Monarch Student^ VI - Willem Van Oranje

Not much to say about this game. I would have played it pretty peacefully but ragnar decided to declare on me twice.

Note he is dead now.

Yet again with our land available (plus Ragnar's) I thought I would have a good chance of an early space victory. I'm definitely going wrong somehwere on these. Perhaps I should have just built research/wealth everywhere apart from the cities that were building space parts. That could have speeded up research a lot. No-one to trade with doesn't help either.

As in the other games I read justinian grew pretty big/powerful in my game as well. shared religion and at the end fav civic (culturally pressing his borders Sushi/Mining) kept him friendly/pleased with me until the end. Stalin was his voluntary vassal most of the game so no wars there.

So.

Opening was workboat, AH.



Luckily follow the trail of a Russian scout back to his lands. The plan here is to block in Russia with my first 2 cities and to hook up the horses for chariot barb busting. Pyramids eventually? I'll go wheel -> library for the culture to keep Russia boxed in.

Heres the capital, mining->masonry is next and I'm likely to go for the pyramids. Good amount of food for specialists.



I've found Justinian. Hes the only one who will trade with me unless I get Ragnar to pleased. So I tech alphabet. Hopefully giving it to him will get me to pleased. And either way I get iron working from Justinian + sailing or pottery. I'll have to tech BW after alphabet most likely. See the two barb cities? I'm going to settle my first city on the marble in the west, hes going to go settler first (pigs ASAP) and my capital throws out another and I put 2 cities down to culture flip the barbs and block Justinian. Hopefully.



Justinian doesn't have writing so I get sailing off him here. Gift everything to Ragnar and he becomes pleased in a couple turns when I get the open borders +1. Hopefully he expands and doesn't attack as I'll get aesthetics for trade and wonder gold building. Grabbed meditation for shwedagon paya first and was able to get archery off Ragnar for it.



Good thing Rags got to pleased because Stalin declared and I got a couple archers out in time. Iron is hooked up now too so axemen will keep Stalin cooped up. It looks like I'll have the block on Justinian here. I'm building defenses against Ragnar attacking now just in case. All workers are building cottages and I'll try to pump out settlers/workers to fill in the jungle in the middle as the commerce comes in. I'll have 3 cities running 2 scientists shortly for my beakers. Barbs were nonexistant perhaps because of the cities(theres one north of me as well), though I'd have liked to have opened up HE so I should have farmed the XP.

Forgot to assign EP! Until after Justinian assigned all his to me a couple turns ago. Not sure I'll catch up enough to see his research..

I've gifted Rags pigs, marble and stone as soon as I was able. I'd love to get him friendly, the game would be so much easier with 2 trade partners and no attacks Does giving him 3 things add up faster for the diplo bonus? I'll have to take the marble back when I want to build parthenon for gold..

Stalin trades away Optics opening up Astro Lib 900Ad


Leaving me here




Justinian is falling a bit in tech rate, but has 20 cities on his most recent map to my 10. I am low in production tiles and infrastructure, focusing heavily on commerce currently. I have my second GM trade mission en route to refill the coffers and Oxford up and running next turn. A caravel is just off the western shore of Ragnar's island heading towards the rest of the world and more trade.

I will have a window to attack one of my 3 neighbors with Rifling, MT, or both. I'm leaning towards a spy/Cav blitz of Stalin's holdings and wiping him out. This would give me 18 cities (razing one of his that is too far into Byzantine culture) and a better footing for a large industrial era clash with Justinian. I plan on rush buying in banks/markets/grocers followed by whatever I attack with, heading towards Communism with a detour for Economics during the build up. The 'Mids let me skip over Democracy.

Other option would be to just stay friendly at home and conquer the other continent but I'd like to take on the emerging superpower both to cut him down and for the challenge and fun of it.

attacked Stalin, took 3 of his cities and razed 1. He capitulated after that.



Took my forces over to Ragnar's island (he dow'd on me when i was at war with Stalin but never attacked).



