The Deity Challenge Line-up #33 - Songhai

Olodune

Emperor
GOTM Staff
Joined
May 21, 2007
Messages
1,083
There is now a thread to express yourself if you have remarks and ideas:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=546469

Welcome to the Deity Challenge Line-up!



- The spreadsheet of all challenge finishers to date has been updated and is available here.

Rules:
Spoiler :

This was a fortnightly event, but the schedule has changed and new games will now be posted every 10 days.

- All the games in this series are set to Deity difficulty.
- User civilizations, maps, and opponents change with each challenge, but the game speed is always set to Standard and the starting era is always Ancient.
- We try for a variety of starts
- This isn't a competition so there will be no predefined victory conditions.
- If you complete 5 challenges, your name will be added to the 'Top Finishers' list.

* We welcome all comments and write-ups and invite you to post screenshots of key moments and the moment of victory (if you are successful), but please use the spoiler tag if you post a picture, make a comment about which civs are in the game, or about wonders, or locations of ancient ruins, etc.

* In short, if it’s information you can only know by playing the game, don’t spoil it for others by divulging this information in the open. Thank you for your co-operation

New - For better view please put your results in bold letters so that the person that updates the spreadsheet can quickly see it.

DCL Game #33
You: Songhai
Map Type:
Spoiler :
Pangaea

Difficulty:
Spoiler :
Medium


Starting Location:
Spoiler :




Settings: Quick combat/movement (turn it back on if you would like)
Everything else is set to default.
Game Version - 1.0.3.276
Downloadable Content: – G&K, BNW, Conquest of the New World Deluxe, Genghis Khan's Mongolia, Harold Bluetooth's Denmark, Isabella’s Spain and Pachacuti's Incan Empire, Kamehameha's Polynesian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, Sejong The Great's Korea, Wonders of the Ancient World. The map packs are intentionally excluded.

Schedule
Spoiler :

Game #1 20/06/14 The Zulu Pangaea
Game #2 04/07/14 America Continents
Game #3 18/07/14 Persia Continents
Game #4 01/08/14 Sweden Pangaea
Game #5 15/08/14 The Inca Pangaea
Game #6 29/08/14 Byzantium Continents
Game #7 12/09/14 Ethiopia Pangaea
Game #8 26/09/14 Mongolia Pangaea
Game #9 10/10/14 Rome Small Continents
Game #10 24/10/14 Polynesia Terra
Game #11 07/11/14 Morocco Pangaea
Game #12 21/11/14 The Maya Continents
Game #13 05/12/14 Indonesia Continents
Game #14 19/12/14 (Xmas Special) The Netherlands Small Continents
Game #15 19/12/14 (Xmas Special) Poland Pangaea
Game #16 02/01/15 China Pangaea
Game #17 16/01/15 Germany Pangaea
Game #18 23/01/15 OCC Babylon Continents
Game #19 02/02/15 Aztecs Pangea
Game #20 12/02/15 Spain Terra
Game #21 20/02/15 India Continents
Game #22 28/02/15 Brazil Pangea
Game #23 10/03/15 Huns Continents
Game #24 20/03/15 Arabia Pangea
Game #25 30/03/15 (April Fool's) Venice Pangea
Game #26 10/04/15 Celts Continents
Game #27 20/04/15 Danemark Pangea
Game #28 30/04/15 Russia Oval
Game #29 10/05/15 Carthage Small Continents
Game #30 20/05/15 Iroquois Pangea
Game #31 31/05/15 Ottomans Continents
Game #32 10/06/15 England Continents
Game #33 20/06/15 Songhai Pangaea


I hope you all enjoy the map!

If you want to share a map please send [Acken] a private message.

Please note that maps you wish to share MUST have map packs disabled, so those who do not have them can enjoy the challenge. To do this, you MUST go into the DLC option from the Main Menu and untick the options ‘Scrambled Nations’, ‘Explorers Map Pack’ and ‘Scrambled Continents’. You will need to do this EVERY TIME you start a new game, or just simply delete the map packs. I suggest you disable these map DLCs on steam directly. Steam will uninstall them, just reactivate them when you need them. Thanks.
 
T21
Spoiler :
Tried the old wait around until after t20 trick and picked up a free pantheon from a ruin.
 
