[BTS] BOTM 190: Gilgamesh, Immortal - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 190: Gilgamesh, Immortal - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

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

Did you win?

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If you are participating in BOTM 190 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

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

 

[Powerfaker]

Monty was the kindest person on this map. Not only did he never show a red fist (all others that were met almost non stop were plotting). He also built Mids and MoM in his capital.
Then when De Gaulle DoWed me (±400AD) I bribed him, and the timing (accidently) was such that De Gaulle took his cap, be it severely damaged and downsized and cut off from reinforcement. Easy enough for me to capture it.

My own conquest campaign (cuir+treb=>cannon) went swift up to and included WangKon (who proved a great tech buddy all game long). Then I spotted Ragnar's main army locked in a conquered city surrounded by foreign culture (WK). With this jump start I thought Ragnar would quickly bow, but no I had to conquer half his land and defeat another assembled army. To make up for this delay I started on Shaka from the other side before the war ended, which was the right thing. His cities coming out of revolt toppled me over the Domination limit. Meanwhile I was holding of Conquest victory while rushing through Mansa's land.

All in all this was a very smooth running game (well, taking in account the tools provided)

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Continuing past 1 AD, my goal was to build cannons before beginning a war of conquest. Caravels let me meet the rest of the AI and get the circumnavigation bonus. Ragnar and Shaka were at war when I met them, but they'd later become best friends.

I researched Steel in 1330 and attacked Monty in1350. I captured four of his cities, including his capital, when he capitulated in 1460.

In 1480, I attacked De Gaulle. Shortly after that, Ragnar and Shaka attacked Wang Kon. Their war went nowhere, but I took three French cities and accepted De Gaulle's capitulation in 1535.

I researched Rifling (which Ragnar already had) in 1555 and started upgrading my units. He and WK made peace in 1575, but since Ragnar still didn't have cannons, I decided to press on and attack Ragnar in 1600, without having scouted out his forces. Big mistake! I captured Oslo, but his massive reserves of cavalry and riflemen recaptured it and wiped out my invasion force (including the starting longbow, which had been upgraded with a GG). When he called an AP vote to stop the war in 1615, I didn't resist.

Discouraged, I took a week off from the game and watched another of Lain's deity-level games for inspiration.

When I came back to the game, I decided to concentrate on my economy and science (with some help from my vassals), aiming to have tanks before I resumed the war. I used one GE to found Mining, Inc. and another GE to speed the completion of the Pentagon.

Ragnar and Shaka attacked WK again in 1720. Pyongyang fell quickly, followed by Seoul. I had finished researching Industrialism, and although I hadn't built all the tanks I wanted, I knew WK wouldn't last much longer, so I landed the forces I had in Korean territory and declared war on Ragnar in 1800. At first, it was a defensive war, but as more of my reinforcements arrived, I captured Seoul and Pyongyang, then pushed into Viking territory. Finally, I captured Nidaros in 1860 and Ragnar capitulated.

Now, having saved Korea, it was time to make it my own. I attacked in 1862, captured two cities, and WK bent the knee in 1870. Meanwhile, Mansa Musa (who had one city reaching legendary status and and one component of his spaceship completed) finally ended his neutrality and attacked Shaka. Although they fought naval actions, I never saw any amphibious invasion.

Back in 1812, I had been elected Secretary General of the UN, having had exactly enough votes from my vassals to win that position. Another UN vote came up in 1872, and now I had more than enough votes to win a Diplomatic Victory, but this year was time for re-election as Sec. Gen. So...on with my wars of conquest!

I attacked Shaka, captured four cities, and accepted his capitulation in 1882. I immediately declared on Mansa Musa.

Another UN vote opportunity arrived in 1884, but I was close enough to my goal of conquest that I declined to call the vote. I only had to take two of MM's cities before he capitulated, giving me a Conquest victory in 1892.

So...I figure that my mistake in the First Viking War cost me at least a century, and I'm sure someone else will have met this goal much earlier. Still, this was pretty much a legitimate Immortal level game (the longbow helped in the early game with the barbs, but didn't play any significant role against the AI) and I'm pleased with my victory. After a decade stuck in a rut of Monarch-level play, I think I'm finally upping my game!

 

[Anysense]

Once I realized that most civs were available before Astronomy I went for conquest, can't keep enough cities for domination because most of them would be on different continents.

Since late BC's my cities did nothing but whip units. Attacked Monty with a swarm of Vultures and catapults; quickly took two cities and then Monty got CS+Machinery! Very unusual for someone like Monty to tech that well. Even more surprising was his capiitulation on the next turn. I intended to simply cap everyone as soon as possible, but there was a problem - the channel between France and Korea was a touch too wide. Had to take a few more cities from De Gaulle to whip galleys.

