[BTS] BOTM 156 - The Mighty Qin - Final Spoiler, game submitted

Noble Zarkon

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How did you find the game? what did you do with the Great People?
 
In the AD, I continued my economic and scientific development while hoping for a break in the Buddhist harmony among all the AI. That finally appeared to occur in in 1180, when I get notice of an AP vote to end the war against KK. Wait, what war was that? Oh, a little later in the turn, I get the notice that KK had attacked Ramses. But all the AI (including KK) vote to end the war, so it's over before I have the chance to chose sides. But at least that's cracked the harmony.

I attack KK in 1310. I have to defy an AP vote to end the war, but it goes well, with Roosevelt joining the war in 1470. He captures one Mongol city while I take the rest The final city taken in 1550 was on the island to my southeast, which required me to finally build some galleys.

I complete the Pentagon, switch to Police State, Theocracy, Nationhood and Buddhism (from Free Religion) to maximize my military potential and my influence in the AP, then I attack Ramses in 1675. He's conquered by 1775. Meanwhile, Augustus and Roosevelt sign a defensive pact.

That means I have to attack them both in 1790. After taking one Roman city, Augustus agrees to a peace treaty. Now I can focus on Roosevelt. He's conquered by 1838. This leaves me just short of the land needed for Domination, so I attack Augustus in 1852. After a massive opening battle, he can't mount any serious resistance and I achieve my Domination in 1868.

Now I'll wait to read those reports that explain how this victory should have happened a millennium earlier...and on deity.
 
Spoiler Until 1 AD :

Took the deity save. I had never really warred with Cho-Ko-Nu before, so wanted to give that a try. I quickly joined all great people, and aimed to Oracle Machinery ASAP, while still expanding pretty quickly. Oracle comes in at 1800 BC, while I settle my 6th and last city at 1520 BC. At this point, I trade for iron working, expecting to find iron somewhere nearby since NZ seems like a kind and generous mapmaker so far. But "only unclaimed iron is on some icebound island way to the south" is not what I had in mind. In fact, my previous settling effectively blocked me from getting a galley in there without building a fort, so I turn instead to paying an AI for a source of iron until I can conquer one myself. It takes most of my resources, researching currency and building wealth in nearly all cities, but Kublai eventually obliges. Meanwhile, a scientist-induced golden age ensures I can build some military and pay Kublai his exorbitant 80 GPT without falling into strike, at least.

After whipping together an army, I declare war on Kublai, taking a couple of cities before making peace to regroup. Then a few turns later, I strike again, taking Beshbalik and Karakorum (with it's precious source of iron) at 325 BC. Kublai's remaining cities are lame, well-fortified and spread out, so my focus shifts to Ramesses and his juicy double-holy city, Memphis. I capture this city and one other, quickly sign a ceasefire to help my units regroup, and declare war again to finish him off. Thebes is captured at 25 BC, and Egypt's remaining 2 cities will just be a mop-up job.

Statistics so far:
Built 57 Cho-ko-nu, lost 14
Killed 19 archers, 13 swords, 13 axes, 13 spears, 7 catapults, 1 chariot.
14 Cities, 28% of land area

Wow! I never realized how efficient Cho-ko-nu with drill promotions were! 4.5 for 1 is pretty ridiculous... I have to play China more often!


The war against Ramesses quickly comes to a close (100 AD), as his final city, Alexandria, falls. Meanwhile, I acquire my last techs for the game (Engineering, drama, and code of laws), through a mixture of research and trading. On the very same turn that Egypt falls, I begin the attack on Augustus, who unfortunately managed to acquire feudalism and upgrade his archers a few turns before. On the other hand, Rome has been stalled by a pointless war with the remnants of Mongolia, in which Augustus repeatedly crashed hordes of praetorians against the hilltop city of Old Sarai. Nevertheless, I've built up so many crossbows that Rome puts up little resistance, his final 3 cities all falling at 425 AD. While I wait for those cities to come out of resistance, my hordes turn once again to Mongolia, who has been soft and weak since my last war with him. I take a couple of cities but can't quite finish him off, because a couple turns of 100% culture slider push me to the domination land limit at 600 AD.

