Climb the Ladder III: Suryavarman - Prince

[TheMeInTeam]

I'd say its a key skill for any difficulty level jump, really. It severely hampered me jumping to emperor and even worse to immortal (my jump from noble to monarch, which can actually be seen across the early NC games, was straight warmonger death charging! I started in NC II and wheezed out a UN on Prince (one of my earliest prince wins)...then in Kublai Khan ran keshiks into the world and hit borderline strike repeatedly...really in my first 5-6 games in NC I was pretty weak at the difficulties I was playing!)...the balance is tough.

IMO cap management and sources of commerce (usually cottages) can REALLY lengthen an expansion phase. Indeed, this map was set for it. Lots of lumber, underrated expansive, and just as importantly gold, ivory, wine, and spice...the first 2 adding +2 almost instantly. That's an extra 2 cottages or 2 hills to work, per city, and that's BEFORE counting the gold or massive riverside. There are even some nice hill sites to be worked! But my ability to read maps is too young to take all that for granted - I know very well how hard it can be to see the map and say "this is probably best"...I still screw it up somewhat:

One of the harder things, especially for a player who runs through turns very quickly like me, is seeing the strategic path just by looking at the map. Everyone approaches this differently. Some will do math to weigh grassland/good tiles vs others...or likelihood of settling coastal. Some will try to force an economy no matter what, or like I used to war constantly even when one might be better served in a different direction. But seeing that ahead of time, via nearby leaders, tiles you can (probably) settle and work, the timeframe they come online, etc...you either work it out carefully, or play soooooooooooooo many games that an eyeball approach is semi-viable...I wind up doing the latter since I have the patience of a little kid haha.

 

[JTMacc99]

I thought Paris should be a production city and it would be good at that, but I completely forgot it has a shrine in it. It also has 2 cottages already built.

That city will be an absolute monster, and you could even consider moving the palace there when you get Civil Service. It looks like you could cottage every single flat-land and mine ever single grassland hill without working a single farm. Once you've got democracy, a levee, railroads, and a factory that city will probably be cranking out a 100 hammers, 200 gold and 150 research per turn even without bureaurcracy.

 

[dankok8]

Definitely expand. Expansion is one of Sury's stronger points. He gets cities online faster than anyone else. No need for Monuments, cheap granaries to enable faster whipping of the essential buildings. Claim the happy resources, use Expansive to health limit and get Baray for even faster upwards expansion.

If you're short on happies, get Monarchy for unlimited happiness. You won't tank the economy as long as you grow the cities up fast enough and you work cottages with the pop. You need food and happiness resources for that. By the time you get CoL and Currency, the game ought to be yours.

I agree. Expanding now is better than killing him. Tech trading + the fact that he is boxed in, won't go anywhere and might even build a wonder or two is good. I don't think I'll be short on happies too much. I'm pretty close to Currency too as of now.

Suggestions for the walkthrough:

1. Build order was Worker, Warrior, Worker, Settler, Warrior, but Princes wouldn't understand the factors that let you to decide on this build order. Clarify please. You would particularly need to explain the benefits of Forest-chopping and why it's better to click the "chop" icon rather than the "farm" icon.

2. You built Chariots. This is a habit of higher level players. Lower level players on Prince have no special need of Chariots to survive. Why is it beneficial to build Chariots for Barbarian defense when you could just fog bust with Warriors? Is it necessary to fog bust with Warriors? Why is it good to build Chariots rather than city improvements?

3. Why did you research Math before Masonry? Nobles would not know that universally, though some might.

4. You "saw" that de Gaulle only had an Archer and a Warrior for defense. How did you do that? Why is scouting important and at what point in the game do you stop sending units for scouting? When is Open Borders beneficial and when is it NOT beneficial?

5. Angkor Thom. Why did you build it where you did? City Placement is an important Civ skill. At Immortal, games can be decided based on how well you placed your cities. How would you expect this city to perform in the immediate and the long term? What is this "blocking" you're talking about, and why is it important to learn that?

6. Why are you thinking of researching Iron Working to settle the Jungle territories when you have so much land around your own lands that you can settle profitably? On Prince, the AIs are notably slow on settling. You can settle Gold/Pig and Cow/Wine without much difficulty - and no need for IW.

You're right I didn't elaborate enough.

