Blackbetsy HOF Attempts

I was doubtful that they would cash rush, but I figured that if they had more cash, maybe they'd think they could run a deficit on maintenance and still build improvements? They were stuck in despotism with only 4 cities and had enough troops to possibly make them pay unit costs. They sure as heck weren't researching.
Ah, I see now. Yea, with 4 cities and in Despotism I can imagine a building support issue, if they had too much unit support. I'm not sure they would, since they get free unit support for each city at Demigod, but for sure that now sounds rational to me.
 
Advanced to around 700, we've got the Spanish on the run, having taken Madrid. The Chinese have taken two big bites out of the western portion of the Spanish empire, so we are going to be down to cleaning up. The last city I raid didn't even have musketmen, so a few Cavalry charges without artillery were safe enough. The Chinese, my source of Saltpeter (until I hook up my own source), will be my next target, with Carthage, on my continent, being the next. With all of those lands, I should be nearly 35% of the land, since I'm on the biggest continent. Meanwhile I'll build up a substantial galleon force to make the short hop over to the Korean / Roman continent, which I will then re-use to make the other short hop over to the German / French continent. Those altogether should be enough to close in on 65% but I'll have to take out any culturally dangerous civs and claim the best foodlands.

It's so much nicer to have 8 luxes in the box. Even with some pretty heavy WW, I am running 10% lux with lots of happy faces and no or limited disorder. Steam Power is probably 10 turns away, since the Arabs conveniently took ToG while I am finishing off Magnetism (no luxes to get from the Arabs, unfortunately).
 
General Francisco Franco is dead.

The Spanish were put away in the late 700's when I determined that there wasn't any further use for bringing the cannons to bear on their cities and taking them with Cavalry strikes only. The end of the Spanish Empire meant that I could free up troops on flip duty and in one turn, the entire eastern part of the Carthaginian nation was flying Mayan flags. Quick construction of a couple of galleons meant that I could carry enough Armies and troops across a narrow Gulf of Carthage to besiege the Carthaginian core territory without having to sign a Right of Passage with the Chinese. Our Chinese part-turn allies (Saltpeter + Alliance for gpt, soon cancelled when the Saltpeter didn't make it to the capital) gobbled up way too much of the southern Carthaginian Empire and I quickly had to block their further advance.

Early 800's now, and there are 6 mainland Carthaginian cities left, plus 3 on other islets and areas. We'll clean those up over the next 8 turns, given the vast spaces between Carthaginian cities.

Once Carthage is conquered, the Chinese will declare war instead of delivering saltpeter to my capital, and we will invade on two fronts, from the former Carthaginian territory and from former Spain. The Chinese are going to bring quite a bit of Cavalry to the fight, but they still don't have Physics, so we won't be seeing Riflemen.

Steam Power was discovered, with 2 coal sources happily already hooked up, so the process of creating fast travel from the core to the front in in place. Just a few turns earlier, the Military Academy was built, so my cash horde will be used to rush 8-10 Cavalry armies to complete a near unbeatable force.

The map would *only* be better if France were closer to me than my German trading partner, and Rome were closer to me than my Korean trading partner. Otherwise, I feel like I'm in good shape, and getting conquest done much sooner than my last game. I'll have Infantry and Artillery by the time I land in either Germany or Korea, and enough Armies to make the AI feed into false funnels and just poof them.

Arabia will need to be stopped from a spaceship launch, but their core is small enough to be wiped out pretty quickly.
 
Just a few turns earlier, the Military Academy was built, so my cash horde will be used to rush 8-10 Cavalry armies to complete a near unbeatable force.

A few times I've wondered if it's better to upgrade more horseman to cavalry instead of rushing cavalry armies. If fighting muskets, I'm unsure that cavalry armies end up preferable. However, more cavalry armies in the field means that 7/12 or 8/12 or 9/12 army might make it back to cover workers railroading, and I often try to use defensive units or only slightly wounded units to cover workers who rail near recently captured cities.

