Hello,

My previous stories can be found here:
Roman - Domination http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=406745
Greece - Domination http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=407701
Aztec - OCC, Diplomatic http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=408770
Siam - OCC, Science http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=410200
Egypt - Culture http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=411077

But to be honest, I have grown tired about the usual routines in Civ5.
So I am going to try something unorthodox.
In this game, I am going to team up with an AI.
Together we will fight against the rest of the AIs teamed together.
I have never done this before. But learning is the fun part of the game.
Sharing my learning experience is even more fun. :D

Since the human player is vastly superior than any AI,
there will be no fun to have a 2 versus 2 or 3v3.
But I am not good enough to make it 1v3 or 1v6.
So here is the middle ground: 2 versus 4.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_000.jpg

Ottoman is a military Civ that gets really good starting at Renaissance.
Jannisary (Musketman) gets full healed after killing an enemy unit - that's not human!
Sipahi (Lancer) comes with high movement points, +1 sight, and free pillaging.
They will be an excellent companions of siege weapons.

The special Civ trait is the naval version of Bismark's -
50% chance to convert a barbarian ship upon defeat.

But there is nothing special about Ottoman before Renaissance.
The general strategy should be to raise a few catapults and have a few wars.
Once Jannisaries and Sipahi are out (too bad they cannot be promoted into), it is party time.

I also want to pick a teammate that complements Ottoman.
A teammate that -

(1) Holds his or her own before Renaissance. Good early, defensive special units.
(2) Passive in terms of deciding who and when to fight. Human brains are much superior in this respect. Does not go trigger happy. Does not condemn whoever he or she meets. Does not declare war all of a sudden and drag me into it. Just follow human's lead and we will do fine.
(3) Fairly powerful - expands at a steady pace and does not build useless wonders and buildings.
(4) Good at technology - we are at a 1 to 2 disadvantage in terms of research.

Well, I guess everybody already knows who deserves the companionship from the thread's title -
Empress Wu Zetian of China.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_001.jpg
Patch version: .1.217
All other settings default.

I may be a little slow in updating the progress. Please bear with me.

Go maltz go!

:mwaha: Excellent, another story to lurk upon. :mwaha:

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_002.jpg
002. Rapid early expansion is always a good strategy. Hacking down one or two opponents with my teammate early is even better.

However, declaring war to one Civ here means declaring war to four. Since this is my first time, I want to use a more conservative approach. I picked a starting point in Africa to significantly shorten my future vulnerable borders. Then, I will see if I can swordsman or longswords-rush an opponent from the opposing team to alleviate the pressure on my team a bit. If no rush oppurtunity is available, I will simply wait for Renaissance. Since now I am teaming up with the best technology AI in Civ5, I suppose the wait won't be too long.

After a few starts I finally got an Africa map - West Africa. Niger river brings food and riches, but depletes production. 4 Sugars and 1 Wheat in sight - not too bad. I moved the Settler to the south to get a coastal capital, so I may be able to get a few free barbarian fleets later.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_003.jpg
003. Teammate Wu Zetian starts in South Asia, in an awkward position one tile from the sea. Well, since the AI will end up having many cities very fast anyway, wasted tiles and potentials in the capital can't hurt too much.

My plan for Ottoman is to get the National College ASAP and then found the secondary cities, as I want the team to stay competitive on technology in early game.

Note: it is NOT convert barbarian ship on defeat... it is convert barbarian ship on 'contact'... just move next to the barb ships. Don't attack them (unless you move next to them and they don't switch

Yes, another one! Looking foward to it.

Note: it is NOT convert barbarian ship on defeat... it is convert barbarian ship on 'contact'... just move next to the barb ships. Don't attack them (unless you move next to them and they don't switch

Wow that sounds 100 times better. Thanks!

Good luck!

Given its an Earth Map, you may be more like 3:2... I don't think an American partner can help in anyway but research?

Given its an Earth Map, you may be more like 3:2... I don't think an American partner can help in anyway but research?

Probably. :p

Note: it is NOT convert barbarian ship on defeat... it is convert barbarian ship on 'contact'... just move next to the barb ships. Don't attack them (unless you move next to them and they don't switch

Convert barbarian ship on 'contact' ???

RLY?:eek:

Does this work with your land units, or do you need to have a naval one?


Maltz, welcome back!

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_004e.jpg
004. There is a cheesy saying that good communication is the key for the team's success.
Sultan Suleiman approached Empress Wu Zetian...
And she mocked Suleiman's military and cursed Ottoman's destiny.
That's how an AI ally does on Turn 1, huh?... What kind of ally is this...
(So there are no ally-specific dialogues in Civ5? Should be easy to lock the relationship to most friendly.)

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_005.jpg
005. Istanbul established. Strangely, the capital is producing 2 hammers.
I thought the 217 patch has reduced the city's output to 1 hammer?
Then I realized the city's base output depends on the terrain.
Plain = 1 hammer, Hill = 2 hammer.
While hill sounds much better in early game, Windmill in mid-game more than make up the difference. Interesting trade off.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_006.jpg
006. Built a Scout in the capital to explore the surroundings faster. One of the Ancient Ruins returned +30 culture. I was tempted to pick Liberty, but soon realized that most nice city sites in Africa have been populated with City States.

Plus I wish to get to National College as soon as possible to compensate for the team's disadvantage in research. So there is not much settling ground except the downstream of Nile (present-day Egypt) as the doorkeeper of Africa. So I still picked Tradition, and will go down to Legalism and Landed Elite to speed up culture and population growth.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_007.jpg
007. China started building Granaries after Pottery was researched. It is probably reasonable for Deity AIs to queue every building that becomes available, since they can build it pretty fast anyway. It is therefore the human teammate's reasonability to prioritize on the more important technology and unlocked buildings.

I took the Pottery-Calendar-Writing route to start selling resources as soon as possible. The resource money will be used to buy a Library. National College follows. Build order is Scout - Worker - Granary (there are 2 tiles of wheat in Istanbul) - National College.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_008.jpg
008. AIs of the opposing teams are Washington, Catherine, Monty, and Caesar. Once the human player meets one of them, he/she meets all of them. All Deity AIs are as happy as usual. It looks like that they get 20 more points of free happiness compare to the human player at the start of the game.

By the way, teammate's scouting also brings in City States' greeting gift.

I have no plan to sign any RA in this game, since every technology gained for my team is a technology gained for the opposing team. As our team is short in cash but the other team is rich, it is unwise to waste precious cash this way.
Other than the lack of RA, there is only one Open Border agreement per team. So I only got 50 gold for from 4 AIs from the other team. Well, better than letting my teammate take it. :p

Luckily, resource trades are still valid for each individual AI.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_009.jpg
009. Bought a Settler to spawn the second city, which should control the gateway between Asia and Africa.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_010.jpg
010. Entered the Classic Era with Iron Working.

I had some struggle as whether to have a second city at all before Ironworks, National Treasury, and Heroic Epics, all are very top-notch National Wonders for this game. But having a second city now turned out to be a pretty good decision - there is no Iron in the capital region, but an iron (although just 2 units) quite close to the designated site of the second city.

In addition to Iron, the second city's 2 luxurious resources nearby will eventually pay for the Workshop, Market, and Barrack (about 1300 gold in total) that I need to buy there. So it should be a good investment in the long run, just like any other new cities we found.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_011.jpg
011. Here is what Ottoman's corner of the world looks like.

Ottoman sits in West Africa. The second city goes to the forest tile pointed by the arrow.

Sub-Saharan Africa is populated by 3 City States. There is a military City State Belgrade to the immediately east, controlling a whooping 6 luxurious resources. I was seriously thinking about taking it over to sell all those Cottons and Spices. But something else happened later and I took another approach. To the south and southeast there are two cultural CSs with less spectacular resources.

