Nobles' Club XXXVI: Gilgamesh

[L-Plate Ruler]

@ Shafi, thanks. I am having more 'luck' than in NCXXXV. Though what I learned about warring and commerce could be what's helped with this game.

Noble/Normal to 1000AD.

Spoiler :

Well, the last 1000 years went fairly quickly. I finished of Tokugawa in 540AD. No wars while I get my infrastructure up and running. I need more $$$ and being 3rd on the power chart I really need to ramp up the unit production. Just in case Sury has any thoughts I've been reinforcing my border cities.

Notable events:

820AD - Founded Christianity
? - Completed Shwedagon Paya

I don't have open border agreement with Sury so it's been easy to block him off but I do need to nail him down before he sails off to another land if he hasn't already.

Oh! I don't think Sury has iron... that's bad luck for him

 

[lymond]

@L-Plate - I would recommend building The Great Library quite sooner than 1000AD if I'm seeing things correctly. I amazed that it's not built yet, but then these civs aren't teching great in this game.

Noble/Epic update 600BC to 1400AD

Spoiler :

Quick update on my progress

Shortly after my last update, I attacked Mansa with Vultures. Not to my surprise, he had some skirmishers. What really surprised me was how slow Mansa was expanding. My little attack early must have messed him up. Only two cities, although Timbuktu was a very nice one. Anyway, skirmirshers are aggravating to go up against. I wasted a bunch of units but couldn't knock out the last skirmisher. I quickly traded for contruction with Churchill and sent some cats and more vultures to finally take Mansa out.

Unfortunately, I believe my suicidal initial attack lowered my power rating briefly to give Toku reason to attack. I was ill-prepared and Toku took out to eastern cities. I was really mad about him taking one city with only two non-CR promoted units against my protective units. I'm sorry but that's just rigged. Anyway, I was stinkin' mad so Toku is going to pay. Shortly I was going to get Macemen online and unleash hell. I took back my cities and then headed straight for Tokyo. I still didn't have enough Macemen/Crossbows out since it took a while to get to Tokyo. It was slow going but I eventually took Tokyo. I wish I could do this faster though. Surprisingly, Toku was ready to capitulate. I decide to go ahead this point and take him as a vassal but wondered if I should take out more cities.

I'm teching at a fairly good pace with Churchill at second. Surya decides he wants to become a peace vassal. More the merrier. Churchill, Surya and Toku are all Hindu and I have the holy city.

I take Astro with Liberalism and win the circum race in the meantime. Run into Zara and the Incans. Zara is cool at this point but Hyuana is not a happy camper. I'm sending out some privateers to ravage the Incan coast and foresee a little overseas warfare in the near future.

I'm a little worried about Churchill. We're at friendly, but he's expanding agressivel toward me including ploppling a city right next to one of mine in the northeast and taking over my food resource...not good. I also expect him to switch to Christianity at some point like he always does. Hmmm...he may be a target too.

Still not decided on a victory conditions. I was thinking cultural but domination is certainly a possibility. I need to start focusing soon though. It's been a long peace up to about 1400AD.

 

[Navarre]

Following my third round, 1240 AD to Cultural Victory in 1869 AD, Noble/Marathon/BAT Mod.

Spoiler :

After Democracy, I researched Corporation for more money. Kish, my cultural blackhole on Malinese frontiers, started paying up:



I kept the city.

I finally got my Great Prophet in Eridu and used him to build the Jewish Shrine.

Techpath went Chemistry > Steel to open up the line to Combustion for Creative Constructions and have some cannons just in case, Churchill still being around and annoyed. I got a Great Engineer in Nibru, and saved him for Creative Constructions.

Then I researched Scientific Method, because Mansa was beelining for it and I didn't see any reason to let him have the free GPs. Seeing it would take him a long time to get Physics, I went Steam Power to get closer from Combustion.

Churchill then declared war again. He sent a weak stack by land to my northeastern city:



I sent some riflemen to stop them before they could pillage my towns, and gained a GG in the battle, which I saved to unlock HE and WP later. I began to research Military Tradition, and Churchill made peace, just before accepting Zara as a vassal and joining him in his war against Sury and Toku.

I finished MT and went Railroad. Djenne revolted and joined my illustrious empire, giving me Mansa's second holy city (no shrines, tough). After RR I went Combustion, but had to switch temporary to get Physics first before Huayna Capac (Mansa went Cultural for a while, probably trying to save some of his cities from my pressure), and finished building the Statue of Liberty in Nibru. Once Combustion discovered, I founded Creative Constructions in Eridu, my holy city where I did build Wall Street, and researched Assembly Line to have factories and infantry.

