Civilization VI, War (3/3)
The story so far (part 1, part 2), recapitulated: My powerful neighbor Brazil declared war upon me, and at a point when I wouldn’t have been able to stave him off. Mysteriously and anticlimactically he never got around to actually execute the attack.
Luckily, as that gave me time to build my own long overdue army. Used to have the second worst military in the world (out of eight competing powers), and now I have the strongest. And more importantly, now I’m going after him.
In order to build that army I had to neglect everything else, but if my invasion succeeds, I will get a valuable prize — everything he’s got, including his big cities and many wonders (building wonders were an obsession of his.)
So I built the army and started marching toward his nearest city, one of his big three. Got nearly all the way before any sign of resistance, but then he made a long range attack from a unit stationed in that city. Fair enough. My unit got wounded, but survived, I ordered it to retreat to get some medical attention and heal.
Then began a dance of mutual sequential attacks with long range units, a cadence of stepping forward to fire a shot, then getting shot at and getting wounded, then pulling back to heal while simultaneously stepping forward and attacking with another unit. Rinse and repeat, more or less (though I threw in some additional experimental action on the side, pillaging and the like.)
It’s my first real war, but that seemed like the way to go given these circumstances.
It’s a slow process, a war of attrition and a siege of sorts, but it was not an impasse — there was progress. Eventually his defense wore down (while I kept my units alive through the maneuver described above), and I moved in and conquered the city.
Next in line was his capitol, his biggest city. Same tactic, same victory. Took a while, but no surprises. Resistance is futile.
By now he had offered peace several times over, with really good treatises too, but to his dismay I declined every one of them. We both knew I would benefit even more from continuing the campaign.
Eventually I realized that declining treatises probably came with a certain cost I hadn’t previously considered — that of increasing warmongering status among the other powers of the world, which is a pretty bad side effect since it probably increases the risk of getting subjected to a joint attack. No single power is a challenge to me at this point, but combined they do pose a threat. But I’ll take my chances.
As I was putting my units into position to assail his third and last big city, he offered peace once again. This time I decided to look into it. We negotiated, and it turned out that he was willing to part with his two small cities as part of the treaty, as long as he got to keep that big city, his very last city.
I thought it over and decided to agree, seemed like the fastest way to bring him down, since I wouldn’t need to bother to acquire those distant small cities militarily.
The only drawback is that it would eventually require me to declare war in order to acquire the one remaining city, which is bad for that warmongering reputation, but at least the would be over quickly once started, if I make good preparations. (Plus, continuing the current war and keep declining the proposed treatises might raise warmongering status even more for all I know. I don’t know these mechanics yet.)
But, taking my chances and all that, what’s life but a series a calculated risks.
So we signed the peace-treaty, I consolidated my gains, made preparations, and declared war, took the city right and ended Brazil, though not before I had sent the ruler a sardonic mess about his mom.
Saw warmongering reputation get worse, but not to the point of getting the remaining powers to attack me (yet, anyway, who knows what they’re planning behind my back.)
That was indeed the end of Brazil. I now have what he had — save for what might have been destroyed during the war — and my score is through the roof.
So the plan right now is to step back a bit, consolidate, let tension and unfortunate perceptions cool down a bit, and build an even bigger machinery of war using my new resources and power — and then take on the rest of the world, either all at once or stepwise. I’m clearly on the right track here.
(All of this actually happened some time ago, but I’m behind on my blogging, and behind on actually executing the plan as well — currently playing the remastered Bioshock trilogy.)
Civilization VI, War (part 2)
Continuation to this. Long story short: Was peacefully building my empire, had little to no defense, was unexpectedly declared war upon by my until-then buddy and neighbor Brazil, the most powerful nation on the planet.
Had to put on my thinking cap and consider every decision carefully, to make sure my resources would be employed as effectively as possible to build an adequate defense as fast as realistically possible. No more peaceful civilian construction until this matter was settled, assuming I survived at all.
And then I waited. And prepared some more. And waited. Prepared.
Nothing happened.
Turns out the declaration was a false alarm, at least so far. No foreign army at my gates (such as they are).
