RETURN TO THE CAVE OF SUCCESSION GAME(Civ 4)

[Veryslightlymad]

So Rat and I decided it'd be fun if we started up a succession game, sort of like in the other topic, only this time, it'd be Civilization 4. For those not in the know, a succession game is a shared playthrough of a game. One player would start play, keep a log of what they did, and then pass the save file onto the next player, who would continue. Obviously, this creates a different sort of gaming experience than simply playing the game normally would.

Civilization 4 is one of many games that can be played this way, and one of the games I know many of us actually have.

No expansions are necessary. Those of us with expansions will just have to play the bare version.

[Carthrat]

Obviously in for this!

The biggest pre-game decision we must make is... what the timeline of our game should be. I don't have the CD handy, so I'm thinking of the one-right-under-Marathon (so it's not STUPID long, but there's plenty of meat to each turn.)

Will depend on the number of players. We'll definately have to play on a large map, I think.

[Sierra]

Hah. I was wondering how the last succession attempt turned out and considered bumping it up with a suggestion that we do Civ next. Alas, I can't help with this one, as my computer won't run Civ 4 for more than a few minutes.

[OblivionKnight]

Don't own Civ4, sadly.  Be interested if I can find it, though.  What about Civ2?  Much friendlier on the system, and easier to  distribute >_>

[Sierra]

Don't own Civ4, sadly.  Be interested if I can find it, though.  What about Civ2?  Much friendlier on the system, and easier to  distribute >_>

I'll second this suggestion (don't presently have Civ 2, but I'm sure that can be fixed).

[Carthrat]

Civ2? I guess we could (although I think Civ4 is somewhat more challenging. It has, uh, AI, I'm not sure Civ'2's counts.)

[Monkeyfinger]

I've done Civ4 succession gaming enough to know it's not for me. Same if a different part of the series is picked.

[TranceHime]

Don't own Civ4, sadly.  Be interested if I can find it, though.  What about Civ2?  Much friendlier on the system, and easier to  distribute >_>

Unlike Civ4, I do actively have and play Civ2! I am all up for this.

[Veryslightlymad]

Finding my copy of Civ 2 would be a chore, but if that's what folks want to play, I guess I could suck it up and find one.

I'm a LOT better at Civ 4, though. (I am terrible at Civilization in general)

[Carthrat]

Civ2 is easy.

1) Build nothing but settlers for the first 100 turns.
2) Win.

[SnowFire]

I'd be down for either...  but I can't find my copy of Civ2 and it isn't installed on this computer, argh.  (Alpha Centauri?  Heroes2-3?  Master of Magic?  Master of Orion 2?  Colonization?  Civ, Call to Power, which I picked up for 2 dollars (which was 2 too many)?  Sure!  I can find them, but not Civ 2?!  WTF?)  I suppose there are probably hacks floating around or I could perhaps borrow it from someone else, but yeah, I'd prefer Civ4.

[Carthrat]

We could always run both! Seems we've got three who can run Civ4 and three who would prefer Civ2.

I'd be happy enough to play in two succession games at once, although it seems ownership/comptuer issues prevent others from this. Eh, no biggie.

[Carthrat]

OK.

I'd like to start the Civ4 game this week, pending a few more potential signups. Players seem to be...

Carthart
VSM
Snowfire

We'll play with the following setup.

Civilization: Up for debate! But I favour Russia under the rulership of Catherine the Great, myself.
World Type: Fantasy! This world will make *no sense*. You guys remember how to get the most out your resources? No? Ah well.
World Size: Large. I think a bigger world is necessary, and more entertaining.
Game Time: Epic. Not quite marathon-levels of ridiculousness, but a slower pace could work out quite well.
Difficulty: Prince. I'm willing to play higher if you guys are!

Number of Turns before Handover: Am having trouble deciding this, but I think 60 is a good number. Not really sure how long an epic game will take.

I'll hatbot up the turn order when it's time to decide.

[Veryslightlymad]

I'm down. I want to let it be known that I've only EVER beaten the game on Noble, and that was still a time victory.

[SnowFire]

Sounds like Prince it is.  I actually have played shockingly little Civ4, mostly due to being distracted by other games + having played Civ approximately a zillion times when I was young.  But Civ4 is refreshingly different than normal Civ, so I think we'll have a good challenge on Prince.

[Carthrat]

Ok! I'm starting now!

I've decided the turns-per-play will be 30, not 60, to ensure a speedy turnaround; early game 30 turns is a whole lot of nothing, but later on that's an awful lot going on (even in an epic game.)

Play order will be Me, VSM, Snow.

[Carthrat]

First 30 turns completed!

The current year is 3250; next turnaround is at 2500.

Not much happened. I scouted out a decent amount of land with my initial scout, and started off by building a barracks (I like to build them first in the game, because you can't build workers and settlers and the AI never tries to invade this early. Seriously.)

It's just about done, along with masonry and agriculture. Should be able to pop out a settler or worker and get improving things.