It was the year 1915 in my game, and I was playing the happy and peaceful Russian nation under Catherine, when this final war happened. Through the ages my nation developed on the bottom of a very large continent and had all of it. To the very north was a single city that claimed all of a straight dividing the northern continent from the southern, which I named Stalingrad out of a 'vision' of what was going to happen there someday. The reason my northern most city was Stalingrad was because right north of this, sharing a fat part of my continent that I didn't dare go near, were the warmongering Germans under Bismarck.

Through the ages the Germans were aggressive against me due to first religious differences and then constant bitter wars. They loved to declare war on me at least once per era, but it always failed. Those crafty Germans couldn't take Stalingrad, and their amphibious attacks failed always due to me keeping a large navy handy in each of my coastal cities. I always thought of maybe taking them over, but I never had a large enough offensive army to do so. I was always on the defense since I never had the 'time' to make a good offensive army because the war-like German's kept brushing my defensive units off the map with their constant wars, and I had little choice but to keep replacing them. I was falling behind, along with Germany, in score, both of us floating in the center within a world of 8 civilizations, due to these stupid wars. But those Germans kept coming! They hated me, and wanted to brush me off the earth and take the entire continent.

Diplomacy often failed with Germany though, as I had converted most of the world to my religion of Christianity due to me constantly bribing the nations and sending out missionaries. The world was on good terms with me, and on average neutral terms with Germany, so no matter what the military super power above me had to fight by herself. I kept constantly in mind that a major battle between me and Germany would eventually happen, and the last thing I wanted was the Germans having an ally. I successfully isolated them from the world in trade and good diplomacy, and other nations eventually got so furious at Germany that they went to war with her. These wars were mostly wars in the sea and poor amphibious attacks, but it kept this military super power subdued enough to not have a good chance at taking me over... that is until Germany managed to jump to the industrial era.

I blame a rise of great people and wonders in Germany for the mad dash they made to the industrial era, and also the fact that those Germans loved to cover their landscape with towns instead of farms and even mines. Germany claimed half of the middle age wonders, and this gave an obviously huge rush for them on many levels. By this time I made a rush to the industrial age by bribing and trading a few technologies between my allies, and then started to rapidly build my military up in fear for another German offensive. This was the year 1900.

Every city was busy blowing out units after units, and I was busy upgrading what units I could, and then scrapping the rest since I couldn't afford having an army of obsolete units at hand. I love the ability to change the names of the units, so I formed three land armies and kept track of these armies with the name changes--such as ‘1A 1InD’ for ‘1st Army, 1st Infantry Division’--something that would actually greatly help me later. The 1st army was my defensive army and consisted of a lot of infantry, a few machine guns, a few artillery, and a small amount of tanks just in case. This army guarded the shoreline and my capital, and kept the entire southern half of my nation hopefully safe from mostly any amphibious attack. The elite 2nd and 3rd armies were my balanced armies which consisted of equal tanks, infantry, and marines, a few machine guns, and also a modest amount of artillery. I placed the 2nd army in my capitol just in case the Germans launched a successful amphibious assault, and kept the 3rd army in Stalingrad to guard the straight dividing me and my enemy. I completed this great military overhaul by the year 1915, and even though I was broke and technologically behind again--the Germans managed to complete flight at around the year 1905, since I saw fighters flying around her cities by 1908--I had a modest land military base, including an new navy, to guard me against the inevitable.

I finished my rapid army change just in time. If I were one or two years behind, what would happen next would have destroyed me, or at least left me very incapable of a good offense and defense for a while. The war started when I watched three groups of panzers, infantry, and marines walk into my territory north of Stalingrad, followed by a small group of Artillery. I felt like I could take them, so I stayed put, that is until I got a taste of what air superiority can do. Stalingrad was bombed mercilessly by the Germans, leaving my army stationed there handicapped, and my defenses in that city near 0%. I stayed put though for mow, in the belief that my 3rd Army could take this attack.

Modern warfare was on my doorstep. The panzers swept down and quickly destroyed a good chunk of my defensive units, and I kept being bombed with no mercy. My army was in ruins, and I realized that within the next two turns Stalingrad would fall. I could have sent my 2nd Army up to defend Stalingrad, but the powerful Germans would pound both armies to the ground, and I would have lost them, or had them very fragmented. I had to think fast and hard on what to do next to prevent my 3rd Army from falling, and to prevent a long and deadly defeat of my nation to the German war machine.