I got the event that lowers inflation, and began researching Electricity, Huayna Capac beelining it. Him being Industrious, I couldn't allow him to get it first even with my factories up and running, he could have built Broadway before me.

The AP gave me the choice to assign Timbuktu or Kumbi Saleh to me. I tried Timbuktu, I had enough voices to vote it by myself, but Mansa kept defying the resolution.

Once Electricity discovered I diverted to go Communism and get the GS to use him for a later Golden Age, and then researched Biology to fight the unhealthiness from factories and coal plants, several of my cities beginning to starve.

Much not to my surprise, that lone peak near my only oil well turned out to be a volcano. Nobody ever expected that, I'm sure. It's not like the lone peak near your only well is ALWAYS a freaking volcano !



So, no oil for a while, and more importantly it blew up my towns near Eridu, slowing down my commerce and thus my culture in this city, which was already the lowest of the three I was planning to use for a Cultural Victory. Well, too bad.

I searched Medecine to get Sushi and go Environmentalism to get rid of unhealthiness problems once and for all. My economy was strong enough to support the increased maintenance of the corps.

I finished Broadway in my capital, and used a Great Spy, a Great Artist and a Great Merchant to trigger a Golden Age. I switched to Emancipation and Environmentalism, and built Sid's Sushi in Eridu with a second Merchant I've been saving for ages.

I researched Radio and finished building the Pentagon and the Kremlin in my city north of Kish, that turned to be the most productive with a Levee. I then began to research Mass Media while building Rock'n'Roll in Kish and the Cristo Redemptor in Uruk.

Timbuktu finally suffered its ignominious but inescapable fate, and surrendered to my cultural might:



Note that the culture slider is still on 0, I never raised it. The two corps were giving me something around +50 culture at that point, and Kish had also 3 world wonders with +10, the Forbidden Palace and the Hermitage, so its culture was around +200 per turn with the monasteries, temples and stuff.

Four turns later, Kumbi Saleh decided to join my empire too, but I just disbanded it, not having anything to gain if I kept it. Timbuktu brought me every seafood south of the coast already, boosting Sushi.

After Mass Media I started building Hollywood in Eridu, giving each of my three top cultural cities a +50% wonder and a Jewish Academy for another +50%. I researched Industrialism, and noted a distinct lack of aluminium popping around. No pop at all ? Where's the aluminium ? I need it for Creative Constructions, and for some serious weaponry ! I looked around, and saw the only spot on the landmass, which was unsettled yet, saving me the trouble of DoWing on a friendly AI :



I rushed a settler and settled it, and deployed Creative Constructions in the city to make sure the aluminium would stay mine. I was searching Flight, to open Rocketry and have some fighters, airships being all around and sniffing my frontiers.

I finished Hollywood and got a Great Artist in Kish, which I used to found Civilized Jewelers. Culture bombing in Eridu would probably have been more efficient, but it's not everyday you can build the 3 cultural corps while going for a cultural victory.

From this point I switched to Universal Suffrage, built Culture in my 3 cities, and I just waited for the victory. I never raised the slider, staying full science until the end. Raising the culture slider wouldn't have changed much, not enough cottages around these cities. At best I would have gained 10 turns while stopping my research.

Techpath went Refrigeration > Plastics (to get the sea oil, the volcano blowing my well again and again) > Fascism (for the free GG I settled in my HE/WP city and who allowed me to pump Garnison III Drill II mech infantry later) > Computers > Robotics (Yay, Mech Inf !) > Ecology > Superconductors > Satellites.

I built the UN, Huayna Capac was elected and tried to get a diplo victory, but we were the only ones voting for ourselves, so that never succeeded. He finally gave up and passed some classic resolutions, Emancipation for everyone and Free Markets. I also built the Eiffel Tower (I already had broadcast towers in the 3 cities, not wanting to wait for it), The 3 Gorges Dam and the Internet, mainly because I could.

I flipped some others cities, Gaul north of my aluminium city, Awdaghost south-west of Walata which I didn't keep but disbanding it gave me access to two spots of silver, and Nagara Jayasri, a Khmer city (bet you wouldn't have guessed), south-east of Eridu.

I got 3 more Great Prophets (goddamn Angkor Wat), I used one to trigger a 4 GP Golden Age, and the two others to build the Confucianist and the Taoist Shrines. Once I saw that my next GP wouldn't come before the victory, I switched to Theocracy to get more powerful units. My coastal cities were pumping destroyers and battleships, while my HE/WP city was pumping 13 xp city defenders.

Kish turned Legendary in 1828 AD, Uruk in 1851 and Eridu in 1869, at turn 888. Game over, I won.






