The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game #10 - Polynesia

The first game I wanted to try something new, a liberty opening with a few policies in exploration, rapid expand and late game moais. At t140 i realized it wasn't working. My bpt was lousy and my cap was puny. Also, fun fact: All polynesian units can cross ocean, EXCEPT cargo ships (until astronomy). Yep, that screwed me up pretty badly.

So, I booted up a new game. This time I went for the usual Tradition opener, and 2 policies in exploration to get the +3 hammers.

I settled the cap on the silver, coastal. My second city was founded SW, to make sure I could run a cargo back. t94 NC, t113 Education.

A big problem that some people have mentioned was starting next to two warmongers. I followed the divide and conquer approach: spend every penny bribing AIs to DoW. I was constantly scrambling for gold, and it was a close call at times (managed to pay off Monty by selling back gold to Poland for gpt) but as the AIs started hating each other (less than usual because of the patch) the price for a DoW went down. I also discovered another benefit of being the only player not involved in the total war, many of the AIs could only send trade routes to me.

One of the biggest decisions came around t130. I finally had some gpt, and the question was whether to bribe Oda to DoW Poland for 30 gpt. I went for it. Part of it was the Machiavelli roleplaying, but the deciding factor was that they had just signed an RA. I think it was the right call, they were fighting on and off for the rest of the game.

Random t197 screenshot


After around turn 200 things cooled down, and I was finally able to implement the plan: Spam cities and moai. Got some wonders too: Louvre, Broadway and crucially, Pisa. Missed Sistine by 1 turn I went Freedom for the Statue of Liberty to complement the Rationalism policies. Using moais was a very fun way to play, both because of the their mechanics and because of how awesome they look:





I was bribing for DoWs until the very end, I was in no condition to fight and the neighbours were constantly massing troops on the border. At t261 one of Didos cities revolted, and I was able to sell it back for 8.5k. Nice to have that amount of cash lying around.

Final screen from second continent, t277

...and gratz, too.

This update is for a break on my game and also for the few of you who are following this game. I have to say this game feels more like real life wars than most of my games. I must of traded Nagasaki 15 times in the last 20 turns! I keep wanting to give Japan peace for Nagasaki but that means no more xtra gold for me for 10 turns. I also do not think I can get him to war with England so peace is not really an option.

Long story short it has been a bit of a stalemate with me and Japan. I put Dido to war with England and Japan and now back to war with the Inca as well. England and the Inca decided to team up on me and declare war. I don't see how England is going to invade and the Inca do not have enough troops or at least teched up troops to do anything to me. Two turns later the Aztecs decide hey ok let's get this Hawaiian punk and he attacks with a few Gats and Cannons and I think I seen a rifle or two. So most likely he will not get in any of my cities but he will be taking my focus away from Japan.

I did get a Lab up in my capital and Im hoping for a couple more soon as I can buy them. It is gonna be 35 turns or so before I can finish Rationalism which is sad! Oddly enough Im only 1% behind the tech leader according to Demos but who knows if that is for real since I do not have any Mods that can tell me how many techs behind I actually am. Either way this game might go close to 400 turns at this rate

I really can't wait till I get Nukes and some Rocket Arts up ... Im gonna burn this world down !!

Pantheon was One with nature, for Sri Pada and Lake victoria on the 2nd continent. A lucky +40 faith from a goody hut let me found the last religion around t90 or so. The plan was to get the happiness I needed with religion, but since I was the last to pick I got Mosques. Took Tithe. I enhanced around t170, and went for the 15% production and IP. I missed Borobodur by a few turns, so had to spend too much faith spreading. All in all religion probably wasn't a deciding factor

As the title says Im pretty sure I know I have over 40 hours on this 1 game. Im sure that is no record but it is for me. I really do not want to go into alot of detail but I will try to be brief on this update. If anyone has a question I will answer it asap.

As I left the game last time I was in a four front war and had to pull back some troops to take care of the Aztecs. On the same turn I was just gonna give Nagasaki to Japan for peace he decided to give me a peace deal for his 16gpt which kinda suprised me. Ofcourse as soon as I had peace from him I bribed him to go to war with England and he accepted. The Aztecs were a little more trouble than the Inca but I wiped them both out and sold the 3 cities to Dido for alot of gpt.

