Is it too late to turn this game around?

I wonder if anyone would care to give some input into a game that's already pretty far along, but is looking like a fast track to defeat at standard speed turn 246. Other settings are pangaea, standard size and immortal on which I've only managed one very narrow-margin win on before, emperor being much less of a challenge.

The heart of the problem seems to be that I can't catch up to the impossibly fast tech rate of the AI. The game being played with Assyria, you might think that's a non-issue. But since the AI is outteching me, it means they are keeping a more modern military as well, making it very difficult to mount a successful offense.

I had an easy time with China, who continued to build things like Uffizi in Beijing even while my troops were already pillaging the farms around it, so that allowed me to grab a few easy wonders. But now it looks like I'm in a bad place.

For conquest, the most attractive target seems to be Ethiopia since they have Chichen Itza in their capital. Plus I have 0 coal within my borders, and Ethiopia would have some. I actually played for 50 turns onwards from this particular point, trying to take it by going Artillery. Unfortunately things got to a standoff once they got artillery of their own, and the other major powers would already have aircraft, making any dreams of conquest just that, a dream.

Is it too late to redeem this situation? What's the answer - focus on military and nothing else, try to go on a spree? One problem with that might be, that Babylon is in a rather awkward location to get to. Just taking a couple of cities from Ethiopia doesn't seem like enough to secure a win.

Mounting an offense at this point will only derail it further. You need to focus on the infrastructure. You have plenty of hammers and good growth potential according to the demographics. If you havn't picked an ideology yet pick the one which gives your spies double efficiency, and spy the hell out of your enemies.

You have a lot of money, get some(if possible, they might hate you for being a warmonger) research agreements going.

If you havn't built your Oxford university yet, make sure to pop it so that you get into next era faster, gaining another spy.

This will be a tought one, 7% is a lot. Eventually you will have to start another war, but not untill you have managed to close the gap somewhat. I would have given it a go anyway, don't like giving up. This is better than the other war around, where you have an enourmus lead and the only outcome is your victory.

How far away from Research Labs are you? Your science isn't that bad for Immortal, and it is likely Babylon is the only one that far ahead. As long as you can get to him before he launches, I wouldn't worry too much.

I think I'd focus on infrastructure and get Research Labs and air units. Looks like you don't have artillery yet (or at least the one cannon I see isn't upgraded), so investing into those when you are already behind may not be wise.

Find ways to weaken Babylon. I notice he has at least two cities on the coast and you have frigates. Can start farming exp on CS units or whoever, then launch an attack with battleships. I'm sure Atilla would love to help you out, too. Pay him off to war with Babylon.

If you can get him out of the picture while maintaining your borders in the west, then it should be easy to deal with Persia/Ethiopia. After that, your only threats are on one front. Just nuke Atilla's unit spam and finish the game through domination.

Your cities are too small, by now I'd wager the AI has cities in 20-30 range. If you are out-teched by a lot then it would seem the only options to you are a culture/tourism victory or a diplomatic victory.
In the mean time grow your cities as once you build research labs in all your cities you might even turn the tech deficit around(great scientists will produce more research when spent). Completing the Rationalism tree gives one(and a free tech) and the Hubble Telescope gives 2. I assume you haven't built the Oxford Uni yet so use that to get the free tech on an expensive tech. I personally use the Oxford Uni/Complete Rationalism tree combo to get from Radar to Satellites.

Nah, his city size is fine. He has 8 cities--you cannot really push them much further at this point in the game. ~385 science with Public Schools is fine. The problem is he should be closing in on Labs at this point. My guess is too much time spent mucking around with low-priority techs which resulted in a slower Education or Scientific Theory.

I'm also guessing Babylon is the only one that is truly ahead, which means finding a way to get him out of the game means you are still in it. Equal science means you are actually ahead, since the AI doesn't fly through the later techs as efficiently as the human player.

If you really want to know where you stand, just save the game and retire. Check the summary to see how far behind in tech you really are, if at all. Then just re-load your game.

Matthew. said:

If you really want to know where you stand, just save the game and retire. Check the summary to see how far behind in tech you really are, if at all. Then just re-load your game.

Click to expand...

Or he can run the In-Game Editor mod, which allows him to directly see what techs each player has.

As for what to do next... I would probably attack Persia. I can't tell exactly how your military compares to Persia (or Ethiopia, for that matter) so you might need to build more units. But it's shouldn't be too hard to organize an offensive force given how many cities as you have. I'm thinking 6-7 crossbowmen & 2-4 siege units would be enough, maybe with a pikeman or two in case of cavalry. If your northern sea connects to the southern sea (i.e. there's a sea passage between the two in the NW corner) then start building a navy and use it in the assault too. Start with a trireme for city capturing purposes, then start building galleases/frigates in your coastal towns for added firepower.

Why Persia at all? A couple reasons. First, he has more cities, which is super-important for the Assyrians. Every city = free tech. What's more, it looks like Tarsus is small, weak, and separated from the main body of the Persian empire, so it should make a nice beginning for your conquests.

Conversely, the Ethiopans have fewer cities than you, so their troops will get the Ethiopian UA bonus... making them a pretty hard nut to crack, in all likelihood.

So here's what I'm getting:
1.You should go into manual specialist control in Assur. I'm going to assume that since you've decided to forgo Aesthetics for Rationalism that you're not aimed at a cultural victory. In that case, those GWAM specialists should be replaced by scientists.

2.Sooner or later, you should pop the artist for a golden age.

3. Start replacing those diplomats with spies. You'll need them in order to catch up, and as I said before, it looks like you attempted a cultural victory earlier but then changed over to science. In that case, you'll be helped more by spies than diplomats.

4. Try to get yourself in position to make research agreements. You have the gold, and civs like Persia and the Huns are sitting friendly.

5. You've obviously got control of the WC, and apparently you intentionally made Theodora host. That looks good from a diplomatic perspective, but she's still at neutral, so it might be in your best interests to use that to place someone in the WC who you can make RAs with.

Am I wrong that I don't see much infrastructure beyond a couple of farms? It's tempting to go to war because you're Assyria (and because you have the Fountain of Youth), but that needs to be improved.

Or is it just something I'm seeing wrong on that strategic view image?

Looks like you are in nice spot as Assyria about 7 tech behind leader, and maybe 2-7 behind most targets. Leverage ur UA take as many cities as possible, sell the ones you dont need and move to next target. Whats your intended VC?

Work your artist and writer slots, you need GAges and fast advance through SPs, how did the ideologies shake out in the game? Looks like you got a good game on your hands, enjoy

Check out the Assyria thread in my sig, but it might be a bit late to implement the same strategy. But 7-9 % is nothing to worry about, I think I was over 15% behind when I started the push.