konata_LS
Prince
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2021
- Messages
- 381
Well played.The turn before the tech leader declared war on me and the game was lost shortly after. One picture.
Spoiler :
The key problem was that the Ottomans were "pleased" with everyone the whole time. Every time I attack a player, I got "-1 you declared war on a friend" which accumulated. No tech trading meant I had limited diplomatic options.
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Discussion for @konata_LS
I believe I lost because my micromanagement was not good enough. I still believe my overall strategy was sound.
Spoiler :
- Oracle or Great Lighthouse.
- Three Great Scientists. The 2nd for optics, the 3rd and 4th for astronomy. The 1st is probably not a GS. Settle it as a super specialist.
- After astronomy, go down the military-science path and take land. More units and more cities is better than infrastructure. Rathaus + TGL was doing ridiculous work.
- My eventual plan was ICBMs, galleons, and rifles. I could have done it if I wasn't attacked. The Ottomans had mechanised infantry but otherwise the tech rate wasn't impressive.
I don't think religious or cultural were options. If we committed to building the AP, then our normal development would have been delayed even more, and then our optics date will be slower than a normal astronomy date, by which point everyone is already in free religion. With cultural, you have to get astronomy and then wait for religions to spread, which is too late. NTT makes diplomatic difficult, even the backdoor (farmville) variety.
Sorry about that unlucky DoW. You've got impressive progress for such a tough start and against many strong AI opponents. The lonely island of HRE is really poor. If I played this map on Monarch, I would click on Retire around T30 or just reroll the map from T0.
Spoiler :
It's hard to tell if micromanagement is good or not without a save. Plus I'm terrible at managing my workers and cities so I'm not competent enough to judge others' micromanagement

I agree with your strategic choices: try an early wonder, generating some GPP, conquer land after Astro, aiming at military or UN victory. You're also right about the diplo situation with these AIs: many of them have similar peace weight, and more than half of them love HR. Even under different state religions, most of them are pleased with each other. The accumulated -1 penalty from "declare war on our friend" may lead to a bad surprise.
Another downside of these AIs is the peaceful vassal. AIs who loves HR often go for early Monarchy, which leads to early Feudalism --> vassal state unlocked. In an off-line game that I lost on Emperor, far away 6 city Capac peace vassal to 15 city Gilgamesh, Capac finished Pentagon, Giggle got Infantry while I still used Muskets and cannons. Rage-quit.
In terms of the early wonders, I think Oracle, GLH, and GLib are all potential choice. However, each of them has some risk:
1) it's possible to lose oracle, as the AIs who like HR tend to tech PH-Monarchy and build early oracle. Especially Louis and Capac are IND.
2) GLH is tempting but Hannibal has a coastal start with high

3) GLib is not secure neither. Both Sully and Louis have high culture flavour. Louis has both cheap library and cheap wonders. "Louis for GLib" is similar to "Roosevelt for GLH".
Grabbing one of these wonders would be of great help for the empire. OTOH, with a weak leader like Charlie, I don't think we can build all of three wonders. We need to carefully think about our choice and execute it quickly.
The jungle in Charlie's island is terrible: unlike forests, the jungle is somewhat a "black hole" which swallows countless worker turns to clean it without any

Thanks for sharing your write-up and opinions. Hope you've learnt or practised something from this map.