Nice game jesusin. 
Care to explain what you mean by this? Why do relations matter in this case?
BOTM 18 Final Spoiler
- Thread starter Niklas
- Start date
Sure. If I want to play a cultural game I am ready to kill my neighbour Monty very soon, but then I want peace for the rest of the game. If all AI started with a hidden -2 modifier as I thought, then keeping peace would have been all the more difficult and in that case I could as well go for a military game instead.
Ah, but then Aggressive AI would still hurt you. Keeping peace with Aggressive AI on is harder at the same relations, since the AI will be happier to declare war than otherwise. IIRC the AI get a -10% on their thresholds to declare war at any given relation level. That means even Gandhi would consider declaring on you when Friendly, since his normal threshold is 100% to not declare, but with Aggressive AI it's only 90%. Also since the AI are happier to build military, they are more likely to exceed the power threshold needed to consider attacking (and I believe that threshold is lowered as well).
Things started out reasonably well. I settled on the hill two north and researched Bronze Working. I had some Axemen ready and waiting when the barbarians arrived. I was having trouble pushing out far enough to fogbust or settle other cities though so I tried for the Great Wall and failed. Then in one of those seemed like a good idea at the time moments I tried to get a Settler out and grab a spot north of the capitol, only to see Justinian and Gilgamesh grab all the good land first.
On to plan 3. I built up a bunch of Axemen and attacked Justinian in 575 BC. He had only Archers to defend with an I captured Adrianople near the Marble without difficulty. His capital was too well defended for my modest army though, and I had to content myself with razing another city. From there we settled into a long stalemate. He acquired Horses and Iron from somewhere, and I gradually realized Id never win. I secured peace for a tech in 860 AD.
The situation was bad. I had two cities and no real room to expand. All of my neighbors were more powerful than me. My technology was poor although not totally outclassed. I concluded my only hope would be a diplomatic victory and set my sights on getting to Mass Media while pissing off as few people as possible. By running Theocracy and Hereditary Rule but refusing to adopt a state religion I was able to get my immediate neighbors to be pleased with me. I built some marginal cities along the fringes of Istanbuls culture. I relied on Hereditay Rule to keep my citizens happy and trade away all of my happiness and strategic resources for health and cash.
Fast forward about 800 years. My tiny empire is still kicking along. By watching the diplomacy info like a hawk I have mostly managed to adapt my trading to avoid trading with the worst enemies of my hoped-for voters: Saladin, Hamurabi, Ramses, and Zara. If Mansa would just adopt Free Religion I might be able to get his vote too. Gilgamesh is a vassal of Saladin, having been smashed in several wars, some of which I joined for relations boosts. Darius I am hoping will be my opponent. Justinian just has to leave me alone.
I rush out the UN in 1886. As predicted several centuries earlier, Darius is my opponent. I win the Secretary Generalship easily.
So much for the good news. In the twenty or so turns leading up to this point, Mansa adopts Free Religion but quickly switches back to Theocracy when he gets involved in a war with Ramses. He hates me for refusing to help. Darius vassalizes Hamurabi as the result of another war. Saladin doesnt like me enough to vote for me. My only hope appears to be adopting his state religion for the relations boost, forming a defensive alliance with Zara who is of a different religion to boost relations with him, and hoping that gets me just enough votes to win before someone decides to kill me.
Instead, Mansa declares war on me shortly after I adopt Hinduism, bringing Zara into the war. I lose a couple of minor cities to him before buying peace. Justinian dogpiles me from the other direction and I lose a city to him too, but draft enough men to keep Bursa and Istanbul and buy peace with Mass Media. In the midst of all this I get my first opportunity to offer up a vote: Stop the war against Vynd. It fails with about 480 votes out of 700 needed. Even if Saladin had voted for me (you jerk!) it wouldnt have been enough. Ill need just as many votes to win a Diplo victory, meaning its officially out of reach without a miracle like Hamurabi breaking vassalage or Mansa suddenly becoming my friend.
So I fruitlessly offer up several diplomatic victory votes while watching my neighbors slug it out over the next 20 or 30 turns. Mansa nukes Ramses and Zara, then gets nuked in return, and once Saladin joins in the fighting ends up vassalized to him. Saladin and Darius fight a war that leads to Hamurabi losing all but one city to Saladin, and Gilgamesh losing most of his remaining territory to Darius.
