The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #21 England

I beat Pach's Settler to Mt Fuji by one turn. BO Scout, Monument start, Shrine, Settler/Monument. Since I knew the map I went with one Scout, I prioritized faith because I wanted One With Nature (Fuji would help with culture and gold). I should probably have beelined for Mt Sinai too, but had other matters in need, and there were tons of barbs mid-continent.

Even meeting a Faith CS and getting the earliest possible Shrine, I got the 30f pantheon - sheesh! Plus I got into the 230s in faith before I finally quit working Fuji, what a huge waste to get a GP 2-3 turns later than that. Ruins gave me pop, Spear, and 75g. Barbs were out and about, so it was tough to escort my Settler and fulfill quests and be ready to block Pach's Settler.

My early game food and production was bad, I worked Fuji immediately once York was pop 3 or 4 onwards. I have bought many hill tiles. No early Worker steals, so a slow start. Very few farms for a Trad game.

3rd city went SE by the fish, as usual had to buy hill tiles. I was going to plant 4th city up N, either on NW coast for another food cargo to London, or NE coast for mutual feeding with Nottingham, but surprisingly nobody had settled the Hastings spot - so I started a Settler and Pach had another Settler show up, which I was luckily able to block with like 5-6 units, damn his hill movement. I may still put a 5th city up N, I know it's late, but somebody's gonna settle it eventually, might as well be me.

Pach built SH and quickly spammed his religion around. He sent a GP to my border, I danced with it for 10 turns and then grew weary - it's the same thing every game when this happens, so I stole him, and luckily he had 4 uses left, so I planted a Holy Site. Could I have used him to Enhance? The war faded early, and I've had two more since - he sends a fresh GP towards me, of course I will take it. So fpt is pretty good with 3 Holy Sites even w/o all Temples built and w/o Grand Temple.

I've only tried for LToP, and failed just a few turns in. Captain Underpants and Mor are getting pretty crazy with the wonders. Since I have so much Sugar, I've decided to be good Lizzie and just trade with everyone, hence no conquest. I may replay this one at some point just to see how fighting goes. I have been last in mil the whole game, and Pach has so many hills to run around in, and with no good LOS for Archers, it seemed like suicide. But once I DOW'd for the GP all he had was Warriors and one CB. I didn't have enough CB to take the city, and he had Pikes by my 2nd DOW. Sad to let these LB mostly go to waste.

As usual (all 3 Firetuner playthroughs had this) Mor goes wonder mad, at least his cap is approachable with LBs. (None of the 3 original cap are coastal.) Underpants surprisingly went Tradition and got both the food wonders. I won't talk about the other continent much - you've got a typical psychopath, too much Piety, plus a very protected civ who always runs amok given space.

1. Settled the NW south

2. 3-city Liberty, beeline to Longbows, but I kind of overestimated the Immortal AI because I cleared out Incas and took Marrakech with CBs. Only got Longbows around 140, VERY late, because along the way I saw I never researched Writing and had no Libraries, lol. Cleared out my continent but kind of late, around 160.

It's now around 220, I have around 10 SotLs but I can't really be bothered using them. I think a mistake I made here was not attacking sooner, I lost so much time in the Incan siege, I probably should have gone the usual Philosophy path, then swing back to Longbows around 130 just the same, and then clear them out.

Nice map though

Since I hadn't played Tradition for a while I decided to use it for this game. Just trying to catch up on growth since the slow start. Won WF, but 3 civs got silver - very unusual for me. Burned 2 GS to get Radio, chose Order, proposed it for WC, vote is 19 turns. Nobody else has declared yet.

GE'd Eiffel and Broadway. I only have 2 SoL because I only had 2 Galleases and things are so secure - will build more before long. I'm not likely going to go for the silver medal as conquest is not on my agenda.

Yeah, I have done a bunch of Liberty/DomV games lately, so wanted to relax a bit more. Only 2 total caps are coastal, which is what makes this a challenge! And the "Southern Seas" coastal cap is hard to get to, which is why I made the Silver Medal. I am hoping to read some kick butt DomV stories.

I was going for a typical SV, but when the UN started, I saw I already had enough votes to win a DV in 27 turns. So after I GE'd Hubble I started burning GS to get Globalization. After that, took Internet for funsies, and finished both SOH and NVC just before the vote, why not? I won with 45/39 (had passed both Order and Taoism for 4 extra votes).

Around t300 both Captain Underpants and Mor wanted to DOW Inca, so I citadeled Pach's Coal and sure enough he DOW'd me soon after. Pretty hilarious, I had the worst army all game, and I still creamed him. I had just gotten 2 RArty, I didn't even need the 3rd I built. Those upgraded LB MGuns were nasty. I finally got 3 BBs running, but even though the icons said I had like 18 CS oil, I couldn't upgrade a 4th (wtf?). I kept getting gifted WHussars and Cosacks, sheesh - usually you start getting anti-air or Infantry as soon as it's available. I considered moving onto Marrakech, but I didn't want to slog through the last few dozen turns. I have no doubt I would have taken it - I actually made peace with Pach after only 2/5 cities. Cusco had GMo Djenne, ND, SoL, and SH - pretty nice. London had Broadway, CN Tower, CR, Eiffel, Hubble, Kremlin, PT, and SOH.

Full Trad, 2 in Patronage (Consulates), 2 in Exploration (+3 prod), 2 in Rat after Industrial (my limit), 6 in Order, 3 more Patronage, finish Exploration, Commerce opener. There were only 2 hidden sites on my continents, sheesh. Ran out of time to excavate anyway.

As happened in all my Firetuner playthoughs, Spain went nuts and took over half the other continent. Mor had a very strong Tradition game, and Underpants did well too. In the tests the games usually went into the 400s, which is ridiculous. The AI truly just doesn't know how to win. The big dogs were trying for a CV, and neither Mor or Underpants were going to beat the other's culture.

Only Theo followed me into Order, Pach went Freedom, the other 4 went Autocracy. Because of having 0 tourism until Eiffel, it took me forever to apply pressure. Even with WC Order, the only flip was Spain from Order to Autocracy.

This map seems ideal for a military CV - Mor and Underpants will build all the wonders for you, you just need to take them. Oh, and Monte didn't build SoZ until t219!

Oh, and I never built a single happy building!

Early game: 2 self made cities. Capital on sugar between river and hill. Built a settler asap and settled that on another sugar with Mt. Fuji in reach. Missed out on religion.

Stole two workers. One from Ahmad and one from CS.

Focused on piling up gold since the start is pretty hammer-slow. Bought library in expo - turn 89 NC. I also installed two early food-ships between my cities.

Tech: After NC I went straight for Long Bowmen. Got them on turn 125 and conquered my continent while I went for Ship of the Line.

Since I only had 4 iron in reach I could not take on more then one enemy at the time. I slowly conquered the world and finally finished of Evil dark lord Ghandi the Geezer with artillery and cavalry!

SP: Full honor - full commerce - rationalism opener before Autocracy with gold/happiness focus.

Wonders: Big Ben in capital.