Sons of Monarchy X: Huayna Capac of Inca

Terra Map, No edits

zoom all the way in, open worldbuilder, and add the appropriate techs to the barbarian civilization. This means archery at monarch or higher, hunting at emperor or higher, agriculture at immortal or deity, and the wheel at deity.

I vacillated but ultimately settled in place--lots of trees, dual corn, and gold mean a monster early capital. Not a tremendous long-term site, but for chopping out settlers, workers, and wonders, it was fine, and it made a good HE city later on. Built the Pyramids and arranged my GPs for an Engineering bulb since I didn't feel like Quecha rushing Izzy.

My plan was to avoid the Oracle since I thought Izzy or Boudica would grab it for sure. Lo and behold, it went unbuilt for a long, long time. So I did this:



Then I did this:



...and, after a little while, put them to good use:



Cordoba was a fantastic IW city, by the way, one of the best I've had in a good long while.

No horses? No problem:



And then I put those to good use as well:



Washington went next, and then...



Sury had Grenadiers. zomg noes.

One city captured later...



Sury nearly squeaked into an AP win as the board's only Jew, so I put a stop to that right away...



I was going to cap Sitting Bull, who was the map's butt monkey in a big way. Everybody hated the poor guy, and Washington was the only one on the map who never warred with him. Then I remembered my first game after I reformatted my hard drive, which was a Gandhi OCC in which Bull-Man declared war on me seven times. So yeah.



HEY, PETER MAN.



CHECK OUT THIS CHICK ON CHANNEL NINE.



And thus was the whole world made Incan.



How did the New World look?



Very quiet.

With faster units and a more focused assault on taking Sury's wonders, I could've gotten this much higher, but all in all, it's not too bad.

SIP and decided to go for a delayed quechua rush..........until the first neighbor I found was Boutica way far away. I did find an Archer/settler in the open so I declared and took my free worker. A little about the Capital. Imo it's a beast . Great short, mid, and long term love. Short term you get a lot of commerce/production and at 15 pop and Oxford it can work 10 commerce tiles combining of gold, rs grass, grass, and silk for over 300 turn. Pretty good.

Tech path went Min > Bw > Wheel > Pottery > Writing > Math > Alpha > Currency > CoL > CS (Oracle) > Monarchy > and am currently teching MC. Traded for all the little stuff from Myst - Mono. Went into Slavery/Bureau same time and a few turns later went into Monarchy/OR and then adopted Buddhism.

So my build order went worker > quechua's to 4 pop > settler > 2 chops into granary then que back to settler > 2 quechua's > chopped a Library > 2 quecha's and then reached 6 pop.

I founded my 2nd city at 2320 BC and chopped out a granary followed by a Library. The city ended up working the corn, 2 grassland cottages (tile sharing for Capital), and ran 2 scientist at 5 pop......made my Academy in 975 BC in Capital.

I didn't found my 3rd city till late....... right around 1560 BC, but imo it was well worth it so I could get the Capital up and running. So with Math my workers would build roads to the new city and then chop for a quick Terrance. Math really helped new cities get up and running very quick, to include new workers and settlers.

I Would build/chop 2 more cities, the last of which was founded exactly at 1000 BC for a total of 5, all of which were slightly delayed so I could maximize research and chop potential via Math. To back up a bit, my Capital had chopped one forest into an aqueduct and then waited for Math to chop 3 more forest into an almost finished HG and then I realized no one had taken Oracle yet so I decided to go for it and surprisingly got CS. I then finished up HG and have almost finished my last 2 settlers that I'll be making which will put me at 9 total cities sometime around 300 BC to go along with my 11 worker force.

I'm in the process of finishing up MC before I push onto paper > education (early Oxford) > then up to Literature > Drama for HE (level 4) and Globe. I'll have to think about Music but as it stands right now the plan is to chop a delayed NE in my furthest city by Boudica once I've already whipped a forge, library, and University.

@ 10 pop it (NE city) can run 6 scientist at which point I'll already have gotten my 2nd GP (Capital), hopefully an Engineer (plan on running an Eng specialist after I get my forge there). So, if my planning is right, sometime in the 375-450 BC range I'll have started Globe, finished Oxford, and then begin working on HE in Capital. Back to my NE city....with all the above infrastructure already whipped I can switch civics to Mon > Bureau > Caste > Pacifism (plan is to self research or trade Philo) and that should net me 2 GS in just over 325 years which will be used to bulb PP and Chemistry on my way to Libbing Steel. The reason for HE in Capital is because with Bureau bonus it can make 60 units in one turn or 1.5 turn Macemen, and once I Lib Steel (projected in the 800 AD range) it can make 2 turn Cannon.

