mabraham
Deity
Lol, well done. It was a good map. I'm part-way through replaying a Space game on it, and boy do I have a big army as well!
BOTM36 Final Spoiler Game Submitted or Abandoned
- Thread starter kcd_swede
- Start date
Lol, well done. It was a good map. I'm part-way through replaying a Space game on it, and boy do I have a big army as well!
Retired in 1806. 
Picking up my report from 1 AD: Sweyn went to war against Harald in 50 AD. Askold attacked Bjorn in 375. In 475, I sign a ceasefire in the phony war against Spain and accept Askold invitation to join the war against Rome. We end up carving Rome up in 1160, but some bad breaks in the timing of my attacks leave our eastern border looking like a jigsaw puzzle, with Askold holding an enclave of two cities surrounded by my territory. Meanwhile, Spain has also gone to war with France.
Although Islam was the first religion to spread to my territory and I had founded Taoism, I convert to Hinduism in 1200 to boost my relationship with Russia and France. Of course, those Hindu gods are worshiped by their true names of Odin, Freya, Thor, etc.
In 1360, I agree to join Harald's war against Sweyn. I capture Oxford and one barb city, but after Harald and Sweyn make peace in 1450, I see a big stack turning my way, so I sign a ceasefire in 1490. Meanwhile France and Spain have made peace, but Russia's gone to war with Spain.
In 1525, I complete the A.P. and I begin to think I might be able to win a religious victory.
Disturbing news in 1535: Askold captures Madrid and Spain becomes a Russian vassal. Sure, he's my ally, but that was too easy!
I resume the war against England in 1545, but my attacking stack is obliterated. Getting worried, I bribe Russia (and thus, Spain) to join the war. Harald joins the dogpile voluntarily. I capture two English cities and I'm besieging a third, when there's more disturbing news in 1680: Askold has marched directly to London, captured it, and made England his vassal! He's becoming way too powerful!
In a religious vote vs. Freydis in the same year, I get 616 votes out of 922, needing 691 for victory. With Askold on my side, I begin to wonder if I can tip the balance of a future vote. Possibly if I can capture the one city Freydis has on the eastern edge of the map, between Askold and myself? I move a large portion of my military from the western border to the east. Meanwhile, I try building up my science, in case I need to resort to a space race.
But then, in 1795, my friend Harald, who's the lowest scoring leader of the remaining free nations, brings a stack of doom attacking my westernmost outpost!
I pull a stack out of the eastern border to cross back to the west. Harald captures Coventry and then my friend Askold stabs me in the back, ambushing that stack of reinforcements in the open! 
I'm now at war with four nations and I have almost nothing left in the east to defend against Askold's stacks of cuirassiers and cossacks. I bribe Freydis to join me, but I realize that won't save my cities, so I raise the white flag to preserve my measly score of 2892 points.
Picking up my report from 1 AD: Sweyn went to war against Harald in 50 AD. Askold attacked Bjorn in 375. In 475, I sign a ceasefire in the phony war against Spain and accept Askold invitation to join the war against Rome. We end up carving Rome up in 1160, but some bad breaks in the timing of my attacks leave our eastern border looking like a jigsaw puzzle, with Askold holding an enclave of two cities surrounded by my territory. Meanwhile, Spain has also gone to war with France.
Although Islam was the first religion to spread to my territory and I had founded Taoism, I convert to Hinduism in 1200 to boost my relationship with Russia and France. Of course, those Hindu gods are worshiped by their true names of Odin, Freya, Thor, etc.
In 1360, I agree to join Harald's war against Sweyn. I capture Oxford and one barb city, but after Harald and Sweyn make peace in 1450, I see a big stack turning my way, so I sign a ceasefire in 1490. Meanwhile France and Spain have made peace, but Russia's gone to war with Spain.
In 1525, I complete the A.P. and I begin to think I might be able to win a religious victory.
Disturbing news in 1535: Askold captures Madrid and Spain becomes a Russian vassal. Sure, he's my ally, but that was too easy!
I resume the war against England in 1545, but my attacking stack is obliterated. Getting worried, I bribe Russia (and thus, Spain) to join the war. Harald joins the dogpile voluntarily. I capture two English cities and I'm besieging a third, when there's more disturbing news in 1680: Askold has marched directly to London, captured it, and made England his vassal! He's becoming way too powerful!
In a religious vote vs. Freydis in the same year, I get 616 votes out of 922, needing 691 for victory. With Askold on my side, I begin to wonder if I can tip the balance of a future vote. Possibly if I can capture the one city Freydis has on the eastern edge of the map, between Askold and myself? I move a large portion of my military from the western border to the east. Meanwhile, I try building up my science, in case I need to resort to a space race.
But then, in 1795, my friend Harald, who's the lowest scoring leader of the remaining free nations, brings a stack of doom attacking my westernmost outpost!
I pull a stack out of the eastern border to cross back to the west. Harald captures Coventry and then my friend Askold stabs me in the back, ambushing that stack of reinforcements in the open! I'm now at war with four nations and I have almost nothing left in the east to defend against Askold's stacks of cuirassiers and cossacks. I bribe Freydis to join me, but I realize that won't save my cities, so I raise the white flag to preserve my measly score of 2892 points.
Just as an afterthought I won a domination victory but on the last turn I also vassalled the last 2 civs. Most of the time I would end up with a conquest victory but sometimes get a domination instead as in this case. Anyone have any ideas why?
Possibly amount of land as I usually gift cities back to my AI vassals though not recommended for GOTM's
Possibly amount of land as I usually gift cities back to my AI vassals though not recommended for GOTM's
srad
King
I read somewhere that if you fulfill several victory conditions in one turn the victory is chosen randomly.
Oops, I got a 325AD AP win this time since I was not sure whether I won the AP in BOTM35.
Spoiler :
srad
King
Come on! Don't make such jokes ... got a heart attack and than started thinking how to get an AP victory on the icy Christmas map! 
Come on! Don't make such jokes ... got a heart attack and than started thinking how to get an AP victory on the icy Christmas map!
That's what Santa has been doing -delivery your religious gifts!!!
WelshGandalf
King
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2010
- Messages
- 743
Come gather round, as I tell of an epic tale of bloodshed, honour, and perseverance. You must have perseverance yourself as it is a lengthy but eventful tale of how the Germans became the True Viking race. 
Let me start with a recap of the BC years from another book of lore (aka the first spoiler thread).
Now on with the story!
1-1000AD - a bright start goes dim
The great German horde, small in number but big in courage, took Cumae and then Rome. However those scum the Praetorians were on the march so a tactical retreat was made back to Cumae. Clearly Cumae held a place in the heart of many Vikings across the world, as Askold (Russians) and Fredrik (French) declared war on me also and threw many troops at Cumae. At last I knew I could hold it no more, so gave it back to the Romans in exchange for peace & for being able to keep what was left of my stack.