It might also depend on how many armies one has. Like if one has 2-5 armies, then maybe cashrushing more armies makes more sense. But, if one has 20 armies, then maybe upgrading more horsemen to cavalry makes more sense.

Any idea how many opponents you'll try to keep around for war happiness?
 
A few times I've wondered if it's better to upgrade more horseman to cavalry instead of rushing cavalry armies. If fighting muskets, I'm unsure that cavalry armies end up preferable. However, more cavalry armies in the field means that 7/12 or 8/12 or 9/12 army might make it back to cover workers railroading, and I often try to use defensive units or only slightly wounded units to cover workers who rail near recently captured cities.

It might also depend on how many armies one has. Like if one has 2-5 armies, then maybe cashrushing more armies makes more sense. But, if one has 20 armies, then maybe upgrading more horsemen to cavalry makes more sense.

Any idea how many opponents you'll try to keep around for war happiness?
Mostly, I am assuming I will be facing Riflemen soon and then Infantrymen so I'll need some Cavalry armies to crack the first couple of troops in a city. Also, getting up to a core of 15-20 armies is what you need for the False Funnel when you invade another continent.

If you have a Huge core of armies, I think having more Horsemen / Cavalry is probably worth it. But I also have a feeling I will be using Tanks by the end.

For sure I'll keep the Zulu and Greeks around for war happiness. The Germans, Romans, Koreans and French are dead meat, as are the Arabians. If the Iroquois don't get too frisky on their scientific research, they can probably live. Japan, too.

If I add my own lux into peace deal and then pillage the trade route, what rep do I break? Is it up front for gpt / luxes per turn?
 
For sure I'll keep the Zulu and Greeks around for war happiness. The Germans, Romans, Koreans and French are dead meat, as are the Arabians. If the Iroquois don't get too frisky on their scientific research, they can probably live. Japan, too.

It could be better to keep around fewer AIs. The relevant questions, I think, concerns what percentage of the territory towards the domination limit you already have and how much you can gain in the war. If you have near 66%.. maybe 60%, keeping an AI around for war happiness sounds better. If you though have 40% of the tiles, then conquering their cities instead of razing those cities I think has more benefits.

Also, there's the possibility of keeping an AI around, and dealing with the possibility of flips until you replace all of their cities with your own new cities.


If I add my own lux into peace deal and then pillage the trade route, what rep do I break?

Trade reputation. I don't recommend gifting a luxury for permanent war happiness, and think that pillaging for such a case would imply that you declare war instead of the AIs (I haven't tested this).

Instead, first find the least common luxury (or iron/saltpeter source). Park some unit with attack outside the city with any sources of that luxury. Then gift them some corrupt city or two with the luxury. Pillage any other sources. Then trade for that luxury in the renegotiated peace deal. Pillage out the capital trade route. And retake any cities. They might have to have Navigation or Astronomy... though that might not pose an issue for your game on Demigod, I just had to do some tech gifting on Warlord recently so that they could trade luxuries.

You might want to check the nationality of those gifted cities which had the luxuries after you retake those cities also. They might need replanted.
 
It's 880 AD. Carthage is now engaged in a One City Challenge. I don't think they will be able to come out on top, but I've sent a Galleon with 4 Veteran Cavalry to inspect their progress.

Now I'm gearing up for the big fight with China. The main railroad line to the Chinese front is almost complete. The old Spanish cities that are on the Chinese Eastern Front are on tundra mostly so I'm just going to raze them for slave workers to extend the railroads into China. China is going to be a flipping problem since their culture is so high relative to ours, so every city is going to consume 2 cavalry as flipping guards.

I'm at 23% of land now (way ahead of attempt #119's pace), and complete integration of the Carthaginian empire and China should get me past 30%. There are 2 really big continents in this world that are a combined 50% or so of the map, with another continent that is probably another 20% So once I get rid of China and take either France/Germany or Korea/Rome, it really is just a matter of deciding the optimal land/coastal/sea squares for population growth.

