Val-Hell-Yeah

The quest for the Perfect Map

2009-03-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

We are on a quest for a map that does not encourage continental team-play; that is, the natural tendency for players on the same land mass to work together against the other land masses. Even without Permanent Alliances, this seems to happen with regularity.

There's also a desire among some players to make sure naval activity is present. I concur with this (since I need to build navies more), and I definitely like the income benefits of coastlines (particularly with Financial civs, which I am very fond of nowadays).

While reading various map guides I came across an interesting statement:
Remember that a continent is not necessarily one single land mass (think Oceania).

So I played around with the map generator and came up with some interesting designs. All images are at their original res so you can see the detail, and crudely edited to keep the globe map in view; the sources were 16x9. All of these are settings on Hemispheres.

Tiny islands, 6 snaky continents, medium sea level. Sea contact from the beginning. Tons of coastline. Minimal ice.

Another run at these settings.

Islands, 6 normal continents, medium sea level. No sea contact (or combat!) until Astronomy, more land.

Tiny islands, 6 normal continents, low sea level. More land, oceanic separation.

Same settings, different map.

Tiny islands, 6 snaky continents, high sea level. Some beginning sea contact, but not as complete as at Medium sea level.

I think the first settings (tiny islands, 6 snaky continents, medium sea level) would make for a cool experimental map. Moreover, I think it'd be fun to pick our civs. I personally would suggest everyone take a Financial civ because of all the coastline; I certainly would.

I'm Doing It Wrong

2008-12-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

However I'm doing it, I appear to be doing it wrong. Sometimes, it's the luck of the draw: in one of our recent out-of-band games (the Hives are going unfed while one of our participants completes his studies for the semester), I started sandwiched between an aggressive AI and a player with twice my starting area and no AIs to worry about.

I didn't really have much of a chance.

That said, I generally seem to expand the slowest of all the players in our group, and my score ends up being the lowest. And I have not yet figured out why. No matter what kind of build order I use or how I prioritize my settlers, I seem to lose out.

The one difference that I am trying (and which others have repeated) is overlapping. I HATE overlapping my cities and their fat crosses. But in the end, it's only toward the end of the game that full utilization can be acheived anyway. Moreover, in Civ 4, cities rarely get to that size. Even more importantly, unlike Civ 3, a city doesn't even have to come close to full land utilization to be productive and powerful. It may be that this is the last vestige of my Civ 3 habits I have to abandon to be competitive.

Or maybe I just suck :P

Moar Food: Uncapitulation

2008-10-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

I think we all learned a valuable lesson last night about vassalage and capitulation when it comes to human players. Against the AI, I don't think most players have much experience submitting to vassalage, but in multiplayer, at least with this group, it's come up more than once.

At any rate, I was getting beat on pretty seriously by my evil Wonderland neighbors to the north, who decided on an opportunistic attack after Mikelandia pounced on some of my undefended coastal cities. The Wonderlandians took three of my cities, including my capital, then held out capitulation in exchange for giving my capital back. After exploring my options, I became resigned to this fate -- the alternative was pretty much guaranteed obliteration.

After about 10 turns, though, I wanted to see what the conditions were for breaking my vassal status. Turns out, I could break free if my population and land mass was at least 50% of my master's. Given that I had my old capital back, and I had planted a city or two in some newly denuded area, this was no sweat.

I was just as surprised as anyone that I could just choose to declare freedom -- again, because this is the first time I've ever agreed to become a vassal, so I was pretty unfamiliar with the terms.

Immediately after declaring my independence, I signed up defensive pacts with Wonderland's more powerful rivals. I'm still dead last in tech, score, and military power, but I'm at least back on my feet again. I'm nearly certain to spend the rest of the game acting as little more than a sideshow spoiler for the real competitors.

The moral of the story: if you're going to offer capitulation to a human foe, you had better be sure he's significantly smaller than you from the start, and has little chance to regain territory in any reasonable time frame. Otherwise, it's not that much better than a peace treaty.

