Imperium Four - Veteran's Challenge

[Maniac Marshall]

Sorry you didn't have a chance to finish, and no problem, anytime.

[Maniac Marshall]

I *must* settle Crius next, and do so in 2359. Did anyone else wait this late to settle Crius?

Close.

2357 - Cygni and Crius founded.

I beat you to Crius by 2 years, but was MUCH later settling Cygni. I haven't checked, but I'd be amazed if anyone else settled Cygni/Crius at a combined later time (114 years) than I did.

Let me know when you finish those saves. I would actually like to look at them.

-Maniac

[Factoid]

Hi Maniac Marshall,

Let me know when you finish those saves. I would actually like to look at them.

OK, I have put a posting with them up at CivFanatics, as I don't have a better place for files like these. Is there some equivalent of ImageShack for tiny zipfiles?

Factoid Imperium 4 savegames posting

zipfile direct

I've never won militarily from that deep a hole.

The difference between a military win and a diplomatic win in my game was negligible, partly by my design. I made sure I stayed out of second place in 2774 to avoid losing a vote, though in hindsight it should be straightforward to win a 2774 final war. I was in first place by 2799 but not close to winning the vote, untouched Psilons had more than one-third of the vote. This may imply I could have expanded more aggressively at the end, but I personally couldn't win much earlier than I did.

I am still digesting the other reports, thanks for your commentary on personalities, all good stuff. Zed-F's report and comments on other reports show his huge experience in some quite subtle ways too. Zed-F's comment about the south of the start being trouble because a single race there could expand uncontested contrasts to my simple-minded thought "Good, the gap means *I* won't be hindered by any race to the South."

Maybe congrats for coming back from a "totally lost game".

My game was spectacular, after the early debacle I obviously played well enough and was lucky enough to win, but I don't understand *why* the situation was so stable for hundreds of years while I sat in the corner. I lack that experience.

I think

• -Silicoids were at war with Psilons/Sakkras/Mrrshans in 2425, had been allied with them only a few years earlier. This had to take the heat off Meklars, the Psilon's half-hearted efforts still took half my planets, a whole-hearted effort would have taken them all.
  
  - Psilons Sakkras and Mrrshans rapidly fell out squabbling over my (ex-)planets. I sincerely mean my 2440 comment that I was pleased to see Meklon repeatedly invaded and glassed. Mrrshans and Sakkras never attacked Meklar-occupied planets in that early war, in contrast to several other games reported.
  
  - A three-sided war (Psilon/Sakkra/Silicoid) can be much more dynamically stable than a two-sided war where one side loses a bit of ground (or fleet strength, etc) and then rapidly falls to bits. The Sakkras started losing out only after 2700 by which time I had caught up by trading tech and finally getting Nazin and Orion. Mrrhshans did their bit too, so maybe it was a three/four-sided war where the Sakkras really started losing once the Mrrshans were genocided in 2707. Mrrshans were frequently allied to either Silicoids or Sakkras (but not both), I don't remember Mrrshans being allied to the Psilons.
  
  - Beta Ceti was spectacularly obvious for being glassed every five or so years for HUNDREDS of years. My notes have lots of "BCGA" - "Beta Ceti glassed again" comments. Beta Ceti was so vulnerable it seemed irresistable, all races had scouted it so kept coming back. Beta Ceti clashes presumably left Psilons Sakkras and Silicoids much more annoyed with each other (and the Darloks) than they were with me. They were *always* happy to redeclare war on each other. I wasn't actively encouraging Sakkras and Silicoids to war on each other (I was much more worried by Psilon tech lead) but it was rare that they were at peace and very rare that they allied. Firma, the artifact planet to the west was also a long-term hot potato, presumably a very tempting target, but not so obvious to me as out of scanner range and not scouted.
  
  - Psilons ended up occupying Meklon, Crius, Mobas and Incedius, which left Pollus and Cygni insulated from any other race, Beta Ceti as I said seemed to attract all the action and thus distract attention from poor, low-defense Reticuli and rich, vulnerable Obaca.
  

Cheers,
Factoid.

[Zed-F]

Originally posted by Factoid@Jul 21 2004, 05:53 PM
My game was spectacular, after the early debacle I obviously played well enough and was lucky enough to win, but I don't understand *why* the situation was so stable for hundreds of years while I sat in the corner.  I lack that experience.

A lot of times it comes down to die rolls. When an AI wants to attack someone, the timing and target of their attack is partially randomized. If an AI builds up a fleet, usually they will attack someone eventually, but exactly who and when is a matter of probability. Sometimes you get lucky and they target other AIs. Other times, you are not, and they send cold (or hot) war probes your way.

The only thing you can do is try to work the probabilities so they fall in your favour as often as possible. There are a number of ways you can endeavor to achieve this but, in general, your best options to buy yourself time while you strive to reach the point where you can start making material gains at the expense of your neighbors are diplomatic options. However, exactly how it plays out varies from game to game depending on how weak your weakest neighbor is relative to you, how strong the strongest AI is, whether there is a second strongest AI, and so forth. It is also worth noting that once an AI starts making cold war on you, it will usually continue to do so periodically unless you can convince them that you're too tough a nut to crack by significantly improving your power ranking relative to theirs.

Possibly the hardest games are those where there is one big dog and a bunch of scrappy yippers. Stopping a runaway becomes tough when all the little dogs gang up on the big one, and they still can't bring him down a notch.

[Sirian]

Many apologies for delays on my report. :unsure:

I upgraded to WinXP this week, and that's eating a goodly bit of time. Plus my new kitten, who was not expected for a couple more weeks, got delivered to me early. The poor little thing had a warble in his neck and that had to be removed by a vet. He's not quite weaned, and he's taking a lot of attention. Add in some work, and well, not much attention left over.

I will try to squeeze in some kind of report before this game goes the way of my IMP2 report, Epic 36, and "To The Bitter End".

Kitty's doing much better today, by the way.


- Sirian

[Zed-F]

How's that Imp4 report coming, Sirian? And, did you play Imp5? If so, should we be expecting a report for that one as well?

[Sirian]

The IMP4 report has been on hold. Almost everything over here has been on hold, as I got a new kitten two weeks ago. It was ill at the time (a warble) and not fully weaned. Plus my Dad, who rents out the other side of my house, is talking to the kitten when I'm trying to sleep, or at least he has been the last three days.

I'm not even getting important work done, much less my gaming work. Sorry about that.

My IMP4 game was immensely routine. I expanded. I did build LR laser fighters, but built a few mediums instead of the larges like you did. Your move worked better. I still got to seven planets, though. Never built a spy, only came under attack once (Darlok obsolete fleet which my scatter packs ripped to shreds). I was not nominated until 2450, but then won there with barely enough pop to put me into second place. Unanimous vote, and a nice boring little game with a beeline to diplomatic victory.

Now with that being about all I can say for my game (played it well, but not as strongly as you did), you can perhaps understand why I've not found time to report yet.

Will I ever? I'm not sure. I didn't play IMP5. I do plan to play IMP6, though, and I'm hoping it will have enough drama to motivate me to write about it. :wub:


- Sirian

[Factoid]

Hi Sirian,

One thing I have been idly curious about. Why did you want a dedicated older PC to run Moo? (I vaguely recall you posting that, I could be wrong.) Do you have other things in mind for that PC? Dosbox is more than adequate for my own needs (recentish P4 box with XP), a little glitchy running Moo from time to time but excellent overall.

Cheers,
Factoid.

[Zed-F]

Sirian was running under WinME for a while, which DosBox doesn't support. I believe he's upgraded to XP now though.