A very late ALC attempt - I. DeGaulle

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 229 / 1595 AD :

Of course it took up to my third Spy to finally steal Machinery from this Tundra hellhole...

She has Education, but is not researching Liberalism but Economics. Please don't tell me it's gone and I just missed the message through all the other stuff BUG was spamming... I do have interest in adopting FS though, so it wouldn't be completely terrible.

Difficult choice, actually - Nat is 2.6k beakers, PP is 2.4... since I'm IND with Marble, I will pick Nat and probably research PP. Guilds -> Banking might also be interesting, though.
This is ridiculous, how slow are these AIs?
Isabella won't trade Gunpowder for guilds, unfortunately. Maybe when I have a bit of money...

9 turns looks like the best I can do. Fingers crossed...

We meet Ragnar. He's kind of backwards (does have Chemistry though), but mutually Friendly with Isabella. His Caravel is in the west, just like Isabella's (which I couldn't find earlier, must have moved out of my sight).
Surely he can't be plotting on me already...?

I always love when HR-lover AIs build the Mids.

Need to backfill that branch... I think Ragnar does have Gunpowder, actually. Just backwards on the civil techs.

The TOA ended up spawning me a GM... so what do I do with him?

Trade Mission in Portland (furthest away city on continent, 8 pop) would probably be inferior to settling. Banking bulb... well, Isabella doesn't want to trade it. Sushi? Maybe. I don't really have that much seafood.
And settling in my best city... Washington has a shrine, but it's not really a great shrine or a great commerce city... I have several better Wall Street candidates, my 3 best commerce cities:

Tons of riverless cottages, just the 2 mountains are a bit annoying.

The good old horse city - cottages here are better developed and there are no mountains, but some tiles are lost to coast, irrigation and my Lumbermill HE city (I could also put NP in there instead, but that's a weird combo since HE is already built), so it has just 9 cottages and no other commerce resource (unless you count the horse).

And of course, the capital, currently building some junk wonder for either GPP or gold. 10 cottages, spice, wine, 2 gold, and it popped a Silver... or, well, the city south of it did. Just that coast tile is annoying.
I definitely want Ox in here (but I still need 4 more unis - the last 2 will finish in 5 turns), not sure about the second wonder. Ironworks might be good, by the late Renaissance / early Industrial it will easily have the most hammers in the realm again even without bureau (other prod cities are either not great or not on rivers, Marseilles SE of Paris is probably going to be the closest thing, or I could stuff IW together with HE in Lisboa)... or I could make its purpose purely economic and in fact put down Wall Street in here.

The Merchant would have 200% bonus, thus producing 18 gold and that nice one food. Since Roosevelt's cities are bad, a trade mission would probably get like... 600 gold? Not even 2 turns of research. I also could of course save him or a GA - but the Taj is not yet lost.

Tech overview. Only trade I'm interested in right now is Compass, but I don't want to trade it for one of the Renaissance techs... hoping to get it by raising Ragnar to pleased from HR+OB.
Printing Press seems doubly useful as nobody has it and it benefits my economy. Research rate has recovered by ~ another 10%. I do want to take out Roosevelt, but only when I finally steal Engineering off him. Takes way too long to get things done with Spies...
He has Maces, but I still have a much bigger stack (and could just upgrade some of the better units)

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 242 / 1660 AD :

Angkor yielded fail gold (Isabella built it), so I can research my new monopoly tech, right? Nope... If I had to guess, I'd say she got it from the unmet wonder whore...? Wonder who that might be, Huayna? He's such an annoying AI...

Might as well get this faster...? I think she shouldn't trade Lib while it's a semi-monopoly.

What do I want to tech now? I think it's between Democracy and RP-> Steam Power to begin Industrialization. Ragnar should be pleased to trade Compass and then maybe Optics any moment...
Constitution makes for decent trade bait, too, so I will try and get that.

Here we go! Can I reach Democracy within the GA to switch into end game Civics?

Looks like somebody actually already has it! Appeared just this turn, though.