The info:








The situation:















+ 95 from the corps.

The score:




So, what did I learn ?

First, I should have paid more attention to the settings. I usually play Noble/prince, true, but on large maps with standard sea level, meaning more AIs and less land for each opponent. Standard size and low sea level made the game really easier, I could probably have gone Monarch and won. Lower sea level doesn't seem to do any good to the AIs: Huayna Capac and Zara Yaqob usually do way better, even on Noble.

On Gilgamesh: despite lacking any trait for it, he's a good leader for early REXing. Early Ziggurats help sustain an empire, while Vultures are basically earlier Swordmen and allow a rush from Bronze Working. Creative help securing resources and Protective helps securing the cities.

On Cultural Victory: contrary to what I was thinking, you don't need to kill your research to pull one. Having a tech lead early is crucial to get the wonders, and later on the corps help a lot, if you're first to get the techs to found them, and can manage to get the good type of GP. I should probably have paid more attention to the number of cottages around my cities, I would have chosen Ur and Nibru for the win instead of Kish and Eridu who had more culture at the moment. It probably would have given me an earlier victory if I had upped the culture slider. Not sure tough, since Kish had really a lead thanks to the world wonders and the Hermitage. Eridu did suck, anyway, and the volcano blowing towns all around didn't help.

On GP: Representation/Caste System/Pacifism + Parthenon is a killer combo to get GP all over the place. I've been able to trigger 4 Golden Ages, build 3 shrines, found 3 corps, rush the Sistine Chapel, bulb Education, build an Academy, settle a Great Spy, a Great Scientist or two, 2 Great Artists... That's around 24 GP, without the Philosophical Trait.

On settled Great Spy: well, I knew it already, but it's probably good to emphatize it. Settling my first Great Spy allowed me to steal Theology, Philosophy, Nationalism and Astronomy. That's quite cost-effective for a single GP.

On vassals: if you don't need them, if it doesn't bring you anything, don't take vassals just because you can. Sure, it looks good on the resume, but that's just more maintenance and diplomatic trouble for nothing.

I guess that's all folks. Feel free to criticize the game. I enjoyed playing it, it was a real "builder game", and cultural victory is quite rare in my book, I think that's only the third one I get since Vanilla was shipped.

 

[Groogaroo]

Whoops! I kinda played this through from start to finish in almost one sitting! Forgot to post any updates

Following my third round, 1240 AD to Cultural Victory in 1869 AD, Noble/Marathon/BAT Mod.

Looks like we had similar ideas!

Cultural Victory - 1846 AD - Monarch Epic

Spoiler :

Can't really remember much of my opening didn't make too many notes this game...

Settled 1 south and expanded to six cities fairly quickly, wanted to play a peaceful game and decided to go for cultural as I havn't gone for a cuture win in a while.


Going cultural wasn't really such a great idea, as the game panned out I only had access to 2 religions. I had a stab at the oracle and got Monarchy (should have gone for CoL as I missed out on confu) my early neighbours mansa, sury, toku and myself all formed a hindu block which was good for peace generally all game.

Went the usual culture route, building temples/cathedrals early while in organised religion & Slavery, at Libralism flipped the switch from tech to culture and changed civics to freespeech, pacifism and caste. picked Nationalism for my free tech, built the Taj and started a twenty turn golden age thanks to a spare GP.

I realised it was going to be a slow win but I was doing really well diplomatically, ofcourse that was apart from tokugawa...

The Jerk DoW'd on me 3 times after I switched to culture Most of his attacks were fairly easily repelled as he was fairly backward but towards the end he was building up for war and was starting to get Grens & Cannons, considering the best I had were cats and muskets it was getting pretty scary towards the end.

But luckily I held out and burnt a final Great Artist to sneak a win, note my rather outdated home defense.




and Victory...




The rather scary power situation at the end...




The small sumerian empire...




Cities...




And diplomacy? Even managed to get toku out of annoyed by the end.

Made a nice change to play a peaceful builder game for a change after the JC game last round. Cheers Dalamb

PS - No probs with the Monarch save, everything seemed fine and as it should be.

 

[pzschrek]

Hey guys, first time I played a game posted in this forum. I have been playing all the Civs since civ 1 back in the day, but never dabbled much beyond warlord because I played pretty casually. I never could beat Noble very consistently, mostly because I couldn't both expand fast enough and research fast enough at the same time, but hit the forums lurking the past couple weeks to give it a go. I found it isn't that bad if you play the game a little better and have been winning consistently. The number-one factor in this is that before I just automated my workers because I was too lazy to manage them. Now after a bit of reading I use primarily chopping strategically early and cottage-spamming to achieve dramatically better results, along with some basic city-specialization. I still play an admittedly sloppy game, but with this alone I've found I can win on Noble pretty consistently. I still need to refine my proper early build orders and tech orders, as well as when and what are worth chopping and improve on my synergy, as well as thinking another 10 or so turns ahead of when I want to declare war on whom, but I totally dominated this game in a way I haven't with others thus far.

