Can anyone win from this?

[zerksees]

Highlights:

1040 AD –
Buy military tradition and silks from Japan giving wines, 75 gold and 85 gpt
Sell military tradition and wines to India collecting physics, 32 gold and 10 gpt

IBT – Byzantines declare war on Japan
William demands 20 gold and world map. I tell him to stuff it – and he declares war on us

1050 AD –
Carthage joins us in the fight against the evil Dutch. We give theology and collect 15 gold plus 3 gpt for the military alliance

1100 AD –
India now has printing press so our monopoly attempt won’t work.
Someone is taking cities from Portugal

1110 AD –
Founded Tyrana in the west to fill open tiles we already control.

1120 AD –
Byzantines were eliminated from the game on the last IBT.
Dutch have sent 8 cavalry so far, which we have eliminated costing 3 units. They are headed for Tarsus which I have purposely left undefended, except for the medieval infantry and trebs waiting just outside.

I did not realize the Dutch were so close. I will look to end this war after 20 turns.

 

[eldar]

Playing "fast" with minimal MM is fine at Monarch, I tend to do this whilst watching TV at the same time, most of the games that I start this way go unfinished! Monarch is certainly the highest level I can play on total auto-pilot, with distractions (TV, wife, cat, dinner, armageddon, that sort of thing...). Which probably explains why I don't tend to play above Monarch much, because there's always at least two distractions I can't shut out.

 

[jb1964]

Go Zerks go!

@eldar, I do the same for solo games. Monarch games are near impossible to lose if you're giving it half your attention. Emperor is another matter. Most, OK all, of my casual Emperor games have ended.... quickly.

 

[zerksees]

Highlights

The war with the Dutch continues.

In 1150 AD India signs MA with the Dutch against us. Didn’t I tell you they were evil?

1240 AD – made a trade with Japan. Buy theory of gravity and silks paying 60 gpt, wines and 213 gold.

1255 AD- Finally our first leader is born from elite medieval infantry attack on Dutch cavalry. Create a medieval infantry army with it. Start heroic epic next turn.

1270 AD – Our second leader is born. Another medieval infantry army is formed. (The only elite attacking units we have are now all leader creators.)

This is enough success to prompt me to end the wars. Had to pay 6 gpt and 15 gold to India and 9 gpt to the Dutch. Apparently we are still at war with Portugal.

Set up embassies with India and Dutch

Overall since 1120 AD we were 27-8 in our attacks, losing medieval infantry and longbow, while defeating cavs and a few rifles. Every single landing was where I expected as all the AI want undefended Tarsus. Too bad there is a large stack of trebuchets waiting when they land.

I am starting to eye Carthage as the next target. Start building ships and more units along with the infra updates

1275 AD – Sell wines to India for furs, 51 gold and 4 gpt

1300 AD – Portugal pays 65 gold and 3 gpt for peace. I never even attacked them. I have been warning the Dutch to get their boats out. Officially out from under the dogpile!

1310 AD IBT – Japan demands world map and 59 gold. I decline and they declare. Argh. So much for my intended target. The nice part is we got out of our payments to them for techs.

1315 AD – With free cash I buy steam power from the Dutch for 140 gpt. Immediately ask them to remove or declare and they declare war! Free tech thank you very much (well actually it cost the two galleons they sank).
I them buy ironclads from Gandhi for 40 gold and 70 gpt.

Thank goodness we have coal!

IBT – Gandhi joins Dutch in alliance against us. Man do the Dutch have deep pockets. Just as well as I get a free tech.

1320 AD- We can build Iron Works in Tarsus. Wow first time I recall a good city with iron and coal, so I switch the build.

I have been working on nationalism with one scientist. With all the freed up gpt up science to 60%

IBT - the Dutch are coming back to get us. Oooooh I am so scared.

1355 AD – Big turn. 8 Dutch units and 4 Japan cavs all land on the same turn. It is a stretch but they all die costing one medieval infantry.

