Welcome to the 6otM138 After Actions Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!
STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.
Please attach your victory save to your post.
- What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points? - What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics? - How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting? - Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages? - How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy your game?
Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.
It was my first time with Dido, and she is just so strong on a water map like this one!
Plan
To grab as many capitals with Biremes as possible before they build up walls, then combo the Cothon gold with the Free Inquiry dedication science and the Naval Infrastructure policy to get frigates and caravels as soon as possible to end whatever remains.
There were two strategic decisions I would highlight as having the major effect on my success: having my first three cities pumping biremes with Maritime Industries until I got into negative gold, and conquering Buenos Aires, obtaining a base to heal vessels attacking Suleiman and to launch the final attack over Basil.
Early stage
After an early success conquering Gitarja's capital, I thought my strategy would fail as I found Basil's capital was inland and he had no coastal cities, and the fourth civilization I found, Amanitore, had already walls on her capital. My early bireme navy came out even before I had built any district. Then, I focused on recovering my economy building Cothons, except for my capital that got the Government plaza first, and the second city that got a holy site, trying to counter Basil's strong religious game.
Things went well and no other capitals had walls, and only Suleiman's was on a single coastal tile. By T100 I had shaved down Amanitore's walls and all the coastal capitals were mine, only Basil resisting the wave, but with a few units already at his doors.
Cities
5 settled, 15 conquered. I settled over the sheep, to preserve the woods for a bit extra early food and production, but specially to have a better placement for the government plaza next to the cothon. The fourth city I could have avoided and instead made a couple more land units. The fifth one was with a settler grabbed from Amanitore and went over niter to have my first source for frigates.
War
The first wave of biremes sailed west, discovering Gitarja and Amanitore. The second wave sailed east, discovering Suleiman, Joao and Victoria. Gitarja was the first to fall, then the biremes took the two non-walled cities of Amanitore, while another one explored southwest discovering Wilhelmina. Gitarja's capital built up a cothon and then started to pump up biremes and quadriremes. Three biremes took Amsterdam, while the east navy slowly took Suleiman's capital and Joao's one. There was a joint war to Joao with Victoria but his last city build walls while I was attacking it and I decided to sign peace with them. It took some effort to retain one of Joao's cities due to loyalty pressure on that island. Then, the biremes from Wilhelmina started a war over Victoria and took his capital, while the biremes from Portuguese war took England's southernmost city.
At that point I switched my focus on building land units on the main continent to fight Basil, and to get an apostle to ensure religion advantage. Meanwhile I slowly took down Amanitore's capital walls with six biremes and a quadrireme. My first admiral was spent on making a fleet for that war.
In the end I took with a horseman Basil's northern capital (with quite a help from Wolin), and the southern one using my initial warrior upgraded to swordsman and my first slinger upgraded to archer. This second city suffered a flood that damaged the city helping me save one or two rounds. Then I bought a catapult north and a trebuchet south, and ensemble with a spearman and warrior that joined the fight, and an apostle and a missioner that put my religon on his capital, I finally conquered Basil.
Religion
Pantheon: God of the Sea for extra production is always welcomed for domination and there were many fishing boats.
Religion: Choral Music for a bit extra culture and Crusade, to help take Basil.
In the end, I think I could have just avoided religion altogether and used that production on a few more land units. But there was the risk Basil could start converting holy cities or took Defender of the Faith, so it was probably an arguably cautious approach. Also, I needed a district to boost State Workforce and only had Holy sites and Campuses, and one city-state mission was for a holy site.
Wonders
Nothing special here, I wanted the Great Lighthouse, but the game was over before I could finish it. I conquered the Great Bath from Suleiman and the Oracle from Victoria, but they had no impact.
Natural wonders were not used other than to get Astrology faster, thanks to Galapagos Islands.
Apocalypse and Tech Shuffle
The Apocalypse mode made things a bit more difficult for me after a giant storm reduced Istambul population from 4 to 1 and I started to have loyalty problems in Suleiman's island for half the game.
It also helped me when a flood helped me conquer Basil's southern city. I completely ignored the gods calls. An archer suffered from sudden radiation, but I think it did not affect him. The volcano's on my island and Amsterdam city also caused trouble killing a few citizens a couple of times.
Knowing well the tech and civic's trees helps a lot with the shuffle thing, as you are able to navigate the randomness more effectively. The Sailing boost quickly showed me the first priority. After that the two sea resources directed me towards Celestial Navigation and Shipbuilding was found when the biremes started to appear. Then I considered going after Cartography, but realized the coastal game was already won and I had to go after iron and other land techs to take Basil's inland capital.
For Civics, I went first for Political Philosophy, delaying the Government plaza, for I was building biremes without stop and I had enough time to grab the plaza after having the Oligarchy bonuses on my exploring navy. Then, I completely ignored Divine Right and went after the Naval Tradition, which gave me +36 extra gold and science per turn thanks to my 12 cothons.
Golden Age
The game only made it into the Classical era. Building my first bireme gave me already +7 era score, and the natural wonders and civilizations they discovered, along with a few barbarian encampments and the Tier 1 government, it was enough to make it a golden age.
I went after Fee Inquiry, my plan was to produce science out of my cothons, and by the end turn they were giving me +72 science thanks to this dedication, just half of my science output. Together with the +50% eureka boosts, I had frigates before the Classical era ended without building a single campus.
City-states
Suzerain of three: Wolin, Lahore and Kabul.
Wolin was considerably helpful. I got it on T55 thanks to Amani, and the 5 admirals I got were in great part thanks to it. It also took out many of Basil's units when I declared war to punish his missionaries and still did not have a sizable land army myself. Finally, helped me put siege to Thessalonica (Basil's northern pass city) when I only had a horsemen in there.
Kabul I got for the extra experience, but only in the final turns, so not much impact there, and Lahore I took to fight Basil and grant me passage, but I could have done without it.
In general I spread the envoys to get the minor tier bonus rather than focus on some to get suzerainty. I think they were helpful, and thanks to the double initial envoy card, later on I was making +22 gold from Merchant confederation.
Basil was taking Buenos Aires. When I noticed, I preferred to take it for myself rather than let him have it. A passing by bireme stalked there for a couple of rounds, and when I saw the chance, I declared war and grabbed the city in a single turn leaving Basil without their coveted prize. Figure out, this ended being a great strategic advantage, as it helped me sustain the war with Suleiman and launch the southern attack over Basil, which was easier than the northern pass.
Civilization bonuses
Dido's bonuses really help each other on this archipelago map.
Move capital: not used
Additional trade routes: helped boost Medieval Faires (which was a bottleneck civic by the way)
Production to districts: gave me my first cothon in a single turn after chopping the government plaza
Writing boost: helped reach Sailing, but I think I would have got it from meeting Basil anyway
100% loyalty: my steal of Buenos Aires would have not worked without this ability, and that strategic positioning was vital for my game, thus I will rate this ability very high
Faster settlers: I made some exploration with a couple stolen settlers, obtaining an envoy and a builder from the few villages they found, and thanks to this speed I got access to niter considerably earlier
Bireme: they were the basis of my victory, the extra speed helped unveil the map very fast, before most of my foes had walls, and their strength coupled with Oligarchy helped them survive and take walls
Trader protection: not used
Cothon: awesome unique district, the cheaper cost meant I was able to have cothons in most of my cities, even on conquered ones, which helped my economy (hello those two siege units bought in front of Basil's capital) and science (thanks to Free Inquiry). The extra settler production I almost did not use (one built in the capital) but the naval boost along with Maritime Industries, helped me pull enough vessels from Gitarja's capital to win Amanitore and the barbarians causing trouble in that area. The fast healing was vital to defeat Amanitore, a nearby city was constantly healing my navy, and all the turns I had available a couple fully healed units to attack her capital. It really helped made things faster on other fronts as well.
Barbarians
They caused some problems, with a couple raided cothons but fortunately I had enough biremes through all of the map to keep them at bay. I tried to clean the southern island with my initial warrior, but I had to pull him back home after grabbing a village because an archer and three warriors almost find him killed.
Final state
Once the southern army put siege to Basil's capital and my apostle triggered the Crusade strength bonus, the catapult and trebuchet took over the walls and the city fell on a couple rounds.
By the end I had 17 biremes, 1 frigate, 1 quadrireme, 3 archers, 3 swordmen, 2 warriors, 2 spearmen, 1 horseman, 1 catapult and 1 trebuchet. 7 of these units were bought rather than produced. I could have upgraded to man-at-arms with the Mercenaries policy discounts, but I preferred to buy the siege units on Basil's cities.
I have the feeling that trying to win Basil first is some kind of trap on this map, as trying to profit your land units to conquer requires Shipbuilding and embarked units are much slower than biremes and defenseless to barbarians navy, but I am curious about what others can pull out of this map. Maybe building some warriors instead of settlers, and then using Basil's cities to build the biremes, but he had no coastal cities, and that northern passage is very limiting, so I do not think it would work. Also when the game started I thought the island would be smaller and I would have no neighbor, so I went for a monument instead of units.
All in all a very interesting game. It felt very different from the Huge Earth Basil's horsemen Domination game I just played! It was fun!
SpoilerFull log :
1 - Ancient Era; Africa
2 - Tyre
6 - Village (+40 gold)
10 - Wolin
12 - Animal Husbandry
13 - Basil Novopangea Monument
15 - Code of Laws
22 - Writing
23 - Foreign Trade
24 - Settler
26 - Biruta
27 - Barbarian encampment (+50 gold)
29 - Slinger Builder
31 - Village (Trader)
36 - Sailing Barbarian encampment (+50 gold) Slinger
40 - Pantheon (God of the Sea)
41 - Mining Mysticism
42 - Settler
44 - Bireme Monument
45 - Builder
47 - Bireme
48 - Archery Kty Village (irrigation)
49 - Craftsmanship Bireme
50 - Early Empire Amani Bireme
51 - Galapagos Islands
52 - Laurasia
53 - Bireme Jerusalem Kabul Gitarja
54 - Bireme
55 - Wolin♟
56 - Bireme Buenos Aires
57 - Astrology Kazakhstania
58 - Pamukkale Denounced Gitarja
59 - Bireme Bireme Bireme Bireme Yerevan Chinguetti
60 - Political Philosophy Oligarchy Suleiman
61 - Classical Era (Golden Age - Free Inquiry)
63 - Builder
64 - War to Gitarja Lahore
65 - Military Tradition Bireme Holy site Denounced Suleiman
66 - State Workforce Magnus War to Buenos Aires Buenos Aires
67 - Celestial Navigation Majapahit Defeated Gitarja
69 - Amanitore
70 - Masonry War to Suleiman Cliffs of Dover Joao Denounced by Amanitore
71 - Government plaza Liang Mogadishu Denounced by Joao
72 - Cothon Monument Archer Venice
73 - Great Barrier Reef Victoria Joint war to Joao with Victoria Cahokia
74 - Horseback Riding War to Amanitore Denounced by Victoria
75 - Istanbul Great Bath Barbarian encampment (+50 gold) Sedeinga
76 - Defensive Tactics Pingala Cothon Trader
77 - Lisbon Builder
78 - Bireme Bireme
79 - Shipbuilding Nuri
80 - Pottery
81 - Bronze Working Circumnavigation Évora Wilhelmina Met all civilizations
82 - Wheel Denounced by Wilhelmina
83 - Irrigation Confucius Cothon Lighthouse Religion (Choral Music, Crusade) Builder
84 - Theology Warrior Cothon Quadrireme
85 - Mathematics Cothon Trader Warlord’s Throne Provision (Magnus) Village (+100 faith)
86 - Granary War to Wilhelmina Peace with Joao
87 - Bireme Gaius Duilius
88 - Iron Working Amsterdam Defeated Wilhelmina
89 - Drama and Poetry Bireme Swordsman
90 - Settler Cothon Sivas Hong Kong Spearman
91 - Shrine
92 - Cothon Quadrireme Village (Builder)
93 - Artemisa Utica Barbarian encampment (+50 gold) Bireme** Builder
94 - Engineering Trader Ancient walls Missionary
95 - Cothon War to Victoria
96 - Builder Bristol Village (+1 envoy) Lahore♟
97 - Medieval Faires Victor Lighthouse London Oracle Denounced by Joao Quadrireme
98 - Themistocles Settler Horseman War to Basil Quadrireme Swordsman Archer Cothon
99 - Education Zhang Heng
100 - Swordsman Temple Water mill Meroë Defeated Amanitore Slinger
101 - Builder Village (+60 faith) Settler Warrior
102 - Hanno the Navigator Spearman Lighthouse
103 - Apprenticeship Warrior Builder Quadrireme
104 - Machinery Village (castles, military engineering)
105 - Naval Tradition
106 - Currency Thessalonica Monument
107 - Catapult Encampment Builder Bireme
108 - Military Engineering Library Kabul♟ Builder Apostle
109 - Nicaea Lighthouse Lighthouse Lighthouse Village (games and recreation) Byblos
110 - Construction Monument Builder
111 - Trebuchet Barracks Holy site Village (buttress)
112 - Square Rigging Mercenaries Trader Cothon Zheng He
113 - Military Training Quadrireme Cothon Chinguetti Defeated Chinguetti Peace with Suleiman
114 - Lighthouse Constantinople Domination Victory
- What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
It was my first attempt to play Apocalypse and Turn shuffle modes both, and I was little scared for Apocalypse.
I didn't go for fast end approach and rather focused on building a few cities, while at the same time levied Wolin CS' army for killing Basil. After having 5 cities in total I built Temple of Artemis in Cap (I love ToA. ). Second city built Govt. Plaza and focused on building Settlers. All cities built Cothon first. Pumped lots of biremes and Quadrimes and started the warring campaign towards right of the continent, taking Suleman > Joao, etc.
I received free Governor title from a tribal village, which helped in taking second upgrade for Magnus very early, and also take second upgrade for Liang faster, which allowed building fishery improvement earlier. This was a big edge I think.
I could have decided to start wars lot earlier, but I preferred creating some good cities and creating Cothon's first, which took many turns. Furthermore, I made three GB's in my capital (ToA + Great Lighthouse + Machu Pichu). All This consumed lots of turns initially, but I felt greatly satisfied doing this. Maybe next time I would try to build army before building my cities first.
In this game I first time played Lahore, and used Nihang. Although good unit, I don't think it's as OP as many people claim, as it does not benefit from the siege support units which is why we use melee troops.
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
Worker > Slinger > Settler > Scout > Bireme > Bireme
Campus > Library > Worker
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Researched Animal Husbandry > Writing > Sailing
Grabbed Foreign Trade Civics first.
Fully focused on coastal bonuses and navy related researches and techs, though I soon realized I would need Swordsman for Basil, as he was inland. So also grabbed land army techs as well.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Really loved Cothons, mainly because they were really fast to build. Later on I even doubled the harbor bonus, and in one Golden Age, I even took Science same as harbor adjacency bonus, which gave me a huge edge in technology. I didn't find Biremes too helpful though. Maybe their main use was much like scouting, and in that regard they did well. But for wars they were not really helpful. Maybe I over produced Biremes. I should have produced more of Quadrimes instead. Additional trade routes are of course always helpful, and I would have made Govt. Plaza and it's first building very fast anyways. And then the same city with Govt. Plaza would have produced lots of settlers too. So 2 extra trade routes and 50% more settler production speed was surely very helpful.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
Early on settled 5. After killing Basil settled 4 more. Then I went on killing every nation towards the right, even taking all the religious CS's for producing faith myself (from their Holy Sites). Meanwhile, kept settling all spots I could find where I would be able to build good Cothons.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Cothon was the primary focus in this game. Early on built lots of navy, which kept upgrading. Also grabbed lots of Nihangs.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
I think God of the sea (production from the fishing boats) is a Must in an Archepalego map, as without it the cities would face lots of problems with production.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Olgarchy for strengthening troops.
For even faster production of Cothons, I kept Veterency (30% faster production of Harbor Districts) forever.
Also kept the policy of doubling the Harbor adjacency bonus.
Later on switched to Monarchy, mainly for its more influence points. I needed to stay suzerane of specific CS's and this helped greatly here.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus, Liang and Pingala all 3 were very good.
Magnus helped speeding up settler production even faster and without the loss of population.
Pingala helped in giving additional culture.
Liang was the most important though, as she helped creating Fisheries. Lots of fisheries everywhere.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Early on, yeah. Took lots of gold for luxury resources and iron, which helped in speeding up several things. With that gold I levied Wolin troops twice, for killing Basil (which was a real pain, and most challenging part of the game anyways.) Later on I didn't care about the red faces.
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
All Golden Ages.
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
Be frank, I think Turn Shuffle should be in most games, as it makes lots of simple decisions complicated. But I think expert players would flourish with this aspect, while the new players will struggle even more, because of not knowing about Eureka's and such.
Apocalypse seemed scary at first, but it didn't hurt at all. Maybe because it was a prince difficulty game.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Basil was a real pain. Not only that he was inland, there was only one way to reach him from between the mountains. And due to this my first attempt to kill him with Wolin's levied troop failed. And I needed to levy troops again, while researching and upgrading my warrior into swordsman. And even create a horseman for him, which was not my initial plan. I was so frustrated at him that I even took poor Jerusalem .
- Did you enjoy your game?
Hell yeah! It was a greatly fun game.
Domination Victory - T101, Score: 478 - NOT COMPETITION ENTRY
This was the second attempt, that is why it cannot be a competition entry. With the first attempt I was too much on autopilot in terms of using the same old build orders and assumptions like automatisms. I abandoned it after realising how much earlier I should have started to pump out mass Biremes...
Attempt 2:
T12 - God of the Sea pantheon - huge help from early relic.
T14 - Meet Byzantium – no walls, but eventually there will be
T40 - First Bireme
T52 - Meet Indonesia – no walls
T53 - Pamukkale as first natural wonder
T55 - Oligarchy (I was 2 turns from Monarchy by the end)
T61 - Golden Age - Free Inquiry (this is the clear choice here, part of the blunder on the first run was the automatic selection of Monumentality, which did not work well here)
T62 - Capital 1 - Majapahit - no major issues with loyalty, so the other 2 cities of her I left alone.
T64 - Suzerain of Wolin with the help of Amani - huge help to finish off Basil in the end
T65 - Meet Nubia and Portugal the same turn – no walls
T67 - Meet Turkey – no walls
T70 - Capital 2 - Meroe - quick peace - but had to invade the other city in T81 to be secure here.
T71 - 1st Cothon - gave great science boost - built in my 4 core cities plus one later in ex-Portugal
T71 - Suzerain of Lahore - bought 2 Nihangs, one to fight Basil, the other on the English/Portuguese land as England was the only other opponent besides Basil to have a wall on their capital, so I needed land army there. Or I thought so.
T72 – Capital 3 – Istanbul – no major loyalty issues, so left the other city alive
T73 – Capital 4 – Lisbon – for a while I left their other 2 cities but then I had to kill them off (T84) when realised that London had walls so I had to conjure some land army…
T76 – Settled my last – 4th core city, which was almost useless, I did not even hook up the gypsum by the end, which was the whole reason of settling… and of course deny land from Basil.
T82 – Meet England – wall ☹– see T73
T82 – Razed the northern city of Basil with 2 chariots provided by meteor shower, and a Nihang.
T82 – Levy the army of Wolin for 405 gold, which yielded me 3 Archers, 4 Warriors and a Chariot. Very good deal. My plan was to upgrade 2-3 of the Warriors to Swordsmen, build a Battering Ram and position myself for an attack simultaneously from north and south. While the Battering Ram would arrive, I could pillage and finish most of his units.
T85 – First Swordsman upgraded still in the territory of Wolin
T85 – Meet the Netherlands – no walls – everybody met, it will come down to how quickly I can invade Byzantium and London on land. Or at least it looked like that I was really relieved to find them, it was hard to spot the path to them south of Majapahit. I thought I will have to face another wall for not finding them in time.
T86 – Buenos Aires liberated from Basil’s empire, decreasing it to just 2 cities.
T86 – Circumnavigation – seems like I can’t finish a game before completing it first
T87 – Suzerain of Cahokia and levy its army, this is the most effective way to stand up a land army on another continent (2 Archers, a Warrior soon to be Swordsman and a Chariot) and conjured up a Nihang here too. There were an Archer and a Chariot in the making in those ex-Portuguese cities, but only the Chariot finished, I forgot that the Archer build will switch to crossbowman. Not that I would have needed it though.
T88 – Capital 5 – Amsterdam captured by 3 Biremes, although 2 would have been enough.
T89 – First Great Admiral – 1st Fleet of Quadriremes – Absolutely no use other than annoying Jerusalem
T92 – Stirrups – The Cothons and the Golden Age and the invaded Campuses paid off. I decided the invasion of Constantinople would require the first Knight to help out once I can put together 320 golds to upgrade. In style that Knight gave the final blow the last minute.
T95 – Capital 6 – London – I realised 2 turns before that some environmental effect (thank you apocalypse mode) wiped out half of the English wall’s strength so Biremes were in fact enough to overcome the city around 2 turns before my land army arrived. I needed 4 Biremes though, out of which 2 ended up heavily in red.
T98 – Found my religion, which had absolutely no effect, in contrary, all that time my capital was working on Holy Site and a Shrine was absolutely unnecessary.
T101 – Capital 7 – Constantinople – WIN – my Swordsmen and Archers cleared up most of Basil’s army from the north and when the battering ram arrived, a few blows were enough to break the walls, from then it was a matter of time. From the south my Knight arose upgrading in Lahore territory from Chariot and first it secured the siege and then it placed the final blow
I had 15 Biremes and 3 Quadriremes by the end, on reflection 8-10 Biremes would have been enough. My own settled cities only ever trained 1 Slinger, 1 Scout and 1 Battery Ram as land army.
I gained 2 Great Scientists – not much use, 2 Great Admirals – too late and a Great General thanks to Wolin but even that one did not make it to front line in time.
Regarding Districts, my core cities built 4 Cothons, 1 Holy Site and 1 Gov Plaza, but only the Cothon had any use. I conquered 6 Campuses and 1 Holy Site, and built 1 extra Cothon, out of which only the Campuses were useful.
As always, healthy economy is key, as well as happiness, so I did a lot of trading whenever it was possible and secured 9 lux resources by the end.
Apocalypse mode was actually helping me much more than hurt me. It yielded me 2 Chariots and half a London wall!
The tech shuffle was fun, I always tend to go for Boosts anyway.
In summary this difficulty level combined with this map was no match to the special abilities of Dido. Thanks for the game!!!
DV Turn 86
Got an early relic and got a free settler from the pantheon .3 cities settled then beeline to navigation. Armany as first GP to Suz Wolin.
build 2 navy .One went West the other East. Caught all the civ with no walls except for Basil.
Did not built any district but Cottons and one encampment to get a GG to conquer Basil with 3 catapults and swordsmen.
Great game
Thanks
It boils down to a lot of luck on Domination Victory. I have tried this save, and after about 60 turns I realised that despite having overwhelming navy I simply haven't found other captials fast enough for the entry to be competitive (and by the time I got to them they will all have walls up). After retrying, I eventually ended winning at turn 120, damn you Basil!)
Looking at tarafran's game, you can see how lucky he got, basically only scouting the enemy capitals - including the Netherlands, where he intuitively diverted through a single hex of coast to find and conquer them in 3 turns:
SpoilerA good (Rutseg) vs. a godlike Domination Game (tarafran): :
Add on top of that, in the beggining of the game tarafran got all 3 nearby huts at the start in whopping 8 turns (shortest path for both his starting warrior and the builder that he got from the first hut, which he sent towards the last hut containing a relic).
So don't get discouraged by very high results, if you play them enough you will eventually get your statistical dose of good RNG in Domi Victory (I think my RNG peaked at GotM 135, where I got absurdly lucky when searching for enemies)
heh- I thought I was doing a decent job until I saw all the times posted above. Nice work everyone.
few thoughts:
1. Didn't realize I would be able to get to all the island masses without Cartography- is this always the case with Archipelago maps?
2. Wasted time as usual building cities and conquering unimportant city states because I thought I would need the boost to empire to get to Cartography. Clearly it is more important to scout and attack very quickly than to build out.
3. Unlike most others it seems, conquered Basil first with the assist of levied troops from Wolin. But it was a slog getting them to the attack.
4. Four civs already had walls when I found them: Indonesia, Nubia, Ottomans and England. Was only able to take Dutch and Portuguese with biremes.
5. Figured the best thing would be to rush to caravels- I knew where they were on the tech tree from building two harbors. Getting to Square Rigging was tougher (although I did manage it).
6. Caravels alone with Great Admiral and Oligarchy help were plenty strong to knock down walls.
7. But even quadriremes were surprisingly good at taking down walls, and can take quite a few wall shots due to the penalty to ranged damage versus ships. I had a squadron of quads sitting around waiting to be converted to frigates but should have been using them all along to go after the civs. Next time I'll know better.
8. Never played with Dido before so glad for the game, but it didn't really give her a chance to show her stuff (Move Capital, Settler spamming etc).
Looking at tarafran's game, you can see how lucky he got, basically only scouting the enemy capitals - including the Netherlands, where he intuitively diverted through a single hex of coast to find and conquer them in 3 turns:
SpoilerA good (Rutseg) vs. a godlike Domination Game (tarafran): :
Indeed, I sent biremes in every direction I could to first discover where the other Civilizations where located. There was no success to the south, but it could have. Also, when exploring the south of Gitarja's lands, I was unlucky enough to do Wilhelmina's island through the opposite side, where I could see her border but not meet her. I tried to find a way to her through the south of her island but it was ice blocked. Similarly, I met Victoria early on and was trying to reach her from the east with the excess navy on Amanitore's land, but could not find a coastal bridge there. Fortunately there was one from Amsterdam to the west.
It is not ideal, but some random scouting is needed, it is part of the exploration nature of the game!
This was a good idea. That northern pass was very narrow though, so for a swift conquer controlling also at least one of either Jerusalem and Buenos Aires to the south, and Lahore to the east is strategic. This could be done by levying armies or conquering the city states through biremes.
Figured on this map many of the AIs would have coastal capitals and Biremes would be enough on to take them. So after a Monument and Settler I pretty much cranked them out with Maritime Industries. Barbs were very annoying early game, one Spear actually spared a Builder it could have stolen but the early ships to the west blocked my Biremes progress for many turns. Second city was on Gypsum along coast in a +4 Campus spot for a little more science and a luxury to sell.
My first Bireme was chopped on T32, the second on T36. Had six sailing by T46 and I think 12 by the end of the game. A big part of the game was bypassing or fighting through barbarians at naval chokepoints to find all of the AIs.
I captured India's capital on T60 with three Biremes, losing two in the process they had Archers but those were only doing 8-9 damage and the ships were hitting the city for 40-50. My lost ships were more due to barb Galleys hitting weakening them than Indonesia's weak defense. Took Istanbul's capital the same turn with two more Biremes.
Monumentality Golden Age on T61, and Earth Goddess Pantheon on T67.
Crushed Portugal very easily with two Biremes on T75, Mathematics for more movement T76, and met the last AI (England) on T77
Took Dutch capital on T80 - they looked tougher with ZOC from Encampment and City Center slowing ships and 3 Archers on the scene, but fell very quickly due to having only 20CP in the capital. A Galley or Walls would have made it very dicey.
England was another easy capture, they had two Galleys and sank the Bireme who found their capital, but I dialed north with three more along the west coast and two along the east coast and easily crushed their capital on T85.
Byzantium was inland and Nubia had walls early, so I figured I would levy land troops to help. T81 chopped Apadana and got more envoys from Theology, MT, and DQ plus some easy quests.
In Nubia, three Biremes sized the Pyramids city to the west of the walled capital while I levied two Warriors and two Archers from Mogadishu to attack from the south. The Archers and Biremes ground down the walls while the Warriors absorbed some ranged shots. Eventually I was able to buy a Spear and chop a HM in the Pyramids city for the final push to capture them on T94.
Byzantium was the longest march since ships could not help. I levied a bunch of units from Wolin and Buenos Ares and captured the cities north and south of the capital first, then marched inland to siege them with land Horsemen, Warriors, Archers, and a Battering Ram. Around this time I hit Stirups and upgraded one Chariot into a Knight for the final push. Capital fell on T95 - I would have won a turn earlier but the city popped a Horseman on T94 greatly raising its defensive strength.
The special modes did not effect the game much. Lots of volcanoes were erupting everywhere but I didn't settle nearby any of them. Shuffle made things a little unpredictable, but really the techs needed were Sailing and Masonry (for Battering Ram). I was a bit bummed to never get a free Great General or Great Admiral from Wolin despite controlling them for 30-40 turns.
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Ancient Era; Africa
Bireme
Suleiman
Évora
Cothon
(I think my RNG peaked at GotM 135, where I got absurdly lucky when searching for enemies)