To the north of Istanbul is a rich Iron deposit of 6 units. It could be a good place for the 3rd city due to the oasis, cows, and two tiles of Wines above. There is another potential city site in east Africa, covering Marble and Silver. Nothing spectacular in south Africa.

Teammate Wu Zetian is in South Asia. Three of the four opponents are on the same continent: Monty in Europe, Washington in central-north Asia, and Catherine in east Asia. So Caesar is probably in North America. So militarily it is more of a 2v3, although on research it is still 2v4.

Also, the Turkish Scouts returned from South Africa with a "liberated" worker. The poor worker was kidnapped by barbarians, but only to be shipped to a new slave owner. :p

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_012.jpg
012. Good news from south Asia reached the court of the Sultan - China completed the Stonehenge!

Actually I was able to see the progress of it all the way, including the final countdown. It was more nail-biting than I building it myself. Good job, Empress. As long as you are a science powerhouse to the team and keep enough military to not lose cities, you can chase whatever world wonder you want. Stonehenge is a good pick.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_013.jpg
013. "Rescued" another CS worker. Er... we need more man power in the new city. CS Vienna is located in middle east, right between Ottoman and China, also controlling the route to Europe. This is a strategically important location. I was thinking about returning the worker and make CS Vienna an ally. But I really like the idea of having 4 workers :p
Very soon CS Seoul to the northwest gave the mission of destroying CS Vienna... CS Seoul could be a critical ally in our war against Monty. So far, it doesn't look too good for Vienna. :p

Hurray! More stories :) This should be interesting, but good choice of ally! She should be able to hold off a lot when you get crossbow tech.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_014.jpg
014. Took a look at the demographic chart to see how much our team trails behind - 6% of tech. Since there are about 77 techs in the game, we should be lagging by 4 or 5 techs. At the time National College has been completed in Istanbul, and Wu Zetian was also building one in Shanghai. Hopefully we can slow down the tech lagging.

US had been taking the Liberty policy path and popping new cities ICS (Infinite-City-Spawn) style. However, Aztec and Russia seemed to be as passive as China and Ottoman. It really felt like a slow start with such an intense technology race going. I guess most AI Civs except Washington were busy with unlocked buildings and wonders as they are made available so quickly, and as a reuslt omitted settlers.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_015.jpg
015. Somehow China became the happinest Civ in the new survey. But I could only see 2 happiness resources (that's really unusually miserable, by the way) in Wu Zetian's territory. She did not queue any happiness building, either. Up to now it is still a mystery to me what made Chinese citizens so happy.

But on the other hand Wu Zetian was dirt poor - with even lower income than Suleiman (that's also very unusual for a Deity Civ). Monty, Washington, and Catherine were all very rich, with lots of cash to spare (to buy Ottoman's resources). Weird.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_016.jpg
016. I mentioned that I really wanted to take over the military CS Belgrade and its 6 luxurious resources. However, as soon as I busted a barbarian camp in the Saudi Arabia peninsula, Ottoman's influence to Belgrade jumped to 50. I decided to invest another 500 gold to the CS to make it an ally, which immediately gives me 2 luxurious resources. Then, due to the free happiness, I can immediately sell two more of my own resources to gain 600 gold.

In addition to gaining 100 gold, Suleiman will be eligible to 4-5 free units before our relationship return to neutral. 4-5 free units will be worth about 3000 gold, which is equivalent to selling 5 resources for 2 rounds. I wouldn't be able to keep selling resources after war breaks out, anyway. So it is not a bad trade off in this game in particular. (In a regular game, I will take over the CS like a knee reflux.)

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_017.jpg
017. Edirne has superior farm lands of the Nile River, but its production is literally non-existent. ONE hammer from the city - no more. It only serves as a place holder and resource collector. Good enough for me.

Bought the Cotton tile for faster resource sale. The city comes with a free monument due to the Legalism policy. So the free cultural buildings in the first four cities are still granted even after the policy is activated.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_018.jpg
018. After National College I queued a Trireme in Istanbul to official boot Ottoman's conquest of the sea. Ottoman's special ability - 50% converting a barbarian ship UPON CONTACT, sounds like a plague spreading at an exponential rate. And here comes an oppurtunity - indeed, Ottoman wins the coin flip here! The free ship is a barbarian galley with inferior strength and travel distance.

AIs have learned to pack their units together on land, but ships on sea are still loners - easily picked off by any organized fleet. So if I can convert just a few more, I will have a invincible fleet to completely block off AI's advance on the sea. At least, there will be no Settlers landing on Africa. :p

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_019.jpg
019. Entered Medieval on Turn 59 with Civil Service. The other team did it on Turn 43 or so.
Having no research agreement really changes things. I was struggling about whether to go with Education immediately next to enable University (to stay on par with technology). But I am also short in cash and even production. I decided to get to Metal Casting and Currency first to give my cities something meaningful to build, then come back to Education to get University, and finally rush the lower route from Machinery, Gunpowder (party time!), Chemistry, all the way to Rifling, Metallurgy, and Dynamite.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_020.jpg
020. There are actually very good policies that I would normally take at this point, such as Commerce's +25% cash in the capital opener and Tradition's Monarchy (pretty much the same bonus at this time). But given the relatively slow cultural progression of this game (no Cultural CS allies), I want to play it safe to get the free Great General and 1.5X exp policy under Honor when the war breaks out as early as early Renaissance, where I can rush the first opponent with die-hard Janissary/Rifleman and Canons.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_021.jpg
021. I also want to make my military as survivable as it could be when the boys are sent to the battlefield. So I tried something I have never done before - building a Heroic Epic. This actually contradicts my earlier wish to let the military CS to give me free units. Well, having a large army can't hurt.

I heard that the AI teammate declares peace rather easily. So if I have a relatively OK army, they are less likely to sign a disadvantaged peace treaty while we are actually winning, which would really suck!

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_022.jpg
022. Only 10 turns had past and Ottoman received its first free unit from CS Belgrade. Swordsman! 440 gold saved right here. There is actually another barbarian-busting mission handed out by a Cultural CS in south Africa. That's where he is going. I hope the next free unit can be a Catapult, though.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_023.jpg
023. Metal Casting completed - bought Workshop in Instanbul and hired an engineer immediately - hammers are so lacking in Ottoman's cities.

I have very little about what wonders or buildings to rush 34 turns later - probably Himeji Castle if it is still available. As the AIs usually rush in to retake their lost city in a hurry, a small, outskirt city under the +25% strength from Himeji Castle could be a very nice death trap for the rest of defenders. And if I take the wonder, I don't have to deal with +25% stregnth when I invade an enemy.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_024.jpg
024. Another great news revealed on Xinhua channel - China completed the Oracle!

I thought China is a technological Civ? How come suddenly it has such a focus on Culture, grabbing exactly the same wonders I would build while playing a culture game. (Indeed, Wu Zetian was building a Temple in Shanghai before Workshop is unlocked.) That's really interesting.

I guess not only the human players, but the AI Civs realized that the .1.217 patch made Cultural Victory a lot easier and is eager to try it out?

While China completed the Oracle, Catherine built the Pryamid and Monty completed the Great Wall. Someone else, probably Caesar, built the Hanging Garden. Typical choices.

One thing puzzles me, though. Iron working had been available for a long time, and China has 2 deposits of iron. How come none of the Warriors are upgraded to Swordsman? I went to the diplomatic view and again realized that China had even less cash and income than Ottoman. Probably no cash to upgrade!

Deity AI Civ's finance situation is so variable. (Or maybe Wu Zetian was BUYING resources from other Civs? That could explain her excessive Happiness and low cash.)

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_025.jpg
025. Suleiman's own Trireme sails further north and encountered another barbarian Galley. No conversion upon approaching this time, so it attacked from two tiles away instead. During the end turn, the barbarian Galley came close and ops, it flies a different flag! The Galley is "upgraded" to a Trireme, too!

