Many Leaders Game 3 - Prince Domination

Likewise very interested to see the results of that. From my game, I think Izzy is better to kill. She seems to have bugged to one city - which has a Shrine already built in it - think that will do more for my economy than a bugged trading partner.

Also how Ralph Jacksons game will progress - no war, but the strongest economy - seems a decent trade off!

OK, what's the plan. Well whip up a few catapults and take out Shaka, while continuing to cosy up to Izzy (currently at +7 relations). I won't get to her this set but she doesn't reslly seems to be doing much in anyone's game so far.

First IBT, Colossus BIADL, well we know what the Oracle builder got.

Another city, to pick up iron and ivory.



We start the attack, which includes losing two catapults at over 50% and an axe at over 90% but success is eventually ours.



We play many turns of taking Shaka's cities.







But as WW is killing and he turns up with an unexpected stack.



Bad timing as I would have taken another city one turn later. So I sue for peace.



I build the Great Library.

<forgot screenie>

When the peace deal runs out I have a war elephant one turn away from my main attack stack so wait to let it catch up. Shaka declares on Izzy next IBT

I join in, to bring Izzy up to Friendly (meaning i can get Calendar out of her )

We are poised to take out his only city left of any note but he has three other pissy little ones I'll prbably raze.

WW is coming back but in a couple turns I'll have Pyramids (was actually building them for the cash) and Statue of Zeus, so should die down with Representation.





Research: Aesthetics. Literature, Code of Laws, Monarchy (trade), Sailing (peace), HBR (peace), Monotheism (trade), Calendar (trade), Meditation (trade)

Goals for the next turnset are to get rid of Shaka and get out a caravel. Izzy may or may not be around as well. Want to work towards Gunpowder and the UU as well.

The plan was very simple in finishing off what remained of the Zulu and then deciding what to do about Izzy when i could see what was left of my horde. As it was i only lost one further axe in finishing of the two Zulu cities while i gained three additional workers.

i had already sent a settler north to found Old Sarai and claim the two gold hills and the wheat and i sent my horde north to stage theier, only breaking their march to raze the barbarian city of Kushans which had sprung up.

Scouting the spanish lands had revealed that Barcelona had been founded in the north west to claim ivory, horses and sugar but was only defended by two warriors. Spain was too tempting and i declared war, took and kept Barcelona on the first turn of war and marched on Madrid. At this point i was tasked to liberate my holy city..even better! Madrid fell and i was given the option of four axes, converting seven cities or building the shrine..no contest.

Seville fell to a lone keshik and that was the end of the Spanish.



No i didn't know that workers could swim but he was on a galley in the city so i guess he jumped overboard when my keshik appeared. Dont worry though he washed up on the other shore where just by chance another keshik arrived to save him from the Barbarian Archer


The Wars really didn't take up much of the production of my cities so i had managed to build libraries and granaries in most of them but i also moved my capital to Ning-Hsia to be more central to my empire.

i also noted that no one had built the Pyramids, so more for the cash rather than anything else i started building them in Turfan, however i am now 1 turn away from being able to whip them which should be a boost to my economy

i have also got a galley out to investigate the islands to the north, time to meet and greet the neighbours





Upcoming Plans
1. Improve my economy
2. More cities on my island
3. Get a caravel out to find the world
4. and most important.... Kill, Raze and Enslave

I have recovered my country in disastrous condition.
Eight cities, without CoL, Currency, Libraries... It's such a shame
Why have I kept Barca ??? I don't even like the football team there

Anyway, this turnset's goal is:
-RECOVER ECONOMY
-SPEED THE RESEARCH
-try to get a wonder, especially Pyramids (Rome just started it)

Basically, the idea was to build libraries/granaries everywhere, whipping some, chopping others, and beeline CoL like hell. Then, do the same with courthouses.
I tried to stick a worker or two whenever possible, because I just had to get those cottages going where it was possible.