Spoiler :

I settled in place and built worker>warrior>barracks>warrior>worker>settler in prep for a vulture rush, since I very quickly found Mansa to my south and to secure my local resources. Started reseraching AH. Found copper to the north, so settled there first on the coast. While this was going on, I found 2 techs in huts, to include BW (Lucky me!) this gave me a tech advantage that I never really lost the whole game. Got another settler and settled right on mansa's butt near the marble to the SW. I then researched the priesthood chain to unlock ziggaraut and oracle. Started spamming Vultures in Uruk and Eridu (by copper) until I had about 6-7 then went to find Mansa. Timbuktu was first target, as mansa was looking weak and cornered down there, and I took it against a few skirmishers and lost a couple V's, so declared peace for all his $, as my reinforcements were a few turns away. Once back up to strength redeclared and burnt his last 2 towns. There was a barb town north of Kish (marble) and west of Uruk, so took that and made it mine as i founded another town just W of the gold to take advantage of it and the wine. Founded city to get at the ivory and clams to the NE, and because I say Suvy's culture starting to crowd "my" areas. Got oracle but can't remember what I picked, maybe alphabet to trade around a bit. I was well along on the civil service chain at this point. Founded a city on the coast w of Uruk and E near wheat and gold to finish up my initial expansion. At this point I was set for economic growth...set up a GPP factory in Timbuktu (5 food resources!!) Went on the music chain to get national wonders and the Artist, which i popped for a GA. Put HE and statues in Lagash (by the NE ivory) because Uruk was my only decent production city, except kish, which was limited in potential because timbuktu was stealing it's pigs. I put NE and globe in Timbuktu so I could whip the living daylights out of this people factory to get some buildings to put specialists in, as well as to whip units fast if in emergency, and I knew Timbuktu would be huge someday (ended game at 30 pop i think) and wanted specialists, not rioters. At this point I had CS and had paid to upgrade a coupel maceman and was working on Construction. I saw a barb city north of Eridu across the strait, so sent a couple elephants to seize that island...but NOT an island! Churchill was coming from the west, so I wanted to get a foothold ahead of him. I took a barb city to the east, which evenuatlly turned out to have iron and coal. Future IW/West point city! this turned out to be part of the mainland, so I had sealed suvy out as well. Nobody on my continent ever got a religion, so I got theology and made the continent my $ factory.

Stupid Tokugawa declared war on me at this point and sent a couple laughably puny stacks of axemen into my borders, which were eaten by macemen and elephants. I took a town of his west of Kish and was moving on tokyo when he gave me all his money for peace. I waited until I had trebs and went at him again, easily taking tokyo. He hit me with a swarm of jumbos, and I lost a lot of dudes because I didnt bring enough pikemen. But they got there, and not long thereafter I had cuirassers heading his way as well. At this point I had enough men, so I just had Timbuktu whip a few trebs and kish building them, and deliberately sieged his cities as I built my infrastructure in the rest of the empire. Popped the GG on a maceman to get WP sooner. Had taken all his cities except a ribbon marginal towns on tundra to the far west, and suvy/churchill looked hungry, so I vassalized Toku. Churchill had was annoyed with me and reached astronomy long before since I prioritized liberalism (I took nationalism and built Taj in Kish) and army techs, and I wasn't too well defended up north and had a laughable navy. SOmehow I got the circum bonus after a bunch of map trading...even though I had not a single caravel and wouldn't for many turns thereafter! Not a priority this game. I stole Astro from Suvy and upgraded my few galleys, then spammed frigates and galleons on the northern peninsula and lagash (I stole all my water techs from Suvy...he seemed to be after them, so I just infiltrated with a great spy and let him do my work there for me as I ran away with those early industrial techs and medicine for sushi). I got rifling and MT, so upgraded my spearheads to rifles and jumbos to cavalry. I only had about 4 galleons and a half dozen frigates, and churchill had a swarm of caravels and some galleons, so I decided to take his islands in short jumps to keep him from being a threat later. kept ferrying dudes to them and took them form his swordsmen and longbowmen easy enough. I got everyone ready for a push onto his mainland, but he decided this was enough and capitulated without me even touching his mainland!

