NC VIII - De Gaulle!

[VoiceOfUnreason]

@Bandobras Took: Tag, you're it.

Spoiler :

I also agree with Lyons (I think I mentioned in my post that it wasn't that great a position). I'm unused to charismatic leaders with their extra happiness and Stonehenge with its extra happiness

Two points

(1) This is elementary opening planning - reviewing your imbalances.
(2) I fell into exactly the same kind of trap (what's my happy cap?! wait, what level did I set this for?), and actually wasted turns sending the settler down the river before I realized my error.

With Rheims, it was a different question. I wanted some sort of buffer area between Darius and my wonder-rich capital, and I further wanted something on a hill for better defense. That city was for no other purpose than to blunt his expansion and provide a target for him should he declare on me.

10 points for having a reason... but your game will probably be stronger for evaluating the other alternatives you had at that point (even if you eventually reach the conclusion that you are happy with that choice).

 

[Bandobras Took]

Prince/Normal Turn 233

Spoiler :

Not much to say or report. My third great spy became a Scotland Yard, I got a Great Scientist and two more Great Prophets.

I wiped out Persia. The settled Great Spies allowed me to revolt a couple of cities early on. On the other hand, he had settled on the iron on the far west, which meant I couldn't pillage him. Nevertheless, he couldn't match my production (Paris was churning out a CR2 Maceman every turn). I switched to Theocracy after five turns (hits self on forehead repeatedly for not doing it with Bureaucracy). In the end, I was building strictly Knights and Catapults. I ended up only keeping four of Persia's cities. The rest were marginal. I also settled near the northeastern fish to get a small little cottage city going. I nabbed the Taj Mahal, that helped greatly with the war effort.

I'm now working on getting the Persian cities up to scratch. It looks like Rifling's just around the corner for everybody, so this might be a time to sit tight and really focus on research and infrastructure until another opportunity presents itself.

 

[CivCorpse]

I hate you all. I am in a Wonderholic recovery plan and you post a game with an Industrious leader with stone in the BFC? You have no souls. I could not resist.
Monarch/epic 4000bc to 55 AD

Spoiler :

I scooted warrior to the SE and didn't see anything special so i settled on top of the stone. That put pigs and deer in the BFC. Food was a concern with settling in place but not now. I alternated between building Stonehenge-> settler->great wall-> settler->settler-> mids->settler->settler->HG-> settler with granary/barracks/library/colosseum/aquaduct mixed in. I also took a barb city
First two GP's were prophets which saved me and kept me rexxing. I built mucho libraies so I can run scientists in every city. And popped a GS for an academy in paris.
Financially I am a wreck. I am bleeding cash. i have 113gold from taking the barb city and from running science at 0% for like ten turns for 4gpt before I settled the 7th city and added the barb city which dropped me to -7gpy at 0%. Though I am 3 turns from currency which will let me build wealth somewhere to keep me out of strike. Darius and sury both have 8 cities as well. Darius however is right next door and has a holy city....not for long though. Everyone else has 4-5 cities but williem but he is too far away. Darius does not have math or HBR so I am going to send the circuc his way. I have little commerce but great production. So the trained circus elephants are going to visit him. Then poor hannibal...etc etc etc. it is quite possible i will never use my UB or UU. If i add Darius 8 cities to my 8 that will be just too much for anyone to handle.

 

[KaytieKat]

...I would expect reasonably skilled players to have a fairly easy time of this game, since the start and surrounding territory are pretty strong. However, believe it or not, there are players out there who will struggle at Prince and Monarch, even with a lopsided start like this one....

And then REALLY sucky players like me who cant even win a start like this on noble

900 ad noble, marathon

Spoiler :

I honestly have NOO idea whats going wrong. I feel I SHOULD be at a better comfy level. I just finished taking out Darius, I completed coliseum quest for a golden age, everybody is buddhist except for elizabeth who is vassal of Sullie, except for sullie who is at cautious with me I have great relations with everybody else I am at friendly with hanibal and sury and pleased with willy. I am number one in pop, number one in score (barely), number one in land, and number one in power.

So what is going wrong? Well my economy is tanking BIG time. So my science is at a crawl. Guilds is like 47 turns away and the other ai's already have guilds, enginereering, and gunpowder and are closing in on chem in like under 20 turns.

The gap is soooooo wide by time I get my econmy all settled all those financial leaders who ALREADY have guilds will be in industrial era.