I took 1 city fast but the 2 after that took a while. Made peace with him after that to regroup my army.
Took his other 4 cities as well. I could have vassalised him but i liked that island for myself.

It's now 1725 ad and Justin is going strong. I am thinking about posting 4 or 5 armies at his borders to quickly take 4-5 of his cities once i have canons. I can reach those cities in 2 turns and attack them in the third.
He already has airships but his cities don't seem to have a lot of defenders in them.







Oh and i now seem to have a total of 10 workers, better build some more.

Not much happened. I attacked Justin in 3 places and in the end took 4 of his cities before he capitulated. I even forgot to ask for techs in the deal .
I guess i could have taken more cities but i didn't really feel like it.

I think i have pretty much won this game (could be wrong ofcourse) so i'm not going to continue it.

Played 2 monarch games so far, the Justinian one and this one, and it either doesn't differ much from prince or i'm getting better.

looking forward to the next one.

some pics

So I met Stalin quickly and wanted to block him off a bit. He had a settler already en-route when I settled one spot so he bugged and settled a city on my back yard. I decided he needs to go with Sword/Cat most likely since he's crammed in a corner and cramping my style. In 625BC during war preparations, hilarity ensues (never had this happening on Immortal before so early):



He sweetens the deal by building 'Mids in Moscow. He actually gifts me the backyard city but as I already have an army going I stomp his face anyway. He doesn't put up much a fight. Afterwards I have room for some 12-14 cities so I start the FIN-routine of pooping beakers. Was planning on a peaceful game from now on, but Justinian REXed to 20+ cities which isn't that good. What's with these forum Willem games and ~20 peaceful city AIs?

I'm teching up (Lib->Astro->Democracy blabla) and my options seem to be a big showdown with Justinian, going to conquer the other continent, or sitting with my thumbs up my butt. I'm lazy as ever so I decide just to try and tech up to space before him. He's being a real PITA with wonder stealing, even surpassing Fred from my other Willem rant the other day. He even ninjaed Kremlin coming from behind with a GE. Grrrr. Not that I actually ended up rushbuying anything.

I'm teching my ass off, building Wealth instantly when there's nothing else to do. I get a tiny bit lucky with his tech choices, but unlucky with the other Civs tech choices. Let's play a game of "spot the single useful tech among tons of crap":



Here's the last leg of my space race. At this point Justinian had just Fusion and Stealth left of the tech tree, he completed it at 1850. That might be a record for AI tech tree completion in my games.



Ragnar makes a useless DoW when I launch even tho he's pleased with me and annoyed with a bunch of guys. Turns out Destroyer+Transport doesn't fare so well against Missile Cruisers. I end up winning 1872AD, my fastest Space Race ever actually (yeah I know, not that hot). Also got a time under 2,5h at 2:26, wee!!11

You seem to have forgotten Ragnar's existence.

Quite contrary good sir I am diplomatically immune to war currently. The Viking lunatic is friendly without even needing to adopt HR. He's actually acting very oddly so far. Expanding very slow and has built a few wonders.

• Settle in place. Worker, WB, Warrior(?), Worker, Settler.
• Got great wall
• Blocked Stalin then razed 2 minor cities.
• Pillaged Moscow then settled for peace as he had 60% culture and 4 defenders
• During peace he founded a city and split his defenders so when I declared again there were only 2 defenders in Moscow - Moscow mine and Russians dead at 140BC.
• Justinian grew like wildfire (13 cities vs my 9) however he has the same size military spread quite far out so maybe now is the time to prune him back. Unfortunatley he is my only trading partner for techs and resources.
• Ragnar won't become friends no matter how many techs or resources I gift. He has just adopted an opposite religion.
• I suspect I'll grab the last one or two city spots then leave Justinian for the moment. Declare on Ragnar when I get Maces and Trebs.
• Got a GSpy in reserve for a great age when I get Monarchy so I can fuel growth under HR.

So far this is my best Monarch game ever as I have had trouble moving from Prince to Monarch.