Given that I had a weak vassal and a moderate but intact one and a big tech advantage over Suvy, since I had all the good army techs and water techs, since I stole them instead of trading them. I decided to make him a target as well. This is when I decided to make my victory goal a diplo one by force of arms and vassalage! ha! Everyone on the other continent hated each other, so I got Zara Yaqob to declare war on chirchill for me to get some dip points.

Now time for suvy! I think I waited too long to strike, getting all my men back from the islands and into position so everything was just right, because by the time I DOWed him, he had $^&# riflemen like the turn after I DOWed! Lots of my beautiful cannons eaten up, but nothing for it but to press my advatage since AL was in the hopper. After a couple turns, I got it and started turning my spearheads into Infantry.

I think it was at this point I lost focus a bit...I was teching the electricity/radio/Mass Media line to get UN, but spent too much time building extra men I didn't really need in the war instead of $/research, and had brought the slider down a few notches to upgrade infantry. This is also where the game really took off for me and I began to REALLY run away with it, since I had Mining Inc and factories in the production cities and sushi everywhere else that needed it. I stole every seafood and metal from my vassals and had something like a 20 food, 60 culture bonus (before free speech, tower, or anythign else) in my sushi towns and a 20 hammer bonus in my mining towns. Even Suvi's capital cant compete with creative, sushi, and free speech, and I was stealing all his land out of my ex-khmer cities even near it, which doesnt happen to me too often. I built Christo redentor, Broadway, eiffel tower, pentagon, and rocknroll within about a turn of each other and I knew it was insane. I thought I had enough votes to win, so i used a GE to rush UN in Uruk as soon as I got Mass Media. Then it was all over but the waiting to vote. I'm not sure if Zara Yaqob could have cost me it, but was repositioning my armed forces in case he needed "help" deciding, since he was only pleased with me. He didnt vote for me, but he didnt vote for huyana either since he hated him. Win.

Had I not devoted my economy to upgrading to infantry or building cannons/more infantry that I didnt need while warring with Suvy I think I could have won at least 20-30 turns earlier, maybe more. But his popping riflemen immediately after I invaded surprised me and I overcompensated.

This was the first time I went for an earlier win. I like the modern era, so I will often draw it out until I have a bunch of planes, massive amphibious forces with multiple carriers and missile cruisers, obliterate his coasts and cities with missiles and marines, then land the armor and arty forces the same turn to roll into his interior, the advance never stopping due to pre-positioned mech inf airlifted in to hold the flanks and rear. I have a blast with it! I was an officer in a heavy tank unit for awhile after college, so maybe thats part of the reason why, but I love it.

I also learned the power of privateers against suvy earlier...I made some in Tumbuktu and got about 40 GPT from blocking all his southern ports for the last 150 years of the game, long before the DOW. He had swarms of caravels and a few galleons...dont know why he didnt rush them and take them out, he could have easily. I dont think he had the iron to build frigates.

I could have teched faster if I hadnt expanded to the north and west, but I was especially glad I did to the north. Gave me a base near Churchill to subdue him much faster, plus those cities with hills and woods really turned into my economic powerhouse.

I am still not so good at specializing cities...Eridu was an easy wall street choice even with not much cottageable land, due to holy city for the entire continent's religion, not to mention coastal bonuses. I made the barb city west of uruk/north of kish by the wheat my science city...popped an academy and oxford there...lots of cottage land. It had some hills and woods i left, so by the end was a decent production city as well, following replaceable parts and railroad.

I'm still trying to find the best way to use national wonders...I think globe was a good choice for the GPP city in this case, seeing the sheer amount of food available, but it might have been counterproductive to put NE and use it as a whip factory for awhile, since I think this may have really slowed my specialists and GPP for a good 30 turns in the medieval era.

Moai statues are another one. I used to put them on cities that had mostly ocean, but found that those cities are often so slow to build that by the time you get the wonder up the game has passed it's usefulness by. I put it at lagash with the ivory this time, and I think that worked really well. lagash had 2 ivory and a hills, but also clams and corn to grow fast and about a half dozen watertiles. With moai, that was like having 2 extra hills, but hills that feed themselves! I put HE there and it was a critical boost to unit production, because kish and uruk were my only decent production cities early, and neither on the ocean. It was key for pumping out the galleons that made me able to kill churchill fast. Once I got the two on the northern peninsula they obliterated everything though. I like having production cities on the coast to churn out a navy.

I made eridu my wall street city almost solely because of the christian religion shrine i put there...i had at least 30 gpt from that alone by the end, since the entire continent was my religion. Once i got some corps up and running having them HQed there eased the pain until I spammed jewelers (too late in the game to matter, since i got only about 4-5 execs out before UN election) I thought about making it Uruk near the stone, wine, and flood plains to the south, but wines arent as good as cottages before too long and it would have taken a food resource to really use those woods. farms on denuded plains dont give much bang for the buck before biology. Not too good for lots of cottages besides the 3 FP tiles.

