any masochists?

[Kevin J]

Turn 300 Report


Turn Report

Spoiler :

Turn 201: Pyramids complete!

Spoiler :

Turn 202:

Suleiman asks for peace. His terms are good, including over 600 gold, a luxury, and a riverside city adjacent to me with a developed luxury. I accept. with happiness low, it's time for a consolidation phase, the timing of his offer was good.

Spoiler :

My armies will go exploring, looking for trading partners and barbarian camps... until war looks good again. Two units will return to Sidon to farm XP.

One great general is turned into a golden age; the other is going to be kept in case of war.


Turn 203:

Formed alliance with Hanoi. Though I don't particularly need a military state, they will provide a needed luxury (whales). Additionally, with only one settled city (the capital), a source of continued military production is welcome.

Turn 205

Calendar completed. Began research on writing. NC, RA's, and Mud Pyramid Mosques all await!

Bribed Cape Town 500G for friendship.


Turn 212: Writing completed. Started philosophy.

Cleared barbarian camp. Used funds to give Cape Town another 500g for the alliance, and cotton. +3 Happiness now.

Turn 214: Colossus built in faraway land.

Turn 217: Started building GL. It's a big gamble.

Turn 221: England and America declare war on me. I figured - they'd only give 300G each for a luxury.

Spoiler :

I give Suleiman a very good deal on the excess silver I got back from the war declaration. He's my only available trading partner, and something is better than nothing. I *think* giving them deals helps your relations, but I'm not sure.

245G and 2 gpt... that's a little less than half normal.

Seoul (Cultured) allied. They have a repeat of a resource I already have (Gold), for which I have no trading partner - but I don't have many choices for City States at the moment, since my explorer scout was killed by barbarians over a hundred turns ago.

Anyway, this just over doubled my culture from 7 to 15. If I'm able to get the Great Library built, I will take Civil Service and I'll have access to patronage policies. Given the large gold investment I've already made in city states, it makes sense to maximize it.

It only hurts knowing I'll be conquering most of them later to prevent any possibility of a diplomatic victory.

Turn 223: Cotton from Cape Town. Plantation on Sugar finished. Now at +12 happiness. I need to explore for trading partners! Too bad I'm at war.

Turn 225: Guy Smiley I am not.

Spoiler :

Least happy Empire in the world! Just as I like - it means I'm not wasting my happiness. I only want a surplus *after* I get Chichen Itza... if I can.


Turn 226: Philosophy completed. Started trapping to finish before the Great Library.

No partners for RAs, sadly I'll be delaying my patronage policies to pick up 2 more in Tradition - 4 free Mud Pyramid Mosques can't be passed up - and if I go that far, no reason not to take Landed Elite.

One lonely warrior has reached America, and is farming XP while I move the rest of the army down from Sidon.

Turn 227: America's military shows its face.

Spoiler :

TUrn 231: Trapping finished.

Turn 232: New warrior from Hanoi. Barb camp is on its way home, so I'll pick up 225 g too. Handy.

Spoiler :

Turn 237: Legalism. 4 Free Mud Pyramid Mosques is sexy - doubled my culture from 21 to 41, at no maintenance cost.

Spoiler :

Turn 240: Great Wall built in faraway land. Not the GL, I may still get it! 6 Turns to go on GL.

Turn 241: Mathematics finished. Started on Currency.

Philadelphia captured and puppeted:

Spoiler :

Turn 242: GL built in a faraway land. 4 Turns too early, that's a pile of poop, but I though my odds were less than 50% that I'd get it, it's ok. Used the proceeds to form alliance with another city state, and rush buy a library. Started on Oracle in Gao - another likely waste, but it will complete faster than NC.

TUrn 244. DAGNABBIT! Lost one of my highly promoted warriors - went from full strength to zero in one turn. This unit had March, Siege, and healing. A hard loss to take.

Also, Oracle completed in faraway land. At least this was sooner rather than later. Started National College in Gao.

Formed alliance with Venice for 1000g. Venice is a maritime state bordering America.

Turn 246: Lost a highly promoted archer. This land near america is too difficult too maneouver in - rivers, rough terrain, mountains. No mobility = can't get damaged troops out fast enough. Plus I micro'd badly.

Turn 247: England and America sue for peace. No thanks!

Turn 248: GG born.

