Many Leaders Game 3 - Prince Domination

I will point out that my economy is inflated as I'm still in a GA with a couple of turns left to run... those MFG and Beaker figures will take a slump when that's over.

Really liking Ralphs game... ths peaceful economic approach is working really well! - out of curiousity, how's Shakas tech level looking? Would you outech him if it came to war?

Pholks game certainly makes for interesting reading. Hats off to it!

Ralph's game is certainly a great working case of how to manage this kind of situation with a fin civ/leader. to his skill of play

My Dominatrix is the best just because of the initial number of conquered cities. It has pretty much slumped my economy for 40 turns or so (another working case about how to do an initial rush and dump your economy with ), and now I'm painfully recovering. So while some of you ( pigswill for instance ) have already 10 cities, I might have to stay at my eight level for some more turns, improving greatly what I have to catch up in techs.

My aim was to expand quickly, relying on coastal trade to fund the initial expansion (Glight followed by Cothon). Next round I'm likely to focus on consolidation, maybe try to take out Bella with a mix of veteran axes and novice Numidians then expand to northern islands.
Swopping capitals is worth considering and something that I'd completly overlooked.

The Glight and Cothon is a very nice combination!

Is Izzy particularly well developed in your game? Wondering if you can annex her anytime your economy feels up to it?

if i can handle it, i would make peace w/Shaka on relatively even terms, and try to take Spain. Move my capital to madrid, and see what I can do from there . . . that's the plan anyway ~ now i get to see if Shaka cooperates.

Turn 105 Finished CoL , research set to MC

Turn 106 Founded Loki

Next turn:

this wasn't one of the "fixed" things?
Turn 119 Shaka gets Budha... me too ( not until I get cats )

Turn 125 Got construction....

Turn 128 Notice this:

Really bad news... ( of course that Shaka adopted police state next turn )

And got a GS.... With Alpha as bulbing option, the best move is making a academy in Odin ( triple gold spot ( Sometimes I wonder if this map has not a human hand on it... ))

Turn 132 Shaka wants gold. I gave it.... I’m not ready yet some more axes and cats ( this will be a harsh and long war.... )

At least some good news:

Turn 148 Got CS and will start the war soon ( our UU will follow shortly ) War with shaka will arrive shortly

I think that I made a mistake letting Shaka unchecked for so long...Shaka loves Police state and that will make this war hard. War is needed ASAP and the first target will be the phant city ( that way I'll have a edge )

Alright, time to adjust the sights. Once CS, Machinery, and Construction are in I will head down the path IW -> Compass -> Optics. I will milk Izzy for all she's worth and then finish her off and trade with some new people.

Turn 150: Reprioritized my cities. Rhagae starts a settler so that I can found a silverfish city on the coast.

Turn 156: Converted to Bureaucracy.

Turn 157: Sell MC to Izzy for 150 gold (she was 4 turns from it). Going into deficit research.

Turn 158: FP done in Ulundi. I can now relocate the capital later to another continent.

Turn 160: Tarsus founded.

Turn 170: Great Scientist pops from Ulundi. Slept.

Turn 171: Optics is in, heading to Philosophy.

Turn 176: Philosophy in, Colossus whipped in Pasagadae. I grab HBR for jumbos.

Turn 180: John Dalton lightbulbs 6 turns worth of Edumacation.

Turn 183: Enough of a stack has gathered in Golden City. I dispatch them towards Spain. The first caravel sails out to find new lands.

Turn 186: Izzy has only archers for defense. This is going to be a slaughterfest. I even send out my outdated Immortal stack lead by de Ruyter. Cordoba falls to my main stack.

Turn 187: Immortals take Santiago without losses. A stack of jumbos is roaming the west coast.

Turn 189: Jumbos take Toledo without losses. Caravel meets Koreans and Suryavayayaya... that yellow guy. I make a little trade with Wang, revealing the rest of the inhabited world. Let's see. We have Mali and Byzantium. I know where the caravel is headed next...

