Replay #3 Coming closer Wastin :D

Frederick (Freddie) , Augustus Caesar (AC) , Willem (The Backstabber) , MM (Mansa Musa or "The Whore") , Victoria (Viccy) , Pericles (the peaceful Greek) , Elizabeth (Lizzy) , Cyrus, Washington , Lincoln , Roosevelt (the american trio) , Darius, Hatshepsud ("Sabrina Setlur") , Suleiman ("The Man"), Ghandi ("Mr. Peacevassal") and Tokugawa ("The Hermit") and Bismarck (the Wonderbuilding German) .

XD

Desert and a GH and 105g from taking up the GH with the city foundation. I could have taken it with the Warrior to have the chance of a free tech, but is actually better than anything except Mining or Fishing, and chances for that are too low. It also saves a Warriorwalk-Turn which are very worthy when there are still Huts to hunt.

Best of all: another GH nearby, those are really making a difference. Thx again to WastinTime for pointing that out to me.

Picture of the initial exploration:



As you see, research went Mining. Could have gone Fishing, but I discovered that Ghandi has a hills city. It's no good trying to conquer a hills-city Civ first, it just costs too many Checkers, think of Snowballing again, better go for Toku.

Yes, that is pretty bad also, Toku is PRO / AGG. AGG doesn't do anything to Archers, but PRO does, also, we wanted to use him as a meatshield or Hateguy for everyone, no, this is not possible on this map. If one wants ot Oracle Currency and Checker Rush successfully, one has to conquer the nearest Civs, there is no place for running long distances, even on Marathon, we can only take on Toku or Bismarck, but Bismarck sits in the Jungle.

Jungle-Civs are better to conquer later, as the chance of them having strategic Ressources is lower, Ghandi again is not a good choice either with his hills Bombay, Toku is the best of 3 bad choices.

What we also see:

THE MAP IS HORRIBLE!

• Nearly no trees, this is almost always the point with the Gems starts, they are all near the Equator so near the Jungle. This will make it significantly harder to get any classic Wonders, we only have the Capital Sites for that, as they cannot have Jungle but must have Forrests.
• Where the funk is the whole Food??? And where are the additional Luxes?

Best of all: I get the "Fire has raged through a Forrest near Cuzco" -Event twice! Thank god I'm playing with GHs and got about 300 through them, 2 Forrests in the Capital are vital with this little Forrests, but I'd pay them always, as 90 or 10 are no real comparison.

• We have Elephants near, though that doesn't count too much, as one can normally always trade for them, especially with 17 Civs.
• We have Stone and Marble! That's really an important point, as some Wonders are simply necessary for the Strategy, and Failgold with IND + Ressource is just really strong.
• The opponents are relatively near to Cuzco, which is good for maintenance reasons.
• Ghandi is nearby, he probably will found Hinduism really soon. (I play with choose Religions still) .
• Nothing XD

Believe me, I really puked hard when I saw this map, but in a HoF game, bad things can always be equalled by good things or a lot of luck, so what happened further?

I've decided to go for it. Take my luck, if the map is so bad, something good must happen during the early Conquest that will Snowball, I accumulate only 5 Checkers and bring them into position for attacking Tokugawa:



It's 3490 BC, so it's still very early. Toku has surely build something useful for me and not for himself, now I need that Worker more than you Toku...



Only 2 Archers like expected. Good Toku, you're so strong, now just wait 2 more turns...

NOEZ!

3rd Archer in Kyoto! Just in the turn I wanted to attack the city he showed up! Now attacking PRO-Archers already takes 2.5 Checkers / Archer, 5 for 2 is ok, but not for 3, I have no chance, I must try to lure him on the open field and wait for the 6th Checker and then try if I get lucky.

Once entering warmode, AI will produce Archers in all cities, I saw that in Worldbuilder once. There are chances for a Worker if one steals their only one, but AI prefers to get at least to 4 Archers in the Capital in Wartime, especially someone like Toku or AC, they even get as high as 5 Archers / city when being in War!

No as said, I try to lure...