I'm also not that efficient at using my workers and prioritizing them beyond the obvious resources. How many cottages can you build? you still need some production, which most often means farms to feed their workers, but what's the balance? I found myself having to go back and pave over some scarcely-worked cottages in the mid-game to boost population above the low-mid teens in some of my cities, including the capital. I could have leveled more of the woods around the capital, but didnt think I could afford to lose the production in the early-mid game. I like woods...I'm usually really glad i kept 3-4 of them around until i can build lumbermills. Even in specialized commerce/science cities I will usually leave a couple tiles. I did forget to leave a city with lots of woods/jungle this time in preparation for the national park.

I also think I can improve on my tech selection process, but i forget the details so i cant put it down for much comment, oops. It wasnt really necessary this game, since I popped two critical techs early and had enough cottages to keep the lead throughout, with an able assist of a great spy infiltrated to Suvy.

Creative trait was my fave of this game. SInce I had tech lead, I didnt have to worry too much about agression, so protective didnt show its face as much as i was the one on the attack. But with creative, i could build something useful straightaway without a monument or trying to get a missionary out there, not to mention critically blocking mansa in the very early game.

I am also bad at the early wonders. I tend to feel i need units/buildings more than, say, the pyramids or great wall, but maybe this means i need to chop more/better. I usually start hitting wonders in the medieval age, but i know i miss some key advantages this way.

In spite of these inefficiencies, I think some of those early lucky breaks helped me do much better than i would normally have.


Hooray.



1847 Diplo.



They just didn't really have a chance once we hit medieval. And I went medieval on them.



I posted this to show the impact of sid's sushi + free speech vs ancient Khmer culture...this was only a few turns after they came out of resistance. The one to the north is still in it.



Cities at finish, the ones that fit on the list anyway. Definitely time to build hospitals. Everyone was getting unhealthy after all the factories and airports.

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

@ lymond

Spoiler :

I'll put the lateness down to the fact that rushing my two neighbours severly delayed my wonder production as I was focusing on Vultures and commerce at the time.

@ pzschrek - Welcome to CF and the forums. You obviously know what you're doing, look at that score, nice one

@ dalamb - Thanks for putting the map together. I quite liked this, it gave me a chance to exercise my rush strategy which seemed to go quite well.

Noble/Normal, cultural win 2031

Spoiler :

From 1000AD I was taking all the wonders for myself, until a late war with Sury started to everyone off. That seems to be my problem and even with a good start I don't capitalise and end up losing a few centuries to a pointless war when I should be focusing on SS Cockpit or something.

I think it's this inability to manage the late game that's stopping me from moving up a level. More practice required.

Other than that the last few centuries were non eventful. I had the cash to rapidly expand and fill all the gaps on the continent before settling down to a cultural win. I didn't set out with that in mind but I saw I was close, started producing culture and ramped up Great Artist production and here we are. Although my space ship was only four turns away from reaching Alpha Centuri so it could have gone either way.





Not my best score

 

[dualmaster]

@L-Plate

Spoiler :

You could have won a culture victory a long long time earlier. I noticed in your screenie that you are running 100% while building wealth and researching future tech 23????? If you wanted a culture victory you should start running 100% a long long time ago (maybe after Liberalism), your top 3 cities should be building culture, and you should be running the Free Speech civic for a huge 100% boost. With all those great cottages your culture slider will get you to victory pretty fast. Meanwhile try to pop Great Artists and use them to culture bomb in whatever of your 3 culture cities is furthest behind.

 

[lymond]

@L-Plate - Yeah man - know what you mean...happens to me a lot too when my "rushes" turn into battles of attrition.

 

[lymond]

Religious Victory 1784AD - Noble/Epic (85,305 points) But I was shooting for Domination and could have had it on that turn too

Two Firsts for me this game:
1) Religious Victory (never really tried it before)
2) Pre-1800AD victory

Spoiler :

Not long after my last update, as I begin to prep sending a huge stack to introduce Hyuana to word "smackdown", Churchill makes a peaceful vassal request. I'm actually a little surprised by this. I'm already set on a Domination Victory, but this certainly helps. Capitulating Hyuana should put me very close or at Dom, I think. Religious Victory is totally not on my mind, but all three of my vassals(Toku, Surya, and Church) are the same religion.