Sulie and Elizabeth are at war with Sury and I MIGHT be able to jump on Lizzy since sury is for most part waaay on other side of map. But I cant afford cities I have now and if I wait until I can window will be over by then I am pretty sure. I COULD just raise everything in sight but that would just leave space for willy and hanibal and sury to setlle and they are already getting big and strong.

Plus taking out liz would have even bigger problems. Buddhist AP is up and running with willy and me the candidates and even though I have largest SINGLE voting block all the others voted for willy even Hanibal and Sury who are pleased with me. So taking out lone non buddhist civ would open diplo win vote which I would lose.

Only other option I see is just foget teaching altogether and TRY and make big push on willy but even that doesnt seem likely. I would be going in with ellies and cats and maces and maybe crossbows and horseys but he will have pikes for the elles, muskets and knights, crossbows, longbows, maces and trebs pluss most of his cities would be castleded by time I get to his core cities.

And even THEN its still same deal as wilth war on liz. I cant afford anymore cities and raising em just leaves room other AI's.

It just feels like if I turtle I will lose and if I try to expand out I will lose.

Like I said I am leading in most of th eimporting categories but now JUST barely and the leads are fading fast and not usre what I can do. even wonderwhoring out since wonders are being built now by other civs while I am still two techs away from even having chance at em. I dont have commerce to compete with the financial civs.

BUT they have all the stone and marble and other stuff they need so that and tech lead pretty much negating my industrious advantage. I am not sure if I should just restart or keep going and see if I can pull it out or what.

Kaytie

 

[schwartz]

kaytie:
can you put up a save? someone will be able to give you advice on the situation, i'm sure.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

And then REALLY sucky players like me who cant even win a start like this on noble

900 ad noble, marathon

Spoiler :

I honestly have NOO idea whats going wrong. I feel I SHOULD be at a better comfy level. I just finished taking out Darius, I completed coliseum quest for a golden age, everybody is buddhist except for elizabeth who is vassal of Sullie, except for sullie who is at cautious with me I have great relations with everybody else I am at friendly with hanibal and sury and pleased with willy. I am number one in pop, number one in score (barely), number one in land, and number one in power.

So what is going wrong? Well my economy is tanking BIG time. So my science is at a crawl. Guilds is like 47 turns away and the other ai's already have guilds, enginereering, and gunpowder and are closing in on chem in like under 20 turns.

The gap is soooooo wide by time I get my econmy all settled all those financial leaders who ALREADY have guilds will be in industrial era.

Sulie and Elizabeth are at war with Sury and I MIGHT be able to jump on Lizzy since sury is for most part waaay on other side of map. But I cant afford cities I have now and if I wait until I can window will be over by then I am pretty sure. I COULD just raise everything in sight but that would just leave space for willy and hanibal and sury to setlle and they are already getting big and strong.

Plus taking out liz would have even bigger problems. Buddhist AP is up and running with willy and me the candidates and even though I have largest SINGLE voting block all the others voted for willy even Hanibal and Sury who are pleased with me. So taking out lone non buddhist civ would open diplo win vote which I would lose.

Only other option I see is just foget teaching altogether and TRY and make big push on willy but even that doesnt seem likely. I would be going in with ellies and cats and maces and maybe crossbows and horseys but he will have pikes for the elles, muskets and knights, crossbows, longbows, maces and trebs pluss most of his cities would be castleded by time I get to his core cities.

And even THEN its still same deal as wilth war on liz. I cant afford anymore cities and raising em just leaves room other AI's.

It just feels like if I turtle I will lose and if I try to expand out I will lose.

Like I said I am leading in most of th eimporting categories but now JUST barely and the leads are fading fast and not usre what I can do. even wonderwhoring out since wonders are being built now by other civs while I am still two techs away from even having chance at em. I dont have commerce to compete with the financial civs.

BUT they have all the stone and marble and other stuff they need so that and tech lead pretty much negating my industrious advantage. I am not sure if I should just restart or keep going and see if I can pull it out or what.

Kaytie

Kaytie:

Spoiler :

If you're #1 land and pop, you're probably in good shape, actually. Especially because most of the AIs are friendly. Don't neglect military though.

So how to come back? Well, first you have to raise your BPT. If you are running cottages (and IMO it's the easiest economy route in large empires) then you need to let them grow, make more, work them, and build the multiplier buildings like libraries/markets etc. If you have a large empire, you should be able to get a BPT higher than some of the AIs, then even if you're behind, you won't be for TOO long!