That gives Darius a border with me. Perhaps 2 turns later, he declares war. Three(!) nukes hit Bursa, wiping out the garrison completely. A few turns later he overwhelms Istanbul, and the Ottoman Empire is no more. It was 1954 AD.
On to plan 3. I built up a bunch of Axemen and attacked Justinian in 575 BC. He had only Archers to defend with an I captured Adrianople near the Marble without difficulty. His capital was too well defended for my modest army though, and I had to content myself with razing another city. From there we settled into a long stalemate. He acquired Horses and Iron from somewhere, and I gradually realized Id never win. I secured peace for a tech in 860 AD.
The situation was bad. I had two cities and no real room to expand. All of my neighbors were more powerful than me. My technology was poor although not totally outclassed. I concluded my only hope would be a diplomatic victory and set my sights on getting to Mass Media while pissing off as few people as possible. By running Theocracy and Hereditary Rule but refusing to adopt a state religion I was able to get my immediate neighbors to be pleased with me. I built some marginal cities along the fringes of Istanbuls culture. I relied on Hereditay Rule to keep my citizens happy and trade away all of my happiness and strategic resources for health and cash.
Fast forward about 800 years. My tiny empire is still kicking along. By watching the diplomacy info like a hawk I have mostly managed to adapt my trading to avoid trading with the worst enemies of my hoped-for voters: Saladin, Hamurabi, Ramses, and Zara. If Mansa would just adopt Free Religion I might be able to get his vote too. Gilgamesh is a vassal of Saladin, having been smashed in several wars, some of which I joined for relations boosts. Darius I am hoping will be my opponent. Justinian just has to leave me alone.
I rush out the UN in 1886. As predicted several centuries earlier, Darius is my opponent. I win the Secretary Generalship easily.
So much for the good news. In the twenty or so turns leading up to this point, Mansa adopts Free Religion but quickly switches back to Theocracy when he gets involved in a war with Ramses. He hates me for refusing to help. Darius vassalizes Hamurabi as the result of another war. Saladin doesnt like me enough to vote for me. My only hope appears to be adopting his state religion for the relations boost, forming a defensive alliance with Zara who is of a different religion to boost relations with him, and hoping that gets me just enough votes to win before someone decides to kill me.
Instead, Mansa declares war on me shortly after I adopt Hinduism, bringing Zara into the war. I lose a couple of minor cities to him before buying peace. Justinian dogpiles me from the other direction and I lose a city to him too, but draft enough men to keep Bursa and Istanbul and buy peace with Mass Media. In the midst of all this I get my first opportunity to offer up a vote: Stop the war against Vynd. It fails with about 480 votes out of 700 needed. Even if Saladin had voted for me (you jerk!) it wouldnt have been enough. Ill need just as many votes to win a Diplo victory, meaning its officially out of reach without a miracle like Hamurabi breaking vassalage or Mansa suddenly becoming my friend.
So I fruitlessly offer up several diplomatic victory votes while watching my neighbors slug it out over the next 20 or 30 turns. Mansa nukes Ramses and Zara, then gets nuked in return, and once Saladin joins in the fighting ends up vassalized to him. Saladin and Darius fight a war that leads to Hamurabi losing all but one city to Saladin, and Gilgamesh losing most of his remaining territory to Darius.
That gives Darius a border with me. Perhaps 2 turns later, he declares war. Three(!) nukes hit Bursa, wiping out the garrison completely. A few turns later he overwhelms Istanbul, and the Ottoman Empire is no more. It was 1954 AD.
beestar
subdeity
My test game failed to prepare me for the swarms of barbarians coming from all sides in the middle of the desert, and I fell so far behind by 500AD that the game was already over, but out of sheer pigheadedness I played it through to the end. I researched and traded Gunpowder, Optics, and other AI-disfavoured techs to as many AIs as possible, which helped me to stay in the running, but with only 5 crappy cities my research rate was dire. I don't think I could have launched my spaceship in time.
Thanks to Niklas for a fun game nonetheless - it was a really interesting challenge, and I like the narrative. Hopefully the other players had more success in raising Suleiman up out of the desert to his rightful throne ...