This guy is the first really dangerous of these AIs - he's way into the late Renaissance (can research Steel, Steam Power and Rifling!) and has 12 cities including the one Isabella is missing. They are at Cautious, but him and Ragnar are also friendly. He came from the east, near Houston which is currently in another revolt.

Only the wonder guy is missing now - Mao has the lighthouse, Sistine and Zeus though - dangerous wonders.

Just barely... Some cities will be building wealth, and then it will be fine.

Finally managed to pull off this tech steal, 4 spies for 2 techs...
Houston gets hit with another revolt just as the previous one ends, but I want to finish the tech before going to war again.

Let's have a peek at the other continent... He wouldn't give me Banking and Compass, unfortunately. Still hoping for Ragnar there.

Looks like Willem was the wonder whore all along, but he's not very big and not part of the Buddha block... If he goes culture or Mao gets to space, a lategame naval first strike can devastate them.
This is where I'm going from "maybe this is still winnable" to "this is winnable".

There also seems to be a small Astro island with Iron and Fish near Lisbon. Maybe I can snag it, but it's not all that important.

According to Mao's intel, the Dutch have clearly no interest in capitalizing on their theoretical beaver monopoly. A city on the southeastern one would secure them 3 resources they don't have and probably pay for itself with a camp since he is really small.

New Civics at last! I will probably stay like this for the rest of the game, except perhaps in the economy department.

This puts me at #1 in GNP, over 1000... of course, these are still Golden Age values so it's not quite as high in 2 turns anymore.

As tech path, I'm think RP -> Steam Power while hopefully trading for Economics and Corporation... and that damn Compass Line.

You know what...

Could also take Drama for this, but it's probably just WFYABTA bait, meh. I just hope Willem is his target since I just put him a lot closer to MilTrad.

And there he is - I'm horrified he has Astro and sell him some health resources since I don't want my new friend to catch scurvy.

Somehow, I got an engineer - I could totally use him on that Statue - Willem does have a headstart, and has Copper. Or Mining Inc, but that's a long way off.

Culture looks better than I was afraid, his other two cities are not very dangerous. So this will be a space game one way or another.

I could afford to finally wipe out Roosevelt now, reinforcement catapults that were reassigned to HR duty are returning next turn, but even without them the stack can still take out his 8 or so units... Just wonder if I want to upgrade some CR3 dudes to maces or some CR3 cats to Trebs to make this less bloody (awkward for 18 or 19/20 EXP guys, but...). Remaining WW according to the Diplo screen is 395.
Unless somebody (Ragnar, probably) decides to drop a stack of Galleons onto my coast, I don't really plan to use this army anymore though - so not sure, maybe I should let them waste themselves and get rid of the upkeep?


One more thing: Willem and Ragnar were both plotting when I met them, but are not at war! Willem being a backstabber, it could be anyone, but Isabella is the most likely (they are mutually pleased, but if I were Spain...) since she's weak and close by. He's only cautious with Ragnar. Willem knows and is pleased with Roosevelt, which is annoying.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

To be reasonably sure to get a successful Espionage Mission, put a stack of at least 4-6 Spies in the target city. I recently tried an Espionage Mission with just 3 Spies and they all failed with the indivdual success rate of 61% (.61 probability). All three Spies failing is (1 - .61) x (1 - .61) x (1 - .61) = .059319 = ~6%. Four Spies, all failing, would be .0231344 = ~2.3%. Five Spies, all failing, would be .0090224 = ~0.9%. Six Spies, all failing, would be. 0035187 = ~0.35%.

The number of Spies to use depends a lot on the mission success/failure rates. With higher Mission success rates, one can use smaller numbers of Spies. With lower Mission success rates, one should use a larger number of Spies.

 

[Choeimok]

For my first two spies, I had a 73% chance, I think - so losing twice was a .27²=7,3% chance - so slightly more likely than all 3 in your example, but still painful. I don't really have all that much production in that area up there yet and those cities that do are a long way off.

