Shoshone Deity Huge Empire Challenge Series!

[BigChiefLizzy]

Great defense of Braga I am fairly sure that embarked units (melee or ranged) cannot pillage or plunder trade routes, so yours should be safe.

Yep, take back Porto after beating back the next wave of units and hope Songhai will then make peace at last? (I give it 50/50 odds). You can then finally rebuild Porto and consolidate, maybe build another Galleases or two for fire support of the coast if he won't peace out?

The rock of Gibraltar is a big rock, but it's only 1400 feet high, so not really a mountain. If it is meant to be one in game I'm not sure...

 

[danaphanous]

thanks, yeah that's more or less my plan! I guess the rock doesn't count though I really thought all NW counted as mountains in the game. Every one I've ever settled near has including some odd ones like barringer crater. And an observatory woudl have been super helpful around now lol.

Finally got some time to record and got the next part.
We have once again broken the backbone of the songhai army and they are on the run back across the desert. We also make new friends across the sea as we switch our army to offensive mode! The battle for Porto is about to begin!

Part 17: Offensive Switch

Also, a bit off-topic, how many of you are planning on getting civilization 6 from the get-go? I don't usually but if you guys want to see me play it on the channel I do have the money, just not a lot of time right now It looks really fun from what I've seen, I might be willing to get it and run a series alongside my civ5!

 

[danaphanous]

bwahahaha! Revenge feels so good.

The battle for Porto is on! After 1000 years of enslavement, the people of Porto will soon be free again from the evil Songhai Empire, and nothing will stop our vengeful troops this time!

Part 18: The Porto Liberation

I'm gonna try to get back to 3 videos a week monday, wednesday, friday. I realize that's a not a lot and with a war going on it's been slow, but I'm still enjoying this series and I hope you are too! If it weren't for the breaks I probably would've gotten discouraged by all the setbacks, but I smell a possibility for victory here finally and I'll formulate my plan for next episode!

 

[danaphanous]

With our envoy to Songhai rejected yet again, anger grows in the small portuguese nation and it is becoming clear that peace will never be won without force! The evil Songhai empire must be crushed to be stopped and we craft a bold new plan to turn this 1000 year defensive war into an offensive one and bring the pain to them!

Part 19: Planning For Revenge

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

Bargain deal from Rome there, I would have taken it as well as he may still be looking at attacking you again at some point despite the fact that he is 'friendly'. Not sure about keeping Taghaza either, salt is good and you could sell the 3 cotton but it has a very desert-y theme to it, not going to grow much as you noted. If you capture and raze it maybe he may grant you that city in South Africa as a peace offering. If you are able to take his capital with Romes help that would be great but it's a bit exposed and I'd be worried about a backstab from Rome to take it from you... unless Rome and Songhai suicide all their troops against each other

Going to be tricky finding anywhere to settle now I think, are Britain/England and the Celts in the game (I don't recall seeing them), Britain and Ireland may be available but more likely Spain or someone else has settled there by now. Or an attack on the Spanish city? But it's in a bad position iirc, mountain in the way, is it in frigate range? And you would again be open to attack from Rome.

 

[danaphanous]

totally agree. I'm gonna take Rome up on the offer soon, I just wanted to say I captured a Songhai city on my own without help before I recruit him haha Plus if I do that Rome may lower their price even further. I know it's a risk but it's personal at this point and I want to demonstrate I can hurt him on my own haha.

I long ago gave up on settling. Until astronomy (which is fairly recent) the only direction I had to settle was Africa and with Songhai's massive army in the Sahara I knew anything I put down would get captured in like 5 turns. I could have checked out Britain about 20 turns ago after astronomy but I figured that is where Norway and Spain put their little cities I see they have. I'll head up that way and check though!