Some numbers
Number of cities at 1280AD: 4
Techs gifted to me by AIs pitying my weakness: 4 (Compass, Replaceable Parts, Physics, Biology)
Price that Gilgamesh charged me for stopping his war on me (the first time anyone has demanded that of me!): 330 gold
Turns after charging me for peace that Gilgamesh vassalized to Darius, which would have ended the war anyway: 1
Defensive Pacts signed with both A and B, that one turn later resulted in B declaring on A: 1
Number of times I had to sacrifice a worker to bait a barbarian axeman away from my city: 2
Date that Saladin finally conquered my last city: 1935
Thanks to Niklas for a fun game nonetheless - it was a really interesting challenge, and I like the narrative. Hopefully the other players had more success in raising Suleiman up out of the desert to his rightful throne ...
Some numbers
Number of cities at 1280AD: 4
Techs gifted to me by AIs pitying my weakness: 4 (Compass, Replaceable Parts, Physics, Biology)
Price that Gilgamesh charged me for stopping his war on me (the first time anyone has demanded that of me!): 330 gold
Turns after charging me for peace that Gilgamesh vassalized to Darius, which would have ended the war anyway: 1
Defensive Pacts signed with both A and B, that one turn later resulted in B declaring on A: 1
Number of times I had to sacrifice a worker to bait a barbarian axeman away from my city: 2
Date that Saladin finally conquered my last city: 1935
Charonicus
Warlord
I finally decided to install HOF and try out a GOTM just for fun. This really was a challenge. O_O I usually play at noble so monarch with raging barbarians was going to be daunting.
I had a hard time with those barbarians. They got some very lucky kills early on leaving me with a sole archer in my capital while they rampaged through all my improvements one by one. I had a settler ready but just couldn't get him out.
Result? Slavery got my defences back up but at the cost of expansion. I was swamped by AIs and got a sound kicking. Managed to cling on with my pitiful 'empire' which was little more than a field and some rocks until Saladin won by space.
Crazy.
I had a hard time with those barbarians. They got some very lucky kills early on leaving me with a sole archer in my capital while they rampaged through all my improvements one by one. I had a settler ready but just couldn't get him out.
Result? Slavery got my defences back up but at the cost of expansion. I was swamped by AIs and got a sound kicking. Managed to cling on with my pitiful 'empire' which was little more than a field and some rocks until Saladin won by space.
Crazy.greatbeyond
King
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2002
- Messages
- 989
Contender Save
I played at least twenty practice games using various strategies with all the friendly (GK, Nappy, JC, Hannibal, etc..) so I thought I was well prepared......
Normally I like you Niklas, but removing the Stone that should have appeared on the Northern desert border was not nice. In my tests with oasis maps, Stone always appeared along the northern border of the desert at the center of the map and about every 10 -12 tiles. I suppose you were compensating by giving us Copper....
Someone mentioned Horses... testing shows Horses only appear at the top of the map along the water, so I knew AH was not a priority.
I had it all plotted when Barbs would appear. I did learn one thing. Barbs can be popped from a GH in the first couple of turns.
So Build a Settler and pop rush to get it out around T28.
Research Mining, BW, Masonry.
I send my Settler unescorted, but cautious for Animals, to the north and settle on the river opposite the cows. It is still well before Barbs appear and I start a Warrior just in case. Some thoughtful AI pops the GH that was ~5 tiles to the east and one of the Barbs beelines and razes my new city before I can build the Warrior. My lone Warrior is still exploring toward Ramses and beelines for the Capital. No more Barbs appear for several turns. By now I know there isn't any Stone within reasonable distance and decide it is too late to complete the GW. In my tests it was usually built by 1720BC. I emphasize getting a Worker out to mine the Copper and start pumping out the Axes.
I am swamped by Warriors and Archers. Thankfully no Barb Axes. An unpromoted Archer attacks my +20% strength, +25% vs Archers, fortified Axe on the Copper and kills him. A few turns later before I can get another Axe, two Warriors almost take my capitol, attacking across a river. My lone survivor is .2 strength. It took a lot of restraint to continue from there.