Final Statistics:
Built 110 Cho-ko-nu, lost 58
Killed 31 catapults, 30 axes, 26 archers, 25 longbows, 23 spears, 18 swords, 11 chariots, 10 horse archers, 7 praetorians, a war chariot and a keshik.
29 cities, 71% of land area

Not quite the same efficiency as before longbows hit the battlefield, but still a pretty incredible unit. I feel like I underutilized the espionage from the joined great spy. Research visibility was useful for a while, and I did manage to support a revolt or two, but still had over 1000 unused espionage points in all.
 
I got Horse Archers and Math chops early enough that I was able to smoke all the AI. :smoke:
The warring went so well I felt like Duckweed a little bit.

Continuing my report from the 1AD thread

Nipped a fat Mongol city guarded by 2 Archers, then exited the war right before the Spear got there.
Spoiler :







Started the war with Egypt stealing 2 Workers to keep any of the 3 Iron from being connected.
The capital had like 6 or 7 Archers, so hit the fat side cities first.
Holy city with Shrine fell with 0 Horse Archer losses I think! :D$_$
Even the suicide attack against the roaming Archer the previous turn got a retreat from my Chariot.
I've been on the other side of that a few times, where every 90% chance to win battle was a loss when it really mattered.
Spoiler :









Horse Archers are nice on Deity because they can attack before the AI can spam 1 unit per turn in their cities.
Horse Archers also let you attack somewhere else quickly when you run into a heavily defended AI city.

Pillaged an Ivory and positioned my forces hoping to lure out Workers, then Cease Fired once Egypt got down to 3 cities.
Gave Egypt my fish city to clear the +5 Anger that had built up, then it was back to war.
Bagged a few more Workers and crushed Egypt down to 1 city.

Not sure how I got Theology for Peace Treaty?
I only captured 3 cities and killed around 12 Archers.
My losses were a few Horse Archers.
That shouldn't be enough to get a big tech like Theology right?
My power rating was wayyyyy higher than Egypt at that point hmm.
Spoiler :









Got a Great Engineer again at 53% odds for my 2nd Great Person.
Bulbed Metal Casting and Machinery this game.
Great Scientist would have been Golden Age most likely.

USA was my second victim.
First I bribed Roosevelt into war with well defended Mongolia while I spent 10 turns digesting Egypt, scouting USA, and trying to get Roosevelt to Friendly.
Spoiler :





USA had no metal, so all I had to worry about was War Elephants and to a less degree Catapults.
Horse Archers get +50% bonus vs. Catapults so I'm happy to see them wandering around.
Egypt's capital was able to produce 2 Spears before the war started and they definitely helped against the War Elephants until I was able to take away Ivory.

It was the greatest feeling watching all of Roosevelt's units stream down to Mongolia for 10 turns. :devil:
The Ivory city was full of injured units.
Spoiler :





A wandering unit stole one of my Egypt cities, but I rallied fast to prevent my holy city from falling.
I even saw the unit earlier in Rome, but forgot about it later.
Barbs put their 2 cents in too.
Spoiler :



The end was even more comical.
USA #1 decided to defend his capital with Catapults against my Horse Archer horde. :lol:
Spoiler :

Lost out on Hanging Gardens by a few turns with 11 cities, but still managed to get a good amount of fail gold from Hagia and +50% faster workers.
The city gifting to clear anger continued.
Any motherland anger from 50% of the city culture becoming foreign vanished once the AI civs died completely.
Spoiler :








Egypt served one final purpose around T96 when I gave him Fish City for the 2nd time.
My spy stole Code of Laws for only around 150:espionage: since I had 50% wait bonus, 50% culture bonus, holy city bonus, and espionage spending bonus.
This move let me clear out the anger buildup in Fish City again and let me quickly tech Civil Service for Maces.

The end of the game came quickly after T100.

Spoiler :










 
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At this point, I trade for iron working, expecting to find iron somewhere nearby since NZ seems like a kind and generous mapmaker so far. But "only unclaimed iron is on some icebound island way to the south" is not what I had in mind.
Sorry about that - forgot that CKNs need Iron or I would have made it a bit more accessible!!
 
My game is a pale shadow of some others', with Domination in 1675. Inspired (more like shamed) by those other examples, I took a second shot and although I'm doing better than the first time, it's nothing to write home about. One thing that struck me, though, was the power of rushing the Mids with the Engineer. It's not just the sizeable science boost you get from running Representation (+3 bpt per GP) with those settled GPs, it's also the +3 happiness, which provides much-needed room for growth well before you can get any Calendar (or other) resources online.
 
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