Inca rush successful at taking Washington, but was not able to get the bronze resource before Mali attacked, nor were the Americans out of the game. By 1AD I had already lost the one city I had gained. Strangely, I never saw a single barbarian.
Got Quecha? Must rush. Settled 2N and pumped Quechas.
Early on I found Mansa. Quechas are good but not against Skirmishers. But Mansa did have a tasty worker dangling which I stole, hoping for rapid peace. Unfortunately that didn't work out (perhaps I lost too many units?).
I still needed to rush so I declared on Washington and took Washington city and New York (on the Flood Plains with 3 gold in BFC, and with Hinduism). Washington gone.
Soon Mansa's chariots turned up and I couldn't stop them. Washington wasn't a great city so I give it to Mansa for peace. I was hoping to whip/chop a settler out of Washington first but massed chariots came before Bronze Working.
After the initial rush: I have the Hindu holy city (FP/gold) and my capital. Could be better. With no next target I built a settler and blocked off the continent S from our capital and expanded Eastwards.
Nice city spot with bronze, marble and lots of river grass for cottages. Check.
Nice city spot on the coast with sheep, clams and ivory. No such luck - Mansa's galley beats me there and founds a city next to my spot. Gonna have to do something about Mansa....
City locations in the attached pictures.
My tech path was Wheel -> Bronze Working then beelining towards Constuction, getting Maths (Aqueducts) along the way. Completed Construction in 265 BC - still no tech trading partners, so Hunting was next, then AH! (still no Alphabet at 0AD...)
Built up some more Quechas/Axes to take Barbarian cities. One city on the East coast (cows, gold, horse), and I'm about to take one further South coast with 3xclams and a cow.
Had a vague idea of building the Hanging Gardens but they were built far off in 550BC, just after I completed my first Aqueduct! I'm currently half way to a Great Scientist in New York.
235BC: I am the Largest civilisation in the world, followed by Mansa! This is a good sign in the long term, particularly if I can get some more of Mansa's land.
130BC: Taoism, Christianity both founded. Mansa has cash to trade (currency). Still no Alphabet... Currently teching Currency myself.
55BC Mansa adopts Vassalage, and by 0AD he's got tons of longbows. I've got 2 Cats, 2 Axes, 1 Spearman, and building 'Phants.
More next time!
Happy to hear comments and I look forwards to seeing what others have done. I've never won Immortal before and have a vague idea that I'm heading for Domination, perhaps via Cavalry?
Hyena Capac led a tribe of nomadic wanderers who held to the traditional belief that the world was created by Jesusin in seven days. Faith held that this creating deity was neither good nor evil but insisted on testing his followers through a series of trials and tribulations of revelationlike saying that there are 9 opponents in the start thread when there are 10 listed in the victories screen.
One day while leading his people to happier hunting grounds (an odd thing to do, thought his people, since the knowledge of hunting was beyond their ken) the Grand Hyena fell off his donkey being the first person in history to both fall off and on his azz in a single motion. The Grand Hyenas grand hemarhoids caused him to momentarily lose consciousness in a fit of agony. When finally he could be roused, he had a strange vision to share with his people.
-- Oh my children from this day forward we shall no longer roam the lands. We are called by a higher power than even Jesusin (if such a thing can be fathomed by mere mortals) to a great destiny. This great power is known to its faithful as The Bomb. Our destiny shall be to build a civilization that will initiate the spasm of glorious fire burning away this world of sin and decadence making room for the coming of The Bomb. Once for each of the demonspawn created in the beginning to walk this earth, nine times shall the power be unleashed by the mighty Incas, thus preparing the way for the final judgement. I have been granted immortality to guide you there, my children, and I have seen the way. The name Hyena Capac is no longer suitable for such an ambitious and glorious destiny, so The Bomb has baptized me The Immortal Doctor Strangelove. (You can call me TIDS). Are there any questions, my children?
Are you saying we must conquer 9 civilizations with glorious fire as an Immortal? Isnt that rather ambitious for someone who routinely gets defeated on Monarch level by raging barbarians?
--Do not mock what you do not understand, my child. This holy quest demands only that we unleash the power of the Bomb nine times before any demon civilization achieves ascendency. Our own ascendency is irrelevant! Yet rest assured, The Bomb rewards well those who are faithful to its calling.
One young man in the congregation asked: How do we know this is real and not just something you pulled out of your . donkey?
--Oh my child, look yon unto the warrior the headress is made in a likeness of The Bombs holy nose-cone. As such it grants great power to the beholder. Our warriors shall be as weapons of minature devastation to the enemies, and by this sign the Truth will be revealed to you. In hoc signo vinces!
Follow, my children, to that plains hill 2N1W from our present position. There we shall find production suitable to immediately begin building our little wmds in great numbers, five hammers per turn, five turns per Quechua. Kinda poetic, eh?
But what shall we eat, Doctor? We cant grow strong and healthy working forested hills!
--Call me TIDS.... We shall feast on the entrails of our enemies. (I have a really nice recipe goes great with smoked hamsters youll like it, I promise!)
Upon settling (t2), no time was lost to start producing multitudes of Quechuas. TIDS recalled from his vision that glowing green stones would be an absolute necessity to fulfill this destiny, and so decided that learning how to mine such things might just be a useful thing to know.