If people have been watching my games lately I'm kinda stuck on early Oxford > Lib Steel > Communism while following the same recipe. Sorry, lol. It's just that it's pretty predictable and the tech path, research rate, infrastructure timing, and bulbs are eerily similar.

So I continued my plan from above but ended up getting the big 3, Oxford, Globe, and HE around 150 years quicker than anticipated. Financial and Industrial is verging on OP. I got the GE I had planned on early and will save him for The Kremlin and have already used one GS to bulb PP.......and now onto GP and another bulb in 5 turns for Chemistry.

I should finish Liberalism at 725 AD and then grab Steel, followed by SM on my way to Communism. In the mean time my Capital and Globe are building and chopping Macemen while other cities are chopping and building wealth. Let's see.......Once I get my next GS and have Liberalism I'll switch civics back and then start whipping and building cannons. Most likely I'll split my forces up and take out Izzy and Booty at the same time and go from there.

I'm kind of proud of myself, first emperor game attempted and I was victorious.

Again I don't recall all my moves since this game was played over a couple days. I SIP, peacefully expanded to 9 cities. I did a bit of wonder whoring, SH and oracle in the early game. Then later, GL, Parthenon, SoZ, MoM, etc.. I remember I bulbed philosophy, half of education, half of PP, and half of SM. Lib'ed MT, which I had to launch an attack with maces, elephants, and cats on SB to get horses and make this tech useful.

I didn't get the chance to vassal SB on that attack b/c of RNG gods giving it to me but I did secure the horses. While I was going through 24 turns of golden age, building up Curs, Izzy peace vassaled to me, which I didn't notice Boudica declared on her the turn before. But I was ready, capped Boudica, followed by SB, (then Cavs kicked in)the Khmer, Washington, and finally Peter in just the nick of time.

Peter just got rifling and his Cossacks out. Thankfully he didn't have much time before I attacked him to get many out. I attacked from three spots crippling him. He was a bit stubborn but after 4 or 5 cities he finally gave in.

Also I took MC from the oracle. I was really debating between that and CoL. I figured with the cheap forges coming early that would really help. I didn't plan on using caste system early, and didn't figure maintenance was that big of a issue that early. Any suggestions? opinions?

Like others I choose to SIP and go with a standard Worker -> Warriors to size 3 -> Settler build. The Incans are one of those civs that make expanding so easy when you have an early money source. I was able to rex up to 9 cities during the initial settling wave, with 2 of those cities taken from barbs with only Quechcas. My settling pattern was pretty poor though, as once I picked up IW I realized I was out of reach of all sources of Iron (Boudica and Issy did a great job settling fast in my direction, so they had IW and sight of iron earlier than I did). Early tech path was standard peaceful expansion, something like Min -> BW -> Wheel -> Pottery -> Writing -> Alpha -> Aeths -> Poly -> Lit.

Wonders went really slow and I was able to get quite a few, starting with ToA, the Parthenon, and Great Lib, and later getting the Apostolic Palace, Hagia Sofia, and Statue of Liberty, among others. When I realized I would be without iron and that my tech pace was wildly ahead of my warring neighbors, I decided to go to Rifling and have a small breakout war against Issy. This strategy worked really well, as I was ahead in tech all game was able make detours in my research path to get free great people from techs like Economy, Physics, and Communism. I won the lib race and took Constitution with it.

Once I reached Rifling, I paid a bunch of cash gotten from 2 Great Merchants to mass upgrade some existing units into Riflemen and took them with some Trebs and smashed into Issy. She had bee beat up a bit by an ongoing with Boudica at the time, so I was able to sweep in and take the 5 core cities that had all the valuable wonders and territory. This put me at 15 cities overall, including some resource grabbing cities settled in the tundra, and I decided at this point to go for space since my tech rate was so much bigger than anyone else.

From here on out I was able to pick up all the important space techs first. My ability to produce units at this point skyrocketed due to Factory and Coal Plant spam in most of my cities, so I was able to keep a nice military buffer that kept me in peace. The Khmer went wild while I teched and vassaled the Americas and spawned a couple of colonies on the other continent. It was all moot though, as I sailed through the tech tree with ease and launched a complete space ship with 1 engine (the time to build the 2nd engine was longer than the turns I would save with it, so I just launched, so this was a bit of bad planning, I should have had both engines out at the same time). Final game turn was 1914 AD.

