Paradigm Shift

It's called Yasodharapura.

Could you pronounce that again please?

Hey, only I am allowed to spam my thread

EDIT: No-one is piping in with strategy tips though, I know you are all in awe of my ability to mess things up big time, but come on folks!

Parad....

Congrats on taking out the Kmer dude. He builds alot of military and without any trait/UU edge I am not surprised he was as tough as he was.

The work computer is choking a bit on the images, but best I can figure you are buddies with Isabella and MM. My suggestion is to right your economy, bulb/tech towards liberalism, and beeline rifling/military tradition. You have land, let that work for you. Let Isabella take the brunt of Pacal, but be sure to get into phoney wars to help. Once you have rifles and cossacks hit MM and save Isabella (and her middle age weapons) un til the end.

Once you have the continent secured, you'll know whether you need an armada for the domination win!

Sounds like a good plan.

But... what about taking astronomy off liberalism for another plan... that way I could just invade the other continent anyway (just 2 AIs, I think there has been a great general born there too). Maybe Izzy could stay alive then (that would be a first for me, lol)... unless she founds a later religion and decides to change (I doubt she will do that now, she must be raking it in with her shrine income).

Of course, the puny male specimens on Cathy's land that are inferior to the goddess will have to become enslaved to their mistress or destroyed at some point.

That's not a bad plan either. Isabella will be a valuable ally if you stay in the religion and in theocracy.

Dominatrix Cathy and her Inquisition sister Isabella ruling the world. Got sort of a kick to it.

Right, I am about to play the next round. It will be fairly boring (recovery phase), will stop when I am ready to switch to caste system to kickstart the SE or when someone DoW's me (meaning Pacal, but he will probably have to go through Izzy first to get to Cathy's fertile valley).

Prorities this round: recover the econmy so I am making a profit at 0% science This means whipping courthouses everywhere, recruiting trainee dominatrices to dispense corrupt male specimens to dungeons for bondage sessions.

Build some national wonders. I'm thinking Heroic epic in Moscow, it has better production than Yasod~ and will benefit form bureacracy to boot. National Epic in St. Petes, Moai statues in either Novgorod or that other Khmer city. Spread Hinduism to St. Pete's and build a temple.

Tech plan - continue with civil service, try and pick up calendar as well in a trade. Noone has currency yet, that would be great to improve the economy. Lightbulb philosophy, I probably don't need to change to pacifism because I should be ahead of the pack in the liberalism race.

If I get that far, go metal casting and machinery as well to get some maces together.

Paradigm,nice job on posting the round.It's good to see Sury is dead.He sure put up a good fight thou, as he did in my shadow game.I'll have to watch out for him in future !

If you wait too long for any further wars you will risk Izzy getting her UU.Also,going after the other island instead seems like a bad decision to me due to the increased maintenance costs.I'd suggest economic recovery for a while then pick your next victim closer to home.

Btw,you got rid of Sury just a few turns ahead of me[700ad] cos you did a better job of stopping his expansion early on.I decided to place some aggressive cities in the jungle to block off the others.So far it's just been one long slugfest and now i've only got one AI left on our starting continent.Still not sure if this landmass will be enough for a domination victory.

It's a fun game to play and a good read,keep up the good work.

Well, I have played half a round, am now making a profit at 20% science, 940AD. not much to report. I'll probably play some more tomorrow, when I am less drunk

Intersting trade has just been offered, metal casting from Izzy, so I quit to ponder for a while. That's what I love about this game, so many interesting decisions even in peacetime.

Got currency from Mansa, a nice boost to the economy with so many cities.

Glad to hear Rycheman has been having fun with a shadow game. Remember, domination or nothing though! Next game will be Cathy Queen of Culture I think, a total change of pace, probably on Fractal.

Sorry Paradigm....

"Ya-sod-ha-ra-pu-ra", there you go

I'll stop now, don't worry

It just rolls off the tongue

40 lashes for you, from Cathy herself, wearing a leather outfit. You lucky lucky guy

So many screenshots my comp had trouble with loading for a while. My compliments for your effort on writing down this game/thread para. As for who to invade next, I only read your last rounds but I think Mansa seems like a good target from geographic pov. Izzy is a perfect buffer to keep Pacal out of your lands. Later you can backstab her while she's at war with Pacal. (do some bribing if needed)

Hey, thanks BurN, I really appreciate it, your Hammurabi thread inspired me to do this writeup (probably the funniest thread on these forums, although my moustache is more splendid than Hammy's).

I'm starting to think Mansa must die as well. I moved all my troops to border cities and am quite impressed with the size of Cathy's stacks (insert smutty joke here). Mansa is teching engineering and has machinery though so he will be able to field crossbows, he has skipped feudalism which is a surprise but crossbows vs. axes is in the same ballpark as maces vs longbows I think.

EDIT: game update, too drunk to play tonight

Nice going paradigm, but I don't understand why you just didn't pillage the iron. Must have missed that somewhere. Would have cost you a lot units less if sury was only able to build archers instead of axemen/spearmen/swordsmen. Anyway you got rid of Sury so no more problems.

Dominatrix Cathy - Round 5 (to 940AD)

Fairly short round this time, just sorting out the economy.

Mansa accepts 2 techs for calendar, I ddin't get a screenshot of which ones I gave him for some reason (probably booze), but you get the idea.



Means that I can start plantations on the spices for an extra happy face



Granary first in new city of Angkor Thom, I'll whip a courthouse aftwerwards



Start the National Epic in my GP farm, I'll whip a courthouse there afterwards, when the poppulation has gone up a bit.



