DMOC's Immortal Game #2 - Boudica

[DMOC]

Originally Posted by Krick19

Heh, just read through. I've had a few plains heavy starts recently and looking at your city mapping process will help me in the future. Looking forward to the next segment.

Yeah, those plains maps really are a pain.

I guess the key might be to get BIOLOGY quickly so that you can at least have some 3F 1H and maybe 1C farm if by a river tiles. At least, that's what I did as soon as I finished researching Corporation (I have started the next round already but haven't played enough to justify posting it).

[SnowlyWhite]

woot, finally an update pending

[szude]

Did anyone ask....where did all those snazzy interface options/displays come from? I'm assuming mod, what one?

[DMOC]

B (eyond the Sword) U (naltered) G (ameplay).

B.U.G.

[Killroyan]

Bring it on DMOC, great read so far.

[DMOC]

Well we're into the 18th century. Another civ is no more.

Yes, I couldn't resist attacking. I'll finish up the entire game and then post the next and final round. It shouldn't take me that long; as of this moment I have about 50% population and 50% land.

[DMOC]

Warning: This round is extremely long and has 68 screenshots in it, so the page might take a while to load. I kind of forgot to resize the screenshots back to 800 by 600 so they are larger than most screenshots. Well, I suppose that's good news for those who are astute observers.


Round 9: 1580 AD to 1798 AD (74 turns), Part I - Commencing the War

Spoiler:

The round started off with me hoping that Saladin or Gilgamesh would declare war on Pacal II, which would draw his forces away while I declare on him and attack his almost-vacated cities.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen even though Saladin and Gilgamesh were BOTH in "We Have Enough On Our Hands Now" mode, meaning that they are preparing for a war or are in one (the latter didn't apply so it must have been the former). This meant that I had to take the responsibility of declaring war on our fellow Mayan.

But before that...Saladin decided to build the Kremlin while he was supposedly preparing for a war. He must have had a Great Engineer produce the wonder for him, as he had just recently obtained Communism.



Around that time, I had a Great Spy born in Vienne. I saved him for a future Golden Age.

In terms of research, I finished Corporation, and went on researching Biology. I believed - probably correctly - that researching Biology earlier than most other Industrial technologies on this kind of map (because of the plains) is optimal.



Once I had Corporation researched, I decided that I could no longer depend on another AI initiating a war, so as usual, I had to do it myself. I first checked the diplomatic demerits for declaring on Pacal.



No one likes Pacal. Excellent! And Pacal doesn't have Military Science, Military Tradition, nor Replaceable Parts!

Here were my three stacks that I used to make the war as brief as possible.

Stack #1



Stack #2



Stack #3



I didn't combine all my stacks into one because that would have made the war less efficient. The quicker I take cities, the less troops that I will have to face in the long run than if I used one "super" stack.

So unfortunately for Pacal, I declared war on him and took a city on the first turn of the war which was in the middle of my territory. It happened to be Numidian, a barbarian city that had its origins way early in the game and was famous for depleting Darius' troops. You can see that I captured the city with stack #3.

The following turn (I believe), one of my spies managed to spot Pacal's outdated stack-of-doom. The stack of doom pictured is 2 tiles south of my selected spy.



I moved my southern stack onto the forested hill in case the stack was heading towards them.

Meanwhile, I captured a Mayan city. I used 5 cannons to bombard city defenses and one to suicide attack.



Needless to say, the city was mine next turn.

Pacal II proved to have some energy left in him, as he recaptured one of Mao's cities that Mao had conquered from him years ago.



This looks good from an AI's perspective...recaptured a city...lots of units in it...BUT...see that Celtic rifle 1 tile south of Yokib? Well, that's actually a whole stack of them! 9 rifles total! It did take several turns to take the city, but eventually I won it for good.

Even Darius I, my vassal, helped out in this war. His force of grenadiers managed to capture a Mayan city east of the former Persian capital Persepolis, now under my control.



I had captured several cities already, but I knew that my biggest prize lay in the Mayan capital, Mutal, which held a plethora of wonders. It was time.