Once you have a solid BPT, look at what the AIs have, and try to research down a line that gives you something you can trade. Beeline ANYTHING that gives you trading leverage, then shop it around. Repeat this until you've caught up. A useful tip in such a scenario is that if you have a tech that is less valuable than the AI tech, you can still trade for it by partially researching the AI's tech (this causes the AI to value it less).

What will likely wind up happening is that you'll rapidly catch all but 1 or 2 AIs, which will tend to stay ahead. This gives you a number of options, such as war, tech stealing, or just trying to close the gap.

An alternative approach would be to go espionage immediately, tech steal a beeline that one AI has and others don't, then trade stolen techs.

In other words, from what it sounds like to me you're actually doing pretty well, and just don't have experience with that kind of situation .

 

[CivCorpse]

kaytie, did you build the Mids? If so then switch to caste and run as many merchants as it takes to keep from losing money. Then run a bezzillion scientists EVERYWHERE. You're number 1 in population, so put those lazy buggers to work. If you have currency then turn 1 maybe 2 production cities towards running Wealth, Thus freeing up those merchants to become scientists. Maybe take a less direct tech path for techs the AI does not have so you can trade. If they all have basically the same techs you can trade that one tech for many others.
I did a massive rex that sunk my economy to -7gpt @0% but am only a tech or two behind most of the AI and just finished taking darius 8 cities as well. I now have 16 cities that will be running 3 scientists each on average. That is 48 scientists @6 beakers each. nearly 330 bpt not counting the academy in paris and some cities with libraries. You cannot compete with the finacial civs by running a CE until you get your costs under contol. SE is the way to go.

 

[r_rolo1]

Good ol'overexpansion, right Katie ?

All the good advice is already done: run merchants at leisure until you have enough ifra to have things steady..

BTW, why are you going for guilds? it will not help you much in your current situation.....

 

[Bleys]

It took a LONG LONG time to get my economy to the point where I could move the slider off 0%. In fact, I ran a negative for many many turns, and sold off a pile of techs I didnt want to part with like Gunpowder, etc. I lost the Lib race for the first time since I can remember on Monarch, and even though I am first in Pop and Land, I am still 3rd in techs. This is what I meant about these AIs, I knew teching was going to be a problem in this game.

 

[Bandobras Took]

@ Kaytie

Spoiler :

Don't give up on Wonders just because somebody else got to the enabling tech first. I was several turns behind on getting Nationalism in my own game, but still got the Taj Mahal. Industrious+lots of hammers gives you a large window of opportunity for wonder building.

 

[Zanttu]

Emperor/Normal 950BC - 560AD

Spoiler :

950BC - I decide to go for literature next. I was thinking about picking up iron working first, but I hope I can get it from trade, because at this point AI's usually have it already. I hope someone reaches the alphabet soon, so I can trade for it. I start chopping a plains hill forest to speed up the ToA.

800BC - The Temple of Artemis is completed. Aqueduct is next, as it's needed for the HG. My worker is chopping forests outside Paris' FC to speed things up. I make sure that the chops go for the wonder itself, not the aqueduct, because this way I get all multipliers in.

775BC - Great Engineer pops with 21% changes, that's cool. I decide to wait and burn him for the Great Library, since it's so huge wonder and without marble it's going to take ~15-20 turns to build. I have to start building other stuff as well.

750BC - Paris grows to size 7, I start working another mined grassland hill.

700BC - Sury demands me to cancel my deals with Liz. I turn him down of course.. This is the negative side of signing open borders with everyone. I still haven't found out where Sury is, so I suspect he's not too close to me. It also seems like he has already picked his worst enemy, and therefore might not attack me. I still need some defense so I don't look like too easy target.

675BC - Hannibal welcomes my cute little nation. WOW, this is getting really interesting! 4th financial leader, and not too peaceful either... That's dangerous combo, he seems to be on the top in most of my games. Literature is finished and I start on pottery. I will need granary in my 2nd city. Still no-one has researched alphabet, but Willem is about to research it in 5 turns. This is the benefit of early settled great spy, I have visibility to Willy's, Liz's and Darius's research. Sury has espionage much higher than anyone else, that's why I don't see his research. As I just met Hannibal, it takes a while to see his.

650BC - Aqueduct is finished, and I start the HG. I have quite some overflow due to chopping, which I want to go for it before rushing TGL.

600BC - Pottery in, start on the alphabet. This is so I can trade aestethics for it after a couple of turns. I decide to finish the HG before rushing TGL. That's because of the +1 population I get from it, and it takes only 2 turns to build after all. Liz uses a missionary to spread judaism to me. I may consider switching into it at some point, but no need for it at the moment.