It did not take long for two demon spawn to seek us out. They called themselves Mansa Musa and Washington, but demon spawn by any name still smell like fire and brimstone (or will once we get thru withem, heh heh heh). Despite the fact that Tids living room has some poles that could be quite decorative if only some heads could be found to embellish them, it would be impolite to spoil the surprise we have in store for them, and so we offer peace. Our Q circles around for signs of their borders, and for signs of any other demonspawn. T13 another finds us, calling himself Saladin. We offer him the same deal as we have the others.
Oh yes Jesusin is still the same. Of course there is fodder for our wmds as we were led to hope, but there is also the only possible (vanilla) counter to our special little wmd units out there as well. This shall be the test, then.
Oh reckless Musa do not tempt the Immortal Dr Strangelove by putting unprotected workers in your outer ring. Such temptation is seen as an offering to The Bomb. Malinese workers are enslaved in t15, and due to a strange phenomenon known as vanilla game mechanics, the workers are sent out of harms way on the same turn. Which is very fortunate since two skirmishers are sent to dispatch our fearless Quechua. One dead Skirmisher for one dead Q and a free worker nice. However, one should not get cocky and think such a ratio of quechuas to skirmishers would hold if we were to attack fortified Malinese cities. No my children, there will be other ways to deal with this demonspawn. We shall make peace as soon as possible.
What tasks shall we set to our slaves? We shall set them to mining the forested PH, increasing its output and giving us a bonus. We shall mine the hill with deer, giving us the same with a food. We shall have them build a farm on a floodplain because we dont know how to do any other improvement just yet. Meanwhile we will learn how to make roads so that our wmds can reach the enemy quickly. Those Americans think they are safe with two archers.
Oh my children, we shall smite our enemies with the magic number 7. when we have 7 Quechas we shall show them destiny, and you shall question no longer The Immortal Doctor Strangeloves ability to pull this off.
As 7 Qs depart Cuzco headed south for America (leaving Cuzco momentarily empty for the next 3 turns) we see a Malinese chariot move to one space from Cuzco. Oh my children, as I warned you, there will be many trials required before we can prove our worthiness for the fulfillment of our destiny! A 7 Quecha stack jumps on the chariot, smiting them with no losses, gaining us approval from The Bomb in the form of two promotions. And although this delays our attack on Washington by two turns, my children, it opens the path to peace with that other demon spawn, Musa, which we accept. And it scares the crap out of us enticing us to be more careful in the future.
We are behind schedule now, and must beseech the Bomb for better fortune. We aimed to attack the demonspawn before 3000BC, but the loss of a Q to a wounded lion and the loss of our worker-stealing Q slowed us down by 8 turns, and then this near catastrophe with the chariot cost us another two. And then we must have wasted some more time along the way since it is t45 (2680BC) before the might of our wmds can prove the blessings of the Bomb and tie us to our destiny without any doubts. This attack yields us two American cities and two sets of worker slaves and eliminates one of the demonspawn, and shows you my children how blessed we are. Only two Qs were killed in the entire war and have since been replaced, and additional garrisons built as well. There is no turning back now.
Let us contemplate the situation now we are losing money at zero percent research, but anyhow raise the slider to use the bounty of our victory for improving our knowledge as we try to learn Your plan for us, oh Holy Bomb. Even though there is much black fog to the east, I am confident that the demonspawn called Saladin must lie to the West. How can I be sure? Well, the barbarians attack from the east and we havent met Saladins minions in a while indicating they are likely blocked by Musas borders which soon go unbroken north to south. But not soon enough for Saladin. We trust in the Bomb, and direct 7 Qs westward through a narrow corridor between Timbuktu and Goa, stopping only long enough to pillage all connecting roads just out of spite. The Bomb has not led us astray, as Saladins two cities are found.
Time for a parable, my children: Once there was a demonspawn named Saladin. He founded his first city in the desert because demonspawn are generally stupid, and are confused by invisible resources that only they can see, such as oil and the glowing stones of fire (aka uranium) we hope and pray. Being demonspawn, he is burdoned with an obsession this one has an obsession to develop and spread symbols of false gods. Being in the desert, he is unable to found any of the first two symbols and is thus obsessed to study only technology that will unlock the third such symbol, called Judaism, which he does. However, this means that he does not know how to fish the bounty of the sea, and is relegated to eating from one single 1F2H tile, every other tile he can work has no food. Just stone. And with this it is amazing that he is even able to found a second city at all. All of which he must forfeit to the followers of the Bomb. Let us not make a short story long Saladin eliminated by Qs (lost 2, killed 5 archers) on turn 90 (1260BC or about that). And the moral of the story, my children, is do not put any faith in these false symbols but use this continental monopoly on false symbols to lure the demonspawn into foolish behavior.
And thusly, as Judaism eventually spreads to Goa, Musa promptly adopts it, we do the same. We shall not spread this heathen drivel, but we shall use it against them, oh my children, and it shall be glorious indeed. The culture from the Judist HQ in Medina is greatly enhanced and prevents the creeping influence of Malinese infection.
Oh my children, we can build axe. We can smite the demonspawn Musa. But not yet. Musa is another foolish demonspawn with his own silly obsession he will trade technologies that only he knows, even with those he is not friendly with. And we share a religion and are gifting resources, my children, and we shall suck every last tech from his dried out carcass before we dispose of this unseemly creature! But first we must achieve alphabet while expanding and we shall conquer barbarians to add the east to our domains!
You children may ask Why must the people of New York starve? Do you not love us? Oh my children I love you very much. However our army does not work for free, and has even gone on strike. Those gold mines must be worked now to prevent disbanding of our forces. Later when we steal barbarian gold, we can return them to grow those floodplain cottages into something to be proud of. And speaking of which do not fear our present financial situation. The Bomb takes care of those who prepare. Cottage spam has filled the lands of the Inca, and since our lands are more extensive than anyone elses, our path to achieving our destiny is before us.
