The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #10 - Russia

All games in this series will be set to IMMORTAL difficulty. User civilizations, maps, and opponents will change each game, but the pace will always be set at standard and the starting era will always be ancient. We will try for a variety of starts, and not just having a crazy warmonger as your next door neighbor (although there will be that too). This isn't a competition so there will be no predefined victory conditions. New challenges in the series will be posted every other Wednesday.

Who can play?
Anybody can play. The more the merrier. Even if you normally don't play immortal games you are still welcome to try. The games can become great learning resources for the player trying to improve. Even if you don't finish the game, we are still interested to hear about your experience.

Do's and Don'ts
We are going to be using the honor system. Feel free to restart, reload, play the same game multiple times, but don't use the science overflow exploit. Also please don't edit the game in IGE. If you do chose to cheat, please don't share your results in the comments. Also, please use the spoiler tag if you post a picture, comment about neighboring civs, close by wonders, or locations of ancient ruins.

Also, please tell us about your Build Order, Social Policies, Tech Order, and what type of wonders you went after. I know a lot of this stuff seems pretty mundane to the experienced player, but the details are incredibly useful to people trying to learn.

Future Games in the Series
I want users to submit saves from turn 0. Preferably the person submitting the game has played enough turns to know the map is either difficult, fun, or unique in some enjoyable way. Write a short description as to why it is special and email the save to immortalchallengelineup@gmail.com

Important
If you submit a game for the challenge, you must have the DLC map packs disabled. Not everybody has them and they are honestly kind of useless. Having them disabled will allow more participants.

"but at least there's two unique lux."

Surely this is a spoiler?

I am taking on the world's number 1 power. He has The Great Wall and all the defensive wonders.

Turn 1: all in.


On his turn he hits a cannon. I keep it in place as a sacrifice.


Here is Rome on round 3 of the seige.


Turn 4 Rome falls.

Settled Moscow in place, St. Petersburg next to a mountain on the coast towards the east, Novgorad in between the three wines and the oasis, my fourth city on the flood plains tile to the south west, and my fifth city on the coastal copper right to the west of Moscow; That one came much later than the others.

First and firsmost, I'm liking Russia. I have yet to use Cossacks and I don't often build barracks, yet alone early enough for the Krepost to matter, but the extra production meant St. Petersburg was great the second I settled it, and the extra horse and iron was a great source of income, since the market was pretty healthy.

Also, compared to the deity games I've been playing, Immortal seems...kinda easy. I never really had many problems, and at worst I didn't get a religion despite picking Earth Mother as my pantheon, which...isn't a big loss in that case.

Oh, and did I mention that I hard built Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Oracle, and Great-Engineered Pisa? Yeah, that's probably not possible on deity, especially if you do what I did and got a three-city National College at turn eighty or so.

Right now I'm having some happiness issues, but they're not bad and will get fixed pretty easy. I wasn't first to the industrial era but I was pretty quick, arriving via Industrialization. I had a stack of three coal right near one worker, so it wasn't long before I got first ideology: Order, fixing happiness issues and pretty quickly getting Five Year Plan, which was great because I have a bunch of mines and quarries.

I've spent the game as a buddy with the Iroqouis, who have been giving me their religion of Protestantism which isn't bad, it has mosques but never amounted to much. He brought me into a war with Rome who for some reason left basically nothing at their capital, so, while I didn't intend to do much, I marched my samurai and Gatling guns over and shot the snot out of the city, wearing it down and getting a final push from a canon I'd built before taking the city. Next up I took the massive army I starting building when I starting to take Rome and took Antium in a couple of terms, which is a Petra city, so hooray for me! I'm thinking either a science or domination victory at this point, but since only Rome and William don't like me, I don't feel too conquery.

Oh, and Rome had the nerve to ask for...Rome back, after I took it, with an army of gatling guns still standing in a circle.

I decided to settle the capital one SW of the start position, on top of the Copper resource, mainly because I didn't know what I was up against yet.

Got amazingly lucky with goody huts. First one gave me Pottery on turn 4 or so, Archer upgrade was second. I got at least one Population boost.

