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

[Pac-Dragon]

My guess is that it goes by either the rate at which the civ with the highest science rate would tech on their own, or some sort of average between all remaining team members.

I think it's an average of the team's science rate. It should get that by adding the team's beakers together, then multiplying the tech cost by the number of team members. I'm curious if the multiplier goes down as civs are eliminated. If that's the case, it might be better to leave each civ with one useless city.

 

[_hero_]

I don't think it's a combination of all of their science together, because they would likely be teching much much faster than they are. My guess is that it goes by either the rate at which the civ with the highest science rate would tech on their own, or some sort of average between all remaining team members.

Team up with some AIs and see for yourself. What happens is the number of beakers that techs cost increases per civ in the team. I didn't bother checking the math to see exactly what the rate of increase is, but my inclination is that it increase by 100% per civ. So a 100 beaker tech costs 200 with a 2 civ team, 300 with a 3 civ team etc. Then each civ adds their beakers to the tech when they end the turn.

 

[maltz]

This weekend I did a test and got something solid. I am going to show the results later, but in short, in 1 vs. 7, the 7-member team has a base research rate 1.84 times faster than a un-teamed Civ. This does not take into consideration of Great Scientists, Oxford University, RA.

 

[maltz]

O. On Technology

Thanks for your patient waiting. Here comes a little insert section of how technology is carried out in a team. I did a little test by teaming with different number of AIs vs. 1 AI and record flask requirement of three technologies: Pottery, Educaton, and Future Tech. This was on a duel-map.

1 vs. 1: 35/485/7000
2 vs. 1: 52/727/10500
3 vs. 1: 70/970/14000
4 vs. 1: 87/1212/17500
7 vs. 1: 132/1840/26600
15 vs. 1: 264/3680/53200 (an extremely crowded duel map!)

Then I convert that into multiples of the base number in the 1 vs. 1 case.
N = number of Civs in a team.

N = 1, 1/1/1
N = 2, 1.486/1.499/1.5
N = 3, 2/2/2
N = 4, 2.49/2.50/2.5
N = 7, 3.77/3.79/3.8
N = 15, 7.54/7.59/7.6

For example, when there are 7 Civs in a team, Pottery becomes 3.77 times more expensive, Education 3.79 times, and Future tech 3.8 times. Since the game rounds down flasks, 3.8 seems to be the real ratio. However, since all 7 members contribute to the flask count, the actual tech speed is therefore 7 / 3.8 = 1.84 times faster than normal.

Now I can work out the speed of technology for N:

N = 1, 1 X
N = 2, 1.33 X
N = 3, 1.5 X
N = 4, 1.6 X
N = 7, 1.84 X
N = 15, 1.97 X

You can see that the technology ratio approaches 2 when the number of Civ in the team increases. It is reasonable to assume that the same ratio applies when the AIs make up the 7-member team, but I cannot be 100% certain.

However, it is not accurate to say AIs' technology advances 1.84 times faster than a regular, un-teamed AI throughout the game. This only applies in early game, when no Great Scientists, Oxford University, or Research Agreements come into place. In a 7-member team, there will be 7 Oxford Universities (only the non-expansionist Civs can build it, though), and 7 times as many as Great Scientists - let's hope the AIs like Great Merchants more! The actual advance rate of the team's technology should be more than 1.84 excluding Research Agreement. On the other hand, the exclusion of RA will greatly slow down technology.

As a result, the human player must start pushing back as soon as possible. If I completely defeat 2 Civs, the AIs have only 5 members working on that 3.8 times of flask requirement. 5/3.8 > 1 - still faster than one, but easier than 7. If I defeat 2 more, there are only 3 members working on 3.8 times of flask requirement. It actually advance on technology slower than a regular single AI. So the balance can be shifted rather dramatically - it all depends on how fast the human players beat the AIs down.

Removing RA also hurts the human player. In a regular game, the human player should be able to sign a lot more RAs than the AI, since the AI's RA can be easily broken by war bribes. Now let's not get distracted and return to the game.

 

[maltz]

P. Rifleman & Cannon Rush

I guess many of you are very familiar with the Rifleman and Cannon rush. Since they greatly overpower the medieval units, the earlier we get them, the longer we have the advantage. So my next goal is to reach Rifling and Chemistry as soon as possible. I have 2 free techs - the first Great Scientist regularly produced at home and one from the Porcelain Tower rushed from the first Great Engineer regularly produced at home.