575BC - Both Willy and Sury get alphabet this turn. I decide to do the trade with Sury, since he lacks mysticism in addition to aestethics and maths. So I trade aestethics+mysticism for alphabet with Sury. I then make the following deal with Darius:

I chose Darius because he's at the bottom of the score list. I didn't want to give him maths, because I hold a monopoly for it. Those 2 little techs will count on the WFYABTA limit, but I think it's still so early that the AI's have enough time to "forget" it. I also need both hunting and fishing in the long run. After getting IW, iron shows up on grassland in my capital. That's great since grassland iron mine is the best improvement in the game, and to make it even better, my worker was standing on top of the square it showed upon! I then had to think pretty long while deciding what tech to pick next. Now that I had iron, I didn't see a reason for archery. Currency isn't going to be that big with only 1 (and soon to be 2) cities. Metal casting for industrous' cheap forges is one possibility, but 22 turns research doesn't seem to be worth it. I decide to go for CoL, because it's on the way to both philosophy and civil service.

550BC - The Hanging Gardens built, now going to rush TGL. I also get this random event:

Unfortunately I don't have the gold needed for the better reward (+1 beaker for Paris's library), but I don't complain about this either.

525BC - The Great Library completed, start building a settler. I still haven't decided, where to settle my 2nd city.. There just doesn't seem to be any locations with much surplus food. Well, you can't have everything I guess. I will switch to axeman before the settler is finished, but I still have to wait a couple of turns for iron.

500BC - Darius founds confuciaism and converts.

450BC - Hannibal converts to hinduism. Religions are really well-spread, so I think I'm going to avoid one for diplomatic reasons. I hope to get s-paya, it would be useful for early free religion.

400BC - Axeman completed, settler will be ready on the next turn. Will start s-paya after it.

350BC - Sury comes demanding priesthood. I give in of course, since it's so cheap tech. A Great Prophet has born in my capital, and gets settled. This gives me nice +5gpt allowing me to run 100% science longer. Orleans is founded, here's a picture a few turns later, after the border pop:

It's a decent city with corn and horses, the spices are just a bonus. I wanted to settle towards the AI's to block some room for me, instead of settling to the north where I can do it later.

300BC - Code of Laws finished, start on construction. I fear for my safety, and I plan to grab ivory for war elephants with my next city. Darius spreads confuciasm to Orleans, speeding up it's border pop.

275BC - Sury comes demanding again, this time for maths. C'mon man, it hasn't been 10 turns from your last demand! I decide to give in, because if he declares on me it's a game over. I still had monopoly for maths, but Darius is going to research it in 5 turns anyway. This also bumps him up to pleased for fair trade realtions.

250BC - Sury has enough on his hands, meaning that he will attack someone soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but as a pessimist I think the demands predict a bad future. Liz is his worst enemy though, but I don't trust this yellow-face at all.

225BC - Darius comes offering sailing for mathematics. I accept. It seems to be highway robbery, but I can see he would research maths in 4 turns anyway. I also need sailing for trade routes on river, and for Calendar as well.

200BC - Paris reaches size 9, where it will stay until discovering civil service for irrigating:

I also make the following deal with Willem:

Again, he is 3 turns from researching maths himself, so the deal is very good. It is pretty uncommon that the AI is willing to trade a tech he has monopoly on. I need monarchy for wine, and it's on the way to feudalism as well.

175BC - Sury converts to buddhism. This means I'll probably try to buddy up with him and Willy. Darius is boxed in by me and Liz, meaning he should be easy pickings later on.

150BC - I meet the last AI, Suleiman. He doesn't seem too dangerous to me. He's also the founder of hinduism.

100BC - Sury comes offering this deal:

I refuse, because I don't like to trade for cheap techs I don't really need. I'm also starting to feel a little more confident about Sury not attacking me, but I still have to keep my fingers crossed as it's still the 10 turns peace treaty going on. Shwedagon Paya is also completed, and I switch to free religion right away. This way I avoid the "convert to this religion" -demands. It also gives a nice +10% boost to my research.

75BC - I find out where Sury is. He seems to be far enough for me.

50BC - Construction is in, I start on calendar since no-one else is researching it. I also have two calendar resources: spices and incense. I hope to get civil service from trade later.