I do manage to hold them off with 5 Axes but now the available area is shrinking. (Looking later at the replay the barbs only razed 1 other AI city) I send a Settler and Axe to the former city that got razed and Settle. Gilga decides after several turns he wants it and attacks with a stack of Chariots and Vultures. I manage to fight him off and get peace, but the only chance left for a win is Diplo. Because Mansa has taken most of the South and West. I get a city between Ramses and MM and 1 between MM and Gilga for Iron. I last until 1965 or so (UN built by someone else, I'm trying for a PA to sneak out a win) Justinian who has vassalized everyone but Zaba and Darius wipes me off the map.
As soon as I saw the Copper I should have just Axe rushed. In my tests I was able to have Janissaries by ~300AD and used them to good effect all the way up to the 1600s. But that depended on the Oracle to pop Education. I had Theo very early but had to trade it around and had such poor cities I was never a threat to get GP before anyone. I did beat half the AI to Education.
My perfect tech path:
Mining, BW, Masonry, Mysticism, Poly, Mono, PH, Writing, Theo, Paper, Ed from the Oracle (around 700BC), GP.
It just wasn't perfect for this game.
I played at least twenty practice games using various strategies with all the friendly (GK, Nappy, JC, Hannibal, etc..) so I thought I was well prepared......
Normally I like you Niklas, but removing the Stone that should have appeared on the Northern desert border was not nice. In my tests with oasis maps, Stone always appeared along the northern border of the desert at the center of the map and about every 10 -12 tiles. I suppose you were compensating by giving us Copper....
Someone mentioned Horses... testing shows Horses only appear at the top of the map along the water, so I knew AH was not a priority.
I had it all plotted when Barbs would appear. I did learn one thing. Barbs can be popped from a GH in the first couple of turns.
So Build a Settler and pop rush to get it out around T28.
Research Mining, BW, Masonry.
I send my Settler unescorted, but cautious for Animals, to the north and settle on the river opposite the cows. It is still well before Barbs appear and I start a Warrior just in case. Some thoughtful AI pops the GH that was ~5 tiles to the east and one of the Barbs beelines and razes my new city before I can build the Warrior. My lone Warrior is still exploring toward Ramses and beelines for the Capital. No more Barbs appear for several turns. By now I know there isn't any Stone within reasonable distance and decide it is too late to complete the GW. In my tests it was usually built by 1720BC. I emphasize getting a Worker out to mine the Copper and start pumping out the Axes.
I am swamped by Warriors and Archers. Thankfully no Barb Axes. An unpromoted Archer attacks my +20% strength, +25% vs Archers, fortified Axe on the Copper and kills him. A few turns later before I can get another Axe, two Warriors almost take my capitol, attacking across a river. My lone survivor is .2 strength. It took a lot of restraint to continue from there.
I do manage to hold them off with 5 Axes but now the available area is shrinking. (Looking later at the replay the barbs only razed 1 other AI city) I send a Settler and Axe to the former city that got razed and Settle. Gilga decides after several turns he wants it and attacks with a stack of Chariots and Vultures. I manage to fight him off and get peace, but the only chance left for a win is Diplo. Because Mansa has taken most of the South and West. I get a city between Ramses and MM and 1 between MM and Gilga for Iron. I last until 1965 or so (UN built by someone else, I'm trying for a PA to sneak out a win) Justinian who has vassalized everyone but Zaba and Darius wipes me off the map.
As soon as I saw the Copper I should have just Axe rushed. In my tests I was able to have Janissaries by ~300AD and used them to good effect all the way up to the 1600s. But that depended on the Oracle to pop Education. I had Theo very early but had to trade it around and had such poor cities I was never a threat to get GP before anyone. I did beat half the AI to Education.
My perfect tech path:
Mining, BW, Masonry, Mysticism, Poly, Mono, PH, Writing, Theo, Paper, Ed from the Oracle (around 700BC), GP.
It just wasn't perfect for this game.
Gosha190
King
I only built three cities - and did not conquer any. When I was safe from barbarians only had time/space to build 2 cities before boxed in by AIs.
At end of my first playing session, I was ready to quit. Justinian had a huge stack on my border.
Well, I continued after a week or two and Byzantium ended up fighting Arabia. Based on Power and Geography, I sided with the Byzantines and Sumerians (northern neighbors). This may have bought me some time but led to eventual downfall.
