Very interesting game. I like Persia for early war. The 3 movement points make a big difference early. Immortals are really good, especially with the March promotion and some Medics. Also, I found out that Scarchers with the Altitude training promotion can move up to 6 tiles during a GA under optimal terrain, quite fast especially during the early game (got 2 of them this game).
I would have preferred however to spawn in the middle of the Pangea. It would have made the Classical era achievements more attainable. In my game, I never built a Library (some puppets might have though) and I was 'forced' in the Medieval era just after moving past Russia. Russia (with Great Wall) and Germany had both built 2 Greek wonders and there was no way I could get at them both during the Classical era. A bit of bad luck on my side, but spawning in the middle could have resolved it.
General Achievements:
Bad Blood: Completely eliminate Greece by the Ancient (3 points),
Classical (2 points), or Medieval (1 point) era
I went 2-city Liberty. I forward settled Pasargadae near Athens / Kilimanjaro. This however seems to have prompted Alex to build a lot of units. He had the military lead when I attacked him, so I went on the safe side and added some CBs with my army of Immortals. Alex seems however to have been very well liked by the other AIs. I got 4x denunciations right after taking Athens, then got DoW'd by Pascal right after eliminating Greece, followed by a double DoW from Germany and Russia. Everyone went for peaceful Tradition / Piety (even Genghis) and seemed to be very anti-warmongering.
Took Athens T70
Eliminated Greece T80
Wonders of Greece: 1 point each for each wonder of Greek origin (ToA,
MoH,
SoZ,
Oracle,
Parthenon, Colossus) in your possession (built or captured) by the end of the Classical era
(4 points)
Parthenon from Palenque
Hard built SoZ, because nobody went Honor
MoH and Oracle from Moscow
(Berlin had ToA and Colossus)
Who Wants to Live Forever: Keep 1 Immortal alive, unupgraded, until the end of the game. 1 point for each promotion.
(7 points)
Lvl 8 Immortal with 7 promotions. Always used the same Immortal to draw city fire near an Immortal with a Medic promotion. I left it near a low defense Portugal city near the end, because the Combat Strength of the German cities was really high.
Domination Victory Achievements:
Get a Move On: Win a DV by the Ancient (4 points), Classical (3 points),
Medieval (2 points), or Renaissance (1 point)
As I said previously, a win in the Classical era might have been possible if the starting location was in the middle of the pangea.
Golden Age of Conquest: 1 point for each enemy original capital captured during a GA. If more than 1 capital is captured during an uninterrupted GA (it can be extended multiple times), points are doubled.
(11 points)
GA#1: T101-128 Liberty Representation (15) + Great Artist from Liberty finisher (12)
T101 Copenhagen T112 Karakorum T120 Palenque (taken with 2nd army, had Chitchen Itza) (All during the Classical era)
GA#2: T147-167 Natural GA with Chitchen Itza (20)
T147 Moscow (during Classical era)
T159 Lisbon (during Medieval era)
GA#3: T173-175 Natural Great Artist (16)
T175 Berlin (during Medieval era)
Took out Alex in Classical (2), built Oracle (1), and captured SoZ (1). Totally gapped out keeping an Immortal. Since I didn't think I would go DV I didn't build a nuke, and in fact assigned MProject to my worst production city. Did a bunch of coups as well. I blew the CV early by capturing GWorks from Pacal and Harald - I'm not really sure the no non-Persian Works achievement is even possible if you do any capturing, unless you make sure to fill all spaces ASAP I suppose. Which I didn't, as I saved up GWs and GAs for the WF bonanza. Crushed that and IG, it was pretty silly.