50AD - My 2nd settler is completed, I start on Chichen Izza. Since I have stone, it only takes 7 turns to build. It's an easy way to raise up my power rating, and if I want to get it, I need to shoot for it right now. Despite it being pretty expensive wonder, the AI seems to value it quite high and therefore build it early. Good news on this turn also, Sury declares war on Liz. I'm going to stay away from the conflict at least until I get a decent army up. Then I may consider joining on Sury's side if he asks me, for the diplo bonus for shared war.

75AD - Liz asks me to join his side on the war. I refuse of course. I then get this event:

I decide to take the highlighted option, despite it being quite a price for just one road tile. My lone worker is just too busy to re-construct anything.

100AD - A Great Prophet has born in my capital. He gets settled, of course.

125AD - Lyons founded for ivory and rice. I'll probably cottage up this city later. I'm still running 100% research with a profit, thanks to the prophets. Here's a shot of Lyons after border pop:

You can also see that I really lack workers. At the time of this screen, it's been 10 turns from founding the city and the rice still isn't improved.

150AD - Calendar learned, start on currency. Now that I have 3 cities, currency is more attractive choice. All AI's still lack it and no-one is researching it, so I will have a monopoly again.
Here's something I did in Orleans:

I built barracks for one turn while waiting the city to grow to size 4, before starting a worker. I also get the forest chop to speed up the worker.

200AD - Liz comes demanding monarchy, I refuse.

225AD - Sury wants me to adopt organized religion. I refuse, because it would cost me 2 turns of anarchy in total if switching in and out. Sury has already forgot about me refusing to cancel my deals with Liz a couple of centuries ago. Chichen Izza is completed, start another settler-axe combo.

250AD - Currency in, start on civil service. Darius is the only one with it, and therefore won't trade it. I can't see anyone researching it either, so I guess I have to self-research it as I don't want to put it off for too long. Bureaucracy is just perfect for this kind of monster-capital, and it's also on the way to liberalism.

300AD - Darius demands me to cancel my deals with Sury. I refuse, of course. This drops him to cautious.

325AD - Settler finished in Paris, start a worker. Orleans completes a barracks, it will be my military-bump while the capital keeps spitting out more workers and settlers.

400AD - Rheims founded for incence, wheat, 2 floodplains and another source of horse. This will be a good production city, despite it having 2 peaks in it's fat cross. This is also the first time I touch the research slider, lowering it to 90% to stay at +/- 0.

450AD - Liz offers me monotheism and 30g for calendar, I refuse. Suleiman offers me archery for aestethics and 60g, he must be 1 turn from researching it himself. Still, I reject this laughable offer.

560AD - Stopped playing here. Get a Great Scientist in Paris, he constructs an academy. Some screenies at this point:

Tech situation:

I'll probably trade for metal casting and horseback riding. I think I'm doing pretty good, but Hannibal seems scary as always.

Financial advisor:


Military advisor:

I need more military, and couple of workers as well.

Paris:


Orleans:


Lyons:


Rheims:


My empire:


I'm going to settle 2 more cities, then I need to go to war. I must stop Hannibal at some point, but I have no change to do that in the near future. I'll probably attack Darius first.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Thank you for the encouragment everybody . I went back to playing after I vented luckily a little of what I did was similar to most ppl's advice so maybe ALL is not lost but I am still VERY far from point of where I am comfy I wont lose much less think I can win :/

Marathon, Noble, 1385 AD

Spoiler :

Okies first thing I did was switch out of slavery and into caste system. I figured one of my few advantages was my pop so I didnt want to be whipping em away if I could help it plus I did have mids so I figured I this is time where I need to use rep for more than just a happy boost.

Then I went city by city and every city that could run a scientist without going stagnant I put one. More developed ones got engineer and scientist. This was just comrpmise since rep would let engineers add beakers plus it wouldnt kill cities production as much by running 2 scientists.

THAT cut time for guilds from 47 truns to 33 turns. Not great but still better than what it was. Bleys asked why cuilds well my thinking was guilds means grocers which = money which I am VERY short on plus Guilds- Knights which could help my power rating since I have a few chariots and I figured if I at least upgraded them then it would keep my power up enough to keep the AI;s from seeing me as easy pickings.

Guilds was also nice since it a Suli and sury didnt have it and and they both traded some techs for it. What was really nice about that was it got Suli up from cautious back to please which was VERY worrying since even after he made peace with sury he had "we have enough on our hands" for VERY long time and his troops were buuilding up next to me NOT sury. Trading with sury kept him at friendly even though I turned him down a few times when he asked me to join in against sulie and lizzy.

After that it was just build and hope I could catch up. After guilds I went for banking so I could run merc to use more specialists. I was able to trade for engineering so I went gunpowder next and was able to trade gunpowder and banking for quite afew techs and even got Hannibal to give me optics.