Today, instead of submitting the abandoned game, I decided to play it out (while waiting for BOTM19). I won the liberalism race in 1410 (also first to paper and education) - so I had tech parity or superiority at that time. Teched Gunpowder and started building (and drafting) Janissaries. Egypt was my target so I didn't give in to his demands, and Ramses declared on me in 1705. I thought I had a chance but was vastly outnumbered. In 1818 Saladin piled on (he had already vassalized my friends Gilgamesh and Justinian) and took my capital with cannons.
At end of my first playing session, I was ready to quit. Justinian had a huge stack on my border.
Well, I continued after a week or two and Byzantium ended up fighting Arabia. Based on Power and Geography, I sided with the Byzantines and Sumerians (northern neighbors). This may have bought me some time but led to eventual downfall.
Today, instead of submitting the abandoned game, I decided to play it out (while waiting for BOTM19). I won the liberalism race in 1410 (also first to paper and education) - so I had tech parity or superiority at that time. Teched Gunpowder and started building (and drafting) Janissaries. Egypt was my target so I didn't give in to his demands, and Ramses declared on me in 1705. I thought I had a chance but was vastly outnumbered. In 1818 Saladin piled on (he had already vassalized my friends Gilgamesh and Justinian) and took my capital with cannons.
Gosha190
King
Jesusin!
"jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest domination with an eye on the gold medal. Result: Conquest victory in IWT AD for IWT points."
IWT and IWT - what does it mean? (I do not want to tell?)
Where is Shannon' domination?!
"jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest domination with an eye on the gold medal. Result: Conquest victory in IWT AD for IWT points."
IWT and IWT - what does it mean?
(I do not want to tell?)Where is Shannon' domination?!
Jesusin!
"jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest domination with an eye on the gold medal. Result: Conquest victory in IWT AD for IWT points."
IWT and IWT - what does it mean?
IWT means I Won't Tell. But since you asked, it was a 1320AD conquest for 220K points.
Gosha190
King
Congrats! Good time! Corporations don't affect score significantly on current map and early victory gives similar score.
ShannonCT
Deity
Where is Shannon' domination?!
"Shannon domination" was very busy this month with no time for Civving. "Shannon domination" or "Shannon conquest" plans to be back competing for awards in BOTM19. Maybe I can join the 3 gold club with you and your countrymen.
Gosha190
King
Really I meant Shannon's domi. Sorry 
It's a pity. I get tired with this map and I meant you have the same problems
So.. It's a pity again (in all possible senses )PS
It's a good news! I believe, Jesusin will be glad to see you back.
Conquistador 63
Deity
Well, your story was so compelling that my original goal was to conquer or dominate Oasisland. But things did not develop as planned, and Suleiman had to seek for greener lands elsewhere...So how did you fare in reclaiming your birthright?
As I already mentioned in the first spoiler:That was the sorry state of my empire by 1AD:While tech rate wasn't main issue, expansion was. At 1000BC I founded city2 near cows/marble, and city3 was founded 50BC to the west, as Justinian had expanded like crazy by then. Not sure if I'll be able to pull out a win from this one.
Things didn't change much in the next 1000 years. But in the second millenium AD the wars began:
. 1050AD/1080AD: short war on Justi, capture 1 city to the south, razed another on desert, get peace.
. 1130AD: DOW'ed by Ramesses
. 1250AD: DOW'ed by Justi.
. 1370AD/1525AD: Bribe Mansa and his vassal Zara to join my wars - Ramesses had vassaled to Justi by then. I got a cease fire soon after that, in 1540AD.
. 1555AD/1640AD: Ramesses had just set free from Justi, I redeclare on Egypt, bringing again Mansa to the party. I was about to get a big Egyptian city but lost one battle at 99.7% odds so Mansa took it IBT.
While I was moving to take the next city, a couple turns later, Ramesses capitulates to Mansa. 
.
At that point I considered abandoning the game and went elsewhere to spank some Immortal AI with Quechua for stress relief.
After that much needed pause, I came back to the game. Not sure what happened with my autolog for a while, but I went next for Justi. Again I brought my big brother Mansa with me, but this time managed to capture 3 cities including his capital with buddhist shrine. But when I will ever learn? This time Justi capitulates to Mansa when I was about to capture more cities to get rid of cultural pressure.