Moar Food for the Hives: Mushroom Balance

2008-09-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

When I fell down the rabbit hole, I had no idea that my tears would spawn a flourishing society - held together by the insatiable need for narcotics; specifically shrooms. Early in the development and planting stage of the queen’s garden, some drunken jungle folks with funny hats, and whose men wore dresses, soiled every tree in our great forest. We found it necessary to protect our borders from more raids by building forts to stop any more aggressive acts from those speech slurring baboons. As strong as our efforts were, we were not able to fortify quickly enough and our workers (perhaps persuaded by alcohol) left there projects. We haven't seen them or the escort that was with them since. It wasn't until an all out raid which landed by boat on our central coast did we understand the magnitude of our situation. Our trumpeters sounded their horns and all the woodland creatures that were able to wield a weapon answered the call and drove the bottle tippers back into the sea. Shortly thereafter their leader, "Armand" claimed that there was a miss understanding and that we looked like some "guys"... Being avid shroom addicts and not really sure of reality most of the time, we felt inclined to accept their apologies and begin a solid foundation for trade and commerce.

Since peace has come, many voices tell me that we should look to the seas and search for glory. We should have a message any day from the brave explores that search in the name of Wonderland!

Moar Food for the Hives

2008-09-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Our new game, Moar Food for the Hives, has gotten underway. Some critical technical lessons were learned with Seeds of Luv:

- Large sized worlds become progressively slower to play as the game goes on
- Large sized worlds are more prone to network errors
- Hamachi, the peer-to-peer VPN service, is the best way to play Civ with friends online

With all this in mind, we're playing a 6 player, 1 AI standard game with the Hemispheres configuration for the map: 3 continents of varied sizes, plus a good smattering of islands. Based on this excellent post at Civ Fanatics, this appears to be the kind of map we want to play. No more getting stuck with Ice and Desert in the south, etc.

I did like having more AIs to beat up on in the large world; but with six players in this new Hive, I'd think the Food should be ample.

Seeds of Luv: Post-mortem

2008-09-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

It has been noted by Milo that MAD doesn't work in Civ. He may be right. The Caliphate, invaded for no reason other than religious hatred, set itself on a fateful course after defeating the Crusader's invading army. Offered a cease-fire, we declined in the interests of making as many nukes as possible and delivering them by ICBM to the Crusader's homeland.

The problem with this was that, while Mike was attempting to recover from the stark violence visited upon his lands, the Portugese AI got into the mix again, invaded Mike, took a city, dropped some nukes... it wasn't pretty. Sure, we got our thermonuclear revenge - and oh, it was sweet, to be sure - but the AI in BTS is more opportunistic than ever before, and if it sees a chance (like a capital city with two units in it - Mike had stripped his rear areas clean to defeat the Crusader army) it will take it.

If not for Joao II getting all jiggy with some tac nukes, we might have stood a chance. But it was not to be.

Permanent Alliances certainly seem to make things a foregone conclusion most of the time. It's easy to either bully your neighbor into submission or, as I tend to do, be a good neighbor and see value in a combined future. Our new game, in which Food is being provided for the Hives, does not have PAs enabled. So one of us is going to have to win, or at the very least, be the last one standing.

I wonder if we'll ever actually have a space race in multiplayer. We may simply be too bloodthirsty.

Apostolic War

2008-08-02T14:42:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to share my crowning achievement of the plague-like spread J'eebuzism (click for a readable version).

We eagerly await the First Crusade in the lands of ForMike-a.

Diplomacy and Me

2008-08-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Funny that Formica would spend so much time talking about diplomacy, since that's been pretty much the core of my own Sowing the Seeds of Luv game as well. As I mentioned in a prior post, I have been trying not to be the big bully of a big planet. Instead, I've engendered rather friendly relations with my human continent-mate, Papa Smurf (a renamed Hannibal, played by Jamie), as well as several of the AIs. I've been able to achieve this by relentless Christian missions to nations far and wide (praise J'eebuz), which explains why all of Chistiandom decided to declare war on the evil Muslims of Mikestan.

The interesting twist now is the sudden re-humanization of the Americans. In round two, Jammmesss allowed the AI to play his civ, and I rapidly spread my state religion to America's shores, which they welcomed whole-heartedly. Now I have not one, but two humans sharing my religion; we'll see how this all pans out with the war on the heathen Islam Earthlings. I mean, humans. That in and of itself is a pretty nice coup; the other being the Portugese (AI) are easily the largest civilization on the planet, and rabidly friendly towards the peace-loving Martian-Dutch.

I believe we'll be tabling this game until Mike gets back in town. In the meantime, we'll be starting a more exotic game next Monday.