One of techs I traded for was nationalism. taj hadnt been built yet so I set paris to go for it and chopped EVERY tree I could around Paris and actually got it Not only THAT but JUST as I chopped it a great artist popped in paris so I burned him to to double the golden age length from 16-32.

Liberalism was lost looong time ago but I managed to tech edu and printing press both of which I also traded round for all I could.

Thats pretty much where I left off in middle of my double golden age. I am teching replacable parts mostly because I do have some cities who could use woodcutters to help em pluss it could be a tradable tech. Normally I wouldnt even THINK of letting AI get closer to rifles than necessary BUT gumpowder chem AND MS already been discovered by Hanni and WIlly so it not like rifles will be a game breaker since grenadiers are already roaming around.

AP hasnt been as worrisome as what I was scared of. For some reason even though NOBODY voted for me to run it when diplo vote comes up Hanni and Sury vote for me and Suri and Lizzy abstain. Which is kind of annoying since if they DID vote for me it would put me over the top grrrrr.

Scariest thing right now is hanni he has greniders AND cannons. I am just glad we are at friendly and he waaay over on toher side of map. he just feels like a big powder keg that could go off anytime and hopefully when he does he will go after willy and not me.

Right now I am still just playing to survive and be somewhat competitive and last time game listed most advanced civs I was dead last. Even lil lizzy who is penned up vassal is ahead of me tech wise grrr.

I am still number one in land, pop and even power thought its fake power mostly form walls and castles and getting techs like gunpowder though I will try to get a few musketeers done before GA is over not that they would do MUCH if anyone decuides to send a SoD of grenideers my way but hopefully noone will.

Still not sure how out of reach game is. I seem to be running SE mostly which I NEVER do but it just seemed faster way to try and catch up. Specialists work as soon as you click em cottages take time and I didnt feel like it was time I had.

So thats where I am at at this point 15 cities frantically most running at least 2 scienteist and engineer now with a couple running 3 scientists and engineer. Trying to catch back up with Hanni and willy before they TOTALLY run away with the game.

Kaytie

 

[dalamb]

Spoiler :

This must be the best REX I've ever managed -- but I need to stop soon and consolidate. Maybe decide on a victory condition, too Charismatic means warfare might be worth considering, though the UU comes fairly late.



Maybe just one more city -- I'm not an addict: I can quit anytime . The red grabs wheat, sugar, and a plains hill to the east; the orange I can backfill later, since it's not as likely as the red to be claimed by someone else. There are some possible locations a bit further south, but they didn't look as tempting to me.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Dont ask me how , Noble, Marathon 1500AD AP diplo win!

Spoiler :

Trading replaceable parts actually did help. It got me chem constitution and economics and a boatload of gold. That put corp just a few turns away so I snagged that then went for dem next so I could try for SoL.

Then something wierd happens. I didnt trade rep parts to willy since after I had traded for the other techs all he had on me was astronomy and he wouldnt trade that then out of nowhere a few turns later he offers astronomy for rep parts and gold and I take it and start building saloons.

I get dem and set paris on SoL. RIGHT after I get dem Hanni drops by looking to trade for dem. I thought he had it already but I guess it was just willy. And hanni offers MS and like 1500 gold. Between the 1500 gold and boatload I got from shopping round rep parts that EASILY left me enough gold to upgrade TONS of units to grens. which helped me breath LOTS easier since now if anying did feel froggy at least I could go down putting up a fight.

I go for steel next to get cannons since I want time to finish all the saloons and universities so I can teach to steam power faster and ALSO cuz I noticed ol willy boy DOESNT have MS so I am thinking after I get steel and upgrade my cats to cannons and then get a stack going I will see how hanni feels bout a lil dogpile on willy >.

But two things happen before I finish steel. First FINALLY vote comes up to see who gets to control AP. I was waiting FOREVER for that after the way the diplo win votes were going I was SURE I would get control next time that election came up but it wa slike 4-5 diplo win votes before control vote happened again but this time I get control.

Next thing that happens is Suli comes by begging for astronomy. I give it to him hoping it will push him to friendly and it does. Few turns go by and option to call for diplo win comes up I click it and vote for me and yep sure enough THIS time sullie votes for me along with hanni and sury and I get diplo win hehe.

