Monarch Student XVI - Victoria

Just kidding, standard map.

Settled in place.

Techs: Went for Bronze Working (copper next to London? Woo!), Hunting (silly mistake in my opinion, should have been Agriculture), Agriculture (switched after 2 turns, suspending Hunting), AH, Writing, Alphabet. Traded Writing to Charlemagne for Pottery and Hunting. Later traded Alphabet for Iron Working and Sailing. Shaka refuses to trade anything. Currently researching Currency.

Wonders and Religion: none so far. I got Judaism from Asoka along with the Holy City, but I did not convert because of buddhist Charle.

Goals: REX by any means necessary to get an Empire where the Sun never sets.

Achieved: Eliminated Asoka, captured Delhi and auto-razed Bombay. 8 cities by 500 B.C.

Short term: Get GS (Delhi is working on it). Get rid of Shaka (most of the cities are producing military for this goal). Research Currency and (hopefully) trade it for CoL. Expand everywhere it's physically possible. Probably get rid of Charlemagne also. Scout surroundings at sea (York is producing Scoutboat for this). And ofcourse get economy back, goes without saying.

Victoria: Life in Screenshots

Founded York


Declared on Asoka






Alphabet, finally


Warwick for fur mainly. Note that Shaka is up to something... I hope it's Charle but you can never know...



Map at 500 B.C.



Cities at 500 B. C.

You really don't want to read this spoiler until after you have played the game.

Carried out the REXing plans without complications. I now own 9 cities with the 10th on it's way as a settler and the 11th in the plans. Monarchy is in, allowing vertical growth. Shaka and Charlemagne are my neighbors now, both having made a late entrance. Predictably, I am scheming to get Shaka out of the way. Considering a cottaged up empire isn't easy to put into a totalitarian war more, I am planning to use drafting to this end, initially using just musketeers and later using Redcoats and Cannons.

I read what you did and tried to copy it on Monarch/Normal.

It took me longer to get 8 axes. Asoka never got Judaism, but he did get Mono and he built Stone Henge.

He died in 1400BC having built only 1 city. I have 10 axemen, I almost crashed the economy, it got to 10%.

Budweiser said:

I read what you did and tried to copy it on Monarch/Normal.

It took me longer to get 8 axes. Asoka never got Judaism, but he did get Mono and he built Stone Henge.

He died in 1400BC having built only 1 city. I have 10 axemen, I almost crashed the economy, it got to 10%.

Click to expand...

Sounds good. Those last 120 years are just a matter of tweaking the specifics, I think. The main trick is to pump out 3 workers at a very early date and have them chopping full-time. Rushes sail on chop abuse. Usually you can produce the workers during the time you're still acquiring the necessary techs and spend all of the remaining time on axeman production once everything is unlocked.

Stonehenge should be pretty useful on this map. I had to chop out at least 3 monuments in my game, which really slows things down. A free prophet is never bad either.

I rexed to 125BC and got monarchy that turn as well, but I am going to replay it because I was only focusing on settlers and cottages and could have been more efficient. I ended up with 9 cities and one on the way. I like how the axe force is prefect for fog busting and barb killing as you expand and the cottages easily pay for it. It cool having 10 cities by 1AD.

Could you write your tech path in the updates please?

I will play more this evening.

As I expected, Shaka declared on me very soon. I took one of his cities and auto-razed another, then sued for peace. Luckily I got currency by that time. Later I expanded a bit, units went on strike, I expanded a bit more and finally buddhism spreaded into my lands. Converted immediately, traded CoL to Charle for 3 inventions and traded CoL to Shaka for stop trading with Charle. A few turns later Shaka declared on Charle and a few more turns later I did the same. Before that both leaders gave me one tech each for free because I'm a good friend, you know. After I took 3 of his cities I sued for peace again. Now is 1080, I'm researching philosophy, already researched Paper and one GS is waiting at the capital to bulb Education. No Optics yet, no contacts with other civs yet, that worries me a bit. I got only 14 cities by this time, most of them are building army to continue with Charlemagne.

Enough of war. Violence doesn't solve anything.



Trade.



Shaka - the guy Charlie couldn't DoW on because he's a trusted friend. Sigh.



Sorry, Charlie. Next tim you know who's your friend and who's just Shaka.



That's better, Charlie. You learned to appreciate true friends, like me.



Another trade



Units are no longer on strike so we can expand a bit more.



You need CoL? Good, Charlie. Gimme that construction and I will personally help you with building courthouses in your (former) cities later.



OK it's time for peace again, violence never solves anything.



1080 A. D.

There wasn't much of a tech path to speak of, I guess. I just went straight up to Monarchy, picking up Sailing somewhere in between. I'm now teching Maths and planning to go for Calendar cause happiness is still not at the level I want it to be at and theres more than a few special resources in the neighborhood.