On the western front, my expansion had been limited due war and the English had taken a lot of space - I had but three cities east of my capital - the holy Christian city of Munich settled on the river, a city on the peninsula south of that and an advanced city close to the English border. Entirely unprovoked, the English declared war and marched on Munich with some 15 axemen (but no catapults) What a dastardly act! I had a lightly defended border but had just got machinery up - hastily 4 brave macemen and crossbowmen got together in Munich and managed to take out half the English stack before succumbing to strength in numbers. We shall not forget you!
So at this point, I have 3 cities on the mainland linked together, 2 which are cut off by chunks of English territory and 1 I recently established on the small island. It's freaking 600AD, this is not a recipe for success!
England made a tactical error here and went for the new city I had built near their border. This let me just-about retake Munich I held this for many years.
1000 - 1750 AD... dark days for our brave empire
The Viking world did not share in the German view of the world, and all of them, except the Spanish-vikings, periodically declared war on Germany, who had but 5 mainland cities and 1 on an island. The Spanish were to prove themselves excellent partners in the rest of the game - despite sharing no military campaigns, they were solid traders and stopped the Germans from being completely isolated.
The English attacked on the left, desperate to retake Munich. The Romans, Spanish & French took turns attacking me on the right. I was furiously churning out troops after troops after troops who heroically defended the homeland. It was bloody slaughter for year after year after year, it seemed there was no end.
However I did find some very brief respite from the defence. I established two more cities - neither in super locations but they would all contribute. Also I squeezed out the university of Sankore - despite the enforced warfare the German people loved their education. Also a source of gold was discovered in the vicinity of Berlin which increased the vast scientific output of this great city even more.
Then in around 1650AD the English got together a really large stack, came on Munich and killed most of the defenders. I withdrew the stragglers and gave them Munich in exchange for peace. It was a sad day and I was all ready to shrine the city too. The citizens of Berlin now had no buffer between themselves and the English - although bizarrely my city due south of Munich - now cut off from the rest of the German lands - remained unmolested the whole game.
The one hope from this endless bloodshed was that the savages in the rest of the world valued the sword above all else whereas my people still loved their books. Despite being a small empire we were still technologically superior. If this could somehow be leveraged to gain an advantage, there might yet be a great future for the Germans.
1750 - 1880 AD... greed is a killer
The plan was a simple one - top German scientists would seek to discover the secrets of Liberalism, which would also reveal knowledge of how to build a mysterious new catapult-like device, called cannons. This was achieved around 1820AD. A few of these contraptions were put together with some solid macemen and the new invasion of Roman lands was put into action. The Romans were the most technologically inferior of all the Viking people - it would be a mercy to teach them of the ways and technologies of the German people.
The invasion went at the north of their empire, crossing a great forest. As most of the fighting was happening in the southern regions of the Roman empire, they were ill-prepared, and in any case could not stand up to the cacophonous sound and destructive ability of the cannons. Quickly one city fell, then another and then 2 more. The formerly mighty praetorians could not cope. Down to only 2 cities, the Romans offered one city and their eternal service in exchange for peace. However I refused, wishing for my reign to be extended fully throughout their lands.
This was to prove to be a grave error that would set the empire back a fair way. As I marched on Rome, the French emerged from nowhere with legions of mighty horsemen. Germans had the technology to hold them back, but their forces were spread for attacking the Roman foot soldiers, not defending against mighty horsemen (Cuirassiers). The French exploited this to rout my troops & capture all but one of the Roman cities I had taken - cities they then gave BACK to the savage, illiterate Romans - who had agreed to serve the interests of the Red Vikings (Russia). Then peace was agreed and the French marched off somewhere again. My great planning had achieved little. But still the loyal German people stuck with me.
1880 - 1935 AD... more technology and politics
The German scientist learnt of many new technologies based off this "cannon" - first came riflemen and then this curious weapon called a machine gun. The awesome defensive abilities of this "part automated machine, part gun" were quickly realised by the German hierarchy and they were put into mass production in many of Germany's 8 cities. Their work was assisted by a new company that arose calling itself "Mining Inc." which greatly supported the war effort with increased production across the empire. Towards the end of this era, an upgraded version of the rifleman, called "in-fan-tree" was discovered also.
However not long after the machine guns went into mass production, the aggressive English (and their Byzantian lap-dogs) turned up again with a huge stack. I was not yet ready to face the full might of the English army, whose power rating was 4 times my own, and I was able to appease them by giving them a city just north-west of Berlin. They were not able to make use of it in any case, due to the cultural influence of Berlin.
With the western front safe for the moment, I took the opportunity to declare war on mighty Russia and their puny allies, the Romans. Led by the inspirational general El Cid, my armies quickly took back the cities that the French had gifted to the Romans, then I marched on Rome itself and took it - leaving the inept Roman leadership with only the old battleground of Cumae in their grasp. The Russians seemed to not care about this turn of event - until one of my spies spotted this in 1927....
Although I felt I might be able to take on this force in a defensive capacity, I could not take it head-on. I could not be sure where they would attack and Rome directly bordered their lands - so I gave them the city of Rome in exchange for peace.
The English - having already vassalised Byzantium - took their huge force which had been threatening me and threatened the Spanish with it. They chose to fight but they could not cope with the numbers of the English attackers, and soon also gave in to the English. Therefore the political situation was like this.
England - some 24% of the known world, with the Byzantians and Spanish serving under them.
Russia - some 20% of the known world, the one-city nation of Rome serving under them.
France - around 10 cities - however they were bashed up by the Russians and capitulated to them sometime around 1950.
Germany - the proud nation standing alone against the imperialist aggression or England & Russia.
However the Germans were now armed to the teeth - and paying some 85 gold a turn to maintain their oversized military and their military was still ranked at "only" around half the English forces. What would the future hold?
1935 - 1975 AD... justice is served
Fresh from conquering the Spanish, tie English declared war on my empire again. However I was ready for them. They would surely come for the capital Berlin, and I had heavily fortified it with machine gunners, who would be impervious to England's domineering siege weaponry. The French came along for a piece of the pie too. They marched on Berlin together - but attacked a turn apart. Furthermore a tactical error was made by the English as they sought to attack Berlin directly across a river rather than crossing it first and then attacking Berlin. Incredibly, not a single German lost his life in the great battle of Berlin 1942, and the attacking forces were routed. Here are some historical records of the forces on display (English on the left, then French, then my Germans - note the machine gun count!).
With the invasion force routed, I sought to beat back the English sphere of influence. I mustered all the forces I could and took back the two cities that were formerly mine, along with Dover. The dastardly English mounted desperate defences of all three, however they could not stand up to my technically superior forces & legions of cannons - though I did have to call on some outdated crossbowmen, macemen and even longbowmen to finish off the last few defenders in some of these cities.
As more of the "infantry" joined my armies I beat back the English further and further again. Their faith in redcoats was insufficient to stop the righteous anger and justice I poured upon them. Some of the Germans did not like all this bloodshed and my city reports were showing up to 14 unhappiness in each city due to wars, despite the presence of jails to appease the people! This slowed down my warfare somewhat as I had to research the secrets of fascism in order to pacify the people.
