Nobles' Club CLVI - Suryavarman II of the Khmer

Well, We lost the race to music. As far as I can tell, a prehistoric Duke Ellington invented a piano in far away lands in 550BC (I was hoping it was some wonder GPP, but should've just accepted I had lost the GA), while the Khmer are left with nothing but this as consolation from my aggressive (burnt GS on math!!!) Music Beeline:



Not actually that bad right? Thought for sure I was just going to end up with fail gold, but some extra scientists running in my non-NE city should help me get a few bulbs in but not have to worry about sullying my GP pool when I run straight artists in NE. NE was built in Rajavihara, which with some irrigation should make a fine specialist city, though for now it's still running the occasional cottage for the capital and growing up.

Also in good news is that we've got 7 turns to sistine, and while our opponents have about 10 turns of a head start, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Even better, we should be able to whip in the Parthenon should it hold out another turn or two.



Overall, we're not in a horrible place. A few trades have helped fill out the bottom of my tech tree, got calendar + Medi from music (Babylon got Music the same turn as I did from what I can tell ). Going Drama and then a CS push after I guess.

A save included for the curious.

As you full well know I'm no deity player, but from the save and seeing how you set your cities up it seems to me you BADLY want CS (you've been tilesharing like a fiend for it), yet hard teching it will put you back a long ways compared to your buddies.

Philo is a monopoly on your continent, and you could get it bulbed relatively quickly (14 turns in hariharalaya)... compass+ philo = CS ? Still leaves COL though. IF they both tech CS that should work I think. Need currency too I think ith that many cities especially on Deity. Might be possible to trade compass for currency, philo for COL, and both for CS from hammi in 14 turns. I honestly don't know

I do think I know enough to say that at this rate IF the other continent has the other civs, you will not win lib at this pace. So giving up Philo to get CS (which WILL boost your research alot) might be a thing here.

Yeah, I think that lib is most likely a lost cause. Good looking out on the techs though, I had for the most part just resigned that Babylon was going to beat me to everything. You're right though, CS is becoming a greater and greater need at this point. The Philo bulb may still be useful, since I'm thinking that after CS I should beeline to MT.

Of course, that's not for Curis but to hopefully get my continent all bound up in Defensive Pacts. Gotta hide my extreme lack of power somehow once all the caravels and galleons appear.

Cottaged the rest of the grassland tiles in the cap. Decided to go Parth/GL and got both. Also built MoM while everyone was still "Pleased". Then Freddy decided to become a friendly vassal to Hammy who was starting to culture push despite the fact that I'm "Cultural" and I had several culture buildings in my border cities. Between that and the fact that Hammy had 2 holy cities made me decide to go cats/phants and eventually maces against him. Grabbed 3 border cities, Babylon (Hindu holy city), and another city that is Jewish holy city with shrine. Cottage spammed the captured riverside cities and farmed over the Jewish holy city (run lots of Merchants there).

Economy was in the crapper after my little military venture (Medieval era has few economy boosting techs to help recover). I beelined to Optics and found the other continent. Bulbed most of Education and slow studied the rest. Whipped courthouses and universities everywhere. Grabbed liberalism --> Astronomy for great intercontinental trade routes. Great Artist born --> triggered 1.5x Golden Age (love MoM). Quick switch to caste sys/pacif/merc and juiced up my GP Farm to have many scientists. Popped 2 GS and grabbed several techs (went to Econ) switched to Slavery/Free Market/FreeRelig while, simultaneously, built Oxford in the Capital. This supercharged my science (which was just dying only 30 turns earlier). Grabbed Constitution and switch to Rep (lots of merch and sci specialists scattered throughout empire) and went immediately to Corp.

Science is surging (300+ in capital alone) and I'm only second in military to Tokugawa. Thinking either Space or Domination vic. Either are possible. Cottages will only be growing faster from here on out with Emanc on the horizon. Either way, I'll be going after Freddy next. He's built up Berlin to be one juicy target. I think he has 7 wonders or so in there and only a total of 6 cities.

Capital:

Tech Situation (I may already have this game in the bag):

So, in early turnset news, we won the Parthenon and Sistine Chapel. We're set to actually have a realistic shot at Cultural. Of course, with any cultural victory attempt, it's not full of action. Micro cottages here and there, get some important civics in (Bureau/Caste/Pacifism) and currently setting sail for Constitution. Representation will be big, I may have to play for a late golden age and switch to universal suffrage to get Frederick to friendly so he'll go for a DP.

We're heavily drafting off our continent mates, though not like we have much of a choice. I hadn't looked at the demographics for about 50 turns since seeing last place in everything was daunting. How are we looking at level research?



What's going on? I know the GNP is inflated by Sistine culture, but we're actually quite competitive in this game. We're really only behind our powerful neighbors, and they are the ones I'm banking on keeping me safe. So that's more good news. I guess the fact that there could be one big civ with three vassals is the possible bad news, but whatever, we're playing this one out.