This wasn't my best game ever, I messed up my city placements by not trading for IW early enough since I wasn't planning an early war. However, the Incans can research so much faster than other civs since you can augment a cottage economy with tons of wonders. That and Quetchas mean I don't have to worry about acquiring an early military resource, making it easier to expanding into the good, contested territory nearby. Overall, a great map!

I attacked Boudica and took the six cities. My attack was two pronged, from my western most city and from Barcelona. Duro and Cordoba fell on the 2nd turn of war. When her Counter-stack approached Cordoba on the 4th turn I moved my stack out of Cordoba and let her take it. On Turn 5, I used the Treb city attack bonus to destroy her stack and retake Cordoba. I Marched west from both places taking cities. After claiming her capital (and a nice shrine) she Capitulated.

My two new neighbors were Washington (who is pleased) and Sitting Bull (who was cautious). After healing, concentrating units, and repositioning I attacked Sitting Bull. He capitulated after loosing half his cities (4).


I'm at another decision point. I am still leading in production(200 to 119) and military units according to the demographics screen. (86k soldier vs a growing 57K) Most civ's have Trebs and Elephants at this point. Washington is now cautious with me and my nearest neighbor. Before I declared on SittingBull he went in Wheoohrn mode (presumably against his neighbor and worst enemy Surry). I have seen no build-up of units in US border cities. Peter is AP resident. Both he and his Buddhist friend Sury are annoyed with me. They are very friendly with each other so if I attack one I have to expect a two front war. Also, if I switch into Buddhism, I will have 108 votes to their combined 212 votes. (217 is enough for Diplomatic victory, they can almost do anything they want). I'm currently researching Lib without any plan, Peter has all the pre-reques for Lib but I can't tell what he is researching at this point.


I'm currently spreading buddhism and building hammer buildings while I decide who to attack next and with what units.

I've considered switching buddhism and Burea for cautios or friendly Peter, begging for peace guarantee and then attacking Washington with trebs/phants. My production bonus and large army should be enough.

Alternately, I could build wealth everywhere, rush to tech Cannon and continue my conquest. I don't think switching from treb/elephant to Cuirissairs is ideal although I could get those tech's faster. I could go the MT route and just use the mixed units but that is awkward. This mixed idea is probably fastest for the 2nd future war. I can declare now on Peter or Washington with minimal preparation. My concern is that I've angered everyone enough that I'll soon be facing war on multiple fronts. I thought a high power ratio advantage could deter some DOW's but I'm not sure if this is true.

Right now, Washington is relatively friendless. Peter and Surry are buds. They are both cautious toward Washington and Annoyed with me (religious differences). Switching religion might make them like me more but it risks them forming an AP alliance against me.


note: I've kept every AI city I've taken thus far. I should probably liberate some cities to streamline my empire. I'm not giving up the big shrine to Boudica. Sitting Bull's cities are meh. It has been maybe 5 turns since capitulation and I may not be able to liberate the first one. I messed up by making sitting bull stop trading with Washington with the Capitulation deal.

Answers to my previous questions:
1. Switching religions/civics did not improve the diplo situation much. Washington and Boudica moved to annoyed. SB moved to pleased. Peter moved to cautious. In the end it made no difference. My attack order was more of convenience than diplomatic concerns.

2. Build wealth and beeline Steel. Bully Peter into 10turn forced peace. Upgrade and Declare on Washington. Take a city on Turn 2, Another on Turn 3 (and take down his biggest stack). Capitulate on Turn 4.

3. Take 2-3 turns to reposition units. Declare on Surry. Take 1 city on Turn 2, he Capitulate's immediately.

I liberate the 2nd US city and Surry's city immediately. For some reason I'm not able to liberate the 1st US city I take.

4. Reposition units. Declare on Peter. Take a city on Turn 2 of war. He Capitulate's immediately.

By the time I got to Sury he had Grenadiers. Peter did not have them by the time he capitulated.


5. My worries over AP shenanigans was unnecessary. There was never any meaningful votes presented. By the time the next vote cycle hit I managed to spread Buddhism enough to be able to block any vote I didn't like. Peter was a wonder-whore for most of the game. I didn't check the demo-graphs, but I was concerned about a late game culture threat from him. Ultimately I was worried for nothing. My power ratio advantage was absurd, any culture threat could be raze in under 10 turns.