Who is dumb enough to declare war and then don’t follow through? What is the plan here? True, it disrupted my flow and forced me to redirect my efforts before I was ready, and that may have been to my detriment, but I’m pretty sure my detriment is not his benefit in this case, especially not when considering what comes next.
I was utterly unprepared and vulnerable at the time of the declaration. But that was then, I have now undergone a transformation. In every single area of control — units, research, buildings, technology, etc. — I’ve now prepared myself for an invasion. I have aligned all my resources and all my forces to achieve this one purpose.
Now I’m in a pretty good shape, military wise. Not better than him, but it might be easier and less resource intensive to defend than to attack. I believe I have a fighting chance even if he would throw all he got on me, and from the looks of it he’s not coming at all.
Ranking wise, I’ve gone from 7/8 in military to 3/8 in a relatively short time period, no small feat, and this is just the beginning.
I was going to build my war machine soon enough anyway. His declaration of war acted as a catalyst, and that’s fine. In the uncertain and fluctuating world of competing political entities, plans need to be flexible and subject to revision as the circumstances changes.
I will build up my army some more, and unless he belatedly initiates his invasion I will then turn the tables and take the war to him.
To be continued.
Civilization VI, War
I’m midway through my first real game of Civilization VI, and things have just taken a turn for the worse. A storm is gathering.
But let’s back up a bit. I was doing reasonably well, inhabiting a good location on the map, being among the most advanced in research, having good relations with everyone I had met, even being official friends with most. I was peacefully minding my own business, painstakingly building my empire through creative endeavors rather than bloody conquests. As far as they knew I was peace incarnate — at least so far. My medium term plan, though, was to inconspicuously build a mighty war machine and invade my neighbor Brazil, which would be no easy task because he’s the most powerful nation in the world, including in terms of military. He also has several very big cities and nearly all wonders, making him an attractive target.
Had some short term objectives I wanted to complete first, including to research and implement monarchy, which would had let me have three war-related policies in effect at once — a useful feature and a good advantage when waging war.
The required military force would have had to be built almost from zero, as I had put my efforts and investments elsewhere. So I had no military to speak of, neither defense nor offense, and no defensive structures such as the city walls. Figured my good standing with all surrounding political entities, including Brazil, would keep me safe for the time being, and that I would build my army on a just-in-time basis when needed for the invasion. Or maybe earlier if the international scene would have started to destabilize. But not before, as building and maintaining an army incurs a cost, which is needless if it’s unused, not to mention that the units become obsolete with the passage of time.
As the tenses above reveal I’m speaking about a hypothetical scenario, the path ahead as I had envisioned it. Naturally, it all went down differently, as is often the case in life. Especially when dealing with other beings with their own agendas and inclinations, and to whom you might just be another obstacle or possessor of desired resources [1].
Apparently those good international relations I thought I had didn’t run all that deep, and apparently some rulers can be two-faced, because out of the blue my oh so friendly neighbor Brazil declared a surprise war on me.
You remember Brazil, right, only the by far most powerful nation in the world, who’s right next to me, attacking at a moment when I was still in a state of calculated martial neglect. But that’s fair enough, I suppose, I *was* planning on eventually invading *him* after all, but even so.
That’s where I’m at right now. A discontinuous unforeseen event like this will require some rather substantial changes. New objective acquired: navigate masterfully, weather the storm.
From having played at a fairly rushed pace I will now have to slow way down and play each turn with great care and deep thoughtful decisions. If I survive this it will be by narrowly, as nearly every path surely will lead to ruin.
To be continued.
[1]. Yeah yeah, this is a game and the AI is basically there to entertain me, but this is how I’m entertained.
Status update
I had planned to write at least one more post on Skyrim, possibly several, but enough is enough. Haven’t been in that world in a good while, so it has not been on my mind for some time. I feel no inspiration.
So instead I’ll post a minor status update.
Andromeda: Been on hold for a while, but I’ll get back to it soon.