I then noticed that my 2nd Army was ten tiles away, and there was a straight railway connecting my 3rd army to my 2nd. I realized that I had to retreat my 3rd army and let Stalingrad fall. It was a new technique for me, retreating and allowing the enemy to gain territory to prevent a complete annihilation of my forces. I had already lost nearly 50% of my 3rd army to Panzer attacks, and I knew if I lost the rest I was doomed. And so I retreated my broken 3rd army to my 2nd army’s base, and healed the remaining units. Since I knew the German’s would have a good stepping stone to attack my mainland, I left three cheap drafted infantry behind to pillage the road system so the German blitz would be slowed down. Predictably the German’s took the undefended Stalingrad for the first time in history, and I could feel them cheering and thinking they were winning. A good chunk of their air force, I believe, quickly stationed itself at Stalingrad and began bombing my countryside and the cities it could reach. Thankfully my healing 3rd army was out of range, so I was able to rebuilt it with troops from my 1st army, as well as a few I just finished rush building.

My navy was superior to the German’s though, so I destroyed their two attempts at launching an Amphibious attack on me. This weakened Germany some, but their land and air superiority was still a huge treat. Through diplomacy I was able to get my two allies, two allies who joined in the last war and helped keep the German’s subdued, to join in this war. Victoria and Gandhi, two long time friends, joined the war and then gave what they could in money and technology to help me--I finally had flight, but it would only be a slight use to me right now. Then I smiled as both nations brought two carriers at about the same time to the German shoreline north of Stalingrad and started to bomb the countryside, and set up air zones of control right in German territory. This forced Germany to remove half of its air force from Stalingrad, and effectively halved the threat.

At the same time the German’s were about ready to send a blitz attack southward since two cities had defenses of 0% now, and also the defensive units there were broken. I knew I had to do something, and fast, so I planned my current turn, the year 1918, to be the start of my risky attempt at pushing the German’s back. I removed all the tanks, artillery, and a quarter of my infantry from my 1st army and sent it northward in two transports to Stalingrad. At the same time my 2nd and 3rd army moved northward and headed directly toward Stalingrad. But I also knew the Germans love to bomb stacks with their air superiority, and cause immense damage, so I broke each army into three army groups, and sent both armies up in a light stack of six. The Germans could bomb me, but they would only seriously damage maybe two or three stacks, and I could simply heal these in the battlefield. At the same time my transports parked on either side of Stalingrad and dropped their stacks, this giving the Germans eight stacks to deal with.

I felt like a win was in sight, and I would drop kick a strong portion of the German military. I wasn’t going to let Hubris defeat me early though, as I watched Stalingrad fill up with machine guns and infantry, and the air force stationed there grow by a few units. I knew this city would be hell to take. But I was not going to simply back down again. The move in 1919 started with my navy making a solid line between the north and south sea since my southern mainland was barely defended and I could not afford a battle there. I then destroyed both the artillery units that I dropped to either side of Stalingrad to make an attack on the German stack there. It caused massive damage to nearly 75% of the entire stack, and further opened the door to my win.

The Tanks and Infantry I dropped now made a bunch of suicide attacks on Stalingrad, further reducing the power Germany had in that city, and making it an open notion that I could launch a blitz on Stalingrad. And so on this turn all the tanks in my stacks rolled down from the hills and through the countryside, and heavily assaulted Stalingrad. I had Germany in a vice. The AI never really seemed to like to retreat, so it stubbornly stayed even as I turned their gigantic army stationed there to nothing but a few desperate, fragmented units. I lost about a quarter of both armies to this assault though. It seemed life did not matter anymore in this bloody city, as we killed each other mercilessly.

There was some truth in my vision from before. In 1921 I finally took Stalingrad, and on the way cut the German military presence down by nearly half, destroyed a good portion of their air force since they still had a lot in Stalingrad, and also gained a huge amount of veteran and elite troops. During the years of the battle for Stalingrad I rushed a bunch of fighters, and upon taking Stalingrad stationed them there and got some air control for the first time. The nightly German bombing raids would never cause near as much trouble as it caused before. Suddenly the tides were turned and I looked northward. My 3rd and 2nd armies would become the two strongest armies in the world by the end of this war, and my nation would become the world center for military might.