And the first two barbarians fall to the mighty Quechua, but alas the day of the Quechua is coming to a close. One barb axeman cuts a path through two of our most hardy Quechas to retake Harridan. Our own men with axes, no longer endowed with superpowers but with enough regular power to make up for it, retake Harridan. But our lesson is learned. From this day onward, no Quechua shall be built. We need not be sentimental about this. The Bomb shall provide.
Oh my children, the BC years are finished and we can look back on our glory. We have alphabet (and Mansa has almost everything else we might need to know!), and our trading orgy has begun. Our economy is back to 20% research, and libraries give us specialists who make that not matter too badly. We have 10 cities, and room for at least two more to the east. Mansa invented Christianity and converted, but the Bomb provided spontaneous spread to New York the next turn, and we rejected one set of false symbols and adopted another, to keep the demonspawn in Mali unknowing about our true intent. Barbarians keep founding cities for us to raze, keeping our coffers filled.
The future is bright my children. So bright you best learn how to make fallout shelters.
Let us pray: (Warning, do not read if you are sensitive to blasphemy and/or infantile Swedish humor)
Spoiler:
Our Bomb, who art of uranium, hallowed be thy glow.
Thy fallout come, thy destruction be done,
On earth as it is in Armageddon.
Give us this day our mushroom cloud,
And forgive us our REXcesses,
As we punish those who REX against us.
Amen.
Just the facts, ma'am:
Spoiler:
----------------------------------
Settled PH 2N1W
Worked Forest PH (no growth)
Build Quechua x 12 (5 turns each) until barracks (completed t56)
10 Rivals remaining???
Research mining(t13)>BW(t38)>wheel(t57)>pottery(t83)>writing(t142)/Fishing (t106)>hunting(t146)>alphabet(t164)>sailing(5 turns)
By trade t167: Med + Poly + AH for alphabet.
Turn 3 meet American and Malinese.
Turn 13 meet Arabs.
Turn 15 worker steal Mali, in defense kill 1 skirmisjer, die by second. Worker escapes (Vanilla game mechanics).
Turn 16 Q dies attacking wounded lion.
T38 caught with pants down Q kills Mali chariot outside undefended capitol. (Cover/city raider)
T39 peace with Mali.
T45 (2680BC) DOW America (7Qs attack)
T47, kill 2 archers lose 1 Q (cover/city raider), capture Washington.
T51 higher promoted Qs go 3 for 3 against American archers, capture New York, Death to USA!
T83 Found city Tiwanaku.
T84 (1510BC) DOW Arabia.
T86 Judaism founded in Medina; medina captured by TIDS. Kill 3 archers; Losses, none.
T90 Judaism spreads to Mecca, Mecca captured. Kill 2 archers, losses 2 Q. Arabian Empire eiminated.
T91 Convert to Judaism to prevent Malinese culture sprawl in Arabia.
T121 Qs capture Hurrian (barb) kill 2 archers losses 2 Q.
T128 Judiasm spread (spontaneously) to Goa Mali converts to Judaism.
T131 Ligurian (barb) captured, no losses.
T137 Q loses to barb axemen the axemen are coming.
T138 Hurrian lost to wounded axeman.
T139 Hurrian captured by INcan axe.
T152 Hun razed
T158 Rumors have it Another civilization eliminated?
T159 Mali founds Christianity.
T162 Mali converts to Christianity
T164 Christianity spreads to New York.
T165 Inca convert to Christianity.
Settled on the plains hill N NW and worked the 3 hammer forest while pumping Qs. Took two American cities destroying that civ. Marched the stack to the west and took two Arabian cities destroying that civ. Went into expansion mode and tried to get a good share of the land. I have 10 cities and a collapsed economy. The economy is on the mend, but it will take some time. I'm not in danger of attack from Mali based on my scouting, but they are ahead in techs. I'm choosing techs to maximize trade. My cities are generally functional and diverse. One city is an armory and mostly building units. One city is filled with gold with enough farms to allow them to be worked and cottaged up for the rest. One city can be a GP factory or a financial city. One high production city is on the coast and will build naval units when that time comes. In addition to the armory, 3 cities have barracks and production to build the army I'll need to take the 2 Mali cities in the east and 2 Mali cities in the southwest that I covet. I'll probably raze the rest of the Mali civ. I'm playing the adventurer save, so there isn't quite as much doubt about making that happen.
Will have to edit my notes tonight because they go up to 500 AD. Quick synopsis:
Settled 2N1W for early rush. Didn't like the looks of all that tundra and being 1 off the coast so moved back to the 2N position. The cows are coming home, baby!
Met Mansa, Washington and Saladin. Found Mali and USA right next to each other in the SW about 10 tiles away from my capital.
Attacked Washington with 6 quechuas just as he moved off to settle NY by the ivory. (I think he was actually headed for that big flood plain-gold hill site, but Mansa beat him to it. Glad to see it isn't just me that happens to.)
Defeated Americans prior to 2000 BC, just when the human barbs were begining to show up. My scouting quechua spent a lot of that time looking for Saladin in the E (that was where his scout came from, but couldn't find him.) So I bit the bullet and attacked Mansa.
Bad move.
Didn't take his capital even with a ratio of 9 quechuas to his 3 skirmishers. In fact, he didn't even lose a man, which surprised me. Tried again with even more quechuas with the same result. Now his skirmishers were all promoted to CG2, so it was pretty much hopeless. Quechua rush is officially over.
