TSG43 Game in Progress

I used the range defense promotion on all my HA and rams start with it. I try to eleminate all melee units around a city before moving into the city's range. Units with full health taking 2 ranged shots a turn don't die, so once you move your fully healed units into range it becomes a game of shuffle out the wounded, which is easy with fast HAs. Since you can save promos, use insta heals on the rams when they dip below 50.

That is how I took out Ethiopia and England this game. When it came to the other neighbors, cities had castles, strength 40ish, and I had to wait until trebs and knights.
 
I am around turn 155 now.

When I got astro finally, of course I have tried to find the other continent the wrong way.
(I send a scout both way, but my army was already en route so it did not matter if I turn back or not)

This was I did not found Monty who settled in a nice plains with easy targets but Askia with a lot of hills. Fortunately he was quite weak - Augustus had the lead.

I have used oxford not on Astro but Navigation because I suspected Rams + Archers will not be enough. Actually against Askia they were. But for Rome, I needed to use my navy to capture.

Honor still works well on this GOTM. Scouts give happiness, upgrade is cheap.
I have selected commerce and RAT starter after astro next. (no lib or trad at all)

I still have France, Japan and Aztecs left - I am hoping Japan will capture the Aztec capital soon, but I am building a small second army to do that if needed.

I hope to finish at 180-200. Paris will be difficult tough, I am not sure If I should just try to snipe it or go trough the continent. My army is at the other side of the continent... I hope my ships can take care of it, and my ground army can take Kyoto.


Unfortunately, when I am home, and play I always forget to screenshot and from work I can only write. But I will try to include one later.
 
Turn 117 :

Still waiting for Astro. 13 turns to go after rushing an university. Still into negative happiness(building more and more troops). I will finish with approx. 2X(8-9 HAs and 2 rams) and will try to invade an AI or 2 very fast and see if i can combine some for more powerful attacks for last civs especially with logistics.

My cpt is too slow so i picked the Lib. path after the left side of honor. Everything is looking slow! :lol:...i really wonder if i can beat every AIs with ancient units only...maybe that i will rush buy some better units in future cities and maybe Navigation for frigates to soften coastal ones.

Of course every AIs on my continent hate me since turn 60.

Spoiler :


Spoiler :
 
I'm making an LP of this game. First part is now up here (edit: covering turns 1-36). It's not as masterful as some of the other videos posted here, but it is a lot more chatty.

Moderator Action: When posting videos, please state how many turns they cover so that we can understand if it is in the appropriate thread. Thanks.
 
Tabarnak: I did not left anyone alive on my continent so no hate from there.

Unfortuantely I had to lie to Askia about attacking him, so I am still not good standing on the other one.
 
Hopefully someone recording his play for youtube... there must be something I'm missing or for some reason your enemies never put up walls, dunno.

yeah, this guy -

Moderator Action: Link removed because it is a spoiler outside the spoiler threads for an active game. Please do not post link to spoilers while the game is active.
 
Tabarnak: I did not left anyone alive on my continent so no hate from there.

Nice. I forgot that idea to get highly specialized units BEFORE going the other side. I will still stay nice even if a have 9-10 turns to DoW because they gathered more units and i'm afraid that they will attack me all together if i do this.

But letting them alive(and calm) brings me some important deals.
 
Decided to not play it because I'd probably give up anyway midway (hard diff large map domination is a pain, really) and not really having the time for it.

I did however test how the rams do on another map on immortal and what to say - I attacked as soon as possible, but all enemies immediately had walls up and a ranged unit as garrison, killing a ram or a a HA per turn. It seemed impossible to me to conquer even 1 civ with these units and no one should be able to do it/the continent in 100 turns when he 100% loses a unit every turn (not to mention with the walls up a ram didn't even do 1/6 dmg to the city).

