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Have I got a treat for the 7 of you people who have played this game before! You get to follow along my inept self while I try to remember how to play this game. I'm going to play, likely lose, and the game will probably crash and make me lose my saves. If I put half as much effort into work that I do trying to make old games work I'd be some kind of genius at work. Luckily, that's not the case. Rise and Rule of Ancient Empires is a game from Sierra back in 1996. I was 13 when I bought this game, and to be honest I was pretty terrible at it. I dont think I ever won the game, so lets change that today. Excuse my poor gif-skills. I didn't realize my window was off on GifCam until I edited the thing.   First things first: We need to pick a civilization. The only other thing we can really do is pick a map size, then it's on to gameplay! From left to right: Homer the Greek, Nefertiri (yes, Nefertiri. Must be Nefertiti's retarded cousin or something) the Egyptian, Chandra the Indian, Akaad the Mesopotamian, General Gao the China-guy, and Lief the Celt. I had to fire up the help because I forget what the difference is between the civilizations. Here is a copy/paste from the manual. quote:Greeks: In the game, Greek settlements start with general knowledge, because of their love of logic and mathematics, and martial knowledge, to reflect their great proficiency in warfare; general knowledge is necessary for most of the buildings that aren't available at startup and helps with foraging for food in cities and armies. Martial knowledge gives enhanced troop quality and helps buildings of a martial nature, such as barracks and city walls. Their medium and heavy infantry are greater with defense and attack than the other cultures. The Greeks tend toward forest and coast to build their cities. So: Pick me a civilization and a map size. I'll do my best to not gently caress up.
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Feb 19, 2015 22:45
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| # ? May 6, 2024 04:29 |
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My vote for the greeks, you know δημοκρατία, democracy.
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Feb 19, 2015 23:12
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Is the indian description really only that one sentence?
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Feb 20, 2015 00:02
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Cathulhu posted:Is the indian description really only that one sentence? Good enough for me, let's go Indian.
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Feb 20, 2015 00:07
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Celt us up!
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Feb 20, 2015 00:27
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I vote for Indians too, because everyone else getting "these guys start with advanced medical knowledge and are adept warriors and tend to settle on coasts and..." compared to "eh, they have good light infantry, I guess" is hilarious.  Also, the medium map size, I guess?
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Feb 20, 2015 00:37
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Holy poo poo I remember this game. I think I had the demo where you only had the Greeks on one map. I never finished a game because it got really boring as I think the demo map was too large for the number of players, and so you basically never ran into anyone else and nothing ever happened. So do a small map so things happen I guess. Let's do celts.
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Feb 20, 2015 00:47
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It's like I always say: good light infantry is crucial. Let's go Indian. Gargantuan map size. If that's not an option, then small is just fine.
Ghost Stromboli fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 01:39
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Indians have more in the guide, but it's seriously like 2 sentences while Greeks and Egyptians get even more than what I copy/pasted in the OP. Someone hit on it earlier in the thread; huge maps suck because sending armies across the world on lovely ships is impossible. Easier to just settle 40 cities in a line till you get close enough to wage close quarters war. But that takes forever and who knows if I will last long enough for that.
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Feb 20, 2015 02:21
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I'm all for Celts and whatever map size you like the most.
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Feb 20, 2015 02:26
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Indians because of their description, medium map so it doesn't become a slog (we'll make you do it again anyway if you don't show the game properly  ).
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Feb 20, 2015 03:55
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Yeah, with a description like that there's no way to vote anything but Indian. LPer's choice of map size.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:15
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Let's rage against the civilized world and play as the Celts in a medium map size.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:16
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I got the demo of this game when i was like eight, and usually just flailed around ineptly waiting for the egyptians to slaughter me, or for everyone to starve, or for the game to crash. So let's be Greeks.
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Feb 20, 2015 05:44
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Greeks
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Feb 20, 2015 05:59
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It has been decided by a vote of 6 Indian, 4 Celt, 3 Greek. We shall be the Indians. quote:India was the crossroads of the world, absorbing influence from both the East and West. The map size was decided to be Medium, with Small coming by vote behind.  Our rulers name is Chandra. I believe it is short for Chandrasekar.  Our world as it was generated. Now do you all see the problem with this? You don't, so I'm digging into my 13-year old memory for this but I am pretty sure it was a huge problem with the game. The entire middle of the map is desert. Crossing that desert with troops that are familiar with the coasts and forests means the troops die. Or maybe they get a combat penalty. Something bad happens anyway. So to win this game I'm going to have to settle a bunch of desert cities so that my troops gain affinity to the desert since they are created in a desert city. Make sense? The previous paragraph is probably incorrect since I haven't played in 19 years and I was bad to begin with.
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Feb 20, 2015 14:00
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Oh hey, count me in as one of the 7 people who have actually played this! ... I never won either, if it makes you feel any better.
