Manipulation (C-evo)/Top six/Game reports

Employing the first-listed six of the seven possible Manipulations in C-evo can make for a short game needing some new tricks. Here are some game reports.
==2024-05-23 Smallish map==
--- Robin Patterson (Talk) 13:50, 23 May 2024 (UTC) : "Book 281 50%80% insane,Top6Manipulations" 
===-4000===
Set the six manipulations. We are near north pole with settler on grassland. 
*Cobalt just one plane hop away west of Egypt just outside Babylonian border. Washington owns the other Cobalt, far to the south-west.
*Mercury one plane hop east in Arkanus territory. (The other one is next to London far to the south.)
*Uranium just five steps west outside our border near Egyptians. Other Uranium is about 170 degrees east of us, also not in any nation's territory.
Carelessly made alliances with every nation, so (contrary to normal principles) we will have to break that with the Darkness Children/Evil Union/Evil Beings (I wish Ximpance had been more consistent with his or her naming). Give them the bad news now. Bombing will be easy once we are allowed to. Could be a while if someone builds Manhattan!
*Settler settles, Capital orders Engineers. Tax 100%, not that it probably matters.
===-3950===
*Choose to research Material Technology 1; no other nation appears to have chosen any military or future tech, but the charts can be one turn behind. 
*Capital gains 1, loses 2 for Engineer, so at popn 3 can't quickly build another Engineer, so goes for Sun Tzu. Engineer moves west to start city that will have the Uranium in its radius. Egyptians can't get close enough to beat us to it. 
*No other nation has built anything. Washington and London (the southernmost two) are building Militia; the rest Granary. All 14 have stupidly moved Settler into capital. AI clearly doesn't understand how to win with these manipulations.
*Nation 3 (American) is friendly with 4 and 5; nation 9 (British) is friendly with 10 and 11. No other friendships.
===-3900===
*Choose to research Material Technology 2. Others have all chosen military.
*We have Sun Tzu's War Academy, which will add value to future army unit designs. Capital back to size 4, so orders Engineer.
*Twelve nations have sent settlers out again and are building Aqueducts (a few turns sooner than necessary); Washington and London have kept their settlers inside and have cashed in their militias to build Town Guards. (All wasting time.) No changes in friendships. 
===-3850===
*Choose to research Airliner 0/51/12.5x5. AI are all designing another military; Americans and British have designed tanks while all others have designed transports, which will have little or no value on this map.
*New Engineer moves good distance using river and orders "Settle". Capital size 3, orders Eiffel Tower (possibly no use but may be useful later).
*All AI settlers are homed. Washington and London are building second Town Guards; others all building Algae Plants. No changes in friendships or governments except that we end friendship with Evils.
===-3800===
*Choose to research Artificial Intelligence 1. Others have all again chosen military; Americans and British have designed Marines while all others have designed a Battle Ship, which will have little or no value on this map.
*We have Eiffel Tower. Capital back to size 4, so orders Engineer.
*Twelve nations have sent settlers out again and are building Factories (which are useless with these manipulations); Chinese settler has the benefit of river movement and has started road-building, which will take a while; Washington and London have kept their settlers inside and are building third Town Guards. No changes in friendships or governments.
===-3750===
*Choose to research a stronger Marine than those of our rivals. Others have all again chosen military except Americans (Material Tech - strengthens future land and naval units) and British (Artificial Intelligence - which strengthens future air units (no use to Standard AI) and naval units (no immediate use because London has no adjacent water)). Americans and British have designed 0/372/5.5 ships (handy for defense but little else because no carrying capacity) while all others have designed a 204/204/1.5 "Motorized Infantry".
*New Engineer at Capital moves into new city "W1", both cities will build airliner.
*All AI settlers are homed except Chinese, which continues its road. Washington and London are building fourth Town Guards, more than needed to maintain production, but that's irrelevant in this world; others all building Hydro Dams where possible or Power Plants, irrelevant in this world. No changes in friendships or governments.
===-3700===
*Our new Marines are 264/264/2 with full use of Sun Tzu. Choose to research fast shooter. Others have all chosen Artificial Intelligence or Material Tech except Americans (Computing Tech - useless?) and British (Nano Tech - useless). The twelve have designed 340/68/2.5 army units.
