BuShiDo - the Way of Exploit - Tackling 1 vs. 7 Deity Standard Pangaea

[maltz]

E. Early-Mid Game Policy Plans

Spoiler :

014. As I "believe" the AI team is going to out-tech me even with a bunch of monkeys running their weekly strategic meetings, I have to seriously accelerate my research in order not to lag hopelessly behind. The first thing that come to mind is the Scholasticism under Patronage. I will receive at least 1-2 free CS allies from completing missions, and I can maintain the rest of them without worrying the AIs will take them away from me. From experience, Scholasticism contributes about an additional 30-50% of my total research by the time of activation, assuming a reasonable number of City State allies. If I put a lot of cash into it, then I should be able to push that number to 50-70%. And if I can take Egypt and hold the line, I can keep at least 7 City States allies safe. That would add a nice weight on my side of the balance, while I remove Songhai and Egypt from the other side of the balance.

But Patronage happens a lot later. I can't get to that point if I don't conquer Songhai first with the earliest Samurai rush possible. So I need 3 policy points straight down to Meritocracy.

Since I got 2 +Culture ruins, I decided to gamble and be short-sighted - I put the first policy point in Tradition to much accelerate my border expansion to make the purchase of my Gold/Whale tiles cheaper. An early saving of 100-200 gold could make or break the 4th Long-swordsman. But I will suffer a much delayed Scholasticism. The thinking here is that even if I can get that policy early, I still need enough cash to buy City States to make a good use of it. And I probably won't get enough cash until I finished unit rushing. I am aiming for 4 good melees + 4 good ranged at least. So I am still pretty far away from buying City States "Alexander style".

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

015. As I stagnated my capital's population growth to complete the National College as soon as possible, I naturally received a complaint letter from the International Humane Society.

My citizens are still well-fed to the point that they don't die from starvation. But right after returning home, they used up their last bit of energy of the day and fall asleep by the door - without the chance of engaging in reproductive activity.

 

[maltz]

It's a nice location, and when you can get a mint in there
Maybe try to grab the Colossus and drop in a lighthouse for working the water instead.

Thanks. I will keep that in mind.

 

[Itstoearly]

Slow work day for me today, so I am enjoying this thread as it develops. Are you actively playing today or are these all write ups from a previous session?

 

[bryanw1995]

Nice thread so far. Watching to see how it turns out.

 

[maltz]

Slow work day for me today, so I am enjoying this thread as it develops. Are you actively playing today or are these all write ups from a previous session?

The game is an ongoing process, but I am slightly behind in the writing. I usually proceed for about 30-40 turns and come back to cover what happened.

 

[Jaaboo]

There haven't been many really good games to follow report (ie, in the style of ALC, KotW or Mad's RPC) style in Civ V yet, so I'm enjoying this quite a lot.

 

[vanjito]

You'd have a much much better chance on Marathon, Standard seems a bit overwhelming

Also, with Mongol Khan it would be easier than with Bushido

 

[maltz]

There haven't been many really good games to follow report (ie, in the style of ALC, KotW or Mad's RPC) style in Civ V yet, so I'm enjoying this quite a lot.

Thanks for your feedback. May I ask what are the games above?

 

[maltz]

You'd have a much much better chance on Marathon, Standard seems a bit overwhelming

Also, with Mongol Khan it would be easier than with Bushido

Indeed I have tried both Marathon and Mongolia in different games. I like Marathon very much, but find the AI often "malfunctions" and turn the game into a disappointment. I am thinking about modding the game to give 3X unit and city HP (and 3X slower unit promotion) for Marathon. And previously I did a Mongolia OCC game. I like to try out new things, so here comes Japan.

 

[Jaaboo]

Thanks for your feedback. May I ask what are the games above?

Series of games from Civ 4 - Sisutil's All Leaders Challenge which was a leader-by-leader walkthrough of games highlighting use of their traits, UU & UB, Neal's King of the World which was a series of games on the Earth 18 map, and MadScientist's Role Playing Challenges, where he'd impose thematic or historical rules on his game play. All very entertaining reads, by three entertaining authors. Again, was Civ 4 though.

 

[maltz]

F. Igniting the war between and AI and CS team

Thanks for your patience. Here goes more!

Spoiler :

016. I traded my first two gold to Napoleon and Songhai. Songhai has bought both my Whale and Gold. Quite a rich Civ considering I actually got the resources pretty early (before turn 30). I wonder what he has in his land?

Now that I have some money, I can carry out the second of the core of 1 vs. many strategy - bribing the AI team to war City States, so they will get declaring permanant war by a lot more City States. I visited Songhai and Napoleon and asked for a quote.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

017, 019. Congratulations to Napoleon! You won the bid! By default I would like to aim for Cultural CS to be the target of bribes, since I want to reach Scholasticism as early as possible especially when I already wasted one policy away in Tradition. There are two cultural CS I have met - Lhasa and Kuala Lumpur.