Even more frustrating was the fact that copper was just outside of my cultural borders (both at Cuzco and at Wash DC) and it would be more than 100 turns before the border popped again, so I trained a settler and put a city in the far frozen north getting crabb and copper and lots of tundra. Re-attacked with an army of axement and took Mansa's flood-gold city, and eventually his capital (but I think that may have been after 1 AD.) Also razed a city that he tried to sneak past me into the undevelopped East. He has about 7 cities and it is very slow going tracking them all down with my plodding axemen. I have totally plundered his region, but he somehow manages to keep ahead of me in Tech and units. He still won't surrender without me giving up a city, so this is going to be a long, long war.
It doesn't help that my economy keeps tanking due to all the unhappiness and the consequent slow growth of my cities. Also, the city maintenance is huge due to that vast desert to the S of my capital. I don't think I have ever played a game where the Unit Cost and Unit Supply were such critical costs.
Summary: Quechua rush worked great against Washington, but Mansa's skirmishers are an absolute nightmare. Still, I have a vast untamed Eastern region that I can expand into, so prospects for medieval surge are good, if I can ever get Mansa to accept a Peace Treaty.
Some very interesting choices to be made for sure!
From my notes.....
Quecha scout west>Settle on Wine T0....Quecha scouts big circle anti-clockwise.
Research Mining>Wheel>Pottery>BW>
Build Quecha*5 while growing to size 3> then 1 more!... send 6 Quechas towards Washington
DOW Washington 2800BC, Capture Washington in 2740BC, Capture New York(Hindu Holy city) in 2560BC, RIP George!
Research >Fishing>AH>Writing>Alphabet>
City #4 Founded 3E of Cuzco in 1630BC
City #5 Founded NE of Washington in 955BC(Copper)
I decided to not attack Musa because he techs and trades, and there was a bunch of decent land to the east to settle. The barbs placed a couple cities in decent spots, so that helped also. At 5AD I had just captured the last of 2 barb cities and I was trying to get my economy back on track for an early OxU and push to Liberalism.
Stats at 5AD that are not clear from the screenshots....
Science sustainable at 30% making 33 raw B/t.
Only 5 cottages working, 1 of those stolen from Musa capitol, but we are getting ready to cottage Cuzco heavily!
The screen shots tell the rest of the story!
Well, I could certainly tell that kcd_swede enjoyed this gotm !
That write-up should get some kind of an award...
Good job!
There was a LOT of thought and work put into that write-up, and I can only say it shows that you either (1) Really enjoyed this one, or maybe... considering your new QM/EQM, and other lesser accomplishments, (2) that maybe your family left you and you have 'way too much time on your hands.'
My approach to this gotm was to say, 1. Fracin' tal map? 2. Nine (or ten) rivals? 3. Means a lot of soccorMom ferrying the troops around from skirmish to skirmish, at which I am not great. 3. Mansa? Skirmishers? ugh. But, however, {silver lining}, ol' M&Ms would make a GREAT trading partner if I keep him alive. 4. Of course it follows that I'd have to save Sally, since M&Ms wouldn't give me the time of day without another AI to trade with.
SO, after I had rushed Washington (no barracks, just took him out with the Q's), I made the decision to stop and become Mr. Nice Guy.
Then I REX'd eastward, greatly underestimating the size of this fracin' island. In fact, I had nine cities by 1 AD. So, nine being the number of the cultural warrior, and Jesusin being the Gawd of the cultural warrior, and that being a fun thing to do, I would just head down that road... maybe I was a little bit late, (euphimism for 'wrong' )
I.e., HC didn't have great cottageable land, he had absolutely ZERo early religions (and his two remaining neighbors also had NO religions, and I could go on, because this doesn't seem to be the ideal set up for a cultural vc.
The stats in the spoiler below tell the whole story [first number is 1ooo BC and second is -O- AD]. I did get Taoism by 1 AD, had one GS for academy in capital, and had five axemen (speak softly, but you better have a big stick too...). Of my 9 cities, 2 were Barb liberations.
Spoiler:
Game GoTM 43
Civ HC
Traits Financial
Aggressive
Rivals 9 Ais
Difficulty level Adventurer Monarch
Map Fracin' Tal
Map size Normal
Climate Arid
Sea Level High
Starting Era Ancient
Speed Epic
Options
Vic Conditions All
Start 1000 BC -- O -- AD
Cities Five Nine
Population 11 41
Workers Three Six
x/x Units (best, all others) 9/9 5/14
Best Unit Type Quechua Axemen
Horses No Yes
Copper Not hooked Yes
Iron No I/W Yes
Stone No No
Marble Not hooked Yes
Luxury Resources Gold Yes
Health Resources Cows Yes
# Great Persons 0 (114/15o) GS/Acad
# World Wonder none none
# National Wonders none none
Commerce 18 65
Production 21 64
Food 32 111
# Sustainable Beakers per turn 23 113
# Culture per Turn 9 cpt 17/16/5
# Great Person Points per turn 3 6 to 9
Gold 5 139
# Religions none Taoism
#/# Cottages Used 1/1 1o/1o
# Civs Killed Washing one same
2 barb cities
Time Played
(leave game running all time) 2:13 4:5o
Academy Date n/a 835 BC
Alphabet Date 154o BC same
Civil Service Date researching
Liberalism Date
Oxford Date
Astronomy Date
Biology Date
Build Order/Buildings Quechuas
Techs Alpha Alpha
Writing Phiosophy
AH Drama
Hunt Math
PH CoLaws
Poly Monarchy
Mason Mono
BW I W
Units killed/lost Barb = 6 16
Wash = 5 5
Wrkrs capt 3 3
Victory Type & Date ??????