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Feb 20, 2015 14:15
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Showing the buttons, part 1 We begin.  We are at the top of the map on a coast which (referring to the generated map) is pretty open to ships across the entire top 1/4 of the map. It has no access to the bottom, but it'll let me kill anyone who is on the top of the map quickly, so I think I'll settle.  Buttons for my army: Set patrol points, defend, explore, found settlement (because these are settlers duh), and move to a specific point. The army health, food carried, and morale is on the right side. I also included a screenshot of the wagon on water. That means that the unit is on a water tile now (somehow) and will be able to build boats. If I was on the forest it would be green behind the wagon, and then the units created in this city would have an affinity for the forest and therefore not die as quickly in forests. Again, I have no idea if that is right. I believe it is, and will be operating on that assumption until I learn differently.  I created my first city! I didn't move the settlers, I just settled. I named the city a very creative "1" because it's my first city. Right off the bat you see some slider bars down bottom. That is to adjust how the population works. I can set them to gather food (blue), learn poo poo (yellow), build units or buildings (green), and collect resources used for building (orange). The city is set up normally like this to begin. Bottom left you see that my dudes are eating 2 food, but I have 3 dudes standing above the slider bars, so 2 food isn't going to cut it. I am wasting a resource (red ore rock thingy bottom right panel). Time to adjust the sliders!  Ah, much better. Feeding all of the people (3 eaten foods, plus one extra surplus food eaten in green), and I'm using the maximum resources:building ratio to build a unit. The surplus food eating means the city will grow faster, and the more people means more building poo poo so I'm going to head that way.  Straight up have no idea what this screen means. I don't know why my face is up there with 3/4 of a green bar. No loving clue. I can't seem to get this screen to come back either, so we'll pretend we didn't see it.  If I click on the academy I can bring up my research "tree" which is slider bars again. Since I have 0 dudes researching this is pretty pointless right now but I'll hit it hard later on in the game.  This is the other stuff I can build. Another settler which will take like half my population, so not gonna do that. I can build a workshop, town hall or marketplace. Do you see the popped-in box sort of right-middle-ish? That shows that I have all 5 'trees' of research already done somehow, but on the left side it shows a grayed out Market building icon (two clay pots). That means I can build level 1. Level 2 shows that I have 3 out of 5 researched. I need more of the book and eye (no idea on what they are) in order to build it. But I'm not even going to worry about level 1 for a minute so screw it. I just realized how terrible this LP is going to be with me guessing at what stuff means. I'm not going to bother reading the manual, so hold on to your butts. We're going on a guessing adventure!  This is what our city looks like, and to end my turn I click on Officer Ramathorns face down bottom right. Spermy Smurf fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 14:50
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I enjoyed this game and kept the CD around forever. Last time I felt like playing it though, I just could not get it to run at all. I also vaguely remember desserts being hell, but it's been about a decade since I last played. The picture of your face with the green bar is the town's loyalty to you.
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Feb 20, 2015 14:55
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syzpid posted:I enjoyed this game and kept the CD around forever. Last time I felt like playing it though, I just could not get it to run at all. I also vaguely remember desserts being hell, but it's been about a decade since I last played. Windows Virtual PC and a .vmc file containing a full install of Win95 with Rise and Rule on it is only about 325MB. Install Virtual PC, double click the vmc and it'll just boot. I have it all built if anyone is a glutton for punishment and wants the vmc file.
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Feb 20, 2015 14:58
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Turns 2 to 7: You can see the purple that was built last turn, and the green will be built this turn on the infantry unit. The city population grew by 55 to 355.  Hitting end-turn is fun. Our first unit will be built! See the population increased, and then bottom right under the mouse cursor it says we will use 1 unit of population to finish making the unit.  Explore my new friend, explore to your hearts content!   Crank out another light infantry unit...  And now build a workshop so that I can build a ship to explore, transport, and build archers.  I've explored like 1/100th of the map so far! We're flying.
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Feb 20, 2015 15:32
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Turns 7-22, screwup #1 So this screwup cost me about 15 turns to be honest. Before I get into the update, take a look at the following two images.   Which city looks more likely to be able to build ships? If you said #2, the one with the wide open water, you are correct. That means that my dumb rear end is stuck on an island until I can build a second city on the water and get a workshop cranked out. So that's what I did.  I built the workshop so I could build ships as mentioned last update.  My explorers realized I was on an island a lot sooner than I did.  So I cranked out another city.  And created a marketplace and some merchants to boost population growth in my newbie city which is just building a workshop and nothing else for 12 turns...  I am doing some learning, general knowledge is a priority for a reason I forget already.  Look how slow the workshop is coming in City2. Ugh.  Merchants travel between cities, moving food and poo poo so my guys can work on the workshop instead of gather food.  Warehouse to store food so the merchant can take it to City2... See the food icons in lower left? I am exporting from City2 for some reason even though I have played with the bar. I'd rather have them just eat imported food and not worry about exporting, but it seems I can't do that until I build a warehouse. At least the workshop is complete!  Cranking out a settler in City1 to jump on the boat with the 2 armies. I'll be ferrying settlers across to settle 5 or 6 more cities ASAP. The colors of food are: Blue - Food consumed from storage. Bagged food is Exported food, the food with swords above it is food to feed the merchants that are visiting, and green is surplus of course. Next up: Move to the mainland, explore, and start settling like I should have done 15 turns ago.