After my peace was up with Japan I decided to Vulch on him since he was in a two front war and I thought why not make it three. I rolled him pretty easy this time and sold a city to England. England brought down the walls of Tokyo and I took that city too. I had a hard time in deciding to keep these cities or sell them but I decided to keep them and press into England a few turns later.

England was a push over and I took back the city I sold her and sold it to Dido who razed it. Later England gave me a 2 city peace deal and I sold 1 to Dido and had to give England back the other for free since I wanted to make sure she was in the game and it was nice that it was a far away island city. England was the only one stopping Dido from a CV so she must live.

I think I waited too long to go to war with Dido but I had some massive gold deals that I couldn't break and I wanted Xcoms and Stealth Bombers before starting. I bought some Nukes and got the war started a few turns ago and it is a mess really. Im starting to see her get close to a Diplo win and the CV win is closing in too with her having 32% over England and rising. I spent 9 or so hours on this game and only got 80 turns in. I want to just resign this damn thing but it is nice to be able to save and just come back later. I think my chances are about 33.34% that I can win this game from here. I dunno really. I figure I can get Cusco but it is gonna be a mess to get Dido's Capital. Maybe I can drop in like 15xcoms and get her. We shall see later... much later

Oh and I liberated Poland so they are welcome back to the game. Id like to liberate Shaka and the Inca as well. Also Dido nuked Ulundi which I had a Nuke in there and should of used it I suppose lol. So Im not sure but she might Nuke the heck out of me here soon

*** Religion: I managed a very late one on something like turn 140 or so.
God King, Church Property, Asceticism, Rel Community, Rel Texts. I really didn't think I would get one of these or think it would hold much but it has been a nice bonus over the course of the game. ***

*** Social Policies: I did get some culture since Japan and England built me alot of wonders. Too many too list but Dido is killing me in Cult/Tour anyway. As I said before only 1 policy into Liberty for Production, Full Honor, Full Ratio, 3 deep into Auto which I choose some beliefs that I had to for the happy instead of what I wanted. ( mobil, police state, univ health, and For. Borders)

Thanks bud... Im gonna have to go back to older posts soon and delete pics since Im running out of space

I know that Glory_7 and others will clear this map alot faster but I really do not know what i am doing half the time. I just slug or slog through these games and hope for the best.

So the war raged on for 27 turns and it took a good 4-5 hrs for me to play it out. Long story short I used Bombers into Stealth Bombers and Xcoms with Nukes to wage my war. Dido had almost 1mil in troops when we started and I think I had about 250k. As I bombed her cities on my Cont and took them over the numbers got down to 800k to my 400k. I was happy that 60% of her troops were naval and I had nothing on the coast and no Navy.

Getting to Cusco wasn't too hard but I couldn't keep the cities because of happy issues so I kept gifting them to my best friend Poland. That was nice because my troops stayed in his borders and passed through with no problems. Cusco was basically easy to take down. The hard part was Didos coastal cities Zama and Gades. I could of razed Zama or gifted it but I was playing like a noob and I ended up losing it back to her a few times and it was hers for good when my troops were at Gades instead. I wanted to puppet Gades and throw some Nukes and Bombers in there but it was a pain losing it almost every turn. Finnally I just razed the damn city even though Prora was in it. So I ended up having Petra and Prora Razed in my game which is a first for either or both for me.

After the stalemate at the tight pass into Utique was over I marched some troops in and started to Bomb her pretty good. Once I took Utique it was over for sure. I almost gave up twice and just posted a loss but I kept fighting since I was so close and she wasn't really nuking me much. She did nuke me 3 or 4 times this game which is nice to see because it takes alot for the AI to nuke you in this game. Back to Utique... so I blocked with 5-6 Xcoms and put in some Stealth Bombers and Nukes and finnally had range on her capital and two turns later this horrid game is over. Hawaii rules the world!!

As many cities as Dido had (A whole Cont to herself) it is hard to think of this as a win. Im not sure what she was doing in the way of Science but she was really slow in teching. Im guessing that is the way they wrote this program to give us mortals a chance because Im pretty sure if they wanted to they could make the AI unbeatable.

Fun game but you have to be a little nuts to actually want to play this game all the way out. I just wanted to watch this map Burn... Burn all the way down to the ground! Also this ends my 2 game losing streak which is nice and it is nice to take out Shaka after he beat me down on #4 Challenge!

*** Whoever want's to host is fine with me... just keep the maps comming and I'll give em a try. Im guessing this weeks game will
be easier huh?? ***