I had some revolt troubles in Bibracte (37gold shrine city) and Mesa Verde. I'm glad I kept Boudica's cities, but I'm undecided about keeping SB's cities. I was able to build some units in them with chops/whips but in reality I lost very very few units because of my tech/siege advantage. Liberating those four cities may have given me a faster win by a few turns.

Overall this game felt pretty easy. Double-Bulb Trebs before anyone else had catapults was a huge advantage. Isabella fell fast. I was paranoid about a counter-attack and delayed attacking Boudica. Ultimately it didn't matter. Her units were spread out and no match for the siege stacks. Her counter force appeared near my attack point, I was concerned she would attack one of my weaker cities but that didn't happen. I wonder how often that happens at higher difficulties.

I should have probably spent less time between wars moving units and preparing. I don't think I could have used trebs on Washington. By that point the numbers needed to bombard and sacrifice for collateral would be very high. These losses would have skewed the war-success out of my favor and led to a drawn out war.
The 25 turns of tech and upgrading worked out very well. Had I not waited, I doubt I could have bullyed the peace deal. Even if I could get 10 turns of peace, I would not have been able to attack two different AI within that 10 turn window.

Quite an early finish date for me and that was despite a lot of mistakes...

SIP and then picked up corn in the West as second city. Bit sad I couldn't rush but everyone too far away Oracled CoL pretty early while just at two cities, GS before 1000BC, then got Mids and MoM (using the marble in the North) on my way to about 7-8 cities by 1AD.

Got a bit cocky now as I was far ahead of AI in tech so I stayed in Confucianism (with AI all Jewish except Hindu Izzy) on way to GLib and didn't really up my power either. Boudica DoW'd me at around 300AD and took the city near the gold in the west. Took it back a few turns later and ran over her with Swords, Axes and later cats and maces. Slowed me down lots though so ended up vassaling her at about 1000AD.

Izzy went next (still no Longbows and I needed to use my lovely stack). Only took one city and she capped 1040AD. Then Sitting Bull, longbows but no engineering and I had trebs by now. 2 cities and he capped in 1100s sometime.

Washington and Sury both at about 2/3 my power and 10 cities but Wash no engineering so I demanded cash from Sury for 10 turns peace and DoW'd Wash. 2 cities and he capped too (power was over double by now so maybe thats why...)

Finally got access to horse through Wash so I started spamming Cuirs and DoW'd Sury when the 10 turn treaty was up. He bribed in Peter but he's too far away too matter for now, then capped after just 1 city 0_o, not even a good one. Power was at about 1.7 and he had a lot of wonders so maybe thats why, still it seemed faster than normal.

Last was Peter but by now I'd got to rifling and turned off slider now, so two cities killed with Cavalry and he capped too.

All in all kinda successful. I really shouldn't have been so slack to let Boudica attack me. Maybe should just waited for Judaism spread instead of going Conf. Also I finally learnt the benefit of having enough siege this game, trebs really are awesome in big numbers.

Ah...Nobody to rush. Never mind, they're still the best Archer barb defence unit in the game. I'll just settle then.

And so I did...8 cities by 1AD, took CoL from Oracle, Built GLib, Parthenon, NE, HE, am currently building MoM and my HE City is spamming Axes and Spears to defend my borders. Thanks to Izzy the world is buddhist apart from the hindu Bod, however she got 11 cities and a gazillion units so everybody else is too scared to DoW her. Haven't taken a religion yet, am choosing to stay neutral as I don't fancy upsetting Bod or the Buddists just yet.

All in all it's been quite easy so far, but I'm happy with that as I'm still a newbie at this level.

Sooner or later somebody was going to have a go at Bod...step forward Washington...and step forward Isabella to join the Americans despite having no army and only 5 cities...and step forward Peter to backstab Izzy. All good fun to watch, I stayed right out of it. Izzy lost one of her cities to Peter before kissing and making up whilst Bod and the Americans slugged it out for ages and got nowhere fast.

Which is why I've got Lib so late. I teched it to within one turn by 1100AD having double-bulbed Education but with Sury more interested in building pointless wonders, Sitting Bull still in the stone-age and the others beating each other up I kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting...

And I've just taken Steel from Lib having completed the Taj for the same turn via a detour to build Oxford. I've got 3 great persons sitting in the cap and with MoM I reckon I can get a 48-turn Golden Age. Washington's just gone WHEEORN against me because I refused his demand for Nationalism but he might have a bit of a problem with that as Bod is in the way and she's pretty miffed with him after their 400 year-long tiff.