*New city "E1" orders Airport. Capital orders Engineers and its airliner goes to W1, which orders Military Academy. W1's resting airliner loads Engineer and heads west towards Cobalt. 
*Twelve nations have sent settlers out again or left them out and are building Manufacturing Plant. Washington and London are building fifth Town Guards and keeping settlers at home. No changes in friendships or governments except that we declare war on the Evils and are declared Mendacious at 38% respectability.
===-3650===
*Shooter is 440/88/2.5-ArtyFanaticSunTzu. Choose to research bomber. All AI research one of the top two Future Techs, some of them at level 2.
*New city SE2 orders Barracks, as does Capital. Western airliner drops Engineer on good tile for Cobalt and returns to W1, which orders Engineer. E1 orders Airliner. Resting airliner at W1 collects new Engineer at Capital and heads south-east.
*All AI settlers are homed except Chinese, which continues its road. Washington and London are building sixth Town Guards; others all building Space Ports. No changes in friendships or governments.
===-3600===
*Bomber is 580B-0/58/12.5x2. Choose to research Artificial Intelligence 2. Americans and British fill gaps in their useless bottom two Future Tech; all other AI research one of the top two Future Techs, some of them to level 3.
*New Engineer flown south from W1, which orders Arty. SE2 orders Marines. Capital orders Engineers, E1 Bomber. South-east airliner drops Engineer and returns to SE2. E1's new Airliner goes to W1.
*Twelve nations have sent settlers out again or left them out and are building first Town Guards. Washington and London are building seventh Town Guards and keeping settlers at home. No changes in friendships or governments.
===-3550===
*Choose to research Artificial Intelligence 3. All AI continue various Future Techs - becoming a bit random but most in the top two.
*Southerly airliner drops engineer and returns to W1 (loading Arty), which orders Engineers along with SE2. E1 orders Bomber. South-easterly engineer starts city. Airliner in W1 picks up Capital Engineer (where more Marines are on order) and moves towards Uranium. SE2 Marine loads and is flown close to Arkanus.
*Some Settlers have moved away from capitals, which are all still building Town Guards. No changes in friendships or governments.
===-3500===
*Choose to research Artificial Intelligence 4. All AI continue various Future Techs, except America, which has Material Tech 4 and now researches military.
*We bomb Arkanus and drop Marines in to capture it. South-west airliner drops Engineer near Uranium then picks up Engineer from W1 and heads east to drop it for a Mercury city. W1 airliner drops its arty - no more need - and goes to SE2 to load engineer for far east jaunt to second Uranium. W1 orders Manhattan Project to prevent diplomacy changes and therefore preserve alliances. SE2 orders Space Port. Capital and E1 order engineers.
*Several Settlers and Town Guards move away from cities. Americans and British continue with Town Guards but other AIs order City Walls (useless because enemy army units all have artillery), nearly all also falling into Anarchy, presumably to get out of Despotism and produce more.
(to be continued, I hope, but the result (by about 3150 BC) will be clear by now)
==2024-05-24 Huge map==
(--- Robin Patterson (Talk) 14:28, 24 May 2024 (UTC)) "Book 282 230%50% insane,Top6Manipulations"
===-4000===
*Set the six manipulations. Capital near north pole. Northern hemisphere contains one of each vital mineral. One on an island but the other two are close to nations. So we form alliances with all but those three: Babylonians, Evils, Russians. We can honourably fight them if their territories expand to include those minerals.
*Settler settles, Capital orders Engineers. Tax 100%, not that it probably matters.
===-3950===
*Choose to research Material Technology 1; no other nation appears to have chosen any military or future tech, but the charts can be one turn behind at times. 
*Capital gains 1, loses 2 for Engineer, so at popn 3 can't immediately build another Engineer, so goes for Sun Tzu's War Academy, which will add value to future army unit designs. Engineer moves three movement points to start new city.
*No other nation has made friends with anyone. AI have all stupidly moved their Settlers home and ordered granaries - little or no use with this combination of manipulations. Standard AI clearly doesn't understand how to win here.