I first started this by sending my small air force to bomb the nearest city, Munich, as heavily as I could. I noticed to my shock that Munich was only lightly defended by four Infantry and a single Panzer division. Under the cover of 5 fighters keeping air control, I launched a blitz toward Munich with Artillery and Tanks. By the year 1922 Munich fell and the road to northern Germany was open. I would later discover that the reason Munich was only lightly defended by poor, drafted troops, was because Germany exhausted itself in defending Stalingrad, I caught it right before it launched an attack on my Russian mainland, and also my allies launched a combined amphibious attack in the north and managed to take, and hold Hamburg. The war still had eight years left though, and it would be a bloody battle.

City by city started to fall to me and my allies. My allies moved southward from Hamburg, and I moved northward from Munich. But as I fought closer and closer to Berlin, the amount of German resistance rose incredibly, and I found myself stalling in my attacks, of losing battles altogether--those Panzer’s were an incredible annoyance. I also could see my allies were having just as much trouble with their northern assault, and were being slowly driven back to Hamburg. I was not going to let the Germans win though, so I let my navy go and went ahead and bomb all the remaining Germany coastal cities until the defense in all of them was at 0%. I also completely destroyed the German navy, and since I didn’t worry about an amphibious attack to the south anymore, I woke up all of my troops there and marched them northward, leaving all of my southern mainland undefended except for one drafted infantry for each city.

The next few years of the war were deadly. I often made suicide attacks, and the Germans did the same thing back. My allies to the north were defending Hamburg with all they had, and I was busy forging a road to Berlin, and clearing the coast of any German cities. Eventually my allies launched another amphibious attack, combined yet again to my luck, on the German city of Nuremberg, and claimed it for another base. The Germans panicked and had two fronts now that were slowly and painfully closing in on them. In the year 1926 I finished off the German presence along the coast and met up with my allies to the north. My allies swept down south once more and claimed all the cities they lost before in the German counter-attack of years earlier, and I smiled as I saw Indian and English cities lining the coast and also going inland for the first time ever. All that was left was Berlin by 1927, but there was still three years left of this dreadful war.

Germany started to sue for peace at about this time. The allies were so furious with Germany that they didn’t bother, and I of course wasn’t about to accept any peace proposals with the sight of German defeat, my long time enemy, right before my eyes. The Germans still had a huge army in Berlin though since, for the first time ever, they retreated some of their troops to Berlin. Over the nest two turns me and my allies bombed Berlin and launched attack after attack to it. This felt like a literal Battle for Berlin, as the resistance was very high, and many of mine and my allies attacks were suicide assaults. I expected Berlin to fall in one turn with both my experienced armies attacking it from the south, and both my allies attacking it from the north, but after the first turn the bitter silence that fell over Berlin made me realize that this battle was not going to be so easy.

The next two years of this long war destroyed a quarter of my troops, and half of my allies, and also resulted in the total destruction of Germany. There was a great joy through me and my allies when, in 1930, I took Berlin. The 15 year war had brought me to super power status, and cleared the world of its biggest enemy. I went on to win through Diplomacy when after seven more turns I got the united nations in Moscow. I wasn’t surprised though since through the years, with the help of a common enemy sitting at the world’s door step, I was able to pull most of the world together. And so I won the war through a bloody battle, and the world through a common enemy. I need to use this technique more often!

Wow, that's an amazing game. It sounds incredible. Have you got any savegames by any chance?

Great story! I think it's games like this that make CIV worth the time investment--you really start to believe you're fighting for the survival of a nation.

epic and very good engaging story, sounded like fun. maybe some screenshots?

You probably could have sent in your navy earlier to begin bombarding their cities, that would (i think anyway) distract their troops into thinking an invasion will happen ther. and also open up those ports for allied invasions.

but well done and good victory.

epic and very good engaging story, sounded like fun. maybe some screenshots?

You probably could have sent in your navy earlier to begin bombarding their cities, that would (i think anyway) distract their troops into thinking an invasion will happen ther. and also open up those ports for allied invasions.

but well done and good victory.

The reason I didn't do that earlier was because I wanted Germany to make amphibious attempts so I could sink a boat load of troops--the AI is usually blind, so it wouldn't notice my navy blockaide until it was too late. During the game I sunk a few troop filled boats which basically sent a nice chunk of their army into the sea. If I would have had my navy bombing early, they wouldn't have sent any troop rich transports over, and my land armies would have been forced to deal with them manually. (It's just so much easier to sink ONE transport than to kill off four troops defending inside a city) As you can see my entire early war plan was to make it seem like I wasn't going to invade, I was weak, and I was giving up. This is how I tricked the AI into making a bunch of mistakes early on that won me the entire war even though I was weaker.