Neither Shaka nor Charlemagne is available for tech trading yet, and I don't want to depend on them for essential stuff like Monarchy and Calendar.

Shaka dows!

I'm two cities down, but have situation under control. Stopped Shaka's SOD with a whipped catapult army. I've given Philosophy to Charlemagne for him to fight on my side. Waiting for Shaka to get out of RTT so I can bribe him into signing a peace treaty.

Liberalism is almost in, and the Globe Theatre is 16 turns from completion. Both Shaka and Charlemagne are pretty backwards so I expect a draft + cannons war to end in my having control of the entire continent.

It seems almost a fait accompli that Shaka and Charlemagne are going to share the same religion. My strategy was a bit different. I used the Great Spy that I got from building the GW on Shaka. Next I signed OB with him (probably switched to no state religion to do it, I can't remember) and spread judaism to his closest city. I then switched back to judaism, used a spy to get him to switch to Judaism as well and bribed him to DOW Charlemagne with Metal Casting, Alphabet, Currency, Aesthetics, and 35 gold. The price was pretty steep, but imo well worth it. Both their techs rate grinded to a halt, so I got a huge tech lead along with a good bunch of wonders (TGL, ToA, Notre Dame).

I'm getting set to fight axes and HA's with Knights and maces. This continent is pretty much mine for the taking now. Shaka was kind enough to build the Colossus as well, which will go nicely with the GLH, ToA, and the Financial trait.

I think that the trick is to get Shaka to be your attack dog. He's the much easier one to bribe.

I decided to give this a go on monarch, since I its a monarch student after all. Having only played one game on prince, Im looking forward to this challenge.

So I settled in place, two food resources and stone looks yummy. I went for a somewhat unusual tech path, with masonry early and bronze working fairly late, which delayed my axe-rush a lot.

After a while I met this little fella. He is somewhat close to me, so I will make him the target of my late axe-rush.


Ah crap, I really didnt want to see him. I will need to stir something up between Shaka and someone else so he wont go after me, until Im ready (probably muskets).


And here is Shaka's target hopefully. If I can put them in a perpetual state of war, I should weaken them enough to be easy prey for my muskets.


Anyway, I went after stonehenge first and pyramids soon after. I got both which wasnt surprising and switched to Representation, giving me a nice boost.


With that out of the way, I started working my Axes. After making a few of them I noticed that GW would only take me 6 turns, so I quickly grabbed it.


I resumed making Axes and with a small stack I started the attack, looking to grab a worker or two and the Holy city of Judaism.


I razed the city to the east, cause it seemed a bit weak, while losing 1 Axemen and than barely took Asoka's Capital.


That left Asoka which just one city, on a fairly good position, defended by two archers. I could have easily taken that city, but since it remained almost always on just level 1, I would be forced to razed it, which I didnt want to do since I neglected expansion a lot and this site would come in handy. Asoka built two more archers in between my waiting so that complicated things even more. Fortunately he fell for my trap when I declared Ceasefire, then resumed the war two turns later, grabbing a worker and soon after that his last city which was again defended by just 2 archers and level 2. Yay for strategy.


That leaves me with a small empire and a Holy City (where I built a shrine with a GP from Stonehenge). I will need to REX a lot and stir some trouble between Shaka and Charla.

Captured a barb city on a somewhat plausible location.


I research Alphabet so that I can bribe Shaka to attack Charla. Soon enough, I get them to start their first war. Costly, but needed.


Time goes by, with Charla and Shaka in perpetual state of war thanks to a bit of bribery. I am first to liberalism and beeline steel for cannons. Soon enough I have a sizable force with which to attack Charla


I take the first city without much problem and continue on my conquest which ends up in Charle's capitulation (cant have him become Shakas vassal).




Not long after that, I decided to take Shaka on, while I still have technological superiority. This war wasnt ending in capitulation, Shaka was to be utterly destroyed.


He didnt have much chance with Charle keeping him a bit busy too. My army gradually upgraded to Rifleman and Infantry and steamrolled over Shaka's empire in one fell swoop.




With Shaka out of the picture, I am preparing an invasion to the other continent. I have met Napoleon, Isabella and Huayna and it appears there were a few wars there too.

I settled in place.
Tech order was: BW > Agriculture > AH > Wheel > Pottery.
Build Order was: worker > warrior > settler

3560BC – Met Asoka (North)
Popped 2 scouts
1600 BC – Built GW (for early Great Spy)
925 BC – DOW Asoka
800 BC – India is destroyed

Asoka was just asking to get axe-rushed. He had a power ratio of 2.4 and only 2 cities. So that’s exactly what I did and he was quickly dispatched. He was kind enough to found Judaism, although he didn’t get the time to build a shrine. I decided to make Delhi my GP farm and use Bombay as a Unit Pump (settled my GG there).