Anyway I had room for 20 cities blocked off after 400 BC assuming I culture flipped the barb cities which I did. I've got 12 cities and 8 workers right now with a 45 bpt tech rate. I've been keeping up with various tricks and would have been even with the AIs except Justinian researched Philo after I bulbed it

I feel like I should have just built a lot more workers and got more cities out by now ignoring my tech rate. I knew Justinian would be friendly once I could switch to Theocracy (which I just got) and with everyone friendly I'd have no problem being way behind in tech with all this land..

I've got a GS and GA and can bulb paper and DR for the 2 wonders which I think would be useful, but I'd have to build them instead of workers/settlers...

It feels wrong because I have no hammers. I have no potential Oxford site at all not sure why I'd even build it. I'm +14 gold at 0% slider. I have 8 workers and a crap load of jungle. I've been micro managing scientists to balance with growth which is why I only have 8 workers I guess. When a city is running 2 scientists and not growing I can ignore it.. I feel like at 20 cities I'll still be running a 0% slider. When will I get my beakers? Should I be building those markets and whipping in more?

I would have built some cities by now down the middle and be running cottages. They have enoug food to feed them and being financia is a definite bonus on this map.

Good job of blocking as well. You managed to get a lot more land than I did but as we all no over expansion can cause your tech rate to fall and at this point there doesn't seem much point in bulbing extra techs as you won't get much in trade for them.

On the other hand paper and DR will give you a lot of cash beakers on this map and Amsterdam is a pretty good place to build them.

My Oxford and IW cities went in the centre of the map. HE by Ragnars capital.

Settle in place.
Build in Amsterdam: work boat, warrior, warrior, worker, worker, settler, settler, chariot, warrior, galley, worker
Tech: Mining, BW, AH, Sailing, Wheel, Pottery, Masonry, IW, Writing

Meet Ragnar and Stalin, then Justinian. The latter is an easy guy to get along with, the other two are usually hostile.

I have no copper placed conveniently, but I do have horses.
Settle Utrecht near the gold and stone 1920 BC
Settle the Hague 1680
1480 IW done. Adopt slavery.

Goals:
Block Stalin with a city near bananas and dye.
Try to grab the marble.
Hook up the iron.
Build enough workers.
Build GLH.

First three cities:

Amsterdam finishes worker, then: settler, chariot (until barbarian destroys my pasture), worker, lighthouse, GLH

Hook up stone, work on gold. Galley explores the ocean.
Start alphabet
1040 BC looks like Ragnar is actually on a seperate landmass, so I might get that marble after all.
950 BC open borders to Justy, Buddhism spreads to Amsterdam. Will convert soon.
575: Amidst frantic chopping, GLH finishes at Amsterdam. I start the pyramids.
Finish alphabet, begin mathematics. Convert to Bud.
An unusual tech picture reveals that neither Ragnar or Russia have agriculture yet, those guys are really slow.



Justinian gives me mysticism free of charge. Nijmagen is settled to try to block Russia. Stalin asks for Agriculture and I oblige him, keen to keep him off me for now while I settle as much land peacefully as possible.
Post mathematics we go straight for calendar to exploit all those bananas (and silk, dye, etc).



The Pyramids are done in 250BC.

Meanwhile, Ragnar prepars for war. No surprise there, we were expecting this. There can be only one target, and that would be me.



75BC: Finally have iron on tap. Finish calendar, start Hunting in anticipation of needing archers soon.

My holdings at 1AD:



I'm fairly pleased with my expansion and have managed to tech okay, aided by GLH coastal cities and working as many commerce tiles as reasonably possible (simple thinsg like lakes are quite nice when FIN). Justinian has nine cities to my seven, however, with plenty more where that came from. Also, Ragnar is planning to attack me, which is a concern. Furthermore, my borders are extremely long and it will be difficult to build defences to cover everything. I succeeeded in my objective of trapping Stalin who I can kill off later at my leisure. I make a pretty significant Trade with Justy fro some warlike techs which I anticipate will be needed soon:



Also did something I rarely remember to do which is identify my GP farm early (The Hague). There sure is plenty of food on this tropical climate map. I am indeed the Banana King, possessing an unparalelled abundance of the amusing yellow fruit.