(to be continued, I hope)
==2024-05-31 Huge map with much water==
--- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:07, 10 June 2024 (UTC) "Book 290 230%20% insane,Top6Manipulations"
===-4000===
*Set the six manipulations. Start near south pole, sharing continent with one other nation. Three different rare minerals are about 180 degrees away, spread from south temperate zone (in Greek territory) to just north of equator. The other three are widespread, one near north pole. Calculate that we can eventually reach the easier three with standard air units (airliners having four spare fuel tanks, bombers having one). Greeks and three other nations could compete, so we make alliances with all of the others. 
*Proceed as in "2024-05-25 Huge map" game.
===-3950===
Again the AI have all befriended nobody else and moved their settlers back home. Why???
===-2000===
What a long haul. On reflecting, I realised that it could be quicker to use military bases instead of cities for the staging points: only 6 MP to build, not 9; disadvantage not producing units and buildings as cities would. There's a calculation job for someone!
I built several Wonders, mostly specifically useful, but a couple were to count as temples in big cities that could harvest more tiles. Near the end, when there was very little useful "work" or production to be done while placing the final two cities, and I had long since tired of building new cities just for profit, I played around building Command Bunkers nearly everywhere; of course all but one was automatically sold each turn, at 250 gold each!
== 2024-06-10 Very small world ==
--- Robin Patterson (Talk) 13:58, 10 June 2024 (UTC) Book 291 35%90% with only 5 rivals, insane,Top6Manipulations
===-4000===
Set six manipulations. Equatorial start, as are Spanish. 
*Settler on north-east grassland settles. CAPITAL orders Engineers. Tax 100%.
*British, south-east, have Cobalt and Mercury. Japanese, north-east, have Uranium (as do Germans, but they are more distant). So we remain at war with those two and get alliances with the other three. The other Mercury is far north of Spanish; the other Cobalt is close to us and Beijing but would take more work than the British one.
===-3950===
*Choose to research Artificial Intelligence 1. We want bombers that can handle fanatic hardened "204/204" units distinctly better than "510B" can.
*Engineer uses river to start city three steps south, within bombing range of London. CAPITAL orders Eiffel Tower so as to keep other wonders from expiring.
*AI are building militia or granaries and have homed their settlers!!
===-3900===
*Choose to research Artificial Intelligence 2. 
*CAPITAL orders Engineer.
*AI are building aqueducts or town guards and doing military research, which pleases me. Germans (being last on the list) have no friends except us but the other four each have three, with no Chinese-Spanish friendship. AI settlers stay home except for Chinese one, which is on dead lands.
===-3850===
*Choose to research Bomber, which will be "650B" with 5 bomb modules and one fuel module.
*Engineer moves north and north-east to start city within bombing range of Kyoto - this game will be a doddle! CAPITAL orders Airport.
*China and Spain (having no ports, like all six of us) have researched Transport and order Algae Plant; others Armor - 204/136/2.5 Arty Fanatic - and order second Town Guard. All settlers homed. All AI doing more military research.
===-3800===
*Choose to research Material Technology 1 so as to get slight edge for ground units.
*CAPITAL back at size 4 orders Engineers.
*China and Spain have researched Battle Ship - 620/372/5.5 Arty - and order Factory; others Marines - 68/204/1.5 Fanatic - and order third Town Guard. All settlers stay home except in China and Spain. All AI doing more military research.
===-3750===
*Choose to research Material Technology 2.
*Engineer moves two steps north-east to start 5th city. New city "S3" orders Sun Tzu. CAPITAL orders Bomber.
*Beijing and Madrid have researched Armor and are doing more military research and order (useless) Power Station, while others have researched Missile cruiser - 0/372/5.5 - and are on Computing Tech or Nano Tech (both future techs useless with these six manipulations) and order fourth Town Guard. All settlers are homed.
*S2 risks starvation but we can ignore that because of "Cities Grow Each Turn".
===-3700===
*Choose to research fast defender unit - 1 Weapons, 3 Armor, 3 Mobility with Sun Tzu additions - not arty because the bombers will deal with that if AI build walls.
*Our settler city appears at last, named "NE1", orders Shinkansen for instant movement between adjacent cities. Bomber flies to S3, which (having grown despite starvation) orders Military Academy. CAPITAL back at size 4 orders Engineers.
