Turn 143 Domination victory
Finally managed to find the time to finish the game after nearly two weeks absence.
I picked up the game from turn 79 where Montys Cap just fell into my hands. I quickly proceed to bring back my chariot archers and make the war with the englishmen short as I want to continue to steamroll the world with my soon researched Keshiks. However not having played the session for so long hurt my initial plans as I quickly i picked up the game again fell for the temptation of joining attilas crusade against poland. Which I only later realised lead me to split my force into two and slow me down quite significantly.
I get my Keshiks on turn 99 and upgrade like 13 chariot archers instantly. However as Inca decide to declare war on me the same turn I have to fight through a massive hoard of units. The progress at the eastern front is at this point also haltered by the fact that he has GW and the terrain is mostly jungle and hills. Even though slow, progress is made and I also a couple of turn after my Keshiks get the extra XP policy and after that it dont take long before the logistics promotions starts coming.
However the western front is also a bit messier than I initially thought. Poland and the huns don't seem to have wasted much troops at all and Attila also very soon makes peace with Poland. (Calling out a succesful AI-bribe here). Forcing me to settle only for a satellite city before making peace, without any path open to Lissabon as I intended to create.
On the eastern front I slowly realise the GW is a huge defence mechanic and realise why I didnt wanted to split my forces in the first place. In order to adjust I decide to march most of my army across the dessert between Inca and the huns and attack Attila from two directions. The plan is then to bring the entire army back to Cusco as I think some extra promotions and rotation of units should be enough to take Cusco down. At this point I feel I falling a bit behind the pace of a fast domination victory (which was my goal when I saw the Mongols was the selected civ)
However the move for the huns works out well and even though having alot of units (his rams are completly useless in defence though) he is not capable of using his units properly when being attack from two directions. Attilas Cap fall in 3 turns and more or less his entire army are wiped out in 2 more. With a more decent sized and well promoted army of keshiks I acutally have enough firepower to take on Cusco.
However my arrogance of Greece being satisfied with their peaceful is turned against me when Alex declares war on me. I still have a few keshiks around not being part of the crusade against Atilla. Earning XP and keeping some of the incan army busy in the east part of his empire while slowly grinding down a path towards Athens. Maybe it was this little path that was not to his liking (qualified guess). At this point I have no intention of breaking the siege of Cusco nor go west with my entire army just for Athens. However instead I decide that my freshly built Keshiks can help out there instead of trying to catch up with the siege of Cusco, which is kinda far away anyway. I acutally spamming units at a rate I starting to running out of horses and decides pikemens can help out as meathsields against the greece units. All the while a few Keshiks grind him down. Nothing else than happiness building, units and a few gold building have been built since turn 99 where i got chivalry, allowing my a bit greedy play of too many simultaneously executed wars. Greece is going to be a slow grind, however a succesful slow grind as his Capital fall before my main force reach Lissabon.
Cusco fall to the drums of Keshiks and triple Khan army. At this point quite a few of my Keshiks have both logistics and range, a few got march too. The poor CS close to this desert must be wondering what is happening with the entire Mongol army once again making the journey across. This time aiming for Poland and siege of Warsaw through the former hunnic cities. Even though Keshiks are fast quite a few turns extra are actually spent on just moving back and forth here. As Poland looks a bit scary with what seems to be newly promoted rifleman. Another few turns and a reassurance that I mean no trouble has to be made, which I have to break(in my defence I dont think he knows what is best for him). With this setup, even though a few riflemen, his army is obliterated and cities on the way to Warsaw taken just and swift. It is not before I run into the terrain just east of Warsaw that progress is slowed down. After a few turns of careful bombarding, Warsaw and remaining defenders are taking a beating but no real progress is being made.
At this point I decide that my army is big enough to just rush in, even though putting myself into the line of fire with my Keshiks, I am allowing more of them to get shots of, and at Warsaw itself. It only then takes 2 turns for Warsaw to fall and even though it cost me my only Keshik loss of the game I realise that I being overly cautious with the size of my army. With only 2 more Polish cities and Portugal to go and still 15+ Keshiks in my main force I really have more troops than I can position into useful tiles.
At this point of the game my slow grind at the eastern front has given me success with Greece. Even though it cost me the second military casualty of the game (a pikemen) Athens is mine. With that in mind my main force push for Lisbon in an attempt to claim a domination victory. A polish cities fall next turn to create a path forward to Lisbon. Another turn is used for setting up my units at the Portuguese border. Braga falls the same turn as the liberation attempt is initiated and with my Keshiks swarming in and a Khan constructing a citadel any support from Porto is cut off. I managed to take Lisbon the turn after to claim a turn 143 domination victory.
In the end I'm fairly satisfied. I at least feel I got close to finish a fast paced domination game. However I feel that with less greedy play, (not splitting your army and focus on steamrolling civs one at a time) and the confidence and knowledge when to push hard (despite casualties) for the victory. I feel at least 15-20 turns, with my level of micromanagement and warfare, can be shaved of any eventual finish time.
Spoiler :
Finally managed to find the time to finish the game after nearly two weeks absence.