Now my plan is to just take enough cities and land from Songhai I can become a competitive contender on science. I think I'll need about 6-7 and several I can grow rapidly to keep up with the giant AI empires that are just starting to snowball but if they keep warring all the time this may be easier then I thought

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

Heh, enjoying series so far but I would be tempted to attack Spain, maybe even more frigates and backstab Rome? Songhai's land is too tricky too hold on to. Lots of flat desert, if you get counter attacked you may loose some vital Xbows.

Edit: And you are not going to be taking Freedom as an ideology anytime soon? With China's pressure on you? Or take it - grab the Statue of liberty (and free troops) then switch back to needed one....

 

[danaphanous]

Well at the moment, as we saw, we need almost every military unit to hold off Songhai as we have needed for nearly 100 turns. I think the key to winning this game is finding someone to beat up that can give me enough land to be able to win, but not attract negative world attention (otherwise I'll just get thrown into more endless wars). Songhai has that and it would simultaneously end the war with them if I took it--leaving only Rome really as a dangerous neighbor.

In my opinion Spain's cities aren't good enough for me to want them. I haven't seen his other two but that one up there I already own half the territory of it and it has no luxuries or sea resources. Plus the warmonger diplo will be a lot greater since they have only 3 cities. I assume the other cities in Britain are bad because they aren't growing well since she founded them.

You are right that holding onto Songhai land will be a new challenge but I think it'll be easier then you think. It is at least they are contiguous to my own and they already have roads from morocco to there it looks like. Rome's land is good as well but in my opinion Rome will be far easier to control then Songhai as a neighbor as everyone hates them and is quite willing to DOW them. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if another coalition starts against them when I convince them to war Songhai. Ethiopia has been a friend the entire game and rarely backstabs and they are far more concerned with warring Rome (already asked me). Those are the only two neighbors to Songhai territory that would attack the territory. All I gotta do after taking down Songhai with Rome is turn Ethiopia on Rome since they already want a war. I'll come out the good guy and may decide to backstab Rome if the wars make them weak enough. But a war right now would be bad news. They have a sizeable fleet and I'll need some peaceful times to turn that Songhai land into good growing cities.

I would love to make new Frigates but as I already showed I've used my 2 iron and there isn't a single person in the world that hasn't used all of theirs. The world is a warring one and everyone uses all their resources it seems. :/ Maybe Songhai will have some I can take but at the moment Rome can make way more Frigates them me so don't think a backstab on them will be wise till I get some other people to attack them (shouldn't be hard). Depending on how much they weaken him I'll decide what to do from there.

No idea the best course for ideologies. It gets exponentially more complex with more people and dozens are influencing me. Until they start picking I have no idea what I can afford to choose. China and America are the main worries as they have quite a bit of tourism and have gone autocracy (arguably the worst ideology for my position). There is no way I can win cultural or conquer the world before an AI launches a space ship. There also aren't enough city states it appears to be able to win diplo with a map like this overloaded with AI. (remember we have 10 more then usual on huge) That leaves only one victory condition for us: science.

 

[danaphanous]

The conquest is beginning!

Between Rome and myself the Songhai Empire is crumbling, but not fast enough to keep from being annoying! This episode we wreck more of the Songhai army and take Taghaza cleanly after killing nearly all defenders. I do this to minimize warmonger hate (if he recaptured it I'd get more then usual having to retake because civ5 is broken like that). I'm trying to fly under the radar with this war and stay on good turns as many other people are at war and distracted atm. We have a good chance and all cities (even Songhai capital) are minor warmonger penalties so we should be good if we are careful. We will raze it as it has hardly any growth potential.

We also find an opportunistic Songhai caravel near our Atlantic trade routes and nearly kill it. Only to have it run away of 5 health and manage to pillage both our trade routes in a single turn? Stupid Songhai...can't wait to kill them! It's probably just confirmation bias but it really seems to me like the AI can see stuff they shouldn't be able too. He wasn't close enough to see any of the trade ships at the time he ran away yet he got both in one turn? xD So infuriating. Probably just blind luck but we'll be out 50 gpt and 14 science for 6 turns in the capital to replace all of that...I thought the days of Songhai pillaging TR were over!