Well, I could certainly tell that kcd_swede enjoyed this gotm !
That write-up should get some kind of an award...
My approach to this gotm was to say, 1. Fracin' tal map? 2. Nine (or ten) rivals? 3. Means a lot of soccorMom ferrying the troops around from skirmish to skirmish, at which I am not great. 3. Mansa? Skirmishers? ugh. But, however, {silver lining}, ol' M&Ms would make a GREAT trading partner if I keep him alive. 4. Of course it follows that I'd have to save Sally, since M&Ms wouldn't give me the time of day without another AI to trade with.
Adama
No awards are sought... faithful service to The Bomb is reward enough for me. No pressure to win, either.
As for #4 above, not true. Mansa not only has the highest number of techs he will trade before deciding "We fear you are becoming to advanced", he is the ONLY ai in Vanilla or BtS that will trade monopoly techs. Imagine that... the only one you can't kill is the only one you might want to keep without another around. I think the almighty game designer has thought carfully about the implications...
I gaze with envy on your technological progress at 1AD. I suppose the lesson for me is that just because you can do a thing (Quecha proliferation) does not mean you necessarily should do it. But oh my children, the fun you are missing...
Now I impatiently await the weekend where I should have time to fullfil the apocolyptical orgasm (metaphorically speaking ).
Settled on the plains hill next to the lake, as I didnt want to give up fresh water. An added bonus was the ocean access. Started building Quechas, and researching Hunting->AH then mining->BW.
Found MM and GW. Decided the later would be the first target, and concentrated my strike force. Lost one to a lion when trying to get enough xp for a cover promotion. declared on GW to capture two workers, beat up a couple of archers in the open, and then took New York (elephants + stone) and Washington for no loss. Had not yet found Saladin, and Djenne occupied the gold/fp site. Switched to barracks with the intention of chopping it out, and then noticed I was still 6 turns away from BW...
Then it all started falling apart. Upkeep costs were dragging, and the wine was the only tile that generated more than 1gpt. My rapidly expanding quecha force was costing too much gold and pottery was too far away. So I went for fishing->wheel->pottery, and started working lots of sea squares and disbanding units. Took a diversion to masonry because I thought with access to stone I could put my excess production towards a wonder, but missed the pyramids, and took too long to get sailing for the GLh. Built a couple of settlers simply to avoid wasting hammers on quechas only to disband them. Lost several units scouting west to find Saladin, with no success.
Did manage Stonehenge. Eventually pottery came in, and I started cottaging. Built a library in Washington and ran scientists, and I gradually recovered towards alphabet. Built a copper/marble/fish city to the east, intending to axe rush mali, but couldn't keep the copper free from barbs for long enough.
Did manage a couple of coups though. Built the Great Library and the Colossus, and managed to pop Theo with a GP and a trade for priesthood (took a couple of turns of doing nothing with the priest until I had something to trade with, then bang ), so founded Christianity and it spread quickly for an extra point of happiness.
So by 1AD I am trailing MM but ahead of Saladin. Three barb cities occupy the eastern end of the continent, so my new swordsmen are going to take them for XP, perhaps before a strike for Djenne (culturally starving NY) and Timbuckto. Problem is I am starting to trail in techs, and I suspect we are a backward island. Cant help but wonder what would have happened if I had fishing earlier, avoiding some of the long economic stagnation .
Noob Hear, Second time writing this as I hit something to make it vanish before posting. Will try again, Swede's comments are very entertaining and show a level of calm and assurance I don't yet possess' At 60+ and fairly new to CIV I have been following the "Geezers" in the SGOTMs and find their style appealing. They are unlike a couple teams in that competition who have members that do nothing but rip their supposed teammates a new ** every time they make a move they didn't approve of! Sorry I digress. This is my first attempt at immortal and followed the pre-play with interest. Knowing I had nothing to lose I moved to the plains hill 2n1w and started building chequas. -Non stop-I mean non stop, I think 15. My first went East and in 20 turns or so was killed by barbs. Second went west. After 15 turns NOTHING. I remember someone saying that if you didn't have someone in sight within 10 tiles forget a rush-OK- THEN #3 cheque stayed at home , #4,5 went south and south east. Presto! Wash & Mali. Immediately sent eastern explore back to Mali an Noobie luck showed me 3 workers. 1 Mali, 2 Washy, and I had 3 Chequas a tile away. I have never declared on 2 Civs the same move before, but 3 workers were irresistible. I continued pumping Cheques at Washington and took both his cities. I declared peace with Mali while my culture allowed me to hook up the northern copper. I think the lucky loss of the pyrimids WITH ONE TURN TO GO even while chopping 3 forests was key to my future success. 600 gold and a 0 slider let me upgrade10+ heavily promoted Cechas to axemen. I redeclared on Mansa and chased his boney tail through I think 7 cities until he decided to become extinct. That is where I am at 50 AD. 20% research but should leap. Only thing in the way is Sally but I need to catch my breath. How is that for a cocky Noob! :>)
WOW. Thanks KCD for the amazing story telling... that was certainly enjoyable
Similar approach to most people here. Settled 2N...
