[BTS] BOTM 275: Ramesses II, Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 275: Ramesses II, Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted



OK, I am guessing you all found this easier than you thought it would be... unless you gave yourself a challenge and went for AP or UN diplomatic victory. But lets hear it from you... 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 275 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.

 

[nocho]

Fun game, indeed not very tough apart from having to move a lot of units around and shipping and all that. I didn't go for the challenge of AP or UN, just good old domination. After having eliminated Rome in the BCs and having gotten a Russian city too, the ADs were just about expanding out after some initial build up. I first declared on Bismarck and added him as the first new vassal, second only to Hatty of course. Then Peter from the other continent declared on me, or rather on Hatty, and it was kind of eerie to see his troops gradually roll over Green Egypt without being able to do anything about it. Hatty lost a couple of cities and was about to lose a third when Peter was finally willing to talk. Funnily enough, he paid me cash and gpt as a peace settlement, while I had expected that by AI logic he would have been the one calling the shots at the negotiation table.

After that, I first declared on the Mongolian/Russian alliance to the south, Kublai had taken Stalin as his pet dog some time before. I proceeded to eliminate Red Russia completely, then took half of Mongolia. Then the glorious year came that Kublai became a vassal, and both Louis and Gandhi offered to be a peace vassal, as they may have seen the writing on the wall already. Not often that I get 3 vassals on the same turn!

Greece was the only free rival left on our home continent, and not much time was wasted declaring on Pericles. He had the AP and managed to stop the war against himself as I rather stupidly just said No to, rather than Defy, the peace resolution. I must've had the AP religion only in 1 or 2 cities, probably actually the former Greek ones. Of course that only delayed his eventual fate by somewhat.

Meanwhile I had reached Astro and started building troops for the other continent, sailing east to west from the NE tip of the empire. Asoka being on the west of that continent was first attacked and kissed the ring soon enough. Alexander was next, then came Julius, both taken as vassals as soon as they would talk. Peter was the most formidable AI on the other continent and had Fred as his vassal. I could probably easily roll through them, but as I was close to domination already I declared on Genghis, and as I got a couple of his cities and was standing at the gates of Karakorum, some former Greek and Roman cities came out of revolt and gave enough territory for the win, with what looked like a decent score (300k).

 

[Frederiksberg]

I finished this game ten minutes to twelve on the last day. I guess I had five or six more hours, because the deadline is at midnight east coast time. Last part was rushed a bit, and I had to skip the war against Gandhi I had planned.

As I mentioned in the first spoiler, the first war in the BCs was against Pericles with the aim of capturing the GLH. I had expanded fast enough to take away his metals so the combat was easy and only partially assisted by catapults. Louis was the most backward of the AIs - probably because he had a lot of jungle cities - and he didn't have longbows either, before my stacks of war chariots, horse archers, and now also knights descended upon him. He managed to build a couple of elephants before I took away his ivory, but his other units didn't resist much. The final war against Kublai turned out to be a different beast because he had walls and castles in most cities and he had wisely built a ton of pikemen. I guess the AI does look at the units they might be up against and build a counter unit. (Anybody know if this is true?) Unfortunately for Kublai, I had cannons and a few cuirassiers, and I used a GG to promote four cannons to level 3. The war proceeded a little slower than the others but my cannons reliably bombed down defences assisted by a couple of frigates, and my city raider three cannons ripped apart his medieval defenders with 99% odds in most cases. After the capture of Kublais cities the empire composed of 64 cities and only Gandhis 9 cities were left on the home continent. Peter started a war against Hatty and I didn't really have the time to get involved so I gave her Rifling. Despite the rifles, Hatty lost two cities, but the capture of the last city cost Peter almost his entire stack so he sued for peace and even gave me 300 gold . I think the explanation for this and for @nocho's similar observation is that even if a city is lost the loss of units on the opponent's side can be big enough to make the war success appear negative in the AI's calculations. I think @LowtherCastle might know these details, as they have played a significant role in several succession games.

As I was running out of time IRL the end game was pretty standard. Founded the Mining Inc. and Sushi Corporations and went for a hammer driven economy that led Ramesses to the stars in the late 16 hundreds.

It wasn't a tough game, but I wouldn't expect that anyway on Monarch level. The vassals didn't play a huge role except in the very early days. Hatty wasn't exactly a powerhouse, and she refused to build even a single cottage early on. Maybe a similar game where the Master AIs are given two settlers would allow them to hold on to their vassals a bit longer? Would also have made the game harder. Anyway, thanks for an interesting game and good call regarding that extra week of playing time!

 

[kcd_swede]

I finished this game ten minutes to twelve on the last day. I guess I had five or six more hours, because the deadline is at midnight east coast time. Last part was rushed a bit, and I had to skip the war against Gandhi I had planned.

As I mentioned in the first spoiler, the first war in the BCs was against Pericles with the aim of capturing the GLH. I had expanded fast enough to take away his metals so the combat was easy and only partially assisted by catapults. Louis was the most backward of the AIs - probably because he had a lot of jungle cities - and he didn't have longbows either, before my stacks of war chariots, horse archers, and now also knights descended upon him. He managed to build a couple of elephants before I took away his ivory, but his other units didn't resist much. The final war against Kublai turned out to be a different beast because he had walls and castles in most cities and he had wisely built a ton of pikemen. I guess the AI does look at the units they might be up against and build a counter unit. (Anybody know if this is true?) Unfortunately for Kublai, I had cannons and a few cuirassiers, and I used a GG to promote four cannons to level 3. The war proceeded a little slower than the others but my cannons reliably bombed down defences assisted by a couple of frigates, and my city raider three cannons ripped apart his medieval defenders with 99% odds in most cases. After the capture of Kublais cities the empire composed of 64 cities and only Gandhis 9 cities were left on the home continent. Peter started a war against Hatty and I didn't really have the time to get involved so I gave her Rifling. Despite the rifles, Hatty lost two cities, but the capture of the last city cost Peter almost his entire stack so he sued for peace and even gave me 300 gold . I think the explanation for this and for @nocho's similar observation is that even if a city is lost the loss of units on the opponent's side can be big enough to make the war success appear negative in the AI's calculations. I think @LowtherCastle might know these details, as they have played a significant role in several succession games.

As I was running out of time IRL the end game was pretty standard. Founded the Mining Inc. and Sushi Corporations and went for a hammer driven economy that led Ramesses to the stars in the late 16 hundreds.

It wasn't a tough game, but I wouldn't expect that anyway on Monarch level. The vassals didn't play a huge role except in the very early days. Hatty wasn't exactly a powerhouse, and she refused to build even a single cottage early on. Maybe a similar game where the Master AIs are given two settlers would allow them to hold on to their vassals a bit longer? Would also have made the game harder. Anyway, thanks for an interesting game and good call regarding that extra week of playing time!

Great job, and thanks for the report. Yes, mapmaker regret, I could have made this SO MUCH harder, nay... nigh near impossible. But it's summer and vacations and everyone is just chillin', so it is what it is. Better a pedestrian sort of slog than no game to keep us involved despite the natural distractions. Kudos to you and everyone who played, everyone who submitted, and everyone who had fun. May there be many more months of BOTM's.

 

[Conquistador 63]

May there be many more months of BOTM's.

Speaking of this, is the next one about to be released?

 

[kcd_swede]

Speaking of this, is the next one about to be released?

oops... 276 is already out there... so I have initiated the process... Noble level game BOTM 277 to start Aug 1... I just need to get some evil motivation and some insane ideas.

 

[nocho]

I just need to get some evil motivation and some insane ideas.

Great, so that shouldn’t take very long!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Great, so that shouldn’t take very long!

Exactly. Just focus on motivation and ideas and the rest is automatic.

 

[kcd_swede]

I didn't get the chance to work on the next game yet, but should have some time in the next couple days. Probably too late for an Aug 1 start, but not by a lot I hope.

 

[Bemep42]

I learned guilds in 200 AD before my cities were ready for the mass slaving of knights, so I only started the war in 450 AD with 21 knights. Before that, Louis and Gandhi became my peaceful vassals in 300 AD and 450 AD respectively.The first target was Rome, which had praetors and built the MoM a couple of moves before the war began. I lost 1 turn, but since Rome was doomed to be captured, I was not upset. Strangely enough, praetors turned out to be absolutely useless against knights, unlike agr. swords Russia, who tried to resist. In total, I built a little more than 50 knights that swept across the continent like an avalanche. Rome, Russia, Mongolia, Germany and Greece were captured at the cost of 24 knights before 1000 AD. The last 3 had several elephants, the last 2 had feudalism.

At some point, I decided to count the tiles and made a gross mistake (I equated 81 tiles to 10%, although this is only 5% ) and was sure that my continent would be enough for me to dominate. I realized my mistake only when Greece had several cities left, I had already learned astronomy(liberalism), accepted serfdom and stopped building units a long time ago. I had 1 5-way galley (for settling the northern islets) and no other fleet. I had to build a fleet of galleons from scratch. It took some time, which I used to upgrade the knights in Cuirassiers. As a result, I landed 33 units in Celtia, captured it and most of Mongolia and won by dominance. I managed to learn biology in 8 turns before the end, so my points never stopped growing at any moment, so I hope for a good result.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Great game, Bemep52!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Great game, Bemep42!!!