Walls shouldn't much matter for the rams, they get 300% bonus versus cities. However, they are weak. What I did in this game was pepper the city with the archers until its close to falling (yellow at least) and then move the ram within range to attack the following turn. If they attacked the ram I would blast the city again with my archers and then hopefully get it low enough for the ram to take in its wounded state. If they attacked some other unit, chances were I could just take the city with the ram alone. Later on I had two rams so at least one would be full health the following turn.

If you promote archers to get the double attack, it becomes a very efficient (but slow) war machine.
 
Into turn +170 now - need a break :)

Against 10 civs on Immortal (unless some of them crush each other), I figured I had to take England down asap, so I researched towards horse archers and rams. They had come up with the same idea though and settled York where I planned to put my support city and then she DOWed on me. It took longer than expected to bend them though and I marched straight towards the Mayans.

Spoiler :


Just after I took their cap, Ethiopia DOWed and sent a large force towards my cap, so I had to divert my main army, which was on route to take care of Greece, back to the homeland. I managed to destroy his army and take the cap, after which I (again) went for Greece. Here at turn172, Athens fell and I might make peace with them and focus on getting ready for upgrading my army to trebs and longswords and throw in some pikes, before sending them overseas.

Spoiler :


I've found the other continent and have some scouts and a caravel on route to check it out. I'll have to do some thinking as to how to approach this....

All in all, a tough game and I feel somewhat behind, especially techwise. My plans didn't quite go as desired and I usually got hit by a DOW when it was least convenient, but that's what you have to expect at this level :lol:

Edit: forgot to mention - I've gone with full Tradition and the right side of Honor by now. Next will be opening Rationalism and I need to beef up my happiness, perhaps via trading with the other continent and colusseums.
 
Played until turn 107 now.
Education is the next tech, and I was able to found a religion, since the Mayans were so kind to build Stonehenge in their capital. I chose Tithe and pagodas, the production bonus was already taken :(.

I have not yet finished warring on my continent. England and the Mayans are wiped out, and Greece lost Sparta so far, heading for Athens now. The City defenses (20) are not yet unbearable, but the fighting is close due to the terrain. I have 5 HA, 3 Rams, 1 Sword right now, already lost 2 rams, 1 HA and a spear :(.

Once education pops, I will research trebs and knights, then astro. I filled out Tradition and work now on Patronage. Staying friends with every CS that I pledge tro protect is a nice boost, and also gives better quests.

I have built a few wonders, chichen itza in 2 turns and the pyramids, the latter on turn 90 :D. By then 3 city states were requesting to build them, so now my happiness is very good. I aim to launch my invasion around turn 130, but the Ethiopians are still there to be taken after Greece.

Lets see how it works out. The Ethiopian Capital has a few wonders so it will give a nice boost.



Things I learned this game:
- Rams can take cities. Did not know that so my offensive was slower than it could have been ^^.
- Immortal AI can build early wonders very fast. GL was gone turn 26 (!).
 
I got beaten down by T60. England Dowed me at turn 20, managed to capture london by 53, but Lizzy already had two other cities set up. Just as I captured london I saw Pascal come in with 10 units from the north after conquering Valetta. Pretty much GG for my damaged archer, two warriors and ram and scout sitting down in London. Tried to get pascal to change his mind before he dowed me by paying Alex into war with him, didnt help though. Pascal walked in and had Atillas Court captured in four turns.

I used to do immortal, but since G&K I can't seem to pull it off unless I get an OP startlocation. Even now I was lucky with ruins popping Pottery, Growth and 20 culture. Went Honour policies but only managed to get Dicipline and Warrior code.

Might give it another spin tomorrow or in the weekend. I was really looking forward to playing the huns. :)
 
I'm on turn 276 right now.

I settled one tile SW of the start. I opened the game with a warrior then a worker. After that I started building horse archers. As the luxes came online I sold them and spent the money on settlers for two additional cities. The first was at the source of the river in the hills next to the northern mountain. The second was on the East coast and took advantage of the abundant wheats up there and I had hopes of a petra powerhouse. When the Great Library was built on turn 29 I realized wonders would not be in my near future. I took two Tradition policies and then two Honor policies to start. No lucky unit upgrades for me.