Except I choose to work the FP first while building first Q, get to a level 2 city simultaneously upon completion of my first Q and then start a worker. The Q's are sent searching for lonely workers... damn. all protected by skirms or two archers. Oh well at this point my worker is built and Cuzco is approaching size 3. The plan: get to size three and work a farmed FP and the (now mined) deer hill and other mined plains hill providing 10h/turn... lots of Q's fast. 2080AD I took NY from the americans and on the same turn also caught a lonely archer protecting a settler looking to make another city so I also wiped him on with the POWER OF Q!!
Washington DC falls quickly after. Realize that copper is just out of reach of DC so I build a quick settler to found near copper... also creating a bit of a culture wall preventing anyone to settle to the east.. as I never sign open borders before 1AD.
1690 - economy is crippled. Had to lower the slider to around 10-20% while studying priesthood to build the Oracle for Alphabet... missed it by about 10 turns. Ecomony really struggled while researching writing to get those all so important libraries to use a scientist reseach economy for a while. Ended up still being first the alpha (out of those I know)... and got some key techs from MM and Saladin before reinstigating war.
Well. Met Saladin but sure as hell was not gonna waste my time wandering around trying to find him... and the skirms are sure to prove troublesome. The result:A Hybrid Approach.
The 'pure' Q rush is needs adjustment, however with a team effort I found them to be quite successful against the skirms (coupled with 1 or 2 axemen per attack) The approach was as follows - attack first with the axemen to get the skirms to around 2.5 or 3.0 health... then send in the Qs and they quickly wipe out the skirms. Paired in tandem it was quite succesful without really using too many units.
700BC Djienne captured.
625BC Walata razed.
500BC Timbuktu captured. 8 turns from alphabet so finish that off before making peace.
MM was lame... only game my fishing for peace in 370 - but that tech was crucial for much needed science in DC.
AT 1AD 7 Cities. Have yet to go east though... saving that for a little later when my economy is stronger... no chance of either the remaining MM or saladin of getting there without open borders. Researching construction for another war with MM soon.
What is my approach.. not sure... thinking space race right now as it looks like it is only us three left on this landmass and once they are gone I can focus on my peaceful search for the skies?? Or maybe domination for a high score??
I definitely went for the barracks in this one... with Combat1 promo (given) and the 25% against archers.. the odds were 62.3% against a fortified archer in the city... much less without the +25% against archers... just chopped the barracks while growing Cuzco to size 3.
How did you find the Qs without the anti-archer promo?? Did you use 2 per archer?
After test games, it seemed that an all out rush taking down 2-3 opponents would crash the economy. So the plan was for a small, delayed Quechua rush, after constructing barracks and improving cows+hills. Wonders: If stone was around and convenient, I would go for the pyramids. This would allow me to keep more cities early on, without killing my economy.
As I commented in the forums, settling on the PH seemed to be bad for health in the long term, so I settled 1 NW to remove a few FPs from my fat cross. The PH deer was now in the capital's FC, which was a good added incentive My tentative build order was
Quechua(grow to pop 3) -> Worker(if steal not possible) -> Barracks -> Quechua* (until 1 civ is taken out)
The initial Quechua moved South, finding Washington, Mansa. MM was nice enough to offer a worker on forested hill, so we do the steal. Unfortunately, he attacks with 2 skirms and kills the Quechua - still a good sacrifice. Worker comes home, improves cows, deer, mines. Tech order: AH(for cows)->Hunting(for deer)->Mining->Wheel(roads, faster attack)
Spoiler:
3070 BC: Barracks completed. 11+ hammers a turn once worker finishes mines. Next turn, MM signs peace treaty.
2380 BC: American empire has been eliminated. I keep both their cities - New York which is on the flood plain river SW of capital and has 3 gold, 1 ivory, 1 cow in its fat cross and Washington. NY seems to be a swell city (except for the lack of health) and should be a great contributor to research. Unfortunately, stone is out of its fat-cross, so good bye pyramids.
Decision point: With the campaign having gone so well and a few cover+CR1 Quechuas should I also DOW Mansa?
Pros:
Gets me another good city or two.
Takes out MM early - with his Financial trait he could be a pain later on.
Cons:
MM is a good tech trading partner - my only other contact is Arabia who seem to be quite backward.
I seem to have room to expand in the East, so no worries that MM will crowd me out.
I already have good cities so I should be able to keep up tech with MM.
MM has just switched to slavery and although I don't think he has metal (no way to tell since I don't have BW myself), even 1-2 axes/spears means end of campaign. Not to mention the skirms, which are tougher than the archers.
So I decide not to DOW him. I switch tech to Pottery to get my economy up and running. Tech order after Wheel: Pottery->Bronze Working->Fishing->Writing->Alphabet. Unfortunate that neither MM nor Arabia found any of the early religions for added happiness. I send 2 Quechuas in opposite directions to explore. Arabs seem to have extremely poor territory, especially the capital which is smack in the middle of a desert. Good decision (in hindsight) not to DOW Mali as I would've had to tech alone. It seems the barbarians have got themselves a nice setup with 3 cities in the eastern half of the continent. Saves me the work of building settlers, I say to myself
Spoiler:
1330 BC: I found Tiwanaku SE of the capital. Lots of hills, 2 FPs, 1 wheat, 1 cow. Should be a great production city along with capital for future wars.
790 BC: Alphabet learned. I give Writing to Saladin for Masonry.
760 BC: Machu Picchu founded East of the capital on the coast. Gets fish, copper, marble in its FC. Marble should help build the GLib and speed up research. I trade Alphabet for Iron Working, Archery from Saladin. Mansa is annoyed and won't trade. So I gift him Alphabet and loosen him up a bit.