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Feb 20, 2015 16:03
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Are you starting tech trading between cities, or does that come later? IIRC, each separate city has little to do with the others' tech level, there's no internet yet and scholars are unwilling to share their secrets. VVV: There might be a chance for this LP then. Pierzak fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 16:04
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Pierzak posted:Welp, see ya *goes hog wild, closes thread* Spoiler alert: I'm actually reading the manual because my 13-year-old self never won the game and I want to show a victory here.
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Feb 20, 2015 16:06
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Pierzak posted:Are you starting tech trading between cities, or does that come later? IIRC, each separate city has little to do with the others' tech level, there's no internet yet and scholars are unwilling to share their secrets. Yeah, the philosophers come later. I plan on having my island cities learn everything, focusing on specific things in each city mostly, and then shoving those philosophers onto the mainland to teach the most important thing: Warfare. In all honesty I may lose this game. I swear I have not touched the game since I was maybe 14, so this is 100% serious my first playthrough since 1997. If there are any questions I'm more than willing to expand on X or Y, but the game is a poor-mans Civilization so everything is pretty simple to understand with just a few pictures.
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Feb 20, 2015 16:13
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Not knowing what the hell is going on is part of this LP's charm. I'm even a little disappointed that the Indians have a longer description I'll enjoy it whether you win or lose.
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Feb 20, 2015 17:24
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I played this game too way back and just like the rest I could never win, or even figure out what was going on at all. But I seem to recall being able to play a world map. Although it was pretty drat big so it's probably not very feasible.
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Feb 20, 2015 17:36
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I cant get my guys off the boat. God drat this game. Edit: Just built a city instead of trying to get them off the boat. Now we're on land! Spermy Smurf fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 17:49
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Poil posted:I played this game too way back and just like the rest I could never win, or even figure out what was going on at all. But I seem to recall being able to play a world map. Although it was pretty drat big so it's probably not very feasible. I won this game back in the day, it was on the World Map. I started as Celts so basically I had all of Europe as my own. I think I only had 3-5 cities, but they were all maxed out. So I just sent out a bunch of light infantry to find everyone with a full stack of the best units I could build. The AI might be really bad in this game (or I had it on a low difficulty) because my stacks just steamrolled everything they found. Most of the other cultures had very few cities and they were all tightly packed. I think the only losses I took were due to going through the dessert in the middle east. I remembered being surprised at how few cities the AI had The ending cinematic is disappointing, if I remember right Basically the world map isn't too bad, but that's because so little of it ends up inhabited anyway. That's one of the big problems with this game (among other things) just not enough cultures.
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Feb 21, 2015 01:57
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Well, good luck figuring everything out.
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Feb 21, 2015 05:36
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Turns 24 to 33, in which I realize this game doesn't require dick for screenshots When we left off, I was making a boat or two and settlers to go settle the coast!  Each boat can carry 3 units, so I've cranked settlers out asap and I'm beginning to build on the mainland. Thanks for starting me on a fricken island   I settle cities, build workshops with them because these will be my "build angry units to go punch people" cities.  Lief the Celt is spotted! He's got a tiny little town next to mine. What do we do? Ally, or kill?  I settle a city in the forest so my troops will have forest affinity.  HE'S COMING RIGHT FOR ME  Curbstomped him. I swear I'll get a gif of combat, but essentially it's a puff of smoke and then one unit is missing when it clears.  The Chinese are invading! What do we do? Ally, or kill?  Time for some philosophers so my mainland cities can get knowledge to build Level 2 Workshops for better units.  5 drat cities on the mainland. I'll probably send another 20 settlers over relatively soon, but I need to crank out philosophers and merchants to help the new cities grow. So there we have it, first contact with 2 civilizations. Do I kill them both and fight a 2 (3?) front war? Do we ally and trade with merchants and philosophers to get their knowledge?
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Feb 23, 2015 16:42
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Murder everyone with your above average light infantry.
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Feb 23, 2015 18:10
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Murder everyone wins the voting by a mile! Time to play another dozen turns. Likely won't even start the killing until then, so if anyone thinks I should play nice, let me know.
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Feb 23, 2015 21:27
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Spermy Smurf posted:so if anyone thinks I should play nice, let me know.