Justinian and I finally butt heads as he claims a spot I wanted, blocking me off from the southern part of the continent:



200AD I have given no thought to liberalism, too engrossed in burdening my economy with expansion. Now I must sink a lot of resources into defence as I wait for the Viking raiders - my army is too weak to contemplate a pre-emptive strike, so it's walls and archers for me. I get a great merchant from the GLH. He bulbs currency which will augment my GLH trade quite nicely. CoL follows soon with courthouses.

I have open borders with Stalin, now that he's blocked. I start to regret this a little when I see this army going south to conquer a barb city.



Russia will not be as contained as I would have liked and I'll share a SE border with them.

Then in 300AD we finally get a visit from the hairy ones:



He captures a city. Two turns later, I take it back.



The war enters a quiet phase after this exciting beginning and no battles happen for ages.
By 475 AD the power graph shows me almost catching Ragnar.



500AD snapshot of the Nether Regions, er, Netherlands:

Thanks, I'll settle the future Oxford site next then - I'm sure by the time I manage to get Education its cottages will have grown to towns I could probably have already settled everything if I hadn't been running scientists so much, but this is really the first time I've played a game at 0% slider like this. Needed 7 cities to block everything off and then I flipped the barb cities ending up with 9 before I even had math. I was the first to currency though AFTER grabbing music. Odd.

An amusing write up

A low-intensity war with Ragnar continues. Then my worst fears are realised as I notice that Stalin is now getting a little antsy:



Ragnar still refuses to discuss peace. Colonial expenses being what they are, I'd much rather be fighting/comquering Russia, but fighting both at the same time would be a hassle.

A few turns later:



So the state of play on my Eastern flank is now:



And the war on my coastline looks like this:



In 680 I tech HBR, meaning I now have all of the classical era military techs, and in 700AD I somehow in the midst of all this war find the time to build the Great Library.

The year 740 finds Nijmagen under heavy siege. I'm a little worried. Sending as many men as I can spare.



Stalin counters my defensive buildup with more attackers.



I finally get peace with Ragnar, freeing up my troops to move Eastward and give Stalin a sound thrashing. Unfortunately he has already longbows, the bastard. In 860 the Russians assault Nijmagen and cause heavy casualties, but the defenders hold out.



Now teching Feudalism, I do something I don't often do and adopt vassalage, since I can't get theocracy yet and I am pumping out units in every city.. Also adopt representation which i could have done aeons ago with the pyramids, but forgot to...
960 AD: Partially bulb Civil Service with a GM. research machinery.
1000AD arrives and I am still stuck in a lengthy war, but once I get maces and crossbows Stalin can suck my balls.

I have weathered the worst Stalin can throw at me and narrowly survived, now I tech machinery and begin building some nasty toys, and look to turn the tables and smack him around a bit. However, before I can do that Ragnar rejoins the tag team hilarity.



Clearly this DOW lacks any real enthusiasm, because in 1110, Ragnar chickens out again and makes peace.

In 1140 a decisive engqagement with Stalin takes place that is likely to decide the war. I manage to entice the Russians into making a mistake by attacking me in the jungle outside Rostov.



Many Russian units die.



Next turn the city is captured.



Obviously Stalin would now like peace, but it's a little late for that. I have to be careful though, or he will go crawling to Justinian begging for vassalage.

With all this warring, happiness is becoming a problem so I attempt to build Notre Dame in Amsterdam. Also start to tech paper, beginning the Liberalism charge. I have a couple of great people coming soon, at least one should be a scientist for bulbing philosophy.

1190: Get another GM. I can bulb paper which I have already started...I go for a Golden Age instead. My troops advance towards Moscow.



1220: Hannibal appears on the scene. We trade maps.
1260: Notre Dame succeeds! Even more importantly:



but interestingly Stalin refuses to capitulate.

Eventually, in 1390, after forcing me to fight a ludicrously long war and take way more cities than seems sensibly necessary, Stalin surrenders.



