De Gaulle (Industrious-Deity Series)

De Gaulle (Industrious-Deity Series)


Alright, it is finally time we come to a close and complete our last industrious leader for cracking the deities. Left with another French leader, Industrious/Charismatic, I don’t know where I’d label him. I think he is a bit weak for most my tastes, but a lot of it can depend on a person’s preferred line of strategy.

Anyhow, I was thinking on doing something a little different for the last leader, and I finally decided I would end up doing something I almost never do. Cottages! So... that should cover pretty much every possible strategy/game-type in this series.

Since we did a lot of archipelago and some fractals I finally decided to throw in a Pang. map as well. One problem with Firaxis is they never scaled the maps for the extra capitals on deity, so I lowered the sea-level a bit to give everyone a little bit of room. I also was very temped to turn off Game-Breaking Events, but eventually left them on, as I wanted to keep this entire series as close to defaults as possible.

And now... let’s get down to work and start building some wonders!





:: Industrious-Deity Series Archive ::

• Augustus
• Roosevelt
• Ramesses II
• Louis XIV
• Qin
• H. Capac
• Stalin
• Bismark
• De Gaulle

Turn 0

Hmm, very little food here it seems, but the marble helps make up for the deficit. I definitely don’t like my positioning though. I can tell you that no matter what, I am always going to move onto the marble-hill here. There just isn’t much alternative that I can do that can get me going in a decent rate.

Of course, I still moved the warrior WS, but it doesn’t matter. 99.9% of the time I’m moving onto the marble hill.

Turns 0-10

We have not had any decent luck with Huts. The only thing that has happened of interest is we met our first opponent.

Turns 10-20

We met Churchhill, but there still isn’t much going on. I’m doing a bit of scouting and having some issues with barbs. No good news with huts, typical.

Turns 20-30

We met Boudica and Bismark. Looks like Boudica will be an enemy of Isabelle for a very long time with their separately founded religions.

Turns 30-40

Khan shows up...

And then I finally found my next city. Now I have both my first 2 cities on 1 tile away from coastal. That’s about the worst positioning you can get, but right now speed is of the essence. I kept losing barb battles this game despite I am supposed to have great odds in my favour with fortified units on forested hills. Sometimes you just get screwed by the RNG no matter what you do.

Turns 40-50

Decided to get another city out while I still can. Unfortunately I lost too may units and had some FoW pop up, just 1 TURN TOO LONG which allowed a nasty barb city to just pop-up overnight in this location. Arggghhhh. What a pain this RNG is being to me.

Turns 50-60

Alright, first wonder is in. We couldn’t trade for masonary unfortunately, and our tech rate was so crap in these spots that I wasn’t able to use the marble I settled on! What a waste. But never-the-less, we pull home the Oracle, and chose Monarchy to get the biggest bang for the buck. Now we can try to play the catch-up game with the deitys who started with such a huge tech lead. They’d better watch out now... cause I’m shooting ahead now and I’m not going to stop any time soon.

Turns 60-70

Ughh. Pasture is destroyed by one of those GayEvents. Typical.

And this entire round just went worse and worse. I was finishing off ToA and sure enough, someone else completes it, causing me to lose out. At least I got some gold though.

And Monte also met us. And of course we get screwed by a diplo bug. We are hit (-3) for trading with a worst enemy, despite there was no way for us to tell Monte even existed, or who his worst enemy is even (obviously). I really don’t know why this was never patched.

And to top it off, I took a stack of chariots I had been pumping non-stop from Horsie-City, and even brought extra so I could take out that nasty barb city that spawned on us. Well, I lost my entire stack, while the stack of archers in that city still remains!

Absolutely terrible RNG this game for us. I’d rather whish this last 10 turns had never happened. But what is done is done... that’s how it goes. The only thing that didn’t explode in our face, is that I was able to do my tech-trades with Boudica (hard for that to fail?). Oh wait, that may not be true either. That’s probably why I got screwed with my diplo rating with Monte. Haha. So in essence... NOTHING really went right for us this time around. Ohh brother.

Turns 70-80

Well, that barb city is still a problem. Seems the only battle I CAN win, is one where I’m battling an un-escourted worker. That’s right, I need to attack a unit that has an Att/Def value of ZERO, just to have a chance of winning!

Well, here’s the proof. One stupid worker is better than nothing... Don’t even ask me WHY the barbs decided to put that worker out there... I stopped trying to guess AI logic years ago.

Turns 80-90

We popped our GS. Of course if I had even 0.0001% artist pollution, we know damn well I would have popped an artist instead. Anyhow, I decided to build an academy in my Wine Hill city instead of the capital. I figure if I am going to build cottages this game, I might as well put it in a cottage location, and I also want the academy culture to fight out vs that front. I also decided I was going to try to place the Parthenon in that city as well for the same reason.