Not-so-funny, I got lots of troops trapped inside Constantinople for ages. At least they kept the city as it spent more turns under revolt than actually productive for the remainder of the game.Again I was inclined to trash this cursed game, but just before the submission deadline, I decided to resume it once more, this time determined to take Suleiman somewhere those pesky stepbrothers wouldn't reach us. And alas, we did it, reaching Alpha Centauri in 1979AD. Should be enough for lowest scoring space victory.
Gosha190
King
I think Jannisary is absolutely useless unit because they can not get CR promo. By the way, I do not like knight too... I built 5 or 6 knights to steal workers and as a fast medics for maces. So mace+cat are optimal against archers, Longs and even against maces and crossbs (it was my 3-d war). After that I set research slider to 100% for a couple of turns and researched cavalry to speed up late wars. 60 cavalries killed strongest AI (Saladin) in a few turns. He got pare of huge stacks of UU+elephants+maces+trebs and very weak city defense.
I used two my vassals like a shield against unexpected DOW. It was the only reason for vassaling them.
In 1AD, the war against Justinian raged on, I took two more cities on the coast, one west next to Gilga's borders, and one east with 2 wheat, 1 cow and 1 seafood. I signed a ceasefire in 620AD. the first GG was settled in Constantinople, while the first GS was settled in Istanbul.
Hammy dowed Justinian in 720AD, which was good for me. I built some more troops, cats and swords mainly, and prepared for the second wave.
I dowed Justi in 880AD, and went for his southeastern city. Next turn, Hammy and Justi signed a ceasefire. Oh well..
The city was on a hill and well defended. I bombarded the defenses, lured some units outs (especially a swordman-GG) and finally took it.
While I was at it, Gilga dowed me! Ah, bastard! I admit I was a bit afraid at that point. Gilga could have a sod with trebs and maces, and I would be in dire straits. Forutnately that wasn't a case, he only sent me 3 trebs, 1 xbow and 3 knights. They were headed for Istanbul first but finally went to the first bizantine city I had captured. I whipped/built a couple lbows, some maces and catapults, and I got rid of his stack with few losses. It looked like Gilga wasn't really in the mood for a fight. I wonder if someone bribed him; Justi was too backward to do so.
I took over Justinian 4 remaining cities, who had vassalized to Gilga in the meanwhile, and the byzantine were no more in 1350AD.
Next on the list was Gilga.
I think I made a mistake at that point by bribing Zara to dow him (1410AD). It worked too well, because next turn an AP resolution to DOW the infidel Gilga was proposed and passed, resulting in Saladin, Hammy and MM dowing Gilga. Only Darius and Gilgamesh had no judaism.
Hammy who had been WHEOORN for some time dowed Saladin a few turn later. I accepted to help him. He got beaten badly though because Saladin had been the first to lib and was the tech leader.
I took two summerian cities including Eridu (confu holy city) in 1505AD. But Zara was even more successful, and Gilgamesh did vassalize to him while I was besieging his capital (1535AD).
I sent my troops south and quickly dowed Ramses. I killed his stack who was returning from Summerian territory, and took 2 cities along the river. It costed me a CR-GG who lost a battle at 98,7% odds though.
But things went really wrong after that, because Ramses built much more troops than I was expecting, suiciding cat and trebs on my stacks, and he killed my medic-GG and my second CR-GG in the open, along with a lot of maces, trebs and jannissaries, while I was advancing toward his southern cities. At that point, I decided to call it a day and took a few days-break. I eventually decided to continue the game and my first decision was to make peace with Ramses (1670AD).
I don't know if it's the AGG-AI setting, but Ramses was producing a lot of troops, I badly underestimated him, and it costed me dearly.
I had just finished steel, and was now researching rifling, so the next wave should consist of rifles and cannons.
Gilga broke free from Zara peacefully in 1680AD, which brought a smile back to my face.
And then suddenly war erupted again. Zara dowed MM in 1685AD, who bribed Hammy to dow Zara. Saladin dowed Hammy. Gilga, Ramses and Darius are WHEOORN too. Gilga and Ramses should dogpile on MM. Darius, I'm not sure.
My next target should be Gilga now, though Ramses and Hammy would be interesting too. Or I could dogpile MM to try to vassalize him first. I'm building one stack of cannons / rifles and another of cav.
Researching steam power, then AL. Infantry should be able to kill everything in sight. I might go fascism next for police state, and all-out war till the end.
