Deity-Lite(TM) game I - England

I opened up a 2 tile-wide path on the E end of the inland sea to bring a lot more naval movement into the game. The map scipt dropped Panama City there, which makes for a very interesting strategic location!)

Not all water is ocean! I settled the ocean Gold, and expo'd 2 SE of Uluru. DF, of course, into Tithe and Pagodas, and Religious Community and Itinerant Preachers. I decided to go Liberty, even though I'm no good at it, and fill up all of my space eventually, to get mondo desert fpt. But first I wanted Petra, so I stayed at 2 cities to get faster policies, and chose Collective Rule last. My plan was to settle 5-6 NE of London to snag more Gold and all those desert hills for Petra, but Pach beat me to the spot. In hindsight I probably should have built Petra in my cap, but instead I settled and Petra'd the coastal river hill 2 W of the mtn, 3 W of Uluru, as it had 3 sheep, Dyes, and lots of river tiles. The city is a beast. I built 2 Guilds there and Natl Epic, Machu, and put NC, Oracle, Art Guild, and Pyramids in cap.

I have 8 cities in the desert, and also the bigger island in the inland sea. This is where there were constant naval battles in my test games. Monte had taken Theo's first 2 cities early (she had an expo E of her start for her new cap). I created a ton of LB and SotL, and DOW'd Monte t179. He had a huge navy, but I had LB on every land tile in the sea. I eventually liberated her inland sea city, so was able to shoot at Monte in safety from her territory. I finally took Constantinople with a second navy in the actual ocean, stacked with wonders (Borobudur, Colossus, GLight, HG, MoH, and SH). I had to capture god knows how many of Monte's ships to pull both of these off, I couldn't produce enough with only London nearby especially. This is the frustrating part of the map - London is isolated. Strategically I would have loved to settle the hill, thereby having a pathway to the northern ocean - but the tiles were so bad there.

Fairly early Pach got on my boders, so I bribed him vs Gandhi - he razed a city, but Gandhi has rebounded some. For some reason Spain DOw'd Pach later, so that helped too. I have had constant DOF with Theo and Mor, and early with India. Captain Underpants was not happy with me settling in his face, but he never DOW'd, and eventually got my religion, and offered DOF which I denied because Spain was about to DOW him. He is also fighting Monte in the inland sea, but isn't doing much.

Won WF by 900+ hammers, LOL.

I was able to fill Liberty, took Patronage open and Consulates (love early Consulates!), then 2 into Exploration to get more production, finish Patronage, finish Exploration. So far my only GP gift was a Great Admiral, which I can faith-buy, sheesh. I am dominating WC, and Underpants put my religion forward, which is hilarious - no penalty for me and we might win it (Pach has it too).

My science has been horrible, as I focused expos on markets, mints, and stone works to keep happy and money coming in. Monte went Autocracy, and my whole plan has been for Order - but the turn I hit Ideologies BOTH Mor and Spain go Order! Just one Library sooner would have made the difference (or Rationalism, of course)! I have a policy hitting too, so my choice is one Order, or 3 Freedom. My guess is Pach goes Order too, so if I go Freedom it's gonna suck. I don't have enough food in many of my cities to run many specialists - I have never had a game that posed so many difficult decisions!

This map seems to be a cross between Inland Sea and Pangea. It is great for Liz in that naval warfare can be big, especially with Monte on the sea (and Theo's Dromons provide a possible threat, except she got rolled early) - but the starting spot that I rolled is so awkward. It is not OP for Liz either, as I've done many game starts on it and it always places at least 3 capitals off the coast. There are also some interesting choke points. The one change I am tempted to make is to open like a 3 tile straight at the E side of the lake...

This time I settled the bare desert hill in order to be able to do food ships between London and my 3rd expo at the chokepoint N of London and 1 SW of the fish. This allows ocean passage as well, which makes the start so much more flexible. This only made sense going for Petra, as London loses a lot of food tiles this way. Plus, tile acquisition did not favor freshwater desert, even after Petra was built, so I bought a fair number of those tiles. I'm sure my game will be worse than others, because I like to do things like this!

For some weird reason many of the AI's took nearby CS's, even more traditionally peaceful civs (??? - lack of early barb huts?). Pach took Prague early, which kind of stinks - losing a cultural CS and a nice buffer. I was DOW'd by Pach pretty early, but even though I only had archers it was no problem killing wave after wave of troops. (This start is one of the most defensible fronts I have ever had with 2 1 tile isthmuses.) Once I got CB I liberated it, so that has been nice. Monte has had a perpetual war with Pach, but surprisingly Pach hasn't lost any cities to him. I could have probably taken his cap, but my plan this game has been to build up a bit until LB and SotL, and then hit Captain Underpants. I can't say that I am trying to win this game, I just want the epic battles in the (formerly) inland sea!

My expansion W has been less this game, and I would say I am behind... Part of it is that Geneva was plopped where I had a nice desert/river/coastal city. Also, with Theo in the place where Underpants was, I could not spread my religion (hers was pretty strong). She was in several wars, and got finished off by Spain recently. The big change this map is that Underpants was started on the SE of the lower landmass (near where Monte was before)... He went Liberty and spammed like crazy, taking the inland sea islands, and even getting the GBR near India's start. I am about to take the GBR city, again, not because it will help win the game much, more because I think it will be cool (plus it hampers India a little). I have India and Monte at war with Underpants as well.

