[BTS] BOTM 185: Sitting Bull, Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 185: Sitting Bull, Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, particularly anything after 1AD

Did you win?

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 185 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Washington grabbed the iron site that was between us, so I settle my fifth city directly on the iron further to the south. I decided Washington would be my first target, but the AI had other plans. After I (foolishly?) refused Joao's demand for some gold, he attacked in 475, bribing Isabella to join the war with him. I was able to fight off his stacks and to take two Spanish cities on my northern front, before ending the war in 980.

At this point, I decided the diplomatic penalty of running Confucianism when surrounded by Hindu neighbors was too great, so I converted and started spreading Hinduism to the rest of my cities.

Napoleon had attacked Washington in 840. I join this war in 1080. While this war goes on, I give in to two demands--a tech to Isabella and gold to Joao-- to keep them peaceful. After capturing three cities, including his capital, I make Washington my vassal in 1280. (I might have pushed the war a bit further, but I didn't want him peace-vassaling to Joao.)

I make contact with Huayna Capac and Elizabeth and decide that a religious victory will be my quickest path. I spread Hinduism to England, then attack Isabella in 1650. Napoleon attacks me in 1650 (I had thought he'd be my closest ally, but then he spoiled our relations by founding and converting to Taoism). But Joao stays peaceful. Isabella capitulates in 1680, after I captured Madrid (with the AP). I spread Hinduism to one of the Incan cities in 1690, so now a religious victory is possible, but with Joao as the other candidate, I still don't have enough votes.

Napoleon capitulates in 1720, then I and my vassals attack Joao in 1730. After taking enough of his cities to ensure I have the votes I need, I accept his capitulate in 1770. The next AP vote comes up, and I win a Religious Victory in 1780, by the narrow margin of 2 votes. While I only spread Hinduism to a small Incan city, someone else (Isabella, I presume) had been going wild spreading it to HC's big cities, and HC had abstained in the votes. Just a bit more, and I would have had to launch a naval invasion to round up my votes.

So what does Native American Hinduism look like? The religion already has many, many gods, so introducing a few more to the pantheon is no problem. Say a prayer to Raven, and Coyote, and the Thunderbird, and...

 

[nocho]

In 75AD I invaded America. Washington convinced Isabella to battle it out at his side, which was fine with me as she was weak and next target anyway. In 250AD America was destroyed and annexed to the Natives, being a bit faster to it than the Portuguese who did have Boston from their earlier battles. With a 10-turn truce in between to extract some techs, Spain was fully added to the empire by 800AD.

Somewhere along the way I decided to go for culture. I settled on a marble way down south between tundra and ice on the French border for the essential marble wonders. The legendary cities to be where the capital, my second city at rice/sugar/FPs/elephants/iron and Madrid, home to both jewish and hindu shrines and with good food, so it became the GP farm. Overseas, buddhism, confu and christianity had been founded, so raced to philosophy and then divine right for at least 4 religions to work with. By this point I had 18 cities, maybe a bit too many for culture, but then again, easier to get to the required temple count for the cathedrals and such. By this time I was jewish, previously aggressively spread by Isabella, like Napoleon, so he was no threat. Joao however was Hindu and at some point attacked me. My veteran army from the American and Spanish campaigns were parked at his doorstep however, so he was easily fended off and after I took Boston from him he signed for peace. I made him Jewish too and from thereon he remained calm.

I met the Incans and English but didn't have to bother much about them. I turtled away with my culture effort, shutting down tech after liberalism, nationalism and the printing press. A French city swore allegiance to the natives. Arrived to legendary status in my 3 cities at 1700AD. Not very fast but I guess ok for the circumstances given I decided on it a bit late and the necessity for wars. Thanks for the game.

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks for the game, DynamicSpirit. Enjoy random maps so gave this a go.
The continent was a Hindu lovefiest, thanks to Isabella.

After discovering the stones, I wanted the pyramids to run caste/pacifism full time at some point, since we got born with the philosophical trait. After long hiatus from civ (and especially culture) the play was sloppy, forgetting about right resources and free speech amongst other things. Only two religions aboard is meager too for this (Hindu and my own Taoism).

Won culture in the early 18xx. Never seen so quiet game with Napoleon in the neighbourhood but things were dire throughout. Played the diplo well and with MT, defensive pacts was all around the continent. His only DoW was a late game bully on Elizabeth.

 

[krikav]

My timing was abit off, so after a standard lib->MT run I only managed to stomp washington. Did take out Napoleon also, but just barely.
Shipped over the cuirs once I have upgraded them to cavalery, but HC seem to have beelined rifling so that was a funstopper...

Did a few GAs and teched to assembly line and artilery for more action against Joao and Isabella both who where running away.
They had a defensive pact, but fortunatly I could bribe Izzy against HC earlier to break that.

After declaring on Joao I fail my beg against Izzy, and the then dogpiles against me. >_<
Whipped like a mad dog, and managed to stay in the game, although a few cities got traded a few times.
Made slight progress against Joao and got a ceasefire with him.

