[BTS] BOTM 194 (Lockdown game), Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[WastinTime]

Didn't attack her just in case she was a nurse.

I also wasn't sure because of being called 'Forbidden Fruit'. Eventually I decided that can't be right and attacked her. I moved her capital to the island across the street so I could make her create vassals.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

@DynamicSpirit - thank you so much for this game! I was amazingly creative and I was enjoying it immensely The only reason I did not submit is my civ laptop - it crashes and becomes unresponsive from time to time and it did it just before the deadline, when I was racing to the Domination win Still hurts, although getting for the game helped.

The laptop died when I was taking the last Pathogen city, still not seeing any special unit. I so a strange activity in Pathogen's power graph - huge decreases in power not accompanied by a corresponding decrease in score, so it must be unit disbanding. Or maybe I was lucky and some super-defenders where sent to the nearby barbarian city Anyway, I was both devastated and extremely annoyed, I expected something unusual to happen just before my units where about to take their last city, like a platoon of tanks suddenly arriving to save the day If you could also post Mac worldbuilder, would love to see it, was following closely Pathogen demographics and was very curious what was going on. Wanted to send spy there (got their Map as a part of peace deal after taking Flu), but forgot that only caravels may enter culture when borders are closed (probably even forgot borders were closed) and my galleon could never find the place for spy to land.

The only good think is that the most exciting (or actually expected exciting) part was done with conquering Pathogens, I was staying just a bit shy of domination victory to make sure I will not win when Pathogens are not completely eradicated, so just routine city taking, which was not difficult with my huge army of cannons and musketeers and some mounted. I had also a lot of galleons with circumnavigation bonus, so moving units around was not that difficult, altough tedious (most of the win time-saving key combinations not work on Mac , on which I am playing).

But what I am most upset about is I do not even know how well I did I only had save from 1220AD, couple hours before nearing domination. I was not playing classic "start war early and never finish" but because I am not that good at war and this game I was really scared of Pathogens and my scouting warrior got killed the first turn it entered a flatland - so I just stayed cowardly in my territory and thought there was nobody else on our home "island". Then I noticed that one of my first cities can be liberated - and that is how I discovered Queen NO Back then I was already preparing for Galleon/musketeers war - so killing her took me a while, finished exactly at 1AD. I so that both Termitnik and Powerfaker were much much faster - impressive!

BTW, I also noticed in the replay that @Termitnik oracled Construction in 800-900BC - really neat However, in my game the Oracle was built in 1360BC Is this pure bad luck or people use tricks like putting 1 hammer into a wonder (I have read somewhere on CFC it discourages AI ) or something like that to steer AIs into certain wonders?

I like to play leader-specific strategies - which is probably not that efficient, but more fun for me. This game, I decided to beeline Musketeers - and did quite well, Gunpowder in 350AD. Then it turned out it took just 1 musket - and the rest of army fighting Queen NO - to conquer all 3 non-astronomy Covid cities (I attacked late, so he settled 2 on the corridor). Then I forgot I already have Musketeers - and have not built a single one for centuries Playing on Mac takes much more time then on windows (no shortcuts) so sometimes i just go through the moves and lose track of the grand strategy. I also clicked end of turn to early - and exited Golden Age with completely wrong civics which would not be so bad if I just swallowed the anarchy, but I hate to do that and instead reoriented my strategy, which was good for teching rate, not for warring speed. But I got Astro in 900 AD and Steel soon after and as I discussed in the 1AD spoiler decided to go East, not West. I still think it was not a bad strategy, since my army was based on musketeers, logistic was not so bad - sent siege first by the corridor, taking cities on the way, then musketeers reinforcement, then constant galleon ferry. Taking Loo Rolls and Supermarket was very quick, they had great, highly developed land, and big cities, but defended with weak units. Then, after conquering Loo Rolls and Supermarket, I sent newly produced/first used units to Pathogens and Marauders/wounded attacked Youtuber, who was conveniently very closed, waiting until killing Pathogens with nearing domination limit.