Doesn't help, Toku is stubborn and doesn't move his Archer out of his Capital, and the 6th Checker is already arriving... Normally, one can always lure out some units by positioning ones own units closer to another city, that's what you see on the screen, most of the Checkers are closer to Osaka than to Kyoto, but it depends on the AI.

Btw.: Kyoto is a really nice place! Some Whine, some Sugar, some FPs, Corn, Pigs... You'll get to know later what I will use that city for, as it involves new / old -> advanced Strategies XD
Osaka is also very nice, because it's already Size 3, might even grow to Size 4...

In the meantime, Ghandi founded Hinduism and Mansa Islam!

3415 BC I attack Kyoto with 6 Checkers vs the 3 Archers and have 4 losses!!!

This means that the city doesn't fall!

At least not in the first round . In the next, my remaining 2 Checkers attack the last wounded Archer, and of course, I loose even one more Checker, bringing me down to 1 Rambo-Checker! (FYI: lvl 2 = Cover, lvl 3 = Rambo, lvl 4 = Hero (because of Heroic Epic), lvl 5 = Elite, lvl 6 = Westpointers and lvl 7+ get names from me...)

Try for luck... Well, it was already lucky that I took the city at all, PRO-Archers are really tougher than I expected. DAMN!

I hope now you get, what I mean, when I said, that I prefer the production-bonus of the start against anything else. The attack date was already earlier than the Quechua-Guide states, and Toku got 3 Archers in his city, I would have needed 7 Checkers to take it in the first round with being unlucky in addition, now I can be happy that I've taken it at all, and that's because of 5 from the start!

Imagine if I had only had 4 , then aquiring 6 Checkers, the absolute minimum for 3 Archers would have taken me 48T. With Movement, I could have attacked Toku at an earliest of T57 = 3145 BC! That's 18T later then I got the city now! Kyoto is no great production city like one would like to conquer at first, it only turns out 3 , but in 18T that's still about 3 Checkers that only come from Kyotos production!
If attacking later, I would probably also have needed 2 more Checkers to conquer it, because it would have had a 4th Archer perhaps, then double that number again and it means that your Attack-Date is near 3000 BC, that's when we / they talk about snowballing! The effects add up, and 1 , 1 time being unlucky, 1 time anything can make a difference of x ((thousends) (k)) of anything!

Now this time, it's ok till even bad already, I've started with a decent but not overly strong Capital, the map is not overly good also, I've produced a lot of Checkers, I've lost a lot of them to bad luck and PRO-Trait, can this round still turn around?

A minor detail, or the decision of this game: Toku decides to finish a 2nd Worker in Osaka . Maybe, he's more peaceful than I thought, building 3 Workers, I normally only now that from Ghandi, and especially not from any AGG Civ.

In 3070 BC I have accumulated another 5 Checkers, one of being a Rambo, they should seriously take the city now or never.



It's another Thriller again. The first 2 Checkers die, the first does little to now Dmg, the 2nd Checker does nearly no Dmg at, I cannot risk the Rambo yet as I need him for Ghandi's 40% hills-city next: The 3rd Checker is the adjustment for all the lost percentages! He wins a 15% fight (!) and instantly gets promoted to 6 XP and Rambo Status!

WOAH!

This was the 2nd game deciding moment. If I look at it now, after having played the round, I didn't know it was so close and so bad in the beginning.

Mr. Peacevassal Ghandi. Here is a Screen of the map at 2740 BC:




Now these are the things you can see:

The Incan empire is doing a meager 27 / turn atm. This is due to the fact, that the two Japanese cities are only have little and Cuzco still needs half a foodbar to grow and support the 2nd gems. A really really slow start, especially with all the Checker losses and the high number of Checkers I'm gonna need for that holy 40% culture hills city Bombay.
I've directed Espionage to Mansa of course (standart-tactic) to know what I will be getting with Alpha. That we can see the power-ratio of Ghandi only happened because he got some espionage points in the beginning from before meeting someone else.
You can also see, that I'm 2t away from reaching Priesthood, and have produced an amount of 9 Checkers for the attack on Bombay. Reaching Priesthood in 2750 BC is quite late, but in this game, it's not later than needed, because I'm planning on the construction of Oracle in the holy city of Hinduism, which still has to be conquered! Not only, because it looks like a decent production site having improved Cows. Main reason is, that it's holy and coastal, so it could get a Shrine and the GLH and turn into a great Prophet and Merchant GP Farm. It has the trees to chop out a temple (I don't have gone BW till now though but later I'll get it by trade) , maybe even chop out "Shwedaggy Pegaddy" I usually don't build the AP anymore in my games, as I simply consider it wasted with no ressource fastening it up, so I'm surely gonna skip on that, but some early Wonders should be ok for 1 or 2 GPs at least.
Then we already have a good amount of GG-Points from the battle against "The Hermit", I hope that it'll get easier with Ghandi, he's not so famous for producing many troops. Still, I have built the minimum number of Checkers for a 3 Archer defended hills city which could be the worst I could encounter, so it's still safe-play.
Last thing, a tiny thing you can see, is, that I improved the riverside wine at Kyoto. 3 are 1/3 of a Gold-Mine, and I'm gonna need everything if I want to Oracle Currency on this map.

I need Gold, it's time for an Attack, Ghandi, gimme some!

2725 BC: Something good and bad happens before the attack. Viccy has reached Alpha at an extremely early Date! Just think about that, Alpha at 2725 BC, that's impossible! Later I found out that she had something like a 2 Gold start, but this still is impressive, she must have beelined it. I take it thankfully and instantly trade Mysticism against Hunting. Better to get something for it then nothing, right? An exploring Scout is also always nice, though I don't think I have the spare production on this map with these cities, but, I'm also planning on trading Meditation against half of Writing with her, and I don't think anyone else is gonna trade Meditation with her, only Ghandi should have it, so I DoW Ghandi...

... and he bribes Viccy against me!

Oh, that is so cheap of you Ghandi! Running cryingly to a girl and beg for help, can't you stand up for yourself? Uhm, begging for help? NOEZ, he gave her Meditation! I hate you Ghandi, no your gonna suffer for destroying my trade options and you're gonna pay for that too Viccy, for being such a cheap girl. I mean, Meditation for "the mighty Incan Empire", if Ghandi had bribed with something more expensive, it would have been ok, but I feel deeply hurt in my pride by this!

Next turn reveals, Ghandi just founded his 3rd city, and when AI expands, it tends to leave less guards in the extensions. So this time, only 1 Archer in 40% culture hills-city Bombay, YAY!

I have two "Unpro" losses (short for Unpromoted Checkers, but also meaning that they are "not pro") , nothing spectacular, that's just normal, but it's good. Now I have 7 troops and can take Ghandis cities all at once, I advance deeper into his territory:



Now this is really nice. Ghandi had Horses, but he had no Slavery, and the peaceful AIs don't push to Attack-Units. A charriot would have totally screwed my tiny sweet Checker SoD. Bombay is not as good as hoped for a GP Farm, to little food, you'll see later, how I will use that ctiy, but Oracle is fixed plan now.
Dehli otoh is a great city, still too much for "a real" GP Farm, but again high food, which is good on this food-poor map. I'm gonna need lots of Workers and Settlers, Dehli is gonna help greatly with that.

Best of all, it's no hills-city, so it's 7 vs 2 with normal odds, I expect 2 losses and so it happens, 2 losses, 5 troops left for his last city, this is an ancient Blitzkrieg! Dehli falls in 2650 BC!

Now you won't believe that, but from the 300g I've got through GHs, I've lost 50g already to burning Forrests and another 20g go to a road between Osaka and Kyoto, which is necessary for the TR between the cities. I didn't tech The Wheel, so I have to pay. I grind my teeth, -70g for bad RNG, never was so bad, but I'm still in the game, and the war against Ghandi is looking good, now lets get to the last city:



Attacked with 4 Checkers against 2 Archers, so it was really lucky that just Bombay was low on defense, and I "get lucky" once again, now that I don't need it anymore. 1 Unpro wins a fight and instantly lvls up to Rambo-Status, only 1 loss this time.