Buddhism spread very slowly this time - only two cities become buddhist - Barcelona and Rome ( via a missionary ). Shrine not built because I got a GS (@ 25% probability...) - I wanted GP

In turn 103, I started Temple of Artemis in Ulundi for gold when it shall be BIDL. My research needed it pretty badly - I must admit.

Monotheism came in T104, I revolted to OR and started Code of Laws. This one took 23 ( TWENTY THREE ) turns to finish...

Anyway, with Libs appearing here and there, it was managable ( I only got STRIKE once, in turn 108, losing no unit ).

In T112, I encountered a nice barb city on the clam/horse/deer spot to the south. With a CR axe it didn't last long :



I also built two work boats to scout around the island, hoping Oz will leave a passage to another AI... Tough luck until now, but very nice islands to the north.

It was with great surprise that I have achieved my first wonder - Temple of Artemis was built in Ulundi! It was a nice boost to my eco, getting 100% trade route extra income. Well, no foreign TR available, still it was 2G instead of 1.

Anyway, the second wonder of this TR early combo, was BIDL (Great Lighthouse).

Great Scientist ( see above... grrr ) appeared in Ulundi, bulbing Maths ( no need for an early Academy with my cities generating 9 beakers at the most ).

Code of Laws has finally arrived in turn 127, and first courthouses started to spread around the place.

In T131 a major achievement has been done in Rome, the Pyramids (sorry for the missing pic - I forgot to copy paste it in paint). Revolt to Representation followed, and we finally could stop whipping and get our cities to a nice cap and eco level.

Alphabet was followed by Currency in turn 136, and our immediate eco concerns are temporarily over. I learned that we are million souls, and this figure doubled in 7 turns Happy caps went higher thanks to the Rep.

Some wonders get BIDL (GLib and Parthenon - too bad for the first one).
Currency in, I managed to break even at 40%, generating a nice 150 bk/turn. I started forums (roman unique for market) in several cities.

In 147 I finally got the MC, on the same turn that the Colossus was BIDL. Anyway, with my eco I had other concerns that the cheap forges. This shall change pretty soon

On our last turn (already? I want more!), Aesthetics was discovered for SoZ, and I started Sailing for trade and Moais.

Time to sum up a little bit.

Here is the overview of the empire:



No new cities, it would be a suicide if I did
Anyway, I have 3-4 in project for the next turnset.

A quick overview of existing ones:



It will even get better with the shrine, buddhist spread, and an academy here and there.

And to finish, the demo and victory screens :





I wonder how it went in your games guys.
And I can look into the spoilers now

Turn 100: It's high time to finish the Zulu War. I start by pillaging the copper at Nobamba. No metals = no Impis = no Shaka. Simple.

Turn 101: Pop goes the copper and Shaka is down to defending with archers. A risky proposition when pitted against Immortals.

Turn 104: Shaka gets a GG. It's in vain. Bulawayo and Nobamba are captured with a bit of luck as an axeman defeats a veteran Impi at 30% odds. The GG dies with his men. I order up some workers to develop the captured Zulu cities. They are at pretty nice locations.

Turn 105: Michel de Ryuter becomes a Medic III Immortal.

Turn 106: Shaka captures the barb city. Make that two cities to capture.

Turn 108: Alphabet -> Mathematics. Izzy is up to two cities but has nothing to offer but clam. Kwakuduza on the coast is taken. Shaka is down to one city but I'm up to eight.

Turn 112: Tech rate down to 0% to break even. There's one surefire way to deal with excessive military upkeep...

Turn 113: Uzbek is razed and SHAKA IS DEAD!

Turn 114: I convert to Buddhism. A wandering barbarian runs into my army fresh from slaying the Zulus and meets an unhappy end.

Turn 120: Mathematics -> Currency.

Turn 129: Trade dyes from Izzy for deer.

Turn 134: Currency -> Calendar.

Turn 136: Trade Monarchy from Izzy for Currency.

Turn 141: Calendar -> Metal Casting.