I declared friendship with the Maya and Ethiopia before my first ram came out of the capital, so I attacked Elizabeth first in coordination with the Pacha. Liz was spamming cities and units so it took me a while to take and raze all her cities.

Pacha was still being nice to me at this point and buying all my lux. Alex DOWed Pacha so I went after Alex's flank next while they were distracted with each other. Alex was sitting in some tougher terrain and he had cavalry by the time I got to him so he took a little while. Right when I finished Alex, Hallie decided to backstab me with a denounciation. Fortunately I had an experienced army on one side of him and some fresh troops on the other side. I was generating generals like crazy so I used some citadel builds to take the capital first. Around this point unhappiness was becoming a real limitation so I had to take my time in razing the rest of his cities. His stupid religion was spreading like herpes and I was in serious danger of adopting the foreign religion in my capital before I ever got mine off the ground. Had to build shrines and pray for a quick pantheon and prophet. Even late into the game my capital was alone amidst a continent of foreign religion, long after Hallie was gone.

Pacha declared war on me shortly after I razed the last Ethiopian city. I had just enough time to get my army down to the Maya right as the hoards of swords pikes and compound bows came into my borders. Two of my cities went down to no defense, but I focused on the melee units so the bowmen couldn't take my cities. When they were down to a couple swords and a few bows the Maya retreated. I killed one or two more during the retreat but had to hold up on the Mayan border. There were a couple more bows and pikes in there and the capital was pushing 30 defense. It had hills forest and mountains protecting the approaches so I had to hold off and wait to turn my four remaining rams into trebuchets. Happiness and money were big issues at this time but I finally got the upgrades and took the capital. The first three civs killed a total of one unit, but the Mayans took three of my units taking their capital. It took me well over 100 turns to take every capital on my continent, maybe 120ish. I killed every civ off except Pacha, who had two cities remaining. I wanted to take them, but they were well defended and close packed and I just couldn't deal with the unhappiness and money issues to lose more units.

By the end of the medieval carnage I was in danger of falling hopelessly behind on science. I had more or less bee-lined for the Trebs and crossbows to keep up my wars and I didn't even have libraries built. So I had to back tech and try to get all three of my cities humming with buildings. Unhappiness totally hampered my growth all the way through about turn 150. The city states gave me no good missions until about this time as well. Slowly I built up my economy and my science and I added a fourth then a fifth city as I made the decision to go wide. I was fifth to found a pantheon (desert faith) and fifth to found a religion but I still got Cathedrals and the one happiness per city options. My first wonder was Chichen Itza and that is about the time the money and the happiness finally went positive for good. I missed Notre Dame by a turn and I didn't get my Natl College or Natl Monument or Ironworks until well into the renaissance. I spent my first two prophets after founding my religion spreading it. Slowly I stemmed the tide of Christianity in favor of Confusianism, and slowly I climbed the scientific standings. I got a couple of rennaisance wonders like Sistine Chapel, Porcelain Tower and Taj Mahel.

I did a good job of having a trireme on either side of the continent for when Astronomy hit. I flew due East and West and found all the other civs within a dozen turns or so. My scout went through the interior as I sold all of my mountains of lux and created open borders with everyone. Oda was winning the game at this point, in terms of science and score. He had battered Askia and Napolean already. By the end of the Renaissance, I was neck and neck with him for the tech lead, and I had the edge in score.

From this point on I have been extending my tech lead through RAs and good old fashioned beakers. I have seven cities now plus the conquered capitals on my continent. The problem is, while I am leading in tech, all the other civs are bee-lining military techs, as they are all at war. Oda has done me the favor of taking Askia and Nappy's capitals, but I have no idea how I am going to get a toe hold over there. If I try to win this one diplomatically I think I can do it, but I have no idea how I am going to dominate that continent. Obviously others have mentioned the Stealth strategy, but I just dont think I have the military chops to pull this off. Not sure what I'm gonna do.
 