Ultimately I'd like to have a 6 group army to do 3 separate axes of advance per turn with a turn to heal / move for the other three groups. That way I can reasonably take out an AI in 10 turns.
 
It is now 1000 AD and the Chinese civilization has 20 years left in its history, clinging only to 3 icy towns in the far south. In 1050 years, these people will be the happiest on the planet, and only remember that they are Mayan, and that the curious names of their cities come from the people who lived there 1000 years ago. If I even allow them to learn any history.

160 years ago, I sent the galleons used in the invasion of the Carthaginian homeland to the east to be ready for this first large continental invasion. By the time they reach their destination in 30 years, they will be ready to receive a massive invasion group of armies. They will load dozens of artillery units, cavalry, and infantry and land just outside of 3 Korean cities just after the Koreans declare war on the Mayans. The Koreans will be declaring war on the Maya because they know that the Maya have discovered that the lush green lands of the Korean homeland, and the neighboring Roman homeland, can bear the weight of many, many Mayan citizens. More so than the rocky, jungled shores of Germany. Alas, the Musketmen in Korea will be swept away in a crashing tide, and the Koreans will only remember themselves as Mayans.

***
All in all, Chinese war went pretty well. They had stacked up their cavalry near my borders and it was gone in a single turn. Almost all cities were defended with 2-3 rifleman (they learned Nationalism the turn before I declared war, unfortunately, and they had Sun Tzu to upgrade all of their muskets, with some cash they found, apparently). I took a fair share of Cavalry losses, as well as a Knight army, but it took only 8 turns to take the 9% or so of territory and 30 cities in Chinese hands. I hardly used my cannons, which were upgraded to artillery a couple of turns into the war when I learned RP. Only two culture flips with mild losses so far. I don't know if I could have taken a non-railroaded civilization any faster; only if I had more armies at the border and a swarm of workers railroading within a turn could it have gone faster. I will bring some workers to Korea to help speed up the process but I've still got a lot of watering and railroading left to do on my continent.

Surely, conquest of 66% of the land will happen by 1400. 1300 might be dicey. Sanitation is due next turn, so I'll have hospitals on line for some population maximization in the core.
 
I'm also going to have to run two invasions at once, so once I drop off a set of armies in Korea, I'm going to re-load the Galleons and hit France if feasible (it is the farther of the two) or Germany if not. I don't get any luxes from France, so I'd prefer to hit them first. The Korean-bound army will continue to Rome (the lux I get from Rome is also in Korea and will become native) and then be the force that reduces or eliminates the Arabs, possibly augmented by armor. That should end all science on this forsaken planet. Good riddance, science!
 
Its 1405, which is 1 turn past halfway to 2050. The Koreans went quickly, but the Romans were tenacious - they had some pretty good RNG and enough offensive troops around to be a nuisance. I tried to leave them to a single island city that would prevent culture flips, but 3 Roman cities flipped back and I had to wait out 20 turns to extinguish them.

Fighting two wars at once did not go well - I didn't move my artillery and just sent some Cavalry armies, Cavalry, and Infantry to France through Germany. Germany was extremely slow in roading/railroading so it took a long time to wind my way through and take a toehold French city. I took a few local cities, including a gem city, then pillaged France's only saltpeter and horses, and a spices city. Those luxes were important, since the Germans surprised me by declaring war in alliance with the Arabs.

The war with the Arabs was fortunate inasmuch as it gave me a chance to kick their toehold cities off of my continent and the Roman/Korean continent, but WW just exploded.

Killing off the Romans and French ended those wars, but long running wars with Germany and Arabia have my lux slider at 90%.