Turn 253: Lost another highly promoted unit. Boston is kicking my ass, due to over-eagerness on my part. If this wasn't HoF, I'd have loaded an autosave from 10 turns ago and redone this properly

Turn 255: Another policy. I take Monarchy since I need the happiness.

Turn 261: Finally capture Boston. Lost 3 highly promoted units taking this city. That sucks.

Turn 264: Finished currency.

Washington sues for peace. I accept - I'll focus on England for now. I'm in severe unhappiness while New York is in resistance - I renew my alliance with Hanoi from my war spoils, and I'm back below -9.

Spoiler :

Turn 277: Patronage Policy Taken. Skirmishing with England on Elizabeth's borders. Iron working completed - one was under an existing city. Time to retreat & upgrade my 2 remaining warriors (only 1 is well promoted).


Turn 278: National college completed. Boosted science from 57 to 72 - not insignificant. Started mint in Gao - +12 gold from one building? Yes please!

Turn 282: Most experienced warrior promoted to Swordsman.

Turn 283: 2nd Iron used up to promote other warrior. What a shoestring military!

Turn 288: Nottingham conquered & puppeted. Still at -5 happiness, I got marble and pearls from Nottingham.

Turn 289: England asks for peace again. This time she's offering instead of demanding, but the terms aren't good enough. No thank you Lizzy! Another Iron resource brought online - upgraded another warrior. This one is going to go dislodge a difficult barbarian hut that is the object of a city state quest:

Spoiler :

Turn 290: The battle with England continues:

Spoiler :

Turn 291: Metal-casting completed. Steel started.

Turn 292: Arabia met. Traded silver to Harun for GPT. He doesn't have the money for an RA.

Turn 296: York conquered. -10 happiness. I'll pause my conquering and just farm XP until happiness catches up.

Turn 297: Notification that Lhasa has been conquered, followed by a few denunciations of an unmet player by other unmet players. -8 Happiness. I'll rush-buy a coliseum next turn, then finish off England. I'm already a diplomatic pariah for wiping out Egypt, and London has a resource I need (Incense) plus a now-useless wonder (Great Library).

Turn 298: Coliseum in Gao. -5 Happiness.

Turn 299: England asks for peace. Sorry Lizzy, have a nice afterlife.

Turn 300: Summary time. England is going down soon!

Turn 300 Summary

Spoiler :

Happiness

Spoiler :

Diplomacy - Many city state allies, poor ai's that don't like me

Spoiler :

Military - lost too many highly trained (March+) units at Boston. Most of these are new - just one highly promoted swordsman and one highly promoted (logistics, seige, ranged, march) archer

Spoiler :

Cities. I enjoy a good puppet show. Now build happiness buildings, you fools!

Spoiler :

Demographics. Like usual in my games, I win at production, while being behind in the rest early game.

Spoiler :

Tech. Getting Steel even though my swordsmen are already a tech edge compared to AI units I've encountered so far.

Spoiler :

My American and English territories

Spoiler :

The Turkish Concession

Spoiler :

Boston, grave site of many mighty Songhai champions. A great general waits here.

Spoiler :

London, beseiged

Spoiler :

Elizabeth, don't start what you can't finish

Spoiler :

 

[Firvulag]

Must give this another shot. So far it's only resulted in short games or large failures

 

[vexing]

turn 800:
this will be my last update until the game is over, unless something crazy happens.

i conquered every other civ, with the exception of two cities by turn 750. harun built machu so i waited for a great artist to safely capture it (has that been fixed?), even though i have more gold than i could possibly use.

the remaining competition:

Spoiler :

i annexed paris so i could buy a missile cruiser to keep istanbul in check. i had to nuke poor suleiman about 5 times to get all of his tiles covered in fallout. he's stuck at two population, and he was still in the industrial era, so i don't think he could possibly tech to globalization at this point, not that he'd be able to build the UN anyway...

social policies:

Spoiler :

gao:

Spoiler :

 

[lawofqr]

Those stats are mind numbing, and still 700 turns left hehe. Nice game.

 

[Kevin J]

Up to Turn 400 now. I didn't document as I went, just played 100 turns.

At turn 400, I conquered Mecca. My happiness is temporarily below -10, but that's temporary. Freedom is unlocked next turn, that's usually worth a lot in puppet empires (they work the specialist slots in markets, etc., even when the UI doesn't show it).

Tech

Spoiler :

Policies

Spoiler :

Demographics - leading tech even without RAs. Conquering is good for science. I still have several AIs to shut down though... can only go as fast as happiness advances allow.

