Immortal University 82 - Cyrus

Tech path went AH>Min>Wrt>BW>Whl>Math(bulb)>Archery>Masonry>Construction>Alpha(trade) + trade for IW/Myst>Pot>Fish>Sail.

Build order went worker>improve sheep>farm FP>Mine riverGH>warrior to 3Pop>Settler>Library + hit 5 population>Immediately run 2scientist and start on 2nd settler. While waiting for Construction to finish got 3 barracks/Pre-chopped till I bulbed Math and started building/chopping Archers (just for some low hammer units to conquer collateral left overs/Axe when Construction was around 6 turns from being finished.

2nd city went 1E of southern jungle ivory and 3rd city went by copper but off coast so I could work 2 grassland farms, 2 plains hills, and copper. Neither city location was great but I felt the need for immediate production more important.

Attacked Greece with 6 Catapults/2 Archers/7 Axe around 650BC with more Cats/Archers/Axe on way. Captured Capital and 2 other cities while I razed 1. Next was Korea but I've only taken immediate city to the E with the Capital coming in a few more turns I think. That will give me 8 total cities with the potential to grab a few more.

My tech pace is horrible but with Currency and a few cities throwing down some cottages, not to mention marble close by (TGL/NE) I should be straight by the Mid ADs. Future tech path will follow Asthetic/Lit and possible Music if I think I can grab it first, then trade tech towards CS>Liberalism>and eventually Cuirs.

So I tried Immortal even though I know what that means . War, War and war.My tech rate was just abysmal as I went AH first then bw. I really don't like Ah first and even less when there is no horse :/
My scout soon met in fast order, WK, Fredrick, Pericles and Issy. All very close together. And of course Issy got gold in her capitol and Pericles(who just loves to expand) got gold and gems in his 2nd city :/. Me? Jack all. I wasn't even going to bother trying for any wonders and just settled bronze/fish city up north. Not the best for blocking AIs but I wasn't interessed in blocking. Issy had founded buddism and was already way ahead in pts. Me? Dead last . Whipped and built axes as fast as I could. Still late declaration as she had 5 cities and I wanted to be sure I won. Holy city isn't fun to attack either.I didn't even have writing at the time
Well, I already lost 3 axes vs 3 archers in her 1st city. Something like 61% odds but no help there. Continued on to Madrid and she has 1 ax left standing with 0.1 in health left. So I lost another 4 axes there. In the meantime I traded bronze and myst for pott and fish with Sury. And with the conquest gold I got writing in. Issy didn't have alpha so I had to self tech it. And I wasn't interested in her having 3 cities left anyway.So I took Barca and Cordoba cause she had he workers in that city.I did want to take Toledo as I knew Madrid would be culture pressured. When I finally got Alpha I found out she had Monarchy. So I traded and backfilled with some techs and self teched priesthood and then demanded Monarchy, iron and medi for peace Then by the end of the war I see that pericles built the Mids. Well, since I was thinking about killing him since he had those good cities why not now.
Just before declaring I traded monarchy for math . His phalanxs were a pain but I had lvl 2 and 3 city raiders and 10-15 units. So Argos fell and then after a very hard fought battle Athens went down. Now Wang Kong got bribed in on me
He sent some armies but did very little. But after I took Sparta(gold/gem city)WK came in and sniped it temporarily. I took it back and took Curreny(which almost had teched) for peace. Greece had been teching pretty good and had Calendar and Construction but was only willing to give 1 of them for peace. So I decided 1 city was enough for Pericles and Corinth went down. Now he was more than willing to part with his techs. And luck what have it, 2 turns after that Fredrick Dows him Bye bye pericles and bye bye unhappines in conquer cities. In the bad news during the war issy flipped my gold and corn in Madrid
Just 2 turns after WK and me made peace Ragnar DOWs him. All this war has lead to a kind of backward world with 2 exceptions:
Hannibal and Pacal. Hannibal isn't so bad but my southern neighbour Pacal is just in crazy mode. He has a HUGE tech lead but I did notice he had teched every tech under the moon besides Machinery and Feu. Mutal had both GL and Colossus. I though I had to do something before he got those techs. But it didn't go easy. Of course he wins a few lucky fights right of the bat. But my goal is not nessesarliy to cap him(well, long term it is) but to cripple him. I went straight for Mutal. The cities along the way I conquered was lost. But in 540 AD Mutal fell and that is where I am now.
Pacal is still in the lead with me 2nd with most cities. I am pumping out cats and swordsmen(ye, no machinery or cs but noone else has it either) to destroy as much of Maya as possible. I do hope WK or Fredrick doesn't back stab me though.Once again just a big war the entire game ju to keep up with the stupid AI. I am guessing Pacal will get mach or Feu any turn now and I have little choice but to continue with the war as Mutal would get culture pressured badly. To make matters worse he has settled most of his cities on hills :/