I had tried to reduce the city defenses using spy revolts, but unfortunately, all of my spies (3) failed in their attempt. Well, that's ONE upside for Pacal in teching Democracy early -- it helps combat espionage. Unfortunately, it doesn't help combat raw troop power, which is what I had here. I combined 2 of my stacks together (by this point I kept splitting and/or recombing stacks to adapt to whatever situation was optimal). with 6 cannons total.

Only one cannon didn't live to see another day. Once my cannons had done their work, my rifles attacked. Here was my level 5 rifle who had 99.3% odds.



And he actually DIED!

All my rifles eventually attacked, and apart from the crazy odd loss with my first rifle, all survived. I had JUST enough units to capture Mutal. Check out the loot!



The wonders not included here were the Temple of Artemis, the University of Sankore, and the Apostolic Palace. This easily wins my prize as the best city ever captured. Anyone care to show off one of their own winnings like this?

After he lost Mutal, Pacal was willing to capitulate, but I didn't want this. I needed land, for Domination.

Also, soon after I had captured Mutal, Gilgamesh declared on Pacal! He took an incredibly long time to do so.... And I just checked and saw that Saladin was no longer in WHEOOHN! Wow....

Another Mayan city captured. Chichen Itza took me 2 turns to capture and I lost a rifle at very high odds again.



Here is a 20xp unit attacking, demonstrating the power of Aggressive + Charismatic in promotions. He won that battle to gain 2 more XP points.



So, Pacal's cities were falling, his army was in shambles...

...but he had a nasty trick up his sleeve....

[To be continued in next post]

[DMOC]

Round 9: 1580 AD to 1798 AD (74 Turns), Part II - Mop-up Duty

Spoiler:

Just kidding! Pacal had no secret tricks...no second stack-of-doom...nope, it was a straight forward mop-up at this point. I was even able to raise the research slider slightly because of the gold from the shrine (In Mutal, which raised my gold-per-turn from +41 to +105) and Forbidden Palace in Beijing.

Lakamha was next to fall at the cost of 1 cannon.



I got another Great General which I used for a second super-medic knight.

Mayapan was the next victim. Capturing this city relieved a lot of cultural pressure.



I bribed Gilgamesh to make peace with Pacal at the cost of Scientific Method. I couldn't afford a vassalizing to ruin my carefully laid-out plains.



Speaking of my second super-medic, here he was:



He had 11 XP points from Beijing alone and 20 from the Great General, for 31 XP total. He turned out to be the unit with the highest XP points this game (for me at least).

A northern Mayan city fell, with the assistance of my Chinese vassal, Mao Zedong.



And yet another city....



I finally was able to finish Biology, and I was the first to it! I held on to the tech, though, as I didn't want to give away my monopoly on it. Up next was Steam Power.



Izancanac fell, which relieved 3 cities culturally. Darius and Mao helped by weakening defenders, which proved to me that vassals can be somewhat useful in military conquests, though not a huge asset.



My northern stack wasn't slacking. After Xukpi, it went on to capture Izmal (losing a 24 XP unit at 95% odds...). And I lost a cannon to a grenadier the following turn! Pacal must have gotten Military Science.



I was undeterred by seeing grenadiers. Pacal was seriously falling apart at this point, as evident by me capturing his fourth-to-last city, Tartar. This city held the Kong Miao, netting me 25 gold-per-turn.



I finished Steam Power and went on to research Assembly line in 18 turns. I have 2 coal sources, both of which are securely under my control.

With Darius' help (once AGAIN ), I captured Pacal's third-to-last city.



Darius has been a really nice asset this war. His trebuchets have been reducing city defenses for me all along.

Interstingly, an AP vote popped up, with me vs. Sitting Bull.



Anyone know why this thing seems to pop up at random times?

Pacal's penultimate city.



This was the only city I razed. I did it simply because it would be too overwhelmed by Arabian culture.

And finally, after combing my remaining rifles and cannons, I assaulted Pacal's final city, with the help of both of my vassals this time.





The city was captured, netting me 10 workers and a shrine (Church of the Nativity) with 16 gold-per-turn, and...the STATUE OF ZEUS! The last city I captured.... I was getting +5 war weariness in some cities with Police State AND Jails.