I send a nice stack of cannons, rifles, calvary and a coupla machine guns across the see to beeline Cuzco. I take the first city with ease and proceed to Cuzco. In the meantime, I send smaller stacks to his coastal cities to take them out and distract. Cuzco goes down with little trouble. My military is far to advance for the Incans at this point. I test the capitulations option with the intent of asking for a couple of cities. Hyuana is defiant until I take about 3 or 4 more cities down. He finally capitulates and gives me two cities. He must have had some event recently that prevent me from asking him to convert to Hindu, but a few turns later we welcome him to the true religion.

Despite grabbing several cities from the Incans, I still have a pretty nice SoD near the western border with Zara. My Domination Pop is well over at this point, but I'm still a bit short on Land Percentage. It's possible that the conquered city border pops will eventually get me to 64percent, but I want to finish this game as soon as possible. I decide to sick my SoD on a direct course to Zara's cap and taking a city on the way, hoping he will capitulate and end the game.

Now for some time I've been the AP leader but haven't paid much attention to it. The AP pop-ups had become few and far between at this point. I take an Ethopian city and then attack their capital. Interestingly, on the last turn I take down every unit in his cap except for one chariot. It will go down the next turn, but the AP popup asks me for a Religious Diplo vote. I'm like what the heck and click yes.

Next turn, all my vassals give me enough votes to win, with the exception of Churchill (who always votes for himself the cocky bahstahd), and the game is over.

Nice game. It was interesting playing with Gilgamesh. Not sure how effective the Protective trait actually was for me, although I did promo several units up the Drill chain. Otherwise, I never really was on the defensive much. The Creative trait is awesome though. Not having to worry about culture on the first build are very nice.

Thanks dalamb for a fun NC game!

 

[Groogaroo]

Noble/Normal, cultural win 2031

I wouldn't be too ashamed by that victory... a win is still a win It looks to me like you actually dominated the game fairly well (which is actually what I find to be the hard bit), you just need to focus a little more on closing out your victories.

Religious Victory 1784AD - Noble/Epic (85,305 points) But I was shooting for Domination and could have had it on that turn too

Two Firsts for me this game:
1) Religious Victory (never really tried it before)
2) Pre-1800AD victory

Crongrats on the win! It's always nice when you beat a personal best.

 

[Bisque]

Prince/Epic to 500AD... advice needed, see question at the end.

Spoiler :

I'm doing fine but I am not happy with my current situation, teching slow and not enough cottage development IMHO... but I am dominating my continent so far.

Settled in Place, tech order Ag-Mining-BW-pottery-writing-alphabet then straight to construction as I had spooted the phants to the northeast.

build order worker-warrior-warrior-barracks until pop 4- settler

first city founded was bronze-rice-fish to the NW, which also ran 2 scientists for first GS.

I scouted south first and didnt see the phants/clams until a bit late. once I did, I settled it and got IW/hunting while settling all of the city spots I targeted before going after a war, blocking off the northern lands from my opponents with the slow-to produce spices coastal city.

Spoiler :

i targeted Sury first since he was closest and had built a couple of nice wonders... as usual I spent too long chopping/whipping too big an invasion force... note the crashed economy due to too many troops and no CoL. held up by building wealth in a couple cities.

Spoiler :

needless to say it was a walkover...nearest city fell quickly and then I moved on to his capital... yay I got the great lighthouse !

Spoiler :

mopping up his last 3 cities was easy but took a few too many turns to regroup and move down south. i kept one of his last 3.. netting 3 cities total and no more Sury.

by 500AD economy is better with markets and my UB coming online. need more workers!

Question now: I could easily roll over MM immediately but he is friendly due to some tech trades and religious cohesion... with only 4 cities and being blocked in, he'd make a great trade partner while I instead go after Toku. But it will take me a while to rebuild for the stronger Toku and I might lose my 'phant advantage, even to the slow teching isolationist. Meanwhile I have land to settle to the north and I don't know where the English are yet....

so do I settle north and work on my infrastructure... taking on Toku later with muskets/rifles, or take Toku now, slowing down my economy in the near term? I'm way behind my usual tech pace with Civil Service at 500AD and still not to 200 bulbs at 100% science... ugh!

Game uses Bug Mod 4.1

 

[cripp7]

@Bisque

Spoiler :

You're actually looking good, GLH+Colossus will boost your economy. Regroup your force, keep MM for awhile (since he only has 4 cities he'll probly become a vssal later if you want) Toku is blocked in, so you could rebuild your economy, helps with a save.

 

[Bisque]

Doh, my bad, I formed that post from work. I have attached the save to original post.

 

[Shafi]

I'm feeling really lazy to play on since i botched up the start a bit, so i am gonna retire this one and play it from scratch again with the usual approach that works best for me .

PS - See i suck with Gilly, he's like a bad luck charm or something ...