I normally have auto-save every turn - since it was not the first crash of my laptop But when I finally revived it a day after the deadline passed, I first did not want to look at the game - and later realized that my kiddo playing erased my autosaves . So to know how well my strategy worked I would have to replay all these tedious invasions . Maybe will do it one day. So far my - maybe too optimistic - guess is that my date will be similar to Powerfaker, but with score nowhere close Termitnik, probably competing with MarleysGhOst for the best non-medal spot.

So just a long write-up of the game not submitted, lol. Maybe will add some screenshots later. So just letting you know that Eastern strategy and prioritizing Muskets more seemed to also work. Although starting conquering in earnest later would almost for sure hurt my score. OTOH, I was trapped in Caste most game, so no whipping, so my cities were bigger than they typically would.

Ah, and at 1220 AD I have grenadiers, upgraded many units to them (but not rifles yet).

BTW, I noticed that many people (e.g. @Termitnik, @Powerfaker) used (mostly?) mounted units for quick conquering. But muskets are 2-move also - and do not have such an easy counter (spearman, pikes), although the have a bit lower strength. I mostly relied on muskets, although added grenadiers later, they were incredible (most CR3) and invincible paired with CR3 cannons and muskets to mop up. Never bothered to build a single knight, I think. I also do not like Elephants that much - whenever I use them, AI always have at least 1 fortified spear and they are not that useful, but expensive. But I know that elepults are considered standard? I prefer mixed melee plus cats early on.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Thanks for all the detailed write-ups everyone. Fascinating to read them all.

If you could also post Mac worldbuilder, would love to see it, was following closely Pathogen demographics and was very curious what was going on. Wanted to send

The WorldBuilder file is a plain text file - as far as I'm aware, it doesn't have a separate format for Macs - so the one that is available on the game results page should work equally on PCs and Macs. You can also open WB files with a plain text editor and read various details out of them.

 

[Termitnik]

BTW, I also noticed in the replay that @Termitnik oracled Construction in 800-900BC - really neat However, in my game the Oracle was built in 1360BC Is this pure bad luck or people use tricks like putting 1 hammer into a wonder (I have read somewhere on CFC it discourages AI ) or something like that to steer AIs into certain wonders?

I have done nothing from what you said, maybe it is just luck.
I guess only Isabella and Hatshepsut could build Oracle as early as in 1360BC, is it correct?

 

[Fine_Distinction]

I have done nothing from what you said, maybe it is just luck.
I guess only Isabella and Hatshepsut could build Oracle as early as in 1360BC, is it correct?

I was thinking only Isabela (in this game) can build Oracle so early, so I rushed to Writing/OB to closely monitor her cities' production - but in this game Bolsanero built it! I was a bit confused with the hilarious names and I forgot he was industrious - but still My jaw dropped and remained on the floor entire game

I am not sure if "putting 1 hammer in to scare AI" is a rumor? If it works, maybe I unwittingly did it? I do not have early saves, but I was running a fail gold economy, building several wonders in different cities. I got Oracle techs later, so it was probably the only early wonder - other than Chitzen Itza and Zeus - I was not prebuilding.

Anyway, I may not finish Oracle before 800-900, I was not prioritizing it, but when I saw it at 1360BC I was also

Thanks for the answer. I sometimes replay early turns in submitted BOTMs and it is fascinating to watch how some our early decisions, like where to settle cities, influence AIs.

 

[neilmeister]

I almost missed this game.... I came to CivFanatics for the first time in a few months when there was only 4 days left. Lockdown has been crazy for me....working harder than ever.

I started and immediately met Queen-NO of the Forbidden Fruits.... and exploring a few tiles more, my warrior was standing next to her worker.....hmmmmm, is SHE the 'nurses'? They are called the 'Forbidden Fruits'... so I stopped for 2 whole days before I came back and thought 'sod it' and took the worker. Best move I made, she provided me with 4 more workers before 1000BC....

Took the Pathogens northern lands before I bothered to finish off Queen-NO, her lands were rubbish. Delighted in wiping out the Conspiracy Theorists and I even used the same army 500 years later to destroy the Pathogens. Fun game!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I am not sure if "putting 1 hammer in to scare AI" is a rumor?

It's fake news that has been debunked many many times!!