As well as the war was going, there were however things starting to stir on the eastern front, so after taking around 8 cities, both of the English oil sources and freeing the Byzantian's and my good mates the Spanish from tyrannical English rule, I gave them peace so I could deal with the bear on the eastern border.
1975 - 2031 AD... the true Vikings rise
The Russians came at me with a mighty force - albeit a bit heavy on horsemen. These are the historical records from 1992.
Having gained peace with the English, I drew all my strength together and placed it in Rome, correctly predicting they would come for it after taking Cumae (I had wiped the Romans out in around 1975) and it was there that they were slaughtered, with small losses on the German side.
With the only tanks in the whole world, a highly-motivated people, bombers versus empires without access to oil, and sold trading allies in the Spanish, the Germans ran amok across their previous oppressors, wiping first the Germans, then the English (bar 1 city) and finally the French off the face of the earth. The Spanish had been good friends and I was a reasonable man, so I did not attack them (also they had half-decent military). The Byzantians were in service to the Spanish so I also left them alone.
Some 6 turns after the warfare had finished, in 2031 AD, the lands controlled by the Germans increased to be large enough for the Germans to be declared the True Viking Race by virtue of Dominance over the known world. Hurrah!
Here are the most killed & most built units, along with a record of the greatest generals in the German army including the inspirational El Cid who led his band of warriors across several centuries.
------------------------------
Things I learnt whilst playing the game....
- longbowmen cannot be upgraded to machine gunners - but crossbowmen can. Those city garrison promotions are brilliant on machine gunners.
- I never knew that war weariness can be completely negated with the combination of Jails, Mount Rushmore and Police State.
- Giving a city that you are going to lose anyway in exchange for peace is a good tactic!
- There is only a fairly limited number of Great General names - after that they are just called "great general"
- Next time I find myself in a seemingly hopeless situation - don't struggle on. Although it was fun to do once, it took up waaayy too many hours of my life!
Let me start with a recap of the BC years from another book of lore (aka the first spoiler thread).
Now on with the story!
1-1000AD - a bright start goes dim
The great German horde, small in number but big in courage, took Cumae and then Rome. However those scum the Praetorians were on the march so a tactical retreat was made back to Cumae. Clearly Cumae held a place in the heart of many Vikings across the world, as Askold (Russians) and Fredrik (French) declared war on me also and threw many troops at Cumae. At last I knew I could hold it no more, so gave it back to the Romans in exchange for peace & for being able to keep what was left of my stack.
On the western front, my expansion had been limited due war and the English had taken a lot of space - I had but three cities east of my capital - the holy Christian city of Munich settled on the river, a city on the peninsula south of that and an advanced city close to the English border. Entirely unprovoked, the English declared war and marched on Munich with some 15 axemen
(but no catapults) What a dastardly act! I had a lightly defended border but had just got machinery up - hastily 4 brave macemen and crossbowmen got together in Munich and managed to take out half the English stack before succumbing to strength in numbers. We shall not forget you!So at this point, I have 3 cities on the mainland linked together, 2 which are cut off by chunks of English territory and 1 I recently established on the small island. It's freaking 600AD, this is not a recipe for success!
England made a tactical error here and went for the new city I had built near their border. This let me just-about retake Munich
I held this for many years.1000 - 1750 AD... dark days for our brave empire
The Viking world did not share in the German view of the world, and all of them, except the Spanish-vikings, periodically declared war on Germany, who had but 5 mainland cities and 1 on an island. The Spanish were to prove themselves excellent partners in the rest of the game - despite sharing no military campaigns, they were solid traders and stopped the Germans from being completely isolated.
The English attacked on the left, desperate to retake Munich. The Romans, Spanish & French took turns attacking me on the right. I was furiously churning out troops after troops after troops who heroically defended the homeland. It was bloody slaughter for year after year after year, it seemed there was no end.
However I did find some very brief respite from the defence. I established two more cities - neither in super locations but they would all contribute. Also I squeezed out the university of Sankore - despite the enforced warfare the German people loved their education. Also a source of gold was discovered in the vicinity of Berlin which increased the vast scientific output of this great city even more.
Then in around 1650AD the English got together a really large stack, came on Munich and killed most of the defenders. I withdrew the stragglers and gave them Munich in exchange for peace. It was a sad day and I was all ready to shrine the city too. The citizens of Berlin now had no buffer between themselves and the English - although bizarrely my city due south of Munich - now cut off from the rest of the German lands - remained unmolested the whole game.
The one hope from this endless bloodshed was that the savages in the rest of the world valued the sword above all else whereas my people still loved their books. Despite being a small empire we were still technologically superior. If this could somehow be leveraged to gain an advantage, there might yet be a great future for the Germans.
1750 - 1880 AD... greed is a killer
The plan was a simple one - top German scientists would seek to discover the secrets of Liberalism, which would also reveal knowledge of how to build a mysterious new catapult-like device, called cannons. This was achieved around 1820AD. A few of these contraptions were put together with some solid macemen and the new invasion of Roman lands was put into action. The Romans were the most technologically inferior of all the Viking people - it would be a mercy to teach them of the ways and technologies of the German people.
The invasion went at the north of their empire, crossing a great forest. As most of the fighting was happening in the southern regions of the Roman empire, they were ill-prepared, and in any case could not stand up to the cacophonous sound and destructive ability of the cannons. Quickly one city fell, then another and then 2 more. The formerly mighty praetorians could not cope. Down to only 2 cities, the Romans offered one city and their eternal service in exchange for peace. However I refused, wishing for my reign to be extended fully throughout their lands.
This was to prove to be a grave error that would set the empire back a fair way. As I marched on Rome, the French emerged from nowhere with legions of mighty horsemen. Germans had the technology to hold them back, but their forces were spread for attacking the Roman foot soldiers, not defending against mighty horsemen (Cuirassiers). The French exploited this to rout my troops & capture all but one of the Roman cities I had taken - cities they then gave BACK to the savage, illiterate Romans - who had agreed to serve the interests of the Red Vikings (Russia). Then peace was agreed and the French marched off somewhere again. My great planning had achieved little.
But still the loyal German people stuck with me.1880 - 1935 AD... more technology and politics
The German scientist learnt of many new technologies based off this "cannon" - first came riflemen and then this curious weapon called a machine gun. The awesome defensive abilities of this "part automated machine, part gun" were quickly realised by the German hierarchy and they were put into mass production in many of Germany's 8 cities. Their work was assisted by a new company that arose calling itself "Mining Inc." which greatly supported the war effort with increased production across the empire. Towards the end of this era, an upgraded version of the rifleman, called "in-fan-tree" was discovered also.
However not long after the machine guns went into mass production, the aggressive English (and their Byzantian lap-dogs) turned up again with a huge stack. I was not yet ready to face the full might of the English army, whose power rating was 4 times my own, and I was able to appease them by giving them a city just north-west of Berlin. They were not able to make use of it in any case, due to the cultural influence of Berlin.