1. Worker is always first on non-coastal starts if it has something to do. I only go warrior first if I start with a leader that start with 2 of Wheel, hunting, and Mysticism. If you start mysticism and one of the other 2 for example, there would often be nothing for the first worker to do if you're going for an early religion so in that case, I go warrior first - defense + city can hopefully grow to size 2. If a start is coastal and has seafood, I often go workboat first.

In my particular build order, I went warrior after worker because Bronze Working has not been done yet so I couldn't yet chop the 2nd worker. Building a second worker the old fashioned way right after the first would have stunted my growth too much in this case. Chopping a second worker was a good move though after the warrior since there were many resources in the BFC that could be improved. Finding no copper at that time upon finishing Bronze Working, I went after Animal Husbandry to reveal Horses and started on a settler. Getting a strategic resource early is very important. A second warrior was built in Yaso to protect it as the first warrior escorted the settler.

2. Chariots are fast and so they let you respond to a barb threat coming from any direction. Barbs are everywhere unlike the AI so it's tough to predict the direction of attack. Fast defenders allow a swift response and can often kill the barb warrior, archers, and axemen before they get a chance to pillage improvements either. If the barbs are attacking with swordsmen, get axemen!!

3. I wasn't planning to build the Oracle or any other marble-needing wonders so I didn't need to improve my Marble early on. I improved it eventually mainly for production increase.

4. I opened border with De Gaulle and spied on his cap with my scout since I planned on rushing him from the very beginning as I saw how close he was. Scout well throughout the game!! I cannot stress this enough. Enemy troop distribution can make destroying even a more powerful civilization a breeze. Open borders is almost always beneficial imo for trade route income with 2 exceptions:
I) If I block an AI like I did Roosevelt. Opening borders with him and letting him settle the area I blocked off does not make sense. Now that he is adopted Islam and he will spread, I don't even need to open borders to spread it to him so I never will.
II) If I have a very large empire. In that case, I'm better off running Mercantilism as an economic civic for a free specialist. No foreign trade routes in that case hurts the AI more than me.

5. The primary purpose of Angkor Thom was to block off Roosevelt from that expanse in the northeast. Blocking AI gives them less land to work with which leads to weakness in production, research etc. Another purpose of the city was to claim gold --> increases happy cap by 1, allowing my cities to grow a size larger + gives me a production bonus for Shwedagon Paya which I may build.

6. I researched Iron Working for Iron. Having only Chariots for defense is dangerous as a few Spearmen can completely conquer. As of now, I have still not connected the Iron so I would be playing with fire had I not researched Construction and had Ivory. If he attacks, I can chop/whip a Ballista or two and problem solved. Also I doubt Roosy is gonna attack. My power rating is higher and he still has a bit of space to expand. Thus, jungle clearing wasn't the primary reason.

That city will be an absolute monster, and you could even consider moving the palace there when you get Civil Service. It looks like you could cottage every single flat-land and mine ever single grassland hill without working a single farm. Once you've got democracy, a levee, railroads, and a factory that city will probably be cranking out a 100 hammers, 200 gold and 150 research per turn even without bureaurcracy.

Yep, I know.

 

[Roxlimn]

dankok8:

Great wrap-up. If I may elaborate my thoughts on the points further:

1. Initial Build Order

For coastal starts, improving the Coastal Resource with a Workboat is often the best start as it allows you to nab a powerful tile while also growing to size 2. For in-land starts, starting with Worker so you can improve your tiles ASAP is often optimal. An Expansive Leader like Suryavarman gets a premium on this initial build, so he's faster off the gates.

If you're after Henge (not Creative) and Expansive, getting the second Worker right off could be beneficial if you have a lot of Forests to chop, can get BW in time, and have tiles to improve after. Otherwise, it's usually wiser to wait until the Capital grows to size 2 or 3 in order to work more tiles before queuing the second Worker.

Chopping out Workers works for all Civs and leaders, but is especially great with Expansive because they get hammer bonuses on the Worker.

It's not imperative to start on the Settler ASAP, especially if you have good tiles to work and the Workers necessary for their improvement. In this start, we get Ivory nearly instantly and Archery is just a cheap tech away from Hunting. Some players believe that growing the Capital to size 6 to improve tech rate at the start and for better commerce actually makes expansion faster. There's no doubt that a higher-pop capital has more production, in any case.

Going for the early Horses here was beneficial because dankok8 (surmising here, I'm not the OP) decided early that he wanted to rush de Gaulle, and you don't rush with Warriors at that distance on this level.