Turn 190: Lib is in and I pick Nationalism in order not to obsolete The Colossus. Wang declares war on Sury. Those two must've been at it before since the Khmers are horribly backwards. I meet the rest of my future subjects and instigate some trades to backfill the tech tree. Revolt to OrgRel + HerRule.

Turn 191: Madrid falls with heavy losses (hilltop longbows). For my trouble I get Subutai the GG and the Mahabodhi (+15 gpt).

Turn 192: Seville falls and Izzy is down to one city (Barcelona).

Turn 193: Wang asks me to join a holy war against the Khmers. Holy war phony war, I accept.



Turn 197: Izzy gets a GG in Barcelona. Horatio Nelson the chariot driver is shortlived as I suicide a few cats and then take the city, finishing off the Spanish civilization in the process. Izzy didn't manage to build a single wonder besides the Buddhist shrine.

Turn 199: The AIs have totally neglected to build late classical wonders, so I grab SoZ after a mad chop rush. I also try and grab a late GLibrary in Ulundi.

I have the continent to myself and Persia is the largest civ out there. The AIs on the other continent have spent too much time fighting amongst themselves. The game looks pretty much winning. From now it's simply a question of teching to Astronomy and picking them off one at a time.



Sidenote: This is Prince on BtS 3.13??? I thought the AI was supposed to be fixed to tech better.

Last turnset made our global economy look a little better.
Now it was time to explore whatever hides in this world and fill our continent.

So, general plan is:
- continue eco buildup
- beeline optics and liberalism
- settle at least three new cities on our continent

For the tech path, I didn't note them when they arrived, so here are the techs discovered/traded:

Sailing - Compass - Calendar - Machinery - Optics - Civil Service - Paper - Education - (traded for: Meditation, Monarchy, Archery, Litterature) - Philosophy - (traded for: Drama, Music, Theology, Construction) - Liberalism - (slingshot Astronomy) - Divine Right - (traded for: Feudalism, HR) - Gunpowder (due in 2)

As you see, pretty much activity for this one.

It started quietly - I learned that Rome is 2nd power in the world.

A Great Prophet was born in Ulundi in turn 156, and went to build Mahabodhi in Madrid.

Two turns later, with Industrious/Ivory combo, I landed Statue of Zeus in Ulundi (six turns build ).

I found Ravenna, my FP location city, in turn 162:



I have had some luck in events this turnset getting some gold first, and then 343 beakers on Printing Press reaserch.

In turn 166, I found Arretium south of Rome.



Two turns later it's up to Mediolanum to get found on a nice silver/deer/iron/fish spot south of Ulundi.
I have no pic here - some copy/paste problems and it got overwritten.

Anyway, another nice wonder to have settled in Ulundi:



After that, the AI went wonder crazy grabbing all my projects... At least I got some gold instead.

This way, AP was BIDL by a Hindu team, followed by Sistine on the next turn. It gave me a little insight of tech speed on the other side of the world.

In turn 175 I revolt to Bureaucracy.

Moais are built in Madrid, speeding up the pathetic hammer rate of this city.

Tao is found IDL five turns later, and I start to worry for Liberalism. I set Ulundi on Research build and it speeds a little bit my later techs.

Sometimes in this period, I started a golden age with a prophet born in Ulundi. It lasted the nice 12 turns MoM period

My exploring caravel encounters our first buddy in T182. I manage a nice deal with him, along with OB agreement:



Next turn, it's up to the Khmer to meet me. OB, I hand them Litterature for 60 gold pleasing him like hell.



They are a little bit behind Byzantium, the major wonder whore, so I settle another nice set of deals (being at pleased with him) - his map for CoL:



This map shows us our last buddies - research crazy Mansa and financial Wang Kon.