However, at this point Alexander has already allied with Copenhagen, one of the Maritime City States that I have discovered. Bribing Napoleon to war either Kuala Lumpur or Lhasa will resulting in Copenhagen to side with the AI team, which I do not want to see. In the worst-case scenario, all City States on the other side of the Pangaea will be conquered, and I have to rely on (in terms of research contribution from Scholasticism) what I can protect on my side. I want to keep all 7 CS on my side... on my side. So I decided to bribe Napoleon to war Copenhagen directly. (Guess Alexander should be pretty pissed by his teammate. )

Spoiler :

The result of the 229 gold investment was an instant permenant war status between the AI team and ALL of the 7 City States I have met (out of 16 in total). There might be more of them - I just haven't met them yet!

 

[maltz]

G. On Tile Purchasing and Declaring the First War Early

Spoiler :

021. I spent quite a lot of gold to purchase tiles: in total, 580 gold for 6 tiles leading to luxrious resources. This is a very costy investment in early game, where 580 gold can be used to (almost) purchase 3 warriors and rush down a closeby opponent. I justify my investment with the first core principle of a 1 vs. multiple game. In the future constant war-and-peace cycles, I will be able to re-sell each one of my luxiours resources. The more resources I have, the more profit I make.

Spoiler :

022. So let's fast forward a bit. Now I have harvested my 3rd and 4th gold and sold them to Spain and Egypt. Again I have some free cash at hand...

Spoiler :

023. So what's next? I extracted the most I can get out of Songhai and declared war! As in the first core principle, I want to have as many war and peace cycles. So by declaring war early, I will be able to make peace 7 turns later and sell the Whale and 4 Golds again. That will be used to fund my first rush. Alternatively, I can peacefully wait for the 30-turn trade to expire and resale the resources again. But since the war-peace cycle only lasts 17 turns, I have bought myself precious 13 turns. That could definitely mean live or death in the first rush.

I am not really worried about being actually invaded in the first war, but there is a slim chance that I will - especially if Alexander, Ramkaehang, or some other maniac is my closest neighbor. I know Songhai is soft.

 

[maltz]

H. Iron Grab

Spoiler :

024. I now have 800 gold sitting in my pockets. With 3 turns left to the completion of Iron working, I will be able to know whether to rush out a Settler (500 gold). If I don't have a 6-unit Iron at home, I will have to make the investment.

After war is declared on the AI team, I realized that the AI team had acted pretty quickly - they already have two City States allies, Geneva and Edinburgh. I actually like the fact that they have declared war on me. This way, I am considered to have met them. Therefore, I can bribe Napoleon to declare war on them later, and trigger another wave of mass CS-hatred

Spoiler :

025. No matter whether I have Iron at home or not, I have enough leftover to purchase another Warrior. And very soon I realized that I have no Iron at home. So here goes the Settler for 500 gold!

Spoiler :

026. Finished Iron Working and entered the Classic Era. Where is a good 6-unit Iron tile for my settler to sit on? It is actually quite far away - 17 tiles by foot (or 15 tiles if not circling around a known barbarian camp). No other 6-unit Iron in sight. It is a little inconvenient, but better than nothing.

Spoiler :

027. I am very curious about how the AI team's technology progresses, as I have not yet to see a concrete game code. So here comes my comparison of the current game to some other games of similar settings but with un-teamed AIs.
In the current game, on Turn 42, the AI team has completed 24% of the tech tree.

Spoiler :

This game comes from a custom map that is similar in size to a Standard Pangaea. I was on Deity, Stand Speed and Default Settings just like this game. On Turn 82, the leading AI resarcher completed 27% of the techs. Not remotely as fast as our current game, right?

Spoiler :

This game comes from the an OCC game, on the same Standard Speed, Standard Pangaea Deity setting. On Turn 86, the technology leader completed 32% of the techs. This looks quite a bit better than the example above, and might be close to the current game. So I will have to wait till the current game to reach Turn 86 to know. I will do more comparison later.

 

[maltz]

I. The First Truce

Spoiler :

028. The first core principle of 1 vs. multiple depends on the human player's ability to enter war and peace cycles freely. If the player cannot get out of a war, then there is some serious trouble. As we all know, there are three kinds peace treaty (1) We pay them; (2) They pay us; (3) Unconditional. From my personal experiences, I think it is the relative army size that makes the difference in AI's preference of the above three options.

For example, if I have a puny army and so does the AI, the peace is likely unconditional. If I have a strong army and the AI does not, I might get a very nice peace deal - but only if the AI still likes me. If it has denounced me or I have warred them in the past, the best I can get is an unconditional peace treaty.

On the other hand, if I have a smaller force than the AI, I will be asked to pay a lot of extra for peace, as shown in the above picture. The beauty of the 1 vs. 7 game special rule is that I can ask any of the 7 team members for peace. So I can shop around until I get the most favorable condition. And once that peace deal is reached, I am instantly at peace with all other 6 AIs, who might easily crush me like a bug. And let's thank the developers for not coding the AIs to combine their team military power when considering peace.

Spoiler :

029. Soon I found someone who is willing to forgive me sin. I feel pretty good that I bought the Spain/Inca DLC on the 40% Discount Day...

 

[maltz]

J. Let the War/Peace Cycle Begin

Spoiler :

030. A lot of us must have the experience that the AI denounce us immediately after a peace treaty is signed. The result is that resources are sold for less than full price. So this leaves us a narrow window of resource re-sale for the best profit - immediately after the peace treaty is signed and before pressing End Turn. Askia seemed to be really reluctant to pay the full price. But he did and so did others.

Spoiler :

031. I mentioned earlier that I am glad to have met Geneva through war. Now I can make peace with them and immediately bribe Napoleon, the cheapest contractor (althout his service fee has gone up from 229 to 255 gold), to declare war on Geneva. Not only is Geneva, an ally of the AI team, instantly a sworn enemy of them, but also it might bring in a good number of other CSs against the AI team!

Spoiler :

032. Finally, my Settler has arrived on the precious Iron. But I don't want to settle yet. I am 5 turns away from Meritocracy and the free Great Scientist. Why do I want to delay that? I have no use of Iron before that anyway. So I just let the Settler sit idle and count the sheeps on the nearby hill. This city site is quite nice besides its strategic value - I will soon be able to harvest the Sugar on the west, and get more hammers and gold from the... Gold to the east. And I am actually blocking off Egypt's Settler from spawning this way, if Ramesses care to. I rarely see him expand seriously.

 

[maltz]

K. Finaly, Ready for War

Spoiler :

033. With Steel on the way, I can finally prepare for war. As discussed before, each Samurai costs 470 gold if upgraded from Warrior (but 590 gold if purchased directly). Since I already have 2 warriors, I need a total of 4 x 470 - 2 x 200 = 1480 gold. Now I have 1446 gold. Since I can sell all of my reserved luxurious resources before war declaration, I am covered.

I was thinking about buying a Barrack first to give my warriors a promotion before sending them to war. But I realized that this is actually not an excellent idea for Japanese Warriors. When a Japanese Warrior or Swordsman is promoted to Samurai (Long-swordsman), they are granted a free promotion in Shock, the Open Terrain fighting bonus. However, this promotion is identical to what we would receive when picking the same promotion through experience leveling. Therefore, if the Warrior or Swordsman already has Shock, this freeby is completely wasted - no extra level is gained!. And if the Warrior or Swordsman has the alternative Rought Terrain fighting bonus, the free Shock is still quite useless as we, as effective commanders, purposely avoid to make a Rough Terrain Specialist fight on Open Terrain.

However, if the Japanese Samurai are directly purchased in a City with Barracks, the Shock freebie is granted first, and we can then promote them with the second level of Shock through the Barrack's EXP bonus. If the City also has Armory, then the fresh Samurai actually comes with 3 levels of Shocks - and he is only level 3! Only one level, or 30 EXP short from March (healing every round - everyone's favorite along with Blitz, right?)!

So this is exactly what I am going to do. I am going to build a Barrack, Armory, and Heroic Epic later, and buy a few more Samurai to become very powerful Open-Terrain specialists. But for now, I rushed my #3 and #4 Warriors. I need them for my first rush.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

034. And finally here comes Meritocracy! If I don't go for Tradition first, I should be able to reach this point slightly earlier, but not by much. It is not that meaningful to get this policy early, as I have to wait for Metal Casting to finish anyway. (But the subsequent Patronage policies will come a lot faster.) In this game, it finished on the previous turn. The timing is great!

Spoiler :

035. And now I can found the second city. Osaka! The barbarian has no chance to pillage my Iron Mine, since there isn't one. Ha!

Spoiler :

036. In this game, one of the AI Civs built the Great Library already (naturally, they love this wonder). Otherwise, I can pop a Great Engineer and use it to rush the Great Library at home. I would get an early start on Great Engineer points and some culture that way.

In a regular Longswordsman rush in a Deity domination game, I think it is still not too late to have Longswords ready between Turn 70-80. But here I am running against an opponent who techs up very fast (at least in early game). So I have to be fast, too.

Spoiler :

037. I'd like to rush straight to Songhai's capital, but a few turns ago Askia popped a city just south to me. So that's my first target. Let the war begin!

 

[maltz]

All very entertaining reads, by three entertaining authors. Again, was Civ 4 though.

I see! Thanks.

 

[maltz]

L. Rushing down the First Target

Now everything is ready, and the first rush should play itself out well.

Spoiler :

038. War has been declared. I counted my wallet and found that I can actually afford to have leftover of 500 gold or so (all thanks to the AIs generous donation), so I decided to purchase a Workshop in the capital and start saving points for a Great Enginner. I plan to use the G-Eng on the Procelain Tower to get a free tech later.

Spoiler :

039. I upgraded three units of warriors to Samurai, and the fourth one is on his way back from Osaka. Three Samurai is definitely more than enough to take Songhai's tiny city, Jenne.

Spoiler :

040. Hm, caught a Songer Worker who actually comes from Ragusa. He probably got captured by barbarian and subsequently "liberated" by Songhai. Returned for 30 influence. I hope they get captured by barbarian again soon.

Spoiler :

041. Demographs on at the start of the Samurai rush. The game really likes Samurai it seems - I only have 3 of them (the 4th is still a warrior on his way back) and I already have the largest army in the world! Better make use of it!

Spoiler :

042. Surrounded Jenne and the let the assault begin! The city was only founded 7 turns ago, and it already had 3 population. This is why - Songhai just completed the Hanging Garden. AI really likes this wonder.

Spoiler :

043. Askia came begging for peace, and he brought the entire team with him! I said no 7 times.

Spoiler :

044. The fourth warrior is back! He spend one turn in Jenne's border to be upgraded to a Swordsman, then there is no more border. Askia's second city Tombouctu is clearly visible now - that's where we will attack next!

I sold my extra 2 pieces of Iron to Songhai just before the war declaration. The result is his half-strengthed Swordsman walking around, asking to be put out of embarassment. Soon I realized that Askia did not have any Iron. So I know this is going to be easy! The east side of the Pangaea in this game is very Iron-poor.

Spoiler :

045. Swordsman no more! Askia had a total of 2 Horseman and 1 Swordsman defending Tombouctu. Not a problem for Samurai!

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

046-047. After killing/capturing 3 units of Askia units, I completed the mission from Geneva and Copenhagen. They gave me 7 missions for each of the 7 Civs in the AI team. Here comes the reward of the first one - free alliance with Copenhagen, and from Angry to Friendly for Geneva. Nice.

Spoiler :

048. I should be able to dispatch the Horseman with a Samurai easily, but instead I failed due to the nature of random number. I then tried to attack with another Samurai first, and finish it with the second Samurai. The result is that both of my Samurai on the east were very low on health. I doubt maybe I will be better off with the original outcome... anyway.

Spoiler :

049. I really don't mid of having two dying Samurai, because both of them are close to promotion! Instant Heal! Now Tombouctu is in deep trouble.

I am usually extremely reluctant to opt for instant heal, as I am essentially throwing away the usefulness of the very unit in mid-game, when March makes a huge difference. However, I already set the plan to produce better Samurai directly from Barrack + Armory + Heroic Epic later, so I am not too worried about sacrificing two Samurai to bring down the first big fat city. (Indeed, it is still bigger than my capital after the population is burned to half!) I need some mediocre units to stay home to welcome occassional barbarian visits, anyway.

It is not very common to see a 21-defense non-capital city on Turn 64. But that shouldn't be too difficult for Samurai.

Spoiler :

050. The city is captured easily, and I have to give credits to the AI to know to escape with the Settler instead of dying in the city. They didn't survive the next turn, anyway. At this point I already had my first Great General, who helped a lot in brining down Tombouctu.

I was building high-maintenance buildings (such as the Armory) liberally at home, and the workers are busy linking up my capital to Songhai's territory. As a result, I was running a terrible deficit. But I am not too worried - once the revolt is over, I am going to get a lot of cash from Songhai's cities... if I convert all those stupid Farms into Trading Posts! I typically convert all Farms into Trading Posts in a puppet city, since I can't force the city to build a Colosseum.

Spoiler :

051. The Empress came again to demand a ridiculous payment. Nah. Songhai has to go.

Spoiler :

052. I built a long highway between my capital to Songhai's cities to setup future trade routes. My financial situation has improved from the lowest point of -21/turn to -12/turn. And it is only going to get better.

After some good resting and healing in Tombouctu, the four Samurai goes to challenge Songhai's capital!

Spoiler :

053. Gao was piece of cake for 4 Samurai under the command of a Great General. Strangely, a barbarian archer joined the party on the very last turn.

Spoiler :

054. That's the end of Songhai! He had pretty impressive cities - in the capital I found two wonders, the Hanging Garden and the Great Wall. Since I usually play aggressively, the latter wonder isn't that useful for me. But at least I am glad that it doesn't belong to any AI from now on.

Spoiler :

055. And of course it is time to sell resources again! After the first war, the human player should easily have a large-enough army to get a unconditional peace deal.