Domination Victory T89*
*I put an asterisk because one turn my finger slipped and I clicked on Autocracy instead of Oligarchy at the very start of the turn. I re-started since it was a total misclick and not a bad decision / forgetfulness, but I understand if this disquailifies my time.
Damn, Gran Colombia is overpowered! This felt like Settler difficulty due to the broken combat bonuses.
Ealry Game: Settled in place and went Slinger/Builder/Settler. I almost never open with a Slinger but I really wanted the Archery boost ASAP so as not to delay HBR. Turned out my science was so slow this was not necessary, but the Slinger did at least get the boost and was a useful explorer. Warrior and Slinger met Hunza and Amargh in time for free envoys, and Antananarivo walked up to my borders quickly and gave a third free envoy as well.
I had been working the Dye and started with God King, so with the Amargh envoy as well I was able to score Religious Settlements (AI seems to strongly prefer it post-patch). The free Settler went south towards the Horses and ended up settling right on top of them on T23 (did not have a Builder handy to hook them up and wanted to start accumulating them right away). My second Settler planted a city on T27 on top of the Olives near the Horses to the north (would have went here first, but had not defogged the Horses tile until after the Religious Settlements Settler was already marching south).
The biggest event of the opening was a Meteor Shower, which went pretty terribly for me. I saw it happen on T17 in the fog up north, and sent my starting Warrior there. Sadly the Warrior was killed by barbs, having been wounded in the Builder stealing raid. So, I bought a Scout with gold in the capital figuring I could sneak up to the site. I almost rage quit when the Scout crossed a river, revealed two barbs, and was killed as well… I finally managed to get the free Chariot with a levied Warrior from Hunza on T49 but by then it was too late to have helped in my early wars.
The rest of the first 40 turns was mostly pumping out Warriors and waiting patiently for the first Comandante General. First Governor Title went to send Amani to Yerevan and Mysticism envoy also gave me Suzerain of Antananarivo as well. Second Title to Magnus, and the rest spread out to additional Governors mostly to handle Loyalty rather than use their abilities. Sweden was buying DF for 21g each so this was incredibly useful. I only bothered with a handful of non-military builds: three Monuments, a +3 Holy Site in the capital for Era Score and to get two quest envoys, Government Plaza and Warlord's Throne in third city, and an Encampment in the capital to run projects for Great Generals.
Monumnetality Golden Age on T46, one turn before I completed PP and HBR (I waited a few turns for the era to change and lower cost by 20%). A few chops / purchases and my Horseman army supported by levied Warriors started the conquest....
Nubia:
This was my favortie battle. Nubia had tons of troops, but luckily for me they moved a good part of their army east for a war against USA. I positioned 7 Warriors and 1 Scout in a circle around their captial. Just as my first Comandante General (Montilla) arrived, two Pitati Archers moved out of range and I launched the attack. It was a close fight because each Warrior did <20 damage and lost about half their HP on the first attack, but 10 weak attacks in two turns was enough to capture the capital on T54.
It was actually more challenging to hold the city than take it. Most of my troops were shot down by Pitati Archers, but I was able to establish Victor and use two Builders to chop Ancient Walls and an Encampment and fight back the waves of Nubian troops. The city was also in danger of loyalty flipping but thankfully there were two marshes and three rainforests to clear for more population.
Korea and Australia:
Attacked Korea with two Horsemen, one Chariot and four levied Warriors on T53. The city fell two turns later, allowing me to chop another Horseman and keep rolling west, quickly knocking out the capital on T59. The troops from the Korea campaign rushed down the coast, sped up by Comandante General (teleported from Meroe to Korea capital after capture) + a normal Great General. Horsemen with 7 movement points and +10CP are prettty gross. Even though the Australian capital had walls, the Horsemen just crushed it in three turns (captured T68) . The capital was conveniently the closest city and had a ton of pop, so I was able to ignore the rest of Australia.
Kongo and Cree
Attacked an outlying Kongo city with one Horseman and three levied Warriors on T52. Another Horseman joined in and my troops captured the capital by T63. The veterans of the Kongo war, joined by four Archers and two Chariots my core cities trained, invaded the Cree on T71. They had walls and Encampments, so this war was slow even though the outcome was never in doubt. I finally took the capital on T85.
United States:
They were the second toughest nut to crack. Completely forgot about Teddy's home continent +5 combat bonus, which meant my initial attack on T46 with levied Warriors and Archers failed. My second effort was more successful and relied entirely on levied troops. I levied Antananarivo’s Crossbow/Catapult/Sword army on T71 and slowly marched them east through Nubia. Then, on T76 I took the biggest gamble of the game, spending two stored envoys and 660g (my whole treasure) to levy Valetta. Teddy had just build Apadana, so I feared he had 2 envoys stored but it looks like he actually used them on Yerevan.
Sweden:
Sweden was the hardest fight and last to fall. I initially invaded with four Horsemen, one Chariot, and 1 Warrior leftover from Australia, with Great General support. The captial had walls but was empty so I thought I could take it down, but as my troops moved in to siege the city they revealed an Encampment with an Archer inside on a fogged tile.
Spare troops from the Cree campaign rushed west and I also levied Hong Kong on T85, though none of the levied troops made it to the battle in time to actually fight. I got Comandante General Urdanata on T86 and he was actually able to get to the front just in time so that I could sacrifice Montilla for the +4 bonus on the very last turn.
Summary:
I am fairly proud of this game, but the sub-100 finish really speaks more to how OP Gran Colombia is than any skill. The only thing I would have done differently would be to found another pair of cities in the midgame to claim more Horses and Iron, as there were many points when I ran out of resources to chop another Horse or upgrade another Sword and had to wait several turns for the next one. One thing I missed was that Disaster Intensity was set at 4. I probably should have settler closer to some of those volcanos, which were providing very juicy yields by the end of the game. I also wish I thought to use Soothsayers offensively - not sure it would have made a big difference but it would have been fun!
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