Turn 143: Ecbatana founded. I also founded Golden City somewhere in here. Mainly I was whipping up infrastructure, chopping, and cottage spamming.

Turn 148: Metal Casting -> Civil Service. Teching is really slow because of no trade partners. Stupid work boat refuses to find anybody either.



Turn 150: The war against the Zulus was a bigger strain on my economy than I'd anticipated. Now the cities I took are finally up and running, but I'm way behind in tech and Izzy is not proving to be a useful trading partner. Better to just crush her and then beeline for Optics.

Shaka attacked as expected.. He lost his main attack force of impis by moving into the open. After that it was me harrassing him, pillage the horse and building catapults.

I settled the gold near the coast up by Isabella

Statue of Zeus started because war could be the name of this game, and I've got ivory!! hooked up nearly . It finished in York.



Iron working in, and it turns up in the new gold city.

Buddhism arrives and I convert. That's me and Issey pals. A horde of barbarian spears on the border. They mostly harrass Shaka and not me.

Really a lot of fun with chariots and axes playing cat and mouse with Impis and axes in the forest hill tiles.



Declare peace, with Nomamba still in Shaka's hands. He can wait as I move units North to pound Issey.



I see other players have cleared the continent. I hope with financial and not over expanding that I will have a good tech lead over the AI when it's time to float the boats , however I think the slow pace was largely due to Shaka just keeping me busy chasing his Impis.

Turn starts - 2nd most powerful...

Science:
Polytheism (350BC) > Monotheism (275BC) > Maths (125BC) > Calendar (50AD) > Alphabet (175AD) > Metal Casing (300AD) > Compass (425AD) > Civil Service (560AD) > Monarchy (600AD) > Currency (660AD) > Machinery (740AD) > Optics (800AD) >

My goal here was to explore the islands to the north, then get off this rock and find some new friends to play with... my current pair seem to be broken!

In 275BC I revolt to a Caste System/Organised Religion pairing.

Get a +1 Trade in the oasis event in 250BC.

In 225BC, my first exploring galley rolls off the lines.

In 125BC, invite Isabella politely to leave the game.



The peace loving French need a whole island to call their own.

In 50BC, a single axe ends the Spanish civilisation. Ah well.



50AD sees my first great scientist born. Sent for an accademy in the capital.
450AD sees the second GS born - burnt to make me the first to philosophy.
680AD sees a GM - burned for a GA. Use this to revolt to a Beuracratic Hereditary Rule.

Overall, this was a quiet turnset.

Put down 3 new cities, captured Madrid.

Explored

Laid out a lot of courthouses, forges and markets. Fair few libraries and monastries. Connected up my new resources, aside from Silver - which will be online ASAP.

Plans for next round:
Just got caravels, so off to meet the rest of the world.

Hopefully, via liberalism, I shall have early astronomy to trade with them and 'peacefully export' troops.

After Astronomy, it will be a semi beeline for State Property - makes a lot of sense for this variant.

Here's my nation and my city info:

I'm starting to believe that killing Izzy might not have been a great idea. Especially for me, with my continuation of sloppy play. This set consisted of the bombing of my economy despite all the Rathauses I built. Oh well.

It was relatively uneventful. My teching was slow: MC, Meditation, Priesthood, Fishing, Code of Laws, Sailing, Compass, Calendar (incomplete).

I captured a barb city to the south, and founded cities all over the place, against my better judgment.







Now watch me make the "worst" list in every category.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/96336/Charlemagne_AD-0800.CivBeyondSwordSave

I too think that the early rush on both weren't the best path to victory, as my eco recovers painfully. Though I have a nice GPT compared to other AI, still the Liberalism/Astro slingshot will be hard to get.
When I look at other games, I am amazed about yours TriviAl. I think you managed to do right things at the right time, giving you a nice opening on the future game.

Looks like your game is solidly back on track though - seems your economy is really starting to rev up now? Very jealous of those pyramids as well!

To be fair, I've managed to tank my 3 of my last 5 games (including a really botched RB game ) by overexpanding my empires - I've been working on it a lot lately!