Anyhow, in world news there is some inevitable bloodshed going on. Isabella, Monte, Bismark, and Churchill are tangling it up. The ironic thing is that Boudica hasn’t jumped in yet. Still trying to figure that one out I know damn well if I had a different religion than her, she’d be trumping my way with a stack of 30 UUs right about now.. Typical anti-human bias.

And now, some good news and some bad. Bad news is we kept getting raped by that ridiculous barb-city again. I even had my capital as well as Horsie-City cranking out promoted swords. And I was still getting butchered up by barb archers. Ughhh! What really sucks, is after all that lost investment in units, and maintenance,etc., I could have simply built the Pyramids (without stone), and would have come out far, far ahead. I even would have then flipped that barb city into my control through my wonder culture, without having to build or lose a single military unit!
This game sure can be cruel! But at least... FINALLY, after all this butchery, I capture the city once and for all. Just goes to show you, a simple random barb-city popping up in 1 lost FoW turn, can cause you so much devastation, and literally make or break the game for some people.

Ohh, and how else do you think this turn-set was going to end with the RNG? We get another GayEvent and lose our barracks in our Horsie-City. *Face-Palm*

Turns 90-100

After healing our swords and advancing our reserves further West, we were able to capture the secondary barbarian city (Illinios). I was starting to cringe on the attacks, but they actually weren’t that devastating this turn around. So, that’s 2 captured cities now, and since I see a patch of barb culture further west-north, I’m moving in that direction to see what other terrain we can grab.
Also, our Academy city now has completed the Parthenon. Boudica wasn’t too smart, and made the mistake of trading her math for my Aesthetics. Haha. It’s a good thing they’re too DUMB to learn.

And in other world news, FINALLY Boudica gets involved in the war, and DoWs on Bismark.

By the way, I was working on SoZ in my Horsie city for wonder-culture. Unfortunately I didn’t complete it, but that’s alright as I got another 55g to boost my research for the next while.

Obsolete,

Couple quick questions:

1. How were you able to get 105 Hammers in Wine City?
2. Why ToA? It seems to me that ToA is a pretty low value Wonder. Lots of hammers for a questionable gain. I never build it myself. Does it synergize with something else?
3. On Turns 70-80, the library is listed at 39 turns to completion, and it's done in the next set of turns. I don't see that you chopped it, and your pop increased to 6 at that time. How do you get such production out of your cities? On a side note, do you have a "rule of thumb" when whipping? I've been struggling with the judicious use of the whip. I try to always do a 2 pop whip on high-food non-production cities. Not sure if there's an optimal population point or any optimal point to use the whip without crippling the growth of the city.

Please turn off the unreadable red clock in BUG options.

TOA doubles trade in your city. Put it in the cap with the GLH and a harbor for some nice income.
Many people also value Great prophets and this wonder can increase you chances of getting one.

ToA is great with bureau as well

foobarred said:

Obsolete,

Couple quick questions:

1. How were you able to get 105 Hammers in Wine City?
2. Why ToA? It seems to me that ToA is a pretty low value Wonder. Lots of hammers for a questionable gain. I never build it myself. Does it synergize with something else?
3. On Turns 70-80, the library is listed at 39 turns to completion, and it's done in the next set of turns. I don't see that you chopped it, and your pop increased to 6 at that time. How do you get such production out of your cities? On a side note, do you have a "rule of thumb" when whipping? I've been struggling with the judicious use of the whip. I try to always do a 2 pop whip on high-food non-production cities. Not sure if there's an optimal population point or any optimal point to use the whip without crippling the growth of the city.

Click to expand...

1. Look in the previous shot. Now you see a bunch of trees..... now you don't.

2. Too many reasons to list, so some basics:
It was cheap for me.
It gives me great culture.
It fills my GP pool.
It increases my trade income.
It gives me a slight production boost.
It prevents any other AI from getting it.

Technically, it can synergize with Mids, etc.

3. I did not whip. I simply did not have the food I wanted to whip, and when trying to plant cottages, you screw yourself from whipping, just another of the many reasons I hate cottages.

If you pay close attention, in the first shot I was not able to work any hammer tiles. In the next I was able to mine the hills, etc.

obsolete said:

Technically, it can synergize with Mids, etc.

3. I did not whip. I simply did not have the food I wanted to whip, and when trying to plant cottages, you screw yourself from whipping, just another of the many reasons I hate cottages.
If you pay close attention, in the first shot I was not able to work any hammer tiles. In the next I was able to mine the hills, etc.

Click to expand...

Thanks. As far as ToA, would you have attempted to build it if you didn't have Marble?

Is it pretty much a rule for you not to build wonders if you don't have the appropriate resources?

Also, as far as whipping goes, did you sacrifice 1 turn of Anarchy to go into slavery? I'm assuming you didn't.