3. Tech Order

Knowing your necessities up the tech path is important. If you don't need Sailing, it's okay not to have it or trade for it at all. The Oracle is a late enough wonder on this level that there's no rush to get started on it. You probably want to slingshot it late for more tech, if you're going after it at all. Getting Math allows you to make more from the Chop, and you could even sling that with Marble here for an even more obscene hammer return.


5. Iron Working

Specifically, Chariots don't take out Swordsmen nearly as well as they do Axemen, and Spearmen would ruin your day entirely. It's not uncommon for players to tech IW to look for metals for military purposes if Copper is not within reach. On higher levels, you could make do with Archers and Walls and use IW to chop out Jungle sites, which the AI isn't as keen on settling quickly.

In this particular game, though, I honestly thought the OP had researched IW out of habit to hack out sites in the Jungle for expansion, figuring the AI would beat him to the closer sites. With Gold to fuel research, a decent production capital, and Math already in the bag, going HBR for HAs, then Construction for Bridge Building, Cats, and Ellies would be my personal tech-of-choice for the situation. Of course, I would have researched IW eventually and would probably be in much the same research standing OP ended up with!

Higher than Prince, I would go IW, too.

 

[dankok8]

675-75BC

Here we go. I've been busy for the past 2 days so finally an update. Not a long round, but there is a major decision point.

I start off the round by capturing this barb city to the east with my veteran chariots from the French war. It was easy pickings.





I also got 2 events, one good one bad:





I also settled a city in the far north to begin boxing Cyrus in:



Currency was finished soon after and I started on Aesthetics. During this entire round, my cities build a few catapults, axemen, and workers but mostly infrastructure (colosseums, granaries, barays) to promote vertical growth. Aesthetics was my next choice because I want to research Literature soon for the Great Library. I may also build the Statue of Zeus for denial purposes and/or Shwedagon Paya. I have gold and ivory so either should not be a problem.

Also, it's good to disband your warriors after you have better units since they are of no use and cost a lot to upgrade. Until the end of the round I founded one more city to the northwest to finish boxing in Cyrus to his peninsula in the north.



As I was one turn from Aesthetics, I stopped there. Cyrus had originally converted to Islam as had I, but now he went to Judaism which he founded.

State of the World:

Domestic:



Military:



Religion:



Power:



Demo:



Our Core:



Northwest + Cyrus:



Washington:



Unclaimed Areas:





My Thoughts:
1) Our population is almost 4X our nearest rival. We are growing well.
2) We are also leading in everything else except GNP where we are a close second.
3) Cyrus managed to capture that barb city before I blocked him out. It's time to close borders with him now. Next tech should be HBR to enable Ballistas. I think I'm gonna leave Washington for a while and attack Cyrus instead. After all, he's more dangerous and has a different religion.
4) I have to get at least one of SoZ/S. Paya as well as GL built in the next round.

 

[JTMacc99]

Cyrus has access to all three strategic resources, which is annoying. Washington... nothing but horses. You could probably stomp him with an invasion force of 6 elephants, two catapults (just in case you want to knock down some culture) and a couple of the old chariots just for flavor. The question is, do you want those cities now, or do you want to wait until he settles the silver and the beavers for you first.

The worst that is likely to happen from waiting is that he'll put his cities in crappy spots and that he'll have longbows by the time you're done with the other guy.

Cyrus, on the other hand, looks like he might be a bit of a pain to completely wipe out in a war right away. With the jumbos, you could certainly gain a lot of ground from him, but can you afford to keep all of those cities at this point in the game? If so, then you might as well go for it!

 

[CreeDakota]

I recommend continued REX versus war. You at 40% slider. I would found cities until at least 20%. Do you have the islam shrine built? Is so spread your religion better, if not work on generating a prophet as the REconomy is great. Also I try and hover around 200 gold surplus spare in case a nice random event pops up that needs cash to capitalize.

Your current army is too weak to crush Cyrus. Just CBorders and continue to box him in. Wipe him out once you get Trebs. Use the veterans from that war to conquer your continent.

How you you plan to win Long Term?

 

[dankok8]

75BC-540AD

Interesting round. We managed to get a lot of things right although a few things remain.

As Aesthetics completed, I went after Mysticism/Meditation (took a total of 3 turns) followed by HBR to enable the UU. There are 2 reasons for this - Myst/Med get me closer to Monarchy which I need to adopt Hereditary Rule and increase my happy cap and secondly it enables S. Paya. S. Paya gives Great Prophet points and I want a GP to build a shrine in Paris + it gives me great flexibility with religious civics without me having to research imo useless techs like Monotheism/Theology.