Ottoman's unique ability is really amusing, and much better than what I expected.

ANUDDER ONE! *subscribes*

!!!!!

Maltz, this is great!

Did you think about some XP farming, with declaring war to Kuala Lumpur and just sitting there and healing? Could pop you a GG also :)

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_026.jpg
026. With the Swordsman from military City State, Suleiman could complete the barbarian-hunting mission given by another Cultural City State Genoa to the south. Easy +50 influence! Followed up with 250 gold to make it an ally.

Later, I noticed that I lose CS allies very quickly. Then I realized the influence points decay twice as fast. When 500 gold buys about 75 influence points, they actually only lasts 37.5 turns. So the maintenance fee of a city state is as high as 13 gold per turn even if they are Friendly! That's way too expensive. I guess the increased maintenance fee comes from the fact that the Civs are teamed up? Could our opponents pay 4 times the money to maintain City States?

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_027.jpg
027. Our Trireme spotted an unclaimed ancient ruin on the Britain island. I was moving my scouts there, but the American scouts got there first! I soon found another one on the Madagascar island. Got +30 cultures even at this late in the game.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_028.jpg
028. At this point I have decided not to have the 3rd Ottoman city to grab the 6 irons in the middle of Sahara desert, so I can build the National Treasury and Ironworks in the capital sooner. Teammate Wu Zetian has 2 x 6 irons, and has 2 left. Bought the irons from her before she uses them up. I hope she can give me for free. But too bad. AI teammate never smiles at me.

It is a no-brainer to buy strategic resources from teammate, and not from the opposing team members. All supplies from the opposing team will be cutoff when the war starts, seriously handicapping our units. On the other hand, it is actually a good strategy to sell strategic resources to the enemy before the war, so the first wave of enemies we see are severely weakened.

Is Woozy angry at you? Poor, poor china. the turks cannot be attacked, so chinese aggression cannot into space. In fact, it cannot on to earth either.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_029.jpg
029. In Diplomatic Overview, I was surprised to see only ONE (Washington) out of five AIs picked Liberty, which has been significantly enhanced by the .1.217 patch. Most of them still go Tradition and Monty actually picked Honor without actively expanding (what a disaster). So only Washington was actively expanding. The other AI seemed to be happy with their initial two cities.

Maybe it is the "deal" among the opposing team - the US will claim all the land and have poor infrastructure at first, but the other teammates will get the National Colleges and cover the technology. Then in mid-late game Washington will become the undisputed superpower protecting the three weaker team members.

I saw a similar passive behavior with Egypt in my previous game (STD sized Earth), but only one of the 7 AIs forfeit expansion in early game. I think staying small is an extremely poor strategy for the AI. A small empire only favors Culture, and there is no way the AI can win a culture game in a reasonable time frame, or at all. The human player easily crushes them with superior army, which the AI is incapable of doing when the human player stays small and defenseless. Even easier, the human player can bribe a powerful AI neighbor to run over a cultural-minded weak Civ, although doing so should be a desperate strategy as this will only make the powerful AI even stronger.

Washington was certainly popping up cities like bamboo shoots in the spring. Chicago is right to the north of CS Vienna, controlling the gateway to the lands of Monty (essentially blocking Monty out of team Ottoman-China) and Washington. A few turns later, Washington popped Los Angles right above Shanghai. Obviously, the US was trying to deny team Ottoman-China the rest of Asia.

CS Vienna is also located in a strategically important location. From previous games, I learned that Trade Routes are not connected if part of it passes through a City State (not sure about whether patch 217 fixes it). Taking over Vienna may be actually the best interest of Ottoman. And this also connects Ottoman with China. That will make military coordination much more effective.

The decision is final - Ottoman's immediate goal is to succumb CS Vienna by force. CS Seoul actually gave us that mission. Completing the mission of "kill CS xx for us" gives 80 points of influence points. Why refuse a potential ally immediately next to the enemy?

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_030.jpg
030. Edirne (Ottoman's 2nd city) eventually has access to five luxurious resources (2 Wine, 2 Cotton, 1 Silk), but only two have been harvested so far. Bought the tiles to enable the sale of 2 more resources - a very good investment that will return profits in several turns.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_031.jpg
031. I went ahead to declare war on Vienna so that the city can fire on the idle Ottoman Swordsman. Free experience, earlier Great General. Strangely, right upon war declaration, the CS is at permanent war with Ottoman (and probably China). I suspect that rules of City States are different when Civs are teamed up. Not only do influences decay twice as fast, but the Civs also has no mercy rulings on City States. One aggression and it is permanent war. I guess I am lucky here that no other CSs declared war on team Ottoman-China. As we will see the opposite after a while...

Is Woozy angry at you? Poor, poor china. the turks cannot be attacked, so chinese aggression cannot into space. In fact, it cannot on to earth either.

The hostility is not reflected on deals, though.
I was able to sell stuff to her at very good price, although she apparently does not want anything from us. :D

Turkish trade can into space :D

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_032.jpg
032. With new resource trades, I was able to buy a Market in Edirne. It will take way too long for the city (2 hammer per turn) to build it. I want to get National Treasury up in Istanbul as soon as possible.

My research plan for Ottoman-China team after Civil Service is:
(1) Metal Casting for Workshop and Great Engineer points
(2) Currency for Market and National Treasury
(3) Education for University
(4) Machinery for Ironworks (and Chinese special unit Cho-Ku Nu)
and the war starts along with the advance of lower route techs all the way to Dynamite.
I hope to bring down at least one of the 4 opponents.
It looks like that Monty will be the easy prey, as Washington has blocked off all his land access.

The Great Engineer points are used to rush Himeji Castle, so Metal Casting is the top priority. Himeji Castle is a great world wonder for a military game, especially when the +33% strength policy from Tradition is gone in patch .217. I don't want to go University right after Metal Casting because it takes quite long and I need something meaningful to be constructed in Istanbul in the meantime. A Market followed by the National Treasury is ideal for the timing.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_033.jpg
033. Turn 75, team Ottoman-China trails behind the opponent for 5 techs. If all things being equal, the tech gap should widens as time goes on. But as National Colleges have been built for both Ottoman and China, the widening of the gap should slow down a bit. After Education and University, I hope to see team Ottoman and China reduces the technology gap, coupled by a slowly-winning war. That will be the turning point of the game.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_034.jpg
034. City States Belgrade gave a second unit - this time a Chariot Archer. Normally I will give this unit right back, but I might have some use of it at least for now. A west-Europe Cultural City State Florence wanted some help to get rid of a barbarian camp pretty close to Africa. That's an easy mission for the Chariot Archers with a little naval support.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_035.jpg
035. Wu Zetian is a quiet partner. No declaration of war, no denouncement, no BS, just what I wanted.

But she is apparently a "wonderful" Civ in this game. After Stonehenge and Oracle, which are top-tier wonders to rush for in a culture game, she completed the Great Lighthouse, which is... I can't even comment on it, because I never used it and never even looked at it. I've never played an ocean-heavy map.

I originally thought Wu Zetian AI was geared for Culture in this game, but slowly I realized she simply had no purpose, and just kept building wonders to kill time. That's slightly better than building a lot of military units, IMO, since AIs are famous for throwing away their large army. At least she keeps her wonders.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_036.jpg
036. Saved up enough cash to buy University in Istanbul. Old-school research is quite important in the game now, as there is no longer over-powered RAs. I actually like it this way! It brings back the dilemma of long-term investment vs. short-term gain, and choosing the right time to ignore everything else and prioritize the research. There is very little of that in signing Research Agreements. Just sign them as many, and as soon as possible. (And block unwanted techs as early as possible, too.)