Strange rather compact map. Found Wang on my border before I even settled my 2nd city. Settled the copper city and chopped out a lot of axes and grabbed his land. A lot of war mongers on my doorstep but least I now have my immortals. Still a bit short on land really.

man, these games takes so much concentration.
Well, I continued the war vs Pacal. He had built wonders in 4 different cities so his culture was a pain. I rushed to take out Mayapan on the hill before he got Longbows. I did just that with one turn to spare, but instead Pacal took Mutal back...
Oh well, so I went back and took Mutal and whopps he snipes back Mayapan.But the cities were much easier to take the 2nd time around. Now 3 cities were down. And then a freak thing happened. Just as a new turn started a message came up about hindu spreading to my lands and I accidentally press revolt. Hmm, I was thinking about reloading but thought that since most civs are Hindu it might not be a bad idea. Only Issy, WK and Pacal were in different religions and they hated me already.
Then it shows that Pacal is Fredricks worst enemy. A few turns later and Fredrick peacevassals to me and declares on Pacal
Poor Pacal... So now he has 2 fronts and I claim another city. He is now down to 3 cities but refuses to cap. Meanwhile Raganr and WK are at it again and even though Wk has maces and longbow and Ragnar still doesn't have maces, he loses a city.WK now has 5 and Ragnar 9. Issy peacevassals to Wk only to break free again.And the inevitable happens and Pacal losses yet another city and caps.
I am keeping his cities for now. So now at 1070 AD I have 15 cities, 2 vassals and 2300 pts. khmer is 2nd with 1350 pts and 5 cities....
Lib looks lost though as Hannibal got edu and I am only halfway there.
Pacal was so damn advanced. He had engineering, philo, aesthetics, literature, drama, nationalism, divine right, compass, optics and a few more.
I am still thinking of backstabbing WK or take out Issy completely.
I have a big army of maces and cats, why not use it?
WK is busy with Ragnar. But I don't care what they do now.
This seems like in the bag. Almost was like my last game when Pacal was running away, took him out and game was more or less won from then on out.

So, after Pacal capped I decided to go for WK.
But then an AP vote came up adn everyone declared on poor Issy with 1 city.This still meant I had to send over some armies to take care of her and it delayed my attack by a few turns. And of course, with a couple of turns before I was to attack Seoul falls and WK caps to Ragnar. I had a tech lead on raganr and 2 vassals so I though what the **** and DOWed WK anyway. And his 1st city fell easily enough. The next city was Seoul and Ragnars stack. And even though it was medival he had still over 30 units in that stack. After some trebs soften him up I took out all of his stack but 3 or 4 units.
Now it was 1350 and I had finally got past the others in tech and could pump out cavs abd upgrade my lvl 3 city raiders to riflemen. Raganr sent another 25 unit stack but there was nothing left of it. After Uppsala and Nidaros fell in quick succession he capped. WK broke free and he in turn capped. All during this time the damn AP was asking all these votes for leader and diplomatic victory which was rather frustrating.Well, Hannibal and Sury left. Both very similar. Hannibal didn't have Rifling so the choice fell on him. I declared and he lost Hippo quickly. Then the next turn I take another city and at the same time this damn AP vote comes up.
I then clicked on my own name by mistake
It was the 1st time my name had come up and I though it was for AP leader. it was for diplo win, which I despise. So the next turn Hannibal i willing to cap.
And I am at 62 % of land with only Sury and his 5 cities left.
Then 1540 it comes up that I have won and I thought it was diplo win. I couldn't stand that ending so
I reloaded and won by dom a few turns later. Eh, then I checked hall of fame afterwards and it seems I won dom on the same turn as diplo
So it was a dom vicotory 1540 after all...
This game could have turned out totally different if I hadn't managed to take down Issy and Pericles. Getting the mids for free was a big help too. Starting area was very poor.

