[BTS] BOTM 233: Ramesses II, Immortal - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 233: Ramesses II, Immortal - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

Tears of joy or just the regular kind? Tell us what happened.
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 233 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.

 

[kcd_swede]

I've played further but I have no idea how to continue; a lot of my economy is from GLH+Colossus so I don't know what to do once I need Astro+Corporations

I appreciate your desire to share the excitement and hope you make it work. I just want to remind you of the posting conditions for this thread:
Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 233 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Moderator Action: Moved those posts to the First Spoiler thread. leif

 

[MarleysGh0st]

As I reported in my first spoiler, my insufficient effort against Stalin let Boudica capture Yekaterinburg before I could. To make matters worse, Stalin had built the GLH there! That wonder might have made some difference in my game. As it was...

As I struggled to research currency, to give my stagnant economy a boost, Ragnar attacked in 150. He captured one city, which I recaptured. A second wave attack was wiped out, but he still wouldn't sign a ceasefire or make peace for less that that city.

Shaka joined the war against me in 640. Even though his forces were nowhere in sight, I didn't want to fight two AI at once. Ragnar made peace in exchange for Compass (a short-term relief for me, which would only speed the day when his berserkers arrived on the scene.).

In 760, both Kublai Khan and Tokugawa joined in the dog pile. KK moved a large stack next to one of my captured Russian cities, which I had no hope of defending. There was no point in continuing. I resigned.

I'll try again for fun, with the adventurer save.

 

[ecawilson]

resigned 19 turns after 1AD. dogpile, hadn't yet teched Iron Working or Feudalism, and my goal in playing this was to finally submit a game, not to actually finish (let alone win). I've been watching the BOTM since 2007, I just finally wanted to join in.
I never should have taken Kursk. I was worried about my bad economy, and saw $$$ all around that city, but I was declared on just a few turns after Russia was destroyed. Then again, Boudica, Tokugawa, and Kublai Khan all had stacks inside Russia, so maybe that decision didn't make any difference.
My second city never helped my economy, I think I just felt like turn 7 was too late to restart my exploration pattern. Maybe I should have been deleting units, maybe I should have declared on someone else, I'm not really sure where I went wrong, but I knew I wasn't doing it right.
I am still curious why Russia was such a pushover in my game, and why everyone else was Pleased with me (except Tokugawa and Montezuma, of course) for so long. Did I do something wrong? I also had some really incredible combat rolls, almost makes me feel like I was cheating, but I couldn't imagine how.
The land was poor, the situation uncomfortable, but in my game, it wasn't the mapmaker to blame. I lost this game.

 

[kcd_swede]

<I am still curious why Russia was such a pushover in my game, and why everyone else was Pleased with me (except Tokugawa and Montezuma, of course) for so long. Did I do something wrong?>
You can check the diplo screens and see exactly why they like or dislike you. I suspect you benefitted from a whole lot of positive diplomacy points with everyone simply because of being at war with a common enemy (Stalin). When Russia was gone, so was all that positive diplo. At that point, they probably saw you as an easy target with a significantly lower military power (whenever the power ratio on the BUFFY scoreboard gets into the red, you should be wary of the warlike leaders - which was every one of your opponents in this game.

The best tip I got on how to win these games - moved me from a Prince level player to Monarch, Emperor, and Immortal levels - was to concentrate on specializing your cities. One science, one production, and one commerce focused city is better that 6 "try to do it all" cities.

Next game will be May 1 and at Noble level, so I hope to see you submit a victory next time!

Welcome to the Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

 

[ecawilson]

I suspect you benefitted from a whole lot of positive diplomacy points with everyone simply because of being at war with a common enemy (Stalin). When Russia was gone, so was all that positive diplo.

Good guess, but I really don't think there is a diplo bonus for mutual permanent war against a minor civ, or at least there was no bonus in this game. I had been hoping for it, because I know that the bonus also persists after the civ is destroyed. That was the reason I actively sought ought the other civs. Instead, I had to become Hindu and gift most of my resources to get to positive. I was also 'no threat', and 'stick together' (with Mongolia) about halfway through the war with Russia. (I was #1 in power at the beginning of the war, #dead last at the end: my rolls against Stalin were a little worse than average, I didn't have the economy to lead a smart war and thought Kursk was my only chance). Once I was juicy, weak, in the middle, human, and they were aggressive AI, all my gifts and religion meant nothing. Power is the only thing that speaks, against those leaders.