Decide to talk with Japan. Sign them into MA against the Dutch for 24 gpt.

IBT – India declares war on Japan
Someone stole my military plans! “Deep Pockets” William I would guess. Why bother as he already knows where all my stuff is.

1360 AD – We get our third leader wiping out Indian invading units! I build an army and let it sit empty.
Buy saltpeter from Japan for wines and 15 gpt. Do you smell some treb upgrades?
Make peace with India costing 8 gpt.
Trade with India – get horses and dyes, give wines and 7 gpt. Do you smell cavalry?

We are now 5th in score. Dutch 1569, Japan 1315, India 1088, Carthage 703 and we have 683. We will pass Carthage

So far we are 40-3 since the wars started again. Remarkably it is now quiet as the Dutch are fighting Japan. We are building Iron Works, cavalry, ironclads and upgrading all our 17 trebs to cannon.

1400 AD IBT – the Indians decide they like William’s money better and join him in an alliance against us again. Our horse supply is cut off but we have enough cavs to build a cav army.

Frustration has set in for the night. I really want to crush Carthage to get some more nearby land but have not been able to do that yet. Have enough galleons but need to get out from under the dogpile again. I think I am going to sell my map to cut the value of it and stop these crazy demands. I may go after Portugal and some Dutch islands if this continues and I can’t get peace.

The Dutch are way ahead in tech but the Indians and Japanese are close, so if I can keep them at war with the Dutch the tech pace should slow down some.

We did finish nationalism and started on electricity. I want to build Theory of Evolution. I hope to trade elec for medicine and try to be the first to build TOE.

After that we need espionage and communism.

 

[zerksees]

OK so now I am addicted to this game again.

1400 AD the AI dogpile continues as India joins the Dutch against us.

I am preparing units to go do some damage to the Dutch

1415 AD – India signs Carthage into a military alliance against us. And Carthage signed their death warrant. Also see the Dutch have infantry.

1425 AD – Take Rusicade (size 7) and raze it. What – no workers! Oh well had a 3-man chariot along and used it to start our golden age! Palace expands

1435 AD – Razed Leptis Magna. Took Sabratha (just off the east coast of our main land) was first Carthage, then Japan then Dutch) from the Dutch. Passed Carthage in score

1445 AD – Make peace with India paying 9gpt. Give 59 gpt and wines for electricity. Change Tarsus to military academy (TOE prebuild). Get communism from Japan giving electricity and 46 gpt.

I want to switch to communism but right now corruption is low and I hate to give up the gold so I wait.

1455 AD – Buy medicine from India paying 10 gold and 101 gpt.
Carthage falls and is razed – we took out 4 NM and one musket. I had founded a city nearby.
Renew peace with Japan, and the palace expands again

1460 AD – Sold medicine to Japan for 295 gold, 11 gpt, ivory and silks.
Make peace with Portugal collect 25 gold and world map
Palace expands again

1465 AD – Made peace with Dutch. They would give 470 gold. Instead I give 300 gold and 187 gpt to get scientific method. This is expensive but I will have TOE in 4 turns. Tarsus is producing over 100 shields per turn with the golden age.

1470 AD – Utica and Oea fall. Planted a new city to replace Oea – it has coal.

1475 AD – Leptis Minor is taken and we keep that one. Hannibal has two cities left. Moving settlers to fill the gaps. On the IBT we complete Theory of Evolution and take replaceable parts and atomic theory!

We can build infantry in 1 turn in Tarsus.

The Dutch have no rubber. They were already building Hoover Dam so I knew they had the next tech- so no monopoly techs but still good techs.

1485 AD – We take and keep Theveste and Hippo, and Carthage is out of the game.
Trade scientific method to India collecting sanitation, spices, furs and 18 gold
Basically gave it to Japan for 30 gold, democracy and world map

Carthage had horses, two rubber and coal, and two out of three they were never aware of.