I meet the latter first, and he is already Annoyed with me, as I apparently have traded with his worst ennemies. No matter, he so much behind that he will not last till the end :



Haga Sophia is built by Justinian.

On our side of the world, I settle Arpinium:



Back to our explorations, I meet Mansa who seems to be the tech leader, though he has few cities. I like Mansa a lot, feeling he will be my tech-buddy, at least for now :



After Justinian got Notre Dame and Islam FiDL later (Mansa), I landed the Lib:



On the next turn, a Great Scientist is born in Ulundi and settles Academy in Rome.

I got beaten to Sankore by Justinian, Paya by the Khmer (well, this one at least goes to the right person), and Angkor (on the last building turn) to Justinian again.... Plenty gold instead - it will fuel up the research a bit.

Anyway, in turn 197 I build Forbidden Palace in Ravenna and our global eco looks pretty nice.

The same turn, a major bonus in this game:



I revolt to the Free Religion on the same turn - no need for State Religion, AP, Sistine, Sonkoré buing built by AI. I still started Spiral, hoping for the gold to drop by as soon as some AI lands it.

In 1400 AD (turn 200), we learn that there are 10 millions Romans living on our continent.
Here is this continent:



There are still two-three potential fillers, otherwise our land in nicely filled. After, I think about going for the northern island. We will need them anyway for domination.

Our cities:



Twelve cities of our own, which is nice at this stage.

It positions us well in terms of demo:



I think my MfG stinks, otherwise the GNP looks well.

In terms of Dominatrix :



My builds were essentially eco ones : Courthouses / Forums / some Harbors.
I put several Monasteries also in major cities, and spreaded buddhism everywhere on the continent.

Now, it's University time.

I think the national wonders will go as follows:

HE in Antium
NE in Ulundi
Globe in Madrid
Oxford in Rome

For the others, it will wait a little bit.

Can't wait to see your games!

Izzy probably won't trade techs with me since she needs to know at least 2 people before she'll trade. So she needs to go.

The plan is to research up to alphabet, hire some spies in cities with Ziggurats for more EP, train a spy, and use it to put Madrid in revolt, it's at 60% defense and on a hill. Izzy has been slack militarily so the rest of her empire should fall easily enough.

Tech path: Iron Working, Hunting for Ivory, Archery, Alphabet for Spies, Monarchy for Happiness, Currency for Economy, Poly, Masonry, Mono for OR, Aesthetics for the War Weariness wonder

Turn 103: Source of Iron discovered near Eridu!



Turn 109: Ur founded to get Ivory



Somewhere in here (1AD) Nibru was founded to get horsies, took screenshot at end of round



Once Alphabet was in I trained a spy and sent him to Madrid. Once he got to Madrid on Turn 128:



I reloaded here. There's a bug where spies in enemy territory get booted out when you declare war. I did an unofficial patch, which fixes this and other things (another SG had an ally declare war on us after making a colony).
I split my promoted units from the Shaka war into 2 stacks, a smaller stack to take Cordoba and raze Seville, and a bigger stack to take Madrid and Barcelona. Izzy had gotten metal somehow in a city off the mainland.
I immediately captured and kept Cordoba (didn't take a screenshot, had 1 archer, lost 1 vulture)

Turn 131: Spy is ready to put Madrid in revolt



I crossed my fingers since it was all my EP and I didn't really have a plan if it didn't work But it did and Madrid was mine this turn (Again, didn't take a screenshot). Izzy had a lot of EP on me for someone without Alphabet and CoL.

The same turn I razed Seville, people took up arms but I didn't see anyone.

Turn 134: Barcelona captured and kept. Maybe I should have razed it for later but it's where I would have put it.



So, all of Izzy's cities on the mainland are captured/razed. Where's Izzy?



Settling on the iron. So unladylike. I should have put some CR units in the galley but Izzy had a galley around and I was afraid of losing them (galley was wounded when attacked earlier)

Turn 138: Izzy decides to pillage the other workboat outside Madrid, the one she built, instead of going after my wounded galley with 2 CR3 Vultures in it



Sometimes the AI isn't very intelligent.

