The first AI that I attacked were the Zulu, basically for their horses and the MoM as a bonus. Until late I hadn't detected the horses on the tiny island off the Aztec capital that he mysteriously left unsettled. However, I was beaten to it by the French. So I focussed on the Zulu and attacked with trebs, maces and pikes. I actually didn't attack until having astro, shipping units of course was quite a bit more comfortable with galleons than galleys, also better for the safety of the fleet.
Monty was dragged into the war by the Zulu, but overseas war isn't quite his suit so got no real trouble from that. Anyhow, I signed peace with the Zulu after getting both objectives (horses and MoM). Then I took a city from the Aztec turf and Monty vassaled quite soon. Meanwhile I had libbed MT so returned attention to finishing off the Zulu with cuirs.
From there swept the map, the Incans were next. They were vassaled soon enough and gave me the Pyramids. Shortly after revolted to Police State, Nationhood and State Property to support further conquest. Shipped units over to the Native Americans who didn't talk until their whole starting island was in English hands.
The Germans had Steel by the time I invaded so I slightly feared getting pummeled by cannons, but typical AI mismanagement made that instead his military pride got slaughtered rather easily. Finally shipped everything over to France. Decided to attack first amphibiously the city where his fleet with a gazillion boats was located so that his fleet wouldn't pose a problem for mine from the bottom of the harbour. Had to conquer 7 cities before Napoleon would submit, giving me conquest.
Enjoyable game, also the interesting starting position made it extra fun, so thanks!
The plan was mostly clear on T110, but I wanted to use FIN and Colossus, so I decided not to attack with medieval units. Instead, I chose to attack all of my opponents with drafted muskets and cannons, so my aim was to research nationalism, theology, chemistry and liberalism + steel before attacking.
For doing that, I completed Parthenon, the TGL, and the National Epic, and researched philosophy, and then started the golden age on T124. I adopted religion (finally!), caste, and pacifism. It was a riddle, which great people should I get and in what order. In total I got 4 Great Merchants, 2 Great Scientists and a Great Artist (plus Great Prophet from the Oracle and Great Artist from Music). GPro, GArt and GMerch started two golden ages. I bulbed Education and Liberalism with Great Scientists. But the Great Merchants brought the most benefit.
SpoilerGreat Merchants :
You need to selftech Compass to bulb Liberalism. So I did that and gifted it to Bismark instantly, hoping, that he would build harbor in capital for me. He did! I also moved my capital to size 17 York - I think, I got about 1000 for that 160 - must have been valuable.
As a result I got all the techs and civics I need by turn 149, when I libbed steel. Could have libbed it 2 turns earlier, but I started to build an army in advance.
SpoilerT149 :
After that I slowly researched Optics, Military Science and Astronomy. I got circumnavigation two turns before Shaka (I know that because I bought his map). Colossus obsoleted with Astro, so it was the last tech I researched. I really like this gold graph - it even becomes negative at some point.
SpoilerGold graph :
I attacked Montezuma on T151. The war went smoothly, although he had a stack of caravels - I didn't expect that. So I messed around with capturing his islands for a while and only killed him on T167. I wanted to wipe out him completely in order to summon Musketeers from his cities, so I didn't accept his capitulation.
SpoilerFort :
To get around his stack of caravels, I built this fort and used a galley with 4 movements
SpoilerGreat Artist :
The great artist stopped the uprising in the former capital of Monti, so this city started to benefit me earlier. No wonder Monty has become a technological leader with such a capital!
SpoilerYork :
This city has Moai, Heroic Epic, Drydock and two settled great generals. It can build Navigation2 Galleon per turn. The real gem of my empire. 7-move Galleons are great - I unloaded my army near one city, captured it, loaded army onto galleons and moved them to the next city. I never liked naval conquest, but against weaker opponents it is fun.
After the Aztecs, I attacked both France and Native Americans simultaneously. Thanks to 7move Galleons, I was able to finish them really fast. They also both were backwards—Natives didn't even have longbows, I believe. Then I used both armies to attack Bismark; the war started on T181. At the same time, I built a third army to attack Shaka, whose island was conquered by T190.
