The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game #7 - Ethiopia

Many wars between AI but nobody really attacked me. Greece was out pretty soon, Rome was left with 3 minor cities and Rome. The scariest stuff was after choosing ideologies and 3 powerful civs denouncing me. Autocracy almost passed the vote but I was lucky and it didn't. Order was chosen only by me and Japan, Poland chose Freedom and the rest chose autocracy.

From the beginning I moved settler down towards the mountain and met Rome's 2nd settler which I killed. After that I stole many more workers and settlers from them after which they were pretty much done in this game. This gave a decent start.

Wonders:
pisa, sistine, PT, eiffel, Kremlin, Hubble

WF was pretty easy to win - 2nd place only 600 points.

I got a religion in the capital but AI attacked my 2 cities on rivers with their religion which was very good Strangely AI touched neither my capital nor the city on the coast. No idea why.

Usual policies, Tradition, Rationalism, Order up to 3rd level to finish spaceship with GE.

Timing was very good and in the end I did not have to wait for techs.

- My Harar was a religious war flash point as well - but I don't think it made it to 52 flips It did have 5 different dominant religions, however.

- I do think the extra cities are worth it as long as there are relatively accessible happy fixes. I don't want to be building Collos and the Circus Maximus too early ... Pangaea makes more cities much easier since we have early access to all the CS and Civs.

- I have no science from CS allies - only Pat Opener. I'm building Beakers at the end. Without that the BPT would be closer to 1600. In practical terms it was more like 1550 because I had to work mines to build parts. So 1550 <->1230 is due to extra cities, yes. We have similar populations at the end 140/134 but I get to work more Scientists and probably more total specialists. I also have 1 Observatory and more jungle tiles. Edit: I see you have a much better Observatory city than I do Nice work.

-The main benefit of more cities is not the higher BPT, but the ability to squeeze out an extra great scientist or two. However, this game I had a silly amount of GPPs that didn't quite materialize in time.

Loved the start. Five turns into the game and it turns out we were forward-settled by the Romans. It is war then! Four workers joined our side very fast, which put some weight on production capabilities, but, on the bright side, all we had to do is build archers to protect newly acquired slaves. One more city was settled. We wanted to settle another one, but it was unrealistic, given that 6-7 archers had to be produced. Augustus was so devoted to settle every tile around us - he sent 3 settlers. Two of them never had the joy of founding cities, as we took them and gifted to the barbs. Barbs left and never returned. One lucky settler managed to pass through and now we have to deal with Neapolis. Still, could have been much worse.



Without much contemplation we figured Antium and Rome shall be annexed, while finalising NC around t.80-82. The golden age is near, so is aristocracy, and the marble in the Cap. will certainly help accomplish that. Augustus proved to be terrible warlord and Antium fell without any losses on our side. Actually, one warrior was forever lost. The path to Rome is clear and there is little doubt we will prevail. 6 composites, an archer and a warrior are currently the most terrifying force in South-West part of the known world.

Two scouts were trained in the very beginning and one of them was lost, while trying to pass Greek lands, killed by an angry Roman spear. Second scout with sight promotion is currently on his way to find two remaining civilisations. Which is a good thing, because these unknown civs will never know how Antium changed hands. It proved to be a worthy acquisition, with library, granary, water mill and generally lush terrain. A lonely wandering worker was returned to Hiawatha, who was exceptionally pleased, and, along with Oda Nobunaga, offered us their declaration of friendship. At the time the first prophet was born, everyone in the tribe were busy trying to invent the peace pipe, so religion was never founded. Instead, he was settled on a pasture, as we needed gold badly - to upgrade archers into mighty composites. Who knows, maybe some day the Polish or the Iroquois will bless us with their religion. They share pagodas, mosques and cathedrals, and we will be more than pleased to spread their ways into our lands.

The future is misty, but the wise men of Ethiopia received the blessings of the gods to conquer entire world in order to install the everlasting peace.

To be continued..

Declared early war on Rome (took settlers/workers and declined peace whenever it was offered). But was too slow in taking cities. Greece took one and got another in a peace deal and acted as a buffer while he annexed the city. Then I marched on Rome, but didn't time it correctly my 3 catapults got 1 shot combined between them. I also tried to do it with only 1 melee unit...which kept getting 1 shotted. I also, stupidly built Pyramids.

Policywise I went Liberty to settler and then was planning on filling out Tradition.

Long story short, I played horribly and decided to quit it when I hadn't not NC up on T105ish and I lost all my units into Rome.

The siege of Rome was successful. Even though terrain was beyond favourable, 4 ballista guardians and a composite bowman were less so. Military decision was made to sacrifice two units and annexe Rome fast, instead of trying to preserve army, by playing bait, hide and seek and other shadow games.. There were no wonders, silk and whales were unimproved and the Northern road wasn't even finished. Augustus is, indeed, a lousy ruler. By the time Rome was conquered, Alexander the Great made a fatal mistake. He attacked Rome and took the coastal city. Entire world responded by denouncing him, Poland and Japan shortly declared war.

People of Ethiopia, angered by Greek villainy, joined the world in denouncing Greece. Even though 12 science per turn from caravans were lost, the war on Greece was finally declared on t.90. The world accepted this act with joy and no negative modifiers are observed with Poland, Iroquois and Japan. Shoshone and Arabia look a little concerned however and offer -1 gpt on all deals. King Alexander is under severe pressure, yet he is world leader in city state alliances, having 5 of them, currently. It is uncertain what force stands beyond Cumae and whether composite bowmen will be able to take Argos, Corinth, Sparta and Athens before upgrading to crossbowmen. In any case, the plan is to liberate Greece of their psychotic leader.

Meanwhile, NC was finished at turn 82, Oracle at turn 90. Tradition was finished and commerce is due to be opened in a couple of turns, providing much needed gold inflow to keep saturating the Ethiopian war machine. Pagoda and monastery were purchased in Harar.

The plan is:

Universities. (12 turns)
Get Athens.
Get Warsaw before winged hussars are introduced.
Secure Onondaga.
Assault on Japan, Shoshone and Arabia.
Fill commerce and few points in rationalism, if needed.

to be continued..

My settler moved east 1 tile, and I realized that Rome was very close.

I settled 2 cities east and west, but Poland DoWed me. I had a warrior.

I lost Harar and Addis Ababa immediately

At last, I'm conquered.

For me this game was kind of bizzare. Rome settled two cities by turn 100. On about turn 150 he settle his third city in the tundra down by Barringer crater and started expanding in the little nooks and crannies left on the map. He never once bothered me, but instead wanted to be my friend the entire game. That wasn't the Rome I am used to.

Alex basically did nothing the entire game except start a war with me when I settled Gondar just to the east of Sparta. We warred it out for a bit, but he was still using his early game units, so he was just burning through military. I captured Sparta and easily could have taken Athens, but happiness was becoming an issue. He offered me all of his cities, but instead I took his one luxury and 7 per turn. As soon as we signed a peace deal Japan attacked from the water and took his capital. I intended on building six cities, but instead went with five and later on annexed Sparta.

Religion in my game was kind of strange as well. Neither Japan nor the Iroquois founded a religion, but instead adopted mine and spread it around to their own cities. Poland had a religion, but it seemed to only spread in the north. On the other side of the map Harun spread his like crazy, but I never caught wind of it because of the land bridge between the land masses. Also, Rome had a religion but strictly kept it to himself. Seriously, I don't know what was up with Rome in this game.

As far as policies go, I went full tradition, commerce down to mercantilism, full rationalism, Order into the free GS/GE combo. I built Big Ben so I had that with Mercantilism and Skyscrapers, which meant that research labs only cost me around 540 or so. Everything was incredibly cheap so I was buying most of my buildings near the end of the game.

I was allied up with all four militaristic city states for large portions of the game, so I only built a few units of my own. And the fact that two of the units being gifted were Impis and Keshiks made the military city states that much more awesome.

One of my biggest missteps actually came near the very end of the game. I had bulbed all my great scientist, but it left me 8 turns short of nanotech, so I had to wait around like 5 turns for my last gs to pop. As soon as I got the gs I went into my units tab to find which city he spawned in, only to find out that I had another gs that I hadn't seen earlier. He was sitting behind my city pretty much completely obstructed by the name placard. It was a dumb mistake, and it cost me probably five turns.

After Alex took Rome's 2 expos in the E desert, he got Antium in a peace deal. I had let my military stagnate to buy off CS allies, but once Poland DOW'd Alex I took Antium with no resistance (it was puppeted with no garrison, LOL). I then raced and took Neapolis one turn before Poland, which turned out to have 2 lux and coal and oil. So Rome stagnated with 2 cities the rest of the game.

Love the dreaded island barb camp barrage - this while real wars are raging everywhere. And one of Iroq's choicer expos.

I spent 30+ gpt each to Iroq and Poland to vote for Order as WI, which it turns out I didn't need their votes (they went Autocracy and Freedom). I believe this is a really strong play as long as you don't get DOW'd while you have the neg modifier before the vote, and is part of the reason I don't want to be entangled in any DOF's when Ideologies hit. This is the first time I tried it on Deity... I almost flipped Poland, did flip Japan to Order from Autocracy. There were constant wars everywhere, and Iroq were willing to DOW anybody, anytime, which was nice. Poland lost it's cap and was about to lose it's second cap at the end. He stupidly DOW'd Rome while his cap was under seige, and had all his air down S. WTF? He did take most of the Greek lands from Oda earlier, so he had some strength.

On the other end of the continent, Arabia got really strong, and after Poc's GW lost it's power he was at risk of getting tromped. Oda, surprisingly, stayed pretty strong all game - he was quite the villain, and of course my buddy all game.

I didn't do any DOF's again, so no RA's, only got silver in WF, and because I proposed and voted for Order WI, Arts Funding passed, so my tech rate was slow mid-game on. I still managed almost 1600bpt by working all engineer slots late. If I had beelined Globalization I would have won a DV 20 and maybe 40 turns earlier.

I took 8 in Order, Full Tradition and Rat, 3 in Piety and 2 in Patronage late. Because WF hit so early, it sort of screwed up my timings. Plus I forgot to get a Uni in Neapolis, so couldn't Oxford Plastics, took Satellites instead and Rat finished Combined Arms.

Hard-built CR, Pentagon, and Gr Firewall; GE'd Eiffel, Hubble, and Kremlin for the policy. My production was unusually good and I got my National Wonders relatively early - I am still a little surprised my finish wasn't earlier, but then again I farted around building Hotels and Airports when I could have built Research...

Never tried a CV on deity but after watching Acken's replay I thought what the hell. The first attempt turned into early aggression with Rome, every other civ hated me and my tech was slowed down too much. So, I started a new game, and this time moved cap 4 tiles E to hinder any expansion from Rome. Worked beautifully, and Rome was BFF the whole game.

t137


I kept buying people off; Oda, Alex, Arabia and Hiawatha were pretty much duking it out the entire game. I was also lucky with Hiawatha's beliefs, with both pagodas and monasteries.

With a state of perpetual war I was able to secure most culture wonders. I went for Order, and after initially regretting the decision I kind of fell in love with the insane happiness boost, making the + to tourism tenet possible. I could have shaved off time with faster tech and faster reformation belief for SS, but got distracted by a tussle with Alex. No major threats in the end game

Moved Warrior and Settler SE until I met Rome. Plopped my city 4 tiles from his cap, with one of his Warriors 2 S and Warrior/Settler 2 E. City bombard and my Warrior gave me an immediate worker and promo. Went on to capture 4 total Workers and 2 Settlers. Couldn't work any more tiles, so went exploring with Workers and found a ruin with one before a barb captured it.

Made 5 Archers but probably only needed 4. Have returned like 3-4 workers to Wellington and cleared a camp, so have 191 influence. I am 3 deep into Tradition, but considered either going Liberty to swamp the terrain, and now am wondering if Sacred Sites would be good. Knowing the likely religious spam from Iroq, it would be tempting to not take a faith building, and just let myself get swamped by religion - just take happy and food beliefs... I probably won't play much longer, but it was fun to try out the forward settle gambit!

Greece equals pain. With 3 wars going, Alexander feels relaxed and keeps allying city states, even though he is left with Athens, which is surrounded by Japanese and Ethiopians from most angles. Obviously, he is going down pretty soon, but the process of acquiring trash cities somewhat postpones the dynamite technology. Another 15 turns is the rough estimate. Hiawatha seems willing to attack Poland, and we can help him with that. Besides, he looks pretty dangerous with a bunch of cities he spammed lately, so, he has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. In a battle between Polish hussars and Iroquois muskets, 3:1 goes to muskets, yet Casimir isn't going down without a grand fight. Who knows, maybe he'll catch Hiawatha with his pants down and reclaim the once lost Lodz. This is where Ethiopian artillery and Roman ballistas should make a surprise ambush from the jungle south of Krakow and swiftly put Polish to their knees. Timing is critical. And many things may go wrong. But this is the plan. Onondaga is two cities away from Warsaw, the next target.

World fair is due in 6 turns and with three points in rationalism covered, filling commerce is the next priority. It looks light years away from victory now and pulling artillery (and, possibly bombers) through the narrow isthmus is going to be a logistical nightmare, but we are still determined to do whatever it takes to light up a peace pipe in Mecca one day. Probably not as easily, as it seemed once..

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums...FC DCL/CFC DCL 07/T90PolanInc_zpsc57b1bec.jpg

T90 Casimir wanted more Lebensraum and was probably tired of trying to get passed me with settlers & missionaries so the somewhat unexpected DoW came T90. Adwa was almost in trouble so I detoured for CBs.
On same turn I finished Liberty & settled the GS, wasted few turns on capital at first but build Oracle in Harar T92, T93 4C NC. I earlier planned to expand at least 2 more cities but Hiawatha was not happy even with my 4th so I sticked with. I already had decided to build any ships as this was Pangaea so who needs them so no cities on coast either - clearly not the optimal map for that as it later turned out. By this time I was already not too happy with the game so I formulated similar gameplan that it was in last DCL.




Poland wasn't much of a trouble but lack of money & happiness, surpluss of Iroquois missionaries and too fast growing Roman cities so my religion didn't spread and DoF with him sort of prevented war. Hiawatha was 1st to hit renaissance T100.
T101 DoF with Harun, T106 Machinery, T119 Education and no hope of buying anything. Due to the nowhere going two wars I took left side of Honor before opening Rationalism very late.





To reduce the number of free roaming prophets around I biribed Hiawatha to DoW Casimir T113 but this from the manual how-not-to-do-it.





T130 Poland founded WC. I took Lodz but rather can capturing anything else just kept on gathering xp but most of he time & energy went to dodging the freakin' televangelists.
T150 LToP which was a nice surprise and used the GE for PT. I even had few RAs to compensate the general lack of beakers.
T158 DoF with Hiawatha again after a long waiting and even Pocatello offered DoF on T163. T62 WF was nicely voted down as I had better things to do and 500 GA points was far from optimal.




T167 finally Warsaw but kept on the war and T172 Rome which really didn't please people as nobody paid full price for anything. T182 Oxforded Radio and T183 first to pick and went with Order for happiness in hope of getting a natural GA before WF. Pocatello sadly built Brandenburg before I got the tech.
T192 Hiawatha backstabbed and T193 Harun followed suite so I bulbed Dynamite T197 and DoWed Alex as he had most of the CSs and was also denounced by many beside access to Hiawatha wasn't the easiest one. Alex didn't last long as Oda took Athens, razed the city with Macchu Pichu but kept the crappy ones from peace deal so after wiping Alex off T206 Pocallo also backstabbed me - at least the world was unanimous that I was worth denouncing.




Harun took Freedom while Hiawatha & co went Autocracy but my happiness buffer was sufficient. DoWed Oda & sold the cities to Hiawatha otherwise my gpt was heavily negative.
T212 bulbed Flight, T214 Rome got wiped by CS, T215 Eiffel and going all out to my great surprise I won the WF mostly because everyone else were busy with other things like wars I advertised around. Nobody took any cities but at least the DoFs were broken.




T235 Harun caught me by surprise by building Manhattan. I had a spy in Mecca for ages complaining that there's nothing to steal & last time I checked Harun was 4 techs behind me and now 3 ahead and a clear overall lead. T235 Kremlin ready after very long contruction but as I only had 6 oil there was no real hurry.
Lovely when OB runs out is most inconveniently moment especially when Oda was hiding behind the GW. Satsuma had SoZ but it didn't stop Hiawatha from razing city.




Reached mini target Kyoto and found out that GW was somewhere else but impressive production in the city. T243 Honor filled and much needed cash starting filling the vaults. Hiawatha had turned from hostile to friendly so he was calling me all sorts pf names when I DoWed on T254 and bulbed Satellites next turn. Harun was friendly with only embassy as a positive modifier so something fishy was going on. This was even more odd as I suggested embargo on Harun earlier.




Rocket Arties ruled again and I took half of Hiawatha's oil with the 1st offensive so rest was fighting against the terrain. Few bombers lost in similar manner to that in the DCL with Swedes - without any visible reason a bomber just got one-shotted from full health but the game was already slow enough so I couldn't care less. Grand River had Petra and Onondage Pyramids but nothing too fancy.
The plan at this point was to take Hiawatha's cities, sell'em to Harun while building new breed of units for Eastern jamboree hopefully others being active in war department as well.




My view of the future turned out slightly too optimistic as the so far peacuful trio DoWed me on T271 and my economy seemed like it was ran by the Greeks and not very healthy for long term.




Poland was left to live purely for the few gpt it provided and Krakow being Tengriism pressure hub so taking it out wasn't a big deal. Also took few more cities from Hiawatha but happiness is becoming an issue while money isn't as bad as it looks. selling stuff in razing cities keeps me me actually gpt positive by now but any larger investment is postponed.

Harun has uranium so I'm waiting for the first strike but until then I'll keep on burning Hiwatha's cities in Jihad mode - heretics will be burned while those following my religion puppeted. Hiawatha is no threat and Poca is barely out of stone age but with loads of cash like the others. World domination is a wonderful thing as an objective as there's so much to do. A simplified VC would've been long over by now.

What's wrong with Augustus? We destroyed two civilisations he was at war with and still no love for Ethiopians.. He is 2% behind us in tech (yeah, right) and trebuchets are running along our borders in hostile zigzags. He isn't the one we should really worry about, as the war with the Iroquois is in full swing! After putting Alexander to rest wars were an easy mode. Together with Japanese and Iroquois we surrounded the Polish and it was over in less than 10 turns. Forbidden palace and Stonehedge were very nice, as the happiness is the only thing that constraints war campaign so far.



Hiawatha seems soft, hiding his muskets and crossbows from our cavalry and his city Lodz went down with 0 resistance. Knowing his production potential though, the strike has to be swift and merciless. We are secretly hoping to get Lake Simcoe and Onondaga, then make a peace deal with 3-4 of his cities, so he is no longer a threat. The Western front includes 5 crossbows, 3 cavalries, 3 artillery, a knight and two muskets. So far it seems sufficient. Barely. There are two cavalries patrolling the city of Harar, as it effectively borders with Hiawatha's Mt. Kailash city. The eastern front is preparing for the next assault, constructing forts for artillery, pre-building the road to Japan. There is artillery and a musket there. Just in case Oda starts getting patriotic ideas.



The world genuinely hates us, but we seem to sustain diplomatic parity by paying everyone to fight everyone and denouncing the right people at the right time. All out assault on Japan can begin as early as t.180, provided Hiawatha's assessment is valid.

The tech. path is somewhat unclear. Ideologies are very much needed to continue. Currently, the fastest way seems to unlock factories, yet there is no money to rush them, so they would have to be hard built. Another option is unlocking Radio with Oxford, but we prefer to stay on military track, besides, gatlings would be incredibly helpful at this point. The final target is, of course, g.w. bombers, they, however, seem 35-40 turns away.

Ethiopia is no.2 in tech and no.2 in army. Shoshone and Arabia look like they are world leaders in most important metrics. They are at war.