=)))))))))))))))))
On my initial complaint - this is going to be one of best games i had in half of year i think (giant, snail, deity, unusable mountains, all victories except cultural, ruthless ai). I slowly made it out, raising 2 super GC's with tons of promotions and stack of around 15 well-trained archers (later to be xbowmen) mixed with 3 spearmen, each having 300-400 exp. I later in game accompanied them with 10-12 hwachas. With promotions GC's give siege gets 100% survival rate, so they safely bombard every stack. I kept those 2 generals on upper and bottom left corners of my square-like empire (from right there was sea), moving back and forth as needed, counterattacking incoming stacks. After AI's stopped all wardeccing me and decided to take care of each other i could breath a little.
But another problem at that point was that i was in middle of score rating list, had 6 cities of 2-4 pop size while most civs had 10-12, runaway leader had 23 cities (on small continent south of main one (can cross on galleys), and 2 behind him had 17-18. Economy was in deep ass, religion i got (from tribal hut tech) was kemetism with super GP Karnak something wonder, giving culture instead of $$$. Only 2 wonders - pyramids and chichen itza (+2 kemetism wonders), side note - nice to see pyramids built in holy kemetism city
. No iron/copper/horse in my empire, not a single fish resource, science slider is at 10-20%... Power ratio is 0.0 to Rome, 0.1 to 3 other civs, and 0.2-0.3 to rest ...
I was on verge of giving up and starting new game but decided to keep playing and see how things gonna turn out.
Well, at least i have my superhero archers (only 1 spearmen got Led by WArlord promotion tho) and 2GC's and 10 generals in capital. With aztecs still being at war i sweep army thru their whole empire, razing all but 2 last cities, got some techs and more important, cleared that direction from possible settlements thus attack danger. Then attack south on 2nd in power malinese, who got 3 cities close to my border but far from his main land. Killing his new toy crossbowmen with my archers
. Cleaning some space again, settling few cities around expanding out a bit, and finally getting iron access. Putting all research now to Machinery->Engineering, switching half cities to research, squeezing all i can (getting 200-230 bulbs/turn (snail)). Rome comes to me twice presenting me for free Vassalage and later Agricultural tools. Getting lots of techs automatically as being acquired by most of civs is nice but it also means you are backward Bangladesh-like civilization.
Rome, who has 30ish cities now (i think he ate netherlands, america, somebody else by that time, and vassalized china (3rd in power)) declares war on mansa musa (2nd in power). I have like 11 cities atm. I decide it's time to fast go and grab upper right corner of map (arabia 6 cities there, abyssinia 4 cities and hammurabi vassal of arabia 2). Weak armies, so it doesn't take long i capture them all as they capitulate having 1-2 cities left. I now have 19 cities, Rome 36, builds almost all wonder and is skyrocketing his score and GNP. 2 other are Mansa (18 cities) and Stalin (17), rest of civs are either vassaled or 1-5 cities beating boys.
Rome also declares war on Stalin. While im outside of conflict i quickly attack malinese and grab 3 closest cities and make peace.
Soon after Rome declares war on me (while being at war with both others. 39 cities rome, 25 me at begin of war. I begin by taking closest chinese unprotected cities, and finally i see what supposed to be Rome main stack - 50-60 stack of mailed knights/heavy swords/trebuchets coming from my side (i moved bit forward)(luckily trebs arrived on 2nd wave). I have just enough time to move my main stack back into city they aim to attack, and reinforce it with few additional troops. Still i have like 15 xbowmen/5 pikemen-macemen and 10 hwachas against their stack. But i got great great GC
. It takes 5-6 turns to crunch their stack (they reinforcing it with new troops, but my sieges with 100% survival (GC's promos + they all got Local lord promotions long ago)) dont let them raise their head, even with 10% hps they still can attack and survive. And rest of army all have march so next turn they are fresh. When this stack dies i begin rolling on their freshly conquered cities protected by 1-4 troops all way back. When i ended game yesterday i had 41 city, they had 33, power ratio was still 0.2 (i havent built anything, working on my infrastructure). On last turn i ate another medium stack of 30ish mailed knights. He has around 7-8 cities left on main land, his Wonders and Holy cities are on other continent ... no chance of crossing as he has like 40-60 fluyts.
Tbh, i expected much worse from my previous experience with stacks of doom. I thought i would be seeing something like 250 cavalry/horse archers mix, but looks like he built lots of ships, and divided his army into few parts. Oh, and his main stack didn't had GC with them. If it had i would have had lots of trouble.
In the middle of this war i finally began GA, switched civics and built couple wonders. Got lots of techs from his cities.
Thinking now whether to make peace and focus on building GNP/production up or continue and grab as much land/cities as possible. Im only half of his GNP now (was 15%) and 40% population with 1.5 size of his land. He is 5-10 techs ahead, i'm beelining for matchlock. He built literally ALL guilds (except one of two other civs built, i havent got single one). Production without mason or blacksmith guilds sucks balls ... half of empire not state religion, stoneworkers hut and wheelwright outdated ... many captured cities are on desert border or after 2-3 recaptures, meaning most buildings razed.
Had few funny moments:
1) When Rome offered 2370 gold and tech (not outdated) for single hwacha
2) last turn when i 3-4 times killed everything he put in city, leaving 3 units he finally moved ALL troops out of city somewhere else, not wanting to lose single unit. That impressed me much.
3) After capturing one china town in fog of war bug (it got razed as it had 1 pop), my archer somehow captured 11 hwachas ... they had zero promotions, but still ... Also donno if it's another kind of bug i noticed, whether i capture enemy catapult they were automatically converted to hwacha.