Monte is a beast, with a large amount of land to himself. He hit ideologies even faster than when he started near where Underpants did this game. I did settle near Pac's cap to get furs and gems, and settled the E end on the copper. I have had a near-constant DOF with Monte, and Pach is trading full price. I assume Monte will eventually come at me, but again, I like my location, and as long as I don't fall further behind in tech I should be able to hold him off. Plus I may go Autocracy with him just for funsies anyway.

I started Spain near Krakatoa, as in all my autoplays, whoever starts on that peninsula lags, so I figured the early gold boost will help (for some reason, all the AIs are swimming in cash, again, I wonder about WB/Firetuner. My next challenge will be less edited, so less buggy). Mor's start is as is, and he will do well there.

A big reason why I am behind on this game is that there are fewer cultural CS (and India took Kyzyl). Last map there were 4 Culture CS and I had full Patronage (AND Liberty AND Exploration by early 200s). This game, full Liberty, 2 in Exploration, and 5/7 Honor so far. I just finally got my first logistics LB - one of the drawbacks of going into Honor w/o constant war. Underpants DOW'd me 5 turns before my agreement with Monte kicked in (I have never asked an AI to join a war before). He had a bunch of weak units floating near London for a long time before, I probably should have hit him before he got Frigates. Plus, he almost took Panama City (my ally) - perhaps I should have let him and then liberated it.

I am also trying to crush WF this game - so even though I have it won already, I am continuing, to try to keep anyone from getting silver. I don't know that I plan to finish this game, it is more a playground. I would be very interested to see what approaches others take, and I do hope others finish!

I am on t221, and have had a really fun game. Underpants had spammed all over the formerly inland sea, so I basically worked counter-clockwise. First I had to kill off a huge navy in the sea, take a coastal city there and sell it to Pach, then take his 2 eastern ocean cities (including Honolulu). Then I liberated Kabul, 2 more coastals, then took Delhi - hiding behind the GBR some (Clossus, Gr Light, HG, MoH). Then DOW'd Spain who had taken out Theo - I took Constantinople and liberated Adrianople. Ghandi was left with 2 culture CS's cities on the ocean side of the land, and I didn't have the firepower to take them easily (my navy is doing most of the work). So I made peace and started heading W towards Spain, but Monte finally took Pach's city in the mtn pass S of Cusco, which has Machu, clearing a route to Cusco.

So I made peace with Spain for Zanzibar (liberated) and 5,200g, which is a record for me. I started sailing for Cusco, but with Gr Light, Exploration opener, and the UA, I have 9 movement, sweet!

Meanwhile, Monte has had a pretty nasty flotilla off my cap, with some units in the drink - he is still 15% ahead in tech, has had Arty forever, Cavalry, and Ironclads. So I bee-lined Steam myself, built/bought a bunch of Caravels to prep, plus bought some Rifles as I had only one. I just took Cusco, and may have to DOW Monte now. I finally have 2/3 of his military, although all my elite land units are swimming back from the W. I was hoping to wait for Flight and Battleships - I have about 7 SoL with Range now. I still need Arch and Biology before Flight, and Rep Parts before BBs. My teching is slow with no Rat. I can't build Natl Wonders because they take like 19 turns.

Monte went Autocracy, then Mor went Order, then the idiot Underpants went Autocracy, so I had to go Order just to get a free policy. Gandhi and Spain went Freedom. Took the first 2 happy tenets, not sure about Workers Facilities as I am about done with most of my big city Factories already. Will likely take 5 year plan as I need to build so many things in the small expos. I don't really want to sell any cities, other than to Pach because they will make my life hell later in the inland sea. So Full Liberty, full Honor, 2 in Exploration, 3 in Commerce (R side), and 2 in Order. Currently running -90 gpt and 19 happy.

You can see from the mini-map that I will face 4 fronts with Monte - my cap area, the inland sea opening to Honolulu, the Cusco area, and the E coast where I have a nice production city. I had hoped to plan my attack later, and be ready to start liberating CS immediately (he has 3 coastal and 1 inland), but if I hit him now his first wave is going to be nasty. If I can take the Machu pass city, I can wear him down because of the GW.

If anyone does play this (or the original, which works) for DomV, I would think it might be wise to go after Monte early, as he is in beast mode all game. I am surprised he hasn't settled wider, but so far he has gone full Honor, full Aesthetics, and 7 in Autocracy. I will probably get hit with Klauswitz, LOL.

So I did DOW Monte, and it has been a huge slug-fest. I must have seen 30 Artillery, and now he has GWI AND GWB. I dropped 2 Citadels, one in the N pass, which he has not gone after very hard. I also dropped one just a few tiles from London, as I had some units not doing anything - he has been bombing and lobbing any unit there, and my Rifles don't stand up long, I may actually lose my first citadel ever.

I sent about 2/5 of my navy around the E side of the continent, and have liberated 2 CS, one twice. They can't stand up to the onslaught. I puppeted both of them once, to grind him down on the GW, but I was one hit short of killing a GWI on like the 5th turn and he took the better one back too (Wellington is all hills so I can't hit land troops inland). I have so much of my navy with water promos - I could easily have used a lot more land promos on my SoLs. I am still something like 20+ turns from Battleships. I finally got oil, but Biplanes take like 9 turns to build, ugh. He only has 3 oil, but is somehow fielding 5 GWB, hmmmmm. More AI cheating. I don't know if I'm going to continue - I'm pretty sure I can win as I'm teching OK now, 700s bpt w/o any Labs. But it's just such a grind to try and potshot his land troops and kill the mini navy swarms he spits out.

This has been an interesting adventure - ignoring Arty to keep the GW active. My plan is to use Battleships for that, as most have Range and some are getting Logistics now. I will finally be able to hold his coastal cities with those...