Nowadays I have gotten a bit obsessive about getting CoL before my first war starts. Either having it, or having enough treasury to defecit research to it. The Courthouses are great, especially with Organised, but what I really like is Caste System - find unlimited Merchants can make a huge difference.

Looking over some other factors, I'm in a golden age at the end of my save - which does make the economy look a whole lot better? But the real kicker might be Izzy building the shrine for me. Wheras I can see you've been having bad luck getting a prophet out.

Within the first few turns of this set, buildup was sufficient to declare on Shaka.



As I mentioned in MLG 2, this is quickly becoming my favorite spy mission, although this time I haven't gotten any word that Shaka has attempted anything against me yet.

I also hooked up iron within a couple of turns of declaring and began bringing swords to the party.

I had no difficulty taking his ivory city



or his tundra city in the south, except we have that little bug again:



During the war, Isabella was kind enough to send me a buddhist missionary, which yielded a request, which I accepted. (I wish I had refused, because a talk to the hand comment could have been really funny here.)



So with Izzy and I best Budds (sic), I was actually able to backfill a little:



One other bonus during the turnset, a future gift from Shaka (he is so thoughtful):



From there, things bogged down against Shaka, though. My troop buildup is improving, and I’ve teched to construction and machinery (on turn 150), so I will have better troops. Two great generals have been settled in Utrecht.

The last turn information:

Late in the previous turn set Shaka declared war on me. I had just researched construction and while waiting for the first catapults to arrive I could only defend myself. Once my stack was in place I entered Zulu land with a stack of doom in 175BC.



Most of Shaka's troops were concentrated in Ulundi, which I captured with small loses after several turns of bombardment.



I researched Alphabet and was able to get some low-priority techs from Isabella, who kept spamming Buddhist missionaries into my cities.



WW was building up and it was time for a breather. Shaka gave me all he had for peace.



During the brief peaceful period I built the pyramids and changed to representation.



In 540 I had moved my army north and declared on Isabella in 540, and in 700 I had booted her off my continent. Unfortunately she had another city on an island, so we signed peace for the time being. I'm now moving my army take the remaining Zulu cities.

My economy is still doing fine after the quick expansion. I have courthouses in most cities, and I'm working many cottages. My research path was a bit confused, but I've 5 turns left on education, and will then bee-line optics before going for liberalism, with astronomy as the prize.

well, as you all know, when we last left Lincoln it was in the lurch: Shaka had just declared with an army twice as big as mine and me w/no metal!

I still needed three turns to hook up the iron, and in the mean-time:


And, then, just as it got hooked up, and I built 1 (ONE!!) freakin' axe:


but, w/that one axe:

Huzzah!!

but alas, again:


okay, so now i'm down to 2 cities on the continent w/Shaka still mad as heck, & refusing to talk. After Const comes in, I hatch a sneaky scheme:


and i got THIS quest:

Yeah ~ what sort of military advisors, in the middle of a war of annihilation want to go gallivanting off for horsies. Well, mine do ~ that's why we're losing! [ed note: this SHOULD'VE been the a pic of the horses quest, but i got this crummy news as well!)

Finally, Shaka will talk to me:

good one ~ not until you take it from my cold, dead fingers, my friend.

Well, my plans came to fruition:


and a few turns later, got this msg:

Good to see they fixed that in the patch

And just when I thought I was in the clear:

D'oh!!

Let's just say i'm looking forward to my shadow game!

I really feel sorry, given all the hard work you put in this one.
And all those quests...
Report your shadow one as well. I look forward to it!

don't feel sorry. I feel sorry for myself, too, when playing, but since it's only in 50 turn increments, I usually don't get so down on the game that i want to stop . . . but i sure get awful close

perhaps i will report the shadow ~ it's sure going much, MUCH better. It was all down to that dang settler. Also, i got about FOUR quests in that one so far, and, iirc, we haven't really seen many from any of the other leader games as well.