Editor's Note: This content was produced for my original Geocities website back in early 2002. When Geocities was about to shut down, I reproduced the entire report in html and uploaded it to my website. Everything has been left unaltered in its original state, forming a time capsule of sorts for my early writings.
The second game in the Realms Beyond Epics was also designed by Sirian, using standard rules but a variant scoring system. The chosen civ was the Indians, in a game on Emperor difficulty. The map parameters were what really determined this game though: standard size, wet, cold, ARCHIPELAGO map. I've played archipelago maps before, and they really are quite different from other games. This game would be prove to be true to that form. But I had never played a game on a high difficulty on this type of map, so it would be interesting to see what would happed. Would the AI actually use naval combat intelligently? I wondered. If nothing else, this would not be an "out-expand the others and kill 'em all" game.
The goal of the game was to win the most "scenario points", by doing various things in the game. Sirian clearly targeted certainly things that are rarely accomplished in Civ3 games to get players to try different things. Here is the full list of ways to score points:
25 points: Victory (any sort)
10 points: Build the Oracle (capturing does not count, for any of these wonders)
8 points: Build Shakespeare's Theatre in your capital
6 points: Build Shakespeare's Theatre anywhere else
5 points: Build Smith's Trading Company
4 points: Build Magellan's Expedition
3 points: Build the Great Lighthouse
3 points: Build the Hanging Gardens
5 points: Have the highest Literacy rate at game's end (only applies if 3+ opponents remain)
10 points: Play an Honorable game (click here for details on what that means)
8 points: Fastest Finish (of all players in competition, ditto for others)
6 points: Highest Score
9 points: Fastest Cultural Victory
6 points: Fastest Domination Victory
5 points: Fastest Space Launch
4 points: Fastest Diplomatic Victory
0 points: Conquest Victory
6 points: Control all land on starting continent within your cultural borders at game's end
3 points: Each additional landmass (of ANY size) under your complete control
2 points: For each civ you encounter for whom your are their first contact
8 points: For EACH city of size 30+ at game's end, must be founded by 1000AD, not captured or a replacement for a razed city, no adding workers to a town to increase size, etc. Don't abuse this one essentially.
10 points: Control all sources of gems in the world at game's end
4 points: Build the Strategic Missile Defense
2 points: For EACH unit of Future Tech you research
1 point: For EACH "AEGIS Cruiser" you have at game's end (max 10)
1 point: For EACH fish or whale resource in the native 21 tile radius of a city you founded prior to 1000AD
Needless to say, there was a lot of freedom here as to what path to take. Some of these were designed for a trading and exploration game, some designed for a conquest game, some designed for a builder's game. I went into the game with no specific plan as such, deciding that I would have to evaluate my chances of going for different things depending on how the game progressed. I suspected that I would be better off not trying to play an honorable game though. This game looked like fun going in, and I was quite excited when I started it. The result was, as always with Civ3, not what I had expected the game to be.