670 BC: Learn Math. Trade it around for Poly+Sailing. Set tech to Lit, which should complete in 4 turns.
~ 400 BC: Mansa wants Lit and is ready to give lots of gold. Since I'm only 2 turns from completing the GLib I take the risk. I complete the GLib successfully in 400 BC . Learn Currency. Economy doing very well. Trade around for Monarchy, Priesthood. Set tech to CoL+CS. Take over a barb city SE of Tiwanaku which has Sheep+Horses+Clam. Switch civics to HR.
~ 300 BC: Learn CoL. Great Scientist builds academy in Cuzco.
~150 BC: Capture Barb city on the east coast just above the gold. Learn Civil Service. Switch to Bureaucracy. Trade around for Meditation, Calendar, Construction. Going for Engineering and preparing for a war on MM.
< 0 AD: Finish Metal Casting and a few turns from Machinery. Heroic Epic completed in Tiwanaku
At 0 AD Saladin is very backwards, but MM and I are very close in score. So of course, I'm confident of taking him out easily , especially since I have elephants which he doesn't and some great production in the capital and Tiwanaku (with Heroic epic).
I settled on the 2N plains hill and began building my Quecha horde.
Found the USA 1st and took Washington easily.
Mali, not surprisingly, proved a tougher nut to crack. I took Djenne (a floodplain x3 gold city) after reinforcing the stack that attacked Washington. I started to build a monument as I needed a border pop top work some goldmines and my economy was nonexistent. I moved my Quechas towards Timbuktu (they had no other cities) and began laying siege as more reinforcements arrived. I expect to take the city in about 10 turns.
Then disaster! I was not thinking and foolishly neglected to pillage the horse pasture. Mali has a chariot and it just ate a Quecha. I manage to pillage the horses but lose several more Quechas in the process. I breath a sigh of relief as their chariot dies, but then I see that they previously built a second chariot - and it managed to sneak up next to Djenne.
I lose the city and now have a mele promoted chariot to deal with. 6 Quechas (yes 6 died all attacking one chariot) later I retake Djenne. I then raise a 3rd city they built in the desert to the west. And then I lay siege to Timbuktu again. With 10 Quechas I attack their 3 skirmishers - after losing 5 and killing none (in fact only damaging 2 of them) I hold off and wait for more reinforcements. I eventually take the city with 18 Quechas - and then just barley. In fact 17 of those Quechas died in the assault.
At this point it is nearly 1AD and I have only research hunting, and AH. The wheel is just a few turns away however!
I do tech up quite quickly though once I can build cottages and by 500AD I am on track to have the largest commerce rate. That said, my legacy of backwardness leaves me far behind. So I will be playing catch up for a while.
If I had taken Timbuktu the 1st time around (I think it was like 2500BC-rather than 50BC) this would have made a fun cultural game especially with the cottage/gold powerhouse Djenne. Instead I am thinking either space or conquest/dom. But before I can do either of those I will need to grow my economy a lot.
After last months game the dirth of barbarians was a bit amusing.
As you will easily work out I'm new to GOTM. So first of all, good day to you civ maniacs and hat off to what you've created here.
Reading your entries I gather that my game is very different to what most of you play
(which I find worrying since you all seem to be d*mn good ). In the first place I play the adventurer save, because monarch is a difficulty that I feel comfortable with.
To the point, anyway. I settled 2N, and started on a Q, but switched to a worker after population growth. My wandering Q stumbled upon an American scout and killed him (well, ok, I now realize I could have had a worker instead...) Since I can't play rushes I built a settler after just 2 Qs and planted Tiwanaku sharing one tile (cows) with the capital. In the meantime, my Q managed to steal a worker from the Americans anyway, then he just stood 2N of Washington forever. AI was continuously building and sending a lonely archer to kill me off. Need I say that didn't work out? Finally I took Washington with 9 Qs. Meanwhile all I did about Mansa Musa was to watch if he had any units other than Skirmisher which he did not for centuries.
Here the narration breaks up - as a rookie I didn't think about making notes. Two things that I think matter b4 I present 1AD situation. Somewhen in BC years (edit: 685 BC) I founded Confucianism by research (whoever built the Oracle didn't get CoL) and built Great Library (edit: 115BC) in Cuzco.
1AD (5AD?)
As I said, I seem to be playing a diffferent game. I've got 5 (five) cities compared to 10 frequently mentioned and I deliberately delay more couse I plan to take Mansa Musa on. I sustain 70% research with a slight gpt surplus. This is mainly due to 5(?) village tiles in Cuzco/Tiwanaku, more immature cottage forms elsewhere, and some water tiles I'm working. Also, I've got courthouses in all cities and rather thin military, but I'm building units now, I've got some axes/spears/swords on Mansa's border waiting for cats and elephants to join. I'm confident of taking one city I want to keep in the first turn of war, and taking his iron supply in the second. Can't hope to reduce him to skirmishers though, as he's a follower of Saladin's Judaism, and I'm sure Arabia will at the very least trade him some metal. I'm not quite sure what I want from this war yet. One objective is clear: 4 out of 5 of my cities are coastal. 3 cities I'm planning on in the east will be coastal, and Timbuktu has Great Lighthouse (and is situated on the coast either ). I really need this one.
It has been mentioned that MM is of great value as a trade partner - I'm afraid I failed to benefit from that at all. I didn't want to share CoL, I had to protect Great Library techs (Alphabet, Literature), and he knows pretty much everything else. Moreover, Saladin wouldn't trade with me, so Mansa would have had a better deal anyway trading me and than selling stuff to Arabia. I think I may have to try and take them all out.