Same opening techwise as my first attempt: Mining into BW
I suppose the sheep tile does not need to be improved first. I'd rather have production early game.

The plan can be read in the notes:
Get to 5 cities asap then tech to cataphants and rush someone
Hope (gasp) warriors will be enough for barb defense.



I went worker at size 2 (chopping in progress) because farming floodplains is painful with a single worker

-3000, WK settles in my face => City 3 out. Copper city threatened.
Pottery goes out of the tech plan (city 3 was meant to be cottaged)

-2120, Pasargadae settled 1E of phants. It took me many turns to realize the city was not connected
Isabella has settled the corn => city 2 out... 5 cities rush becomes 3 cities rush

-1560, Susa settled 1E of copper. Library completed in Perseopolis and 2GS assigned for a math bulb.
After AH and Writing, tech goes Myst > fishing > Pottery > Construction.
96 gold stored in the bank. Pasagaga still not connected

-1120, Judaism spread to Perseopolis. Immediately convert.
Juda is the main religion. 2 of my neighbors have it. Isabella (budda) becomes the target for the rush.
WK and Isa territory mapped with the scout.
Pasalaga connected

-1120 > -900 I research HBR (courtesy of 2GS), slider at zero. Waiting for math.
I realize the stupidity of not gunning for Alphabet. and reload -1120

//Parallel Pangaea//

-900, GS bulbs math. I'll be able to trade Math for IW, Archery and Alpha next turn

-825, All (3) cities build research (after granary/barracks) Construction in 8 turns.

-650, Construction is in. 3 cities build catapults. HBR needs ~12 turns and I should probably continue building research in the capitol for a little while. Otherwise unit cost will delay HBR even more.
Isa has been plotting for ~15 turns and I am the most probable target.
Let's see what she's got in Seville.


Time to not fail with the war

With Wang final city gone I started setting up a few cottages. My economy with shot and I only had 5 cities. I painfully teched to aesth and eventually traded it for alphabet and other techs.

Ragnar has gone into war mode and I could be a target. He has 4 cities and maybe has phants.

Ignoring this i used my stack of well promoted axes and immortals and attacked the Greeks. I was his worst enemy and he hated me. I have so far rolled over his border city and his capital and another city. I need his ivory so the war must go on. I bribed the Germans to attack the Greeks. Rather weak Germans.

Religion wise everyone is bud! I feel Ap trouble ahead.

Really waiting to see who rags will attack. Everyone else is at pleased. I am behind tech wise but nothing serious yet. No one has feud yet.

Rag eventually declared on Sury. Result!

I took peace with greeks leaving him one city. I took monarchy and Poly and some gold.

No real GP farm set up but I am eaking towards curs. I have 9 cities. I lost a city to spain as it revolted.

Just redeclared on Greeks and took his final city.

6 Ai left. All pleased or friendly. AP yet to be built. I could yet lose to an Ap vote.

I think military was the way to go on this map.

Tech path seemed backwards on this map so the immediate bad land around our Capital had less of an impact on the game. Right around 1AD I had 8 cities and whipped in a Library/Monument in my marble city to expedite the 3rd border pop needed to reach it and immediately chopped/whipped TGL/NE.

To get back to my previous Cat/Axe wars that landed me 8 cities.......I could have grabbed 4-5 more cities by 300-500AD range but imo that would simply slow down my tech patch and delay Cuirs so I chose to stop at 9 total cities.

I did in fact head up to Music for the free GA and used bulbs/Golden A's to power towards Cuirs, which I began whipping, in mass force (ALL cities) just before 1000AD. This is definitely slower than normal but the odd map and backwards AI ended up making the timing STRONGER than normal.

Most cities have nothing more than granary, forge, barracks, and a stable. Only 4 of my 9 actually have CH's and only my Capital has a University. Once again, the way the map/land worked out it just seemed like a better idea to stick to the pure basics so I could start pumping out Cuirs asap.

@ 1400AD I have 14 cities and still have a large number of what are now highly promoted Cuirs. I should be able to Vassalize the continent pretty quick from here.

My first attempt at this went badly, as I tried to settle peacefully but was only able to REX out 5 total cities, a lot of which were sub-par. The main issue is Wang Kon since he is so close and settles in your direction immediately.