Initial build order: Scout, Shrine, Monument. (I went with shrine because I was first to encounter Lhasa and was just 2 faith from a pantheon. Was able to get the pantheon that gives faith for Copper)

Turn 11: Encountered Rome with my Warrior. That same turn he built an archer. Everything was perfectly position so I declared war and snatched his worker. Score.

At this point I had my eye on the hill near Rome with the 3 Wine. There are few other luxury resources nearby, so I know I want to defend this spot.

Turn 20-ish: Is that a trade Caravan Rome just built? Why yes it is. Thanks for the 100gold, Caesar.

Turn 30-ish: By this point I realize I made a mistake not building more Scouts. Seems we are on some kind of Pangea. Oh well. I need to devote too much attention to archers to fend off Rome. My warrior makes the trek through the city states (which I had mistakenly believed to be along the coast) into the southern lands and meets many other civs.

Turn 40-ish: Since I have gone Liberty I get my first settler around here. I race him toward the hill near Rome and manage to settle in his face. I then get a second settler north of here by the water/mountain/marble. I spot another Roman caravan (he must have crazy production??) and grab it. Biggest mistake here: I forget to send a worker with my settler, so I end up with a few turns of unhappiness until I can build on the Wine.

Turn 50-ish: Rome, who has been easy to beat back so far, suddenly gets a huge influx of units. For a moment I worry I might lose one of my two forward settled cities. Then Rome does something unimaginably stupid and sends a trade route directly past my forward settled city. I scoop it up for another 100 gold (I'm up to 500 total now, 300 from stolen TRs). With the great production in my capital I manage to complete the Pyramids.

Turn 60-ish: I beat back the Roman assault. I forgot just how strong the Roman UUs are. Jeez. He gets one city down to 50% HP. But the terrain is just so, so that I can kill him with archers.

Turn 70-ish: Rome wants peace, fair trade. But now I am one turn from upgrading to Comp Bows and have a Great General. Due to all the stolen caravans, the GG, and the location of my main city, I can theoretically upgrade most of my archers to comp Bows, put a citadel on the hill next to Rome, and attempt to take the Roman capital. However, I am worried about a crushing defeat. I wonder if it is worth it, or whether I should wait for the Roman UUs to be out teched, because they are truly brutal, and just as I am making this decision, I spot several more of them poised in the distance. The risk, of course, is Caesar coming after me in revenge after building up a big force.

On the plus side, the Oracle is a few turns away, and when I get it I will rush the National College. Two of my archery units have already upgraded to March, and the others are close.

I settled the river copper hill, Scout, Shrine, Granary, Monument, Archer, Spear, Settlers and Archers. Huts gave Pottery, pop, gold, map and camps (meh). Went Tradition, sent 1st Settler E and Rome plopped Antium about then, so took W side of coastal mtn. Settled SW of cap, wasn't sure where to go for sure, if Liberty I would have done 2 cities S and W. Sent 4th Settler N, was torn between coast or river Copper hill, but the carpet of doom headed my way, so settled the coast to get out of the way.

I hate how the AI cheats - ALL his CB's and Ballistas had 2 promos, so I am pecking at them with Archers. There must have been 6-8 of each, plus 2 Spear and 2 Warriors. My cap was own to 0 quickly, but I was able to kill the melee. He starts to withdraw towards his new city Ravenna 4 tiles E of my cap, but I slaughter them all, then easily march on Antium w/o walls - I didn't even have to upgrade to CB's much. Yet he still has higher mil score than me, LOL.

I blew the early game by heading for Philosophy early instead of Construction - so was ill-prepared for the battle. I had to have every city work on Archers instead of Libraries, so tech is horrible and happy is already an issue. No Caravans, no quests, not enough workers.. I did swap a Warrior for a worker with Rome, and stole 1 Lhasa worker.

So now - do I push on Rome, it should fall easily, thus eliminating the asshat? My 3 neighbors are already concerned after I took 2 of his cities (razed Ravenna). Before the DOW I could not bribe him at all, and during most of the war, Iroq wanted like 30 gpt - got him in for only 5gpt recently. Suggestions? No idea when I will meet the other continent, and because I'd hate to lose better trade deals, am considering peace. But it would be so awesome to toast him! I may just go back to my old play style where I quit during Industrial, LOL. Which means kill him!