Anyway, your notes make really good reading guys, can't wait to allow myself to the final spoiler whatever my result will be.
As for 'delayed rush' - it is a self-contradictory term, isn't it?
As I mentioned in the pre-game thread, I decided to take a slightly different approach from the masses and instead of going 2N/NW I walked southward with the settler, hoping to settle closer to the enemy. After meeting George, I ended up settling @t2, 3S4E of starting location, on a PH with lots of hills, wheat and sheep in BFC. Mediocre city, but should be enough for its job - pump quechuas @4hpt (working a plains forest). My initial tech was wheel (roads!).
As soon as 1st Q was done, I met MM. Skirmishers meant I'd need a barracks ASAP - unpromoted Q's wouldn't do the trick. So I did it. The 1st built Q must have been so nervous he'd be the only unpromoted guy in our army that he lost his 1st battle to a lion, defending at ~88% odds of winning!:suicide:
I did not let this setback change my plans and proceeded to take George's Washington, eliminating him in 2680BC (t44). Now who's next in line? I know Sal is the house, but no idea of where he's hiding. Tough luck, Mansa! Skirmisher or not, here comes the Q's! In 2290BC (t57), 6Q vs 2Sk= Timbuktu is now Inca. I did not face chariots, even if his horses were connected the turn I took his capital. Next is Djenne, gold/FP heaven and 1 defender: it falls in 2050BC (t65). But the guy refuses to die. Time to take a ceasefire while we search for his last city. It was further NW, close to gold(x2), horses, stone. Again, in 1390BC (t87), 6Q's vs 2Sk and Kumbi is ours and Mansa is out.
Time to regroup and rebuild. Luckily, after Min/BW I went fishing as I had to work unimproved coast tiles (1f3c) to finance the research of pottery. From then on it was a matter of cottage-spamming, working gold tiles and razing a barb city here and there to keep finances afloat. Hunting/AH as worker techs; Sailing/Writing to get trade routes with Sal; Poly/PH/Monarchy for HR ; Math/Currency/CoL (3t away from finishing it) for the economy. Not sure about next step, CS would be nice but I'm inclined to go Masonry/Construction for...you know what
Main stats at 5AD: 10 cities; pop=49; =65; =182; =113; =95; =0, 1st GS on its way, 111/150.
Screenies (map and F1 stats)
I'm having lots of fun with this game so far, thanks jesusin!
Contender, Cruising for an isolated cultural victory
3970 settled 2 N
3670 Cuzco finishes: Barracks
3550 Tech learned: The Wheel
3250 Tech learned: Hunting
3190 capture worker from Mansa
3130 capture worker from Washington
2980 Captured Washington & keeping it; Americans eliminated
2890 peace with Mansa
2740 Tech learned: Animal Husbandry (probably not the optimal tech)
2560 Captured Timbuktu & keeping it; heavy losses, skirting disaster
2350 I manage to defeat Mansa's only chariot
2320 Tech learned: Mining (big mistake, now my economy tanked completely and it took me forever to research Fishing after this)
2170 Captured Djenne & keeping it; Malinese eliminated
1510 Washington finishes: Stonehenge (my goal had been to get the money, but in the end I decided against delaying this wonder)
1420 Captured barbarian city Zapotec with chariots, keeping it.
Tech learned: Fishing (finally!)
1240 Tech learned: Pottery (now watch out, here I come)
1180 war on Arabia with chariots
1150 Captured Medina & keeping it; Razed Damascus (automatic)
(sometime around here, someone finishes Oracle; I was hoping for a slingshot, now I switch to the plan of trying to get to CoL first and taking CS with a Great Prophet)
0925 Tech learned: Writing
0880 Tech learned: Meditation
0820 Captured Mecca, Arabia eliminated; Tech learned: Priesthood
0655 Tech learned: Code of Laws, Confucianism founded in Timbuktu
0610 Tech learned: Bronze Working (very pleased with myself, delaying that so long; production was not an issue on this map)
Razed barbarian city Uzbek
0520 Tech learned: Polytheism
0505 City of Tiwanaku founded (furs, marble)
0370 Moses (Great Prophet) born in Washington from Stonehenge + temple
0355 Tech learned: Mathematics
0340 Capital moved to fabulous Djenne, aka the golden city
0295 Tech learned: Civil Service, with a little help from Moses
0280 Civics Change to Bureaucracy
0250 Religion Change to Confucianism
0040 Tech learned: Philosophy, Taoism founded in Zapotec
0025 Tech learned: Masonry
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Jesusin
In hoc signo vinces! 
Jesusin
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
) 
).
), so founded Christianity and it spread quickly for an extra point of happiness.
.
After meeting George, I ended up settling @t2, 3S4E of starting location, on a PH with lots of hills, wheat and sheep in BFC. Mediocre city, but should be enough for its job - pump quechuas @4hpt (working a plains forest). My initial tech was wheel (roads!). 
In 2290BC (t57), 6Q vs 2Sk= Timbuktu is now Inca. I did not face chariots, even if his horses were connected the turn I took his capital. Next is Djenne, gold/FP heaven and 1 defender: it falls in 2050BC (t65). But the guy refuses to die. Time to take a ceasefire while we search for his last city. It was further NW, close to gold(x2), horses, stone. Again, in 1390BC (t87), 6Q's vs 2Sk and Kumbi is ours and Mansa is out.
=65; 
=182; 
=113; 
=95; 
=0, 1st GS on its way, 111/150.
