The Deity Challenge Line-up #14 - The Netherlands

Ridiculously high GPT. Nice work.

Thanks, and congrats on a nice win. I have a suspicion there won't be too many games posted where the Nipple-headed One captures London. Looks like you were ready to liberate it had the game gone on longer?

Actually, I captured London on turn 311, and then sold to the Nipple-headed one. I was then wondering what venice would offer and it turned out to be so much money (~20k, and 200 gpt) that I could buy the remaining space ship parts (otherwise I would've finished around turn 320). Funnily, venice was actually about to fall to portugal on turn 313 (which is weird of course considering the amount of money venice had).

edit: That is the first time ever I believe that I sell a captured capital

First game I settled my 2nd city towards Carthage and got rolled over by Dido. 2nd game I fended off her initial attack against her ancient units(warriors/spearman/archer) but she wouldn't peace out and eventually ran me over with her quinqueremes and elephants.

3rd attempt I moved west to settle closer to marshes, on river, crab in range and further from Dido. Settle my 2nd city a couple hexes below initial spawn point and got Dido to join me in a war against England because she would never take a bribe. She destroyed England and turned to me so I got her to DoW Venice where she took a couple he his bough city-states. But with no warning(no troops nearby, still at war with Venice and DoF) she declared war on me. I had a descent military but no production so held out 25ish turns only losing my 2nd city until freaking Zurich took my capital when I thought it was safe having destroyed all Dido's nearby melee units.

Sully

Maria

Out of curiosity, why do you keep Carthage and England alive? I get that there is a diplo penalty for killing off a civ, but being unpopular doesn't seem to be a big issue for you

Sure, potential trade partners if they ever stop hating you is nice, but wouldn't you feel a lot more secure to get rid of those pests in your back yard?

I think my game is a prime example of what happens when you wipe both of these Civs out! I was reading the post by Acken thinking to myself ... see this is how you do it! You leave them with one city so you do not get the rest of the world showing up on your doorstep until you are ready! (IMO) It is better not to wipe them both out or even wipe out one of them since it will only cause more problems than it is worth.

Yeah, I get that. I left several civs in ruins but still alive in the China game (and even resurrected 1), but that was Pangea. In a water-based map, it is so much harder to guard your own borders while your troops are away spreading the good word of Shark Diving, I can't imagine leaving potential pests in my own back yard. I wouldn't really be worried about a 1 city England coming back to haunt me, but if someone else were to "liberate" a city on my island, I'd be concerned. It just seems easier to defend, on this map in particular, if one doesn't have to worry about land based invasions.

If you own the whole island, any troops that make landfall are certainly up to no good. If there are a couple of unowned patches on the island, someone else can build up enough critical mass to become more than a nuisance.

I'm also thinking that after taking 2 capitals, I'm not too concerned with diplomatic penalties anymore…….Just a point of discussion, as total war hasn't been my MO for awhile.

Pretty standard after the death of Carthage, I feel lucky she didn't push more elephants near the end.
Quickly recognized bad terrain + sandwish between 2 AI on a small island.
Liberty + early CBs is the way to go (both for defensive and development purposes). I'll delay science and rely on spy and TRs.

Put out quick 4 archers (chopped) to deny Carthaginian expansions (she went liberty). Stole 3 England workers and captured 2 Dido settlers (One was just next to me in west wines !). I then go 3 cities, hardly room for more and I hope to capture some anyway.

I reach Construction around T65 and declare on Dido (6CB + 2added later). I ally Bratislava to help me in this endeavor.
I capture Carthage 20ish turn later (I had to stay on defense a long time due to a ton of ships), then she stopped spamming stuff.

After that England denounce me because she's an ass and I declare on her. Her puny army is no match and I got her 2 best cities in 10turns. I made a big detour to Guilds, Metal Casting and Engineering meanwhile. Time to grow and catch up in science. Capital really sucks.
T103 Maria reaches renaissance so I'll try to steal stuff from her to catch up.