Thanks for the series. I'm constantly amazed by how Diety players constant overcome what I consider to be crippling obstacles.

Turns 100-110

Quite a lot of things went on these next 10 turns.
I captured my 3’rd Barb city now. I was tempted to wait a bit longer, but there was a risk someone else would capture this one if I waited even one more turn.

I also refused to give into Izzy’s demand to switch to Bud. She is strong... too strong. I don’t want to be on her side, I want to help out her weak opponents instead.

We also rake in another important wonder. The Great Library gets put in our capital. I had to really think on this one, as I was tempted to place it in my Parthenon city for extra culture power, but decided to try to avoid the GA pollution, etc.

We did even more wonder building, and built the HE in our Horsie city. That should come in handy later during cavalry wars.

We also popped another GS. I was tempted to settle this in the capital, but since it is so food poor, and commerce poor, I decided to save for a later bulb.

Anyhow, we did some more scouting below, and it turns out that there isn’t really anything down there but ice. Really bad terrain, so I might as well let Izzy gobble the rest of it up.

In other news, Izzy DoWs on Boudica (about time).

Turns 110-120

I complete yet another wonder in the capital, and pair the NE with the big Library.

I also switched to Hindu to share with Boudica, and run Pacifism. I made up my mind a while ago I would backstab Churchill, and since I am committing myself to war, there is really less point in settling specialists now so I bulbed philo. Now time to do some speciality trades to get to lib first.

We then pop another GS.

Turns 120-130

Monte and Kub DoW Izzy. Hmm, I only traded Philo to Boudica because I didn’t want it spread around, but looks like she used it to bribe 2 others to war in her favour. Oh well, I don’t mind THAT so much now, because Izzy was getting TOO DAMN HUGE, and Boudica looks like she could use all the help she can get now.

Another GS pops.

And nothing else interesting, except a few small tech trades.

Turns 130-140

AP was built by Bud-followers.
I researched Archery by accident. Haha. I decided to bank beakers for 1 turn while I was trying to time some techs just right, and the excess spilled over and filled the archery bank. Oh well...

Another GS pops in the capital.

Turns 140-150

Uhh. Of all the bad events that one gets, I finally was due for a good one, don’t you think? Well guess what. I get a Truffles event. Sounds good doesn’t it? Except for the fact that it was bugged. That’s right, it gave me a truffles event, right on a MOUNTAIN-TILE! Are you kidding me? How rigged is this RNG? Surely all this is not a coincidence?

Anyhow, we end up popping another GS, and that speeds up our Liberalism even faster (not that we need it). I set the AI so far back in tech through key wonder-denial that I don’t need to worry about lib that much, but I DO want to get to my precious cavalry units on time.

Also, I had an option to bribe Churchhill to war vs Izzy. I didn’t want to because an AP vote was coming up soon, and I know damn well the AP would just block the war (like always) so I get burned so bad on that. Well, I decided to wait ONE turn for the vote to end and then do the deal, but of all the RNG timing... that’s just when Monte made peace with Izzy, and then Churchill didn’t want to do the deal anymore because he was afraid of Izzy’s military might. Ughhh.

This game sure tries to have it in for us. So now Izzy, is just growing even more powerful every turn still.

On 660 AD we selection Nationalism from our little Lib-Race. However, before I finish working on the obvious next wonder, I have another important wonder I’m working on.... actually finishing.

Yup, the one and only University of S. Well, part of this was for further wonder-denial, but I actually don’t mind making use of it myself. And once I get my cav up and running, this one is going to really start to take off for me. I didn’t have any stone for this one either, but I don’t care. I wanted it so bad.

Turns 150-160

Ahh yes, so we pulled in the Taj-Mahal wonder next. Boy, that’s a lot of wonders for someone who is preparing to blast open the AI’s with cavalry pretty soon. I now decided to put a stop to all the wonder hogging, and get ready to get more prioritized for the future blood-shed that is about to occur.

I also gave into a demand by Monte (because he was weak). But I refused a demand by Izzy (because she is strong). That may not make sense to many, but I have my reasons here.

I also made a Def pact with Boudica, and continued to pour her with gracious tech-trades.

Then I finished off with some civic-switches before my GA ran out.
One last issue, we pop a Priest. I decided to settle in my HE city for the best returns.

Turns 160-170

Izzy seems to have DoWed on Monte. I hope he doesn’t get over-run too soon. But WTH was he thinking? He’s the only one running Taoism, and sharing all those borders with Izzy! This was rather obvious... no?

And she has the nerve to ask me to help? Uhhh, it’s rather obvious she would just backstab me anyway when she’s done with him, so thanks, but no thanks. Idiot!

Turns 170-180

We popped an ugly GA. Ughhhh. Oh well, might as well burn him off on another GA so we can finish rifling a tiny bit sooner and save on some anarchy.