Anyways, as the round started, this wonder was completed:



It has great synergy with our vertical growth and high health cap leader. A few cities succumbed to temporary unhappiness, but I fixed that pretty quick.

Roosevelt built a pretty good wonder:



An annoying event:



3 of my axemen killed 4 barb spearmen while in a forest and got a few XP. Thanx!! After HBR was done, I went after Alphabet so I can trade some techs with Roosevelt who turned Pleased with me even with closer borders.

S. Paya was done in Yaso:



Raja was founded:



I tried to settle it further west to grab Roosevelt's only source of Iron, but he managed to get there first.

I pulled 3 nice trades with him here:







I filled in a few techs I lacked - Archery allows me to build Horse Archers, Sailing allows me to build a navy (not useful now, but will be later), and Priesthood followed by Monarchy allows me to increase the happy cap. Since I plan to spam military quite a bit, the Khmer people will continue to have many times more kids than any other people in the world.

After Alphabet for the rest of the round, I went for Code of Laws to reduce city maintenance which was hindering my economy and then Calendar to connect Banana, Spices to increase the happy cap.

I immediately switched to HR and OR (helps me build a few buildings I need although I plan to swtich to Theocracy soon for extra XP). I also build an academy with a GS in Paris:





Cyrus wants tribute:



Get lost!!

Washington is prepared to declare on Cyrus although he wants more than I have to offer:



Maybe it's because our closed borders mean that his troops can't even get to Cyrus.

As the round concludes, I build another city:



State of the World:

Domestic:



Economic:



Military:



Tech:



Power:



Demo:



Khmer Empire:



Cyrus:



Unclaimed Land:



Our SoD at Cyrus' borders:



Yaso:



Hari:



Paris:



My Thoughts:
1) Khmer people still having lots of children. We are >3X the next nearest rival in pop and 6 times the average!! We are definitely using Sury's potential for vertical growth so far. This shall continue as I connect 2 Calendar resources. I think we handled the happy cap problem better in this game than in the Joao game.
2) I want that shrine in Paris even though it's not gonna help the economy that much. Lack of foreign trade routes is what is hurting the economy the most - 2 total trade route income in Yaso, come on!! With many cottages and courthouses in every city, I doubt we can raise the science slider above 50%. If I REX off that land to the NE, I can open borders with Washington and this alone with help the economy considerably.
3) Given that Cyrus has 2 axemen defending Gordium, I think we can pummel him pretty bad even if we declare now. I'm thinking a few more Ballistas and Cats, but then although he may get longbowmen. Washington is a friend right now and he seems to be building wonders so I'll let him.
4) First techs next round should be Polytheism/Literature to enable the Great Library which I'm gonna build in Paris.

Anything I missed?!? Btw I really appreciate all the input provided by the readers!!

 

[deathturnip]

As usual, a save would help alot. From what i can see though... there is a fair amount of persian land, and taking it with such an unstable economy could be disastrous. With only ~30 gpt going to science, and no surplus, it wouldnt take many cities to make that a deficite at 0. Perhaps you should wait untill the forbidden palace is unlocked before attacking. perhaps even building it right next to his lands. that should be enough to save 10gpt easy, before you attack. Either way, looks like your stuck with a specialist economy for a while, so when you revolt to vassalage you might want to take caste system as well.

 

[Roxlimn]

My opinions on the current situation:

Fill NE, OB with Roosevelt
Should've teched CoL, not Calendar; tech CoL after Calendar finishes. Was CoL sneaked in earlier?
Land needs more improvements. More workers necessary?
Lib race situation?

 

[dankok8]

540-1110AD

Eventful round. We were busy building military and some settler/workers for most of the round.

Tech Order: Poly-Lit-Civil Service-Paper-Compass-Education

We got a good event early in the round:



We built an academy in Yaso:



As soon as Lit was done, we started on the GL in Paris. After CS was done, we went through a few civic changes.



Since Yaso was tops in production and gold, Bureaucracy would obviously help. Caste System would also since we had a large pop in many cities and could run specialists. Pyramids was done pretty late and we could have built it. Oh well.

We founded a settlement on the northeast coast of the continent:



...and another north of Yaso:



My Ballistas surrounded and captured that barb city on the east coast:





The courthouses helped the economy quite a bit and I could break even at 50% as opposed to 30% even while expanding. The GL was done in Paris:



A Great Merchant was born in Hari and I kept him, being unsure what to do with it. As unoptimal as it may be, I'm thinking of keeping it until Medicine and found Sid's Sushi. It would help vertical growth immensely.