I trade as much ressources as I can for another. That way you get 4 happiness for foreign ressource and 2 happiness for last copy of my own.
I build economy up to T140 aproximately where I get a late navigation. I then slowly get some frigates.
I declare war on venice T150ish and get Jerusalem for FoY. I get dogpiled by 3 other AI. I pillage a ton of trade routes

Painfully took the capital of danemark

However cities start to be a little too strong, I'll probably have to wait for battleship to get further.
I get Biology and take Casablanca because lot of Oil. I stay at war with Morocco and just farm XP while waiting for battleships. Should have made barracks + armory before making my fleet...

I choose Autocracy but other people take Order so I'm hit hard by unhappiness (-21), I make a mistake and picked cheaper units totally useless since I don't have that much gold I regret it dearly. I pick faster spies, I like it. Tier 2 I'll pick +3happi per courthouse, it's a more immediate bonus for me than +2 for military buildings. I begin to make Prora in capital (19 turns ).
Reach Electronics turn 211 time to upgrade everyone. God forgot it costs 390 cant upgrade more than 5... and I'm embargoed.
I take Marrakech quickly at T215. Upgrade a few more battleships.

Decide against Suleiman because I see planes, so without carriers or superupgraded ships it's not very good. I go to Portugal instead, she's weak and has been at war with suleiman for a long time I quickly get Lisbon T234. Meanwhile I bribe people as much as I can to go to war against someone else.

I then kill Venice in like 3 turns because Venice It's now time to bring everything and my new carrier + triplane with me against sulliman. I have a high number of well upgraded ships it should be alright. I decided to play it safe and burn his cities one by one instead of just rushing for his cap. I got Istanbul turn 259

As I may have mentioned, this game redefines the word "slog".

I've got no culture.

My science is dead last.

I've been in unhappiness since Ideologies (t190) as I went Freedom (England later joined me in Freedom then politely bowed out of the game 2 turns later). I finally got to +1 on t238, but the specialist happiness tenet is still 30 turns away.

I've been mostly broke, and the Dutch are supposed to be rich. I'm working every trade avenue possible, but with Cargo Ships needed internally, yuck.

I've had barbarians spawning just about every 4 turns, and have barely avoided losing a city to revolution on a couple of occasions.

I've been at war with whomever Carthage wants me to fight (England or Venice) yet haven't taken a city. England gave me York in a peace deal. I then sold York to Sully for 95 GPT, 2 luxes and some Aluminum. I didn't want Sully in my back yard, but he'd just taken London (Great Wall city) and nobody else would give me more than 2 GPT. The 95 GPT will be very helpful as I can now upgrade units, and hopefully buy the 2 remaining Cultural CS. SoL should be built around t245.

Carthage wanted me to DoW Venice (again….that's like the 3rd time) and I agreed to in 10 turns. I'm ok with that, as Nipplehead has a MoV perched off the coast of my lone ally, Zurich, so I was going to have to kill that thing anyways. Of course, she backstabs me on t241, but I should be able to drive her back and maybe even take her capital.

I Oxforded to get Labs, and have a few GS that I'll have to bulb early to get to Satellites. Sadly, this is going to end up being a very slow and violent Science Victory attempt. I just never got up to speed to do enough militarily or culturally and I lack the resources to upgrade or even contemplate an air force. The only oil near me is owned by Venice (3 oil)…..and I don't think I can GG it. At least Carthage has some, so I'm going pedal to the metal in this war for her capital.

Sign……..this one is not going to be artistic at all.

Right now, only 1 ally, my neighbor Zurich. I have spies in the two remaining cultural CS and will probably spend 1000 gold to ally them after the next coup. I'll also need to rush/buy a couple of labs next turn, as I've got food cargo ships going to all cities so production is a bit low. Gotta catch up in population after those eons of unhappiness.