Spoiler :

107. Here is an updated map of the Pangaea. There isn't much more revealed. I could see some Chinese cities to the south, and a the conquered CS Ediburgh by the USA. Greece should be somewhere to the west, but not sure exactly how.

Spoiler :

108. I was naturally annoyed by the fact that Washington managed to sneak in a city north of Thebes. I thought the nearby City States, which by this time have all decalred war to the AI team, would manage to bring it down quickly, but Washington was rich enough to immediately purchase a Castle there. And since the City States' troops go up one by one instead of all together, I guess the US city is here to stay! I don't want to deal with it in the next war, since I better spend my turns taking important cities with high research and production contribution. Luckily, it turned out the Washington also had his eyes primarily set on the closer city states. So future military units produced from Atlanta got wasted by City States as well.

Spoiler :

109. Washington robbed Japan of its Himeji Castle. I have already decided to give up on that. From experience and reading, I realized that Himeji Castle's 25% friendly territory bonus only applies to the builder but not other members of the team. However, the Great Wall's bonus applies to ALL members of the team. I am really lucky that Songhai built the Great Wall in Gao (which is now under my control), so I don't have to suffer from slow advance throughout the game.

Spoiler :

110. 10 turns of peace is a little too long, I still have 6 more turns to wait (treaty expires on Turn 121). It looks like that Chemistry will finish sooner than expected.

I got my third Great General in the previous war, but have decided to convert him into a Golden Age. I need money really badly. If I am still in Golden Age when the next war breaks out, I can extract a few more hundred gold from the AIs.

Spoiler :

111. The Scout-promoted Crossbow explored further northwest and found CS Vienna under siege by Washington. It doesn't seem that it will be able to hold for much longer. And Washington's units will come straight to Memphis afterwards. So there is going to be some pressure from the northwest some time in the future.

Spoiler :

112. Rifling arrives as planned! In a regular game (with RA), it is also reasonable to get to Rifling during Turn 120 or so. So why am I advance as if I have the helps of RA? It is Scholasticism + City States which cannot be bought away from AIs.

Spoiler :

113. Waiting is really painful. Once I have my Rifleman and Cannon out, I don't want to negotiate anymore peace treaty unless I am in serious trouble. No peace treaty means no money. So I have to get all subsequent income by myself. As in regular games, there are two ways to incrase income:

(1) Built lots of Trading posts in puppeted cities. In all puppet cities, I converted every single Riverside tile to Trading Post. The puppet government is always on Gold Focus, so they will work on these Trade Posts. And that controls the population of the puppet cities, enable me to expand further before hitting the -10 happiness mark.

(2) Trade Routes. In the above picture, I am earning a 16-gold profit from trade routes. And I will get a lot more later. Each city connected to the capital gets 0.5 happiness due to Meritocracy (Liberty). Plus the roads are important for the arrival of reinforcements.

Spoiler :

114. Still waiting. CS Regusa gave a mission to discover Spain to trade! I guess merchants have the rights to trade with their State enemies.

Spoiler :

115. Riot in Thebes have stopped, and our income has also reached historical high. I was surprised to see Rifleman in CS Lhasa. I heard that City States will get the same unit as their allied Civ. So it is actually a good thing that I ally with as many besieged CS as possible to prolong their resistance.

I was hoping the Rifleman could take down Atlanta. But again Lhasa foolishly push them to death one by one. So Atlanta still stays.

Spoiler :

116. The wait is finally over! The fith (and hopefully the final) war starts! (Not before I get 3000 gold from the AI team. )
The same turn sees the completion of Chemistry, so I can upgrade Trebuchets to Cannons.
Although the AI team's tech still leads me by 7% (you can see the gap narrowing already), my military tech still stays ahead. That's all what counts!

Spoiler :

117. My next policy goes to Piety. I am aimnig at Theocracy after 3 policy points to reduce unhappiness in "non-occupied" cities by 25%. One may think this is useless for a Domination game, since all cities but the capital and the iron city are occupied. However, the game treats puppet cities as non-occupied cities! So the happiness bonus from this policy could be huge especially after mid-game.

Spoiler :

118. Let the war horn blow. The angry Rifleman army pours into Chinese territory!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

119. I didn't expect to be able to get 3000+ gold from the AI team this time, so I didn't purcahse additional siege weapons before Chemistry is completed. I really should have - since the Cannons directly purchased only comes with +10% City bonus, while Cannons promoted from earlier siege engines provide up to +40% City bonus. Bought Siege engine #7 and #8! I still have 2000 gold left after this, but I am playing really conservatively here, as I want to save up for the Artillery upgrade and City States alliance.

