Contender save. Goal: Undecided, just win the game
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Result: 1859AD Diplomatic Victory.
In the end, I was rather happy with this victory, because I think I didn't play that bad after my horrible start of mine (independant of that bad location).
The Horrible Start
I settled Lisbon on that western plains-hill, like most people did. From there on, my warrior scouted west, than moved along the southern coast, healed some wounds after a lion attacked, so I only met Tokugawa on T36. There was no worker to steal, as all southern tiles had aleady been roaded, and he hadn't learned AH for his cows yet.
My plan was to attack him with Archers, but for some reason, I learned AH before Archery, delaying my attack another 15 turns. And instead of building Archers right away, I went for a Settler first, to settle in the South, for Marble and Fur. The one Ocean Tile I couldn't see was the one with fish, of course, and I missed that as well
Then, I even built a Barracks before building the Archers themselves. Perfect executed rush ...
When I finally had 4 promotable Archers (and 2 Warriors) ready, I DOWed Toku in 2100BC (T76). But of course, he had 1 Archer fortified in Kyoto, and whipped another one when I entered his borders. The attack failed, of course. His 2 Archers survived.
Then I learned IW, spotted Iron in the ice, settled a city on the coast that needed culture to grab the Iron, and I finally started my 1st Sword in 455BC.
Finally, in 40AD, I was ready and I DOWed Toku again. This time, I brought 4 Swords, 1 Axe and 8 Archers to capture Kyoto, losing 3 Swords and 4 Archers. With some more reinforcements, I captured Osaka in 250AD (T190), and the Japanese Empire had been destroyed.
The English War
Using these promoted Japan-survivors, and some more (slowly build - no forests left) reinforcements, it was no big deal to capture that barbarian-production-monster NE of Kyoto.
Then, these units moved to take out Elizebeth, who was very poorly defended. 40 turns after the fall of Japan, I DOWed her, and took York in 830AD (T230) and London in 930AD. Nottingham was razed in 990AD, and England was eliminated as well.
The Atzec War
Those units, some 15 Swords by now, moved to the former barbarian city, waiting for a GM to be born (1405AD), and for a bit of economy to be build. This GM went to Tenochtitlan, on a trade mission (1450AD), and gave us enough money to upgrade those Swords to Maces. Monty didn't know CS yet, so War was declared in 1455AD, and my Maces and Cats started to take out his cities: Calixtlahuaca captured in 1460, Texcoco 1480, Gaul 1490 (razed), Tlaxcala 1505, Tamuin 1520 (razed) and Tenochtitlan in 1535 (razed). That year, Peace was signed, for HBR and to heal the units.
I redeclared in 1590, captured Teotihuacan (1600) and Tlatelolco (1625), and in 1630, Monty capitulated!
The Incan War
In 1650, I declared on HC, and first attacked his cities on my continent. Arequipa captured 1650 (razed), Vitcos 1660, Andahuaylas in 1675, Huamanga 1700, Tiwanuka 1708, Vilcabamba 1716 and Ollantaytambo in 1722. By then, HC also capitulated.
The End Game
By that time, my part of the world was destroyed or vassalized, and the other part of the World had quite a big tech lead. But fortunatly, they were also fighting Wars, which slowed them down a bit. I then decided that my 2 only hopes to still win this game would be a Diplomatic Victory, using the votes of my 'friends' Monty and HC, and if I wouldn't get that done, maybe still win the Space Race. And I didn't dare to join a war on the western continent, because they all had better units, and my maces would have met Muskets in the beginning, and those AIs weren't that far away from Rifling. So, all my cities were cottaged ...
By the time Liberalism was learned, I still didn't know Paper
I beelined to Mass Media, which was learned in 1818AD. 'Production-Monster' build the United Nations in 1849AD.
During this time, I concentrated on growing my cities, and on improving relations with Darius. Pacal was to be my rival for the elections, so I accepted quite everything Darius offered me, if it wouldn't hurt me building the UN. I managed to get relations up to +11, the only negative point being me having Vassals.
I easily elected myself (using Monty's and HC's votes), into Secretary postion, but I knew I needed Daruis votes as well, because Ragnar, Wang Kong and of course Pacal wouldn't vote for me, and 'we' would never have enough votes to elect myself.
In 1854AD, Pacal and Ragnar declared war on Darius, and I waited for him to ask me to join in, to further improve our relations. During this time, I shut down research, and upgraded some Cats to Cannons and C1CR3 units to Rifles and Grens, and moved them on my 4(!) Galleons.
But Darius didn't ask, and the 1st vote popped up 2-3 turns earlier then expected (1858). I checked the votes, and I realized that even with Darius' help, I was still 8 votes short. But fortunatly, Pacal had settled those islands NW of our starting area, and the 2 closest cities were size 9 (defended by an Infantry), and size 4 (defended by a Cavalry). So, War was declared on Pacal, and 2 Galleons sailed to his size-9-city (trip possible in 1 turn), and I made an amphibious attack against that CG2-promoted, fortified Infanty on a hill, with 40%-culture-defense. The first Cannon was like 12 vs. 48 (!!!), and lost of course. The 2nd and the 3rd one as well, as did a Knight and a CR3-Grenadier. But by then, his health was down to 1,2/20, and my CR3-Rifleman was able to capture the city. This allowed me to use my other 2 Galleons to capture that size-4-city, just to make sure I had enough votes.
Finally, in 1859AD, I was elected the winner, with the help of my vassals Monty and HC, and my friend Darius. All in all, I had only 4 votes more than needed!
)
!
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, nice agreement.
Here you give us this thrilling, exultant story and have to end it with such a downer...
Wow! Very interesting use of all those wonders. Guess you didn't over-expand after all, did you? Thanks for the lesson.