Inca was the last. I hoped he would become my peace vassal, but no suck luck. I even converted him to Confucianism for that, and I also did the same for my vassal Napoleon. But in the end, I had to vassalize him in the usual way. So I finished the conquest on T199.
I actually won this game! I haven't done that on Immortal difficulty since my hiatus from the games, so I am pleased. I think it was mostly luck that the French and Germans were at war most of the game, because they were my main tech rivals. I took astronomy from liberalism. I lost my second city in a war with the native americans mostly because I wasn't paying attention and didn't see them land on my continent. I got it back quickly, but had to rebuild Moai statues and all the research buildings, so it was effectively a lost in my space racing. I capitulated Incans after taking their whole original continent. I took all of SB's new continent.
A first for me: Sitting Bull eventually turned his offshore stuff into an Egyptian colony... but SB capitulated with 3 cities left even though he had a vassal. Egypt was freed from vassalage but was willing to capitulate even though we had no military engagements. I've never capitulated someone with an active vassal before, but now I know it can be done!
With all the land (I had about 4.5 continents), Mining Inc and Std Ethanol were more useful than I thought they would be. But the deciding factor was probably getting the Internet, which gave me 5 or 6 very advanced technologies. I had great engineers to spare, so I built the Space Elevator... and Bismark had not yet built thrusters for his otherwise complete spaceship when I launched. Victory in 1977AD, which is kind of pathetic, but its a win for me. Not another ambulance!!!
Statistics say I killed 65 riflemen and some 40 Destroyers which were the two highest targets in this one. I think my #1 build was probably workboats to fix what havoc the Destroyers wreaked.
Thanks for a fun game, and two gold mines in the capitol (I settle on the marble).
My goal was to get the great lighthouse and aim for a peaceful diplo. victory, since there should be plenty of expansion spots and warring is tedious on a water map. Settled on marble and 2nd city on stone for a great lighthouse site, got it around 1500 BC with the help of 2 forests and 2 whip overflows (from the lighthouse, and then I had put some hammers in barracks before Sailing was researched and saved it for the 2-whip at the end of GLH build). Got Pyramids around 1400 BC in the capital. (Not as immediately useful but would be later when I grow large seafood cities.) Then the plan was to settle the whole island (10 cities) and 1 city on each of the 2 small northern islands for GLH bonus. After Civil Service I just beelined Astro then Mass Media.
This is the first time I play this line so made a few mistakes when planning great people, in particular I didn't save a Great Engineer from the Pyramids for the UN. I had Mass Media by the mid 1300s but it took 30 turns for my best production site (Moai city, on SW tip of the island near copper) to build it. Diplomacy victory in 1585 in the end. Getting 3 AIs to friendly was not too hard with favorable trades (+4), open borders, sustained peace and resources. Got Zulu over the threshold by liberating island cities near their mainland then Inca and Germany by adopting their favorite civics while waiting for UN build. Religion was not really an option since there were 4 different state religions at some point among the 6 AIs. That said, Sitting Bull acted as the hostile target for the other low peaceweight AIs (all but Bismarck) all game so I remained fairly safe by just avoiding to trade with him.
I actually won this game! I haven't done that on Immortal difficulty since my hiatus from the games, so I am pleased. I think it was mostly luck that the French and Germans were at war most of the game, because they were my main tech rivals. I took astronomy from liberalism. I lost my second city in a war with the native americans mostly because I wasn't paying attention and didn't see them land on my continent. I got it back quickly, but had to rebuild Moai statues and all the research buildings, so it was effectively a lost in my space racing. I capitulated Incans after taking their whole original continent. I took all of SB's new continent.
A first for me: Sitting Bull eventually turned his offshore stuff into an Egyptian colony... but SB capitulated with 3 cities left even though he had a vassal. Egypt was freed from vassalage but was willing to capitulate even though we had no military engagements. I've never capitulated someone with an active vassal before, but now I know it can be done!
With all the land (I had about 4.5 continents), Mining Inc and Std Ethanol were more useful than I thought they would be. But the deciding factor was probably getting the Internet, which gave me 5 or 6 very advanced technologies. I had great engineers to spare, so I built the Space Elevator... and Bismark had not yet built thrusters for his otherwise complete spaceship when I launched. Victory in 1977AD, which is kind of pathetic, but its a win for me. Not another ambulance!!!
Statistics say I killed 65 riflemen and some 40 Destroyers which were the two highest targets in this one. I think my #1 build was probably workboats to fix what havoc the Destroyers wreaked.
Thanks for a fun game, and two gold mines in the capitol (I settle on the marble).
I didn't realise you could rebuild national wonders if their city gets captured. I'd always assumed they were lost forever. That's useful to know. I guess Moai is a real pain there though because you don't have the hammers to build it until you've already built it
Impressive game! I was also going for Diplo and thought I was teaching nicely with 1630 AD Mass Media. I did fighting along the way and not a true beeline but I was so much slower.
What are key milestone dates along the way? Astronomy by when? Did you get Oxford? Do you go for fast Free Market?
200 BC civil service, 75 AD music (missed the Great Library), got some stuff from trading techs, 475 AD Astro. Then PPress and SciMethod with the help of a Great Scientist. I went back to get Edu - Lib - Communism and used the GSpy along with the GS from physics to get a golden age and do a massive civic switch (HRule since representation was not enough for happiness anymore, State Prop, Free Religion). A few observatories and forges but no univ in any city. It was probably a mistake to not use Lib for a more expensive tech like Electricity though.
Early AD's I secured Music and some wonders. Then started preparations to invade Aztec, while tech headed for LIb => Communism
Monty was plotting on SB I thought, but DoWed me instead and landed his expedition force next to my army build-up, also bribed Zulu in on me. Losing his invasion units helped me to speed things up nicely, get a quick foothold before his navy (caravels) arrived and spread from there. Kept going until elimination. Shaka never showed up. When I turned on him next it turned out he had no navy at all and typically for island maps, not that big amount of units either.
Meanwhile I got a GE born, so I thought hey, let's go the corporations route for a change. I had a nice collection of resources already, this was a good moment to do something very different (for me). So here's the story how that went.
Astro already obsoleted Colossus 15T earlier when while rolling over Zulu and expanding like crazy to the unoccupied islands, and with Railroads done. the turn for a big switch was1330AD. Finish Corporation = obsolete GLH, finish double golden age with a civic switch of State Property to Free Market and start Mining Inc.
My economy takes a horror dive down and cities turn food squeezed. At least I get to Biology with my last reserves in 5T or so. Then I spend a period of 35 turns at zero research and scratching gold together with wealth building, while I push push push to fill all the empty spots and fuel my cities with around 20.I collect enough gold to finish Medicine 1510AD (Sushi corp starting at 15) and AssemblyLine 1550AD. I need another golden age now, so I can build all factories + a train of follow up buildings for happy and health etc. Finally 1630AD enough cities turn back to wealth so I can start moving the slider up, each 10% is now almost 1000 beakers. 8 turns later I am at 70%.
The rest of the game is fast/easy going. I only fail to pull out another (4 GP) golden age, cause I keep getting low chance GP appear, 3GE and 3GA and even the one GM was low odds.
Oh, and I made the mistake to found Mining Inc in my cap where I already had both epics, so no Wallstreet possible, a 250gold or 400 beaker per turn mistake
Space ship launched arrived early 1800's. Optimized city growth a bit. Not a super competitive date but a massive score. Ended with 67 cities and 1444 pop (62% land)
This is what a corporation economy looks like:
Spoiler:
Remember how I reported Shaka and Napoleon having 2 cities by 1AD. This is Bismarck's contribution to AI madness:
Spoiler:
Drops 4 settlers behind a mountain and does not found a city. I happily took the island and the gold/fish spot, nice additions to the corp bonus.
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for that 160
- must have been valuable.
) and AssemblyLine 1550AD. I need another golden age now, so I can build all factories + a train of follow up buildings for happy and health etc. Finally 1630AD enough cities turn back to wealth so I can start moving the slider up, each 10% is now almost 1000 beakers. 8 turns later I am at 70%.