After completing National Treasury, Istanbul goes on to build a Catapult, Aqueduct, and Ironworks.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_037.jpg
037. The camera is zoomed back to South Asia because the Empress has completed yet another wonder - the Chichen Itza! Good for you! And I can see Shanghai was building the Colossus. Looking at Beijing, the Deity AI promptly finishes University in 5 turns. For the first time, I am happy about the cheating about a Deity AI. :)

By the way - I have received feedback to space out my posts a little more to reduce loading time for each individual page. (100 pictures, each 200 kB on ONE page could be a disaster for some users.) So now I am having 3 pictures per post to drag the story through more pages.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_038.jpg
038. Just 3 turns later, Wu Zetian completed yet another wonder, Angkor Wat! I didn't see her building the wonder at all. She probably rushed it using a Great Engineer, as she got a head start from Stonehenge since Turn 42, and the early Workshop gave her 3 extra points. Patch 217 rendered Angkor Wat pretty much useless with the Tradition policy already in effect. The AI probably didn't read patch notes. :p

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_039.jpg
039. Again saved enough cash to buy a Workshop in Edirne. The city has become quite a moneymaker and pays for the purchases with its resources. I am happy that I didn't decide to sell the city to Wu Zetian to accelerate National Treasury or Ironworks. So the natural question is - should I have spawned more cities in Africa? There is no city sites left with enough river tiles, though.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_040.jpg
040. Renaissance! I didn't think too much when I saw it until the next turn, when the opposing team entered Renaissance. Did we beat the opposing team in tech that fast? I checked the demographic chart - Nope. We are still behind by about 3-4 techs. So what made the difference? It turned out that team Ottoman-China got a free tech in Banking, a Renaissance tech. Maybe Wu Zetian quickly collected enough G-Sci points with Oracle and University (2 slots now)?

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_041.jpg
041. Wu Zetian got her first Great Engineer to questionable use. It is for Ottoman's first G-Eng to work. Stonehenge, Oracle, Greater Lighthouse, Angkor Wat, and Colossus added together are not as great as this one in a military game - Himeji Castle! Any city taken by the Ottoman will turn into an instant graveyard for the defenders. A defensive-minded wonder with powerful offensive applications.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_042.jpg
042. The first (happiness) Golden Age is over. Ottoman has climbed up from the bottom of the demograph! We are now about second or third last in the pack. China takes the lead in population. So there is definitely a good chance that the tech gap is narrowing down.

It is also funny to see that China has become the lowest ranked military power. Wu Zetian has indeed stopped mocking our military, but she kept her long face nonetheless. Her bad attitude towards the ally is in great contrast to the friendly attitude of members of the opposing team. It should be the other way around, right?

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_043.jpg
043. The exciting moments of the game has come. As all the long-term investments (National Treasury, University, even Bank) are in place, team Ottoman-China can concentrate on military techs in the lower route. First goal is Machinery to unlock Ironwork and China's unique double-firing crossbow. Then we will simply go with the most powerful unit available all the way to Dynamite (Artillery)! Every tech unlocks something useful. Isn't it great?

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_044.jpg
044. It has been a long time since the war declaration on CS Vienna. Finally, after 30 turns of struggle, the City State succumbs to a wide array of Ottoman units:

2 Swordsman: starting warrior and CS Belgrade's 1st gift
1 Chariot Archer: CS Belgrade's 2nd gift
1 Archer: CS Belgrade's 3rd gift (no luck on Catapult yet)
1 Catapult: purchased in Istanbul
2 Triremes: built in Istanbul, converted from Barbarian galley
1 Galley: converted Barbarian

More than half of the Turkish army are free! :D Ottoman also gained its first two Great Generals, one from policy and one from units' experience. One of them will be sacrificed to start the second Golden Age, soon.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_045.jpg
045. With only one unit of iron to spare, I finally gave up on waiting for the CS for a free Catapult. Purchased the second siege weapon from Istanbul so I can at least see it firing in the coming war.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_046.jpg
046. Strange news broke out on the next turn. The opposing team MWCA (Montezuma-Washington-Catherine-Augustus Caesar, or Men and Women's Christian Association? :p) was decalred war by two city states, Seoul and Lhasa. I have never seen City States declaring war on Civs, unless a given Civ declare war twice on City States and other CSs declare permanent war on that Civ. Could this be the case? In our Vienna experience, it seemed that when Civs are teamed up, any war declared on City State becomes an immediate permanent war. But I don't see any war declaration notice here...

Interestingly, the game uses China's icon to represent the MWCA team. I guess the game is a little bugged here, unless Wu Zetian is actually a secret spy from the opposing team. :p

Well, it's china, the most paranoid country after the US :mischief:
You need one more city to connect all your team's territory!

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_047.jpg
047. Getting rid of Vienna for CS Seoul, now a permanent enemy of the opposing team, is worth 80 points of relationship points. The ally status is actually redundant (as there are only two teams), but the extra culture points are always welcome.

At this point, I finally realized why CS alliance in this game constantly requires renewal - their relationship drops twice as fast. CSs are given a lot more personality when Civs team up. Maybe the CS team up, too. One aggression = permanent war.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_048.jpg
048. The in-game message explains that Seoul and Lhasa's war declaration is due to the "continued aggression" of Aztec. But as Seoul reveals its map, I see no Aztec unit in its territory. It doesn't make sense for Aztec to declare war on Lhasa, either, as Lhasa is located in north-eastern Asia, very far away from Europe.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_049.jpg
049. Turn 108 - all units have been upgraded by one level. Ready for showdown! Washington asked Suleiman why there are so many units along the border. Tourism. :D

The in-game news reveals the downfall of CS Helsinki, a CS we have never met. Now the mystery is solved - Rome must have declared war on Helsinki in America, making two other CSs joining the war against the MWCA team. Ottoman didn't receive the news of the war declaration because we haven't met one of the parties yet.

Caesar's aggression really hurts the rest of his team members, as Seoul is right beside Monty and Washington, while Lhasa is right between Washington and Catherine. I am glad I picked Wu Zetian as teammate, for she will never give me this kind of headache.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_050.jpg
050. Another look at the demography before the war. Washington's ICS has quickly made him the most powerful Civ in the game. Ottoman's army has grown to the 3rd place, while China is still last. I was puzzled why China didn't bother to upgrade any of her many warriors to Swordsman, and later realized that Wu Zetian had sold 12 out of her 12 units of irons away - 10 to the opposing team and 2 to Ottoman. Well, it might not be a bad strategy, since war is coming and whoever bought 10 units Iron will soon have a lot of useless units. :)

Well, it's china, the most paranoid country after the US :mischief:


Are you talking about reality or Civ5? :D

Probobaly both ;)

Are you talking about reality or Civ5? :D

Both. China is always paranoia-fueled.

Both. China is always paranoia-fueled.

Funny since Maltz seems to be Chinese :lol:

Funny since Maltz seems to be Chinese :lol:

Depends on which China you are talking about. Republic* or People's Republic

*AKA Taiwan

Dunno, but he's writing in Chinese... Maltz?

Love your civ playthroughs!

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_051.jpg
Sorry about the delay.
I already have all the pictures made.

051. Before the war is declared on the opposing team, I need to extract as much cash as I can from them, thinking that I won't be able to get a penny from them afterward. First, I sold more resources and cash to Wu Zetian for exclusively Gold per Turn. I also sacrificed a Great General for an Golden Age, and adjusted citizens to gold focus. With a sudden surge of GPT, I got 2000 gold from the AIs in total!

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_052.jpg
052. War declared on Turn 108! Washington wasn't really expecting war, so there was almost no defense in the outskirt town. First, the Ottoman Scouts risked their lives to pillage the iron mine (6 units). The Ottoman army swarmed in from east and south. With upgraded Longswords, Trebuchet, Knight, the Ottoman army took Chicago easily. The only things that slowed the Ottoman army down were the river and the pretty-thin city wall.