Diplomatic Relations

2008-07-29T11:19:00.001-07:00

Sowing the Seeds of Luv has arrived at an Industrial Age War. Mike and I started together on the same continent. Our first contact was cordial, and the common bond of Islam made for peaceful relations as we pursued our nation's destinies. It became clear that Mike's starting location was superior to mine, and his expansion strategy appears to be superior to mine as this is the second time he's out-built me on the same landmass. Somewhere in the middle ages he began to wildly out-tech me, and I watched as his score climbed well past mine. Unlike the last time we were neighbors, however, we continued on a friendly path and he was content to colonize his half of the continent while I tried to evict Sitting Bull and Bismarck from the rest of it.

That said, the Crusaders decreed Holy War on Mike, using the Christian Apostolic Palace to invoke war against the world's largest Islamic state. Our people were aghast at this treatment of our Brothers in Islam, and so in the name of Mohammed (PBUH) we joined in permanent alliance with the Mikeoneans and made our commitment to his defense public.

I spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not to engage in a formal alliance with Mike. I worry that other players will perceive it as unfair of me to do so...

But it isn't. The fact is, Mike and I both played the diplomatic route and maintained good relations with one another for the entire game - something all of us have done with computer opponents plenty of times. Moreover, the difference is in the method: is it any more or less fair or correct to coerce human players into cooperating you with threats and acts of force than it is to engender their cooperation with friendly diplomatic relations? Hell, if Mike or I was an AI, our diplomatic score would look like this:

+6 We care for our brothers and sisters of the faith.
+2 You gave us help.
+2 We appreciate the years you have supplied us with resources.
+1 Our open borders bring us closer together.
+1 You shared your technological advances with us.
+3 Our mutual military struggle brings us closer together.
+2 You have wisely chosen your Civics.
-1 Our close borders spark tensions.

So, yes. My peaceful, powerful, religious neighbor is attacked by the rest of the world. Of COURSE it is time for jihad. And perhaps if he's lucky, Milo will get the Global Warming he's been hoping for all along (nrc nrc nrc!). Unless of course Mike is abandoning the game, sticking me in a permanent alliance with an AI... :P

Everyone Cares (whether they want to or not)

2008-07-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Along with some of the others on this blog, this is my time playing civ multiplayer. I'm having a blast, and I've learned a lot. But I'd have to say my big takeaway from the experience so far would have to be:

When playing robots: Immediately send your warrior out looking for love huts.
When playing humans: NEVER, EVER, EVER leave your capitol undefended!

Seems pretty obvious. But let me just say the first time you find a band of club wielding care bares 2 turns from your precious, undefended capitol; you'll never forget it!

todb: StSoL First round

2008-07-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

The settings for our third live multiplayer are:

Simultaneous Turns
Takeover AI
Choose Religions
Permanent Alliances
Large World
Custom Continents (4, Medium Sea Level, Cylindrical World Wrap)
Six Humans
Six AIs

I don't want to give away too much intel on my own civ just yet, but here are some mostly public info hilights:

* I started about two hours late, so I coopted an AI civ, basically at random. In this case, I've possessed the Dutch. In order to explain the sudden smartness and new dangerousness of the Dutch in-game, I've taken the role of "J'onn J'onzz," an otherworldly interloper and meddler in human affairs. (For reasons why this is appropriate see this Wikipedia article). Yeah, I'm a sucker for roleplaying in boardgames.

* The large map has produced a lot of terrain uniformity. I have lots of plains. Lots and lots of plains. And basically no rivers. So my population growth is going to take some creative city placement. Milo has complained of his endless ice sheets, and Jaammmesss is reportedly stuck in Dagobah.

* The land surplus also appears to have generated a massive infestation of barbarians. I rarely have to worry about barbarians; in this game, wiping them out is my first order of business. And you don't seem to get Great General points for killing them. Bummer!

So, it looks like the defining features of this game is the sheer worldsize, and our collective lack of experience in worlds larger than the standard Medium.

I'm looking forward to shepherding these pathetic Dutch to greatness. They were quite lost before the influx of Martian culture, believe me.

Pregame: Sowing the Seeds of Luv

2008-07-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

My wife occasionally plays Civ at Settler level, just to build wonders and culture-win.

I take Formica's post on my playing style as compliments, and even point to his statement as the primary reason why I'm so quick to start the hostilities: "war would have to start on our terms." I figure if I'm 80% ready for war, the other guy probably isn't more than 50% ready psychologically.