Spoiler :

120. Chinese soldiers are still in Medieval Era. Shanghai's city defense is even lower than that of Tombouctu on Turn 60+... what are we waiting for?!

Spoiler :

121. Took Shanghai with ease. But there are so many enemy units. I better finish them off before they upgrade.

Spoiler :

122. Found Nanjing to the west and Alexander's Corinth to the southwest. I like Corinth better, since it is easier and has Silver. My happiness already dips to -3. There is not a large variety of luxurious resources in the east side of the Pangaea.

Spoiler :

123. Cleared a lot more units and make my way to Corinth. I also split the army to see what's on the east, since I prefer to reduce threats from flanks. Actually there is a conquered CS Stockholm! And it has Dye!

Spoiler :

124. I want to get my Happiness policy out as soon as possible, so I gave Venice 500 gold for alliance even knowing that its days are numbered. That may acclerate my Theocracy for a few turns. I also plan to prolong its usefulness a little by sending a few units in to distract the attackers. One was already heavily damaged.

Spoiler :

125. Stockholm liberated! Happiness again returned to normal. The AI team keeps sending untis up, as I started seeing Spanish units. So I couldn't make any advance yet but had a busy time wiping them off. Now my Cannons have caught up with the Rifleman. The killing becomes a lot more efficient.

Spoiler :

126. French units also joined the battle! But I with the help of Cannons I can kill slightly faster than they replenish. So the siege of Corinth begins!

Since I have two Great Generals, I split my army into two. While one team takes Corinth, the other follows the shore line to see what's beneath Stockholm. Two more Chinese cities!

Spoiler :

127. Corinth down! I started the construction of Circus Maximus in the capital. Currently, research is equally split into three portions: Capital (64/turn), the rest (66/turn), and City States (61/turn). I already purchased all the non-military CS on my side of the continent, and tried to keep that 2000 gold reserve for upgrades and emergencies.

Spoiler :

128. Vienna still holds in the northwest. I sent my scout Rifleman to see what's to the west. Caught a worker and sent the worker west to see more - and here is a small US city Boston with lots of Gems. I was getting mean and pillaged two of Washington's Gems.

Spoiler :

129. Both Wu Zetian and Alexander picked Honor as their primary early policy, so I have to finish their units in a given turn or they can probably heal it back during their act. Isabella built the Forbidden Palace, so there are again less options for me to stay on the happy side.

Spoiler :

130. I sent some more units to the offense team to the south so I can bring down Guangzhou. The Chinese units were all watching, but there was little they can do about it. Cho-Ko Nu in multiples is a huge threat for even Rifleman, as each turn each Cho-Ko Nu takes away 2 hit points.

Spoiler :

131. Found another Natural Wonder. I really need the extra Happiness. (That +12 is fake as it has not counted the population of Guangzhou.)

Spoiler :

132. Fighting is fierce and here comes the 4th Great General. Again burned for Golden Age.
Now I am sure I will have enough money for upgrades and emergency, so I proceeded to buy the two military CSs on my side.

Spoiler :

133. With 9 CS and each contribute 9-10 flasks, my research rate is looking better and better.

Spoiler :

134. More and more French and Spanish units show up, so I have to take the defensive approach on Corinth and the region north of it. I have better units, but the enemies are great in numbers. I can kill most units in one shot, but even so there seems to be an endless stream of them coming up.

The offsne team (let's call it the First Division from now on) has turned its attention to Xian. The city has very high defense now, but still relatively easy for Rifleman + Cannon. I almost lost a Cannon there due to negligence.

Spoiler :

135. I really liked my gold reserve and proceeded to purchase a Windmill to accelearte my 2nd Great Engineer. I haven't decided what to rush, but it will be useful. My next Great Person will be a Great Scientist, followed by a Great Engineer. The Great Scientist will be born on Turn 142.

Spoiler :

136. One policy away from Theocracy! Project date is Turn 151. But I should be able to get it a little sooner from new puppet cities' cultural buildings!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

137. I am 7 turns away from the completion of Military Science. Osaka is building the Oxford University and will be completed in 7 turns, and the Great Scientist in Kyoto will also come out in 7 turns. It is a perfect timing just by coincidence.

Let's call the Corinth defenders the Second Division. The international coalition comes non-stop, and the Spanish units have managed to leak through the line. I had to pull back one Rifleman from Memphis to barely defend.