Second time around is going much better. I settled on an axe rush of Wang Kon early. Tech path was AH -> Mining -> BW -> Wheel -> Fishing -> Pottery -> Writing. I SIP and improved the sheep first, followed by the fresh water grassland hill to the east, then the floodplain directly next to that. I went Worker -> Warriors to size 3 -> Settler and settled 1E of copper to the north. I had roads set up immediately over there so that the copper came online very quickly. I then chopped several axes and declared.

Wang Kon fell easily and I took his second city and capital. Unfortunately he settled a third city in the northeast, but since I took the capital he was cut off from me and wouldn't put up a challenge. With him out of the picture, I immediately got several more settlers out to claim the rest of my good land, including 1E of the 'phants.

At this point I cottaged up and ran for Aesthetics, which I got and traded for backfill (including Masonry to hook up that tasty marble). I then got Literature and was able to complete both the Parthenon and Great Library, using the former korean capital of Seoul as a GP farm.

At this point I plan on generating as many great scientists as possible in order to push towards Liberalism. The Greek and Germans to the south have smaller empires than me, and Catherine is isolated to her western section of the continent, although she has gotten quite big. Ragnar and I are at war with Korea right now, but I will be able to avoid the diplo consequences since most of the people I want to ally with are Hindu and I just need the religion to spread.

The north of my empire:



The south east:



The south west:

We're boxed in with very little food around BUT we also have a large number of strategic resources.
If one can recognize the need to war in the BCs and act accordingly (in a way we're forced into this), then the map may be on the good>bad side. We actually have quite the choice when it comes down to the "war tech."

Izzy founded Buddhism and Pacal founded Hinduism. No surprises there. However, neither of them made much (if any) of an effort to spread them. Pericles founded Judaism and spread it to everyone else except Hannibal who took Hinduism very late.

So there's extremely dominant religion here, and it seems like a good idea to side with it, right? Well that didn't happen b/c Izzy went red fist very early and then came demanding that i adopt Buddhism. I wasn't in a position yet to really defend myself so i felt i had to do it. Of course that ticked off everyone else.

Anyway, I went the Construction route and I'm really close to finishing off Pericles (i have his juicy shrine), but the diplo is basically a ticking time bomb right now. Ragnar broke off his war with Wang pretty quickly and just DOWed me last turn (bribe i believe). I think I need to make peace with the Jewish factions asap so that i can swing my stack over toward Izzy and safely convert over to Judaism. Not sure how that's gonna work out though. This one could be lost soon if I'm not careful (maybe even if i am careful).

I think a safer initial plan would've been to side with Izzy just long enough to get my stack ready and then switched to Judaism and gone after her. At the time though, Ragnar was fighting Wang and i gave in to the temptation of taking the Jewish shrine. Ragnar was also briefly Hindu before he switched to Judaism and made peace with WK. It's amazing how quickly the diplo can change.

Well, they fell exactly almost the same for me.
But I went for Izzy early and nobody liked her cause she was a buddist isolationist.
After that nobody made demands as I had a big military.

Moved the Scout across to the Plains Hill 2S1E of settler and saw desert so just settled in place. Had a look at my BFC, decided 1 wasn't enough to research AH first and when straight Mining - BW. Worker first and he farmed 2 Floodplains then mined the riverside Grass Hill.

Scout quickly found us pretty blocked in by Pericles, Wang, and Isabella, so at Size 3 i maxed the overflow to finish the warrior and then went Settler - Worker - Worker - Settler. Copper had appeared to the north with a Ocean Fish so no need for sea defense.

2nd City went to share some hills, floodplains from the capitol and to grab the Phants, I plan on a Cat + Phant against a neighbour. Research after BW goes TW - AH - Writing - Maths, the 1st worker roads to connect 2nd city and the next worker pastures the sheep before roading towards the Copper + Fish site, 3rd worker helps with the roading and chops a forest to finish the settler for city 3.

The 3rd City looks to be my last peaceful city, I get a Library in all 3 cities thou only Phant city runs scientists, after the Library whip the capitol starts growing for whipping phants + cats, and Fish + Copper should finish the library as it hits pop 3 and will start a fishing boat for the fish.

2 AIs got Alpha on the same turn and one didn't have BW, was able to trade for fishing so took it. Once Maths was in i traded for Masonry, Pottery, and Myst with Wang (my likely target as is Annoyed with Ragnar, borders him and is in Fist mode)

Next turn i hope to trade Maths + Masonry to Hannibal for Alpha and then trade Maths + Alpha for whatever else i can get.