Turned against Izzy and after a peace treaty where I think I got the majority of railroad (or combustion?) and a chunk of money, I could focus on Joao entierly, and he capitulated shortly.
With his units too, 4 turns later we quickly overwhelmed Izzy, now tanks where comming online too. <3

After dominance of the continent, I just shipped stuff to the other continent and played rather sloppy with marines, tanks and bombers. HC was still at rifling but Elizabeth was tough!


Big thanks to Napoleon who built sistine for me, I bet I would have lost a culture to Lizzy if she would have had it.

Fun map, and <3 <3 <3 for the challenge save!

 

[zbgayumn]

Finally got a win in my return to Civ4!

It wasn't pretty. After my largely unsuccessful HA rush on Washington, I got stuck with only 6 cities. I came back with Catapults and some Elephants and took two more from Washington, but then he peace-vassaled himself to Joao, and Izzy did too. (She would break away occasionally, and then end up vassaled again.) The three of them quickly ran away in tech and I had limited options. I decided to prioritize Optics to make contact with the other island.

Fortunately, that strategy eventually worked. Liz and HC were closer to same tech level as me, although a bit ahead. I was able to finally get trades again, and sometimes 2 new techs for the one I researched. It still took a long, long time to catch up.

Back on the main continent, I targeted Napoleon since he was not vassaled or allied. On the first attempt, I grabbed a couple cities with Macemen before my war machine fizzled out and I started seeing Musketeers. My new prizes were then smothered in Portuguese culture and I was worse off than before the invasion. So, I came back with Grens and finished the job.

At that point, I was running around 0.60 power rating compared to Joao, but I knew I needed Tech more than units for the time being. I got Communism and State Property made my empire much more solvent. Through the 1800's I just worked on getting from early gunpowder units to Infantry and Machine Guns. Then the military build up began in earnest, and after a while I noticed Joao had gone into fist mode. I caught a huge break and he declared on HC. I waited several turns and then DoW'd all three civs remaining on my continent.

There were a few dicey moments when Joao's stack met mine, but he took the worst of it. I started rolling up cities one at a time. Eventually, Izzy broke away and I made peace with her. I made sure to kill Washington. Then, by the end of war Joao and Izzy flipped places as he peace-vassaled to her. This time I didn't stop for peace. Now, Tanks were rolling and planes were flying. By the time it was all over, Izzy had managed some Mech Inf and Modern Armor, but I got Modern Armor as well and hammered down her defenders.

Late game Domination Victory in 1968 AD.

Btw, it was very convenient that ~65% of the land was in the starting continent. I didn't have follow through on an assault on the little island north of the 2nd continent.

 

[krikav]

@zbgayumn Nice comeback!
Games are best, and the victories sweetest, when things like you experienced happen.
Get beaten down, claw your back up again, repeatedly.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Congrats on the Deity win, Krikav! I also tried but came up short. I had "Chile" on the main continent, a string of cities all down the coast, with only a couple cities inland. I missed circumnav by a turn or two, but beat the AIs to take two barb cities on the little island north of HC and Eliz, refounding one in a better place. Although I was falling behind everybody but HC by then, I was 2nd to Steel (I think) and traded that around for a fair number of techs, though still behind. I shipped over units to my little island, then attacked HC. Joao had beat me to the punch by a turn or two, and Eliz joined in a turn or two after me. I only got two cities before HC vassaled to Joao, but one had the Hindu AP. English cultural pressure on that city was relentless, and I lost the two clams and other tiles, but held on.

Washington had tiffs with Nappy the whole game, keeping the latter relatively backward (and everyone on the main continent was Jewish, except for Nappy). I managed to gain a military advantage over Nappy, shipped my HC vets west by galleon, and captured Paris and another coastal city, making him capitulate. Having a vassal is a big help techwise, and I was able to trade with him, direct his research, etc. so I was making good progress on catching up the leaders. Three of them were building spaceships, however, and a war to stop/dominate them looked iffy, so I tried the cheesy religious approach, spreading HC's AP Hinduism to all my cities and to cooperative AIs who would vote for me over HC (who was the only full member). I couldn't change from Judaism to Hinduism in order to double my vote count because that would kill my good relations with Isa and Joao. By giving Eliz a good deal on a tech trade, I finally managed to get her to like me enough to appear on the Diplo/Members screen as likely to vote for me, but when it came up, she did not---I needed 392 of 523 and only got 343. I didn't want to waste any more time chasing it so I submitted an incomplete game around 1780.

Thanks for the game and the Challenger save, DS! The lucky religious love fest on our continent is what gave me a shot at this. I don't know when I'll have time for another game, but I certainly enjoyed this one.

 

[Fippy]

Glad you had fun with the deity save Krikav and Xcalibrator,
i only submitted an incomplete early game :-/
Merci again to DS for providing deity, wish i had more time & motivation for Civ currently.