Dr kossin #39

Deity / normal speed

I move 1 w and settle, health smealth, I want that gold

I tech mining -> BW and hope for copper. Copper is indeed in the BFC, lucky me

I make a couple axemen and then a settler for the next gold site to the east ( also has fish.

A couple more axemen and a couple more settlers and I have 4 decent cities.

Qin is to the northeast.

Darius is to the northwest.

Pericles is in between all of us.

At this point it's around 1500 bc and I'm itching for a war. And wouldn't you know it.. Pericles is looking a little weak. His cities are strung out along my boarder. If I can capture a center city I could block off a lot of his reinforcements.

Now I know ( from hard experience ) that early war with an AI on diety on normal speed is a generally bad idea ( unless it's Gandhi ), but that's never stopped me before

Darius is pleased with Pericles but he's not a huge warmonger and I'm betting he's gonna sit this one out. Qin is pleased with me and cautious with Pericles so I don't think he'll DOW me either.

I tech math -> construction and start whipping an army in preparation for war with Pericles. If there is one thing my many disaster games at deity level has taught me it's you must have siege if you attack after about 1500 BC ( again, unless it's Gandhi... ).

At 300 BC I'm ready to attack Corinth. My plan is to work my way toward Pericles's capitol, take it, and then swing back and take the cities to the west.



I take Corinth with few losses. This is too easy, I check the options to make sure this is indeed deity level Yep it is. Strange, where is Pericles's army? Maybe I hit him at just the right time?



I run into a small stack from Pericles. Maybe his war machine is gearing up now.



Argos is the next target, only 2 defenders? Easy pickins.



I am glad I left a sizable defense in Corinth. Pericles war machine is indeed gearing up now, he's got another small stack coming from the west. I quickly whip some archers in Corinth.



Somehow Argos goes from 2 defenders to 7 in 1 turn Still won't stop me, but damn what would attacking Shaka be like on this level



Argos's 7 unit defense is no match for my now 15+ unit attack force. Argos falls.



Pericles now has feudalism, which means many catapult losses per city. No matter, Sparta is going down next.



Sparta falls, no wonders, they must all be in the capitol.



Corinth withstands a few waves of attacks by Pericles. Taking that city and holding it with archers keeps him from sending reinforcements to his eastern cities.



At this point Pericles is ready to give tech for peace. I take it since I need a few turns to replenish my catapult supply anyway.



I whip forges in my troop production cities.

Getting ready for the push toward Athens....



I'm teching feudalism because I want to capitulate Pericles and save myself some time. On the other hand, I have a trade deal for ivory, so I was considering teching HBR.. Not sure if I'll make it to either at this point since my tech slider is at 0% and I have to rely on gold from captured cities.

My 25 unit SOD knocks on Athens door at 580 AD. I know I am getting left in the dust tech wise by the other AI's so I hope to get feudalism ( somehow ) and cap Pericles quickly so I can catch up at some point.



Athens is a good spot but I am disappointed at the wonders, oh well, NE site I guess.

Pericles is intent on breaking through my wall of archers, but I'm about to come to the rescue with my main stack.



I arrive just in time, too bad Pericles



Took like 4 losses here, even though I had more then enough troops to absorb the 2 cats, oh well.



And shortly after the RNG gods show some mercy...



I like you Qin, I'll kill you last.

Now that I can vassalize Pericles I continue the war in earnest. I have been at war now for 1300 years, and I barely moved across the map. Normal speed is just silly



I get my first GP from Athens. It's a great spy. I start a golden age to relieve my income problem and tech HBR. I need war elephants and quick. In retrospect I should have used him to steal some tech But for some reason at the time that never even crossed my mind.



Damn Pericles and his war elephants keep slamming into my stack and taking out my spearmen! He also has castles up in his cities, slowing me down even more. I am sure if I can take 1 more city I can cap him though.



I take one last city.



And Pericles bows before my suicidal might..



I gifted the two last cities back to Pericles since they both have high revolt chances and I don't have the troops to spare to suppress it.

I tech COL and check on what my two other rivals are up to. Qin is in WHEOOHRN mode, hmm....



He's probably not attacking me... I hope. If he attacks Darius I will join him and follow his stack around so I can snipe away cities

Here is the current land situation on my continent. Darius is becoming a monster with 10 cities and big ones too.



I send a scout out to find Qin's stack and see what he's up to. Then I notice Darius has cannons



And then I meet this freak of nature.



At this point I am whipping courthouses in all my cities in order to get a handle back on my economy, which is in ruins. I start teching aesthetics -> literature in 1180 AD I plan to pull myself back from the brink tech wise while I plan to throw my now 40+ unit stack into the fray if Qin attacks Darius. My scout is desperately searching for Qin's stack, but I can't seem to find it yet.