Turn 140: Paid 22g to rebuild a mine.

Toledo autorazed, Spain is no more



Time to rebuild the economy. I have the 3 Cs for Gilgamesh, Calendar, Currency, and Priesthood (CCP, think they make hockey equipment). I concentrated on Ziggurats for the newer/captured cities, and founded 2 more cities

Bad Tibira for Silver



Zimbir for Sugar



I need to decide where to put Forbidden Palace. Aesthetics is next for the WW wonder, then beeline Optics for meeting the other civs. With noone else to fight the next few rounds shouldn't take as long

So, when we last left our fearless lincoln, he was facing down an irate Zulu. Now back to our program ~

I was able to raze one city of Shaka's hoping to sue for peace by chance:

he didn;t want peace, and never does through this game!

didn't notice it before, but that jag-off built the Great Wall and it inlcuded MY territory!! And he's brought a heck of a mixed stack ~

things don't look good for us.

and another one bites the dust.

w/o metals, this game is looking pretty hopeless. So i send our poor workers away:


and:

on the upside, research is set @ 100% w/no loss. the downside, it's 15 bpt @ 1220 ad!!

oh look, it only took a few turns, but shaka's found me again!!




That's 50 turns, but i'm going to keep going b/c i can feel the end a'comin' even though i snuck out another settler

a few turns later, i got a GG and merged him w/the 3 archers i have defending PHiladelphia, and my settler found a new site:


lucky for me, so far, Shaka can't bring any units to kill mine:


and then, mercy finds me:


true to form, that lasted *maybe* 11 turns:


and so:






conclusions to follow

so, clearly losing that early settler hurt me, but I also think heading for that Gold site first was another move. That allowed the barb city to spawn in the spot near my planned copper site.

The final move that sealed the deal was settling the horse/deer/clams site instead of just moving a tile SW to still grab the copper.

Clearly, these were total mistakes on my part w/shaka our next door neighbor, and I will be playing out my shadow game still to see what might've been for me.

if wanted and acceptable, I will continue to report about it just for more comparisons.

Thanks for playing til' the end.
I don't thinks your place in the stats will be great though
Anyway, you had tough luck, and Shaka is a hell of a neighbor if you start too close to him.

Don't forget to post the shadow game report!

Well, what's the plan. Firstly Shaka must go.

Techwise, Currency, Optics and Gunpowder all seem good targets. I think Currency first as I liked TriviAl's idea of employing merchants and I'll have Pyramids in a couple of turns so Representation helps there (I can't bring myself to go Caste System though). Astronomy from Liberalism after that but that may have to wait until next set.

Anyway, on with the show.

The war rages on.



Civil Services comes in same turn as whipped Pyramids



We switch civics to Bureaucracy and Representation.

We build Statue of Zeus.



I bulb Philosophy from a GS but Taoism was founded about 5 turns previous.

I clear out Shaka from the mainland but he must have founded a city in the island as he ain't dead. Peace time again.



We pick up a barb city just before Izzy does



Well its time for Izzy to go. Unfortunately she has Feudalism but I make a trade with her just before war is declared.



We meet our first opponent from the other side.



Izzy starts to die.





We meet the rest of the eastern crowd. Sury, Mansu and Wang.

Take Astronomy from Liberalism.



And kill of Izzy.



Gunpowder comes in and then my first Oromo Warrior



Well I'm assembling my army for foreign conquest. I'll have to think about who to attack first. I think I'll go for Suryavarman



Research-wise, I really want to do this with Rifles and Cannons only.