Now you see, you can catch up even if it started out really bad. Ghandis cities are really nice, they provide high , good and they're all coastal, GLH will be great on this map.

Just after destroying Ghandi, I discover the 2 Scouts of Viccy near Bismarck. My exploring Checker kills them both, and after Ghandi is dead, and after having the tech she wanted, Viccy is suddenly willing to make peace:



I cannot trade Writing for Priesthood with her yet, as I still need more in the Oracle to get it safely, and I have to little invested into Writing, you know, I stopped it at 340 :beakers: (about the half on Huge / Marathon) to get it against Meditation. I also don't have the money for Math yet, so I don't have to trade, I can wait until maybe someone who doesn't have Meditation discoveres Alpha.


Lets have a look at the Graphs, now that we can see Mansa in Relation to us, this is gonna be interessting:



No sorry for MM having that color which one cannot see, I'm gonna explain the graphs a little:

In the Score, you simply see the Blitzkrieg against Ghandi. Cities come out of revolution in shortly one after the other, the Score really jumps. Gold also peaks due to Conquest, but how the hell is Mansa producing so much more? Most interessting are Goods Production, there you really see the high difference of the plains-Hill + PHF start, it's three times as high as Mansas. He catches up, as Toku's cities were no good, but with Ghandi's, it jumps again, the Incan Empire is #1 Producer of the World, and that counts also for food. In the meantime, after realizing I had enough Checkers for Ghandi, I set cities to grow to Size 4, as Population is the best way to decrease unit maintenance with a growing Checker Army.
In the Power-Graph, you really see the first heavy losses at Toku, after that it's piece of cake, and who cares for or ?

Now you can see, Washington is sitting towards the east. I can't conquer him though, because I have encountered a Chariot of him! That's too bad he also started out with horses, I really wanted to expand a little further into the east before taking on Bismarck in the west, who still only has 3 cities, 1 of them not being overly good because it's surrounded by jungle, but I can't help it. Going against Charriots with so low production is impossible, I have to take on Bismarck directly.

Now Bismarck is the next Target, and I once told you, Capital Sites are always awesome or decent at least. Now the last ones were decent, now have a look at Bismarcks Capital and land:



Now this is what I'm talking about, when I'm talking about "a real GP Farm"! 5 times Food? WTF, hell, yer! "Give that city to me Bismarck, I have big plans for it, you wouldn't understand, could you please just go away and die?"

I declare war on Bismarck. Now next turn:

Suleimann, Hatty, Frederick, Roosevelt and and Mansa declare war!



"This Bastard! He's a weakling like Ghandi, but he's also a fanatic like Hitler! Bribing 5 Civs against me? WTF!!!" I have to watch out for Roosevelt, he's dangerous as he's a neighbour and has Chariots, Frederick only seems to have Archers, and his "Berlin" looks really nice too...



From Hatty, Mansa or Sulei, I don't even know, where they are on this map! It seems, like Bismarck simply gave Alpha to everyone who could be bribed against me. Didn't know, AI can be such a Maniac. On the picture you can btw also see, that Mansa is teching Math. This is odd, because I won't be able to get Techs from him against it, you know, my plan was to tech Math and trade Math + something vs Alpha and Oracle Currency and then trade for all the rest. Well, whatever.

Bismarck bribing the other AIs against me with Alpha is a good and a bad thing for me:

First of all, more Civs have got Alpha now, so I have a very high chance to get Writing from one of them. Problem is: Those Civs are at war with me. I somehow have to wait a little longer, then make peace, and take the opportunity of getting a free DoW from Frederick, not giving me any Diplo-Maluses, and pillage the hell out of him after I've conquered Bismarck in another Blitzkrieg.

The war against Bismarck lasts for 5 turns, then it's over. DoW in 2320 BC, this is the picture from 2270 BC:



How is this possible? At first, Bismarck's cities were only lightly defended. I saw this as I only sent 1 Checker to Hamburg to have look first, saw only 2 Archers, and then instantly splitted the Stack to attack Cologne at the same time. Essen was conquered by reinforcements from Cuzco.

