[BTS] BOTM 235: Suryavarman II, Deity - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 235: Suryavarman II, Deity - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted


Don't even read this thread if your game is not finished and preferably submitted already!

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, particularly anything after 1AD
Did you win? Or did it all go downhill after 1AD like it always does for me at Deity level?
How'd you manage things?
Did you make good advantage of Expansive and Creative leader traits? (... or... Why the heck not? LOL)
Did the larger map provide you any benefits or special difficulties?
Does having a predictable map zone like Great Plains make it easier, or just more frustrating to watch the Deity AI grab all the good land?

Did you appreciate my addition of jungle elephants near the start? Were your UU Ballista elephants useful? If so, you are allowed to say Thank You, since you'd never get this in a real Great Plains map.


Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 235 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.

 

[Implo]

Allright! MY first BOTM game is submitted!

The little hint of a "man made Challenge" just gave this map another flavor and some unexpected twist and turns that made this a really fun challenge for me! Thanks @kcd_swede !!

I played in many many short intervals (not by choice..) that I guess helped me in the game.
Patience helped in this game quite a bit and som initial worker stealing (not dying) luck.
There was a couple times where I guess I got some setbacks because I was a bit to greedy.

Key moments that helped the game:
- Worker stealing with a warrior that evolved into a axe/spear rush vs Asoka later HA rush.

- Early Monarcy, religion spread, Glib and MoM

- Curri rush vs peter, toku.

- Wang eating hate from the other Ai's for breakfast.

- Was waiting for cavalry to attack Qin (protective longbows and every city was hills and he had Chichen Itza pizza).

Then Kublai attacked Wang and Qin just barley got pleased a couple turns later. Which enabled me to bribe him and his vassal Asoka on Kublai.

Qin moved his stack away from my borders.. took 2-3 cities from Kublai.. and I could safely get cavalry and backstab Asoka, Qin and later Kubla in quick succession. Combined I estimate that the events made the last scary wars 10-30 turns faster.

- Overall slow tech pace on the AI's

Spoiler maintenance cost :

Mentions.. insane city cost. under is Before and after goldenage/state prop.

after GA, without State property: Gave 450 beakers and redused the deficit 150 gold pt.

Golden Age and State prop/rep/cast gave another 140 beakers, and reduced the deficit by another 250 gold pt.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Did you win? Or did it all go downhill after 1AD like it always does for me at Deity level?

No. It was going downhill well before 1 AD.

How'd you manage things?

Not well enough.

Did you make good advantage of Expansive and Creative leader traits?

Both nice to have. But maintenance costs nerfed the advantages of Expansive for a significant portion of the game.

Did the larger map provide you any benefits or special difficulties?

So tired of large maps! I'm a slow player as it is. I quit around 1000 AD, shortly after losing my last best hope, trying to build the Taj before anyone else. Asoka beat me to it and started cranking out 1-turn research for SciMeth, Bio, etc.

Does having a predictable map zone like Great Plains make it easier, or just more frustrating to watch the Deity AI grab all the good land?

We started with nice land, but not being able to expand against the AI meant we couldn't pick up the other goody resources.

Did you appreciate my addition of jungle elephants near the start? Were your UU Ballista elephants useful? If so, you are allowed to say Thank

Thanks! Other than early happiness, they were of no use whatsoever!

Overview: Toku, Wang, and even Peter were vassaled, although Wang broke free after awhile. Mongolia, China, and India were monsters, and India in particular was running away in score. I had about as many cities as the big boys, but there was no way I could attack any of them, and India's culture was, as others mentioned in the first spoiler, a growing problem on my borders. Even with luck, I don't have the skill to successfully attack Asoka in the early game. Congrats to Implo!

 

[Implo]

Did you appreciate my addition of jungle elephants near the start? Were your UU Ballista elephants useful? If so, you are allowed to say Thank You, since you'd never get this in a real Great Plains map.

Appreciate the elephants for early happiness! And building for curri upgrade. Got HE fairly early so benefited one 2 guys every 3 turns! Saved quite some hammers like that!

 

[MarleysGh0st]

As I reported in the first spoiler, Asoka and QSH were at war. I joined the war in 175 and attacked Asoka's nearest border city. I captured it...twice...and he recaptured it...twice. In 275, Asoka and QSH made peace. Peter joined me in the war in 375, but Asoka still had a huge stack near me. When Asoka called an AP vote to end the war in 540, I was happy to have the motion pass, even though I knew my chances of victory had vanished.

I kept playing, still hoping to someday get a grand alliance against Asoka. Various wars took place, but the alliance never materialized. I researched to build cuirs and then cannon (while Asoka was up to rifles). In 1525, Asoka was at war with QSH and Tokugawa, when Tokugawa capitulated and QSH made peace. I gave up on the grand alliance idea, and changed to a half-hearted attempt at culture, but mostly wanting to stay alive to the end of the game.

And that's when the game got exciting, purely from a neutral spectator's point of view. In 1665, Asoka/Toku attacked QSH, and KK came to QSH's aid. Asoka launched a wave of tactical nukes and a couple ICBMs that laid waste to China. (Asoka is no Gandhi, that's for sure!) Peter (and two offshore vassals he had appointed, Darius and Shaka) attacked Asoka/Toku in 1740. This turned out to be a big mistake for him, since Peter had been getting very close to his own cultural victory. He captured a border city, but then began losing his own cities, including two of the near-legendary ones.

In the midst of this ongoing war--no longer nuclear since Peter had passed a non-proliferation treaty and Asoka had launched the last of his nuclear stockpile*--the space race had still been proceeding. Asoka launched his ship in 1828 and achieved victory in 1846.

If I had gone for a cultural victory from the start, instead of making futile war plans, I could have won this. As it is, I'm satisfied with surviving to the end of a Deity game.



*A situation that I'd never seen before let me learn something new, here. A non-proliferation pact apparently stops you from building nukes, but you can still use the ones you have!

 

[zbgayumn]

If I had gone for a cultural victory from the start, instead of making futile war plans, I could have won this. As it is, I'm satisfied with surviving to the end of a Deity game.

I'm not sure I can make the same claim, I probably would've lost out on some of the critical wonders. However, after coasting along and just staying alive past 1000 AD, I asked myself what the hell I was planning to do. I finally decided that there was one path I could still pursue: Espionage Culture.

If I had come to that decision 30 turns sooner, I could've made it really interesting. As it was, I had the EP I needed, a little short on Spies, and way too short on time. I got one city up to Legendary before Asoka won the Space Victory. There was also the question of how I was going to take back the cities I gifted. I had only gotten to Rifles while India had every advanced endgame unit. There was probably no chance it was going to work.