Strangely, Washington was fielding ancient Warriors around Chicago, just like Wu Zetian was marching Warriors at home. What are the AIs thinking? After the war breaks out, I noticed that Wu Zetian got 9 irons of iron back with a siege weapon in construction. That means among her 12 units of iron, she sold 10 to the opposing team, and 2 to Suleiman. That's not the way to field an army...

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_053.jpg
053. Those American warriors who did not retreat in time were ruthlessly chased down by the Ottoman Knight. It was a slaughter under the various combat bonuses from Great General, Flanking, Himeji Castle, and Open Terrain.

The next target is the little new desert town Los Angeles just north of Wu Zetian's Shanghai!

Strength: 29.7-5.4.

Who will win?
:P

;p ?
...

Strength: 29.7-5.4.

Who will win?The Warrior will :spear:.

Good to see an update, maltz!

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_054.jpg]
054. Military CS Belgrade's 4th gift is finally a siege weapon. At the time I already bought 3 from the capital. So I have 4 Trebuchets now.

But since the influence of CS decreases way too fast (-2/turn), I decided not to renew the alliance anymore, and save the cash to buy units directly from the capital, which gives me the 15% Morale bonus from Heroic Epic.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_055.jpg]
055. Gunpowder unlocked Janissary on Turn 113, Ottoman's unique unit. As it full heals after each kill, it will definitely become the vanguard of the Ottoman army. I could afford to buy 4 Janissary at this point. Eventually I will build/buy 6 of them.

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056. Los Angeles was so new that Washington haven't even completed the resource improvement yet. It was easily taken by the Ottoman army.

I was very ready to push forward to take the next American city with Janissary arriving on the battlefield through the new highway from Instanbul, Edirne, Venice and eventually Chicago, but immediately when I press End Turn, Wu Zetian signed a peace treaty with the opposing team... I thought wars last at least 10 turns? Or the 10-turn restriction only applies to peace?

And Wu Zetian seemed to have signed a very bad deal - her thousands of cash (which I loaned to her in exchange of Gold per Turn) was gone (since she had the weakest army at the time, any Peace Treaty she signs is a bad deal). So I loaded the game to sign the Peace Treaty myself - at least I am not going to get a bad deal.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_057.jpg]
057. Signing Peace Treaty with a team of AIs is an interesting task - different members of the team, based on their strength, gives different favorable or unfavorable conditions. But once the treaty is signed, a forced 10-turn peace is applied to all team members.

- Caesar demanded a huge amount of gold for peace.
- Washington was willing to sign an unconditional ceasefire.
- Catherine and Monty, however, would give away all their income for peace!

I victimized Monty for he is probably my next target.

So playing against an larger AI team isn't as difficult as it sounds. As long as there is one weak member in the AI team, the human player can demand peace pretty quickly and easily. However, the favorable treaty only comes on the first cease fire. If war is declared again later, the peace treaty with the weak opponent will still be unconditional.

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058. Ottoman's happiness dropped to red, so I sold Los Angeles to Wu Zetian to expand her border further, so she can help out in subsequent wars. Los Angeles comes with Incense and Silver (unimproved yet). So 31 gold is really a good deal for her.

Selling anything to a teammate AI is a slow process. The AI does not properly name what it wants. Apparently, Wu Zetian refuses buying anything, but I could figure out the right price from trial and error.

Do you want Los Angeles for...
50 gold? NO.
1 gold? YES.
30 gold? YES.
40 gold? NO.
Eventually I realized the most she would pay was 31 gold.

And I realized that the AI teammate never treats the human player like a teammate. If I have a smaller army, I am called "a laughing stock of the world". If I have inferior economic power, I am called "the puny one". Nobody likes to be mocked by a team mate...:rolleyes:

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_059.jpg]
059. While being forced to peace is bad, there is one nice thing about it - I can sell resources again. The price is nowhere as good as before, but why refuse free cash? :lol:War will break out after 10 turns anyway.

Yay, more :)

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060. Now Wu Zetian got to keep some gold, and she started buying City States. I think she is probably aiming for a Culture Victory in this game, giving her small empire size, the number of policies she activated, and the fact that she only bought cultural City States. The latest ally of the Ottoman-China team was Lhasa, which declared permanent war to the opposing team. From Ottoman's point of view, however, buying Lhasa is a waste of gold, as they are already on our side forever.

With Lhasa's map, I see why Washington did not field enough soldier around Chicago and Los Angeles. He already dispatched the core of his army to attack Lhasa, which is located in the middle of US and Russia. It looks like that Lhasa won't be able to survive for long, but it might continue distract Washington and buy us some more time working on American cities from the other direction.

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061. With Chemistry (and Cannon) on its way, Suleiman will be able to do some serious hurt on his next target. I decided to go for Monty's capital next. Monty has only 3 cities (one is a one-tile spawn on an island) and the weakest army among all. Does patch .1.217 brainwashed the Monty we used to know? Also, Monty's capital has the Great Wall wonder, so it will be nice if Suleiman can take it and use it to his advantage.

Monty's settler is seen just north of the border of Wu Zeitan. It is probably heading for Southeast Asia, but the terribly efficient American settler got there first. I feel that patch 217 has really diversified AIs' strategies. Those who picked Liberty will end up settling numerous cities and take over a huge chunk of their neighbor's land, and develop into a superpower later. Those who take Tradition will have very few cities and remain weak throughout the game - unless they can sneak in a Cultural Victory under the human player's nose.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_062.jpg]
062. After taking over 2 cities, Ottoman's ranking has gone up - about the 3rd in the world, only after Rome and USA.

In terms of technology, team Ottoman-China only trails by about 2 techs. The gap has been narrowed!

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063. To remove the concern of happiness for the next rounds of war, I bought a Colosseum in Edirne and built one in Istanbul. So I can get a Circus Maximus in Istanbul. That should take care of the happiness issue for a while.

I was also considering buying another City States to push the happiness further, but decided not to, since they are simply too expensive. Even if I keep happiness between 0 and -10, the Ottoman-China team will still get enough research from newly acquired cities.

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064. The intermission is over on Turn 125! All Trebuchets have been upgraded to Cannons and are in position to attack! The Janissary led the charge (and recovered to full health after the kill - that's insanely powerful). Four Cannons bombard the defenders, and advance under the cover of Long swordsman.

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065. I usually hear people say Ottoman is weak, but after this game I think Ottoman is one of the most powerful Civs on the battlefield just for its alien-like Janissary and its subsequent upgrades.

These unearthly units could be beaten to red-HP during the end turn, but on the next turn, they only need to kill some nearby weaklings to return to full HP. The Janissary in the picture only had 3/10 HP left, but after killing the Roman Long swordsman (good for Caesar to send some reinforcement, by the way), it returned to full heal immediately. That's extremely powerful.

Nice!

You, Maltz, have just overthrown public opinion!
(read: proof that Ottomans aren't as weak as we all think)

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066. With Janissary mopping the floor, 4 Ottoman Cannons were able to setup within firing range of Monty's capital. Tenochititlan fell quickly.

The Great Wall wonder in Monty's capital is a great addition to Suleiman's military campaign, since now he can afford to leave cities lightly defended, and concentrate his units on offense. But it turned out that the wonder made very little difference, as throughout the game the AI were constantly on the defense.

I think AI's lack of offense in this particular game is caused by the frequent cease-fire deals signed between the two teams. My AI partner very predictably signs the peace treaty exactly 7 turns after the war. For example, when the second world war was declared on Turn 125, the peace treaty will be signed at the end of Turn 131. The AIs produce units during the 7-turn war, but seem to focus their attention on somewhere else during the 10-turn peace. But Suleiman always had his focus on war. :p So the AIs was caught off guard every single time. Silly.