Also, Monte finally lost a city. I fear the rest are going to fall like dominos now, so I bribed Izzy to peace for the time being. It seems, everyone else is so fearful of her army right now I can’t really bribe anyone to war with her. I haven’t seen what her SoD looks like, but since she’s so backwards in tech now, I can only imagine it must be rather HUGE.

We also get hit by another bad GayEvent... just don’t ask.

Turns 180-190

Boy, things have turned out bad for me all of a sudden. I thought I was preventing Izzy from getting a dangerous vassal. That didn’t work out so well, because now Bismark decides to Friendly-Vassal to Izzy for no reason at all. Ughhhh... She’s already a powerhouse as it is, do the AI’s really need to cheat THIS BAD?

Anyhow, Izzy is just getting too strong and I’m not going to wait any longer! I let her and her stupid vassal trade me almost half a grand each for liberalism, haha. Which I could only use that gold for upgrading mass amounts of mounted units to cavalry. I did a few more trades for upgrade gold as well, and was ready to lock & load with numerous drafted rifles to boot. I even made a sub-division with four trebs so I could have 2 split forces attacking. One for fast movement, and another not-so fast movement.

Well, I knew I was in trouble when despite my great army, even Churchill was too scared to be bribed to attack Izzy “We are scared sh#tless of their military might!”. So... I simply did the DoW first, and then was able to get Churchhil involved. I then blitzed into a city and captured it on the first turn of the war. No siege, and no spy revolts. I tend to just slam-ram large stacks of cav into enemy positions. That’s been my style from day one and I haven’t seen a better since.

Anyhow... THIS then finally allowed me to Bribe Boudica to come out of hiding and also DoW onto Izzy & Bismark for the price of rifling. Now we are getting somewhere!!

Soon after that I take another city out, near Izzy’s capital. And it was only then soon I found out exactly why everyone had been so afraid of Izzy’s might for so long. It was... well... simply one of those stack’s of death that you rarely see, which tend to have something of a hundred units piled up to the skies. Just take a look at that beast.

Taking a look, even some of the units listed are in fact, separate groups of units listed, like 12 knights in one stack, with another 6 elephants in another stack, and a billion others all in one mega-stack.

Well... what to do now. Having a tech advantage is one thing, but having numbers and attrition is another. I did the only thing I could do... I CHARGED into it with my cav forces to do what I could before I lost my newly captured holy city. Unfortunately, despite I killed Izzy’s units at an awesome rate, it didn’t even scratch the size of that stack!!!

So... at the same turn as that, I took a third city south of my capital with a smaller force of draftees, and then I immediately signed peace with her before I was going to get my forces blown off the face of the map. God.. this AI is so stupid, LOL. That’s what happens when the AI judges war-fare by KILL-RATIOS. It makes really stupid mistakes on how the war is going.

So... now I have 10 more turns to re-inforce my 3 new cities with draftees, and I can bring in some new reinforcements. Anyhow, I had a medic knight around which I will now use my GG to convert into a field-hospital as I prepare for the next war with Izzy. I just hope she moves that very scary SoD someplace else.

Ohh, and just before sueing for peace at the end of this set, I bribed Monte to war with Izzy too, as I fear my other 2 buddies are going to need all the help they can get while I leave them alone for the next 10 turns.

Turns 190-200

Kub decided to DoW on Churchill, I’m not sure if he was bribed or not, but I don’t really care. I’m just eager to see what happens. If he can hold out for a while, or will collapse from the power of the other two.

Oh, and Izzy was being very stupid again. Despite she was at war with everyone except Kub just recently, she was STILL busy building the Kremlin, LOL. Think of all the extra units she could have had in that SoD. Dear God, Firaxis’ stupidity never ceases to amaze me. I’m definitely going to have to add that to my list of wonders very soon

Unfortunately I got hit by some nasty unhappiness. Izzy tried to use the AP to return one of her cities to her. So of course I had to Defy it.

And then, the silly RNG decides to give me yet another GA, ughhh.

Keep it coming

Obsolete, an honest question (no offense intended, BTW): Do you regen. starts until you get Stone or Marble in the BFC for an Industrious Leader?

Game's looking pretty good and is educational, thanks.

Obsolete, great game and very interesting. Obviously i am nowhere near matching your diety bashing prowess The only thing i noticed was that it seemed that you had a shortage of workers early game, despite the early monarchy and low happy cap, it took you ages to get the wines up and running. Also you seemed to be working unimproved tiles a lot in your cap. Was this a (costly) mistake? Or am i judging too harshly not really knowing just how hard diety really is?

Gooblah said:

Obsolete, an honest question (no offense intended, BTW): Do you regen. starts until you get Stone or Marble in the BFC for an Industrious Leader?

Game's looking pretty good and is educational, thanks.

Click to expand...

If you follow his past games you will see that he doesn't.