Conquest to get to 66% is effectively over - the French lands are grassland rich. The jungles on my continent have been cleared (I didn't know that marsh clearance was faster than jungle clearance - good to know) and I've settled all but maybe 1-2 spots I want to hit and population is near max on the home continent. On the Roman/Korean continent, we are near watering / railroading, so the French territory, which gets me to 62% I believe, is in the process of being reworked (the French built zero railroads - no coal). There are some good German lands in the north that will get me to 66%, and the Germans don't have much fight left. The loss of WW will be much appreciated.
 
I'm a few turns into the "how do I maximize the domination limit and squeeze out sea squares and population" part of the game, but still cleaning up the other civs. The Arabs have lost the southern half of their core, and they dragged the backwards Zulu into the war, so I might as well take them out next. The Greeks have a monopoly on incense, so they may be last and they may be kept around for war happiness (i.e., I take some of their incense and connect when at war, disconnect when I want to trade with them and get them to DOW with me).

I'm afraid to do any calculation of my score at this point, I'll wait until I am at the dom limit. Population still increasing rapidly in the French lands and the German lands worth settling. I've still got a huge army to dis-assemble into hospital and harbors and the like, as well as hundreds of workers that can re-join the civilian population. The Arab lands in the south are grassland rich with wheat and a few flood plains, and worth using for the last 2% of territory before the dom limit.
 
@Spoonwood How close to the dom limit are you comfortable in getting in Histo games? In my previous games, I don't know if I ever was comfortable below 5 tiles.
 
How close to the dom limit are you comfortable in getting in Histo games?

I don't recall, and it's varied.

It could help if you can have multiple culture pops on a single turn. If you have 64%, but not 65%, of the tiles and sell off culture buildings before they get to 100 culture, your scoring potential seems high to me, while also remaining safe from triggering the domination limit.

5 tiles won't work for some culture pops! If you find a city with in one of the saves... 10 culture... and can imagine what the borders looked like before that city had the culture pop.
 
Well, I almost had a disaster when I went from 85 tiles away from the limit to .... 3 tiles away after a set of culture pops. I am now re-configuring my empire to ensure I don't trigger the dom limit. I am concerned about border changes when I go to war with the Japanese since there are some close ones; I am going to create a 20-30 tile buffer until all the conquest is done.
 
Since we had Scratcher's entry which knocked Denniz's 38,874 point entry off of the Huge Emperor Histographic table, and histographic entries not on a table do NOT count towards histographic position as Superslug informs us here, I will point out that Huge Demigod 160k has less than 10 entries at present. Huge Diplomatic has less than 10 entries. Huge Demigod Conquest has less than 10 entries, and you only have one entry on that table.

And Huge Demigod Spaceship has less than 10 entries.
 
Yikes! You just scared the crap out of me. The #10 entry on Huge Demigod is 32k, so as long as I beat that, I will get on the table and it will theoretically improve my QM standing.

My goal is 40k of course, which I am not sure I will make. Adjusting my Deity Histographic 70% water pangaea score for DG 60% water archipelago suggests that if I play the same (not sure I am!), I should come in about 38k, a little short of my goal. My Histographic score should go to 3.6 or thereabouts, pushing me ahead of Moonsinger (can't believe it) into 11th place. I'll need to beat Spiffykeen's 39k (3.51 QM score) to move into #10.
 
I think you'll get well over 40k. In my demigod game I scored 43k, and I didn't reach 65% territory till after 1600 AD. My domination limit was 4452, what's yours?
 
@CKS played on a continents map. It also has a bunch of connected territory with a few to many, high sea square and high food value spots not settled. I can understand not wanting to abandon cities.
 
I am a little concerned about my score. Right now, I'm about 15,500 somewhere around 1625 AD, adding about 150-160 points per turn. I'm finishing a bunch of hospitals that will add some population, and I might need Longevity to boost population for growth even though it will create problems long term. I know score increases per turn drop dramatically once you hit your peak population, so I think 40k is going to be pretty tough. I haven't touched SirPleb's calculator yet, to avoid giving myself the bad news.

I struggle to think about doing this again. I'd likely try it at the Deity level to get the extra score boost.
 
Back
Top Bottom