This is, in effect, the Bar Fight Theory of conflict. Sucker punch == win. I tend to do better this way... but I still tend to take only second or third place in Prince-level single player, (and thus give up by Industrialism), and I've yet to have a victory in these multiplayer games with this strategy.

I'm usually thinking about some aspect of the game that I "always do." Lately I've been thinking about overlapping squares, and that seems to help in many ways -- easier to defend, easier to micro city production, cheaper to maintain, faster travel times, etc.

So, going into this next game, I will attempt to be less overtly aggressive.

Or not. Maybe this is all a trick to lull my opponents into a false sense of, "this time is different."

Snivelization: todb's recap

2008-07-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

Snivelization ran for three rounds, totalling 12 hours, and had five human players:

Humans:
Formica: Charlie / Holy Romans
Milo MOARai: Peter / Russians
todb : Julie / Romans (renamed as Carealot Kingdom)
Mike : Louis / French
James : Sitting Bull / Native Americans

(Jmbh couldn't make it this time).

AI:

Pacal / Mayans
Giggles / Sumerians
Lincoln / Americans
Sally / Arabians

(Note, here's a handy reference for leaders and traits).

This was the first game we played with Permanent Alliances enabled.

My entire game was pretty much fixed at around turn 10. As it happened, my first wandering warrior came across a very close French border. Naturally, I declare war immediately, walk in, and notice an undefended Paris. "Nice huts," I say. Being on a hill, I can see the closest defender is three turns away. Next turn, I'm standing next to a naked Paris.

I did not wipe out France. Instead, we struck a deal -- I would concentrate on military might (having a nice early unit, everyone's favorite Praetorian), and he would feed me tech, in exchange for me not killing him. I kept a close eye on France to ensure they weren't trying to build a military behind my back, and they didn't. Later on, the deal morphed some into France serving as a buffer state between Rome and America.

Of course, not all was sunshine and roses for the Carealot Kingdom. France had the only convienent source of iron, so the deal morphed into, an iron-and-tech in exchange for peace. Carealot was still ahead in Axemen (Axebears?), so war was still a meaningful threat.

This comfortable early dominance over another human civilization proved massively useful -- I was able to build a navy that utterly dominated the eastern ocean between us and the Native Americans. I also noticed that the top two AIs (Maya and Sumeria) also shared a continent with Native America. Feeling that the N.Americans weren't doing enough to corral them, I felt that Carealot had to intervene on that dangerous continent, in the form of forcing Native America into capitulation.

However, the Axis of Caring's eventual undoing was precisely the same source of its strength; by completely outsourcing my tech research to France, when it came time to face off against the remaining humans (who presumably did not have a similar arrangement), we were quickly and woefully out-teched. I had no real science infrastructure to speak of by the 1400s, and only then did I start building even libraries.

The disparity became apparent immediately after the first Zionist-Crusader invasion; while we were able to leverage naval power quite effectively, and did beat off the land units after only a few turns, the next wave of attacks were stymied by our total lack of air power and submarines After the Manhattan Project was completed by ForMilo, and their massive Uranium richness (four sources to our one), and our complete lack of Rocketry, it was obvious we were doomed.

Thus, a pair of civs which each had their own science infrastructure trounced the other pair. I figure the beaker gap between us two superpowers to have been about 60%, total. They were just researching things so much faster than we were.

So, final thoughts:

Even if you are able to enslave another human civ, don't rely on that fact for a huge component of your combined output for too long. It's a nice, almost unbeatable early boost, but it will evaporate eventually.

Don't be overly belligerent with the AI unless you plan to completely crush/vassal them. We spent far too much divided effort on battling the Americans and Sumerians seperately. I also feel we should have been closer buddies with the Arabians, who were an early tech leader and sworn foes of the ForMilo collective.

Small-area city clustering still seems very effective use of available land, but given the early alliance, it's hard to calculate the true effects.

Too many revolutions without the Spiritual Trait will murder output.

Too many wonders will not only make your cities attractive targets, but can easily lead you down a defenseless path (my spot diagnosis of Native America's problems)

The undefended capital problem goes without saying. :) I had my own capital undefended for maybe 5 turns, but I was nervous about it the entire time, and was building a warrior as my first project to fix that.