Obsolete,

I love reading your games. Maybe it's that your playstyle is much like my own (but you're light years ahead of me in Civ skill) or maybe it's the witty comments you make. I think it's more of the comments. It makes me feel like I'm not alone with the RNG screwing me over. Though I have started playing without random events; I finally got fed up with them last year sometime. But you, you keep them on despite the fact that they seem to hurt you more than help you. You're a real trooper Obsolete, you know that? I've got mad respect for your Civ skills.

Keep on keepin' on.

Gooblah said:

Obsolete, an honest question (no offense intended, BTW): Do you regen. starts until you get Stone or Marble in the BFC for an Industrious Leader?

Click to expand...

I believe he's said that he plays the first start he generates, always. However, whenever I play an Industrious leader there always seems to be either Stone or Marble in the BFC or at least a city space or so away.

foobarred said:

Thanks. As far as ToA, would you have attempted to build it if you didn't have Marble?

Is it pretty much a rule for you not to build wonders if you don't have the appropriate resources?

Also, as far as whipping goes, did you sacrifice 1 turn of Anarchy to go into slavery? I'm assuming you didn't.

Thanks for the series. I'm constantly amazed by how Diety players constant overcome what I consider to be crippling obstacles.

Click to expand...

I doubt I would have bothered with it if I didn't have marble. But if I only built wonders when I had the resources, then I never would build stuff like the Oracle, etc.

Also, from turn 0 to 100, I don't believe I ever even switched into slavery.

Gooblah said:

Obsolete, an honest question (no offense intended, BTW): Do you regen. starts until you get Stone or Marble in the BFC for an Industrious Leader?

Game's looking pretty good and is educational, thanks.

Click to expand...

Hmm, now restarting like THAT sure would make things a lot more easier I guess! But I don't have the patience to sit there and re-roll like that. If I did I'd probably just play those HoF cheat-maps anyway.

I know this game enough that even really bad starts aren't always so bad once you see what else is around your capital. I think you should always play out whatever you get generated. My favourite games are bad starts that turn into over-whelming victories, and what I HATE is when I see succession games that re-roll when ever they don't like their random starts.

bobbyboy29 said:

Obsolete, great game and very interesting. Obviously i am nowhere near matching your diety bashing prowess The only thing i noticed was that it seemed that you had a shortage of workers early game, despite the early monarchy and low happy cap, it took you ages to get the wines up and running. Also you seemed to be working unimproved tiles a lot in your cap. Was this a (costly) mistake? Or am i judging too harshly not really knowing just how hard diety really is?

Click to expand...

Well, you can't worker spam early because you are getting slaughtered by barbs right away on deity. And once you finally try to get that under control, you are going to miss on so much other things, like wonders/cities/etc if you sit there just cranking out workers. As for the wines hooked up a bit late, I really didn't need them. I did not have the food where I was hitting any happy cap, and since I am going to work cottages instead of wines, I didn't really see the point.

Kesshi said:

If you follow his past games you will see that he doesn't.

Obsolete,

I love reading your games. Maybe it's that your playstyle is much like my own (but you're light years ahead of me in Civ skill) or maybe it's the witty comments you make. I think it's more of the comments. It makes me feel like I'm not alone with the RNG screwing me over. Though I have started playing without random events; I finally got fed up with them last year sometime. But you, you keep them on despite the fact that they seem to hurt you more than help you. You're a real trooper Obsolete, you know that? I've got mad respect for your Civ skills.

Keep on keepin' on.

Click to expand...

I was really, really, really tempted to turn off Game-Breaking events, but decided in the spirit of the whole series to leave it on so that we can stand by the fact these are true Default maps.

Hmm, now restarting like THAT sure would make things a lot more easier I guess! But I don't have the patience to sit there and re-roll like that. If I did I'd probably just play those HoF cheat-maps anyway.

Click to expand...

You misunderstand. They have mapfinder, which automatically filters starts for them . You can leave that on while shopping or sleeping and roll a bunch of triple gem starts without effort .

But, the competition in HoF is different than standard games. The true competition in HoF is not the AI but rather other players who also rolled the triple gem start.

Turns 200-210

I gave Izzy Eccon and Replaceable parts just to make peace with Churchill. I must have been terrified she’d vassal him and then I’ve had double-trouble on my hands.

And of course, on the same turn I charge in with two separate stacks again. One SoD of cavalry, and another of draftees. On turn #2 of the war, her Madrid falls. And there you have it... the Kremlin which she foolishly built for me. I am just lost as to why Firaxis lets AI continue in space-race mode, or wonder building mode, when it’s in the middle of a mega-war and getting its ass kicked. Makes absolutely NO sense to me, and I reported this years ago for needing some serious common sense-checks.