War exhaustion has been messing me around, I've been forced to build wealth in my capital and Nijmagen to fund my liberalism drive. Peace is welcome indeed, it was an expensive war. Russia is now reduced to a pathetic rump state. The Netherlands has grown large at Russia's expense.



I liberate Yekaterinburg, one of Stalin's more useless cities

At Liberalism I take Nationalism. Then rather fortuitously I get a GE in Amsterdam just in time to build the Taj.



1490: Ragnar offers to open borders, surprisingly, which I gladly take as I have nobody to trade with overseas and this will be a nice boost to my income.

View of the techs at 1500 shows a fairly satisfactory situation. I'm going for economics next on account of the vague possiblity of getting the merchant.



Demographics, skewed by the fact that I'm in a golden age, so not very accurate:

Looks like both your continents have been wracked by wars, and Justin hasn't been developing his empire right.

1500++ is a slow Liberalism even for Monarch!

Yep, I don't know what kept Justinian, he could easily have had Liberalism if he had his priorities right. I guess building that huge empire took him a while spamming settlers and workers rather than infrastructure, and then it takes some time before it all becomes profitable. Also, the golden age helped to seal my liberalism lead, and obviously being Financial always helps keep you in the tech race. Thanks to all the warring I really had no leisure to think about Liberalism and was forced to tech a lot of things I might otherwise have ignored, so it came as a pleasant bonus to be able to pick it up as late as I did.

In 1505 I settle a great spy in Moscow, which is destined to be my best science city as I inherited an academy and a settled Great Scientist from its former Russian tenants. Got the spy at very improbable odds, was expecting a scientist, but some espionage is always useful and spies give okay beakers too.

I get to Economics first, and just before my golden age ends I switch to Free Market. The plan is to tech Astronomy ASAP and start making money from trade. Ergo, I tech Optics next, with some help from one of my many trades with Justinian The GM from ecomonics will be saved up for future use methinks.

1570: Upon teching Astronomy I start building a few East Indiamen. The world will shudder before the awesome power of my UU. Scientific method and communism will follow.

After Communism (and the free Great Spy), tech picture looks pretty decent.



Justinian and I have helped each other a lot, trading everything we possibly can. This arrangement serves to make Justinian mighty powerful, but also puts me in an excellent position against the rest of the world.

I think it's payback time for Ragnar. Demographics could be better. It's very rare to get to this point and have a rival so far ahead in the production stakes. The Byzantine juggernaut is formidable indeed. I'm glad he's on my side.



Plan now is to build an army and butcher ragnar. State Property is available to offset colonial expenses if maintenance starts to get crazy.
1670: I get the free GS from Physics, and get Biology from justinian for Physics plus 175 gold. Justy is by far the tech leader but I'm doing pretty good too. I also trade SM to Hannibal for Constitution and a little gold.

In 1755 the third Dutch-Viking war begins as my cannon and rifle army lands on Ragnar's shores. Did he really think I was going to let old scores go unsettled?



Ragnar is going down, but the real worry is Justinian. He is absolutely out of control in this game. His GNP is double mine, and mine is very high, and his production is 150% of mine, which for the cottage spamming AI is remarkable. Winning this before he does may be tricky.

I conquer Nidaros in 1765. Meanwhile in the straits between Ragnaria and Willemland my East Indiamen prove their superiority and completely massacre all the galleons and puny caravels that Ragnar can send at them. Huzzah!

Not also Ragnar attacking the Hague in this picture:





In 1770 I use my newly acquired Mauseleum, captured as part of the Nidaros package, to boost a new Golden Age, and switch some civics. The Hague survives Ragnars counter attack, although it was a close thing; only narrowly did I get reinforcements there in time.

It takes me a while to completely sweep across Vikingland, as Ragnar manages to close the tech gap during the war and his cities become garrisoned with rifles rather than longows. It's too late for him, but it slows me down a lot.

Tech path is geared towards internet. Got to electrcity first and am building broadway in Amsterdam, trying to get radio first too for those useful wonders, especially as Justinian is now starting to push my southern cultural borders in an annoying manner.

