[BTS] BOTM 255: Ragnar, Emperor - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 255: Ragnar, Emperor - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

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 255 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

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Posting Restrictions

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

 

[Frederiksberg]

Around 400 AD Stalin declared on me a few turns before I was going to declare on him and landed two units next to the city where my invasion army was waiting . My army of catapults and elephants took four out of five Russian cities on the main island and got CoL in a peace deal. Ten turns later I came back and captured the last city on the mainland, but this time an AP resolution stopped the war. I was in the buddhist block with Hatty and Gandhi working on getting them both "friendly" so I couldn't defy. This meant that when I came back for the two remaining Russian cities, I had to time it with the cycle of AP votes to avoid being stopped by another resolution. I also built a handful of berserkers so that a fast amphibious assault could take the farthest island. After Stalin was gone around 700 AD the Viking empire had 21 cities. From this point on I decide to go for a Diplo VC. Hatty and Gandhi were both friendly and Suleiman was pleased. Gandhi, who had lost a couple of cities in a war with Björn Ironside, wanted to become a peace vassal, but that was a trap and would give me neg mods with my other friends. Can't have favourites among friends . The plan was now to attack Ironside and bribe Gandhi and Hatty to join the war. The Swedes had discovered Astronomy so I needed that also to have naval parity. I also got Nationalism, Chemistry and Rifling to ensure that my army would have a qualitative advantage based on frigates and (drafted) riflemen. Those were detours from the Mass Media beeline and maybe not strictly necessary, but certainly convenient. Around 1350 AD Ironside attacked Gandhi again, landing a small stack outside Delhi. I postponed my attack a few turns hoping that Gandhi would call for help (plus mod) but it didn't happen, so by 1380 AD I declared on Ironside and brought Hatty in as an ally. A small expeditionary force of upgraded (to rifles) berserkers captured the Swedish cities that were not on the main island and I split the rest of my rifles into two stacks who assisted by frigates and later, airships, landed on different parts of the Swedish mainland. When Ironside was down to one city, I made peace and bribed Gandhi and Hatty to also stop the war. The idea was to build the UN with two GE's and then give back this city to Ironside, but he refused to talk! Fortunately, Ragnarsson, who was also unpopular among the Buddhists, was willing to accept one of the captured Swedish cities so I rushed my GE's over there, rushed the UN and gifted the city. But because he was the worst enemy of Hatty, I got neg mods for trading with the worst enemy and she dropped to pleased . Fortunately, I could revolt back to OR and Buddhism (had been in Free Religion during the research push to Mass Media) and this got her back to friendly before the diplo VC vote and I got votes from both Gandhi, Hatty and Suleiman.

Fun game with lots of empty islands to settle, thus making a more peaceful strategy feasible even at the immortal level. Put the same civs on a Pangea and you have a much more difficult and violent game.

 

[NickTrofimuk]

This was a neat game. Fun surprises finding the other Vikings.

I beelined GLH, then settled peacefully and teched to berserkers. My plan was to go for a number of surprise-by-sea invasions for quick capitulations of my neighbours. I went for colossus too but got beat out by someone far away before putting any hammers into it. I think I only met Stalin and Gandhi for this first part but sent out some ships to explore and met Hatty shortly before attacking. Once I had enough berserkers I took over Gandhi with an amphibious assault that proved a bit harder than expected due to his fleet of triremes. After that Stalin fell easily and I set my sights on Hatshepsut.

During this time I teched to astronomy and I met the two vikings (and suleiman). I realized they were higher tech so changed my plan to attack with Rifling (and upgraded city raider berserkers->riflemen). I took out hatshepsut with my berserkers, then turned my research to 0 until I had the money to upgrade almost all of my berserkers to rifleman before going after the Danes. I think it took about six cities (three in the first turn, two more in the second, and a third (the capital) a turn or two later) for them to capitulate. All were amphibious assaults. I then turned that fleet towards suleiman and created a new army and fleet from home which I sent towards the Swedes. I lost a galleon of riflemen to their galleon, so quickly teched Chemistry and whipped out 7 frigates . Suleiman fell easily to my giant stack of amphibious well upgraded rifles. I took quite a few cities from the Swedes but they weren't willing to capitulate.

Eventually I had to send my fleet of upgraded CR rifleman from Suleiman's islands all the way to sweden, and he finally capitulated. Conquest victory around 1510 AD

 

[Xcalibrator]

I finished a game! Much like Fred's and Nick's, but slower. Eliminated Gandhi first, then took Stalin's one city on the big island to our south and two more on his home island. Bjorn, then Hattie, and finally the Ottomans --> 1585 conquest.

 

[Bemep42]

A very successful game for me. Even those or other failures, in the end, were good for me. For example, having lost Confu to Stalin in 1 move, I did not accept religion, did not build missionaries and forges, and thereby saved very scarce hammers. The early Colossus built by Sweden also saved me from spending hammers on it. etc.

In 100 AD I learned the CS, on the same move Suleiman and Hatty got the alphabet. I traded alphabet for a CoL, after which I traded IW, AH, archery, meditation and monotheism. Thanks to this, together with the bureau, I accepted org. religion. And although at that time I did not have a state religion in the future it came in handy. At 125 AD, Gandhi discovered aesthetics and immediately exchanged it. At 150 AD I met Sweden, at 250 AD - Denmark. At 200 AD, I got circumnavigation.