Also forgot this episode that I'd already bribed Rome in lol. Figured that out at the end.

Part #20: Sacking Taghaza

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

You are right that holding onto Songhai land will be a new challenge but I think it'll be easier then you think. It is at least they are contiguous to my own and they already have roads from morocco to there it looks like. Rome's land is good as well but in my opinion Rome will be far easier to control then Songhai as a neighbor as everyone hates them and is quite willing to DOW them. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if another coalition starts against them when I convince them to war Songhai. Ethiopia has been a friend the entire game and rarely backstabs and they are far more concerned with warring Rome (already asked me). Those are the only two neighbors to Songhai territory that would attack the territory. All I gotta do after taking down Songhai with Rome is turn Ethiopia on Rome since they already want a war. I'll come out the good guy and may decide to backstab Rome if the wars make them weak enough. But a war right now would be bad news. They have a sizeable fleet and I'll need some peaceful times to turn that Songhai land into good growing cities.

Good argument, and you need the cities and if there is another one with flood plains to the west of their capital as it looks like, that could be two nice growth(science!) cities. And now you have at least a couple of spare great generals one can grab the luxuries after taghaza burns as you planned, and another could be used to place another citadel maybe to the north of the (captured) songhai capital to guard against future roman aggression.

Yes, cut out the longer AI turns sounds good to me (is Russia warring somebody? If not she must have 100+ units!)

BTW, the link to episode 20 seems to be pointing at episode 19...

 

[danaphanous]

Yes, cut out the longer AI turns sounds good to me (is Russia warring somebody? If not she must have 100+ units!)

BTW, the link to episode 20 seems to be pointing at episode 19...

Yeah I experimented with it a bit. You might notice some experimental cuts to shorten between-turns at the end but it was difficult as I was talking most of the time. There was also one bit where I had to step away but I really wanted to take Taghaza by the end of the episode so I returned to do it and edited the parts together to get rid of the awkward silent pauses. STILL was 33 minutes after all that.

I think in the future I'll just go silent as the between-turns go, and only comment if people call me up or some interesting notification pops up. Then I'll cut out all but the interesting bits. Should speed along between-turns and shorten them a lot so I can maybe accomplish 8-10 turns an episode again, especially after the war ends. So psyched to destroy Songhai's heartland, revenge feels sooo good after his 100 turns of abuse. NEVER hated an AI as much as this game.

thanks for that, fixing links now...

 

[danaphanous]

The war is going splendidly but suddenly Ethiopia decides they've had enough of Rome and attack, leaving us to fight Songhai on our own! We continue the assault but soon meet resistance. We steal our way into the industrial era. And Songhai's magic caravel continues its pillaging spree while we chase it all over the Atlantic.

Part 21: Ethiopian Invasion!

This week is super busy and I will most likely not have another recording by Friday. I'll try to have a weekend episode to make up for it!

 

[danaphanous]

guys, as much as I hate it, I do not have time to record this weekend. It's been nonstop work for me. :/ I don' think I can have another video out till wednesday. Sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it! I have some footage I've been working on for a tutorial, I could maybe edit and put that up instead this coming weekend to make up for it

 

[danaphanous]

Yay! Finally found some time to play! It was great fun! I got a couple episodes ready for this week!

With the Roman troops sent home to fight Ethiopia we are left on our own again against the once mighty Songhai army--and they are rebuilding fast! Can we stand head to head with them on open ground and take Tombouctu?

Part 22: Taking Tombouctu!

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

They can't have many troops left, but I would check Songhai's gold reserves via trade as he might be able to buy a few to surround his capital as they do on higher levels, and two or three of those cavalry could be very painful if they wreck one of your promoted crossbows. The city spot near the mountain isn't bad but is it worth it at this stage of the game? it will take a while to develop (one more food route to capital I suppose). You could also build 'Big Ben' in capital I see, not my favourite wonder but maybe useful?