Spoiler :

 

[Kevin J]

Turn 500.

Things are going nicely. Just recently took Gandhi's 4-wonder capital. Still cruising right around the happiness margins. Recently signed peace with Gandhi and declared on Suleiman.

Here's what the score chart looks like so far:

1386 Me
525 Gandhi
486 Wu Zetian
431 Montezuma
413 Suleiman
230 Catherine
152 Washington
145 Harun Al-Rashid

Policies

Spoiler :

Victory Progress

Spoiler :

Demographics

Spoiler :

Tech

Spoiler :

EDIT: This game will no longer be updated or submitted. NEWS: Trades for Lump sums are banned in HoF games. GG.

 

[vexing]

finally 2/3rds through.

demographics:

Spoiler :

 

[vexing]

5/6ths. primarily have just been using great people and waiting for turns to cycle.
the stars aligned to give me 16666 score in game this turn.

demographics:

Spoiler :

 

[vexing]

finally done.

to amuse myself i leveled up a GDR completely, and used great artists to steal every plot of land suleiman had:

Spoiler :

final demographics:

Spoiler :

gao:

Spoiler :

economic overview:

Spoiler :

 

[Kevin J]

Vexing was the only person to complete this challenge - I dropped my game after realizing I was afoul of HoF rules (gold trades followed by DoWs).

Now, it's 2 months later, new patches settled in, and I'm ready to give this another go.

As before, the settings will be

askia
pangea (I'll probably use pangaea plus, it's more interesting)
marathon
large
time victory
immortal

Anyone else willing to give this challenge a 2nd try?

 

[vexing]

(I'll probably use pangaea plus, it's more interesting)

if you actually want it to be in the HoF i don't think pangea plus is an accepted map type

 

[Kevin J]

Ah, didn't know that. Back to Pangaea then.

 

[Kevin J]

Well, things didn't go as planned with my attempt. Here's my report. It's very short.

Settings: Large/Immortal/Marathon/Pangaea/Raging Barbs, Ruins Off

Turn 0: An OK start. Settled on the Silk next to the mountain/riverside for extra early gold and extra later research. A little short on food. Going pottery->calendar to hook up the silk, then to archery. Plan to go honor first to capitalize on Songhai's barbarian plunder skills.

Spoiler :

Turn 1: Game crashed. Vid card is sitting at 120c... uh-oh. Waited for it to cool down to under 100C, but crashed again when loading Civ. This old 8800GTX has been acting up for too long. Just ordered a new Radeon 5950... guess I'll continue on monday when it comes in. Or see what I can do to cool it down - but there's good airflow, case temps are only 26C... I think I'll have to wait. Gonna try taking the side off the case and putting a big ol' fan blowing right on the vid card, see if it works.

Was able to get in 116 turns without a crash...

0-116

Spoiler :

Settings: Large/Immortal/Marathon/Pangaea/Raging Barbs, Ruins Off

Turn 0: An OK start. Settled on the Silk next to the mountain/riverside for extra early gold and extra later research. A little short on food. Going pottery->calendar to hook up the silk, then to archery. Plan to go honor first to capitalize on Songhai's barbarian plunder skills.

Turn 1: Game crashed. Vid card is sitting at 120c... uh-oh. Reloaded, crashed again when loading Civ. This old 8800GTX has been acting up for too long. Just ordered a new Radeon 5950... guess I'll continue on monday when it comes in. Or see what I can do to cool it down - but there's good airflow, case temps are only 26C... I think I'll have to wait. Gonna try taking the side off the case and putting a big ol' fan blowing right on the vid card, see if it works.


4: Met Gandhi. Just north of me - he'll be my first target.

12: El Dorado! 500G, cha-ching! I'll save for the 700G needed for a worker. Wish I'd known, I would have gone mining first for the diamond hook-up.

15: Met Darius. Hi!

21: Met Hanoi, just south of my capital. Declaring war next turn to start farming XP.

26: Gandhi asks for a DoF. No thanks bud.

27: First promotion for my warrior. Shock it up, that's open territory!

28: Rush bought worker.
29: Worker has nothing to do but farm at the moment. I'm in a debate with myself - pottery completed this term. Should I go mining to open up a worker chop and the gems, or calendar for the lux hook-up?