Oh yeah, she had 6 settled specialists. 5 of them GGs. Looks like I know where my next wonder is going to be built

We get a random event... and an option to pay 83g for +3 to Churchill, I do it, but I stop to wonder. For those who are going for UN victory, isn’t this a seriously broken event as well?

Two turns later we capture Barcelona. Well, it comes with a 25g shrine at least. I’m happy with it. We also capture another city, but it’s not worth bragging about. Geeze, my units are kicking ass now.

We get another GG, but sadly lose a next target. I was just about to take another city, but Boudica ended up beating me to it. ARgghhh! Boudica, who couldn’t do a God damned thing all game, who kept whining and whining about Izzy’s military might, FINNALY does something against Izzy, and it’s JUST the time I don’t want her to do anything. Is it possible to get screwed in any worse way? LOL

Anyhow, on the fifth turn of the war I decide to vassal her. I was in range to blast into another major city, but decided to calm down and take the vassal. I had a chance to march NOW to Churchhill and pounce on him before he got his mighty UU online. So... despite I KNOW how terrible it is to play with vassals, I decided to do the vassal anyway just to save on time. Though I was sure that would hurt me in some way later.

Oh yeah, she also gave me Optics out of the vassal deal. Whoopie!

Now, while I was moving my SoD’s north, another AP vote comes up. Do I want to assign the Celtic city of so&so back to Izzy? HELL YES! Boudica is going to be my next victim after Churchill.

I then give Izzy a bunch of catch-up techs and get her to switch to Hindu. Now you would THINK a vassal would have to switch to my Hindu by force and not bribes. Nope.... so what was the point of vassaling again???

And then... here we are on the last turn of this set. Not even 10 turns have gone by since I started my second war on Izzy, and already that is over with, I am all healed, and I am already blowing the horn on Churchill. In fact, during this round I took out 3 cities. One with a stack of draftees, another with a big SoD of cav, and another with a small mixed stack.

Just one big problem though. As you can see, JUST WHEN I WAS READY TO HIT... the son of a . .. .. .. .. . gets his UU on line and now I’m facing deadly redcoats instead of maces and grens. Ughhhhhh. Are you frieken kidding me? Now I wish I had not vassaled Izzy and had just finished her clean off the map to get rid of her pesky culture, etc. Unbelievable this timing!

Turn 210-220

Man, are we speeding along now or what? Well, on AI’s turn they counter attacked and took back one of the cities, but that’s ok I was holding it very weak. I then moved in a SoD of cav and re-captured it.

So... there I was deciding to perhaps take another city or just sit and wait and hopefully Churchill would come to his senses and vassal. Well, low and behold guess what?

Out of his capital (or wherever) comes this huge SoD. Well.... for SOME reason, of all the units inside it, he had everything BUT his dangerous UU. Now let’s get one thing straight. He DID upgrade/draft/whip/build redcoats in his border cities. And they were/are deadly. CGIII with Drill, etc. Ouch. But for some reason...... here he comes with maces.. elephants... knights.. and a few grens. Everything BUT his deadly UU.

Umm.. I don’t get it?

Let me refrase what he really did here. He takes this huge SoD... which stands NO chance against my highly promoted cav... and what does he do? He moves it right in range of my cav to hit. No... not only does he remove the 25% fortification bonus. He dosn’t even put it on a 25% tile def hill. Nor behind a 25% def river... nor in a 50% def forrest. Nor even in a fort... or a city.. nope...

He parks this big beast right 2 tiles infront of my huge SoD of highly promoted cavalary. Ummm...

On Flatland!

I just don’t understand this. Surely the AI MUST see my huge cav stack. I mean, NO human would be THIS STUPID!?? Is Firaxis really this stupid?? (Don’t answer that!!)

So... with that a-do.... here’s a shot to see what happens when someone f#cks up that bad. And it’s not pretty.

(Insert lots of laughs here.)

Yup, Firaxis really screwed this one up. I just don’t understand it. Do any of their coders play anything above settler? Noble? I’m still at a loss for words about this.

Anyhow!! I would think after totally breaking its back after that, I’d get Church to talk, but no he wouldn’t. I waited around a bit then said screw it. I charged into a city and took that. Then I decided to finally take out his capital. Then just as I was about to charge into it, he came to the offering table for peace. Well, his capital really didn’t have anything thing decent like wonders that I recall, so I took the vassal just to speed up some time so I can race over to Boudica and take her SoL.

Yeah, yeah, I knew I was going to pay for that vassal crap later on. Honest...

Turn 220-230

Alright, this turn-set I DoWed on my ally Boudica. Haha. Stupid Ai always backstabs me, so now I’m doing it to her, see how SHE LIKES IT!

Unfortunately I waited a few turns because I wanted to experiment a bit and tech steel first. You see, I normally avoid siege altogether, but decided to get fancy this game with trebs, etc. Well, what a silly mistake. Then I find out, that my own vassal’s territory, blocks me from upgrading my trebs to cannons!! Ughhh... So what was the big rockus about vassals? They block you even from upgrades?