Monday Night Civ

2008-07-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

Tod, myself and the rest of these folks have now been regularly sitting down to play Civ 4 BTS for about 4 hours every Monday night. It's a whole new Civ experience for me, one that really wasn't possible until Civ 4 itself came along. Civ 4's engine and interface is, at last designed for multiplayer from the ground up. I really enjoy Monday Night Civ, and I'm glad it's been added to my schedule.

I've been playing Civ for just as long as Tod has, and I think Civ 4 BTS is the best iteration of the game so far.

Snivelization was our second game, and the first in which I had a chance to succeed. I was dealt the Holy Romans, whom I had never played; in single player I tend to pick the Romans (call me twinky, it's okay) or the English. Holy Rome gets Imperialistic and Protective, an upgraded Pikeman, and upgraded courthouses.

Imperialistic of course benefits the warmonger with its double-speed generals, but half-price Settlers can be appreciated by anybody. Protective was new to me; I had not played with it before. Landsknechts turned out to be a bust because I didn't end up fighting a middle age war, and I think they're a bit useless in terms of the time period. 65% courthouses are, of course, glorious.

Three continents, nine civs, five humans. The game sprawled out over a convoluted map and distributed the players somewhat awkwardly. I started in the south, next to Milo, who had the Russians. Tod got Julius Caesar, which naturally made me terrified given he's the most aggressive Civ player I know. Giving him Praetorians seemed like game over already, but then, I like to exaggerate. The phear of the Carealot kingdom - the Axis of Caring, really - was enough to scare Milo and I into rather peaceful relations, with the Arabs to his east to beat up on from time to time.

Holy Rome starts with Mysticism, so naturally I gunned for a religion. Founding one, I chose Christianity for the Holy Roman aspect. Later I grabbed another and founded Taoism; I found Milo and, after a few hundred years of badgering, got him to allow me to spread the Good News to the Russian people. He ended up founding Judaism, so with the Old and New Testaments involved, our people seemed of an accord that the real threat was the Care Bear Stare that lived in the North.

Milo and I are both defensive players by nature. Indeed, the whole reason I started playing the Romans in single player was to learn how to be aggressive in the early game. As it happened, neither of us made threatening moves and, eventually, just built like crazy, waiting for the Hugs that we knew were coming.

As Civ games go this was one of my better build outs. I still have not adopted the strategy Tod suggested of just overlapping more. When it comes to city placement, I'm very set in my ways, and the idea of overlapping four squares is very foreign. In part this is because I don't like to micro my populations a lot. I'll move city populations around for growth or production, but only when I want to stop their growth or really crank out a wonder or something. I micro my workers religiously, as well as my build queues; I never let the computer build anything for me or improve my terrain, ever. This is a much easier level of micro in Civ 4 because there's just less cities. At first I missed the sprawling cityscapes of Civ 3, but having played quite a bit of Civ 4 now I really prefer this scale.

The one strategy I did manage to pull off extremely well is the Great People Farm (or Pump). This is a city specifically designed to crank out GPs all game. While wonders are important for GPs, Specialists are easier to get and in the end are the cornerstone of GP production. This means high population, high food, damn the production and commerce, BREED. On top of this, a new national wonder in BTS called the National Park gives you a free specialist for every Forest Preserve you have in the city's radius.

My capital was built with two floodplains, two clams, some grass, and twelve forests on varied terrain. I chopped two of the forests for an early wonder, but had ten remaining when Biology came along. The resulting GP city was the best I've ever built:

If I'd been playing as a Philosophical leader the results would have been absurd; even so I was able to build both my holy buildings, have four golden ages, build an academy, and still have three prophets and an engineer snoozed in my capital. Note that this is in 1955, with Emancipation - I'm not using Caste System.

In any event that was by far the most specialized strategy I implemented. The rest of my cities were a balance of commerce and production. I spread out and de-jungled the northern part of the continent and slowly, achingly slowly civilized that part of the world.

Because Milo and I tend to be rather peaceful and defensive players, our continent was one of commerce and large garrisons. I built out a number of primarily-commerce cities, gunning for Economics and building more coastal cities later in the game to take advantage of Customs Houses. Protective meant I had reasonable stacks of City Defense 3 units throughout the game, culminating in a respectable number of infantry.

The Carealot Kingdom quickly dominated its neighbors and appeared to direct them with threats of force for much of the game. As the wars dragged on and the pronouncements of Hugs were heard, our people became more and more concerned about the Axis of Caring. We built a city in a strategic island near them, as a forward base from which to defend our lands.