AHA! There's Qin's stack, and you know what, Qin is a sure loser vs Darius. I was gonna hitch my wagon to the wrong star. I will join Darius and go after Qin. In fact I can probably take Qin myself right now. Best wait till he DOW's Darius though.



Mercifully I get a great merchant which gives me a quick 1300 cash boost allowing me to tech at full throttle for a while. 172 BPT at 1350 baby

Pericles doesn't have aesthetics yet? Weird, but lucky for me. I got him to switch to confucianism which put him at pleased. He's also one of the more generous tech traders. Our team research just might put us back in the tech race



Damn! Quin goes out of WHEOOHRN and is now pleased with Darius. I can't bribe him into war either, he wants more then I have. I go theology -> divine right for trade bait, hopefully...

Darius switches to free religion and goes back to cautious with me and Qin.

Then I meet these two:




This game is a religious powder keg

1430 I get another great merchant for some more cash. Just as I get divine right Darius steals it, jerk!

I had to switch to no religion to actually get some tech trades out of divine right.

Heh, I begged 300 gold back from Pericles and he accepted

My great merchant also brought back 1900 gold from Bejing.

I'm now whipping grociers in all my cities.

Hmm... I think not.



1490 I finish whipping grociers, the HE and a bunch of other stuff and switch to Bureaucracy, Caste System and Pacifism. Instead of scientists I just ran merchants for more gold.

Yay Qin



Pericles is still dragging his feet researching gunpowder, I switch him to nationalism while I finish up education.

1525 finished up education and got a great prophet, ACK! Oh well I guess I will make the confucian temple. I have to switch out of my religion to trade education to sitting bull.

Not a bad trade since I spammed cottages everywhere.



I switch back to slavery and start building universities.

I have no idea if this is really worth it but I'll take what I can get at this point.



Uh oh...



And Darius has tanks. He's annoyed with Qin though.

Finally get a map from Pericles. My god, look at sitting bull!



Trade off lib to SB for 260 gold. He won't tech trade with me anymore because of the WFYBTA limit.

1600 Darius declares on Sury And takes a town on the same turn. Not too good. I think Sury is going to vassal soon...



Whatever you say boss

Darius takes another town from Sury.

I whip banks in my towns and start on observatories. My tech rate is starting to climb to a respectable 500 BPT at 1650

Darius makes peace with Sury but does not vassal. I also make peace for 15 gold I'm guessing Qin is next.

1665 I get constitution and switch to representation.

Darius starts making ship parts. I consider my options, which aren't many:

1. A daring attack against Darius with my elephants and swordsman vs his infantry defended cities.

2. Teching to computers and building the internet.

3. Teching to infantry and going after Quin so I can bring down at least on more civ before the end.

4. The worldbuilder

Strangely enough, I'm not far behind anyone except Darius, who is leaving us all in the dust.



1730 - I switch back to HR and spread some of my army around my cities to counter the emancipation

And at that point I notice Darius is getting ready for war against someone...



Qin is now his worst enemy so that would be my guess.

I sign a little defensive pact with Darius for extra insurance..

1750 - I get another stupid great prophet. I'll save for a golden age when I get another GP. Here is the tech situation:



1775 both Darius and Sitting Bull declare on Qin

I will declare on Qin as well soon and try to take a few cities.

Here's Qin going on the offensive



Darius pulls his monster tank stack outside Hangzou and get's it down to 5 troops. Luckily I am waiting in the wings with a small stack of riflemen. I declare on Qin and snatch it out from under Darius's nose



Then I boss Darius around a little.



Xian falls to Darius.



Someone builds UN. I vote for Darius, my buddy.

I snag Guangzhou just in time



I boss Darius around some more.



A few turns later Qin capitulates to Darius. No more towns 4 me
I sign another defensive pact with Darius.
I trade assembly line to Saladin for physics and start researching biology.
I get a GM and start a GA.

The tech situation at 1826:



Darius gearing up for war again... he's also close to a space launch.



1852 - The UN no nuke deal comes up. I vote yes.
Darius declares on Sury, so do I, bringing Darius to Friendly.

1874 - After taking numerous Sury cities, Sury capitulates to Darius. Darius continues his race to space.

And not unexpectedly, while I'm gearing up for a futile attempt at taking out Darius, he launches.



So I decide to go out with a bang:



The casualty rate is enormous. Pericles cities fall like dominoes But I may just take a city yet:



That's one for our team



The losses pile up and Pericles is no more. My stack in Darius's territory is wiped out. Darius swarms my cities. My people begin to lose faith, but I put out a press release that tells them we're winning



My capitol falls and I have one lone spearmen fending off a huge stack or mobile artilery in Athens. I think I'm not going to win this one



As my last cities are about to fall Darius wins the space race.



No respect at all, but at least I didn't get Dan Quayle.