Back in the picture, I had 3.5 turns before the war is forced to stop. So I decided to ship as many units to the Scandinavian peninsula to take Monty's second city, Teotihuacan. Subtracting 2 turns to disembark and embark, each unit can fire once or twice. That should be just enough.

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067. I was moving back the three ships to Europe so they may help in the bombardment (didn't make it in this war - maybe the next). A barbarian camp had spawned a Caravel. I was caught in a surprise and almost lost a ship (HP from 10 to 1). But on the next turn, the Ottoman ship made contact and that Caravel becomes an Ottoman ship! (Ottoman has not researched Astronomy yet.) Playing as Ottoman is a happy ride. :D

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068. Suleiman's policy was progressing at a reasonable pace. Units are gaining experiences quickly with the 1.5X EXP policy in Honor. After going back to Tradition's Monarchy (7th policy) to boost some happiness and gold, I come back to Discipline in the Honor tree to get more bonus for military.

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069. Four Cannons, 1 Crossbow, and 2 melees surrounded Monty's second city. Just had enough firepower to take it down in 1.5 turns. All Monty had left was a two-tile city in Scotland.

Since patch 217 I have had two games with Monty as an AI opponent. Monty was very weak in both games, and was even impossible to bribe to war his disputed neighbor in the previous game. It seems that Monty's aggressiveness (and therefore effectiveness) has been seriously toned down?

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070. I didn't want to let Wu Zetian sign the cease fire since she remained vulnerable to lose a lot of gold from signing the deal with a powerful AI. So I took the initiative again. Too bad, there is no juicy deals for peace from anyone this time (and future).

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071. Ottoman's happiness dropped to -7, so I wanted to sell Monty's second city to Wu Zetian - there is no extra luxurious resources from this new addition, anyway.

But Wu Zetian wasn't willing to pay anything this time. So I just took one unit of her giveaway Iron. Actually, Iron is still useful after Chemistry and Rifling, for there is naval unit Frigate that requires Iron. Iron only becomes completely obsolete when Frigate is upgraded to Destroyer, which happens a lot later.

I wonder why is Wu Zeitan ''angry'' with you...

Maybe you were at war with China before 4000 BC. You won at that time by researching agriculture first, and then, you said: ''Hey, what about if we stop this useless war, forget our differences and work together for the good of our people?'' China acepted, but now, at 400 AD, they want payback...

Next game Maltz... 5 v 1 - You'll do better!

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072. The second intermission - 10 turns of forced peace. With Monty out of the picture, Suleiman will certainly focus its offense on Washington's front line cities of Seattle, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Perhaps he can achieve more since the battle line is long, allowing rapid and easy access of city.

Rifling will be available in the third world war. I built/bought another 2 units of Janissary for a total of 6. They will lead the charge in all future wars. I also planned to get more Cannons. Cash was no longer a concern as the opposing team gave away most of their gold before and after each war. :p So having a peace-seeking AI partner isn't such a bad thing. I was also trying to save up for the numerous promotions I will need in the future.

The opposing team did not enjoy 10 turns of total peace - as they had a few City States declaring permanent war on them for a crime most of them did not commit. Washington and Catherine surrounded cultural CS Lhasa (recently bought by Wu Zetian, top right corner) with a large number of units. I thought Lhasa would fall very soon, but the city state was surprisingly resilient.

Its resilience actually comes from the lack of offense from the invaders. The Washington and Catherine AIs did not attack the city using their ridiculous numerical advantage. Their units just wrapped the city and sat there. Maybe they are waiting for each other to give way for more units to get into siege position. If all units are from the same Civ, usually the City State will be conquered in just a few turns. Apparently, the more AI in a team, the less effective they become in a joint military campaign.

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073. Ottoman already has the largest army in the world, and overall the 3rd most powerful Civ! WU Zetian no longer calls Suleiman the "laughing stock" or the "puny one". But she was still unfriendly.

I usually prefer a small but elite army with high levels of promotion. But things are different in this game - each unit only has 7 actions in each war. So the numerical advantage really makes a difference in each short war. The Blitz promotion also looks a lot sexier than the March promotion especially for the Janissary and their upgrades. They get healed easily anyway.

In the meantime, the opposing team completed the Porcelain Tower wonder and again increased their tech lead to 3-4 techs. But since the AIs are less likely to focus on the bottom (military) route, they probably can't get Dynamite (Artillery) much earlier than the Ottoman-China team. The 3rd world war still looks optimistic, as just 4-5 turns later the OC team will have a massive front line of Rifleman. And Lhasa will likely attract a large number of US units.

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074. Very soon Suleiman (and Wu Zetian) was denounced by Caesar, Catherine, and Washington. Strangely, Monty, who was the greatest victims in the first two world wars, did not say anything. For team play, if a teammate denounces/is denounced, the other teammates also denounce/are denounced.

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075. 10 turns of peace is a little too long, as Suleiman's army end up idling for quite a few turns in their offense positions.

The upgrade fee of Rifleman wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a flat fee of 180 gold no matter from Long Swordsman, Crossbowman, or Janissary. But I still kept the habit of saving up for upgrades - it proved to be crucial in Industrial and Modern Ages.

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076. Turn 142, the third world war starts on time! Suleiman's offense power had increased to 9 Rifleman, 7 Cannons, and 1 Knight (50% power from lack of horse). And Washington has... almost nothing! The AIs does not realize an obvious war intention when they see army massed on the border.

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077. The Ottoman horde advanced under very little resistance - scattered defenders was mowed down by the alien-like Rifleman, who full heals after each kill. In just 4 turns, Washington already lost all three front-line cities of Seattle, Atlanta, and San Francisco. The American cities were all connected by roads, so the invasion soon turns to the inland targets of Washington and New York, the two cities Washington begins with and the heart of the US empire.

Washington finally realized that he had to turn his full attention away from Lhasa. At the time he had started bombarding it with Cannon, so Lhasa was on the verge of collapse, too. Suleiman started seeing more and more US units arriving on the battlefield. But the defenders are poorly organized. Cannons up front means demolished Cannons.

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078. One thing I liked about AI's team play was that it actually sends reinforcement to help its teammates. I saw some Roman units helping Aztec, and apparently Caesar is sending more. But I happened to have a barbarian converted-Caravel patrolling the Atlantic ocean just for this. (Actually I was afraid of the AI settlers more than its units.) The reinforcement sank as soon as the Caravel ran over it.

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079. Happiness dropped to close -10 again, so I had to give more cities away. Wu Zetian is willing to trade Silver for San Francisco. That will keep Ottoman happy for a while.

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080. Got the second Great Engineer, but I didn't know what to rush. Wu Zetian built about 60% of the world's wonder, while the opposing team took 30%. Picked Big Ben because it was the only available wonder at the time. Big Ben is not a useful wonder in a normal conquest-oriented game, where 90% of the rush buying happens in early-mid game, before Big Ben is built. After war breaks out, income is mostly sustained by wars (resource resales, loans, and treaties).

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081. Washington fell! 30+ city defense is nothing in front of Rifleman and Cannon. All units advance on New York!

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082. With 2 units horses from Washington, I bought a unit of Sipahi for Suleiman just to see how powerful or useless it is. The 5 movement is indeed impressive. The unit was purchased on turn 146 in West Africa (Istanbul). On Turn 148 it already arrived on the front line.

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083. With units flooding the field, I was able to take New York on the last turn of the war. Washington's units were also flooding the east side of New York, but there was nothing they can do - as the cease fire was immediately signed Monty. :p

The third World War went very well for Suleiman and very poorly for Washington, seeing the transition of 5 best cities from one side to the other within 7 turns. Wu Zetian helped the war a bit, but as the brightness of AI's tactics goes, her scattered units made very little difference.

Next game Maltz... 5 v 1 - You'll do better!

Yeah man, ditch the whining lady next time.