But none of that mattered to me. Pacal, once the game's leading civ, is no more.

[To be continued in next post]

[DMOC]

Round 9: 1580 AD to 1798 AD (74 Turns), Part III - Ceasefire...or is it?

Spoiler:

SOOOOO many angry faces disappeared when the war was over.

Right after the war with Pacal was over, I generated a Great Scientist in Bibracte, and the time was ripe for something that we civ players call a Golden Age. I used my old Great Spy and the Great Scientist for this.



A 15-turn Golden Age!

I also made some trades to try and befriend my vassal Mao even more.



I later gifted Mao Communism and both of us converted to State Property. This greatly reduced maintenance costs for me. As I recall, it gave me an extra 100 gold-per-turn.

However, this was all beneath what was truly on my mind - the inevitable war with Sitting Bull. He was occupying land that could be mine, he had no master or vassals, he was backward, his army was in shambles, and he was just plain annoying.

The map of Sitting Bull's lousy territory, which would soon be mine.



Once again, as with the war against Pacal, I split my stack into two, one on the north and one to the west of Sitting Bull.

And it was time to declare war on Sitting Bull! The city of Nanih Waiya had the unfortunate luxury of being the first conquest of mine this war. I lost 1 rifle and 1 cannon due to lack of focus.



Snaketown fell soon after.



I even forgot to reduce cultural defenses with my spies! Well, I was so far ahead of these AI's at this point that a few mistakes here and there hardly mattered.

Assembly Line was researched, and I decided to turn off research momentarily to mass upgrade my troops to infantry.



I absolutely love lopsided fights, especially against Immortal-level AI's.

[To be continued in next post]

[DMOC]

Round 9: 1580 AD to 1798 AD (74 Turns), Part IV - The End is Near!

Spoiler:

The AP decided to pop up at a random time.



I'm really confused as to when this thing pops up and doesn't. It appears to not follow the patten of the UN where it appears every 4 turns in an orderly fashion. Can anyone explain this? I decided to shoot for a diplomatic victory, not expecting to get it.

I was right. I was eight votes short.



The AP never appeared again for the duration of the game, so I never got a second crack at a diplomatic victory. Oh well. I'm sure the real Boudica wouldn't want that at all anyway. Not when there were some sweet military conquests to be made.

But before that, I got my final Great Person, a Great Prophet (!) which I used for the Toaist shrine in Vienne.



Anyway, back to the war. Chaco Canyon was mine.



The same went for Poverty Point.



And Cahokia, which held Notre Dame and 4 settled great generals. The process of capturing this city and Poverty Point were both assisted by spy revolts.





Moundville was mine.



And Sitting Bull's last city, Mound City, fell to me. The Native Americans are no more.



There was a problem, though, that I had already forseen. You see, I wasn't quite at domination yet.



I think you've already figured out by now that Gilgamesh is clearly my next - and last - target in order to achieve domination. I managed to scout out his stack, which was located very close by.



Not bad, although it did lack rifles. However, I had an answer to that stack. A superior one.



Yeah, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Gilgamesh is dead meat. That stack of infantry and cannons might be one of the largest military stacks I've ever had in a game of Civ4.



And those cannons could become artillery as well (although I never upgraded a single cannon to artillery -- it wasn't necessary).

So, it was time for war with Gilgamesh. My much smaller northern stack that I had concoted from drafting the Mayan cities (which were 100% celtic culture because I killed off Pacal completely--another benefit of not vassaling someone because of the 10% culture criteria for drafting) went and captured Umma. This was a great relief for several reasons. It got rid of 4 pesky airships. It also gave me a lot of cultural land.



However, most importantly, it was enough to break Gilgamesh's back.



His large stack in the south had disappeared, and there was no point in trying to hunt it down. Not when I needed just 1% more land and Gilgamesh was ready to capitulate.

A final view of the pangea map.



Victory at last.