1490 AD – Start economics at 20% - no one has the tech yet so I can build Smiths.

1495 AD – Finish settling Carthage lands

1500 AD – another palace expansion

1510 AD – Sold atomic theory to Japan for Industrialization, free artistry, 76 gold and 6 gpt. Basically gave it away to Gandhi for dyes.
I spent a lot of time building infrastructure and some new units.

Also MM to maximize gold so I can finish economics. Several adjustments on the science slider and where the citizens were working

1525 AD – All the MM almost pays off except the golden age ends and we run short on gold. Lost a worker and a temple to the deficit.

1530 AD – After some MM was able to get positive gold with science set at 105 – economics in 1 turn. Start a prebuild for Smiths in Tarsus

1555 AD – Buy espionage and the corporation from India giving economics, 55 gpt and wines. Sell economics to the Dutch for 640 gold.

1560 AD Smiths is completed on the IBT! OK that’s two wonders I never thought I could build in this game.

1565 AD – Sell replaceable parts to Japan for ivory, 70 gold and world map. They are the arch enemy to the Dutch, and I want them to have infantry. Renew peace with the Dutch on the IBT

1570 AD – Dutch are in modern times!

1575 AD – Time for Portugal to pay the piper. They have 3 cities. Declare war then invade. They have spearman and lognbow, we have armies and artillery.

Bought electricity from India (the Hoover Dam tech) paying 800 gold and 46 gpt.

1590 AD – Portugal’s third and final city is taken and they are out of the game. I now have foothold on two islands near the Dutch and Indian empires

1600 AD – Palace expands again.
1620 AD – Palace expands again

1625 AD – We are trying to plant a spy on William and he declares war on us. Here we go again. The first thing we did was take Nagasaki from him, so we completely control an island now.

We paid off India to get a military alliance with us against the Dutch. Japan was still at war with the Dutch.

1670 AD – lost a med inf army attacking infantry in a size 7 city (Dan Helder). Not enough artillery support. Our spy plant finally worked and we get a look at the Dutch military. We already know they have TOW infantry, tanks and mech inf. They look pretty solid, but nothing a big stack of artillery can’t fix.

We are bogged down in the war with the Dutch.

BTW lots of stock exchanges are up, as is Wall Street and Intelligence Agency. Also some hospitals, and civil engineers at work in outlying areas on mkts, courthouses etc.

Tarsus is still making over 90 spt post golden age so infantry can be built in one turn.

1690 AD – We have been buying techs from India as they come out. Just bought combustion and found we can upgrade ironclads to destroyers! I have started the process of bringing all ships in for upgrade.

This one is not over yet folks!

We are going to regroup our forces and go back and take two Dutch cities in the south to get control over the other island. By then our friend Gandhi will have motorized transportation and/or flight and we can get to the next phase of wrecking the Dutch. I just hope I can take them down before they launch the space ship.

 

[jb1964]

I am totally loving this.

At first it seemed you made quite a few trades for techs you didn't really need but it made more sense as you said you were heading for Commie.

The techs you have gotten at a "war discount" are a scream.

Putting a big enough dent in the Dutch to knock them out is going to be a feat. I have not even seen the map but I surmise that the landing of a stack of arty, inf, settler (or more for commie rushing) is in their future.

If you decide to break the addiction then please post your last save. Thanks.

 

[Corwin of Amber]

Yeah I'm really digging this too. Keep it up. Who says emperor is easy?

 

[zerksees]

1700 AD IBT - Palace expansion. The people love zerksees

1705 AD - We have four infantry and 4 arty on the door of Den Helder. 12 destroyers, 6 infantry, 3 artilleries en route

1710 AD - IBT Japan and Dutch make peace

1725 AD - We take down Don Helder (lets count the cities (#1)). The had lost a city or two to us prior to this but now we are starting to take cities they founded.
Celebrate by stealing flight from the Dutch carefully for 2484 gold
Sell rubber to Gandhi collecting furs and 330 gold
Sell flight to Gandhi for 550 gold

IBT - Collect 355 gold from Gandhi to renew our MA vs the Dutch. Imagine, he is paying us to keep up the war.

