Domination in 1650AD, game score 4728, score 82677.
Contiued
Skirmish with Monsa
Actually in the game, I didn't stopped at around 500AD thinking hard for what's next at all. I just kept playing to 740AD. On that turn, after long preparation, my attacking force entered Mauryan once again. And what surprised me was I found Monsa had 2 amries about 9 soldiers including 5 horse anchers coming to counter attack. I guess I might have a chance holding off him. But I didn't have any spearman in the team. So I offered peace with Monsa right away. And hoping Monty could distract him away. I also took the break, switched to Bureaucracy and Hereditary on 760AD.
Yes, Monty again! He joined fight to help me on 670AD. What was unknown to me in the game was Monty had a very good success in his war against Washington. I offered peace to Washington on 560AD to move my forces from west to east. But Monty kept his war on terror until 660AD at the time I was visiting almost every turn begging him to help me. And the next turn, he agreed to fight Monsa for me! What a friend! However, Monsa was on his peak time. Just 3 turns after I signed peace treaty with Monsa, Monty agreed peace as well. But hold on tight. Monty, I need you right away.
BTW: After war against Americans, Washington was significantly weakened, down to 2nd last place next to Isabella. He didn't recover until it was too late.
By this time, I have a 7 Swordsmen, 3 Axemen mobile force. Most of them are on the east front. There are 9 Archers guarding 9 cities.
The Turning Point
Even after offer peace with Monsa, I didn't withdraw my forces from the east front. I was waiting for Monsa's army to be distracted my Monty attack, and I was busy building spearmen in my heart land. However, Isabella came back and tried to either ask me to pay tribute or stop trading with Monty, I don't remember. But neither option was possible for me to do. So I didn't give a ****. And what happened next was she first stopped the open border; then, on 770AD, she attacked me the 2nd time!
I think I was lucky to stop my war with Monsa on 740AD. That was huge, simply because I had a chance to save all those swordmen and axemen, even though I never really withdrew all of them from east frontier until I waged another war to Monsa later. I also sent 2 spearmen stationing in the forest just east of Maury to prevent him from thinking of attacking me from that side. But I did get some swordmen back from there to forming my attacking team against Isabella.
Regardless that decision, I was still in a very bad shape. I only have about 2 archers defending Barcelona. And because it's a captured city, it doesn't have a full circle of culture. The spanish border was next to the city on the southwest side. Isabella could attack me right after DOW. But for some AI reason I don't understand. She picked on my worker first instead of focusing on city attacking the first turn. This was the crucial turn. It was simply priceless for my win of the game.
Slavery!
I was desperate, looking for any possible reenforce unit and/or city that could help me generating unit quickly. But none of them could help in time. Just out of blue, when I was switch some city's building sequence, I found the rush button was enabled. Ah!!! I was in slavery!!! I could rush build! The next thing you know is I was rushing all kind of military units out of the country. And Barcelona was saved! More units were coming from inland.
I have never used slavery before and always chose serfdom for quicker worker actions. I even researched Feudalism planning to switch serfdom right around 700s. But it was only because of Isabella's stupid attack that I could found the power of the slavery. After that, I began to enjoy the rush method wherever the food is abounden, say, the lake city Canterbury and the jungle city (later grassland city) Hasting. It made these city building crucial improvements quickly and also solved the health/war awareness problem. And the setback was minor, just 1 unhappiness for 15 turns.
Isabella Finished
So, I put the things back on track by inviting Aztec back to fighting against Spanish once again on 800AD. And this time he helped a lot. The already last place Isabella was no match for the 2 highest place opponents. I razed the Spanish city south east to Barcelona on 840AD where Isabella had rebuilt quickly after the 1st Spanish-British war, then took Madrid on 900AD. Then I took 2 other major cities closer to me and offered peace (for tech?) on 980AD. Monty took or razed the rest of the spanish cities and killed Isabella on 1015AD.
Something yet to Learn
It only got my first GP Chuang-Tzu on 810AD and used him to build The Kong Miao in Nottingham. I didn't know the GP creating strategy at all.
Science, the Military Pathway
At this time, 980AD, I got all the tech for the first 4 columns on the tech screen, and Alphabet, Mathematics, Monarchy, Literature (traded), Calendar (traded), Construction, Currency, Code of Law, Feudalism, Civil Service, and Theology (trade). I’m researching Machinery (16 turns) for maceman and then planned to get Guilds next for Knights. After that I went for Gunpowder and looked for Military Tradition path way next. I also got a Great Merchant to discover Banking for free.
As for my combat force, 10 Swordsmen, 3 Axemen, and 5 Catapults made up the attacking force. 3 Spearmen (mostly guarding east), 9 Archers, and 1 Longbow werevon the defense side.
Road to Domination
The warring machine was started and can’t be turned off. I was a little stronger than before, but not overwhelmingly strong. So I have to pick the next victim carefully. I got 4 neighbours, Monty was my friend with War Elephant, nope. Washington's only Confusianism hill city had a Archer with level 3 Garrison, nope. Monsa had a lot of Horse Archers by the end of his war against Monty, nope.
Hence, the guy I chose was Saladin! The reason was he was relatively weak on military techs, no Feudalism. He had the longest border except Monty with me which was not good for my defense.
So, after some preparation, i.e. I got maceman available, I initiated a first full scale annihilation war ALONE against Arab on 1065AD starting from north to south. This war was bloody. So bloody that after capturing the 3rd city Damascus on 1125AD, I had to raze it because my attacking force was crippled in the siege and I didn’t think I could hold off Saladin’s counterattack which was coming. I rebuilt a city, Coventry, there. However, after Saladin sent his counterattack army into open out of Mecca’s protection. I destroy that force using maceman/swordsman/spearman force with easy and captured Mecca on 1145AD. I offered peace with Saladin the next turn to ease the pain of the war awareness. Also Guilds was about to be discovered (1 turn). I need a little time to build some Knights.