Spoiler Turn 262 / 1760 AD :

Concerning the Engineer, I decided to risk losing SoL (which would be great to have at 22 cities) and save him for Mining Inc. I do have lots of Mining resources available even if Sushi is not looking that great... WS will go to Paris and Ironworks somewhere else. Maybe I will give Moai+IW to Tours, north of Paris.
And concerning Roosevelt, I decided his lousy cities are not worth the hit my currently flourishing economy would take from reactivating the old war weariness for several turns - I'll let him languish unless one of the other AIs declares on him. Cultural situation is already getting better in many places, just Houston (due to the border, 20% french) and Grenoble (near former NY spot, 17% French, size 15, relatively little overlap, currently at cap of 19... but I can still get +2 from Colosseum and Hindu Mandir) are troublesome. Free Speech should help now and I probably should steal Drama with my remaining EP. Not sure if it's worth self-teching, takes 7 turns at 0%.

So, the first thing I did was taking a tour through all cities to ensure the right specialists are being assigned from Mercantimism - tiles were okay mostly, but lots of Spies where I could run engineers instead (usually I chose those over scientists since I still have lots of infrastructure to finish, except in my in-one-turn Oxford capital.) The Drama time increased to 10 turns.

Last guy without Lib except Roosevelt. I also got Optics for Banking from Willem, he was the last guy lacking that as well. Finally got to improve that Fish in Cherbourg.

Still #1 after the end of GA. But it's close...
Stack is now standing in Houston for anti-revolt duty. Should have done that earlier.

More trades. I might be digging my own grave with giving Ragnar so much.

I actually have been missing Crab so far (and Clam, but I'm trading for it), so that alone should make this city worthwhile for the upcoming Industrialization. Plus it gets an extra mining resource. Just missed out on the Stonehenge Monument just barely.

Just because I'm leaving this guy alone doesn't mine I won't rob him blind Theaters will lead to the downfall of... perhaps not him, but his annoyingness.

Looks like I ended up getting the Circumnavigation from Mao's map without ever having built a single ship

Damn this is now beginning... I will still trade her Cow for Gpt. Also negotiated some deals with Ragnar and Mao.
Industrialization is slowly beginning, and my only 2 coals are in Roosevelt's former lands. Steam Power is a Monopoly for now.

This jerk decided it would be funny to cut my irrigation in my food-poorest non-ice city by cottaging his farm there. And he farmed my cottage in SF (which my culture actually managed to reclaim)...

Sweet Astro Land... The cities themselves just barely pay for their maintenance, but lots of continental cities are already trading with them even at size 1...

Almost forgot I was building this

Time to build some factories! Next is probably Steel -> Railroad for Mining Inc, and only then I'll bother with SciMeth and that jazz. Nobody has Steel. Roosevelt is researching CoL.

Realm overview at this point. Grenoble (now 33% culture) is becoming the jewel of the north, New York's placement was just awkward. Washington starved quite a bit in favor of its neighbors. Orleans is also starving because I gave its cow to Tours after finishing the wonder (where I will probably put Moai+IW - not a great IW site but good enough, and having a coastal one is probably better this game).

Completely skipping Renaissance military (well, I built one Musketeer at the end of the Roosevelt war in the midst of my classical era junk, he died against a stray axe similarly to how I accumulated lots of my other casualties) seems to be working fine for me here. Ragnar and Willem are both still plotting though. Starting to get a bit of a tech lead here...

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 292 / 1844 AD :

WS is finished, and I've got the Mining!
What I did forget is to build a Courthouse in Paris - it's +16 but -27 - ouch!

I also got a Prophet... so I could build a 13 city shrine in Orleans (I think it has all the multipliers), or I can use half of him for a GA... which seems stronger to me. That would also allow me to switch into FM.
Isabella is also plotting, I suspect Roosevelt to be the target...?

I hate this tech... Monasteries aren't huge, but... At least Mao gets back to pleased from this. Not that it matters, him being a filthy backstabber... Ragnar also enters WFYABTA mode.

Got both the fascist General and the Commie spy. Time for another GA in which I will adopt Free Market... Kind of a shame about all those free specialists...

2 Uranium in my empire, and both underneath fully upgraded cottages I will probably mine the Dijon one.

Got another scientist as Mao enters WHEOOHRN. His best army in Beijing is junk: Grens and Curis. Lyons is slightly ahead of Oporto at 199 BPT - that seems better than a third of a GA or 2000 Fission beakers.