1740 AD - Japan declares war on India. This is not good for my plan.

1756 AD - More cleanup. We finally take Leiden (#2). This is a city on an island. I want to clear them off the lands south of the main continent. I razed this city size 12 IIRC but no free workers again! I can see this game still has a few bugs in it.

1764 - Stole motorized transportation carefully for 2508 gold
Palace expands on the IBT.

1766 - Breda falls (#3). Bombers are wicked. Dutch start internet on IBT. They are going to need more than the internet to stop me.

1768 - Stole computers from the Dutch carefully. Mechanized infantry coming right up.

1770 - Sold oil to India collect two workers, map, 67 gold and 22 gpt. Every coin counts

1772 - Sell refining to Japan for silks, 84 gold and 4 gpt. They thank me by demanding horses on the IBT. I thought about this for a minute but in the end I gave it to them. My plans are not going to be affected by a petty demand for a useless resource.

1774 - Start planning invasion of the Dutch mainland. The city of Middleburg is a size 12 on the coast not far from the new Hittite cities on the islands south of the Dutch mainland.

1780 - Stole fission carefully for 2585 gold.

1784 - I did not write the details, but last turn my main force landed last turn. With artillery and bomber support we were able to take Middleburg (#4) and raze it. To my relief they did not attack my stack after it landed. They have been challenging my ships but with naval superiority we have been faring better in the battles. The ironclad to destroyer upgrade worked out real well.
Put a new city - Fort Hittites - on the spot we landed directly next to the ruins of Middleburg.
No serious attempt to take Ft. Hittites on the IBT

1786 - Move the troops forward and raze Karachi. This was a size 5 so barely worth it but I want to clear the whole landmass as I move north. Had to raise luxury up to 30%. The republic is handling the war OK up to this point. Bad thing is my allies are losing their cities and therefore the luxuries they have been selling me.
Ft. Hittites is in anarchy. 66% cannot forgive the cruel oppression and 33% say no more draft! What? I just founded the city and it is size 1. I write it off to game bug - does anyone know what is going on here? Change the citizen to engineer

1788 - Careful steal attempt fails. This is the first fail. When planting the spy originally it took about 5 tries to do it successfully but the tech steals have been working well up to this point. We lost the spy this time.
Also, we are running +500 gold per turn or more so we can steal techs every 5 turns or so.
UN is due in 10 turns

1790 - Start MA with Japan vs the Dutch. Give them combustion and collect 114 gold. Raze Holwerd (size 17) (#5) - a major metropolis size 17 when it was razed. This one I keep for a turn to expedite moving on the next city.

1792 - Unhappiness is up again. Many cities up to 40% of citizens "all we're saying is give peace a chance". The build pace slows to a crawl on the UN. Republic no longer suits my needs so we go to anarchy.

1796 - Raze Delft (#6). This is a size 22 city when I take it.
At some point the bombers could not reach the cities and they were moved to Fort Hittites

1802 - Took Groningen (#7). This was size 28 at the start of the attack. Most of our artillery is on the Dutch mainland now, so we can hit them with 25+ arty each turn plus about 8 bombers. Gained a couple arty from this take. We sold off the improvements inside, and plan to use this city to hlep advance units faster.
IBT - Palace expands again - while we are still in anarchy!

1804 - Abandon Groningen

1806 - Anarchy is over and we are now communist.
MM everything and we are over 500 gold per turn again.
Our scientist has been working on ecology.
I cost a couple mech infantry but Arnhem - another size 20 or so - is razed (#8).

UN in 9 turns

1808
Sell rubber to Japan to get 4 workers, 70 gold, and bolster their defense against the Dutch

We are at 31% of area and 41% of population, the Dutch are at 29% and 46%. Losing big cities hurts. Our military still weak compared to them.