Well, the worker will be busy farming for 20 turns. Mining will take 23 turns, calendar 40. The timing isn't perfect with the worker finishing the first farm and moving, but it's close enough - I'll go mining first. Buy the riverside/diamond tile since borders will expand to the stone first, and mine that tile with the worker. Will grant a worker chop (should be enough to finish off granary), a luxury, plus a strong 0/3/4 tile to work, which the granary's food will support. Sounds good! Will delay getting the first luxury over calendar-first approach, but the second will come in faster.

35: Culture expands to stone. 2/1/1 tile is nice now. I need 150 gold to buy the diamond tile, 100 short. I need the tile in 15 turns. 60 + 6*15 = 150. Convenient

DoF with Darius.

41: Gao demands incense. I'll keep that in mind when I meet some city states. Oh for a scout! Soon enough, my gold has more pressing concerns at the moment.

44: Second promotion on warrior (had to heal after fighting a barbarian brute). Take medic - I'll be bringing in support here when I can afford it.

DoF with Russia

45: Honor policy taken.

Barb hut discovered - and close to my warrior. 225G, here I come!

50: Extra barb spawned. That will add a number of turns to getting that 225g.

52: Hmm, calendar, masonry or archery? I'd really like some archers, but scouts or warriors would still be useful at this point. But do I want to delay archers by 40 turns? I could build a settler in that time then settle on a calendar resource. Calendar gets me a luxury instantly = 740G. Masonry is more production, and would let stone works be built as soon as masonry completes, if I go masonry first.

Archery: Conquest of the city state (Hanoi)
Masonry: Medium-term production boost. Worker will improve stone tiles and stone works will be built.
Calendar: Instant luxury worth 720g if the AI has it - not this early . Worker will continue to farm = more food / population. That gold is worth it, going Calendar!

56: Gandhi has expanded close to me. Thank you Gandhi, you've made this more convenient! I'll see you in about 50 turns.

58: Scout completed in Gao. Started on a second warrior. Scout will go farm XP at the city state, since the warrior is gone barb hunting.

72: New policy. Warrior code - I'm producing a melee unit, how handy!

83: Gems traded to Suleiman for 532G + 2 GPT. 1 turn until I can rush buy a settler - to settle on a nearby hills/riverside/mountainside gems - Sadly, it's next to a barb camp, and my two units are injured and need to heal before moving there. That hut popping right there was unfortunate.

85: Warrior completed. Taking a risk and starting Stonehenge. I'm gambling that I'll get enough funds from barb hunting to keep things alive, we shall see.

Started researching masonry.

Rush bought settler.

92: Settled Tomboctu. Decided to move 1 off the gems, to bring it closer to an adjacent cotton tile. Began work on a monument. Now with this city, my GPT is at 14. Good good.

England is settling in on my west. Hmm, options.

95: Began moving worker to Tomboctu to hook up gems. Rush bought second scout in Gao - I need to know my surroundings.

Turn 103: My new scout clears a barb camp bordering food CS Rio de Janeiro. 250G more and I'm friends with Rio - which the camp almost payed for. Normally you need 500G to reach friends, so that's cool - hopefully I can afford the maintenance.

104: DoF with Russia and Rome.

105: DoF with Ottomans.

106: Damn it! Just realized I forgot to sell my silk way back when it hooked up. Sold to Arabia for 3 gpt + 373G.

109: Barringer Crater discovered. +1 happiness is useful, puts me at 2.

110: Masonry complete. Going AH to hook up sheep in food-poor Tombouctu after the diamonds.

112: Monument finished in Tombouctu. Thank you forest chop! Started on granary.

113: Losing grasp on Rio! Whatever, 500G more and we're allies. That Ivory happiness will be useful once it's hooked up.

114: That rush bought scout cleared another barb camp. He's really paid for himself

115: Tombouctu wants dyes. Also, met Warsaw with the same scout. They have dyes.

116: Aaaaand, Crash. Ok, I'm done for this session.

116-140:

Spoiler :

116: restarting

120: DoF with Arabia.

129: Hooked up gems in Tombouctu, sold for 525G +2 GPT. Worker bought in Gao for 700G.

140: Stonhenge complete. Gamble worked.

Current army:
2 Great Generals
Warrior (medic, shock III)
Warrior (medic, drill II)
scout (survivalism III, medic)
warrior (drill I)
scout (survivalism I).

2 mountainside/riverside cities, each with a worker. 3 luxuries hooked (2 gems and a silk) up with another (cotton) on the way.