With the western front safe for the moment, I took the opportunity to declare war on mighty Russia and their puny allies, the Romans. Led by the inspirational general El Cid, my armies quickly took back the cities that the French had gifted to the Romans, then I marched on Rome itself and took it - leaving the inept Roman leadership with only the old battleground of Cumae in their grasp. The Russians seemed to not care about this turn of event - until one of my spies spotted this in 1927....
Spoiler :
Although I felt I might be able to take on this force in a defensive capacity, I could not take it head-on. I could not be sure where they would attack and Rome directly bordered their lands - so I gave them the city of Rome in exchange for peace.The English - having already vassalised Byzantium - took their huge force which had been threatening me and threatened the Spanish with it. They chose to fight but they could not cope with the numbers of the English attackers, and soon also gave in to the English. Therefore the political situation was like this.
England - some 24% of the known world, with the Byzantians and Spanish serving under them.
Russia - some 20% of the known world, the one-city nation of Rome serving under them.
France - around 10 cities - however they were bashed up by the Russians and capitulated to them sometime around 1950.
Germany - the proud nation standing alone against the imperialist aggression or England & Russia.
However the Germans were now armed to the teeth - and paying some 85 gold a turn to maintain their oversized military and their military was still ranked at "only" around half the English forces. What would the future hold?
1935 - 1975 AD... justice is served
Fresh from conquering the Spanish, tie English declared war on my empire again. However I was ready for them. They would surely come for the capital Berlin, and I had heavily fortified it with machine gunners, who would be impervious to England's domineering siege weaponry. The French came along for a piece of the pie too. They marched on Berlin together - but attacked a turn apart. Furthermore a tactical error was made by the English as they sought to attack Berlin directly across a river rather than crossing it first and then attacking Berlin. Incredibly, not a single German lost his life in the great battle of Berlin 1942, and the attacking forces were routed. Here are some historical records of the forces on display (English on the left, then French, then my Germans - note the machine gun count!).
Spoiler :
With the invasion force routed, I sought to beat back the English sphere of influence. I mustered all the forces I could and took back the two cities that were formerly mine, along with Dover. The dastardly English mounted desperate defences of all three, however they could not stand up to my technically superior forces & legions of cannons - though I did have to call on some outdated crossbowmen, macemen and even longbowmen to finish off the last few defenders in some of these cities.
As more of the "infantry" joined my armies I beat back the English further and further again. Their faith in redcoats was insufficient to stop the righteous anger and justice I poured upon them. Some of the Germans did not like all this bloodshed and my city reports were showing up to 14 unhappiness in each city due to wars, despite the presence of jails to appease the people! This slowed down my warfare somewhat as I had to research the secrets of fascism in order to pacify the people.
As well as the war was going, there were however things starting to stir on the eastern front, so after taking around 8 cities, both of the English oil sources and freeing the Byzantian's and my good mates the Spanish from tyrannical English rule, I gave them peace so I could deal with the bear on the eastern border.
1975 - 2031 AD... the true Vikings rise
The Russians came at me with a mighty force - albeit a bit heavy on horsemen. These are the historical records from 1992.
Spoiler :
Having gained peace with the English, I drew all my strength together and placed it in Rome, correctly predicting they would come for it after taking Cumae (I had wiped the Romans out in around 1975) and it was there that they were slaughtered, with small losses on the German side.
Spoiler :
With the only tanks in the whole world, a highly-motivated people, bombers versus empires without access to oil, and sold trading allies in the Spanish, the Germans ran amok across their previous oppressors, wiping first the Germans, then the English (bar 1 city) and finally the French off the face of the earth. The Spanish had been good friends and I was a reasonable man, so I did not attack them (also they had half-decent military). The Byzantians were in service to the Spanish so I also left them alone.
Some 6 turns after the warfare had finished, in 2031 AD, the lands controlled by the Germans increased to be large enough for the Germans to be declared the True Viking Race by virtue of Dominance over the known world. Hurrah!
Here are the most killed & most built units, along with a record of the greatest generals in the German army including the inspirational El Cid who led his band of warriors across several centuries.
Spoiler :
------------------------------
Things I learnt whilst playing the game....
- longbowmen cannot be upgraded to machine gunners - but crossbowmen can. Those city garrison promotions are brilliant on machine gunners.
- I never knew that war weariness can be completely negated with the combination of Jails, Mount Rushmore and Police State.
- Giving a city that you are going to lose anyway in exchange for peace is a good tactic!
- There is only a fairly limited number of Great General names - after that they are just called "great general"
- Next time I find myself in a seemingly hopeless situation - don't struggle on. Although it was fun to do once, it took up waaayy too many hours of my life!
- Next time I find myself in a seemingly hopeless situation - don't struggle on. Although it was fun to do once, it took up waaayy too many hours of my life!
Hey! The true moral of this story is "never give up".
Nice game, thanks for sharing.
evil_spock
Chieftain
Is there a better way to start posting in these forums than a lengthy ramble about a game filled with bloodthirsty and not-so-nordic-looking viking legends? I guess not, so here goes...
To put it short: Domination victory in the year 1882, 66586 points. Not a magnificent score, but it's my personal best in these six or so BOTMs I have played. Initially I was a bit worried that the aggressive AI would tear me apart before 1AD, but it turned out to be easier than expected and a very enjoyable game with a great theme!
4000 BC - 1 AD:
Berlin was founded in place. I sent my scout towards east to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man...oh wait there's Michael Ironside's distant relative, Björn Ironside. Despite his bit aggressive nature, he seems like a nice chap. My scout then decided return and head towards west and soon enough I located a nice place for my second city around some silver and wine. Bling bling and booze, that sure seems like an appropriate place to found a religion as it later turned out to be. As the scout continued towards west, he was soon greeted with warmth by another fellow norseman called Sweyn Forbeard (less known relative of Sweyn FORKbeard?). Unfortunately for the scout, a pack of malnourished lions decided to satisfy their appetite and that put an end to my exploring. Good riddance! With friends like Sweyn and Björn, who wants to meet anyone else?
Third city was placed near the copper to the east and fourth far to the west near the incense. I had my eye on the barbarian city located to the south and it seemed like Björn's praetorians weren't there for a friendly visit either. A cunning leader that I was, I decided to let Björn do as much damage as they could to the poor savages. With only one archer in the city, the time was ripe for my lone axeman camped next to the city to try conquering the city right before Björn's eyes. Success! Now the city was mine and I could fortify there as many axes and archers as I could. Somehow this seemed to cause some anger among my friendly neighbors but surely we could resolve our differences like civilized people.
On the tech side, I decided to try the CS sling with the oracle once again. I took no chances and went almost straight to COL, bulbed mathematics with the first GS I got from planting two scientist to the library, built/chopped oracle and got civil service in the year 1040 BC. After that
I headed straight to monarchy and by then I could trade some earlier techs.
Wow. No wars and it's already 1 AD. Sweyn and Björn weren't kidding when they vowed everlasting peace between our civilizations.
1 AD - 1882 AD:
By 1 AD I had contact with most of the civilizations and I realized that the world is filled with angry, angry leaders. Fists are rising everywhere! Maybe I really should whip some walls and capable defenders to my border cities. Luckily I was able to tech feudalism in 150 AD and I could start whipping some longbows if necessary. It was just in time as my old pal Sweyn brought a smallish yet heart-rate-raising stack of axes and swords next to my border. Luckily my city's borders just expanded as Sweyn declared a war on me (225 AD) so his forces were pushed back a little. He could still beat my lousy defenses, but then he did something so cunning that it still escapes me. Sweyn started to move his forces around my borders, but not actually entering my kingdom. By the time he actually tried to do something to my city, it was already filled with longbows. Sweyn just kept circling my borders and sending random war elephants to my longbowmen. Poor elephants worked merely as a target practice for my drill-promoted forces.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Askold attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him.
At the same time Björn adopted the religion I invented, so I thought it might be wise for me to adopt it as well. Those praetorians were scary even if I had the possibility to build longbows and axes. That didn't help much as Björn decided to attack me in 350 AD. I guess he was still mad about that barbarian city stunt I pulled. Oh well, the lady luck smiled at me and Björn's forces were defeated again and again as he tried to harm my experience gathering forces.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Freydis attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him.
In 1420, I made peace with Sweyn by giving him the mighty technology of drama as I wanted to focus on teching rifling as fast as possible. Björn's technologically puny empire seemed like a nice warm up for my world domination plans. Askold did a huge favor for me by attacking Björn so it was just a matter of who managed to conquer him first. Björn was still so interested in my barbarian city that he didn't seem to notice my stack of CR-maces and rifles approaching his northern cities with jackal like stealthiness. I easily captured two of his cities as did Askold. Suddenly I was given a deal of the century: Not only wanted Björn to capitulate, but I was offered a very nice city and a sum of gold as well. How could I say no to that? So I managed to get my first vassal in 1560. Askold did not like this at all.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Harald attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him.
Now it was time to build rifles and cannons from every capable city. So many that I was capable to maintain two fronts if necessary. One in the west and the other one on the border of Björn and Askold. My fellow competitors seemed to have some teching troubles as they didn't even have
education or gunpowder by the time I had plenty of rifles. By this time I knew the rest of the game was going to be like taking a candy from a child. No, even easier. It was like taking a pacifier from a baby.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Sweyn attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him. Everybody seems to hate poor old Röde Orm. I guess being a fictional character is enough to make everybody hate you.
What a nice opportunity to punish Sweyn. It was 1670 and I started to march my rifles to Sweyn's cities. Roughly at the same time, as expected, Askold decided to attack me. Maybe he didn't like that SOD I parked right next to his city. Oh well, no worries. My greatest enemy at this
point was my own people. The war weariness from a thousand year old war started to show. Bah! March on, I say. Sweyn soon realized his situation and he capitulated...to Harald. Damn, that sudden peace pushed my forces away and cost me a few turns. I just had to declare war against them both this time. By this time I already had a few infantries, and my enemies barely knew what gunpowder was. The cowardly Sweyn was pronounced dead in 1785. Askold on the other hand took his punishment like a man and died a warrior's death in 1816.
Now my forces consisting of drill 4 infantries and CR-cannons were crushing Harald's puny men with pointy sticks. I attacked from multiple locations at the same time and Harald was screaming for mercy. My appetite grew and it was time to betray Freydis who was actually the only one who was pleased at me during the game. Freydis only had knights and war elephants as her best units, but she sure had lots of them. I suffered some losses that delayed my inevitable victory for some years, but with nationhood and police state I was able to draft and build more and more forces.
During the last turns I showed mercy to Harald and I accepted his capitulation, and left him in his only city and even that was originally Röde Orm's city. As I was approaching Freydis' cities from all available fronts, I decided to take a little detour and conquer one of Röde Orm's three remaining cities. He was willing to capitulate, but I didn't accept it just yet. Now it was 1880 and I attacked simultaneously four of Freydis' cities and managed to capture three of them. Freydis was humiliated and was willing to capitulate and donate a city for me. I accepted as well as
I accepted Röde Orms capitulation. Victory was mine.
Ironically the punching bag of the game, Röde Orm, outlived two of his worst enemies.
Domination limit was reached with 89.82% world population and 76.54% land area. If I understood correctly, a conquest victory was also a possible outcome, since I vassaled or destroyed every other AI, but I'm happy with this too.
To put it short: Domination victory in the year 1882, 66586 points. Not a magnificent score, but it's my personal best in these six or so BOTMs I have played. Initially I was a bit worried that the aggressive AI would tear me apart before 1AD, but it turned out to be easier than expected and a very enjoyable game with a great theme!
4000 BC - 1 AD:
Berlin was founded in place. I sent my scout towards east to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man...oh wait there's Michael Ironside's distant relative, Björn Ironside. Despite his bit aggressive nature, he seems like a nice chap. My scout then decided return and head towards west and soon enough I located a nice place for my second city around some silver and wine. Bling bling and booze, that sure seems like an appropriate place to found a religion as it later turned out to be. As the scout continued towards west, he was soon greeted with warmth by another fellow norseman called Sweyn Forbeard (less known relative of Sweyn FORKbeard?). Unfortunately for the scout, a pack of malnourished lions decided to satisfy their appetite and that put an end to my exploring. Good riddance! With friends like Sweyn and Björn, who wants to meet anyone else?
Third city was placed near the copper to the east and fourth far to the west near the incense. I had my eye on the barbarian city located to the south and it seemed like Björn's praetorians weren't there for a friendly visit either. A cunning leader that I was, I decided to let Björn do as much damage as they could to the poor savages. With only one archer in the city, the time was ripe for my lone axeman camped next to the city to try conquering the city right before Björn's eyes. Success! Now the city was mine and I could fortify there as many axes and archers as I could. Somehow this seemed to cause some anger among my friendly neighbors but surely we could resolve our differences like civilized people.
On the tech side, I decided to try the CS sling with the oracle once again. I took no chances and went almost straight to COL, bulbed mathematics with the first GS I got from planting two scientist to the library, built/chopped oracle and got civil service in the year 1040 BC. After that
I headed straight to monarchy and by then I could trade some earlier techs.
Wow. No wars and it's already 1 AD. Sweyn and Björn weren't kidding when they vowed everlasting peace between our civilizations.
1 AD - 1882 AD:
By 1 AD I had contact with most of the civilizations and I realized that the world is filled with angry, angry leaders. Fists are rising everywhere! Maybe I really should whip some walls and capable defenders to my border cities. Luckily I was able to tech feudalism in 150 AD and I could start whipping some longbows if necessary. It was just in time as my old pal Sweyn brought a smallish yet heart-rate-raising stack of axes and swords next to my border. Luckily my city's borders just expanded as Sweyn declared a war on me (225 AD) so his forces were pushed back a little. He could still beat my lousy defenses, but then he did something so cunning that it still escapes me. Sweyn started to move his forces around my borders, but not actually entering my kingdom. By the time he actually tried to do something to my city, it was already filled with longbows. Sweyn just kept circling my borders and sending random war elephants to my longbowmen. Poor elephants worked merely as a target practice for my drill-promoted forces.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Askold attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him.
At the same time Björn adopted the religion I invented, so I thought it might be wise for me to adopt it as well. Those praetorians were scary even if I had the possibility to build longbows and axes. That didn't help much as Björn decided to attack me in 350 AD. I guess he was still mad about that barbarian city stunt I pulled. Oh well, the lady luck smiled at me and Björn's forces were defeated again and again as he tried to harm my experience gathering forces.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Freydis attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him.
In 1420, I made peace with Sweyn by giving him the mighty technology of drama as I wanted to focus on teching rifling as fast as possible. Björn's technologically puny empire seemed like a nice warm up for my world domination plans. Askold did a huge favor for me by attacking Björn so it was just a matter of who managed to conquer him first. Björn was still so interested in my barbarian city that he didn't seem to notice my stack of CR-maces and rifles approaching his northern cities with jackal like stealthiness. I easily captured two of his cities as did Askold. Suddenly I was given a deal of the century: Not only wanted Björn to capitulate, but I was offered a very nice city and a sum of gold as well. How could I say no to that? So I managed to get my first vassal in 1560. Askold did not like this at all.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Harald attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him.
Now it was time to build rifles and cannons from every capable city. So many that I was capable to maintain two fronts if necessary. One in the west and the other one on the border of Björn and Askold. My fellow competitors seemed to have some teching troubles as they didn't even have
education or gunpowder by the time I had plenty of rifles. By this time I knew the rest of the game was going to be like taking a candy from a child. No, even easier. It was like taking a pacifier from a baby.
Meanwhile somewhere else in the world...Sweyn attacked Röde Orm and took a city from him. Everybody seems to hate poor old Röde Orm. I guess being a fictional character is enough to make everybody hate you.
What a nice opportunity to punish Sweyn. It was 1670 and I started to march my rifles to Sweyn's cities. Roughly at the same time, as expected, Askold decided to attack me. Maybe he didn't like that SOD I parked right next to his city. Oh well, no worries. My greatest enemy at this
point was my own people. The war weariness from a thousand year old war started to show. Bah! March on, I say. Sweyn soon realized his situation and he capitulated...to Harald. Damn, that sudden peace pushed my forces away and cost me a few turns. I just had to declare war against them both this time. By this time I already had a few infantries, and my enemies barely knew what gunpowder was. The cowardly Sweyn was pronounced dead in 1785. Askold on the other hand took his punishment like a man and died a warrior's death in 1816.
Now my forces consisting of drill 4 infantries and CR-cannons were crushing Harald's puny men with pointy sticks. I attacked from multiple locations at the same time and Harald was screaming for mercy. My appetite grew and it was time to betray Freydis who was actually the only one who was pleased at me during the game. Freydis only had knights and war elephants as her best units, but she sure had lots of them. I suffered some losses that delayed my inevitable victory for some years, but with nationhood and police state I was able to draft and build more and more forces.
During the last turns I showed mercy to Harald and I accepted his capitulation, and left him in his only city and even that was originally Röde Orm's city. As I was approaching Freydis' cities from all available fronts, I decided to take a little detour and conquer one of Röde Orm's three remaining cities. He was willing to capitulate, but I didn't accept it just yet. Now it was 1880 and I attacked simultaneously four of Freydis' cities and managed to capture three of them. Freydis was humiliated and was willing to capitulate and donate a city for me. I accepted as well as
I accepted Röde Orms capitulation. Victory was mine.
Ironically the punching bag of the game, Röde Orm, outlived two of his worst enemies.
Domination limit was reached with 89.82% world population and 76.54% land area. If I understood correctly, a conquest victory was also a possible outcome, since I vassaled or destroyed every other AI, but I'm happy with this too.
srad
King
It's great to see new faces in this area even after Civ5 is out!
This happens twice to me in the recent BOTMs - I know the pain
This happens twice to me in the recent BOTMs - I know the pain
da_Vinci
Gypsy Prince
Same old same old ... mid 1800's diplo win.
Some opening notes I took are in the spoiler below:
Basically, settled in place, then founded Hamburg west (mixed production and commerce), Munich east (HE city), and Cologne southest (GP farm with NE, parthenon). Has a short early war vs. "Russia" as they took a barb city in the Cologne spot.
Then I went at "Rome" with axes and cats, turn 112, before he got many praets up. The ones he did have were handled by C1 shock axes. Killed Rome off.
Tried to continue the counterclockwise roll through "Russia", but after taking a couple of cites got hit by a substantial counterattack and had to make peace to preserve the remnant of my stack. Also, "England" had declared in the west, and I spent most of the mid game defending Hamburg from various incursions.
That is when I decided to settle in for a tech blitz, completed mids, G Lib and Parth as shown in the spoiler tabs. I resumed the push on Russia with maces, and soon got to rifles. Most games I go for the grens first, but in this one, I never built a gren (for the first time ever).
After rifles (many CR 3), knights, cats and trebs began to roll up both "Russia" and "England" to the pont of capitulation, "Byz" was the next target. By then I was rolling nicely to MM, with an unchallenged tech lead.
Interestingly "France" and I were fast friends, sharing Christianity. She had vassaled "Spain", and had the AP, and she declared on "Byz" right before I wanted to, and I cheerfully took her invite to join in.
I debated trying some UN gift approach, but the only way was a gift to Byz, and that would lose enough shared war points not to get Eriksdotter's vote, which would threaten getting the win. Since the Un build/buy would be slower in a giftable city, I built it in Hamburg (cash rush). My armies took enough "Byz" cities to get over the 62% mark, and I took a city in peace deal for good measure. Completed Bio after MM this time (usually do it before to grow pop on way to MM). Won on the first vote.
Never was in any real danger in this game, perhaps because of the early "Rome" kill. I can see how game might get tricky if you let AI neighbors get too strong. I'd say it felt like a prince game because of the ease of getting mids, GLib and Parth even with a late decision to chase them.
dV
Hmm ... I can't say that I'd agree with that in my game, but it may depend on whether you followed a peaceful (or defensive) approach, or if you were on offense from the start. I did the latter (initially was thinking about going for domination), and the game seemed well in hand thoughout.
Some opening notes I took are in the spoiler below:
Spoiler :
Basically, settled in place, then founded Hamburg west (mixed production and commerce), Munich east (HE city), and Cologne southest (GP farm with NE, parthenon). Has a short early war vs. "Russia" as they took a barb city in the Cologne spot.
Then I went at "Rome" with axes and cats, turn 112, before he got many praets up. The ones he did have were handled by C1 shock axes. Killed Rome off.
Tried to continue the counterclockwise roll through "Russia", but after taking a couple of cites got hit by a substantial counterattack and had to make peace to preserve the remnant of my stack. Also, "England" had declared in the west, and I spent most of the mid game defending Hamburg from various incursions.
That is when I decided to settle in for a tech blitz, completed mids, G Lib and Parth as shown in the spoiler tabs. I resumed the push on Russia with maces, and soon got to rifles. Most games I go for the grens first, but in this one, I never built a gren (for the first time ever).
After rifles (many CR 3), knights, cats and trebs began to roll up both "Russia" and "England" to the pont of capitulation, "Byz" was the next target. By then I was rolling nicely to MM, with an unchallenged tech lead.
Interestingly "France" and I were fast friends, sharing Christianity. She had vassaled "Spain", and had the AP, and she declared on "Byz" right before I wanted to, and I cheerfully took her invite to join in.
I debated trying some UN gift approach, but the only way was a gift to Byz, and that would lose enough shared war points not to get Eriksdotter's vote, which would threaten getting the win. Since the Un build/buy would be slower in a giftable city, I built it in Hamburg (cash rush). My armies took enough "Byz" cities to get over the 62% mark, and I took a city in peace deal for good measure. Completed Bio after MM this time (usually do it before to grow pop on way to MM). Won on the first vote.
Never was in any real danger in this game, perhaps because of the early "Rome" kill. I can see how game might get tricky if you let AI neighbors get too strong. I'd say it felt like a prince game because of the ease of getting mids, GLib and Parth even with a late decision to chase them.
dV
mabraham
Deity
Agreed. An aggressive stance aware of the problems of two fronts should have led to a no-problems win. Either you need to religion-buddy up to a neighbour, or build a big stack and use it, or both. Since Tokugawa is usually not worth the time to talk to, the Romans had a big early "kick me" sign on them. I admit to being surprised by Sweyn's belligerence, however.
A defensive, or (worse) pacifist approach would have been a recipe for trouble, and I think we've seen that reported
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2008
- Messages
- 26,892
Game status: Domination Victory for Germany
Game date: 1844AD
Final score: 86123
Just squeezed this one in. Following off my post in the first spoiler thread, I finished of Toku of Rome after a long battle, Eventually my cats did the job, but it was a long war and left me a bit jaded about the game - so did vacation and a bad case of the flu.
Seems we are always hit with losses at ridiculous odds, but I had more than I can remember in this game, especially early.
As mentioned in my first spoiler, I planned to go the war route in this game and Toku was my first target in order to ice those Praets. Toke never got one out of the gate as my initial attack took at all his strat resources. However, my initial intent was to surprise him with a few axe at what I thought was fairly early in the game. However, I was in turn surprised to see how well he developed and expanded so fast.
Another interesting thing in my game was how well the AIs teched in the early game for Prince. I blew the away later, of course, but it took me some time to get the military advantage that I wanted and hence the less than stellar Dom date. Of course, this was further exacerbated by my continued lack of focus in a war oriented game. The builder/techer in me continues to get in the way. I should have just stayed in Police state (built Mids) and plowed on.
So, basically, in short the game worked out like this. Killed Toku and spent a bit of time developing his land as I beelined Lib and took Nationalism. Plenty of good resources for what we needed. Next target was the English who had lamely attacked me early as I was fighting the Romans. In the meantime I'm on fairly good terms with the French, Byz and Russians to take care of that mid game tech trading and whatnot. I first took a few cities from the English with Curs and spies, made peace, and hit him again not long after with Cavalry/cannons. In the first war, both Russia and Byz (that was surprising actually) attack me, but I made quick work of them. All the land I had gave me some mighty good production, so I kept my border well defend.
I vassaled Russia after taking one city, but wiped England from the map. France vassaled Spain, but we remained at peace for much of the game. Sent my stack of Cav/cannon into Byz taking two cities including his capital before Byz capitulated. Meanwhile. I amassed a nice stack on the Russian/French borders in preparation for taking on the French and/or protecting from an imminent attack. Turns out I attack first. Spain broke free rather quickly. I waited for France to send her rather large SOD into Russia before eliminating it. I took one coastal city and France capitulated.
Really surprised how quickly these Aggressive AIs gave up at only one or two cities. Focus on eliminating their SoDs really helped a lot.
As I moved my stack towards Madrid, enough borders popped in my land to go over the limit for Dom.
I believe I settled in place. Berlin focus a good deal on building wonders. I also capture a buttload of wonders from the English. I Oracled MC I believe and Libbed Nat. I probably could have held off on Lib for something better, but went ahead with Nat to build Taj asap and get MT for Curs quickly. I was teching rather furiously after Lib. Never adopted a religion and ran Free Religion as soon as I was able. AT the end I was running Rep, Burea, Caste, SP, and FR. However, Police State may have been better and faster.
Again, I need to focus more I pushing my army to the limits. It was a bit slow getting around the map and perhaps a naval focus to get units where they were needed would have helped. I waited a bit long for that approach.
Another game in which I felt I could have wrapped things up a bit sooner. For the life of me, I don't see how you super civvers get those ridiculously high scores. Fun game.Thanks kcd.
Game date: 1844AD
Final score: 86123
Just squeezed this one in. Following off my post in the first spoiler thread, I finished of Toku of Rome after a long battle, Eventually my cats did the job, but it was a long war and left me a bit jaded about the game - so did vacation and a bad case of the flu.
Seems we are always hit with losses at ridiculous odds, but I had more than I can remember in this game, especially early.
As mentioned in my first spoiler, I planned to go the war route in this game and Toku was my first target in order to ice those Praets. Toke never got one out of the gate as my initial attack took at all his strat resources. However, my initial intent was to surprise him with a few axe at what I thought was fairly early in the game. However, I was in turn surprised to see how well he developed and expanded so fast.
Another interesting thing in my game was how well the AIs teched in the early game for Prince. I blew the away later, of course, but it took me some time to get the military advantage that I wanted and hence the less than stellar Dom date. Of course, this was further exacerbated by my continued lack of focus in a war oriented game. The builder/techer in me continues to get in the way. I should have just stayed in Police state (built Mids) and plowed on.
So, basically, in short the game worked out like this. Killed Toku and spent a bit of time developing his land as I beelined Lib and took Nationalism. Plenty of good resources for what we needed. Next target was the English who had lamely attacked me early as I was fighting the Romans. In the meantime I'm on fairly good terms with the French, Byz and Russians to take care of that mid game tech trading and whatnot. I first took a few cities from the English with Curs and spies, made peace, and hit him again not long after with Cavalry/cannons. In the first war, both Russia and Byz (that was surprising actually) attack me, but I made quick work of them. All the land I had gave me some mighty good production, so I kept my border well defend.
I vassaled Russia after taking one city, but wiped England from the map. France vassaled Spain, but we remained at peace for much of the game. Sent my stack of Cav/cannon into Byz taking two cities including his capital before Byz capitulated. Meanwhile. I amassed a nice stack on the Russian/French borders in preparation for taking on the French and/or protecting from an imminent attack. Turns out I attack first. Spain broke free rather quickly. I waited for France to send her rather large SOD into Russia before eliminating it. I took one coastal city and France capitulated.
Really surprised how quickly these Aggressive AIs gave up at only one or two cities. Focus on eliminating their SoDs really helped a lot.
As I moved my stack towards Madrid, enough borders popped in my land to go over the limit for Dom.
I believe I settled in place. Berlin focus a good deal on building wonders. I also capture a buttload of wonders from the English. I Oracled MC I believe and Libbed Nat. I probably could have held off on Lib for something better, but went ahead with Nat to build Taj asap and get MT for Curs quickly. I was teching rather furiously after Lib. Never adopted a religion and ran Free Religion as soon as I was able. AT the end I was running Rep, Burea, Caste, SP, and FR. However, Police State may have been better and faster.
Again, I need to focus more I pushing my army to the limits. It was a bit slow getting around the map and perhaps a naval focus to get units where they were needed would have helped. I waited a bit long for that approach.
Another game in which I felt I could have wrapped things up a bit sooner. For the life of me, I don't see how you super civvers get those ridiculously high scores. Fun game.Thanks kcd.
WelshGandalf
King
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2010
- Messages
- 743
Hmmm I had 7 or 8 cities in 1830AD and had progressed to had 9 cities in 1920 ADRespect. Around 1500 AD I had about 8 cities and didn't manage to fix situation.
Those peace deals in exchange for a city kept me alive long ehough to build all those machine-gunners (your redcoats aren't so special now are they Forkbeard? )Well it was fun to do the comeback - but it took up way too many hours of my life (75 hours) and disrupted it. Glad you enjoyed the write-up though, I felt a truely epic game like that deserved & needed a good write-up about it too
Looking at the recent comments it's strange how I had such different experiences to some others.
I was aggressive and attacked the Romans early. However they did get praetorians up pretty darn quickly (about 100AD) and attacking someone early makes little difference when 3 or 4 people are attacking you constantly. You simply have to go defensive.
I was different - I was ahead of them the whole game despite my miniature empire. I won the lib race in around 1820AD for goodness sake!
I figured out one of the reasons why I was teching so well comparatively - as I marched across the English land later in the game I saw very very few squares that didn't have a workshop on them.... they were far too busy pumping out redcoats and the like to research further.
Perhaps the fact that they were almost always at war with someone (usually me) meant they always prioritised building units rather than teching whereas I managed to squeeze in a few economic upgrades in the midst of creating more macemen, longbows and castles.
Finally I'm pretty sure this is the first game I've played where I've destroyed over 1,000 units. I'm so tired of war now... gonna try a more peaceful game next hopefully.
ElWanderer
Warlord
Diplomatic victory in 1928, for 39.5k points. Adding up my stats shows 560 kills during the game.
I seem to have three pages of scribbled notes... which I have tried to cut down to edited highlights. Even then, this is a bit long:
Early years up to 1000AD - So, What Does The Aggressive AI Setting Mean?
1000AD-1540AD More War
1550AD-1745AD Give Peace a Chance & Late, Late Liberalism
1750AD-1850AD Epic Battles For The Sagas & Voting Scandals
1850AD-1913AD War, What Is It Good For? Quite A Lot, Actually
1914AD-1928AD Vote For Me, Or Else
That was pretty epic. I very nearly gave up due to the constant warring - not so much that I thought I might be defeated (though it did cross my mind around 1400AD), but that it was taking a long time to play each turn and the submission deadline wasn't far away.
I enjoyed the map a lot
I think that must be the first time I've:
* used Police State
* spent most of the game in Theocracy
* not gone into Free Religion at any point
I seem to have three pages of scribbled notes... which I have tried to cut down to edited highlights. Even then, this is a bit long:
Early years up to 1000AD - So, What Does The Aggressive AI Setting Mean?
Spoiler :
1000AD-1540AD More War
Spoiler :
1550AD-1745AD Give Peace a Chance & Late, Late Liberalism
Spoiler :
1750AD-1850AD Epic Battles For The Sagas & Voting Scandals
Spoiler :
1850AD-1913AD War, What Is It Good For? Quite A Lot, Actually
Spoiler :
1914AD-1928AD Vote For Me, Or Else
Spoiler :
That was pretty epic. I very nearly gave up due to the constant warring - not so much that I thought I might be defeated (though it did cross my mind around 1400AD), but that it was taking a long time to play each turn and the submission deadline wasn't far away.
I enjoyed the map a lot
I think that must be the first time I've:
* used Police State
* spent most of the game in Theocracy
* not gone into Free Religion at any point
Hey kcd_swede,
thanks for the fun Viking Party! At Prince level I thought this game was going to be easier than it was. My too-little, too-late, stack of axemen were surprised that the Roman- Viking already had Praets when they arrived! Still, I was at the top of the leader board for a while, and I managed to take a few cites of the Roman-Vikings. But the Russian-Viking did better and eventually vassalized him. I ended up in a two front war with the Russian-Vikings and the English-Vikings. I didn't have the know-how on the tactics required to fight these defensive wars, and gave up in 1570AD when I lost a city to the English-Vikings. Thanks to everyone in the spoiler threads for the tips and tricks - I will definately build more cats and horsemen for defensive purposes in the future!
Arnold_T
thanks for the fun Viking Party! At Prince level I thought this game was going to be easier than it was. My too-little, too-late, stack of axemen were surprised that the Roman- Viking already had Praets when they arrived! Still, I was at the top of the leader board for a while, and I managed to take a few cites of the Roman-Vikings. But the Russian-Viking did better and eventually vassalized him. I ended up in a two front war with the Russian-Vikings and the English-Vikings. I didn't have the know-how on the tactics required to fight these defensive wars, and gave up in 1570AD when I lost a city to the English-Vikings. Thanks to everyone in the spoiler threads for the tips and tricks - I will definately build more cats and horsemen for defensive purposes in the future!
Arnold_T
mabraham
Deity
Sure, but you know as soon as you meet him that Tokugawa is not good trading buddy, doesn't open borders until you've had a war, spends the whole game in a specialist economy and will have irritating Praets if you wait too long. His land was too good to waste on him, and the English are far enough from the good western land that you can afford to war, then expand west. So my 5 axemen (or so) plus shrapnel units took Rome in 1320BC, before he had his metals sorted out, and the other city a few turns later. This gave me scope to expand onto the gems site near the Russians, where we then had wars for a while.
AIs tend not to attack you until the land fills up, so you have a free shot until that time. Admittedly, in this game, Sweyn came for me before filling his land so perhaps the Aggressive AI changes that. However that wasn't until 200AD or so, and the Romans were long dead.
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