The galleys, I had 8 of them joined by a couple of galleons at some point transporting units from France to Korea day and night almost to the very end of the game. That was a fair bit of rather tedious unit management

Wang Kon capitulated quickly enough but Ragnar was determined to show the character. After loosing 5 or 6 cities he still would not capitulate and then I accidentally clicked cease fire. On the whole, he was very lucky, particularly with caravels vs galleons, and my galleons were promoted! Obviously, I stayed in vassalage most of the game, who needs bureaucracy? But nevermind this little hitch, I'll be back with better guns, Ragnar

I upgraded my knights to cuirassiers and sent them along with the remaining vultures conquer Zulu and Mali. Soon I got Rifling, whipped some cavalry and trebs in former Ragnar's cities and with reinforcement from homeland attacked him once more. That was quick, he capitulated after loosing his cap immediately and Mansa capitulated a couple of turns prior to that.

Monty was very helpful this time around, teching well throughout the game. It's largely through his effort that I could have everything I needed in timely fashion.

Lucky that Mansa is so well hidden - swap him with Monty and the game would be too cheesy. Fun game, albeit a bit too much micro for my liking. That saying something, since I'm used to managing huge empires in long space games.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

For fun, I replayed my game (going back to 1460, before the start of the conquest of France) to see how much I could improve it by avoiding the mistake of the First Viking War. I did play better this time, but surprisingly, so did Ragnar!

While I was defeating De Gaulle, Ragnar and Shaka again went to war with Wang Kon. Instead of fighting to a draw this time, Ragnar captured Pyongyang and looked to be in a position to crush WK. I didn't want that to happen, so in 1615 I paid Ragnar a substantial bribe to end the war. As I continued to develop my science and technology, I started ferrying over my troops to Korean territory. But Ragnar was also keeping his scientists busy, and I soon saw that this time he had upgraded his rifles to infantry. And more infuriatingly, he beat me to the Pentagon by two turns.

In 1775, Ragar and Shaka went back to war against WK, with MM attacking Shaka in 1800. Since WK didn't actually ask for my help, I continued to build up my forces, now starting to include tanks. Ragnar captured Seoul in 1800, and only then did I enter the war and take Seoul from him. Ragnar still had a potent army left, and now he was also building tanks, but he continued to press his attack against WK by marching that army (approximately 10 infantry, 27 cavalry, but only 2 cannon ) on to Pusan. Once again, I let WK defend his own city, until Ragnar took it in 1816. At this point, WK became my peace-vassal, which brought me into the war against Shaka.

I captured Pusan and destroyed Ragnar's army. Shaka reacted to the dire development in his war by...capitulating to MM. I push on into Viking territory, but again Ragnar refuses to capitulate until I capture his capital in 1852. I reposition my forces and attack MM in 1862. After taking two of his cities, Shaka breaks free (but still won't talk to me). After taking three more cities, including his capital, MM capitulates in 1870. I sail north and take three of Shaka's cities. He surrenders, giving me a victory in 1878.

So, only 14 years better than my official effort. Not the century I thought I could improve at all!

 

[undead]

Montezuma was peaceful. I bribed him to attack De Gaulle. I attacked Montezuma after a few turns.

Everything went well until T192, when Montezuma's knights killed a lot of damaged trebuchets by flanking. Should have stayed in the city a few turns to repair. It was quite a setback.

After Montezuma's capitulation I attacked De Gaulle. Capitulation happened quickly.

Wang Kon was a vassal of Ragnar, and Ragnar was leading in score and tech. I didn't want to attack this huge continent. So I attacked Mansa a few turns after Ragnar did. I could take a city and was about to take the capital when Mansa capitulated to Ragnar at T253.

I initially intended to attack Mansa again, but finally realized that it could be done after Shaka. So I attacked Shaka who capitulated after one city.

At T278, I attacked Ragnar in Mansa's continent, then followed with Mansa's cities. There was only one city left for Mansa when Mansa got free from Ragnar and capitulated.

While I was giving and trading techs with my vassals, fortunately Ragnar didn't do the same with Wang Kon who was a bit late. So I attacked Wang Kon next. I got a city and destroyed the roads leading to it, so I could hold it. I did the same with a second city. The third city (an inland one) was taken back by Ragnar. I got two more coastal cities, then another inland one. Ragnar gifted back to Wang Kon the liberated city.

Then I got diplomatic victory (the ONU was built by Ragnar, I think). During the previous election (10 turns before?), I missed victory by one vote! (I was supposed to win but the population probably evolved in the meantime.)

I don't know if I could defeat Ragnar militarily. I'll check this later (just a few more turns...).

So, with the free longbowman and the land start, I didn't expect this game to be very close to "Archipelago" BOTM 188 (or "Islands" BOTM 189). It was a nice surprise since a classic "Fractal" map would not have ended well...