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084. After three wars, the Ottoman-China team has taken over most of the Euro-Asia-Africa continent. With superior economic power and military strength, things are looking very bright.

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085. Speaking of Monty's passiveness, so far, Wu Zetian has not spawned a single city herself. At this point I highly suspect Wu Zetian's goal is to get a Cultural Victory. She only bought over Cultural CS, and she has been compulsively and obsessively collecting world wonders.

It is bad news that an AI ally has little military support, but given how poorly AI performs on the battlefield, I suspect she would have been an obstruction by blocking crucial tiles. So having no military support is the best military support. I am very grateful that she takes over whatever cities I dump on her (puppets does not increase cultural requirement for policies), offers a good price on trades, enormously contributes to research following my directions, and from time to time pop free techs with her Great Scientists.

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086. Ottoman and China have completed their unpeaceful uprising, now controlling unparalleled military power and land area. The technology gap quickly narrowed down. But Catherine will survive a little longer, since there are two more Washington cities to take care of in the next (fourth) world war.

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087. Nothing happens in the third intermission - just boring waiting. So let's fast forward to the 4th world war. Washington's Boston was quickly submerged by the flooding Ottoman units. A smaller Ottoman army also advanced quickly on Philadelphia. Washington had a large number of units packed in its northern base, compared to how little he was left with.

Just before declaring war, I also bought the alliance of Maritime CS Genoa, which is located right beside Catherine's capital and Washington's new establishment in Southeast Asia. This should create some distraction while I work on Washington's remaining cities.

1 more turn to Dynamite!

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088. Entered the Industrial Age with Dynamite. Artillery typically rules the battlefield due to its indirect firing ability and long range, so I purposely produced a large number of Siege units. I will have 9 Artillery units in total.

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089. This dying Russian unit was the first casualty of the new technology. Catherine's capital, due to its isolated location, was packed with units. They became a good targeting practice and a large experience pool for Ottoman's newly upgraded killing machine.

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090. Finally the Russian defense has been bombarded to pieces and it was time for ground units to swarm in to take the final blows on Moscow. But 7 turns slipped away quickly! It was peace time again. Moscow survived another 10 turns.

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091. The outcome of this game has been decided after 4 world wars. The Ottoman-China team took the top in different categories, while members of the opposing team competed for the bottom spot with their miserable single-digit power. The OC team surpassed the opponent by one tech, and the gap will only widen from this point on.

The next war should see the fall of Russia, and a great finale involves a great invasion in North America. Suleiman should plan accordingly.

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092. A great trans-continental invasion requires the a great navy to escort and maintain coastal dominance. I have been building Triremes in Istanbul, which can be upgraded to Frigates with Navigation. Now Ottoman has 7 Frigates and 1 Caravel (3 of them are free units from barbarian). That should be enough to establish the dominance on the Atlantic Ocean.

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093. Wu Zetian popped two techs in a row (Biology and Steam Power). There is a Coal deposit that could be used to build Factory and Ironclad. But I skipped the Ironclad for I already have enough navel units.

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094. Bought Public School in both Istanbul and Edirne to further accelerate research. I already popped a tech with a Great Scientist from Istanbul.

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095. Policy time again. Since I had a large army, I went with Autocracy to reduce unit upkeep by 33%. I hope the war does not drag into modern age for too long, or I might run a deficit to support 30+ units (9 melee, 8 siege, 2 horse, 7 navy, 2 great general, and 3 workers). And to end the war sooner, I need more units. :p

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096. There is also oil just outside Istanbul, and that's the only oil reserve for Ottoman. I built the Work boat without realizing that I need Refrigeration to build offshore platform. So that Work boat stayed in Istanbul until the end of the game...

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097. Turn 176, the 5th World War starts on time! In order to better prepare my navies and make sure that my units have a save trip to North America later, I decided to end Monty's miserable presence. The Frigates surrounded Monty's last city and fired rounds after rounds. Individually they make little damage, but together they take away a large chunk of the city's HP. Moved a Rifleman there in advance to deliver the final blow.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_098.jpg
098. 6 Artillery made short work of Moscow's defense - Catherine's capital falls on the same turn of the war declaration. At the same time, a small but also deadly effective Ottoman force advances in the north to bring down one small Russian city after another.

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099. Monty makes his exit of this embarrassing showing. I kinda want the old warmongering Monty back.

It has been a long time since I wiped somebody out of the map. The AIs are usually very good at popping out useless cities in polar regions to avoid that fate. That actually makes those cities pretty useful. :p

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100. Catherine has a well-developed city on present-day Japan. But it cannot escape Artillery fire. At the time most Ottoman melee units have been upgraded to Infantry, so it wasn't too hard to sneak one unit up to deliver the final blow.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_101.jpg
101. Catherine's last city on the continent was one attack away from done, but again, it was peace time.

The Ottoman-China team has become the undisputed owner of the old world! In order to maintain a reasonable unhappiness (above -10), Suleiman has passed numerous cities to Wu Zetian, and make her into the most powerful Civ. So she started calling us "the puny one" again. :p Having an AI teammate slows down the conquest by forcing 10 turns of peace for every 7 turns of war. In regular games, the player has to spend extra time razing cities to wait for happiness to come back, if he or she does not want to simply sell newly acquired cities to other AI Civs (which strangely results in instant denouncement from the benefactor).

Strangely, all members of the opposing team became friendly to Ottoman-China after the war. This is probably because the previous denouncement had expired during the last war.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_102.jpg
102. Preparations of the final invasion on North America has started for some time. As soon as the peace treaty is signed, an Ottoman settler landed on the northeast shore of North America. Here Ottoman pops its 3rd and last city, which will serve as an important base of operation for the game finale.

Caesar soon protested about us settling too close to him. Yeah OK, we will not settler another city close to you. All we need is a safe landing on North America. After that, it is all fair game.

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103. The new city Ankara has access to Aluminum, which is great for late-game units such as Rocket Artillery. The city also immediately received a free Monument from the Legalism policy. Patch .1.217 changed Legalism so it now gives 4 free cultural buildings. The cities entitled to free cultural buildings have to be:

- Spawned by the player's own settler before or after getting Legalism
OR
- Occupied and annexed by the player before getting Legalism

And the civilization has to be technologically capable for the cheapest possible cultural building.

In a regular (non OCC, not Cultural) game, I think it is still better to go after Liberty to spawn as many cities as soon as possible.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_104.jpg
104. With an Open Border agreement with Caesar, I was able to upgrade Frigates to Destroyers for the first time in Civ5! The upgrade fee was very expensive - 490 gold each! But since I have been saving up for upgrades, I may as well spend them. A navy of 8 Destroyers will certainly crush anything Caesar has in a few turns.

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105. The Ottoman-China team quickly widened the technological lead to about 6 techs. That means Suleiman's will be at least one generation ahead of Caesar. I decided to rush for Electronics in order to get Mechanized Infantry. The 6 units of former Janissary, which have mostly obtained the Blitz (2 attacks) promotion, will devour Roman defenders in no time.

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106. With so many cities essentially given for free, Wu Zetian was so rich that she could afford most City States even if the relationships decays at twice the normal rate. If the United Nation vote happens now, the OC team would have won! But of course we prefer an exciting finale.

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107. Deity AIs normally have airplanes by Turn 220. While the next war will take place in only Turn 200 or so, I suspect the time line is going to be pushed forward since the AIs' research rate were quadrupled in early-mid game. So I bought out two Anti-Aircraft guns and ship them to North America.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_108.jpg
108. The small earth map has an interesting North America - its west coast is very much separated from the rest of the continent by the Rockies. So I had to ship all units back to Europe to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make the landing exclusively on the northeast coast. The result is a large traffic flow over the Atlantic Ocean just like rush hours. The first units have landed but the last units were still at home.