As you can see, besides a very inefficient road network, improvements are actually pretty close to be finalized. Our three culture cities are projected to be Capital and Angkor's Thom and Wat. Thom has the Parthenon and good commerce potential, while Wat is just good commerce. The big problem ATM is getting stuff built in Wat, at 13 hammers it's going to be a pain to get a Stupa and Hermitage in.

So what's the plan?

Well, I think I have to concede the late culture wonders to Babylon. With their wonders, they're going to be shooting culture And we really haven't been close to matching any of their research potential. Sci-Meth obsoletes the Parth, and while there will come time when that bonus is not going to be worthwhile, it'll probably be after Babylon is pushing through those wonders. Instead, I'm going to try to maximize GA production and hope that turning off research sooner, plus a bunch of GA bombs, will be able to win the day before my dear neighbors beat me at my own game.

Rushed Freddy and finished him off fairly quickly. Started on Space Ship tech path. Founded Cereal Mills and Mining Inc in the Jewish Holy City. Built WS there. No more wars for the rest of the game. Kept Cyrus pleased and Toku/SB kept declaring on him and doing very little damage. Turns out he must've abused Nationalism from when I sold him Nationhood. After lots of enter-button-mashing Toku had wiped Mali and Persia off the map and was starting to conquer Persia's last vassal Arabia who was his colony on my continent. He would've been a fool to attack me though. All those modern era units from cities that no longer need to build space ship parts woulda taken him apart.

Space race is nice once in a while to escape domination/conquest. Probably could've gone Cultural if I had planned on it earlier. That's the problem with Cultural, though. If you don't decide to go cultural really early on, it's usually a weak victory.

Went back into save for screenies
Final map

Best Cities Sceen:

Score:

So, I managed to settle much quicker than the AI, had 5 cities by 875 AD and then up to 13 cities by 1330 AD. And then my economy pretty much tanked. It took a while for me to get my economy back and my tech rate ok. I started war with Germany in 1440, wiped him out with cuirassiers fairly easily, then proceeded to push into Hammy's land and capitulate him. I beat Mansa to proving the world was round, which was good. The other continent was pretty much a Buddhist love fest, except between SB and Toku. I managed to capitulate Toku fairly quickly with Cuirs, even though he has Muskets and Grenadiers, then I moved onto SB. I got him to capitulate and thought that would get me what I needed for Domination victory, but I was still a little bit short of the land needed. Maybe if I had settled my continent fully, I could have done that, lesson learned. I would have gone after Cyrus or Mansa, but they were outpacing me in tech and military strength and I didn't feel like catching up to beat them with nukes. So I decided to get Mass Media and build the UN. Luckily I was able to pop a Engi right before I was ready to build UN in Berlin, he pushed me forward with it and I was able to rushbuy UN in 1 turn. Within a few turns I got voted as the leader, and a few turns later I was voted as the winner even though Mansa and Cyrus voted for Cyrus.

I knew from reading other threads that (a) Hammy and Fred were to the southeast and southwest, respectively, and (b) there was plenty of territory for enough production for a space victory. So I set the goals of taking out Hammy early (losing 7 axemen, about 2 per city), then waiting until Cavalry to take out Fred after he'd had a chance to build me a lot of wonders (losing 7 cavalry, around one per city). Settled the first three cities towards the enemy, waiting to build the relatively poor northern locations until after I'd built up enough of an economy to afford them (and pay for Hammy's three cities, of course).

Hamburg turned out to be especially nice:


Final status,

• South territory
  Spoiler :

  
• North territory
  Spoiler :

  
• Charts
  Spoiler :

  

[*]Wonders

I started off thinking "I have all these cavalry just sitting here..." and started building transports and destroyers while techning towards space. Eventually I started upgrading old axemen to modern infantry, cavalry to gunships, building new infantry... It was basically a slaughterfest against longbows and a few mustketmen. The few things that might be worth mentioning are:

1. Switched to Universal Suffrage to rush-build stuff in the new continent.
2. Rush-bought an airport in the first captured city, so all the airports back home could lift troops in a single turn (otherwise there's a 1-per-city-per-turn limit).
3. Made sure food-poor cities got a Cereal Mills executive before they came out of revolt, so they didn't starve.
4. Saved a Great Engineer to partly rush Versailles for reduced maintenance.
5. Kept some cavalry to take cities emptied out by gunships, since the latter can't take cities, until I got enough modern infantry over.

Domination happened after Toku and Cyrus' cities were pacified. I'd already had the population "back home."

sitting bull

Got bored with emperor slog so restarted monarch marathon. Wiped out Babylon (1900) and Germany (1700) with chariot rush. Built a few more cities, got some wonders (Gwall, Pyramids, Glib, Parthenon, Colossus, MoM), now 3 turns from engineering for Notre Dame. Haven't got to CS yet, got 2 GS for academies in Berlin and Babylon, third due soon to hopefully bulb philosophy. Probably go for music and meditation after eng then towards optics to explore while expanding a bit more.