Spoiler :

138. I sent north two more Cannons to help the Second Division to defend after taking down Xian. The First Divison has closed in on the Chinese capital Beijing. I noticed that China already has Cannon. That puts some more pressure. (I had a Rifleman to the west as I noticed a weakly defended settler. It actually survived as the AI was unwilling to throw its melee at something that it cannot finish in one turn.)

Spoiler :

139. Just to double check that I will get Dynamite on Turn 142. In order to complete Oxford University on time on Turn 142, I cannot raze any city that does not contain an University. All cities I want to raze are small, useless cities, though.

Spoiler :

140. Previously, I called one of the home defenders to the front line to defend Memphis - by harassing the American units besieging Vienna. I managed to sneak in a kill here. The US army does attack this Rifleman, so I cannot be too bold and approach directly.

Spoiler :

141. While I was occupying city after city, I noticed that France actually had the largest land. That's some aggressive settling. I still held the title of the largest army. But while calculating the actual army stregnth between two teams, the ratio looks a lot worse, I am still outnumbered 1 to 3.6. Gotta love the one-tile-one-unit system.

Spoiler :

142. Division One is about to start the assault on Beijing, with a Rifleman barely protecting the flank (while eating Cannon balls). Division Two defeated wave after wave of allied soldiers, but new units kept showing up!

Spoiler :

143. Took Beijing! The remaining Cho-Ko Nu didn't escape.

Spoiler :

144. The two Cannons had a slow walk north to join Division Two, because there were so many French units coming in the gap, and they had something to fire on every turn.

Spoiler :

145. Copenhagen is now the only remaining CS that has been directly declared war by the AI team. The war declaration resulted in 7 missions from the CS - all about killing 3 units of X army. Now I have completed all 7 missions since I have been killing so many allied soldiers - and look at that influence point!

Spoiler :

146. The trade route bug has not been completely fix. If part of it goes through a City State, the income does not count, and the Happiness bonus from Meritocracy does not count, either.

My initial solution failed, as the new linkage (pointed by arrows) is not recognized by the AI, which prefers the route through Guangzhou's harbor. But my capital does not have a harbor yet! Later on, I tore this section of road down and built a new road one tile to the west. And still, the game likes the harbor route better and ignored the land route completely. I think (not 100% sure) the Happiness bonus from Meritocracy still does not register through cities connected by Sea.

Spoiler :

147. Enemies kept leaking through the gaps, so I stationed another Cannon in Xian to help. The next Chinese cities are smaller and weaker, so I can afford to have a smaller Division One. Took another Chinese city Tianjin and demolished a Cannon! Nice. There has not been any new luxurious resource for a while, and my happiness dipped to -9. I have built and bought every happiness building available and from City States.

Spoiler :

148. It was desperate time but here comes Dynamite! Artillery shows the way!

 

[vanjito]

Wow

In 20 turns (122 to 142) your science went from 175 to 280!!

 

[Rudimentos]

It's kind of perfect played game.

 

[maltz]

Q. Tipping Point: Artillery

Artillery pretty much marks the turning point of the military campaign of the game. Before Artillery, the remaining AI combined could produce units as fast as we kill it (or even faster than we kill it). However, with Artillery's long range and complete coverage, there is usually something to fire on every turn, and the AI's army dwindles on a much accelerated rate.

Spoiler :

149. The Industrial Era! While I was behind the AI team to enter Renaissance, I arrived at Industrial before the AI team.

Spoiler :

150. Compare to Turn 135, the ratio of my Soldier vs. the AI remains largely unchanged - 1:3.6. Napoleon actually surpassed me to become the military leader, but I am going to reclaim that title after all my Cannons become Artilleries.

Spoiler :

151. My technology completeness finally catches up with the AIs. But I am actually one generation ahead in terms of military. I field Rifleman; they field Musketman and equivalents. I field Artillery; they field Cannons. So I am still in very good shape.

While China has been severely weakened, the remaining of the AI team were still quite powerful. Since I can see Alexander's Sparta, his capital Athens must be close. While I'd love to take these cities as soon as possible, I have to combat the happiness problem...

Spoiler :

152. My first Artllery shop goes to the city of Hangzhou. That's a really easy city to take, but I have to delay my last hit until the end of the turn, since I don't want my happiness to dip below -10 yet. The same thing goes to another small Chinese city Macau to the south. I can take both cities at the very end of this turn (and yeah! RAZE them! Finally.)