After peace treaty expired, I restarted the war on 1210AD. This time Monty was invited at once. Four cities fell quickly with the knights now available. But Saladin managed to build a jungle city inside my empire. I have no interest in razing that pop 1 city. So I offered peace on 1265AD. For a while, Monty seemed not knowing where Saladin fled. So, all his assisting forces stationed right at the last fell Arab city now under my control. However, Monty found him before my peace treaty was expired. He killed Saladin at 1310AD and burned down his last city.
Monsa’s Fate
Now it’s Monsa’s turn. He was no match against my knights, promoted macemen, pikemen, and musketeer’s forces. The first war was from 1295AD to 1415AD. Monsa was down to 5 cites and gave me perhaps some tech for peace. Monty was on my side as soon as he had finished Saladin. The first war lasted so long because I wanted both Music (for Military Tradition) from Monsa which he held until about that time. At the end, he had to give me more than that to get peace for just 10 turns.
My knights began to upgrade to Calvary due to quick tech research in a golden age triggered by The Taj Mahal completed on 1465AD. War resumed right after the peace treaty ended. Mali was history by 1515AD. Now I've got too many cities and my management began to suck.
At this time I was still researching for Chemistry. It turned out to be a waste. Cannons came out way too late only in the campaign against Cyrus, when my Calvary force might already outnumber the entire Persian army.
Approaching Victory Conditions
The rest was routine. Washington was the next target. The used to be strong hold that stopped my first war against America was now a joke after catapults bombing down the defense and Calvarias doing the rest. Cites were fallen one by one. Monty got his first visible city capturing under my eyes. He took the last standing city, Washington on 1595AD, maybe because this time he was asked to fight instead of gifted to fight.
I started checking how near I was close to domination. I seemed I was pretty close. So I decided to wipe out the last rival Cyrus which could also free up some of the bordering tiles. I need some time to let the American cities to calm down any way. So, Persian campaign was from 1605 to 1645AD and Cyrus was thrown out of the game. The next turn, I got domination victory with still one settler on its way to the target.
Had I razed all American cities and popping out a great deal of settlers, I might have the domination victory a little earlier. The positive side of not razing is the population was added to the score. And you can also use the extra ones to rush (oh, dear slavery) culture buildings like theatre and more just in 1 turn.
Summary
I was lucky compared to others because I don’t remember any hard-to-deal barbarian outbreaks. It could be I was researching for Alphabet first and ignoring the Bronze Working. And maybe only after player gets Bronze Working can barbarian then builds Axeman hence Iron Working for Swordsman.
I exploited the monopoly of Alphabet for quite some time so that I was the sole trader and hence I could exchange techs from each other which made me the biggest winner. I only focused on Military techs after Alphabet except a little commercial techs, currency and banking. Later on, I got other techs mainly from peace treaties. So, even I was poor in generating GP and failed in getting any early wonders, I was still military advanced ever after I researched Iron Working myself and every other key military tech.
I was lucky again not once but twice when Isabella attacked me. The first time, only 1 yellow health barred Warrior left in the city after her initial attack. And the second time, she offered me one turn to have time find out the value of Slavery. And I kept Slavery the rest of the game pop rushing whenever necessary and it has no upkeep.
Well, things to learn.
GP producing and wonder racing are the weakest point.
I also made a lot of mistakes in the war. I shouldn’t have my first warrior venture into Monsa’s open territory without full health. I didn’t need to rush that. The Woodman II promotion was no match in the forest. At least I could run away. If I kept that warrior alive, I could further weaken Monsa a lot. Then he wouldn’t be able to attack me in 500s.
I shouldn’t attack Americans that early just for one city. Yes, I was too close to London. But Washington turned out to be peaceful man. All he had done in his spare time was Barbarian hunting. I made an enemy for lifetime for just one city, and pushed him away from my religion. I should simply finish off Spanish empire instead.
Both Isabella and Monty were blood thirsty. I just happened to be able to get friend with Monty and he’s good fight partner. And I ought to know that if Isabella could wage a war on me once, she’d do it again.
Poor war management: I only focused on the major battle field and kept forgetting the backyards. Barbarian came from north later caused me some trouble so that I have to keep 2 archers and 1 swordsman there and replaced the losses once a while. The scouting Spanish archers came from unexpected places and pillage my gem site at York because I forgot the alerts. My sole horse resource near Barcelona was pillaged by Saladin. Well, I didn’t have any mounted unit built yet because I hadn’t discovered Guilds yet. But it was alarming.
Misc
With a lot of battles, you do see the odds happen. I have suicidal foot units winning 20% or lower battles. And I also had 80% plus battles lost to specially level 2 city defending archery units where they kept full health…. To prevent this from resulting total failure in attacking, I had to get my attacking team 2 to 3 times more than depending units and attack in 1 turn before I got absolute overkill (i.e. with level 3 strength promotion Calvarias) against pikemen, musketeer, knights, and weeker.
A stack of Catapults guarantee to sack a city. First bomb the city down to 0% defense bonus. Then use 1-3 suicidal Catapults to weaken almost everybody in the city, attack with your best attacker afterwards. Since Catapults have retreating ability, not all of the suicide units would die. Plus, they are CHEAP. The only downside is they are slow. Move to there, bomb, only after that can you really attack…