Everywhere else starts on courthouses



Not alot of defence for Mansa's border city



I do a trade for Mansa's sugar



Izzy isn't chummy enough to DoW on Pacal when I ask her, and she wont take techs for it either.



I trade for currency with Mansa. That should help my economy with the extra trade route in each city.



Meawhile I am moving my army to border cities with Mansa, and the city nearest Pacal.



Finish a granary in Novgorod by whipping it, then build a courthouse



HH goes for a courthouse next as well



PLus I whip a court in Rostov



I don't need a court in Moscow, its the capital so maintenance is low. This is where I decide to build the Heroic Epic. It has good production and is in a nice position for building troops.

Dominatrix Cathy - Round 5 (to 940AD) part 2

Another city, another courthouse... exciting stuff eh?



I got a Great Scientist from St. Pete, at 100% odds. So...



Yes, that's right, an important tech on the way to liberalism



And the trimmings



The crappy gold city wins the religion founding lottery. I doubt I'll get that many Great Prophets anyway, so probably wont build a shrine. It's also a waste of hammers spreading a religion I'm not going to run.



My entire Navy (1 galley) is chacking out Mansaville



It'll take a while for the next GP from St. Petes, Moscow should beat it to it with a scientist or an engineer (or an artist from the Heroic Epic if I'm unlucky)



Mansa is now prepared to trade metal casting, but I don't want to give him philosophy straight away.



More farms for the GP farm! And I use my missionary from Taoism to spread it to Moscow.



Why is everything taking so long to build?



DUH, drunk again. Everywhere has Hinduism except St. Petersburg, I'll build a missionary as soon as I have built courthouses everywhere. I change to Organised Religion anyway.

Whip more courts





Izzy the cheeky mare



I tell her to shove it, hair and makeup tips are OK but currency is for me to know and you to find out, dearie. I get a -1 diplo hit, but she stays pleased.

I go buildings crazy. I need a lighthouse here before I consider building the Moai Statues though. Still undecided if this is the best place for it, and am getting more drunk now.



I decide to cottage up HH since it is safe from pillagers and isn't super high on food. So a market seems a good choice here.



I do some exploring of Mansaville with one of my chariots. He really isn't worried about being backstabbed it seems...



Tacitus rates Mansa more highly advanced than Cathy the goddess. She is not happy.



Border City could do with a stable. I think I noticed that the computer had snuck a spy in there, and got rid of it sharpish.

Dominatrix Cathy - round 5 (to 940AD) part 3

You'll notice Mansa now has machinery on me and is busy teching engineering. He seems to be ignoring feudalism for some reason though.

Yet more exciting builds of courthouses



Izzy ias prepared to do this trade so I can catch up with Mansa a bit...



She still doesn't want tech to go to war with Pacal though

I decide I am far too drunk to make decisions and call it a day, and have a couple of days off civving to spring clean my brain.

I took the metal casting deal anyway, when I restarted play.

Mansa is also prepared to give me machinery for philosophy + 55 gold. I delay the decision. Izzy is prepared to trade Theocracy + 10 gold for philosophy at this point as well.

And she is now prepared to DoW on Pacal for a high price...



Too high, in my opinion.

Heroic Epic is finished in Moscow, so I build a quick Hindu missionary to speed up build times in St. Petes. It'll probbly be troops and more troops after that, until it is time to build a university and Oxford there. it's a bit of a weird combo, HE and Oxford, but I am different



My navy reaches the limits of its exploration. Pacal must be paying a ton of maintenance for this city. EDIT: This next picture makes no sense. Pacal has a city further south of this, on the east coast, while his main cities are on the west coast I think. I didn't look at the screeny properly before uploading it



Most of my army has assembled near Mansa's borders. It's not looking too bad, although if he builds lots of crossbows that wouldn't be good.



We haven't had a shot of a courthouse being built for a while... here's one to keep you all happy



And here's one being whipped to completion. The economy is back on its toes now, and will be even better when civil service comes in. I start on a library here next.



Mansa's only other city I think



Now that I built a stable I suppose I should build some mounted troops here



I'll spare you another gratuitous courthouse building shot, this time at Angkor Thom.

Civil Service is in, Cathy's coffers will swell when all the civil servants come to her dungeon after a hard day at the office. I revolt immediately.



Mansa will do this deal



And Izzy will do this one




I stopped the round here.

I'm thinking of doing the tech deals and then attacking Mansa. What do you all think? I'll change to theocracy when the courthouses are all built, probably switch to caste system at the same time as well.


Here's the latest save...

Is no-one going to comment on my awesome courthouse building skills?

I'm too drunk to play the next round now but it is coming.

I have to say your prowress of the courthouse is amazing!

Mansa's looking a bit like a sitting duck right now, he must really trust cathy. Silly him! Hopefully you can take him quickley before he starts building tougher units.

Isabellas' price for war is way too high! So what do you do about the Pacal if you can't get isabella onboard? Does isabella become your next target after mansa?

A few miscellaneous points:

I woldn't have delayed war vs MM. He didn't have Xbows and no cats. That means no collateral and no tought defenders facing you.
Don't worry about trading philo to MM, he won't still be alive when he even would start lib.
There are two cities I see that you can capture 2 turns into war (didn't open the save). Another reason to get going with this war.
I'd bribe izzy vs pacal anytime as you should only be afraid of their army (somewhat) not of their teching skills.

Get Machinery (and maces) ASAP. Maces and trebs could already be all you need to capture your continent, assuming you switch every city to military builds.


BtW, you could've gotten acess to spice two turns earlier - you could've built a fort, as it seems that no city can work the tile