*Face Palm*

I was so peeved, that I didn’t even bother to move back to my own territory just to upgrade. I decided the HELL with it, I waited enough, time to push on!

So again I charged in, with one SoD of draftees and another of my cavalry.

Lets see, what else happened besides taking some more cities? Oh yeah, we popped another GS, and.. completed forbidden palace.. and also the West Point. And wasn’t the GT also put somewhere in there?

I must really thank Boudica for supplying me with a double-holy city. Especially the K-View which was bringing in 30 raw gold.

And then, we took the SoL city, which came with a ton of other wonders. But really, I just wanted the SoL more than anything

Turn 230-240

And then... we decided to do the whole capit thing. Oh yeah.. speaking of capitulation and vassals.... I believe it was around this time my border cities I took from Churchil started to just go into revolts on me. And revolts... and revolts... and revolts.

Umm, putting in religion in those cities, and rifles didn’t seem to help any. Nor did building culture infrastructure. So my own vassals not only block me from upgrades, but they also block my own cities now from building anything at all? Yeah... really realistic there Firaxis. My own team sabotages me in anything. Ohhh, and by the way, shouldn’t Izzy, my TEAM-MATE vassal, be giving me all her techs? Nooooo.... apparently she won’t. Yeah... that’s realllllllly realistic there. Boy, do I really love dis game.

Anyway, Kub DoWs on Bismark. And I decide oh well, we’ll do the same. I want to capture some more wonders. So why not act like Kub’s friend for now, then BS him right after?

We charge in, take a city, and get another GG. At this point, the Germans tried to use their AP to save their ass. But no good, I think I had too many votes to block that, and besides, I finished off my turnset by capturing their capital, which ironically had the AP. Haha.

Turn 240-250

I had a little bit of a disaster here on Hamburg. I had a chance to run a bunch of cav into his fortified rifles, but didn’t want to due to the size of his stack and the city culture defense. Izzy sent a SoD next to it, and I figured fine, let her take it after Monte suicides into it, or I’ll take it after Iazzy suicides into it.

Well the worst thing to happen happened, Izzy suicides into it, and then Monte’s turn came just before my turn, and he waltzes into it taking it basically for free after all our hard work. Ughhhh. Can’t the randomness of this game ever go in my favour for once? There wasn’t anything I could do here. Vassals don’t really listen to your orders, so I was screwed here no matter what I did.
Stupid Vassals!!!!

Ohhh, and of course my other vassals are causing me more revolts in my own cities.

Boy, I love dis game!!

Anyhow, I was stuck in a very critical situation here. I was in position to counter Monte’s SoD, but I couldn’t tell what else was behind it. I also was screwed cause my dumb-ass vassal slaughtered most her units, they were so beat-up that they wouldn’t be able to do any clean-up job on Monte after I was done pounding on it. Arggggh. So I finally decided the hell with it, I’d turn and try to go after Kub next, and THEN save Monte for last.
STUPID VASSALS!!!

So, just to speed things up, I then vassaled Bismark. Yup... I knew I’d pay a price for that too...

Anyway, an AP vote came up again. Do I want to assign a city of so & so from Monte and assign it to Bismark? Well, DO I !???? Hmm, what do you guys think? Very tuff decision here..... I don’t know!

And we get what is supposedly a GOOD event for once. I decide to select a free happy-face in all cities. Well whoopee-dooo-dahh. After going for EVER withal these lame terrible bad events... I finally get a free lousy happy-face NOW that we are basically coming to the very end of the game and it doesn’t really do anything for me at this point. Ooohhh boy, as though this was all really worth waiting for, going through all those other crap events. Yeah, way to go Firaxis. This sure makes me want to keep playing with GayEvents turned on, just so I can get something useless but positive at the end when it doesn’t frieken matter anymore....
Genius. Who’s brainiac idea was this anyway?

Anyhow, since we were fighting along at a miraculous pace... we ran up to Kub, and instantly DoW on him. And without too long, we obliterated his SoD, and began taking some more cities, including another shrine.

Turn 250-260

Here’s a shot of Kub’s wonder-city. And we finally vassaled him soon after.

Nothing much interesting after this, except Bismark wanted the AP to reassign his Hamburg back. Unfortunately Monte still defied it. That’s ok as now he was getting 10 unhappiness from it. And besides, I was going to just take it myself.

And actually that’s just what I did. I hit the DoW button, and now everyone but him, is at war with him, and I take Hamburg right from the start. So now Monte is sitting with -10 happiness for 0 gain, haha.
Well, at least the game is coming to and end soon (I hope), which is damn good because my own vassals are still trying to sabotage my production through chain revolts. Ughhhh! This is like the only frieken thing they can manage to do right. (Not that it really is right!)
I just love dis game!

