nature.

Plus, I have no idea how sensitive my microphone is, and the bathroom is only like six feet away.

So, between bouts of cursing our utterly ineffective digestive systems, I played Civ. Started a game with Eleanor of Aquitaine in her guise as Queen of England. Eleanor is the only leader in the game who has two civilizations she can run. You can play her as either France or England. In this case, I chose England simply because I liked the mix of advantages that she gave mixed with England's special units. I had a pretty decent start position, so on with the game.

I'm not going to bore you with the details, just the highlights. One of Eleanor's special abilities that a city with Great Works drain enemy cities of their loyalty at a rate of 1 per turn per Great Work. This is a massive incentive to built those Theater Square districts and fill them with amphitheaters, museums, and broadcast studios. A loaded out Theater Square has slots for six Great Works. Place it right, and enemy cities (and even the free city-states0 quickly lose loyalty to their empire. The next best thing is that with Eleanor, there is no period when the now-rebelling city acts as a free state. This is the time between when the old loyalty drops too low for the old empire to control the city, and the new empire to gain enough loyalty to take over. During this time, the city acts like a super-barbarian state. But with Eleanor, it just jumps to your control.

I took six enemy cities this way. Plus two city-states. The most amazing thing is, I never fought a war. Not once, even with Montezuma as a close neighbor. I was never denounced, never attacked, and ever had any real reason to attack anyone. Although you can be sure I kept troops on the border with the Aztecs.

Reached a Cultural Victory in 1870. The whole world was wearing London fashions and listening to English bands like Deep Culture and Fast Sushi while enjoying our lovely seaside resorts. I was miles ahead in technology, with the London Spaceport nearly complete and two mechanized infantry corps just to make sure Montezuma remembered what was what.

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gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Douglas Berry

October 2023

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