T91

Slow start with a surprise attack by Liz in late 20s. I could not believe the horde she brought, more then 12 units in a massive wave. I had one battered ram, a HA and a scout to defend. They fought a valiant delaying action, retreating behind my cap while HA and cap were thinning the herd. Sold gpt to Maya for archer and built another HA and it was enough for her to run just as she had me completely surrounded. Alex was coming to join the fray, not sure on whose side, but went back and eventually declared on Pacal.

I did not realize what a monster a ram is, and didn't take London until 70s, after taking York planted between two spices. I was going to have my 2nd city where Tabarnak's is but decided not to raze and I am going OCC so far.

Immediately turned around for Haile, and took his cap in mid 80s. Had to tell him I was coming to kill him as I did not want that diplo hit, but besides not getting his gold it didnt slow me down. Now 4 HA and a ram plus GG and archer are going for alex who lost most of his army at Maya cap ( they are OCC as well and got some wonders there)

No religion or pantheon, nowhere close to astro either but a big cap with a library and NC should let me get there if I can finish my continent without having to tech trebs or IW. Super fun challenge so far, with that early Dow I thought I would be writing my defeat up in the other thread
 
On the other continent, I took down Dido in the north and established a base of operations. At the same time I had another army + frigates approaching Paris, planning to attack France/Japan from each side and meet up at the Japanese capitol and turn North.

Imagine my horror then, when my scouts found out that their lands (and Rome) were bursting with units, mainly pikes, crossbows, muskets and cannons. The had almost killed the other civs on their continent entirely and as a result, they were at peace with eachother with massive amounts of gold and units. I couldn't bribe any of them to DOW, so I had no choice but to go forward with my plan and hope for a battle field miracle.

The result - the 'France strike force' got decimated to 1/3 of its strength, about 1/2 of the other army is lost and I'm still facing overwhelming opposition. Paris is out of the question - his cannons and crossbows killed 3 frigates in 2 turns...

So, as it stands in this game, I can either admit to defeat or sit on my ass for +100 turns and wait for bombers, carriers and stealth and I'm not really in the mood for spending a couple of hours pressing 'enter'...

Damn.... :(
 
Took one in Tradition, then filled out honor, then returned to tradition for two more: four free cultural buildings and happiness in capital.

Finished off my continent on turn 104, if my memory serves. Left a few stray cities for trades (bad rate of return because they don't like me, but better than nothing while researching Astro).

I finished Astro around turn 137-138 or so. At turn 143 I have several units ready to attack my first opponent on the continent to the West. It looks clear I will need to upgrade lots of units this game. Glad I went honor.

The huns are fun for a game or two, but I don't like civs that force you into one strategy. I prefer more versatile civs, even if they are not as strong.
 
Before starting this game I played a few test games with simliar settings and quickly realized this game may be tough without knowing how to use Battering Rams to full effect. So I played a couple of Immortal Duel games with the Huns and was able to get conquests under 30 turns worked out (if I settled on a mining resource and/or got upgrade luck).
Feeling some confidence built up I bravely opened the save, scouted across the river to see the horses, and settled beside the salt surrounded by river on four sides. Probably would have been better to settle right on the salt though.

I built warrior first, hoping it would increase my chances for a Battering Ram upgrade. No luck though. Didn't get Culture either. Lots of maps and Barb camps though! :)
Built Monument second, then worker. SPs were Tradition opener, then Liberty opener and then Lib tree: Citizenship, Republic, Representation

Decided I didn't need to build any cities myself and would just take others' cities.
Beelined for Bronze Working to build/buy the Battering Rams, and then marched on London with Warriors and two BRs.
London went down at T40. York shortly afterwards.
Not the quickest start I'm sure, but OK.

I then marched on to Palenque, with some Horse Archers starting to come out. I was a litte rash there and I quickly lost a Battering Ram at the city gates. they had a ton of troops there. I did a strategic withdrawal, killing enemies as I withdrew, and with Horse Archers coming in. In the meantime, I didn't go for the Great Library because in my test games the AI was building it usually around T30 or T40 at the latest. So I had built a Library in the cap then at around turn 55 I was wanting to build the National College, but didn't have the tech yet. I noticed that the Great Library was still available though. Strange eh? My production in the capital was strong, and I could get it in 10 turns. I thought my chances of getting it at turn 65 weren't too good but I could use the gold if it failed. Meanwhile the Maya declare on Greece, and I take the opportunity to push a second time for Palenque. The Ethiopians declare on me just as Palenque is about to fall. But they don't send any troops (I think the Maya must have bribed them to DoW me). Palenque falls at T64, and whaddayaknow I get the Great Library at T65! For the Free Tech I was torn between Philo (for the NC) and Iron Working (worried about the Greek Hoplites, and my undefended captial right next to my still-at-war Ethiopian neighbours). For fastest finish Philo was probably the right choice, but I went the less risky route and took Iron Working. Cool, Iron
discovered within London's borders!


Figured I might need some faith, so built a Shrine, then Stonehenge at T77 in the Capital (actually that's still the only place to build anything since the other cities are all puppets).
London also built a shrine while puppeted (to worship me I presume).
Founded Pantheon T80, took Stone Circles since I already had four quarries up and running, and two more could be quickly built in Palenque. At T80 I'm generating +15 Faith per turn.

Decided I needed to eliminate the Mayans so they wouldn't bite me in the butt. Tikal (the mayan's last city) fell T78 and I razed it in two turns, so i'm back into happiness now. My build of the NC got interuppted though because Tikal didn't have a library in it. Strange that a city that you're razing counts as an occupied city for that purpose.

Got NC built T91.

Addis Abbaba fell T92, and I accepted peace from the Ethiopians the next turn so I could take on the Greeks, who seem to be mobilizing a lot of troops.
Unhappiness was at -7 now even with meritocracy, so built Circus in Capital, and gave Vallenta some gold to be my ally. but was still at -3, so needed to hook up a couple of those newly aquired cities (got the Meritocracy around T86).

No contact from any other civs yet, so I figured I needed to get Astro ASAP in order to find the other continent. Realized that science was more of a priority than taking out the Greeks quickly.

First Great Prophet born T94. Founded the "Huntastic" religion, with Ceremonial Burial for the happy faces, and Pagodas.

Addis Abbaba is puppeted and worshipping Christianity, with Cathedral follower belief, maybe I should build a Cathedral there before converting it? I guess you're allowed to do that?

I DoWed Greece T95 because their troops were spread out everywhere, and some of them were near my Militaristic Ally Vallenta in the middle. Figured I could take out a good part of their army before marching on Athens.

Some Unknown civ enhanced their religion T96 (gotta be the Celts, I seem to recall some unknown civ taking Goddess of the Hunt really early)

Athens goes down T109. lost a Horse Archer and a Battering Ram though. Took a peace deal to regroup and heal. want to wipe out Greece and Ethiopia before finding other civs.
Got a University in the Cap now, and working on Compass (will then bulb Astro on turn 116 with the GS I'm saving from the Liberty finisher)

Got Chitzen Itza done on T111, but still at -4 unhappy. Also clicked "Annex" in stead of "Puppet" by mistake on conquering Athens. I don't know why, but I do that quite often - need a mod to warn me about that! ("Are you sure you don't want to Puppet instead?")

Religion Enhanced T113. took Itinerant Preachers and Religious centres for happiness +2 from temples (maybe the one to buy units with faith would have been better, but I was worried about happiness).

I also have an unused settler from the Collective Rule SP that I'm thinking I'll plant near some pearls which is a lux I don't have. But maybe I can also sail him over to the other continent and plant him there.

An interesting game so far. I hope it doesn't drag out too long on the other continent. I'm #1 in Literacy, that should help!
 
I'm doing suprisingly well. I read what the rams are good for, and used them wisely. I got pop and two tech from ruins as well. And two civs in far away lands have lost their capitols. I have relieved the English and the Mayans of their capitols, both completely eliminated from the game. In a dom game, they might as well hate me sooner than later. The Ethipians are peeing in their pants in fear of my might, and they habve good reason as they are next on my list. Alex is friendly, but that never lasts. Sooner I get him, the better for my survival chances.

No wonders, world or national. Most of the Honor tree done, and a couple of Tradition. Time to heal after Pacal war, and then not waste time, just go for the Ethiopians. Alex will be the first hard target, so I want lots of promos. Tech rate slow, but staying on ,military side of things and hoping espåionage will even things out later. Otherwise, the far aways will be too far ahead and I can count my days.

Considering I usually don't last this long on King level, I'm feeling pretty cocky.

Now... if my son would stop playing League of Legends, I could get some stuff done....:rolleyes:
 
Turn 70 as our Horse Archers are approaching the gates of Athens. We already took London and Palenque (with the Great Library) on the way, and our original Warrior (now drill3) can hardly keep up. :mischief:

I may not have time to finish this one though.

The Hun capital, Saint Martin, was settled where I said it would be, 2 tiles SW of the starting point. Just a turn ago we put Wolf Castle on the coast at the floodplain wheats.

(Tapioszentmarton, or Saint Martin at the river Tapio, is the likely location of Attila's main palace. Wolf Castle is Ulcisia Castra, the old Roman name
for what is now Szentendre (Saint Andrew) near Budapest, also a river town.)


Exploring gave us 3 nearby huts, east and south, for tech (Trapping...), gold, and survivors. We bought the river sheep to accomodate the second citizen. :)

England did not like having us so closeby and started preparing for war from turn 1, to declare on turn 31 with 8 units. Two Archers killed half of that wave, after which the remaining assailants skedaddled. With our Horse Archers coming online and the Maya moving in on the redcoats from the west we saw no reason not to push them off the map early. And since the Maya were already in the vicinity, having taken York, they were obviously next. York was razed, it served no purpose.

The Maya must have started with a Worker on copper, since they had the resource when we met them between turns 4-5. :crazyeye:
After their death, they somehow still managed to win the culture challenge for Zurich. :mad::confused:

We don't have Bronze Working yet. The Battering Ram is almost overpowered but the technology was simply not on our research path. An early upgrade from a ruins would really have helped since a single Battering Ram can take a size 2 or 3 city without assistance. But we're happy with the way things are going.


Cities
1 Saint Martin = 9 (2x salt, 2x marble, spices, horses)
52 London = 6 (truffles, marble)
65 Palenque = 3 (3x copper, silver)
69 Wolf Castle = 1 (horses, 3x floodplain wheat)
Total citizens = 19

Policies
14 Tradition
19 Liberty
28 Citizenship
43 Republic
66 Collective Rule

Religion
50 Monument to the Gods (+15% production for ancient and classical wonders)

Saint Martin
9 Monument
13 Worker 310g
19 Granary
20 Scout
25 Shrine
28 Worker (citizenship)
29 Archer
33 Archer
38 Water Mill
39 Library 400g
42 Horse Archer
45 Horse Archer
46 Horse Archer
49 Horse Archer
52 Circus, Great General
55 Horse Archer
58 Stable 500g
60 PYRAMIDS -> 2 Workers
66 STONEHENGE
68 Settler

Technology
1 Trapping (ruins)
10 Pottery
16 Mining
23 Archery
32 The Wheel :king:
39 Writing
46 Masonry
51 Calendar
58 Horseback Riding
64 Mathematics
67 Sailing
70 Optics
 
This is enough for me to just give up now.
Conquering the continent on turn 75 as Tabarnak did is too quick, rather. There is time until Astronomy, and you can even consider leaving one local rival alive as trading partner until the troops for overseas have been deployed. :)
 
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