Spoiler :

153. And I got my 5th Great General this turn. Only 13 turns for me to accumulate 1000 EXP. That's how intense the battles are. Since I still have enough gold in the treasury, I decide not to get another Golden Age, but to take this General to battle.

Spoiler :

154. Still Turn 143. Let's test fire the Artillery on a real target! The first victim is a Spanish Conquistador. 52.8 vs. 18. See ya! (The caption reads a common Japanese video game term in Sushi font literally translated to "must-kill skill" - or the ultimate skill. I just feel that it is fitting to use it here.)

Spoiler :

155. The second target is French Knight. 56.2 vs. 18. Nothing remains!

Spoiler :

156. The third target is a Spanish Tercio. 67.2 vs. 22.5. "Poomp," vaporized!

Spoiler :

157. The fourth target is another Spanish Conquistador. 43.2 vs. 16.2. Still a lethal shot!

Spoiler :

158. And the fifth target is a... poor Chinese Cho-Ko Nu. 57.6 vs. 8.2. I could instant-kill it with Cannons...

Spoiler :

159. And now I can take Hangzhou and Macau. I decided to burn just raze Macau (and puppet Hangzhou) to avoid happiness to drop below -10... but it did anyway to -11. So I had to bare with -33% combat power for 5 more turns before my next policy in Theocracy. From hindsight, I should have razed Hangzhou at the same time anyway, for I would actually get one less turn of -33% combat power that way.

 

[sir_toast]

are these common strategies for all immortal/deity games? its ridiculously good! this walkthrough is invaluable to me, who barely gets by on prince. thanks for taking the time

 

[maltz]

R. The Final Slump

Normally, the only restricting factor of a conquest game in Civ5 is happiness. It is possible to actually keep going while ignoring the 33% combat penalty from unhappiness, but with much reduced efficiency. So for the next few turns, I was more on a defensive mode, killing whatever that comes in to range and just sit and heal...

But everything changes with Theocracy. In a regular conquest game, the player can skip the Patronage tree completely (since the AIs buy City States fiercely or skip Liberty complete since there are RAs) and go for Piety a lot sooner for Theocracy. The policy is quite a late addition to my game. And if I did not go for Tradition first (and waste a policy point) but Liberty directly, I would not have to suffer this 5 turns of depression. But maybe I gained something else precious at the beginning. So it is hard to tell whether I did the right thing or not.

Spoiler :

160. Macau is no more, and I am sitting with a very unhappy empire for a few more turns. I then remembered something special - there are still natural wonders out there that I have not discovered. If I get lucky, I might be able to find 2 in rapid succession. So I purchased a Caravel from the capital and...

Spoiler :

161. There is actually one natural wonder just beside my Capital, immediately discovered by the Caravel which is still in the harbor. I guess the top of the sail of that ship is the highest point of the entire Kyoto city... Now my unhappiness has improved to -10! If I can find another natural wonder...

But I didn't.

Spoiler :

162. It was an awkward time. In this Greek city I can see Pearl, which I don't have. But I am not powerful enough to overwhelm that 39 city defense while my guys are unhappy. I am stuck in the Chicken and Egg loop.

Spoiler :

163. Lhasa now has Artillery, too! Indeed, most of my allied CS got their Artillery with me, with a few exceptions. Those who adapted to new technology thrive and survive, those who resisted gets overpowered and occupied. It was their choice.

Spoiler :

164. I was getting my Artillery to help Vienna, but if my Rifleman does not get off their soon, it will be killed very soon. So I decided to completely give up Vienna and focus my defense of home territory based in Memphis instead. I just got another Great General, who is ideal for this task.

Spoiler :

165. The wait is finally over! But actually, by the time one of my puppet cities completed a Colosseum and pushed the unhappiness back to -8 already.

But here goes Theocracy for -25% unhappiness from population. I had 97 population. So the policy instantly boosted happiness by 25! And it will only get better later. This is the single most powerful policy for a domination game. I wonder whether the definition of "non-occupied" will receive a review in the coming patches.

Since I was very frustrated by the slump, I made a decision to start razing smaller cities while I can afford to, which is now. Annexing a city increases the cultural cost of my next policy, so I have to only raze one city at a time so I suffer from only one increase in policy points. Hangzhou and Tianjin are the first two to go, since they are small cities with no happiness infrastructures and no extra luxurious resources. This further delayed my next policies, but it didn't make any game-altering differences.

Let the war continue!

 

[Pac-Dragon]

Annexing a city increases the cultural cost of my next policy, so I have to only raze one city at a time so I suffer from only one increase in policy points.

Maltz, could you explain this mechanic further? I didn't realize there was a way to minimize the increase to SP costs by annexing/razing just one city at a time.

 

[bronzeager]

this thread is fascinating! i didn't think you'd ever be able to stand a chance, but it looks like things are going quite well!

RE: razed cities increasing policy costs. I believe they count as Annexed cities during the time which they are being razed, so policy costs increase temporarily for a few turns? Maltz can confirm when he gets back...

 

[maltz]

From my experience (which is quite limited), the cultural point requirement increase is a one-way trip. So once we ever annex any city at any point, the city number counter goes up by one permanently. Even after the city is razed, the city number counter does not go down.

However, after the city is razed, the actual city number is one less than the recorded number. When we annex then raze the next city, there is no further policy point increase.

The best case is to raze a city directly after conquering - that way the counter does not increase at all. I couldn't do it because I wanted to finish Oxford University on time.

 

[maltz]

are these common strategies for all immortal/deity games? its ridiculously good! this walkthrough is invaluable to me, who barely gets by on prince. thanks for taking the time

This game is quite different from a regular Deity game, where the core strategies are revolved around RAs and buying AIs to war each other to maintain balances and cancel their RAs. However, I think generally the military paths and timings are going to be useful in any difficulty.

 

[maltz]

S. Rifleman +Artillery

In the Rifleman-Cannon Era, Rifleman used to be the powerhouse of City Assault, while Cannon are more about playing an supportive role to weaken the enemies so the Rifleman conserve their hit points for cities. In the Rifleman-Artillery Era, the strategy has to be adjusted. First, the city's defense are getting tougher and the Rifleman will have harder and harder times staying alive during the end turn (as the AIs will grasp any oppurtunity that might kill our units). On the other hand, it becomes much easier for Artilleries to access city walls. So all Rifleman needs to do is to perform the last hit on a city, while Artillery does all the hard work.

Spoiler :

166. With Artillery, I have slightly reduced the military size ratio from 1:3.6 to 1:3.5, altough Napoleon still had the largest army and kept sending them over. I began to take a small technology lead. While I expected the lead to widen as I will then be moving through earlier, cheaper techs, the little lead actually stayed relatively stable for the next little while. This means that the AIs are probably using their more numerical Great Scientists to stay close.

Spoiler :

167. With very happy citizens, I started to take more cities. The first is Wu Zetian's Nanjing!

Spoiler :

168. And then it is Alexander's Knossos. Acquired Pearls!

Spoiler :

169. The Caravel was still searching for the 6th natural wonder of the world. I made it sail straight east, hoping to prove that the earth is... ring shaped. I came into contact with Maritime CS Oslo, which had an extremely poor location in terms of growth, but a extremely good location in terms of defense. Isabella (and AI in general) does not perform simultaneous amphibious attacks. So Oslo is going to stay alive for... forever. Paid 500 gold for alliance and 1/3 of its flasks!

Spoiler :

170. With only 2 self-spawned cities and a few Cultural CS allies, I thought my policy count would look great in the pack- but it was actually Washington who took the lead with 13. If I have 13 policies I would have +40 happiness now... Well, the AIs indeed have +40, or sometimes +60 happiness. They probably didn't get them through policies.

Spoiler :

171. There is another Chinese city northeast of Nanjing, but Alexander started another wave of counterattack. I had to pull Division Two back to Corinth. Since Wu Zetian has been severely weakened, I may as well put my full attention to Alexander. Division Two will advance towards Sparta, and Division One will approach from the south.

Spoiler :

172. That's almost the end of Vienna! I need some army around Memphis quickly to prepare for a major US invasion. We can't rely on the United Nations to stop a US invasion.

Spoiler :

173. French units are also showing up around Sparta. Still fierce fighting! The AIs are very persistent at escorting their Settler through our territory. They never make it.

Spoiler :

174. Division One was ready to go north, but Alex pushed a Cannon right in front of Knossos for a super Rifleman to demolish. At this time the Rifleman has been throughly promoted through March, Blitz, and Siege. It is a siege beast! I can't wait for them to be upgraded to Mechanized Infantry...

Alex still has more cities to the SW, but I chose to ignore it completely since the shape of the contienent suggests that it will be only a small city. Alex's capital Athen should northwest, close to Sparta. Knoosos only has one accessible tile for melee, making it un-retakable (yeah I invented that word) from the AI coming from the SW.

Spoiler :

175. The Caravel sails along the coast and found quite a few French cities, and another CS under siege - military CS Almaty. It is accessible from 5 directions, so I don't expect it to last a lot longer. But I dished out 500 gold to make an alliance anyway, because I can afford to. It is good to be rich!

Spoiler :

176. More French Renaissance melee units have appeared along with their Greek and Spanish counterparts. They just keep coming. As Rifleman could taking heavy damage, I have to do let Artillery do most of the work. And they do it with efficiency and stylish sound effect. Since I am 1.5 generations ahead of them and try to match the terrain specialties as much as I could, 90%+ of the shots were instant kills.

Spoiler :

177. One round later - many died, many new appeared. What's different is my Rifleman are in city assault position for Sparta!

Spoiler :

178. Three Rifleman with Blitz, Great General and Siege means no Sparta!

Spoiler :

179. Vienna is finally conquered. I was hoping that it will suddenly get an Artillery in the city just like Lhasa. But this one resisted new weaponry and got what it deserved. Maybe acquiring the latest weaponry an allies is related to the City State's personality?

Spoiler :

180. More exploration from the Caravel - another CS is revealed - Cultural CS Florence. I definitely like the Culture points since I still have something to aim for 3 policies later. 500 gold goes to them, too.

France's capital Paris is also visible in the view. It seems that Napoleon populated most of the western Pangaea (at least the costal regions). No wonder he was the score leader of the pack, and has managed to send the greatest number of units all the way over.

Also in the view was a Chinese worker floating on the sea. It turned out that Wu Zetian had a tiny island city south from here. The worker is probably sent there to build a cow ranch there.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

181. As expected, the American invasion has started! I already started building roads with Worker so I can defend a lot more easily. When a siege weapon like Cannon and Artillery travels on the road, they can actually travel one tile, setup, and fire during the same round even without the double attack promotion. Roads can be very useful. I also rushed two more Artilleries from the capital to defend Memphis - I will call that Division Three for now.

And I have Coal in Memphis!... I'll build a factory in the capital to get the second and third Great Engineer faster.

Spoiler :

182. The military City States have been giving me various units. The Rifleman are used to guard home (Kyoto, Gao, and Tombouctu) against barbarians. After busting a camp, they found another one with a Settler in it. I guess some AI tried to sneak in a city in my backyard... and failed miserably.

This is one of the rare occassions that I love barbarians. (Another ocassion is when they pillage my resource, as mentioned earlier.) This camp stays!

Spoiler :

183. As I discovered the tiny Chinese island city Shandong, I found the last of the alive City States, Maritime CS Helsinki. 500 gold also goes to them! And I can also see some remaining Greek cities to the north. They are not going to retake a completely undefended Knossos in 1000 years.

Spoiler :

184. 16 CS to start, 4 conquered (Geneva, Hanoi, Edinburgh, Vienna). I am allying with all the rest! They are now boosting my research rate by more than 50%. And I can actually afford to stay allied with all of them, without worrying that the super-rich AIs would steal any from me. A very happy game!

Spoiler :

185. And here comes the oppurtunity to liberate one of the 4 remaining CS. 3 left!

Spoiler :

186. Division One has closed in on Greek capital Athens, which is strangely defended by French units... which might be actually on a Settler escort mission. I sent in part of Division Two to help to make sure that I can take the capital quickly.

Spoiler :

187. Just one turn away from the second Great Engineer and the 4th Great Person. What should I rush, then?

Just before Public School, I built a Frigate from the capital so I can better secure Kyoto's water - I saw some Chinese and Greek Caravels nearby.

Spoiler :

188. A military City State gave me a lancer, so I am also sending them to help out. But I got managed to get them killed on the end turn. It is OK, the Artillery was the one that kicks ass.

Spoiler :

189. I decided to rush the Big Ben with the G-Eng. I purposedly delay the purchase of 2 more artilleries till the completion of this, so I can save a few hundred gold. I also I plan to rush out some Anti-Aircraft guns from the capital later.

Spoiler :

190. Athens was not a match to two Divisions' 5 Artilleries, so it went down rather quickly. But here comes even more French army! Napoleon was the military leader, and he certainly sent more units over than any other Civ on the team (and get them killed, only to build more at home). He performed his duty well. Shame on the others.

Spoiler :

191. With China and Greece fallen below the detectable threshold of threat counter, the game is about 1 vs. 3 now! The soldier ratio has been narrowed to 1:3 from 1:3.5. It is still a long way to go, but I am only going to shift the balance to my side more and more quickly. There is little doubt that I will crush them like midnight mosquitos. It is just a matter of how long it takes me to reach their juicy, full-of-wonder capitals...

Spoiler :

192. Here I made a little chart tracking down the Literacy percentage displayed in the demograph screen. Ideally I want to make a plot about "flasks per turn" with the number of free techs given on both teams. But I can also get some discussions from this - I can roughly separate the game into the following stages:

(1) Very early game to National College
The AIs have their 1.84 times of regular research rate. Maybe they are able to get a few free techs from Antient Ruins, too.

(2) National Library to Medieval
The National College greatly acclerated my own research, so I closed the gap by a little bit. The gap stablized during the Medieval Era, when both team slowed down probably due to more expensive techs.

(3) Education, Scholasticism, and beyond
University and City States' contribution tripled my flask count in less than 10 turns. While the AIs must have also benefited from their own universities, City States' contribution are exclusively mine. And I am quickly taking their cities with Rifleman and Cannon. Together, that makes a huge difference on research rate. I was able to finally catch up in early Turn 140s and take off.

The graph really does not reflect that fact that I focused almost all of my attention into military techs (except for Education after Steel), and that's what matters! They AIs can lead me in all other techs and build all the fancy things, but if I have the army one generation ahead, I am going to take their city with fancy things!

 

[Deau]

Sweet little number crunching regarding tech costs evolution

And nice walkthrough of your strat and whatnot, I've had a blast doin my lifetime first diety dom as japan today after 3 weeks of serious civ5 play. I have to aknowledge though I still def prefer Mongols' Khan UU for warmongering.

Deau

 

[maltz]

T. End Game

There are two common end-game military approaches. (1) Mechanized Infantry + Rocket Artillery (middle route of the tech tree) (2) Nuclear Missle (lower route of the tech tree).

The first option is the most intuitive, since by then the player must have a large number of heavily promoted melee and siege units. Mechanized Infatry + Blitz is a city-conquering monster! And it appears quite quickly. The latter is more of a desparate backup option. I have 0 experience in nuclear missles, but I always hear people saying how powerful it is. It seems that the next patch will fix a problem where cities can still be nuked during peace time.

Spoiler :

193. Here comes a map of what was going on. With 5 capitals under me and 3 under the other team, we all know who is going to be owned. So let's just blow through the rest and shorten their pain.

Spoiler :

194. The 6th Great General is born! Another 1200 EXP in 17 turns. As there is no worry for money, I let him join the Second Division to provide a better coverage of the line.

Spoiler :

195. CS Almaty gave me a Lancer unit so I can help killing a dying unit before getting killed. Almaty still did not have an Artillery, though.

Spoiler :

196. Took the next Greek city, Argos. Not a useful city at all - scheduled for demolition.

Spoiler :

197. The US invasion keeps coming. I moved my Workers forward, hoping to lure them into my territory. But they didn't take the bait and... just moved around.

Spoiler :

198. Bought two Artillery units for the Third Division to make it 4.

Spoiler :

199. Napoleon launched an interesting sea invasion. I didn't have any ship nearby as this is sort of a Mediterranian sea with its gate controlled by Greece. Each of my Artillery shot only takes away 4 hit points. However, since two of them have double attacks, I am still killing them quite effectively - very effectively when they make the landing. Try harder, Napoleon.

Spoiler :

200. There is one more Chinese city in the mountain. Gem to the empire!

Spoiler :

201. If I need happiness urgently, I would opt for Cultural Diplomacy for a very quick fix. But in this game I have a really poor variety of resources from City States, so the effect would be very limited. I instead want to have a long-term investment in Order, where Planned Economy will give me -1 unhappiness per city.

Spoiler :

202. The American army circled around, and a barbarian Warrior has bravely step forward - only to be overkilled by an Artillery shot. I guess there is a barbarian camp two tils west, in that tiny shaddow.

Spoiler :

203. Took one more Greek city! Finally there is no more light blue, but medium blue and dark blue. Pharsalos has no resources, but is located at a very strategic location as the gateway to the western Pangaea through the south route. This one stays.

Spoiler :

204. I parked my Artillery in Pharsalos and had a good time removing French and American units...
My research in Replacable Part has completed. It is time to upgrade Rifleman to Infantry!