No SS as i forgot as i playing but save is below, workers have been pre-Chopping a fair bit pre-Maths.

Things are looking much better now after teetering on the edge of diplomatic disaster for quite awhile. Ragnar declared on me while i was fighting Pericles, but he still didn't have open borders with Wang or Freddy, so he couldn't get to me for quite awhile. Sury also came to me demanding 260 gold. I refused and he didn't do anything initially, but went into war planning mode 5-10 turns later.

About the time Sury started plotting I captured the 2nd to last Greek city. They had one city left up to the NE bordering on mine and Wang's territory. Since my army would be heading back towards my core cities and things were getting really dicey with the Jewish civs, I decided to switch over to Judaism.

Switching religions was enough to get Sury to Pleased, so i quickly begged some gold off him to ensure peace. Predictably, Izzy started plotting on me within a couple turns of me switching religions. That shouldn't be too big of an issue though because i just finished off Pericles and my stack of veteran elephants will be healed and ready to attack her stack in 2 turns. I also have access to Longbows and Xbows, and i just made peace with Ragnar at the price of like 20 gold.

I should have Engineering in about a dozen turns, so I'll see how far Trebs and such can get me in this game.

Considering where I left off, an update at this date is waaay to long for informational purposes. I'll post a sooner update next time

I left off just having gotten the Great Library and Parthenon. I went ahead and finished the Mausoleum in my capital, which ultimately was a very good idea as I was able to get 3 golden ages up to 1480 AD (2 great person powered, 1 Taj Mahal).

I settled into a basic peaceful builder phase and rushed towards Liberalism with a goal of getting some cuirassiers out. Things were going great until just before 1000 AD when world war 1 broke out. Hannibal declared war against a very decimated Wang Kon that I beat up badly early in the game while the Khmer went to war against Germany. Just a few turns later, Spain joined the fray by declaring against Germany. Just a few more turns after that Hannibal decided that Germany should die also

At this point I was getting worried that one of the non-Hindu AIs would start to run away with territory. However, that was not the case. Hannibal never got anywhere in his war with Korea and was only able to get a single German city in his territory (I think it was a captured barb city Germany got much earlier this game). Germany and Khmer traded blows on the border for a while but nobody budged and then eventually game up the war.

Interestingly enough, Isabella got in a war with Ragnar while fighting against Germany. This was kind of humorous since Ragnar had to walk all of his units through my territory to attack her (very) large stacks on my western border. Naturally this all went nowhere except that Ragnar lost a lot of power rating throwing units against a well fortified Spanish city. To my surprise, however, in the end he capped to Issy and became her vassal.

This suddenly made a cuirassier rush much more important to get done quickly. I was going to face the most powerful civ (Issy) while having to fend off attacks on both my western and eastern borders. The sooner I attacked the less likely Ragnar was to have anything to hit me with, and the peaceful Hindu civs this game were starting to tech very quickly after Civil Service was discovered (I imagine this got traded around with the AIs).

This is where my peace game stepped up a notch. I quickly built the National Epic in the former Korean capital and started pumping GSs and GMs as fast as I could. I used my first GS to start a golden age and switched to caste/pacifism in order to get as many great people as possible. Having the Parthenon, Great Lib, and Mausoleum was super helpful here as I was able to produce enough great people to start another golden age right after the first one finished. During the second GA, I was first to Liberalism and took Nationalism and built the Taj Mahal for 3rd consecutive GA.

Needless to say my tech and production shot up with 45 straight turns of golden age and I was first to Gunpowder and Mil Tradition. Overall my land had low production, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to amass enough units. However, Issy was still quite backwards and at the tail end of the 1300s I declared with a sizable stack of cuirassiers. It was a straightforward stomp of all Issy's cities except for 1 founded on the south of her peninsula just across the water from Greece (the Greeks had produced tons of wonders in the capital and I was not eager to culture fight that). Ragnar also declared due to his vassal status, but was never really a threat and ended up suiciding a small stack against my GP farm of Seoul.

Its now 1480 AD and I have a huge city lead over everyone else on the board. The down side is that they are all teching quickly and have picked up Rifling and Chemistry, so another war is out of the question (for now). Issy's lad is quite good and I picked up a few nice wonders in her capital so I'm thinking I'll hunker down and push towards space. My production is still going to suck without more production enabling tech so the long tech drive that a space race requires seems suited to the land and cities I have now.

Pics to follow later.