Well, surprisingly, I'm right where I want to be. As the black sheep of our continent, It feels good to see the numbers looking just about right. Frederick has even helped by grabbing broadway, which makes me feel very optimistic that Babylon and Mali may not be able to pull ahead of me. Speaking of Mali:



Didn't like that when Sitting Bull sold me his maps. Haven't met him yet, so it may be a footrace. Toku recently capitulated Cyrus. While Our continent has an AP mandated mutual defense pacts, I did send Toku lit for free to put him to Cautious. At this point it's a race to victory before I'm declared upon.

As for our cities,

The Capital:


Angkor Thom:


Angkor Wat:


We should have enough GAs stocked up to bomb the capital and Thom to legendary shortly after Wat. I'm going to go through the numbers and correct my remaining GPP generators, otherwise it's build culture and hold on until death or victory.

I was one turn off, so Angkor Wat went legendary 1 turn before the Capital and Angkor Thom . I'm really disappointed that my first Deity win had to show such awful micro .

The basic story from 1400 AD runs that Toku decides to war with Mansa, and make no progress. Hammurabi joins in briefly, but then gets right back in on the defensive pact. I micro my final turns to squeeze whatever I can, and Hammurabi decides to slow my progress with Creative Constructions, but since I was going cultural it just shaved a few turns off the win date (Though it did bring my culture slider down from 90% to 60%).

So when turn 262 runs down, I breathe a sigh of relief and even get a little gift to go out on:



Looking on the winning conditions, it looks like I had it in the bag, though Frederick and Hammurabi splitting the late game cultural wonders probably helped. Fred's space wasn't threatening either.





And, in my favorite stat, my most built unit was the Great Artist. Was able to put out 19 GPs in all (With another GA popping in 5 turns, should I have needed it), which isn't anything to sneeze at when non-Philo. Parthenon and Pascifism obviously helped. Got 2 GAs for the final bomb at around 60% odds, but still most of the GAs were produced over 90%.

All in all, a pretty bog standard Culture or death win. Obviously not a strategy you can do every game, but I'll pat myself on the back for getting it with only 1 religion on Deity.

Final Score: 57300.

Somewhat annoyingly I can't get screenshots of the tech table but I'm researching rocketry at the moment. Got medicine, communism, electric, railroad.

I spent a large hunk of time peacefully settling the island and getting a decent tech lead. Meanwhile Toku was getting very annoying, he's capped SB and Mansa and I could see him launching a huge invasion at some point which would be quite tiresome...



Very tedious. With the aid of rifles/infantry and cannon I redrew the map to my liking:



I've capped Mansa. SB is independent. Toku and Darius have a defensive pact but that's fine.

I'm breaking even on 2000bpt which is pretty respectable. Built a bunch of wonders just because I can. All in all a fun romp. Who says easy games are dull?

Found Germans and Hammy early; having a scout was helpful. Creative leader was also great. I did like others and gambled on blocking, in fact settling 3 cities across a band covering the copper, 2 gold, and 2 gold/horse. I built the GW since I figured the push would be southward and I didn't want a barbarian attack from the north.


The attack on Germany
I geared up for an axe rush by turn 100.
The world at ~turn 100

Here were the offensive positions on the turn that Munich grew to size 2. I could use some help on offensive tactics, and any thoughts based on the screenie? I could have gotten more axes into position NW of what I then thought was (and later confirmed to be) Berlin, but wanted to attack ASAP.



1AD: 7 cities (4 of mine and 3 of Germany), 90 bpt


225 AD: Germany is no more


World at 400 AD, breath before pouncing on Babylon



1000 AD: 11 cities (4 of mine, 4 German, 3 Babylon), ~262 bpt

Finishing Babylon
I had them on three fronts, from SW and NW of Babylon with the main attack from the NE via Akkad.


CFC veterans, how do you rate this: I am working to not be always a builder but learn the way of the war. All output from my 4 cities from ~turn 80 to 1000 AD was units with the occasional building/wonder in capital. How is the kill ratio? I could have got more pults in there sooner to save axes.


Continent is mine
Is 1220 AD a fair date to have conquered the continent?

• You can see my caravel made contact.
• Now I have to build a sizeable navy and cross over, and I need to consolidate the far S and the N of my continent and grow economy a bit, but I will keep on the gas pedal.
• Tech pace slower than other games I just saw others played. I was first to Music by a long shot, will be going for lib now.
• Getting curs +/- cannons and will attack next weakest other continent for cap/foothold.

Hadn't played in a week and wanted to finish. Game was at 1220 AD with one hemisphere conquered. Most people on thread went for space so I figured I'd do that, but to pass the time I built galleons and curs/cannons/etc.

Anyway, was going to hit Mansa but he became pleased with me so Cyrus first. Persepolis taken and then razed the small city of Bactra and they capped. During that time SB declared on me, so I just kept mopping up his troops, and by the time I was making a pointed attack to his first city, he capped after no cities taken. Ok. Toku only had 5 cities so 2 for him and he capped. Then I took only Timbutku and Mansa capped. Barely finished the industrial age. 132182 points.