 

[cripp7]

@Bisque

Spoiler :

You're builds are kinda all over the place. One of the first buildings should be the granary. The most important one. Instead of markets you need zigs to get those costs down. More workers to chop out that jungle.

 

[Bisque]

Prince/Epic to 1150AD. no excuse for losing from here , I should think. though I don't know everyone yet.

Spoiler :

Seeing Toku had a city with 'phants but didn't have HBR yet, I decided to go after him, i love killing this guy.

shifted forces west and built some replacement cats and added some swords since I saw spearmen running around near my border. a very healthy stack is ready by 880ad. it will make a beeline for his likely capital spot due west.

Spoiler :

the only city between us and his capital falls easily with the whole intact stack hitting it first.

Spoiler :

we move on to Kyoto with what remained healthy, healing the rest in the first city with a super medic on the way. Kyoto isnt defended all that well for a capital and we take it too. and we have the pyramids ! total casualties thus far 2 suicide cats and one phant. its not looking good for Toku.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

we get lucky and troops reconnoitering to the north find Nagasaki with one sole spearman defender. vulture odds 77% and the city is gone...

Spoiler :

after slow troop movement and recovery we take out the last city in the south and capture 5 workers in the surrounding tiles.

Spoiler :

I dont have feudalism and toku has nothing to give me, so no need to broker a peace with war weariness not killing me yet. we rapidly regroup and take out the last two cities, ending his presence on the planet.

Spoiler :

No reason I should not win this game at this point, I have GL and 'mids, will change to representation shortly and recover my economy of 16 cities while carefully expanding on my perimeter. I have rough tech parity at the moment and hope to scream ahead. 2 separate GP farms are going and i have a GS and GM waiting to be used.

interestingly I still don't know where the English are, and they are at war with an unseen enemy.

@cripp7

Spoiler :

built several zigs during the war, finished some markets as well. economy was much better until I took several cities, but I feel good about rapidly coming back with plenty of happiness, mids, and GLH. will be spitting out several workers next and a couple settlers for the north/east regions. I tend to get lazy and neglect cities during long wars, a definite weakness in my game. I have made no attempt to pretty things up before the posted save.

 

[cripp7]

@Bisque

Spoiler :

Good job on the war. Techs, you could have traded for Philo. What victory you trying?

 

[Bisque]

@cripp7

Spoiler :

one of my weaknesses is tech trading. I feel like Im giving up an advantage if I trade while I am the tech leader. I know this is bad thinking and I fight it continually, like alcoholism. it was ok in this case as I still win the lib race easily.

I was thinking domination during that round, but I chose not to vassal MM because it would be so easy to get his core cities. I figured capitulating the other continent with my tech lead should be easy. I've played the game out this morning, and that turned out to be correct. I'll post it later tonight.

my economy crashed like never before while fighting HC. Emancipation penalty was killing me, as well as not enough financial infrastructure with 30 cities and no state property.... which really hit hard with a non financial leader. I had to build wealth to stay positive at 0% science for a few turns to get his capital and cap him. I've never been anything close to that situation this late in a game before.

what fun!

 

[Bisque]

part 3 - Prince/Epic Domination Win 1850

Spoiler :

After cap'ing MM I regrouped in the NW of the continent for a push inland on HC. the goal was take capital and all his lovely wonders, clear enough culture to make the capital useful, and then capitulate him. Invasion force was ready as soon as I made enough galleons and got them all to the staging area. I also staged minor forces to take out his small cities strewn on/around my continent. I was forced to keep these as Zara was settling every square possible around the globe.

Spoiler :

the push went well as HC didn't even have gunpowder yet. During this attack my economy crashed... not enough grocers/banks in my commerce generating cities... no state property while owning ~30 cities...almost crippled me with some cities building wealth to stay positive at 100 % on the slider. but the war ended in time... and 6 cities later (4 kept)...

Spoiler :

I could not get him to give me Communism or Physics, hurumph. Oh well...

I failed to take any screen shots of the attack on Churchill. But it went quick as cannon and my shiny new infantry upgrades take London and raze a satellite city... earning a quick cap.

So its down to Zara.... I decided to attack fast with what I had to see if another quick cap would win the game. I hoped so, as he had over 20 cities by now over a huge area. But he too was just now past gunpowder and was no match for infantry and cannon coming at his capital and his southeast border at the same time.

only 5 cities, including the capital, and capitulation was mine.

Spoiler :

who cares what he gives you when it wins the game ?

Spoiler :

not my best effort at all, economy problems that late in a game with GLH... ugh. but a win is a win.

Spoiler :

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

@ Bisque - Good work. (I'm always jealous of domination wins.)