Started playing around with Civilization VI a bit, but only the free and rather restricted version, which, among other things allows for only 60 turns. It’s on the iPad, but it’s the complete game and no flimsy downgraded tablet port, which is great, but also means it’s currently being sold at full price (it was released recently), so I think I’ll wait for a discount before making a purchase. (Edit: it’s now temporarily sold at half price, think I’ll go for it!) (Edit 2: I did.)
In the last few days I’ve been playing a small tablet puzzle game that’s kind of amusing and engaging but not really that special. Much of the enjoyment and meaning lie in figuring out a methodic way to beat the challenges, how to think. Not quite all the down to the level of a step by step algorithm, though that’s certainly would be possible if required (e.g. for making a computer program do the work), but more like identifying a set of useful principles, questions and ideas, a system of sorts.
For the most part, so far, this way of going about it is probably more time consuming than figuring out the solution by trying things by semi-random intuition, but it’s also a lot more meaningful and less amorphous and intractable. And later on, when I expect the puzzles to become significantly harder — too hard for semi-random method — it’ll probably pay off in terms of time and energy as well. Either way, the more interesting and fun challenge is figuring out the approach.
And that’s it for now.
Xcom: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within
Years ago I got the acclaimed Xcom: Enemy Unknown for my PS3, possibly for free as a PS+ giveaway — can’t quite remember — but I never, despite kept hearing good things, got around to actually play it. Well, that PS3 copy will likely remain forever unplayed, but now I’ve done a few rounds of the iPad version, and of both the base game and the (rather significant) expansion Enemy Within.
My verdict: I’m a believer. Excellent game, captivating and surprisingly deep and subtle, and it plays really well on a tablet.
It’s a military game, you’re in charge of a big paramilitary operation trying to prevent an alien invasion. The gameplay has two parts:
1. Primarily and most importantly, I would say, a game of turn-based tactical combat where you control a team of soldiers performing various mostly randomly generated missions.
2. Managing the resources and various areas of development in the secret underground home base.
These parts play very differently, almost like two different games, but they’re tightly integrated so the game is still experienced as a cohesive unit. Obviously in terms of the narrative and theme, but also more directly and practically. For example, during the missions you collect resources which are then managed and used during the base management phase, which in turn helps develop the team (in terms of enhancements, gear, etc) making it more efficient and powerful in carrying out the missions. It’s a satisfying circle.
Looking over the shoulder of someone playing might give you the idea that the game is pretty repetitious, certainly I didn’t think the game seemed very special from videos and screenshots, but truth be told there is a great deal of variety and depth. The different classes, the different development paths within each class (in some cases a single change can completely open or close a set a tactics), a lot of different gear to develop and choose from, what soldiers to pick for a given mission, what order to research things from the massive science tree (with practical benefits attached to nearly each discovery), what tactics to use on the battlefield, what buildings to construct, the different enemy types, and much more. Add to that that many of the missions are randomly generated (within certain parameters). I hear they’re taking this even further in Xcom 2, making the maps themselves procedurally generated.
Also, the solders you hire start out with randomly generated attributes such as name and nationality and looks. While not pertinent to the gameplay, it’s still meaningful. You grow surprisingly attached to these people. In time, assuming they survive, each get to perform memorable acts of heroism, sometimes in such a dramatic fashion you’d swear it was pre-written by an expert dramatist rather than something organically emerging out of skillful navigation of unexpected circumstances. It’s all very compelling in retrospect, in case of success, but less so during the event when you actually don’t know whether they’ll make it (needless to say, no reloads — this game should be played in iron man mode.) Eventually you grow some serious power. My good friend Emma Kohler, a German sniper, was pretty damn impressive, and the team as a whole became a veritable juggernaut later in the game, bringing those aliens and their supporters to their reckoning.
The story, the alien invasion, isn’t the game’s strong suit, nor is it trying to be, nor does it matter. It’s not a story game. Even so, I’d say it adds a sense of progression and provides some context to everything that is going on.
All in all this game is great. If you’re into this type of game at all, you owe it to yourself to give it a try, or at least check out some gameplay videos on youtube (with the caveat I mentioned earlier about not getting the right feel of the game from just videos.)
I’ve already put a lot more hours into the game than I thought I would, and I’m not nearly done yet. It’s the kind of game you want to master.