Turn 260-270

Ughhh, another bad GayEvent. -1 hammer for clunker-coal. Yeah, that’s sooo cool.

Monte sends boats to bombard my coastal defences, though he has no intention at all to send any troops to them. So... WTH was the point? Really stupid AI here.

We have a few stack attacks here. And Monte with his cavalary, against my Combat 4 and Combat 5 cavalry. Hmmm...... Well this is the kind of results you get from that...

This of course, causes yet another GG to pop.

And then.....As it is so hard to believe, we get hit by another bad GayEvent. Another ******** slave-event. Christ, I only switched to slavery just recently or the first time, and already I get hit by this lame event.

I just love dis game!

Turn 270-280

Ughhhhh. Another GayEvent. Now you’d think I’m over-due here for some GOOD STUFF? Nope!!!

Suffer -1 relation with a vassal. Or.. I have an option to select -3 relations with a vassal. Uhhhhh rightttttttttttt.

And what in God’s name was the point in us having vassals by the way if we are getting hit by this ridiculousness. This is supposed to by my own team-member! Jesus Christ.

I love Dis game!!

Ohh and that reminds me. Earlier I had a vassal just come out and DEMAND a tech a from me earlier. Yeahh.. that makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? I am supposed to be the Master after all. I mean... and now I’m supposed to give-in to my vassal’s demands or something? What the F*** was Firaxis thinking!??

The only fun thing worth mentioning is my draft city can rush tanks that have:
CR I
CR II
CR III
DR I
Pinch

Unfortunately no one built me the Pentagon yet, but if they did, that +2 is enough that it would add yet another full promotion to my tanks.

Ohh yeah, and take a look here. Monte, the super-duper smart AI, is building Catapults, to hit my Drill tanks with. Yup... catapults. Not artillery.. not cannons... not even trebs. But catapults!!! VS Drill units.

Can the AI ever get any more stupid than this? There must have been a competition at one point... Who ever makes the dumbest AI gets an employee of the week award, and I assume someone forgot it was just a competition, and not the official game-design spec?

Anyway, we cringe while hitting enter because we know we’re going to be stuck in more perpetual revolts.

Turn 280-282

Ughhh, stupid Vassal Izzy! After I did all the work for taking an important city, she just zooms in and captures it before I could move in my forces next turn. Yeah... thanks vassal, you’re so frieken helpful. Never does a thing on their own, except for what you DON’T WANT them to do. Without fail!

Bahhh, I don’t care anymore.

Anyhow, turn 281 Monte agree’s to vassal. Now why the hell would Firaxis allow such a thing? It is rather obviously this can only result in a win for me. If anything Monte should be struggling to the bitter end here, since this is it. This is the... Dooms-Day event, Human player wins. Shouldn’t there be some sort of... well common sense in place? Nope.. common sense doesn’t apply to the original game-design concept. So with that ado... GG you idiot!

And good riddance to my vassals. They're worse than useless, they’re frieken painful and just a hinderance.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the sequents of events which screwed you. I feel your pai, nonetheless good job on winning! Nice to see someone beat Deity with Domination or Conquest. I rarely ever see this happening. I look forward to reading more Obsolete commentaries!

Edit: Oh yeah, regarding the AI continuning to build wonders despite being in a losing war. The AI will not switch what it is building (except maybe to whip...maybe) while a building or unit has hammers in it. I noticed an interesting thing during a few team Deity games I played (me + 2 Deity AIs vs 3 Deity AIs vs 3 Deity AIs, very fun games btw!) If I put so little as 1 beaker into a tech, the AI would see that the tech was already started, and would rush to research said tech. However when we all completed a tech on the same turn (which happened frequently) sometimes both my teammates would start researching different things...and neither would deviate until they were done with whatever they were doing.

I remember a game with Qin where he was at the front of the lines and war had been declared on him, yet he decided to research Civil Service before Machinery because our other ally (I forget who) had already started CS, even though we had enough time to all focus on Machinery and get Qin's UU out in time to save him (and the rest of the team.) But noooo, the AI decided that it was more important to research CS because there were already beakers invested in it... Ugh.

It took me a few games, but I learned how to manipulate the AI's researching decisions in team games. But until then, having to deal with the crazy decisions they made was extremely obnoxious.

@obs Well done, i knew you had it in you. Not your normal victory plan conquest?

@Kesshi,
Duckweed, ABCF and myself have posted some domination/conquest wins recently here. It's often easier than spacerace, you begin fighting at some point and as the units are there fighting on is often the best thing to do.

Dirk1302,

Good to know they're around. I think I just follow Obs more than any other Deity player because I love his snarky comments. I will look around for some of the ones you mentioned. I love seeing the Deity AIs crushed in combat.