There just seems to be nooooo way I should have won this game I was so far behind on tech. Even fact that all the AI's like me wasnt so much strategy as just being desperate. I was sooooo frantic to catch up on tech I would trade anything for any deal I could get and all those trades really helped boost up the modifiers. Bout the ONLY smart thing I did WHOLE game was wait in choosing religion. Hindu from Lizzy and confu from getting CoL got to my cities first but I waited since hanni discovered buddhism and willy had converted I figured THAT would end up being the big club so I didnt convert to a religion until after buddhism spread to me.

But even THAT was just a guess and I got lucky and guessed right on that one.

My final score ended up being 62618 which ends up being my second highest NC game score.

Still waaay behind 97k score I got with Kublai but REALLY funny thing is it is higher than my sitting bull game score. And THAT game I thought I was doing GREAT. I had tons of land was out hammering and out beakering everybody ended up with like 30 plus cities and pretty much felt like I could win any way I wanted and when I made big push for dom it was like tanks and infantry against rifles and longbows.

This game I felt like I was playing catch up to EVERYBODY and was just hoping everyturn PLEASE let me be lucky and dont let anybody DoW on me so I can go one turn more and maybe get things fixed a lil bit. And I end up doing better scorewise even though no way I should have won much less end up scoring higher :/. This empire was half the size of my SB empire and NOWHERE near its production hammerwise or beaker wise.

I guess it just proves saying bout how sometimes it better to be lucky than good hehe .

Kaytie

 

[Bandobras Took]

Prince/Normal Turn 276

Spoiler :

I had planned on going peaceful, but I noticed I had Cavalry and Liz didn't have Rifling. Don't ask me how that happened. I didn't even bother with Siege. All my heavily promoted Knights had been easily upgraded thanks to Christianity income, so I took them down and took all of England's mainland cities. They had a city on a one-tile Island , so I vassalized her. I now own half the continent. The problem is that Sury's researched Assembly Line, and a hurricane wiped out the Forge and the Barracks in my primary military city (which, thanks to Great Generals and West Point, can build CR3 accuracy Cannons right out of the gate ). I think I have enough land if I can get it improved to tech my way into space, but I'm worried about Sury getting aggressive and attacking me while my army consists of Riflemen and Cavalry. I think I'll aim for Flight after Assembly Line and try and wipe out Sury that way.

 

[Giskler]

Hello all, came across this series last week and have been playing through games 1-7 on noble/prince. Been playing on and off since release and keep getting to monarch then having a long break and dropping back down to noble again when I pick it back up so I hope I can get over the monarch stage this time.

So far in this series I've learned quite a bit actually, but still much to learn

This will be my first report and I'll be playing on prince/epic for this one.

Initial toughts:

I have never played De Gaulle before (nor most of the leaders in the games for that matter) so I dont really know how to play to his strengths. Given the start, I think I will settle in place and try to grab SH, GW & Oracle and go for ~4 cities then see if I can find a neighbour to knock around

1000 BC:

Spoiler :

After settling in place I started exploring the area while teching to Masonry and I ran into my first neighbour quite fast:



Two turns later I run into another one:



And immediately after, a third one:



Looks like this will be quite the tech race! Once I get Masonry, I tech Mysticism and begin constructing a quarry and the GW immediately. After I aquire Mysticism I go for BW so I can start chopping wonders.

Lizzie steals my hut



GW completed in 2875 BC:



After exploring a bit, I have made a dotmap:



I hope to settle most of these, but I think the ones in the west towards Darius will be hard to get with my current wonderspamming. I will gun for the two sites directly south first.

I chop rush the Pyramids while waiting for the SLOW teching up to Priesthood & Writing for the CoL slingshot:


I have now also met Willem and Hannibal... geez its all tech whores!


I complete the Oracle in 1100 BC (pretty late, suprised I got it)


I send my missionary towards Willem to make a friends fast since Darius and Lizzie both founded religions and they are my closest neighbours:


I'm going to build up my cities and gear up for war with Darius I think, hes my closest neighbour with Hinduism and hes also second in power so I think a swift death is in store for him provided I can find some Iron and start whipping out swordsmen. Going to turn Paris into my main military city I think.

500 AD:

Spoiler :

I founded my next two cities and have been teching IW so I can start massing swordsmen, while doing this I encounter the last civ:



LOL, this just gets more and more interesting, only one missing is Mansa Munsa now

I get IW and I cant believe it, grassland Iron next to Paris!



Another brother for the cause, I now have 2 religious buddies!