After mashinery, I planned to stop science, but in 425 AD I received 1300 gold from GM in Delhi, so after mashinery (450 ad) I quickly learned currency (475 ad), compass (520 ad) and optics (600 ad). There was money left for 2/3 of astronomy, so I stopped science. in 500 AD Gandhi learned the calendar and I exchanged calendar + literature for currency + alphabet, and in 560 AD Gandhi exchanged me a horseback riding for a compass.

In 580 AD, I attacked India with 6 berserkers on 3 galleys + 1 trireme and Russia with 7 berserkers on 4 galleys + 2 triremes. India had an average of 2 archers per city + 2 chariots in the last city, so I captured the whole of India quickly and without loss. I wanted to temporarily leave Gandhi 1 city, but he refused to give philosophy for peace, I had to finish him off at 680 AD, and exchange philosophy from Hatty.
Stalin had agr axes and swords, so I lost 3 berserkers, but I had reinforcements coming without a break. And in 660 ad, I captured the last city on his island and made peace with him, taking the constructions. He had 1 city left on a Swedish island, which took a long time to get to. The maintenance of the colonies was huge and I accepted Indian Buddhism and started building forges/courts. In Delhi I got the Great Library (250 ad) and the Statue of Zeus (400 ad), and in Moscow GW, ToA and the Parthenon (520 ad).

Sweden was the strongest opponent. 9 cities, 2nd power, early Colossus, before my war he learned Music, and during the war he learned feudalism. However, in terms of logistics, he was supposed to be the next target. Another problem was the unexplored territory inside the continent with cities that could not be attacked from the sea. In addition, the colonial content of the whole of Sweden was expected to be immeasurably large. By this time, I had less than 10% of the territory, and huge barren territories with snow, tundra and jungle repelled the idea of settling everything for domination. Therefore, I decided to limit myself to the conquest )

I decided to attack Sweden from 2 sides. The Russian group in the number of 10 berserkers was supposed to attack Stockholm and then Malmoe (with a Colossus, to the east of Stockholm), and 6 Indian berserkers attack small towns in southeastern Sweden. To help my logistics, Bronn built 10th city on the isthmus between Sweden and the southeastern long peninsula in 700 AD. There was a barbarian city on this peninsula with 7 pop and processed corn and sheep and I had time to capture it before Sweden. I killed 3 archers without any problems, but then my berserker with 9/10 experience and a 99.5% chance, instead of getting the 3rd promotion, was killed by the last archer.
In 820 AD I attacked Sweden, captured Stockholm, a city on the south island opposite Stockholm and a city to the east. There were 2 longbows (on hill) + cata in Stockholm, I planned to lose 2-3 berserkers, but I lost 4. In Malmoe there were also 2 longbows on hill, and since 1 berserker remained to defend Stockholm, I did not risk attacking Malmoe with 5 berserkers. I had to first capture 2 towns in the east and unite the armies. In 980 AD I defended Stockholm from 9 units (lost 1 berserker) and captured Malmoe (-2 berserkers). and made Sweden a vassal. (took the music) Before that, in 860 AD, I traded feudalism and theology for CS from Suleiman and Hatty.

in 740 AD, the 2nd Great Merchant was born to me (great luck!), in 960 AD he sailed to Thebes and gave me 2100 gold. While he was swimming, I learned astronomy to the maximum, and after receiving gold, I completed astro in 980 AD in 1 turn. The rest of the gold went to upgrade the galleys. After the appearance of galleons, the map turned from a very large one into a small one) 3 new berserkers captured Stalin's last city in 1020 AD. The next Suleiman. 9 berserkers from Stockholm attacked him from the east, 11 from the west at 1040 AD. He had machinery, but did not have iron. I captured 4 islands towns, a city near copper and Istanbul. And in 1060 AD Suleiman became a vassal. In the same 1060 AD Hatty slaved 5 inhabitants in Thebes built the Apostolic Palace. Christianity was in Istanbul, Copenhagen and all Egypt, that is, she could win a religious victory alone. But she didn't have enough time. Already in 1080 AD Thebes, Memphis and Elephantine were conquered. At 1100 AD Hatshepsut capitulated. In 1130 AD I attacked Denmark and captured 2 out of 6 cities. In 1140 AD I captured Copenhagen, in 1150 AD Odense and in 1160 AD Denmark surrendered.

Victory by conquest in 1170 AD

p.s. Some statistics from game : I built 38, and lost 23 berserkers (3 in Russia, 1 vs barb, 7 in Sweden, 5 in Turkey, 4 in Egypt and 3 in Denmark)
Killed 30 longbows, 42 archers, 21 axes, 12 swords, 10 ha, 9 char, 8 cata, 7 spears, 4 elephants and even 1 berserker (in Copenhagen).

 

[nocho]

I didn't find the time to finish this one unfortunately, I retired in 1310 with Russia long dead and India and Sweden vassaled. I'd probably would have gotten to conquest somewhere in the 1500s like some of the other reports. Bemep42's 1170AD conquest sounds pretty impressive.