I succeed in getting Eiffel built, then Justinian steals radio tech from me. How rude. Is that any way to treat your loyal ally? This is not the first tech he has stolen either, although I forget what the other one was.

It takes until 1846 to wipe out the Vikings. They were tough bastards and caused me some inconvenience.



Dmeograhics, Victory conditions and techs at this juncture:







1864: An important milestone: I finally overtake Justinian in production thanks to extensive factorification and blanket diking. However I am very weak militarily and there are those that are not too fond of me. Bearing this in mind, it seems prudent to sign a defensive pact with the Byzantines to deter would-be aggressors, so I do that at once.

Justinian completes Apollo in 1866. Crap.

1868: I finally tech computers, and yet again Justinian gets it before I even know I have it. That's the third tech he has stolen. Who the hell does he think he is?

The first war not involving me happens when Boudica DoWs Victoria. Nice to see somebody else on the receiving end for a change. Boudica proceeds to maul Victoria over the following turns.

Then douchebag Justinian somehow completes the internet before me.



The wretched scumsucker didn't even have the decency to research it himself, then he somehow builds it at impossibly blinding speed (I was working on it in my Ironworks city). I am tempted to build up my war machine and destroy him after this outrageous insult.

1901: I'm now seriously concerned. Justinian is mammoth and unassailable, and way ahead in tech:



He is also half finished his spaceship and has just completed the space elevator. I don't know whether I should :

1) focus on espionage to try to thwart him and keep up technologically
2) try to build my own ship first (probably doomed to fail)
3) attempt to challenge him militarily despite massive tech deficit and about 25% power rating

aaaaargh.
on the bright side, I steal robotics friom him, so I feel a little bit avenged. I decide to go for option 1) and espionage his ass, for a couple of reasons: firstly, he started this espionage business, and I want revenge; and secondly, I have never really used espionage heavliy in a game of Civ, and it should be interesting and educational to see how it goes. Victory will have to take the form of space, since military conquest on the other continent would leave Justinian's path to the stars obstacle-free.

I usually find space victories boring, but this one promisies to be damned interesting.

My strategy from here takes the form of a five point plan:
1) Take advantage of my excellent relations with Byzantium and my defensive pact with them to completely neglect my military;
2) Build as many espionage buildings as possible across my empire;
3) Run numerous spy specialists everywhere (Moscow already has a settled great spy and a scotland yard from my communism great spy);
4) Build wealth in as many cities as necessary to fund 50% research and 40% espionage;
5) Build spaceship parts in my top production centres

In 1907 I steal medicine tech, and I'm catching up now in tech but am way behind in spaceship parts. I'm also trading whatever I can with Hannibal, who is behind me but filling some gaps in my tech.

1910: Victoria capitulates to boudica after getting savagely pummelled in their war.

There now follows a most exciting contest between Justinian and I. I steal whatever techs I can, and my spies go on a sabotage rampage, destroying SS parts as fast as the Byzantines can build them.

1918: Justinian completes an SS Engine before I get any. Damn that space elevator. I sabotage his Docking Bay to compensate...



1921: I sabotage an engine too for good measure. Techwise I'm in an okay position, will get genetics soon and have had composites for longer than Justinian.
1922: Justinian builds another engine, I destroy it and now I have an edge. Only one more tech (ecology) required, and then to space we go.
1925: He rolls of 3 SS casings all at once, I destroy his docking bay just to be on the safe side. I now have all techs and am working on the final parts. Launch in 6 turns.
1928: Justinian declares war on Boudica, meaning I no longer have a defensive pact. Shouldn't matter.
1929: sabotage yet another engine. har har.
1931: Launch baby!



Followed by victory ten turns later.

A surprising come from behind victory! I really though I was a goner there, but I amazed myself by clawing my way to victory through science and skullduggery. The irony of it is that if Justinian hadn't so brazenly provoked me with his espionage, I probably would never have launched an espionage war against him. Very interesting for me as I have never played a game like this before.