I realized that I had to retreat my 3rd army and let Stalingrad fall. It was a new technique for me, retreating and allowing the enemy to gain territory to prevent a complete annihilation of my forces. I had already lost nearly 50% of my 3rd army to Panzer attacks, and I knew if I lost the rest I was doomed. And so I retreated my broken 3rd army to my 2nd army’s base, and healed the remaining units. Since I knew the German’s would have a good stepping stone to attack my mainland, I left three cheap drafted infantry behind to pillage the road system so the German blitz would be slowed down.
Sounds familiar to Russian history ;)
Great story, and an excellent finish.

great game and you're a good story teller too=]

"Not one step back, comrades!"

Sounds like a great game.

It was a most entertaining reading as Russian Army Choir and "O Fortuna" were playing in the background while the Battle of Stalingrad raged on.

This is what makes Civ warfare great, despite , holding your ground despite the odds and pushing back the enemy.

In the same manner, last night in a MP game, me and a friend of mine climbed to super power ranking as we defeated the Romans and the Incas to our west and north. To the west laid the rich lands of the Egyptians, the world superpower before our conquests. They allied to the Malians (permanent alliance). As we were on friendly terms with them, a war was not necessary and trade was profitable between our nations.

But, beyond those peaceful lands, were the uncivilized territory of the Mongols, the Aztecs and the Greeks, the three warmongering nations. The Mongols were crushed by the Egyptians and their African allies as centuries before they had invaded them. This was only a just retribution.
But it is not of the Mongols I want to speak of.

It was the Aztecs who fought their military might gave them the rights to bully the most powerful civilization on Earth, mine, the Indians. Moctezuma declared war on us. He had maybe some 300 units, probably more... I couldn't say. What I can say however, is that when 7 Modern Armors landed, covered by naval and air support and took an Aztec city, their counter attack was fierce. Be it with artillery, marines, infantry or cavalry, as they lacked tanks at that time, perhaps a few, they took the city back. Seven barely injured Modern Armours were destroyed and my invasion was crushed on the beaches as my battleships watched hopelessly (wtf Battleships can't bombard ground units....).

Same thing happened as a group of modern armour of mine tried to probe the enemy attacking from the Egyptian lands. A huge stack of at least 30 units counter attacked the next turn and crushed my Air force (stealth bombers) which had just landed in the captured outpost. In retaliation to this attack, two nukes were dropped over Aztecs major cities, to no avail as Moctezuma had decided to wage the war to the end.

But, odds would change. My friend built up a stack of units and was readying up for war as I rebuilt my forces. Yet, what would truly change the look of this war forever was the declaration of war from the Egyptians. In the following turns, perhaps a hundred units clashed over the borders, aircrafts, tanks, infantry, marines, artillery were thrown in a battle of inhuman proportion. Survivors of the battle had to be pulled back from the frontlines and sent back to their homes as they were unable to cope with the bloodshed that took place.
Stacks of more than 20 units were annihilated in a single turn. But the Aztecs were hopelessly outmatched and despite victories on over fronts, they were unable to dent this formidable war machine at their door step. The Big Four push on in the barbaric Aztecs lands, despite a determined and fanatic resistance.
But alas for the Aztecs, our technology superiority, and our allies numbers countered most of their force.

At 2:00 am, as back home our starship was about to be launched, we called it off for the night as the Great Alliance Crusade was about to swift through the Aztecs heartland.

That was epic (and bloody long turns). In 13 years of Civ, I had never seen anything of that scale. Perhaps only in scenarios....

What a beautiful tale. Though can you post a save for it?

Not to be the cynic but it seems like this story/game was embellished to an extent that it sounds false. What difficulty setting and other game configs did you choose? What nations were part of the game? Plz give some details to the world other than this epic bar brawl between you and the Germans.

Did I destroy this thread my adding my comments. hmm... With this power, I can destroy all who post any where :cool: .

Good Story. You did a great job destroying those pesky Germans. All hail mother Russia!

This is one of those games where you wish it was a preset scenario it is so good

Not to be the cynic but it seems like this story/game was embellished to an extent that it sounds false.

Doubtful. I've used similar tactics to the same effect, albiet on a smaller scale. There are times when preserving your units matters more than holding a city, and having a common enemy can indeed be used to unite allies.

Hmm... you've played call of duty, right?
"Not one Step back, Comrades!"
Veni, vedi, veci; ect, ect.