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Feb 23, 2015 23:10
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Turns 33 to 39, 3 way battle god damnit Lief begins by sending a few armies of 3-5 units. I kill them, but he sacks town 7. They rebelled because they love me, then he sacked it again.  Now he gets serious and sends multiple larger armies in the 6-10 unit range. I've already killed two of them, I hosed up Irfanview and didn't even take 5 or 6 screenshots. Whoops.  My army is hiding in town. I'm building it with 5 towns so far. I have boats ferrying units everywhere from my first two cities that are much stronger.  Here comes the drat barbarians from down south. They've already killed 2 of my scouts.  And he's coming from the right side too. Wonderful. That's where I'm leaving it for tonight. Still want a 3-front war? You all want me to lose don't you. This is why we're not friends.
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Feb 23, 2015 23:16
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We were perhaps over-awed by the tales of the legendary prowess of Indian light infantry. If they cannot prevail this time, making peace is fine with me. There will be other foes.
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Feb 23, 2015 23:33
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Turns 38 to 44ish Turns out I can't send letters of peace to the other two civilizations because I haven't found their cities yet. So for now it's a 2-front battle with China staying out of it.  Liefs big army ran away (bottom left into the mist) while the barbarians have come en masse.  I move to kill a few of the little guys, then go home to refuel my troops and finally go kill Lief if I can.  They just don't stop coming. Stomp one, 3 others spring up in their place.   Woooo, combat picture! See that smoke? That's a battle. It's me winning a battle with my group of 6 spears. You can see the unit count (and their affinity) on the right-bottom pane.  Feeding that army is going to kill my city. It's too big for the city to provide them with backpacks full of food, so this army should be starving in about 4 turns. I remember this game now...  My big army stares down the competition...  ... and moves to engage! I have a mix of light infantry (spears), archers (crossbows maybe?) and medium infantry (swords).  Oh. He has a lot of armies. One of like 7 or 8 archers too. Damnit. I'm going to need 5 or 6 of this army to clean him up provided he doesn't have a huge fuckoff army down there somewhere.  Armies 2, 3, and 4 move to engage the barbarians. They are circling around up top-right of this screenshot, too. I will need more armies.
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Feb 24, 2015 14:12
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Turns 42-49. Welcome to fucksville. Those barbarian infantry units are super strong. It took 4 of mine to kill one of his, and it took 3 attacks in the same turn to do it. Holy poo poo I'm boned.  To begin I will show my town taken over by the barbarian rear end in a top hat.  He's got a group of 3 spears moving to attack my town. At this point I thought "hah, 3 spears? Who cares."  My big army moves, takes a town, kills 3 armies, defends 2 others... And then immediately begins to starve. Christ.  I leave the town I just took and immediately they revert to Lief's loyalty. That means no food from that city for my army. Wonderful.  I have 4 spears attacking his one that just sacked my city.  Yep, took all 4 to kill his one and I had to attack 3x in the same turn to do it. Wonderful.  Oh good, more guys coming to play.  I killed a few more armies, then took a largish city.  Guess whose army is starving? I am trying to feed them, peasants be damned at this point. The army has low morale and low life. They need to rest, eat, and recuperate. That is not to be...  Lief smacks them with 3 armies in a row, and my big army is destroyed. This game is all coming back to me...  The Barbarians are trying to murder my face.  At least they are both fighting amongst themselves too.  I put troops in the city in "defend" mode and managed to kill all of his incoming troops.  Lief took back his city that let my main army starve.  C'mon,just leave me alone! I didn't do anything to you!  Lief took the city, I moved some troops into the middle of the woods and did the "dig in and defend" option which is why there is a unit in a tent there.  The barbarians dodged my units and smashed my city to poo poo. I killed them, but the population is down to ~150 now.  The barbarians sacked the city that Lief had just taken over. The population is back down to ~200 most likely. I almost rage quit to be honest. This loving game....
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Feb 24, 2015 17:12
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So I played a dozen more turns and realized that its just Lief and myself against the barbarian hordes. The Chinese and other guy couldnt handle it, they are gone. The barbarians are a non-playable race that 'sometimes show up to cause trouble' but in this case they basically made it a 1v1 map. The guide states that they have the strongest units of every type. It even says by far next to that statement. Lief must be getting his rear end kicked because the pressure has fallen off of me big time and the cities of his that are visible have all dropped in size and population quite a bit. So, this LP just got poo poo on by an overpowered barbarian player that the computer threw in for fun. But gently caress him. No one deprives the world of General Gao's chicken but me. This means war. Lief first or make an all-out barbarian killing thing and just contain Lief?
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Feb 25, 2015 00:53
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| # ? May 6, 2024 04:29 |
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Man, barbarians are assholes. Kill those guys. Kill them all.
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Feb 25, 2015 02:23
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