I have some airports online, and have established an airfield near the front lines. I also cut most of the roads so there is only one way in to Fort Hittites.

1812 - IBT Japan and Dutch make peace. This won't do.

1814 - Japan gladly declare war on Dutch and give us 218 gold for our flight technology

1816 - On the IBT spotted Dutch units in the free zone. Discover Gandhi has a settler. This won't do, so I sign him into the war again for oil.
Speaking of oil, the Dutch only have one source, so we have been bombing it to keep it disconnected.
Rotterdam is taken and razed (#9)

1818 - Our second safe steal attempt fails. Oh well.

1820 - UN done in 1 turn. Did some gifting to Tokugawa and Gandhi. Units in position to take two more core Dutch cities.

 

[zerksees]

Here is the save right before gifting to India and Japan: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/CAWFT1820AD.JPG

I thought I could quit here but that did not work. I played it forward again from 1820 without the vote and wrecked their entire core. Here is the short version:
1824 raze Leindhoven
1830 mobilize
1834 Utrecht is razed
1842 The Hague is razed, stole miniaturization
1852 Amsterdam was stubborn, but it too falls. Our bomber stack is growning. Steal attempt fails
1856 Maastricht is razed, and Haarlem (IIRC) is taken. The conquest of the core is done, now we go east
1860 Take Emerita.
1864 Bengal and Guimaraes are taken. Japan declares war when we are caught planting a spy - they have 2 cities
Had a naval showdown off our coast and wrecked most of the Dutch fleet of 12 destroyers.
1866 Take Leiria
1868 Take Oporto

With loss of their old core and no oil there is little doubt they will be crushed. But my Corvette is calling me again.

All this with less than 200 units, most of the time under 150.

I would say emperor is easy.

 

[Corwin of Amber]

I would say emperor is easy.[/QUOTE]

HAHAHAHAHAH:lol:

Well it it isn't a cake walk, it takes management and strategy etc., but yeah, it ain't so hard.

 

[jb1964]

Very nice. I think my next Emperor game will be to allow/enable one civ to become dominant and then take 'em out at the knees. [edit: After cruising around some other threads I had the thought that I have not had a game w/ tanks in some time. They're all ending w/ Cavalry and Inf. Yep, let's let an AI get outta control.]

I had shied away from solo emperor games for a long time only joining in the emp and DG SG games when the other players could save me from myself. Anyway, I have been running through civ after civ at this level playing mainly continent maps and not having a problem. I must confess that I have not been playing w/ barbs. I find them annoying.

At Emp level the AI only starts w/ one settler but gets the 20% break on all builds and I suspect techs as well. This is not hard for a human to overcome.

Our military still weak compared to them.

Ya, right! But the field general is a might bit more clever.

@Zerks,

Your people love you and so do we. Thanks for the entertainment, education, and a great read.

 

[zerksees]

Thanks for the entertainment, education, and a great read.

You are quite welcome. Have you read all my other threads - including the war academy articles in my sig?

 

[azzaman333]

You are quite welcome. Have you read all my other threads - including the war academy articles in my sig?

You just cant resist sometihng which is "unwinnable" can you?

 

[zerksees]

You just cant resist sometihng which is "unwinnable" can you?

I did resist this for several months, but it is part of the addiction what can I say

 

[jb1964]

You are quite welcome. Have you read all my other threads - including the war academy articles in my sig?

Multiple times. Learned the power of artillary that way.

When I first showed up here, a few posts ago , I went through the academy files several times. That got me to Regent overnight. Joining up w/ SG's and reading more got me to Monarch and then Emp. And joining up w/ Soul Warrior, Tubby, Harriet, Gator, etc. and the gang taught me that most of us are a spearman short of battalion. And hillarity ensued.

And although I'm getting a bit burnt out, must be the summer weather, I still like to pots around here and read.