*Beijing and Madrid have researched Missile Launcher - 340/68/2.5 - and sent settlers out again and ordered Manufacturing Plant. The other capitals, stuck at size 8 but with morale already good for size 12, keep settlers at home and somewhat foolishly order fifth Town Guard. All AI are researching future techs, all of them a bit wasteful one way or another (notably the four improving military strength have wasted the earlier military unit research).
===-3650===
*Researched 88/264/3-FanaticSunTzuFastDefender. Choose to research airliner with 4 fuel tanks.
*New city, NE3, orders Airport. S3 at size 4 orders Engineers. CAPITAL Bomber. NE1 Barracks. Bomber attacks London for experience but 1% is barely worth the trouble.
*Beijing and Madrid have recalled settlers and ordered Space Port. The others order sixth Town Guard. All research future tech, mostly useful.
===-3600===
*Researched 0/65/12.5x5-Airliner. Choose to research Material Technology 3 in case stronger defensive units become desirable.
*Bombers both go to S3, which sends Engineer one step north for 7th city and orders FastDefender. CAPITAL and NE1 Engineers, NE3 Bomber.
*Beijing and Madrid at size 11 (having sent settlers out again) order 1st Town Guard, as do the others for their 7th; populations increased by only 1 despite food overflow. All research future tech, mostly useful.
===-3550===
*Choose to research Material Technology 4. 
*New city NE2 orders Airliner, as does NE1; NE3 and S3 Engineers; CAPITAL Bomber. The northern Bomber goes to S3, whence two Bombers attack London, which drops to size 6 and is left with four Town Guards and a Settler. The two settlers start cities north-east and south-west. FastDefender moves towards London.
*Beijing and Madrid have got their settlers moving or working; others stay home. All AI order Town Guards and research future tech; Germans have the least useful future techs. 
===-3500===
*Choose to research Material Technology 5.
*Bombers congregate at S3. Airliners each take an Engineer to drop for cities that can harvest each Cobalt tile. CAPITAL and NE1 order Engineers; other three order variety of civil/military. 
*Beijing and Madrid (size 12) are in Anarchy having ordered City Walls and sent one Town Guard out; others order still more Town Guards. All AI continue future techs.
===-3450===
*Choose to research Material Technology 6.
*New city S1 orders Airport. Our three size 4 cities order Engineers. CAPITAL Bomber. NE1 Airliner. Four Bombers reduce London to size 4 with 3 units. New FastDefender heads north-east. New Engineers head north-east and south-west. 
*Beijing and Madrid (having built walls despite Anarchy) order Barracks and research military; others research future tech and order more Town Guards.
===-3400===
*Choose to research Material Technology 7'
*New city S2 orders Airport. Engineers disperse to build cities. FastDefender and Bomber reduce London to size 3 with two units. Other FastDefender is about to be dropped on Mountain next to Kyoto. Order just Bombers, Airports, and FastDefenders until further notice except for two more Engineers in case we need to destroy London and/or Kyoto and rebuild there.
*Beijing and Madrid have ordered Missile Launchers and research more military. Britain, with level 4 Material Tech, is also researching military. 
===-3350===
*Delay research while we see what our enemies are doing.
*Destroy London; Britain had researched a 324/216 Armor and esumed Mateial Tech. Prepare to destroy Kyoto. Cities with as many military as citizens can't be captured unless they vacate (or build City Walls and be attacked without artillery). We should have worked that out earlier and built more Bombers instead of recent Engineers.
*Spain cancels alliance. No point building The Manhattan Project to keep them friendly because our surplus Bombers can fix them if the game lasts long enough for war. Chinese are the only nation researching military, so we research Material Technology 8. 
===-3300===
*Destroy Kyoto. Drop London replacement and convey Kyoto replacement.
===-3000===
Spanish destroy Berlin. Chinese are no longer friendly.
===-2850===
Chinese have built a colony to harvest Mercury and they declare war on us and kill a few units. A moment later, we build our last Power Module and win the game. Too bad we had numerous Bombers ready to destroy Beijing!
Category:Game reports (C-evo)