The war between MM and Zara was very tense. Zara had more troops, but MM had a tech lead. Cities were gained and lost. In the meanwhile, Hammy lost a couple more cities to Sal, and a summerian city he had taken in the west to Zara, and he signed peace.
I delayed my own war, waiting to see what Darius, Ramses and Gilga would do, but they only waited, so I finally declared on the summerians in 1790AD. I had numbers and quality for me. I lost some cavs and cannons and several old trebs, but easily conquered the heart of Summeria. I vassalized Gilgamesh when he had 4 cities left on the west side of the map, between Darius and Zara. Hammy vassalized voluntarily on the same turn (1836AD).
MM and Zara were still at war. I decided at that point to start with Zara, then Darius should be next.
And things went well since MM asked to become my vassal on the next turn. I agreed which brought me and my vassals into war with Zara. We overwhelmed him, and he capitulated in 1872AD.
Next on the list was Darius, the closest of my troops. I dow'ed him in 1878AD, and it brought Saladin who had a DP with him into the war. I sent some troops to help Hammy and start advancing southeast.
Darius wasn't a big threat, I delayed his capitulation to take his largest cities, and finally agreed in 1898AD. Initially I wanted to eliminate him, but I was running out of RL time, each turn taking between 5 and 15 minutes.
I moved my troops toward Ramses and dowed him in 1904AD. He still had some troops to throw at me, but he was no match, and he capitualted after I took one city. Saladin did the same on the same year (1909AD) and I got a conquest victory in 1910AD.
I want to thank the staff for this interesting setting, which was clearly harder than a standard monarch map. At least the raging barbs allowed to start my first war with a lot of lvl 3 units, which was a better use of shields than the GWall for my plan. I didn't build a single settler, but I had a lot of GG, maybe the most I ever got on a standard map. that's also my first game I lose 3 GG-units. If the first was bad luck, the two others were for misjudging Ramses ability to build a lot of units.
I almost resigned after losing 3 GG-units to Ramses in a few turns. I'm glad I did continue though, because just a few turns later Gilga broke free and Zara dowed MM. I couldn't fight Zara + Gilga at that point, but Gilga alone was easy, while MM and Zara were busy with each other.
After Gilgamesh capitulated, it was a snowball effect, with my friends Hammurabi and Mansa who agreed to become vassals, and we only had to roll over our opponents one after the other. It took a long RL time though, and I was more cautious (maybe too much) after my early setback against Ramses.
I wanted a conquest victory rather than domination, so I made sure to vassalize my last opponents on the same turn. I thought the top players would get a domination victory, because it was hard to get an early conquest on this map IMO. Well, Jesusin at least proved me wrong with his IWT finish! I'm a long way of such results
Hammy dowed Justinian in 720AD, which was good for me. I built some more troops, cats and swords mainly, and prepared for the second wave.
I dowed Justi in 880AD, and went for his southeastern city. Next turn, Hammy and Justi signed a ceasefire. Oh well..
The city was on a hill and well defended. I bombarded the defenses, lured some units outs (especially a swordman-GG) and finally took it.
While I was at it, Gilga dowed me! Ah, bastard! I admit I was a bit afraid at that point. Gilga could have a sod with trebs and maces, and I would be in dire straits. Forutnately that wasn't a case, he only sent me 3 trebs, 1 xbow and 3 knights. They were headed for Istanbul first but finally went to the first bizantine city I had captured. I whipped/built a couple lbows, some maces and catapults, and I got rid of his stack with few losses. It looked like Gilga wasn't really in the mood for a fight. I wonder if someone bribed him; Justi was too backward to do so.
I took over Justinian 4 remaining cities, who had vassalized to Gilga in the meanwhile, and the byzantine were no more in 1350AD.
Next on the list was Gilga.
I think I made a mistake at that point by bribing Zara to dow him (1410AD). It worked too well, because next turn an AP resolution to DOW the infidel Gilga was proposed and passed, resulting in Saladin, Hammy and MM dowing Gilga. Only Darius and Gilgamesh had no judaism.
Hammy who had been WHEOORN for some time dowed Saladin a few turn later. I accepted to help him. He got beaten badly though because Saladin had been the first to lib and was the tech leader.
I took two summerian cities including Eridu (confu holy city) in 1505AD. But Zara was even more successful, and Gilgamesh did vassalize to him while I was besieging his capital (1535AD).
