Immortal University 65 - Shaka

Asokas capital has 3 riverside grassland gems.

I had a lot of trouble with barbs until i hit the 4 city mark. I used axemen to defend which worked ok since i didn't lose any cities and only 3 or 4 improvements but they are slow. Barbs came from 3 or 4 directions and if i played the map again i'd settle horses sooner and get chariots rather than axemen.

Because of Asoka's great start and all their cottages i lost lib by 1 turn in 520 AD despite bulbing philo and edu, burning my first golden age and switching most cities to wealth. I did a Cuirrassier attack on Hannibal which would have been much faster/easier if i didn't lose lib. I knew i'd have to self tech military tradition cause Asoka was so close to lib but losing it made me self tech nationalism, gunpowder AND military tradition which delayed the war a lot. I declared in 1060AD when it could have been more like 900 AD.

Really bizarre game. Wang had Paper around 300BC - maybe a little later than that - so Lib is going to fall very early. I'm very surprised it went near 1000AD in your game and that you were even close. I expect it to fall very early in most folks' games and probably would be best to avoid try for it

I just checked the logs, and Lib went at 820AD. To JC, out of all people. I blame it on my game being a warfest. Isabella capped Asoka really early. Religions formed three blocks, and they've all been at war pretty much non-stop, sans Liz. Izzy + Asoka vs. Joao + Wang vs. Hannibal + Pacal + JC.

9 Cites although 4 are useless at the moment. I don't know how I manage to not build enough workers even with exp but I have. I thought I shut out the barbs pretty well but for some reason all the ones that appeared were axes so I got really beaten up for a while. I've built the Great library and Music is 2 turns away. I've gone with 3 cottage cities and have what will be two good production cities. 10th city south to be added.

I was holding off on lib but even with constant warring Asoka was getting close so I settled for MT. Oxford is nearly in as is a belated HE. I built Sankore so there's still some infrastructure going in but I'm nearly nearly ready to build horses throughout the empire. I forgot to build my 10th city so that's going in now. It might be useful for my second war.


Here's a tip for beginners, don't let a tech lead go to waste:

I backstabbed my best friend Izzy just after 1100AD with around 20 Cavs ( I used 2 GM's to power research and to upgrade Curr's built. 4 turns later with the Buddhist shine in my hands she gives in.

Asoka and Jao offered almost no resistance.


Wang gave up after losing one city.

England vassaled to Hannibal making that war a bit of a pain. Hannibal had a lot of Grens. going after railroad was a dumb move in the end. I could've done a heap more rushbuying instead. I also should've given more cities back to my vassals and just gone conquest instead of wasting good horses keeping cities from revolting.



Pacal was a pushover as usual.

Domination came in just one turn after I declared on JC, the last AI left.

Nothing but Cavs were used in war.

I settled in place and went for BW. Mined the sheep and built a settler at size 3 to go east for the ivory/rice/cow city. Izzy seems like the closest to the East as Hannibal to the West is quite far away. Barbarians are really bad - I settled Nebamba next for the pigs/copper and got axes going but the barbs came from everywhere. Lost the pig and corn to barbs and had to do 2 emergency whips in the capital which kept me from growing as fast as i wanted to there. Kinda wish i settled the horses instead of the copper for my 3rd city (Nebamba 1 E of where i put KwaDukuza to get chariots out fast).

Maya gave into Praets early and is already a vassal of JC. I gave into a demand to switch to Buddhism from Izzy since it looked like she would declare if i said no. I can keep Hannibal at pleased even without his religion but can't do it other way around with Izzy so Buddhism it is. JC is far away and hates Elizabeth so i'm not worried about him. Just will try to keep Izzy/Hannibal pleased and go for lib>Military Tradition and try to take out Hannibal. (that's the plan anyway...)



I skipped the academy in the cap for a metal casting bulb because AI's were running away from me in tech. I also got music (and the artist) ~500 BC but even with 2 huge monopoly techs it was a struggle to keep up with trading. 5 AI's have civil service already and Korea and India are teching like crazy (they also have Machinery and Philosophy). I'm still going for the Philosophy bulb in 8 turns even though 2 AIs have it I think it still will be worth it. I got Parthenon in Nebamba and the Great Artist from Music hanging out in the capital.

I'm about to send a chariot out each direction to explore the map - need to see what I can do about slowing Korea/India down. They share buddhism with Izzy so i might have to bribe her. JC/beth can keep themselves busy and hopefully the Portuguese or Spanish can slow these guys down.


edit: Forgot that I also went for the great library but missed it by 3 turns.

My Cuirassier rush will be delayed a lot due to losing out on Lib to Asoka by 1 turn. Since i missed Great Library i switched to Caste/Pacifism to get another GS in time for the 2nd half of Education. I also used the Artist from Music for a GA to speed up lib but it wasn't enough. Now i have to self tech Nationalism, Military Tradition and Gunpowder. Also JC has been in war mode for the entire game (turns out he actually never leaves war mode this game...???) so i had a stack of elephants, cats, a couple maces and a couple pikes. I was sure he was going to declare on me so paying for this stack of ~15 units might have slowed me a turn on lib.

This is also about the time i looked at Asoka's capital and saw 3 riverside grassland gems! No wonder he got off to such a good start. Losing lib snowballed into a huge loss of advantage. MT was 8 turns, Gunpowder was 4 - so i ended up having Cuirassiers online on turn 155 rather than 148.

Hannibal was 100% going to declare on me before i had my Cuirassiers ready so I bribed Izzy. Hannibal had a lot of units.


820AD Elizabeth declared on JC so i finally could stop worrying about a DOW from him. 1060 AD i take my defensive stack along with a couple stacks of 10 Cuirassiers and declare on Hannibal.