Ok this should be interesting. Lots of plains with no resources so i'm guessing there are horses there!

Anyway
-Triple gold from barb camps and pillaging cities.
-A variety of maritime bonuses for embarked units
-A great medieval mounted unit to replace knights to attack cities and help with the UA
-A maintenance free unique temple with 2 culture per turn essentially a free Choral Music belief.

I guess there are a number of options theoretically.
Playing wide with liberty would be ideal with the UB Mud Mosque saving a lot of gold on maintenance and helping with border expansion & mid game policy acquisition.
-Dipping into Piety could be quite viable to get that UB up faster and to secure a religion. Although there doesn't seem to be any obvious resources to get a faith pantheon so Piety is risky.

-Some warmongering particularly around the early medieval era would be superb. Capture a city for the huge gold bonus and ransom it back to the AI for more gold than try moving on to another civ?

Hmmm so many choices...
 
There is another choice. I've taken it, and we'll see if the gamble pays off.

Spoiler :
I'm going SS. I opened Piety because in a PM with the map-roller he said something about how, if he chose Songhai, Piety would be an option. Piety gives options like Diplo, Domination (as Peddroelm and Acken have shown), even Science (if you're lucky to get Jesuits). It also allows for SS, and since I've never gotten one on Deity, I'm giving it a go on this map. There are a LOAD of luxuries around.

I snagged DF after meeting the nearby religious CSes, went Liberty left side thinking it would be a good way to compensate for the strange start. Took 2 workers from Liz, who made DoF with me the turn after peace, then backstabbed me once the city spam had begun.

The positives about SS on this map:-

- Lots of unique luxes
- A massive mountain barrier to protect most of my cities
- Attila wanted to be my friend
- The luxes have a ton of gold so I've been able to buy so many workers and other stuff

The negatives:-

- There are some possible cultural runaways (including Bismarck who hit Medieval T51!)
- Liz might be able to take the city I settled in her face
- Attila might backstab me and breach the 1 tile Thermopylae spot

We shall see.
 
Looks like it's gonna be one long game of killing everyone because I can't for the life of me imagine why this civ should be played any differently. So economy will run on plunder, cities won't really be any big and conquest will go as long as there's wind in my sails. Looks like a fairly uneventful way to go :/
 
Nope, it didn't work. My Liberty-finisher musician was underpowered. Only 400ish tourism. Not enough to get past the staggering cultural force that is
Spoiler :
Morocco.





Alas, I'll have to take out Ahmad's capital and win by brute force.
Plan B underway.
 
I lost. I didnt build enough troops and I got a double dow.
 
Spoiler :
Pretty strong start. 2 city honour with 2 pop ruins for the cap. Unsure if I want a post-NC 3rd coastal city north of Gao. Going to try an xbow rush but have no idea who to attack first... maybe Lizzie since she's been at war with me since a turn 10 worker steal and won't make peace.
 
My progress at turn 56.

By and large I focused on early force projection. Took out a number of barb camps, destroyed 1 scout each from
Spoiler :
England & Austria, also pillaged an English caravan
and stole 1 worker from a CS. I figured that killing AI scouts would keep more of the map hidden so I could get more barb camps to spawn..

Build Order <Scout (ruin upgrade to archer), Warrior, Warrior, Scout, warrior, settler (bought a worker with spare gold from barb camps), Pyramids, Shrine, Monument, Archer (current), now more settlers.
Initially I decided to forgo from shrine and monument as I didn't see any initial resources for a faith pantheon and popping an early Culture ruin from Tradition made me downgrade the value on the monument for military units - basically I wanted to maximise the use of Songhai's UA on barb camps.

Spoiler :




Spoiler :

Popped a culture ruin at turn 3. That can be a double edged sword as you don't know whether Tradition or Liberty is best. So I opened in Tradition as that works for both tall and wide :)

Faith Pantheon turn 30. Took Sacred Path (Culture from Jungles).
 
T234 Update = Victory! by 'Sacred Domination', a.k.a. 'Artillery Sites',
Spoiler :
a.k.a. &#8216;Otto and Mohandas Spoil the Party'


Spoiler :
So when I couldn't get Ahmad or Bismarck to buy my blue jeans, I spammed XBs and Mandelaku Cavalry and smashed up the three biggest Moroccan cities. In fact, he gave me the 2nd one to make peace, which was nice as it was a big city. Then I finished him off when the peace treaty ran out, leaving him with one negligible city (I think it was one of those 'bail out' cities that the AI likes to build when they're about to get wiped).