Shaka will be dead precisely 3 turns into the next set as well





Research: Civil Service, Currency, Machinery, Compass, Optics, Paper, Theology (trade), Feudalism (trade) Education, Engineering (trade), Liberalism, Astronomy (lib), Guilds (trade), Drama (trade), Gunpowder, Banking (trade), Economics

Ozbenno said:

I'll have to think about who to attack first. I think I'll go for Suryavarman

Click to expand...

Really? Not Mansa? Of course the correct answer is "whoever happens to build the Apoplectic Palace". Every good domination war begins by razing the AP city.

Sury has the biggest landmass area of cities, if I clean him and Justinian out I think that would be enough.

We are 4th most cultured... ah well

Science: Paper (840AD) > Archery(1000AD-Trade) > Construction(1000AD-Trade) > Education (1050AD) > Feudalism (1090 Trade) > Liberalism (1120AD) > Astronomy (1120AD-Liberalism) > Engineering (1160AD) > Gunpowder (1200AD) > Aesthetics (1220AD) > Literature (1230AD) > Printing Press (1300AD) > Scientific Method (unfinished) >

I miscalced - saved a scientist to bulb liberalism, but it instead will bulb machinery - decide to save for a 2nd GA - gotten quite addicted to those things.

Also took the eye off the ball when the others rapidly teched to banking - missed a few decent potential trades.


In 980AD have a nice stroke of good fortune = find gems near paris.



In some horrible stroke of idiocy, I realise that I have been running OR without switching religions - I am a total 100% idiotic cretin. I fix that with an immediate revolt and will pretend it never happened.

In 980-1000AD I meet most of the opposition. Trade Wanger Bronze working for Archery and Construction. Trade Mansa Machinery for his maps and theology. In 1010 this yields the circumnavigation bonus. In 1010 Trade Wanger Machinery for his maps and Horseback riding.

Here are the motley neighbours:



1010AD - make a GG Chariot medic unit - so it can sit at the bottom of my stack.

1120AD - get a nice bump in commerce as overseas trade routes kick in with astronomy.

1150AD sees me train my first Archery unit. Training some longbows to free my CR III units from garrison duty.

1170AD - Maoi in Madrid.

In 1200AD, I revolt to vassalage and tweak the espionage slider up to 10% - weighted towards the Khmer...

In 1290AD I get my first great spy - having a think what to do with him... decide that Scotland Yard in Lyons is a good idea - it's not tagged for any other national wonder, has a food surplus and can run specialists later.

1300AD is the year of my first world wonder - the University of Sankore.

1360AD is the heroic epic in Bullywaio.

In 1380, shut off research for a little upgrading.

In 1390, I get a freaking awesome event - free pinch for all my muskets. That's just nasty! Lost the piccie though

As we leave things, ready to start boarding ships early in the next turnset.

Khmer is the target - far behind in tech - not even got machinery - longbows and older units defending. Should rip them a new one with my promoted maces, muskets and trebs. The espionage spend has been worthwhile, can investigate all Khmer cities and have enough banked to revolt one of them - capital most likely. Which is a rather lovely city... with a nifty little shrine all ready for me:



And more importantly:



Hopefully, by the time their cities start to come online, I should have researched Communism - State Property ftw. From there, beeline to gunpowder era units and frag the others... That's the plan anyhow!

Slightly concerned - Mansa, Wanger and Justinian have used the time I've been chasing Communism to head down the Banking route - their economies could end up stronger than mine... although I have the educational advantage, so hopefully it will even out... Thinking I might try a little tech stealing on them. Wondering if state property will remove the distance component from that as well? If not, then it could be worth building the FP on the 'mainland'.

On the uniquely french stuff:

Will be interested to see how well the muskets work - intending to use them to swat roving units - 2 moves makes them suited for this. Hopefully get a good few promotions and can turn them into kick ass rifles.

Salon is nifty - should really kick some butt when I can get to Representation.

Finally, here's my mostly ready invasion fleet:



And France:

I'd love to pass the merchants idea off as my own, but stole it from an article T-Hawk wrote.