Now I take the already well promoted Checkers and proceed into Fredericks territory. One of the Checkers even got "Hero-Status" (lvl 4 = Heroic Epic) during the war against Bismarck. None of the AIs which declared war on me have shown up somewhere yet. Frederick has some hills cities, but, Berlin, as you saw, is built on flatland.

I decide to leave the hills-cities for the moment as it would simply cause too many losses to conquer them. Remember, it's at least 3 Checkers / Archer in a hills-city, often one needs even 3.5 or 4. Now the Archers in Fredericks hills cities are even promoted to Guerilla!

This is the adivce I give to you if rushing with Checkers: Even for earlier conquests, don't attack the hills-cities, unless they're really worth taking! It's not cost-effective to attack them, a hills-city with 3 Archers can cause as many as 12 losses, that's more then you'd need for a Settler, not counting the you'd need for the upkeep of the troops! Attack the other cities, conquer them, ignore the hills-cities unless they're holy or awesome Capitals. AI will always be willing to make peace, after it has lost some units / cities, and the from the population isn't so important, as one can always whip the city down to size 3, where it will have no from occupation.

I play with Fredericks Archers . I leave some of Bismarcks cities undefended to lure them out, and beat them on the open field . I also position my troops nearer to a lightly defended city of Frederick, so he tries to move his Archers there. I do this for lvling Troops and because I have to waste a little time until I have accumulated enough troops to attack Berlin.

In the meantime, Frederick and Roosevelt are willing to make peace. I accept peace with Roosevelt immediately of course, his Chariots could cause severe losses to me or at least cause a lot of trouble. War with Frederick on the contrary is a free invitation to get another great city and get some through pillaging and leave a weak target for a follow-up war after the coming peaceful rex.

Btw.: Some things to pillaging an enemy: Pillaging is really powerful in terms of making money. As already told, I've had -70 through negative random events, but I have made almost as much from pillaging unnecessary land-improvements after Conquest. I have seen though in one of AZs videos, that he pillaged the Cottages of cities he conquered later, this is something I wouldn't do! Improvements that one can work soonly afterwards shouldn't be pillaged, especially Cottages which have to grow, I really don't understand him there at all, but, one will always find something that can be pillaged without having a bad conscience, like farms which can be rebuilt, mines often bring as much as 12 and the outer ring is often good for pillaging during very early conquest, where one cannot easily get a Borderpop. So think about it, pillaging rocks, but pillaging Cottages one soon could work is the wrong decision, that's my opinion.

2200 BC, I'm able to make peace with Hatty and Mansa by giving Mansa Priesthood and Hatty Meditation. I don't want them to build to many units and probably come after me with a Stack I don't want to have to counter, as I'm already in the transition to peaceful rex. With Roosevelt, it was easy to make peace as his Scouts were somewhere near me, I killed them, got war-success-points, got peace, but Mansa, Hatty and Sulei sit far away, I cannot get war-success against them, and at sometime, they would show up with some units. Having to give away Meditation / Priesthood again sucks, because I wanted to trade those after getting Currency, but again, whatever.

Berlin falls in 2180 BC:



I make peace with Frederick, and have already traded Priesthood vs Writing with Hatty, after having had invested 400 into Writing. Finally.

Things you can see:

The cities have grown quite large. Atm, the Incan Empire makes up 16.5% of the Worlds population while only owning 3% of the land! Cities, which have grown to Happy-Cap, have started producing Settlers, except for Bombay, which could already have completed the Oracle, but is waiting for Mathematics and building a Monestary in the meantime to be able to spread Religion if I want to. Perhaps, a temple would have been better, but anyhow, Bombay doesn't have the Food to work Specialists really. Berlin is producing a Monument, as the neighbouring city of Munich got Fredericks new Capital, so I have to produce some Culture if I don't want to loose to many Tiles.

Here is a map by Cultur so you can betterly see the Opponents: