T266. "Self proclaimed victory". Off-limit for competition due to use of CQUI mod.
That's right, self proclaimed victory. I don't have the will to attack the only leader who didn't hate me at first sight. Of course i would make a good Spartan, i ran havoc through the entire map
Gorgo has 9 cities, i have 28. I would probably have already taken Sparta by now if i choose to attack her rather than finish Monty but she was my only friend. Since i'm not playing for competition i don't really see the point pushing further.
- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I settled 3! My capital and then a city next to some Nitre source with a Settler i bought at the end of the Medieval just in case and finally one for Oil.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Iron Working and Political Philosophy (obviously). With a Classical start, things are a lot different.
My opener was Agoge and mass warrior production in capital while researching Iron Working to get my UU. Next was Machinery and finally Stirrups while i was producing some Chariots. I think i played that part right to get a nice army ASAP.
On the Civics tree i went for Feudalism then Reformed Church to get Theocracy, lots of faith and no need to buy any religious units made it easy to acquire more units when i started joining them into Corps and then Armies.
My first government was of course Oligarchy.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Everyone but Gorgo
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
6 warriors to upgrade into UU, 3 archers, 6 chariots to upgrade into knights. I lost 1 UU and 1 Knight but those were the core of my army for the entire game. I bought 2 Battering Rams to take early cities and much later had 2 Artilleries.
My "Navy" was composed of a few Workers who built Fishing Boats and later 2 Oil Platforms.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Yes. They were quite useful in the early game and with a classical start almost available from the beginning. I'm not sure how much better they were compared to regular swordmen but at least against Shaka their mobility in forests and jungle was great.
- What was your most useful unit?
Probably the Battering Rams
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Wut?
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Sure they were. Almost all my trade routes went to CSs. No way to use international trade routes with someone you are at war with.
- Did religion play a role in your game?
Can't really say it was "religion" but I got Goddess of Harvest and went Theology so yes, it helped me get units easily to add to corps and armies, even thought the "real" units were all built early and upgraded later.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Shaka went down first when i attacked him with 4 of my UU and a Battering Ram (only his capital had walls quickly). When i saw him, i wanted him out of my way ASAP but fortunately for me he didn't had time to get his own UU.
Robert came next thought he was a bit harder to take with 6 UU and 3 archers. Not really easy to navigate his land and his capital took longer fall while he was constantly attacking me with Chariots that were no match to my UU but slowly damaged them and could quickly kill archers. I lost 2 archers and one UU, replaced the archer but not the UU. His capital had great science output thanks to the Natural Wonder so at that point my research progressed a lot faster and i had crossbow and knights to attack Gilgamesh which was fortunate as he had grown to the largest power. Even then, it took me a lot of time to actually get to his capital, all the hills made it hard to get my battering rams next to his walls and he was doing a lot of damage with crossbow each time i tried to approach and i had to fall back at which point he simply couldn't counter attack, but he would have crossbows back when i had healed my troops. I let out my frustration on Robert who had denounced me and took his last 2 cities while going for Gunpowder. Muskets were finally enough to break Gilgamesh's defences and move to Uruk. At that point he really had no units left so i finished him to avoid a potential attack in my back when i would move further, also he paid for delaying me that long
At that point, i had the entire western half of the Pangaea for me and some CSs and was progressing nicely in techs but America had assembled a decent army. My own army was 5 Musket corps, 5 Knight corps and 3 Crossbows plus a new Bombard without enough promotions to be a real threat and my 2 Battering Rams. I purchased 2 Cavalries but wasn't sure it would be enough. I was on my way to Combustion, had enough Era points for another Golden Age and the world would soon enter Industrial era so i waited a bit and bought a Settler to get a city next to some oil.
The turn the world hit Industrial, i took "To Arms" dedication and declared on Teddy using my GA Casus Belli. My tanks made quick work of his defences and i started moving to the east, following with Frederick. On my way i left my now Armies of muskets next to Monty while i was going for Replaceable parts and building an Artillery army. My Tanks armies and one Bombard army took Germany and when i upgraded Muskets to Infantry those took the Aztecs lands with the help of the other Artillery. The 2 cavalries helped take smaller cities until they had their 4th promotion and could carry my battering rams around at high speed and those helped with the cleaning.
I don't really gained my Domination VC but nothing would have prevented it did i choose to go against my "friend" Gorgo (i don't have actual friendship so i could have DoWed her anytime)
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Well, eradicating other civs got me through GAs from the Medieval Era to the end.
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
No actual effect but actually it had a huge effect. I wasn't sure how i could maintain loyalty in a very large empire so i consolidated my advance by taking more cities than was required purely for Domination, and ended up eradicating everyone as it wasn't much more trouble than leaving them with 1-2 cities and would ensure nobody would be a pain in my back. From the reports here it seems like the fastest players had no troubles with Loyalty even leaving other civilizations alive around them so i guess i have been wayyyyy to careful (and slow). I tend to have a slow but steady pace of progressing through the map when doing Domination anyway.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
2 surprises : Shaka next door and Shaka being so easily eliminated.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, but by the end all of those cities was too much for me, even with CQUI making managing them easier and i razed most of Germany and the Aztecs. Not sure how some players can manage several dozen cities with the default UI.
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award 