Electronics was researched in the meantime, so all Infantry received their upgrade as soon as they make the landing in Ankara.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_109.jpg
109. Turn 199, the final world war broke out! The Ottoman forces advances on two directions. On the east coast, the Ottoman Destroyers quickly disabled Caesar's navy to enable the rapid landing and advance of ground units. The liberation of CS Helsinki is their top priority.

Another powerful force, led by 3 mechanized infantries (also promoted from Janissary) pours down from the center to take on the defenders head-on. Caesar had a huge number of Rifleman and Cannon. But indeed, their units were trailing behind by one to two generations. All these weaker units have only one fate - to become the health potions for the Ottoman Mechanized Infantry.

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110. Here a Mechanized Infantry (upgraded from Janissary) makes a forced landing while ignoring the amphibious fighting penalty. No worries, it was 102.5 vs. 22.5! Full health after, too!

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111. Here another alien-like Mechanized Infantry takes on a Rifleman in the forest. 127.5 vs. 36.25! Yummy! Ottoman's Janissary is undoubtedly the most powerful unique unit in the game especially under the technological advantage, where they can easily finish an enemy in one attack.

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112. Caesar lost a huge chunk of his army in the first turn of war. Now his military strength is only half of Ottoman, and the entire Ottoman army is crowded on North America.

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113. Under the support fire of multiple Artillery and Destroyer, an alien Mechanized Infantry easily brought down Helsinki. Hail for liberation!

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114. Caesar's concentrated fire only scratched Mechanized Infantry, but he did manage to sink an Ottoman Destroyer. But it is OK, we have a lot more left. While the eastern force advanced very smoothly, it was the central that reported the best progress. The defenders were devoured so quickly that 3 alien Mechanized Infantry had eaten their way to the suburb of Rome, without Artillery support.

http://www.ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2011/civ5/turkey_115.jpg
115. And there was only 1 unit of Cannon left for the 3 aliens to eat. So they had a brief meeting - why don't we attack Rome? Three units can make 6 attacks, while eating the Cannon took away 1.

But five attacks was all it requires for the fall of Rome. Rome was finished on the 3rd turn since the declaration of war.

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116. Game ended! I expected a little more from Caesar. But judging from the sea of units I see, there wasn't so much more he could do. Janissary-upgraded Mechanized Infantry ran the final show.

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117. Final stats. I have never had such a large army before - all thanks to an AI partner who forces peace so often, so I seriously had to get a huge army to capitalize each short (7 turns) opportunity.

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118. Final score. From one screen I get 2730, but finally I only had 2300. Strangely the game hasn't fixed the discrepancy in score reporting over the patches. But I guess people all know the formula is hugely biased towards early victory and small maps with little consideration of difficulty, so people don't care anymore.

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119. Intersetingly, Caesar only spawned 4 cities in North America. I expected 14 (with garbage cities on nothing but ice, etc.). The unclaimed northern territories actually gave Ottoman a good opportunity to sneak in. So I like the patches make AI less likely to settle garbage cities, but that also weakens the AI. Caesar still had a large number of Rifleman after losing his capital, but I wouldn't expect them to reclaim it. They are nothing but health potions.

That's the end of the story. Thank you very much for your patience to stay with me. I wish you all have fun in your games. :D

Nice job once again.

Have you thought of doing a play by play with a randomly generated map? I recently played a game where I plowed through the AI early on, only to find the weakest civ became an unstoppable force with technology highly more advanced than me. It was quite an odd turn of events.

Congrats also on building advanced modern era units. I love the modern era with all the tactics of land, sea, and air units.

Next game Maltz... 5 v 1 - You'll do better!

I doubt I stand a chance in 1 vs. 5 in a conquest game. But it should be possible diplomatically when the AI, as they tend to sometimes, completely ignore the weak human player to allow a sneaky victory. But those wins don't feel very exciting, just lucky.

Have you thought of doing a play by play with a randomly generated map?


Thanks.
Ops, actually I am doing the opposite these days - I am now making a custom regional map with best possible accuracy... :p I am quite a history fan. I will share that map when it is done.

Well done! Yep, that's all I got to say. ;) I bet I wouldn't get to 1 AD in Deity before getting owned by other civs...

This gave me an idea: you could do a team game with a novice player (like me) and you. That would be interesting! xD

P.S.: Ok, you won... But we still don't know what did you ever do to Wu Zeitan. Even if you got the domination victory with her, she still calls you a loser. Guess that will be still a mystery...

Seemed to me Mechanized Infantry with Blitz can attack 4 times per turn => 4 units killed and full health for Mechanized Jannisary
(not losing extra movement on forests/mountains etc.)

Great story Maltz! :)

This gave me an idea: you could do a team game with a novice player (like me) and you. That would be interesting! xD


An interesting idea for stories. :cool: Different people can tell the same story from their own angles. Unfortunately there is no hot-seat mode in multiplayer yet, so we will have to get into the same multiplayer game up against AIs. I don't like the fact that each turn is only 60 seconds as story telling requires thoughtful screen shots.

People also do succession games using a single player setting. But I think this is much less interesting than playing the same game as two different civilizations. :)

Seemed to me Mechanized Infantry with Blitz can attack 4 times per turn => 4 units killed and full health for Mechanized Jannisary


Only 2 times per turn. :p

But if they are upgraded from double-attack archer/crossbows, and then get Blitz, I wonder if they can attack 4 times?
Probably only possible in Marathon.

Hm, I'll have to check...

Maybe you lost movement points on 'zone of control', I kinda remember Blitz => number of moves = number of possible attacks. Also from Persia under golden age -> +1 movement = 3 attacks with Blitz

:thumbsup::borg::crazyeye::);):egypt::clap::bowdow n::worship::hatsoff::cooool::woohoo::yeah::yup::yu myum::devil::viking::bump:::sniper::band::bday::da nce:[party]:rotfl::salute::banana::agree::trophy:::cheers::hi gh5::assimilate::trouble::popcorn::spear::snowlaug h:

Good job!

What civ will you be next?

I don't think you should drop the whiny old lady, she is good for dumpign stuff on and is imparitive for research but I thimnk you need liek a 2v8 or something, maybe always war.

Hm, I'll have to check...

Maybe you lost movement points on 'zone of control', I kinda remember Blitz => number of moves = number of possible attacks. Also from Persia under golden age -> +1 movement = 3 attacks with Blitz

I haven't tested this, but asked around -
Blitz should overwrite Double attack as it enables as many attacks as the movement points. Double attack takes away 1 movement point per attack, too.

Mechanized Infantry has a movement of 4.

If the unit attacks WITHOUT consuming any movement points, then it can attack 4 times. The best case scenario is attacking along a road/railroad. It might be able to attack 3 times, if the first two movements adds up to be less than 1. So the game will allow the 3rd attack.

It will be interesting if units with extra movement points, such as Horseman and Lancer, are eventually promoted to Blitz. Maybe 4 attacks per turn are possible. But since only the Ottoman Janissary and Aztec Jaguar comes with healing after attack, the extra attack won't be utilized to the fullest extent for other units.

Very nice story!

But since only the Ottoman Janissary and Aztec Jaguar comes with healing after attack, the extra attack won't be utilized to the fullest extent for other units.

I kinda remember my Jaguarized Infantry stepping out of the garrison and killing a bunch Lizzy's units (musket?) that were about the city, ending up at full health.

Not sure it was all road...

Now I'm not sure if it was 3 or 4 units :crazyeye:


Also, Persian Rifle made from Immortal can attack a city 3 times during GA, end up at 2 and heal to 5 (not die)
2 of those and city is down and then they heal by +5 (friendly lands) :)
(March, Medic and Blitz...)

Sounds superb. :lol:
So many special units have their good uses.

Sounds superb. :lol:
So many special units have their good uses.

Dear maltz, I have to support you here. :)

Just registered on purpose~


From civclub:lol: