If you’ve not heard the term before, a ‘succession game’ is where you play a singleplayer game (or game mode) in a single save, but as a co-operative group — in turns.
I was first introduced to this concept back in the hey-day of Civilisation IV, while perusing the CivFanatics Forums on how to improve my game and push into higher difficulties successfully.
Essentially how it works in the context of Civilisation is that each player controls for a set number of turns. Once their turns are up, their reign is over and they bundle up the save game and package it off to the next player, for their reign.
While I’ve not explicitly heard of this concept being done in other games, I’m sure it has. And there are many where the idea could work. e.g., XCOM 2 — could potentially play such that a player does as much as they want to in the base stage (purchase items, research decisions, etc) and then a single mission. Upon mission completion — save the game and package up for the next person to do their base prep and mission. Host would likely complete the opening mission and play on their turn from there as if it hadn’t happened.
In any case! This page will hold the details of any such games I host or participate in, starting with…
Long Live the Queen!
The planning for this one kicked-off April 25th 2020, after a round of posts from various bloggers indicated Civilisation as being amongst their favourite game series. I took to the Blaugust Discord and asked around, gauged interest and found some takers. So a day later, we started laying out the rules (mostly by random selection!) and a couple of days after that, the game was afoot!
The Participants
The Game
- Turns 001-010: Naithin Gets Us Started
- Turns 011-020: Rakuno Does Some Exploring
- Turns 021-030: Paeroka Has an Eye Towards Expansion
- Turns 031-040: Tessa Founds Leeds
- Turns 041-050: Krikket Builds a Boat
- Turns 051-060: UnwiseOwl 1-2 combos Barbarian encampment
- Turns 061-070: Rambling Redshirt takes French gold
- Turns 071-080: Kanter receives not one, but two war declarations
- Turns 081-090: Naithin Razes a plot of Brazilian soil to show our displeasure
- Turns 091-100: Rakuno Pillage and Burns! Peace with Brazil is rejected
- Turns 101-110: Paeroka forces Brazil to pay ongoing restitution for peace
- Turns 111-120: Tessa nabs a settler from the Barbarians and founds Bristol
- Turns 121-130: Krikket settles the wild tundra with Bradford
- Turns 131-140: UnwiseOwl buys out the land around Stokes-Upon-Trent to deny the Sumarians
- Turns 141-150: Rambling Redcoat ushers in the Renaissance! Now, let’s get some boomsticks
- Turns 151-160: Kanter brings religion to the English and makes ‘friends’ with Brazil (again)
- Turns 161-170: Naithin starts spreading the good word of Buddhism to the English empire
- Turns 171-180: Rakuno shows us the money, with additional trade routes and commerce districts
- Turns 181-190: Paeroka sets us off toward another settler and snags some luxury resources
- Turns 191-200: Tessa’s founds Sheffield and claims a natural wonder
- Turns 201-210: Krikket builds another boat. And gains a Great Admiral!
- Turns 211-220: UnwiseOwl settles Plymouth, denying Gilgamesh the land.
- Turns 221-230: Rambling Redshirt is irked by Gilgamesh (and then Cleopatra!) settling closer than we’d like.
- Turns 231-240: Kanter refuses Pedro’s money-for-jam request and uses the gold to upgrade our military instead.
- Turns 241-250: Naithin gives Gilgamesh a bit of a what-for, taking Ur from him and almost Adab.
- Turns 251-260: Rakuno continues the war with Gilgamesh, taking Adab and Eridu.
- Turns 261-270: Paeoka says, ‘Give peace a chance!’ — at least for a little while; while we upgrade our units.
- Turns 271-280: Tessa is all about the opera and ballet — and, er, bringing down barbarians.
- Turns 281-290: Krikket says it best, with “while it’s not a boat, it’s definitely boat-adjacent.”
- Turns 291-300: UnwiseOwl wants to be a rocketmaaan and dreams of flying to
the moonMars. - Turns 301-310: Rambling Redshirt’s takes a fairly rounded approach but notes a concern in America outpacing us in Scientific Research.
- Turns 311-320: Kanter begins investment in a Space Port. Beware local Monkeys!
- Turns 321-330: Naithin furthers the scientific mission for Mars. Still a long way out, though!
- Turns 331-340: Rakuno’s turns Egypt from friend to ally.
- Turns 341-350: Paeroka’s turns pending.