Suleiman and Hannibal joins the dark side with Darius



I've now massed a strike force for my first war with Darius:



Gordium burned to the ground:



And Parsagardae:



I think I'm doing OK tech wise, I got back up to speed by trading away Currency and CoL. I'm going for HBR next since the AI's seem to love it so dearly. Oh and I almost forgot, Darius has no horses so hes been harassing me to get one since BC. No Immortals for him!

The world as we know it:



Going for another city:



And this is where I'm at... not sure where to go next, but I think I will keep pushing Darius and finish him off if possible although Lizzie is starting to worry me. I think she needs to be next and Willem and Sully will probably join my Jihad if properly persuaded. I think once Darius and Lizzie have been eliminated or properly subdued I'll settle down and go for a space race victory. Might change plans though.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@ Brom:

Spoiler :

It looks like you're in a position where you can win, so don't take this as too harsh of criticism :

I see you're at 80% science, but only getting 55 BPT. That's a bit on the slow side for 500 AD typically (I usually look for that or more around 10 AD). You're neglecting one of the following:

1. More than half of your cities dedicated to working cottaged tiles, and having built a library in those cities.
2. Cities using food and caste system to run TONS of scientists (a la SE, bit harder on players who aren't used to the game mechanics yet).

Granted, in my game this particular time I was also very slow in tech because I was pushing construction elephants everywhere, but a typical BPT for 500 AD imo would be around 80-120, less if warring (which you are), but only less because of running the slider lower. If you have the improvements and are working them, 80% science would bring you astounding #'s!

I also went for Darius + Liz (although I hate space so my aims were different ). Your general plan is ok just make sure to get the correct multiplier buildings and start either working cottages or running massive specialists between wars. I recommend cottages personally.

 

[Giskler]

@TheMe

Spoiler :

I have been cottaging up my cities while using Darius and Lizzie as punching balls, I've stayed in the tech lead (ish) by trading techs the AI's dont normally go for and I'm good friends with Willem and Survy (they gift me techs )

I'm living mostly on pillaged gold from razing all their cities atm, I will post update for 1200 AD now.

1200 AD:

Spoiler :

So, right after I beat Darius around with a stick, guess who comes in to grab the land



So, Lizzie is def our next target. Anyway, I continue razing Darius' cities and get a GG:




I then find Persepolis only guarded by two axemen



Things are not going so well for poor Darius:



Paris is a swordsman factory



Another GG:



I take peace with Darius (for now) to get some techs and time to regroup my troops (note, I didnt let him capitulate to me):



I think I'm ready to go pay dear Lizzie a visit



The very next turn, the following happens; Darius becomes Lizzie's vassal and I get an event with a marriage where I can further incite my bad relationship with Lizzie and get better relations with my fellow confucian leaders. This immedieatly causes Lizzie to declare war, which saves me the trouble and gives her negative modifiers for declaring on me with Willem and Survy



It doesnt start well for Lizzie with two cities razed straigt away:



I continue on my merry way razing every filthy english and persian city I come across:




But, even though my war against Darius and Lizzie is drawing to a closure (and freeing up a lot of lebensraum to the west) I've noticed that Willem and Survy have shot past me in points and I'm getting worried this continued warring will lead me to fall behind too much soon so I think I will raze Darius' last city then beat Lizzie into submission ASAP so I can start settling down.

I dont think I can take on Willem and Survy, they have grown too strong. I think diplomatic or space win.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@TheMe

Spoiler :

I have been cottaging up my cities while using Darius and Lizzie as punching balls, I've stayed in the tech lead (ish) by trading techs the AI's dont normally go for and I'm good friends with Willem and Survy (they gift me techs )

I'm living mostly on pillaged gold from razing all their cities atm, I will post update for 1200 AD now.

Sounds like you have it under control then .

 

[Giskler]

1600 AD:

Spoiler :

Well, just as I was moving in for the kill on Darius, this happens:




Of course, we have a solution at hand:



Game over for Darius:



Another GG:



I now focus my attention on Lizzie, and I come upon London with only two longbows defending it. The result:



I continue my rampage through the english countryside and Survy joins in towards the end and captures Warwick. It turns out she has one last city out on a one tile island, so I sue for peace and pick up Divine Right from her.

A few turns later, this is what england looks like:



Looks like a confrontation with Survy is invetiable

So, I have been tooling up for war again:




With this war, I think a diplo win is out the window so I'll be going for space race. Teching is pretty slow due to my army buildup, but I'm still only 1-2 techs behind Willem most of the time. He did get Liberalism first though

I'm going to go for Survy now and take out all his cities on the west side of the continent (and take over the land myself) then sue for peace and focus on the space win after that.