Things were tensely quiet as the Axis attempted to get giggy with Gilamesh. Unfortunately for the Kingdom, the Sumerian Navy was significantly more potent than they anticipated. The war ended quickly as a result.

About this time I had discovered Combustion. The Axis solidified its position as Mike and Tod formed a Permanent Alliance, and Jamie Retired with his people as Vassals to Carealot. Faced with this bloc of Caring, Milo and I formed our own alliance. I had founded Christianity, and he was the center of Judaism. Thus was the Zionist-Crusader Alliance born.

Tod being the most aggressive Civ player I know and Mike being the guy who wiped me out last game, it was clear the war would have to start on our terms. With the Combustion edge I decided to deploy a stack of Destroyers and land a punitive force in their homeland for the express purpose of harassment and pillage. Originally, there was a plan to take a strategic port city - Marseilles - which acted as a canal between the two oceans.

About those oceans: the terrain in this game was a mess. While there were technically three continents, the ice caps made navigation around the globe impossible. Tod had his own little sea to play around in, but in the end the city of Marseilles was the only passage between his bathtub and the rest of the world.

In any case, seeing no Combustion-based ships in the Axis navy, the war was on. A large stack of infanty and cannons made their way to Mike's France, pillaging their way up the coast. The Destroyers of the Alliance Navy initially won battles, but the Axis quickly gunned for Combustion and proceeded to show us exactly how to fight a war at sea.

I have never been big on navies in Civ. It's a weakness, a flaw in my strategies. I know this. That said, the war became an industrial age naval conflict with comparatively low casualties, keeping war weariness at bay. The Axis Navy was a force to be reckoned with, and the non-starter of taking Marseilles meant they could reinforce and re-arm as needed. The Axis used blockading and zones of naval control to great effect, and mounted a successful counterattack. They took my forward city, Aachen, and renamed it "Power of Love" (can you feel it?). Hugs were dispensed, and the stage was set for the Care Bear Stare to deliver its Love to Orenburg, Milo's primary port city in the combat zone.

The first battle of Orenburg was won by the Alliance rather handily; it became clear that my Protective Infantry were going to continue to hold off whatever was thrown at us. Submarines were deployed under the ice caps to pillage Axis resources thought untouchable.

Once First Orenburg was over, the Zionist-Crusader Alliance dedicated itself to the pursuit of the Bomb. A rather long lull in the fighting descended; Flight was discovered, Bombers were built. An Axis naval flotilla was seen to the north of Orenburg, and to our surprise, the Second Battle of Orenburg was initiated thereafter (we figured they'd go for a less protected island city).

It was at the Second Battle of Orenburg that the Axis realized it was out-teched. Waves of bombers pounded the invasion force. Artillery delivered ballistic Love from behind fortifications. Industrialism was at hand and Tanks began to pour forth.

The Second Battle of Orenburg resulted in the Axis Expeditionary Force retreating to its transports without ever executing a single offensive maneuver.

The flotilla moved on, eventually attacking the aforementioned island city and destroying it from the sea. But the writing was on the wall; even as the flotilla closed on my own port cities to the north, ICBMs were being built and readied to deliver their Message. When the Axis invasion of Holy Rome was blunted by tanks and highly trained Infantry, the Axis conceded and retired.

One turn before my first ICBM was completed.

Second game, first post

2008-07-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have an endless fascination with Civ, or more formally, Sid Meier's Civilization. I've been playing this damn game for approximately 15 years and change, starting with Civilizations, culminating with Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword. The only game I've played longer is the *Hack tree of rougelike derivatives.

I've recently started playing in a group comprised of three old BBS/school friends, my younger brother, and a former co-worker in a regular multiplayer game. Before this, my multiplayer experience has been limited to one game of FreeCiv, and a (still running) pair of PBEM Civ4 games (about two years and still going).

Anyway, I figure it's high time we put together a blog to talk about multiplayer and why exactly we all suck at this game, despite the countless hours invested.

This blog will serve as a repository of multiplayer (and occasional single player) wisdom, as well as a place to chronicle our victories (and more often) crushingly stupid defeats.

Oh, and this blog starts at the end of our second live game. I've lost both so far. The first was a blowout by one player. The second was more evenly matched, but I got ate by tech.