Contender Save, 1908 Cultural loss to the ???? AZTECS???
Settled SW on the PH, built TGW to keep out the Barbs and allow me to expand without fear.
It was a surprise to see Khmer so close I kept good relations with everyone throughout.
The big mistake was breaking off trade with America when demanded by someone. I think it took him almost 200 turns to forgive me.
Due to stealing techs via espionage and skillful tech trading I was able to stay even with and sometimes ahead of the AI. I see a military victory doesn't seem likely so I go for the UN.
There were lots of wars but not for me.
Major wars/turning points:
Khmer attack Korea and vassal them.
Shaka attacks Aztec and vassal them.
Khmer attack America and they vassal to Shaka.
It becomes Shaka, Monty, and Roosevelt in one block. Sury and Wang Kon in another. Bismarck and I are independent. Shaka is a little bigger than Sury but has a little less power.
Shaka DOWs Sury three times. The first time Sury holds him off but loses a city. For the first time ever in a game (Deity no less) I pay off Shaka to make peace. I am afraid that he will get too big.
I need two blocks to hopefully get the UN win. The UN vote never goes my way but I keep hoping. Shaka is my opponent and he has grown so large that his block is the same size as Me, Bis, Sury, and WK combined.
I keep trying the UN but switch to go space. Again Shaka DOWs Sury and again he holds for a while but then starts to lose cities so I bribe Shaka to make peace. I had hoped that either America or Aztecs would regain enough cities to break free from Shaka but it doesn't happen.
It is about 1850 AD or so when I realize that the Aztecs are going culture and are within 30 turns or so. I build lots of spies but even destroying buildings and causing revolts can't slow down their culture enough. The end is just a foregone conclusion. I keep trying for space but they get their culture victory. By my estimation I probably would have come close to beating Shaka to space.
Some options I probably should have explored in retrospect were;
- going for a culture win from early on. I couldn't catch up to the Aztecs at the end but I never put any effort into building culture and always tried for GS, GE, or GSpy from my farming.
- after leaving UN I could have went for nukes and used them much as FOLKET did to weaken Shaka, then Sury.
Research for Deity was the best I've ever done, though I'm kind of amazed. I ran 100% research from approx 600AD to just about the end of the game. I lost the race to Liberalism by 3 turns to Bismark.
Finally the complaints.
As far as I can tell I was the first to Physics. I took a screen shot to document. No one else had SciMethod, though I can't be sure if perhaps the Aztecs got it at the same time. The autolog isn't much help here. But I didn't get the GS. Perhaps somehow I missed it. Not a game killer but a disappointment.
I could not build The Internet. This was part of the strategy to beat the AI to space, instead of researching, I'd be building. I checked several cities where I could build it and it wasn't shown as an option, even a grayed out option. I went to the list of wonders built and it had not been built. I checked auto log and it doesn't show it being complete.
And Lastly.... why didn't Shaka prevent Monty from getting the cultural win? Usually the AI at this level is very good about adjusting strategies and preventing the human from winning. I'm not sure I remember correctly, but if one of the human's vassals was to get a cultural win, it doesn't count as a win for the human. Am I wrong? (Please, no reason for
everyone to tell me how wrong I am!)
Things I'd change in the replay:
even though I noticed the Copper pop up under Paris, I never gave much thought to an early Axe rush. Intimidated by Deity probably.
another UN strategy that I though of when reviewing this is; I wonder if I had given away all my cities but Paris to one of the AI's would it have made enough difference to win a UN vote?
@Dynamic Spirit - You must be getting soft by giving us the copper, though you tempered this kindness by also giving it to the Khmer. The Horses were a surprise to say the least as they don't normally appear on the southern half of this map. This became yet another reason to play nice with Sury when I saw he had Horse Archers.
Thanks for trying to help us out
Here's an idea, go into worldbuilder and change the playable Civ to Sury and let us try him out.
Don't think I'll be the first though would expect some victories as well.
Not enough workers early.. Not realising Oracle hadn't been built!! To late when I started it but went very late. Not getting the barb cities which sprang up in the desert area. Missed out on an important one with bad rng but should have had enough troops anyway. Forgetting how deity AI can spam units..