[To be continued in next post]

[DMOC]

Round 9: 1580 AD to 1798 AD, Part V - Victory

Spoiler:

4000 BC



10 AD



1580 AD, the fall of Mao.



1798 AD, victory.




GNP



Production



Power



Power (last 200 turns)



Yeah, we were out-gunned, out-powered...and still won our early wars.

Demographics



Top 5 cities



Statistics



Final Score

The End

[DMOC]

Post-Game Analysis

Well, that was truly a fun, fun game to play. It took 22 hours and 13 minutes to play, but the result was that I won my fourth Beyond the Sword game (well technically I won more before my system crashes kept deleting my saved games but that can't be helped). This game also happened to be my highest score ever, which is quite a feat.

I think I did well adjusting to a plains map. I tried to stick to the better, grenner lands although I did get lucky in getting a floodplains starting location. I also did well adjusting to the situation in the game. Playing as Boudica, I was anticipating on an early-rush followed by an economic recovery (a.k.a. beeline to Liberalism) and then a Renaissance war. The game didn't exactly fall into that pattern, as I didn't attack Darius until I had catapults. My war with Mao also was quite late for a "Renaissance" war. While I had to be peaceful in the initial stages of the game, towards the end, I was clearly not in that mindset. So with that in mind, and the amount of warring I did the whole game, I believe I did a solid job of utilizing both Aggressive and Charismatic. I did a good job splitting up my military so that my campaigns were quick and efficient, and I also used the draft (wisely).

There are clearly things I need to improve on, though. Clearly, I need to learn to focus more. I probably could have won 50 years earlier if I had focused on war starting from Mao on. As it turned out, I would sometimes build libraries and universities in cities when what I really needed were units to make the war go faster (remember sometimes I had to take multiple turns to capture cities because I didn't have enough units to take them in one turn?). I also didn't get a whole lot of Great People this game, although I assume that's a perk of the tectonics map script, with all these plains map.

So with that, I think this game has come to a close. What I want to do now is talk about the future.

You see, I am probably going to be a member here for a long, long time. And I'd love to post several more online games like this here and then. This actually is a boon for me because it motivates me more to finish my games than if I do them offline without any feedback. Now, for my next online game, I was thinking of perhaps...taking it up a notch and going on DEITY difficulty.

What do you think?

[SnowlyWhite]

nice game

[DMOC]

Thank you SnowlyWhite.

By the way, I ran into another bug.



Saladin says he "couldn't betray his close friends" when I try to get him to declare war on Gilgamesh. Saladin is "cautious" towards Gilgamesh, so how is this happening? Neither of them have vassals.

[SnowlyWhite]

wierd.. no clue; from what I know too, sally is bribable if you're friendly and the other side is cautious... you sure he was cautious at that time? Though with gilg founder of a diff. religion there shouldn't be much love from sally's part... on the other hand they're pretty same personalities(think they start pleased with each other).

[DMOC]

Gilgamesh has a base peaceweight of 2. Saladin, I'm not sure.

And I am SURE that Saladin was cautious towards Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was even annoyed with Saladin at the time of the screenshot because of different religions (this is a big one, as they both were the founders of their own religions giving them an ADDITIONAL -1), close border tensions, and by me when I bribed Sal to cancel deals with Gilgamesh.

[PaulusIII]

Sal has a peaceweight of 4 IIRC, if not then at least somewhere middle of the road. Also, Sal will not declare for you on anybody above annoyed.

Good game. Nice warmongering, the way Boudica is supposed to wage war.

[DMOC]

Really? I always thought that "Our close friends" meant PLEASED or FRIENDLY.

I still view it as a bug, though.

[Matthew5117]

To quote a few round ago...

Originally Posted by DMOC

Moving along here since I need to finish this game by a certain date unless we want this game to last until the middle of August.

The game lasted until the end of August.

Never captured a city with more wonders than Mutal, the city you captured. That is a lot of wonders!

I would love to see a Deity game, I am, still struggling on Monarch (well, not really sure because I keep starting again).

[DMOC]

I had more things to do than I thought I did, which accounted for the delay.

And you will get your chance to see a deity game. I just created another thread here, and I'll be playing as Mahatma Gandhi.