 

[zbgayumn]

Wow, this was a fun cliffhanger of a game. I've only won on Immortal a handful of times, so I didn't have great expectations going into this BOTM. However, I noted after B189 that I've been going after military VC's for some time, and while I can usually win at the lower levels I'm not usually fast enough to compete for awards. So I had a preconceived notion that I was going to go for culture in this game.

From the beginning, it was hard. I couldn't found a religion, I missed Judaism, then Confu was gone, then Christianity was gone before I really even had a chance. I had Stonehenge at 1 turn, but somehow I lost that and got failgold. No marble and no stone on the island made me reconsider, but then I thought all of you would be less likely to go culture, so I doubled down on it. The only two wonders I actually got were Shwedagon Paya and Great Library.

Buddhism spread to me and eventually one of my new cities picked up Taoism. So I had two religions to work with for the whole rest of the game. I decided to push well beyond the usual stopping point in Tech and go for Radio/Mass Media. It also occurred to me that Sid's Sushi is good source of culture in the late game. I set that and then traded for as many resources as I possibly could. Even later I had a chance to found Civ Jewelers with one of my Great Artists. I decided it would be a net benefit over one more culture bomb, so I did that. Not long after, I popped Silver in a mine near Uruk and then popped another Silver like 10 turns later.

Finally, I got within about 8 turns of Eiffel Tower and missed that one too. Went ahead and built the Broadcast Towers, then moved into the final phase of building culture, running the slider at 80% culture, and starving ever so slightly to run one more Artist. In the end it was a culture victory in 1912 AD. Never declared war and spent a lot of time monitoring relationships to make sure I didn't piss anyone off too much. I was Friendly with DeGaulle for a while and I got a Defensive Pact, which definitely saved me in the long run.

 

[shakabrade]

Deity save.
I played this one and totally messed up. I researched MassMedia in 1520AD and had GE engineer and Ironworks city ready. So 1540AD UN was ready. But the balance of power changed and the second largest AI was my Friend (Ragnar). So, I needed someone else to be UN secretary. Therefore I have left DeGaule to 2 cities so I could gift him UN. But then, I chickened out on my plan as I had no Idea whether the UN would update that I am no longer the owner of the UN. And so I gifted Mass Media to WK. Then he has built every wonder before UN. My mistake, I should have built them myself (I had production but just pressed end turn) and force him to build UN. It has taken WK 250 years to build it. So, if I went with the original plan and it worked, it would have been 1550AD Diplo and now it is so much more later. Argh.

 

[Anysense]

So, I needed someone else to be UN secretary. Therefore I have left DeGaule to 2 cities so I could gift him UN. But then, I chickened out on my plan as I had no Idea whether the UN would update that I am no longer the owner of the UN.

It certainly works with the Apostolic Palace, a common trick in AP games when you need some other civ to be eligible with just 1 or 2 votes. Never tested with UN, though.

 

[shakabrade]

It certainly works with the Apostolic Palace, a common trick in AP games when you need some other civ to be eligible with just 1 or 2 votes. Never tested with UN, though.

Thanks for the reply, then it is most likely it would have worked. I'll try that some time and certainly with the AP. I haven't won/tried religious in 8 years, maybe I'll push for the Epthatlon at some point.

 

[Tonny]

Since this is my first BOTM game I went for the Adventurer file.
Monty declared on me 175 AD, but I was prepared. My gems city had enough defenders to kill all of his attackers.
640 AD I declared on Monty and he capitulated after capturing 3 of his cities by 740 AD.
940 AD De Gaulle was next to capitulate, 1060 AD I declared on Wang Kon, he capitulated 1140 AD.
Ragnar went soon after with capitulation by 1240 AD. Shaka followed with a capitulation by 1340 AD.
Mansa was last and I took only 2 cities to force him on his knees by 1400 AD.
This resulted in a win by 1410 AD (turn 201).
Fun game...
Thinking I would be in Iso got me prepared well to build a good attacking force which could go all the way. Galleon chaining is nice too .
End game was a bit sloppy. I neglected most cities and just built wealth or an occasional Mace/Treb/Galleon/Frigate.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

I really like this one, but unfortunately even during the pandemics I did not have time to finish ;( I will probably finish it after submitting, I am really curious what happens, things have been going well and I seem on the way to respectable time culture victory. That would be my first ever immortal win. Not because I was loosing, I was somehow never playing above Monarch before. Seems that if you have a good start, things are getting gradually easier. Thanks for the game again!

The only small thing I would improve is Gilgamesh and France had the same/very similar color. Was confusing, especially during war with de Gaulle.

 

[neilmeister]

So, I ended up not making any decisions so defaulted to space. It was a fun game...I went State Property due to owning a large continent that was not my home one.... sushi/mining may have been better.... there were certainly lots of resources