Eventually, I flipped that important tile.

Gotta acquire more Mining resources. Maybe I'll even kill these barbs and fogbust with my other Infantry to get rid of those messages every turn.

A couple turns later, I'm owner of nearly every industrial/modern wonder. Mao has Medicine and Willem is teching Flight, but the AIs are so far behind right now...

... and this one makes some nice subs. Fascism was worth it just for that. Even Tours (IW city) should be giving me Vis subs with Barracks+Drydock+Cha...? I need a double oceaning scouting wall.

The mostly enlightened Blue continent... (well, mostly)

... and the Red-ish one. They have more Size 20 cities... Grenoble will be getting there, but it will be difficult to get a fourth, not even Paris. Too much overlap or junk tiles.

Still, the game is hard to lose at this point, I just need to sail it home with those 4 promotion submarines.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

I definitely agree with your decision to save the Great Engineer for Mining Inc, rather than use it to partially complete The Statue of Liberty.

I have had some success in flipping plots via Building Culture, especially with Mining Inc present. Not sure whether you used Building Culture in your game for this purpose.

BTW, I also find it hard to keep up with your game and make timely suggestions, because you play so blazing fast. Perhaps you could play several games simultaneously, so others can keep up with this one.

Well done on your game!

 

[Choeimok]

I will try to slow it down in the next one, especially early and on critical points - after Lib and find out our how relatively weak the other continent is, I mostly wanted to finish this. Of course there are still some decisions to make, like with the Engineer, but I think from that point, I'd have to screw up really bad to lose.


I didn't really use build culture for more than border pops in late cities like the arctic or Astro ones and was mostly trying to spam out buildings for culture, perhaps it would have been worth a try in those 3 border cities. By the time I got Mining up to that corner though, my culture had already turned the tide, also thanks to Cathedrals and Hermitage.

Spoiler Turn 343 / 1923 AD :

Looks like Mao's invasion fleet - so the remaining question now is just if it's going to be me or Roosevelt receiving the honor.

Well, since he didn't declare to take my Astro island, I think I#ve uncovered his devious plan.

Rather than let Mao grab all of this uncontested (most of his stack actually shipped further north), I did end up using my old stack one more time, with a few upgraded units. Lots of people still plotting.

I made a "super-smart" canal (can't have a good game without one, of course) to enable my sub (built by misclick and assumed to be from Lisboa where I built my ocean watchers, hence the Withdraw) to remove that barb galley... but subs can go underneath ice. I actually had killed off one of Roosevelt's Work Boats in the Northwest the same way, without the fort, but here I forgot.

After waiting a long time for those engines, I realize I forgot to build the stasis chamber... and I cant find it in the tech tree right now.

Okay, found it, it's with Genetics. At least I'm researching that right now since I just queued Future Tech after Fusion...

... so I just won Diplo by voting myself in instead. I think there was actually no risk of losing since I controlled a good amount of the votes. Ragnar did finish Apollo Program one turn before end of the game, but he owed me a favor for having gifted him Bio shortly before that.

I will never know which of these guys was plotting on whom now

A long game...

Willem actually had more total culture that I did in the end, but none of his other cities were remotely close to Legendary. He does seem to have stopped teching after Mass Media though. Orleans should have been on the list, it had its share of wonders...

Overbuilding obsolete units was the gravest mistake of the game, the Roosevelt conquest could have gone much smoother had I used half the amount of units, but Mace/Treb. 79 Catapults for his, what, 13 cities?
And yes, I also spammed out some useless buildings like bunkers around the end because I could. Building Wealth or Research would have been stronger, but it didn't matter at the time.

Surprisingly decent score for all the blunders.

Like this: I never remembered to reclaim that silver tile in the capital. Well, I was unable to grow to the required size until supermarkets, but still.

The other continent lost a bunch of pop to factories, it seems - I did end up having more size 20 cities than them in the end, infinitely many more. That very late tundra junk city in Strasbourg got surprisingly big up there. Never managed to flip Portland though, and taking it would have been too much of a hassle.