141: Crashed.

Once my troops all get march, conquest is gonna be easy...getting close. Hopefully I'll have Iron within the borders of my 2 hilly cities, or in the desert CS I'm soon about to conquer. Well, after I level up to march.

145-164

Spoiler :

145: Granary finished in Timbouctu. Began work on Library.

147: Met Tyre. Tyre has pearls.

Accidentally DoF'd with Gandhi. Bah, I'll find a new target. Probably Suleiman.

164: Cotton to Suleiman for 720G.

DoF with Rome.

Civ V Crashed again. My computer is dying. Vid card temp is showing at 109 C.

 

[Kevin J]

171-200. Will put in screenshots in a bit.

Spoiler :

171: Hanoi conquered. I think England will be my next target, they don't like me much anyway. Rush bought library in Gao.

174: Gems back from Suleiman. Hmmm. I'll keep for the moment, need the happiness and don't see any options for civ state luxuries.

175: What the heck, I'll trade it and ally warsaw. But nope, dye isn't hooked up yet, poop. Down to -2 happiness now.

177: Library finished in Tombouctu. Started wall (what, why!). Few build options except military given my tech path - it was walls, barracks, troops, worker or settler. I have enough military to roll over an AI now - taking a city state first just does that for you on Immortal. No happiness to expand with settlers, good on workers (3 for 3 cities). The wall will soon give happiness, and I may get an unexpected DoW, Timbouctu is close to 3 AI cities.

178: Horses from Rio de Janeiro. Well. Don't need that yet!

179: DoW on England. Hi Lizzy!

180: Yet another GG. That makes 3. This new guy will just chill in the capital for now - 2 GG's with the attack should be enough. Hopefully I can get Chichen Itza, I'll pop them all for GAs if I don.

182: Suleiman declares war. That gives me back my two luxuries, not bad. Stone works finished in Gao, started walls. Not risking the GL - and I wouldn't have rush bought library if I was going to try for it Traded cotton to America for 626 G - sitting on 1209G now. Will wait to see where Suleiman comes from, to rush-buy an archer where needed. Holding onto the other excess luxury for the moment.

183: Suleiman declares on Darius. Hopefully that keeps him busy while I take out England.

185: Suleiman shows up at Tombouctu. Just an archer and a warrior. Rush bought one Archer, should be good to handle that. At this point, most of England's military is wiped out, my troops are just hanging back healing up.


186: Lizzie wants peace. She's offering me a luxury, horses, and a pittance in gold. Hmm, I *could* shift my attack to the Ottomans. But meh, sorry Lizzy, it's a no.

188: Iron working discovered. None in my territory, but a bunch near England. Good thing I'm taking them out! On to trapping to hook up some Ivory. Why do AIs never have enough gold for RAs on Immortal? It seems that early RA's basically only happen on Deity, on Immortal and below, the AI never has the gold. I feel like I'm wasting the 1000G I'm sitting on. Only CS option is Tyre (militaristic) with their luxury not yet hooked up. Not yet, sorry Tyre.

190: Time to start the attack on London. Some troops moved into position:

Here's Suleiman's pitiful attack on Tombouctu:

192: Hanging Gardens built in faraway land. Looks like it was Gandhi. He now has the Pyramids *and* the HG. Good target

193: That same little old rush-bought scout has now cleared his 4th barb camp. Yes, promoted scouts can take out fortified spearmen with the 25% honor bonus.

Suleiman's forces attacking Tombouctu (2 archers and a warrior) have been wiped out.

194: Things are progressing well in London:

195: Barracks finished in Gao. Started on walls.

Suleiman asks for Peace: No sir. If I were ready to take on Gandhi, sure, but I ain't breaking my stupid DoF. You're next bud.

England wants peace again. No really? No!

196: Another social policy. Military Caste. This should help with happiness/culture post conquest. For now I don't have units to spare to sit idly in cities.

197: Trapping done. Time for philosophy, I need to get RAs going (even though all the AIs except Suleiman are too poor). Silk back from Harun, retraded a gem for 191G + 4 GPT. Ah, immortal AIs are so poor! Warmonger hate doesn't help either. Need to keep one luxury for happiness.

Here's London, getting low. Wish I'd had one more Archer, they would have fallen. As it is, I've had to retreat to heal up.

200: Summary time, and time to quit for now - temps are close to 100C, need some cool-down time.