With some breathing space between me and Shaka and Charlemagne, I could REX and develop my land in relative safety.

650BC – Built the Pyramids
375BC – Great Spy born (send him to scout HRE and Shaka, later settling him in one of Shaka’s cities for a massive EP boost)


By 1AD, I had moved my capital to York (for maintenance reasons), I was on my way to completing the GLH, and planned to expand some more.

State of the Empire at 1AD:


Demographics and other info:

500AD – 1st to Music -> Culture bombed Canterbury (border city)

Felt that I needed to split the unholy Buddhist alliance between Shaka and Charlemagne. I figured Shaka was the easier guy of the two to bribe into DOWing the other, so I focused my efforts on making him my attack dog. To do that, I switched to no state religion, signed OB with everyone. After having spread Judaism to one of his cities (via missionary), I used spies to get him to switch to Judaism and steal a number of techs (Monarchy, Horseback Riding, Archey, Calendar, Feudalism, Construction).

By 600AD, I had built a sufficiently large tech lead that I was able to bribe Shaka to DOW Charlemagne. All it took was Metal Casting, Alphabet, Currency, Aesthetics, and 35 gold. Certainly it was a steep price, but in the end well worth it. Out of this deal, I got them to fight for the next 500 years, plus severely lessened the odds that Shaka would DOW me, plus drove a wedge between the 2, got their research to grind to a halt, and build wonders and building in relative comfort.

Shaka's bribe

740AD – Built TGL in London
1030AD – Built ToA and academy in York
1080AD – Burned a Great Spy for a GA (figured there was no longer going to be much of an opportunity to steal many techs anymore). I settled a Great Scientist in York and switched to Bureaucracy/Caste System.
1110AD – Shake makes peace with Charlemagne
1140AD – Notre Dame in Delhi

Wonders:


State of the Empire at 1140AD:


Demographics and other info:


I figure there’s a real peace-fest on the other continent (no GG born elsewhere). Both Shaka and Charlemagne have gotten a couple of GG, so I figured that they’ve probably decided to settle them in their cities. I have total visibility on the whole continent (so it will be tough for someone to sneak attack me).

I know that Charlemagne is probably building the AP in one of his cities. That’s fine, as I’m planning on taking him out first (feel free to waste hammers on a wonder that I’m going to take). Of course, I’ll take the safeguard of bribing Shaka DOW his good buddy first if possible. But, in any case, my tech superiority should eliminate much of my worry of Shaka. Right now, I’m way ahead in techs. Looks like my maces and knights will be fighting axes and HA’s. This continent is pretty much mine for the taking.

Wonders have gone very slowly. I believe that the Oracle wasn’t built until the early 100’s AD and the Colossus later yet. I have no idea who is on the other continent. But, whoever they are, they are pacifist and not very inclined to building wonders. I can pretty much build whatever wonder that I want. It turned out that combining the GLH, with ToA, along with coastal cities and the financial trait is a very potent synergy. The one wonder that I missed out and regretted it was the Colossus. I would have been pretty much unstoppable if I had that.

I’m currently making a beeline for Liberlism (I’ll take Nationalism). I also plan on teching Economics first for the Great Merchant.

I’ve found the jump to Monarch relatively easy. Every game I’ve played, I been in a dominant position, although the last MS with Sitting Bull turned out to be a tougher challenge than I bargained for.

I decided to go after Napoleon first, since he had a little island (part barb) close to me. I took those 3 cities without much problem. Few years later I took Orleans with my force of Infantry+Artillery and Napoleon capitulated soon afterwards.



I wanted to go after Huayna next but for some reason I had a peace treaty signed with him and I really didnt want to wait so I went after Isabella. I transported a few more artillery/infantry and marched to one of her cities. Before I could take it though, she attacked me with a really large stack (probably been saving up from the start of the game). Needless to say, my units took care of them all and completely decimated her stack. She was kind enough to capitulate 2 turns later without me ever taking a city from her.


That left Huayna. After a shipment of March Infantry just in case something went wrong, I marched at Cuzco. History repeated itself and I was once again met before the city by a huge stack. Once again, it got decimated. Cuzco went down few turns later, at the same time Napoleon captured another nearby city. I ordered my forces to approach the new Inca capital, but before they could get there, Huayna capitulated. With all the world being my vassals, the game was over. They got dominated.



Highest score I ever got along with a first win (and first try) at Monarch. All in all, very fun game, I never thought I would win via domination when I first started. I think I was heading more towards seizing my continent and going spaceship from there, but since they were so backwards