I sent my troops south and quickly dowed Ramses. I killed his stack who was returning from Summerian territory, and took 2 cities along the river. It costed me a CR-GG who lost a battle at 98,7% odds though.
But things went really wrong after that, because Ramses built much more troops than I was expecting, suiciding cat and trebs on my stacks, and he killed my medic-GG and my second CR-GG in the open, along with a lot of maces, trebs and jannissaries, while I was advancing toward his southern cities. At that point, I decided to call it a day and took a few days-break. I eventually decided to continue the game and my first decision was to make peace with Ramses (1670AD).
I don't know if it's the AGG-AI setting, but Ramses was producing a lot of troops, I badly underestimated him, and it costed me dearly.
I had just finished steel, and was now researching rifling, so the next wave should consist of rifles and cannons.
Gilga broke free from Zara peacefully in 1680AD, which brought a smile back to my face.
And then suddenly war erupted again. Zara dowed MM in 1685AD, who bribed Hammy to dow Zara. Saladin dowed Hammy. Gilga, Ramses and Darius are WHEOORN too. Gilga and Ramses should dogpile on MM. Darius, I'm not sure.
My next target should be Gilga now, though Ramses and Hammy would be interesting too. Or I could dogpile MM to try to vassalize him first. I'm building one stack of cannons / rifles and another of cav.
Researching steam power, then AL. Infantry should be able to kill everything in sight. I might go fascism next for police state, and all-out war till the end.
The war between MM and Zara was very tense. Zara had more troops, but MM had a tech lead. Cities were gained and lost. In the meanwhile, Hammy lost a couple more cities to Sal, and a summerian city he had taken in the west to Zara, and he signed peace.
I delayed my own war, waiting to see what Darius, Ramses and Gilga would do, but they only waited, so I finally declared on the summerians in 1790AD. I had numbers and quality for me. I lost some cavs and cannons and several old trebs, but easily conquered the heart of Summeria. I vassalized Gilgamesh when he had 4 cities left on the west side of the map, between Darius and Zara. Hammy vassalized voluntarily on the same turn (1836AD).
MM and Zara were still at war. I decided at that point to start with Zara, then Darius should be next.
And things went well since MM asked to become my vassal on the next turn. I agreed which brought me and my vassals into war with Zara. We overwhelmed him, and he capitulated in 1872AD.
Next on the list was Darius, the closest of my troops. I dow'ed him in 1878AD, and it brought Saladin who had a DP with him into the war. I sent some troops to help Hammy and start advancing southeast.
Darius wasn't a big threat, I delayed his capitulation to take his largest cities, and finally agreed in 1898AD. Initially I wanted to eliminate him, but I was running out of RL time, each turn taking between 5 and 15 minutes.
I moved my troops toward Ramses and dowed him in 1904AD. He still had some troops to throw at me, but he was no match, and he capitualted after I took one city. Saladin did the same on the same year (1909AD) and I got a conquest victory in 1910AD.
I want to thank the staff for this interesting setting, which was clearly harder than a standard monarch map. At least the raging barbs allowed to start my first war with a lot of lvl 3 units, which was a better use of shields than the GWall for my plan. I didn't build a single settler, but I had a lot of GG, maybe the most I ever got on a standard map. that's also my first game I lose 3 GG-units. If the first was bad luck, the two others were for misjudging Ramses ability to build a lot of units.
I almost resigned after losing 3 GG-units to Ramses in a few turns. I'm glad I did continue though, because just a few turns later Gilga broke free and Zara dowed MM. I couldn't fight Zara + Gilga at that point, but Gilga alone was easy, while MM and Zara were busy with each other.
After Gilgamesh capitulated, it was a snowball effect, with my friends Hammurabi and Mansa who agreed to become vassals, and we only had to roll over our opponents one after the other. It took a long RL time though, and I was more cautious (maybe too much) after my early setback against Ramses.
I wanted a conquest victory rather than domination, so I made sure to vassalize my last opponents on the same turn. I thought the top players would get a domination victory, because it was hard to get an early conquest on this map IMO. Well, Jesusin at least proved me wrong with his IWT finish! I'm a long way of such results
Gosha190
King
I got 8 GG! First 5 of them were settled in Istanbul as instructors. Last 3 built 3 military academies.
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