So, after thinking more about this, I think my real problem was that my second city was so poor, economically. Where was the 'correct' 2nd city placement?

 

[kcd_swede]

Maybe someone more in tune with the exact game mechanics will weigh in.

 

[jnebbe]

Absolutely insane game

Spoiler :

Wouldn't it be funny to sneak in behind Boudica with cuirs

I think I libbed rifling and attacked Boudica but I really didn't make much progress, and KK is starting to run away, however I notice she's really far from Infantry so I rush Infantry myself.

Ah yes, now the fun begins...

I couldn't hope to win against 2 powerhouse ai with only 25-some cities so I whipped 51 infantry and took every Celt city I could before the AP voted me out of war.

Quick AP vote to stop trading with Monty I've been juggling around civics and bribing Ragnar/KK to keep them friendly so they'll vote for me, but this kind of confirms I won't be getting a Diplo win since Monty's a non-member

Hindu shrine+AP

This is getting out of hand; now there are two of them!

Finally cap Boudica at the very last moment with her giving me her remaining good city

I settle some island cities to be used in an attack against Ragnar/KK. They are both quite powerful and are also feeding their 4 vassals tech as well, nukes are basically required here.

Physics completed, would you believe in my 58-city empire I don't have uranium? The only realistic source I can get some is by taking a Shaka city.

 

[jnebbe]

Spoiler :

Planning my attack. I need to basically wipe out Rag/KK in 1 turn; I can't hope to fight a prolonged war against their 50 cities+vassals. I wanted 6 nukes per city and then 8 infantry per city to make sure I could defend it once captured. I figured I would need a ton of nukes if Ragnar/KK had both SDI+Bomb Shelters.
I mapped out.... 35 cities I wanted to take. 35x2submarines and 2 transports each...
210 nukes and 250ish Infantry

Well, go big or go home.
Founded Sushi and the plan was to whip the entirety of that army (I have the kremlin too). The idea was to run Free Market+Slavery for 5 turns at a time, each city with Sushi would grow 5 pop in that time and I would whip away 5-8 pop into Infantry/Transports/Subs/Tac Nukes. When I'm out of money I'd switch into SP and caste and build up my gold again.

It didn't work quite as I thought but I think it's still a good call; there's not many tiles to workshop on this map, whereas I'm gaining 25 per turn. Essentially I'm paying gold for huge amounts of production.

I have to say though, building up an army like this would not be possible if 1) This was any other map type, 2) I wasn't SPI. and 3) if Rag/KK weren't pleased/friendly with me this entire time, and 4) I didn't have the Kremlin.

Kublai sure loves his Emancipation and I had to defy it 2 or 3 times

T375 and the ai have officially finished the tech tree! They're just stacking future techs now.

I attacked Shaka with Rag/KK, I had an opportunity to capitulate him but for some reason decided to wait a turn and Rag/KK capped him instead.

My cities are almost at the breaking point, almost every city building wealth and I'm in Free Market and I'm still bleeding cash. I'll have to make whatever I have now work.

I need to wait till Rag/KK's spaceship is done though, so I can delete all their progress.

Remember when we voted/I was forced to stop trading with Monty? He's finally talking to me! Not that I'd want a Diplo win as this point though.
(118 turns btw )

IT"S GO TIME

Here's how the first turn of war started

And the same turn 53 minutes later

29 cities in 1 turn, thats a new PB!

I pressed the end turn button and... nothing really happened. Not a single nuke was fired back at me, I think I lost 2 cities over on Shaka's continent.

I had around 2/3 the army that I had planned for but the war still went great, a couple cities went down with just 1 nuke, whereas Ning-Hsia shot down 7 nukes in a row, but most cities took around 3 nukes.

As expected Monty immediately freed himself of vassal status and so did Toku a couple turns later

Pretty glad to be getting lots of capture gold:

What -25 war unhappiness and 2 defied resolutions will to to you, any city over 10 pop can't work ANY tile.

However a couple turns later..

All thats left is to settle a couple worthless ice cities for the land%

GG

wild game, thanks for the map!

 

[kcd_swede]

Great write-up! I love seeing a good nuclear strategy work out.

 

[neilmeister]

I think I had every single AI declare on me, at least once each, sometimes 2-3 times each.
My initial huge tech lead let me bribe peace quite a few times but it got a bit interesting in the end game as my 9 city empire was reduced to 6 (I think) while I spammed obsolete units and tried to hold on. This obviously had a huge effect on my planning, my Capital hit legendary so early it wasnt funny!