[BTS] BOTM 278: Frederik Deity-Final Spoiler (game submitted)

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 278: Frederick, Deity - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted



Yeah... I'm guessing that most of you are done already. This is where you dry your tears. Tell us what happened, and if you actually won this game, share your secrets!
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 278 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.

 

[High King J.J.]

I am alive and it's very late in the game. I am bored with this game. Since it's adventurer save I see no point in playing the final maybe 50 turns. Consider this my reaction to insanely difficult games. Only reason I played was because there was no decent Botm available.
If I had played on contender I would have been dead in the ancient times anyway so even winning would be worth nothing.

 

[kcd_swede]

I am alive and it's very late in the game. I am bored with this game. Since it's adventurer save I see no point in playing the final maybe 50 turns. Consider this my reaction to insanely difficult games. Only reason I played was because there was no decent Botm available.
If I had played on contender I would have been dead in the ancient times anyway so even winning would be worth nothing.

I know how it is... I can't win on a random Deity level game anymore (as if I ever could be confident of doing so ... nahhh, almost never). My own philosophy is that I learn more from my failures, and success teaches very little. As I still play this Civ4BtS game, obviously I do it for fun, rather than any expectation that I will suddenly learn game mechanics to the point it gets boring... so I am familiar with failure. However, if I didn't get some (masochistic?) pleasure from it, I would have moved on to Civ5 and Civ6 more wholeheartedly than I have. If you had some enjoyment from the game, you are a winner. That's what keeps us coming back. Thank you for sharing your frustration with this particular game, and know you are not the only one! If a BoTM was always a victory for me, I'd have lost interest long ago. (But I am glad that I should get some chances to play a lower level BoTM since another mapmaker will do it, because constantly beating my head against a brick wall only feels good when I stop). I hope the next one gives you more satisfaction.

 

[Falabello]

Nope, it wasn't this time ... I think my main mistake was prioritizing cottages, rather than farms. For this reason, there came a time when cities stopped growing and it was not possible to manage all the resources.

After Construction and a few Cats, I didn't find an ideal target to attack due to the long borders, so I gave up attacking. Portugal ended up being strong with 14 cities. With 7 cities and weak growth, I was falling behind in technologies. I left some Archers near the border towns to see their military, until a large army began to march from the south of Portugal, going up to the north. I followed along to see if it would change direction, but no. At this point, I was teching Education (to the detriment of Machinery, Engineering and Feudalism) and possibly would be the first, being able to exchanged for others. I had to immediately switch to Feudalism to try to defend myself, but already knowing that I would not have a chance, as they were Medieval units against my Classical units. Then Portugal declared war, but my Longbows were no match for the numbers and strength of the enemy army. After taking the first city, there was nothing else to do - it was to lose all the cities or give up . Thus, it no longer made sense to continue in the game without the slightest chance of winning… so, I gave up in 960AD!

When I started to fall behind in technologies, there was no way I could win anymore. Playing at Deity depending on luck never ends well. My strategy, simply to keep playing, was to rely on luck and beeline Industrialism to produce Panzers just for fun . Another thing that made me upset was losing Parthenon for 3 turns. Maybe that would change the game and I would have an improvement in science, being able to get closer again .

Now it's time to wait for the next one and try to participate... Until then

 

[antimony]

I also didn't win, I could have created Panzers but it wouldn't have stopped Joao's spaceship that was protected by mech infantry and nukes haha.

Anyway, the tough part of this game I think is that you have a pretty small window of opportunity. Gold is nice on early game but doesn't keep up with the more fertile parts of the map. The risk with going against the weaker AI is that they vassal like it happened in my game and/or don't provide you with enough land to overtake the stronger ones. I'm not sure one of the stronger AIs (Joao, Zara or Churchill) was within reach even with Engineering pre 1AD though.

 

[High King J.J.]

Does anyone have any idea when another Botm might be coming? Sorry it's but maybe of some interest.

Maybe someone could create something to pass the time, like another Botm where a leader could have their favorite civic from the start. We had a few of those some time ago. As long as the free tech doesn't obsolete half of the wonders from the start. Not sure if that happens, like if we start with democracy tech as Gandhi, does that prevent us from building the Stonehenge for example?
If this is too feel free to delete my post. Wanted to ask about next Botm and don't want to start a thread.

 

[kcd_swede]

Does anyone have any idea when another Botm might be coming? Sorry it's but maybe of some interest.

Maybe someone could create something to pass the time, like another Botm where a leader could have their favorite civic from the start. We had a few of those some time ago. As long as the free tech doesn't obsolete half of the wonders from the start. Not sure if that happens, like if we start with democracy tech as Gandhi, does that prevent us from building the Stonehenge for example?
If this is too feel free to delete my post. Wanted to ask about next Botm and don't want to start a thread.

I was waiting on another mapmaker, but they have not had a chance to do it so I will prep the next game at Prince level to start on Monday and the one after that at Emperor level to start Oct 1.

 

[High King J.J.]

I was waiting on another mapmaker, but they have not had a chance to do it so I will prep the next game at Prince level to start on Monday and the one after that at Emperor level to start Oct 1.

 

[kcd_swede]

I just posted the announcement - starts on Sunday. Have a nice weekend!

 

[Xcalibrator]

I gave up shortly after what I'm sure would have been my high water mark. From the first spoilers, I'd taken some cities from Sury before he cap'd to FDR, and then beelined to Railroad so I could try cannon and Mguns (and grens) against.... probably Joao, which would not have gone well. Luckily, Joao attacked FDR/Sury and Zara joined in soon after, so I was able to snatch 3 more Khmer cities way up north. But then the others made peace and I was left to face FDR's many rifles that streamed up north. I should have made peace after taking that 3rd city when my "allies" left me high and dry but I didn't have any spies to see what was coming. FDR wiped out my main stack of ~15 units and I faced reality. But now that I've submitted, I may go back a turn, take peace (which will require giving up that 3rd city), and see what happens. I had a monopoly on Steam and RR for awhile--only Zara has them even now--but it will be a long haul to Artillery, which I think would be my next chance, and the AIs are significantly ahead on the non-RR track.

 

[antimony]

I don't think the map is unbeatable, especially since there are a lot of deity level players out there who didn't attempt it. PHI is the best trait at deity when the land is bad. You may need a bit of luck in how the diplomacy/vassaling ends up happening.

 

[Frederiksberg]

I didn't manage to finish this in time. Quit the game at AD 1110 when I was a handful of turns from getting Steel. Already had Rifling, and the plan was to attack Joao with cannons and drafted riflemen. This plan would probably have worked as he had been pursuing a lot of useless naval techs and still had medieval units. The larger problem was Zara who was only a few turns from Rifling. He also controlled the AP and could potentially shut down any attempts to attack the Jewish civilizations that were growing dominant. Roosevelt and Toku had already been defeated (Toku vasalled to Zara) and only Joao remained outside the Jewish block. Thus, the only feasible path seemed to be an attack on Zara after the conquest of Joao, and although it might have worked I didn't have time to do it.

I enjoyed the map and agree with @antimony: It's definitely winnable if you avoid the early attack from Sury. I wish for a small map Deity game in the future. Normally I don't have time to finish Deity games because the warring phase is crazy time consuming with the huge number of units the Deity AI's build.

 

[MirrorGuard]

I was lucky enough to win this. Khmer did attack me pretty early, a few turns before I got my 1st classical tech aesthetics. I lost 2 axes and killed 7 chariots+1 axe. I was 2 exp away from the 1st great general, but Khmer had 12+ units on hills surrounding my city. So I gave him aesthetics for peace. Within peace treaty, Khmer got busy again and soon he joined Toku against Roosevelt. Because of the Khmer invasion, my 2nd great scientist was delayed till near 1AD. While I was preparing my forces, 8-city Roosevelt vassaled to 5-city Churchill and brought him into the war against Khemer/Japan coalition. My first target was Sury. The war he was busy with consumed much of his forces. I didn't face fierce resistance or counter attack. During this war I defied an AP ceasefire resolution. Khemer surrendered after losing 4 cities to me,giving me an extra city near my border. Then my next target was Zara who followed Sury to attack UK-US alliance, and of course he followd Sury to be my 2nd vassal. On the same turn I DOW, Toku finally signed peace treaty with UK and call an end to this thousand year war and on the next turn he was bribed against me. But apparently Toku wanted war no more; as the head of AP, he offered to stop war against him. It was readily passed with my support. Zara had a 15+unit army garrisoned in newly captured Boston. But he never had a chance to use it against me because Boston was sieged by UK-US-Khmer forces. I took 3 cities before Zara surrendered. Then Japan and UK-US alliance were swiftly defeated. Joao chose to prioritize railroad rather than assembly line. His machine guns caused great causalties to my siege3 cannon army. So I left him alone and opted for religious victory.