I picked up the game from turn 79 where Montys Cap just fell into my hands. I quickly proceed to bring back my chariot archers and make the war with the englishmen short as I want to continue to steamroll the world with my soon researched Keshiks. However not having played the session for so long hurt my initial plans as I quickly i picked up the game again fell for the temptation of joining attilas crusade against poland. Which I only later realised lead me to split my force into two and slow me down quite significantly.
I get my Keshiks on turn 99 and upgrade like 13 chariot archers instantly. However as Inca decide to declare war on me the same turn I have to fight through a massive hoard of units. The progress at the eastern front is at this point also haltered by the fact that he has GW and the terrain is mostly jungle and hills. Even though slow, progress is made and I also a couple of turn after my Keshiks get the extra XP policy and after that it dont take long before the logistics promotions starts coming.
However the western front is also a bit messier than I initially thought. Poland and the huns don't seem to have wasted much troops at all and Attila also very soon makes peace with Poland. (Calling out a succesful AI-bribe here). Forcing me to settle only for a satellite city before making peace, without any path open to Lissabon as I intended to create.
On the eastern front I slowly realise the GW is a huge defence mechanic and realise why I didnt wanted to split my forces in the first place. In order to adjust I decide to march most of my army across the dessert between Inca and the huns and attack Attila from two directions. The plan is then to bring the entire army back to Cusco as I think some extra promotions and rotation of units should be enough to take Cusco down. At this point I feel I falling a bit behind the pace of a fast domination victory (which was my goal when I saw the Mongols was the selected civ)
However the move for the huns works out well and even though having alot of units (his rams are completly useless in defence though) he is not capable of using his units properly when being attack from two directions. Attilas Cap fall in 3 turns and more or less his entire army are wiped out in 2 more. With a more decent sized and well promoted army of keshiks I acutally have enough firepower to take on Cusco.
However my arrogance of Greece being satisfied with their peaceful is turned against me when Alex declares war on me. I still have a few keshiks around not being part of the crusade against Atilla. Earning XP and keeping some of the incan army busy in the east part of his empire while slowly grinding down a path towards Athens. Maybe it was this little path that was not to his liking (qualified guess). At this point I have no intention of breaking the siege of Cusco nor go west with my entire army just for Athens. However instead I decide that my freshly built Keshiks can help out there instead of trying to catch up with the siege of Cusco, which is kinda far away anyway. I acutally spamming units at a rate I starting to running out of horses and decides pikemens can help out as meathsields against the greece units. All the while a few Keshiks grind him down. Nothing else than happiness building, units and a few gold building have been built since turn 99 where i got chivalry, allowing my a bit greedy play of too many simultaneously executed wars. Greece is going to be a slow grind, however a succesful slow grind as his Capital fall before my main force reach Lissabon.
Cusco fall to the drums of Keshiks and triple Khan army. At this point quite a few of my Keshiks have both logistics and range, a few got march too. The poor CS close to this desert must be wondering what is happening with the entire Mongol army once again making the journey across. This time aiming for Poland and siege of Warsaw through the former hunnic cities. Even though Keshiks are fast quite a few turns extra are actually spent on just moving back and forth here. As Poland looks a bit scary with what seems to be newly promoted rifleman. Another few turns and a reassurance that I mean no trouble has to be made, which I have to break(in my defence I dont think he knows what is best for him). With this setup, even though a few riflemen, his army is obliterated and cities on the way to Warsaw taken just and swift. It is not before I run into the terrain just east of Warsaw that progress is slowed down. After a few turns of careful bombarding, Warsaw and remaining defenders are taking a beating but no real progress is being made.
At this point I decide that my army is big enough to just rush in, even though putting myself into the line of fire with my Keshiks, I am allowing more of them to get shots of, and at Warsaw itself. It only then takes 2 turns for Warsaw to fall and even though it cost me my only Keshik loss of the game I realise that I being overly cautious with the size of my army. With only 2 more Polish cities and Portugal to go and still 15+ Keshiks in my main force I really have more troops than I can position into useful tiles.
At this point of the game my slow grind at the eastern front has given me success with Greece. Even though it cost me the second military casualty of the game (a pikemen) Athens is mine. With that in mind my main force push for Lisbon in an attempt to claim a domination victory. A polish cities fall next turn to create a path forward to Lisbon. Another turn is used for setting up my units at the Portuguese border. Braga falls the same turn as the liberation attempt is initiated and with my Keshiks swarming in and a Khan constructing a citadel any support from Porto is cut off. I managed to take Lisbon the turn after to claim a turn 143 domination victory.
In the end I'm fairly satisfied. I at least feel I got close to finish a fast paced domination game. However I feel that with less greedy play, (not splitting your army and focus on steamrolling civs one at a time) and the confidence and knowledge when to push hard (despite casualties) for the victory. I feel at least 15-20 turns, with my level of micromanagement and warfare, can be shaved of any eventual finish time.
Spoiler :
The plan was to do a keshik rush as fast as possible, but a MASSIVE runaway Poland made that difficult. After he wiped out Portugal and settled about 5 new cities, I realised I had to attack sooner rather than later. DoW at around turn 140, and what followed was a ridiculous punching match that lasted over 70 turns. The only way to land a few pot shots at his cities was after wiping out the 3-6 new units that flooded in every turn.
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) because Athens falls next and Alex is out of the hunt.