Sadly, getting to Bismarck was not as easy. I had to go through lifelong buddy Attila, who was depleted from the numerous wars I paid him to get involved in. After that, Artillery arrived just in time but it was still a slog up that thin peninsula to capture all of his cities.

By the time I wiped out Bismarck, Gandhi had decided I was no longer Influential with him. This answers the question that I once had: can you lose influence once you have it. Yes, you can.

In fact, I lost it with Liz too right before Victory, but she was persuaded by sending some Futurism to London.

In the end, this was a Domination Victory really, as only 10-15 turns at most would have to be added to take the other 3 capitals that I didn&#8217;t own.

I&#8217;m very glad this game is over :)

Nice map, really strong with this civ and this strategy. Cheers Olodune! :)

Social Policies:

Liberty Left-side, Piety, Finish Liberty, Commerce Opener+Wagon Trains, Rationalism Opener, Patronage Left-side, Autocracy

Screenshots show (Top to Bottom from Left-Right):-

1. Mandelcav assault of Morocco
2. Cannons online, pushing through Hunnic lands
3. Good result at the World's Fair
4. Pushing along the peninsula
5. Gandhi is unbribeable
6. GPT breakdown
7. City capture of the Month goes to Liz for coming all the way around a Pangaea to take out a pointless city
8. Gandhi's doom
9. Liz IS bribeable for OB, but at a cost - luckily I can pay!
10. Victory - Part 1
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 13.21.28.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 13.21.28.jpg
    261.6 KB · Views: 436
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 14.35.06.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 14.35.06.jpg
    227.5 KB · Views: 356
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 15.12.49.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 15.12.49.jpg
    140 KB · Views: 333
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.04.39.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.04.39.jpg
    243.8 KB · Views: 294
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.03.26.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.03.26.jpg
    133.7 KB · Views: 260
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 16.22.54.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 16.22.54.jpg
    168.6 KB · Views: 286
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.06.37.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.06.37.jpg
    228.3 KB · Views: 249
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.55.16.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.55.16.jpg
    250.1 KB · Views: 312
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.59.46.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 17.59.46.jpg
    143.8 KB · Views: 314
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 18.17.33.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 18.17.33.jpg
    128.8 KB · Views: 285
It seems there is a limit of 10 attachments per post. So here is my last one.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 18.17.55.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 18.17.55.jpg
    268.2 KB · Views: 373
Nope, it didn't work. My Liberty-finisher musician was underpowered. Only 400ish tourism. Not enough to get past the staggering cultural force that is
Spoiler :
Morocco.





Alas, I'll have to take out Ahmad's capital and win by brute force.
As if we needed more proof of your ignorance.

Moderator Action: Please, no trolling.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
 
I beg your pardon?
 
I always have trouble figuring where to settle on initial spots like this. Give up the river and mountain to get the coast?
 
I don't want to be misunderstood, so I'm happy to explain, but I feel that there are some people who are determined to find bigotry whether it exists or not. Those people, I fear, will not be satisfied.

The fact is, I think that real-life Berber culture is great. I'm of a primitivist persuasion and like stripped-bare natural living.

The point was not that real-life Morocco has no culture, but that the in-game Morocco always seems to be a cultural powerhouse, which does not correspond to reality.

I think that when people joke about Gandhi and the nuke, it's the same thing. Humorous comparison of video game and real life universes, or making fun of Enrico Dandolo being blind. I think there is a place for humour on CFC. If the mods decide my joke is not welcome here I am sure they will tell me.

More disturbing for me is adcarrymaokai's implication that I am generally ignorant, and I wonder what prompted this kind of comment.

Shall we leave this and get back to the topic?
 
Anyway, I got 9 cities up and some nice cpt going, but a double DoW from Liz and Attila really messed me up. Fending Attila off is easy because I planted a city near the choke point, but Liz waltzed over with about 15 CB's and some melee units after she killed Austria. Hm ok. Next time, I am going for Shrine->Mud Mosque->Archers->Walls->Archers instead of libraries, water mills, etc.
 
Top Bottom