As for ideology as China and America have gone for Autocracy and their pressure must be very high - are you not completely stuffed now? I agree it's the worse one for you, but if you pick another the happiness hit is going to be bad... especially when the other civs in europe and asia all go autocracy as well.

Also, a bit off-topic, how many of you are planning on getting civilization 6 from the get-go? I don't usually but if you guys want to see me play it on the channel I do have the money, just not a lot of time right now It looks really fun from what I've seen, I might be willing to get it and run a series alongside my civ5!

My brief review; it's better than Civ5 was at launch. Maybe same as Civ4(?) in terms of playability, the game looks very polished. The AI needs work, the UI needs work, the early AI are psychotic maniacs, the Barbarians can be insane if you get a bad start. (You will know a bad start when 2-3 barb scouts visit your capital in the first 10 turns, followed by their mates on horseback). For those of us used to ducking and diving in and out of trees/hills to get a cover bonus the new movement system can be surprising and painful; I lost zero units to AI civs in last early game; and six to barbs

Production in cities rules all, not science. End game drags a bit, still having a lot of fun though. Would recommend you try a few games at emperor level first though against Scythia and Sumaria, just to see how things go

 

[danaphanous]

Yeah we'll see! He could put up some stiff resistance but I see his 2nd horses in there and I'm gonna pillage 'em so hopefully that will be the end of mandekalu. I think the worst is over with taking Tombouctu. We have a nice river line and territory right next to his cap to heal up now while whittling down the city. This was not the case when fighting Tombouctu as it was so far outside our territory. We still had yet to establish a foothold! As far as the settling, I am sort of ignoring normal expansion logic. Right now I know I need cities or I'll lose for sure. We have too few. It is true that a new one will start a little behind but not as much as you think. That's a good spot with growth tiles and mountain for observatory. It will definitely pay for its own science penalty and start giving me more back pretty quickly which is all I care about at this point. Also, if you recall I never got to settle my 4th tradition city so it should start with a monument and aqueduct which will catapult it into some quick growth! We'll see how it turns out, it's an experiment at this point.

Anyway, I already did this stuff in the next episode so what am I talked about xD

China also has yet to choose an ideology: it was russia and america that chose autocracy. You are correct if she goes autocracy I'm probably forced to choose it but if they choose order or freedom we could maybe follow them! There's hope!

Part 23: Empire Building

Thanks for the tips on civ6! It does look interesting, but I may still wait for it to get patched a few rounds.

 

[danaphanous]

Haha, the grind continues but I'm close to capturing his capital now and have destroyed nearly all of his units if the military advisor is correct! This city has some major fortress defenses though! I think next episode I can finally end this brutal 2000-year war! Our revenge is at hand! >

Part 24: Siege of Gao

 

[danaphanous]

hey guys, sorry for the long waits on videos. Stuff is getting really busy for me here building up the thanksgiving holiday. I could probably find time for some episodes and really want to beat this game after all the time I've put into this challenge (I think I can, it'll be close) but before I go to all that trouble making videos I really wanted to know if people were still following the series or if they've lost interest since civ VI came out. Let me know if you still really want to see me finish it. I probably will regardless but it would be a heck of a lot less work if I did it off-camera without the 15 or so episodes it would take, so let me know if you guys really want me to keep recording every turn like this or what your opinion is. If no one comments I'll probably put the series on hold for a little while till I get more time after thanksgiving.

 

[psparky]

I'm still watching and enjoying. Did fall some way behind but had a blitz last week and should catch up (now that you have slowed down) today or tomorrow. If you do decide to finish it without recording, it would be great to at least see a summary.

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

I'm still watching and enjoying. Did fall some way behind but had a blitz last week and should catch up (now that you have slowed down) today or tomorrow. If you do decide to finish it without recording, it would be great to at least see a summary.

Yes, am still watching as well, if it's taking too long could you still record each episode, but just post the last one with a voice over commentary if possible. Would be good to see how it ends...