Then, unexpectedly...



What is he thinking?!?



His stack was obliterated; I ended up losing 2 axemen to catapults at 67.3 and 50% odds. I attached a GG to my shock Ellie.



I killed a lot of stray units all over the place and Cyrus had another mini stack.



I don't know how he expects to fight shock elephants with swords and immortals. Meanwhile, that annoying city in the middle of my empire was surrounded and taken with no losses:





Gordium didn't fare that much better as I only lost a single catapult taking it:





I decided to end there.

State of the World:

Domestic:



Military:



Tech:



Power: (Cyrus lost a lot of units this turn so it's probably much lower)



Demo:



Victory:



Cyrus:



Washington:



Continent:



Yaso:



Hari:



Paris:



My Thoughts:
1) I'm not sure whether to finish Cyrus off (shouldn't be that hard...) or capitulate him and move on to Washington. I still have a few more city sites left to REX anyways. I expect to OB with Washington early next round which will relieve the economy quite a bit giving us foreign trade routes. Right now, out cities are making a total of 2 trade route income.
2) Happy cap is suffering now because I have small garrisons as all my troops are off fighting. I really don't have any efficient way to raise happy cap now.
3) I think it is best to go for Domination in this game. Here, Domination might be easier as I have a large continent and only 2 rivals there, both of which are pretty weak.

Anything else?

 

[JTMacc99]

No, don't accept anything other than the complete anihilation of Cyrus. He's got a holy city you still need to make your own, and once you've gotten that far, what would be the point of letting him hang around. It's also much better for the domination victory. It's up to you as to whether or not you want to give him a 10 turn breather before continuing the war.

You could probably let Washington just hang around for a while longer, as with your own and Cyrus's cities, you will soon be able to wipe him out with cavalry and rifles versus longbows and spears.

As you're not really getting any benefit from the 25% bonus for being in organized religion (given that only three of your fourteen cities have the state religion and two of them are building units), you might as well use the ability to build missionaries without monestaries now. Maybe after the elephants and the wonder are done, you might want to take a minute to crank out at least three missionaries to hurry up the relegion spread to the cities you know are going to be working on a building in the near future.

I realize that it doesn't really keep in line with your current war situation, but you are paying for a civic that isn't really doing anything for you.

Other than that nitpick, you seem to be steamrolling towards another victory.

 

[huerfanista]

Spoiler :

Happy cap is suffering now because I have small garrisons as all my troops are off fighting. I really don't have any efficient way to raise happy cap now.

Change to slavery and whip some units out - it's a two-fer. Lowers pop and gives units to raise happy cap under monarchy.

 

[dankok8]

1110-1460AD

In this round, we solved a few of our problems, but as always a few remain.

Tech Path: Education, Feudalism, Philosophy, Gunpowder, Metal Casting, Liberalism, Nationalism (free tech), Machinery, Optics, Printing Press (not finished)

Cyrus still had more units to waste and I didn't mind:



This wonder was done in Hari:



It turned out to help quite a bit as we popped 3 Great Scientists (2 from Paris which is our GS farm). We built academies in Hari and Angkor Thom (city heavily cottaged between Yaso and Paris) and added one as a super scientist in Yaso.

Regardless, as my culture expanded, I could no longer resist this:



The foreign trade routes helped a little, but not a lot contrary to my expectations. Roosy then asked for help and we delivered.



I decided to use my GM from the previous round for some cash:



Our army in the north:



Cyrus' defense:



I ended up taking the city with no losses; even the cats survived. My capital barely missed on U of Sankore. Wait, someone in far away land already has paper. Somebody is teching well...

I founded a city:



Tarsus was besieged and captured with minimal losses:



The grand capital of Persepolis was surrounded by a mob of raging elephants and captured albeit with more losses as Cyrus now had longbows.



I took Nationalism as a free tech for Liberalism. I plan to use the Golden Age from Taj Mahal to really get some troops out as well as switch to Theocracy. I started on Machinery followed by Optics so I can meet the other civs.

Another 2 Persian cities were captured in succession with relatively high casualties; longbows on hills are not easy to take out without trebs:





In Hari, I settled a military instructor and started on the Heroic Epic; due to this city's good production output and proximity to Roosevelt, it's a good military production city.



Meanwhile, the last Persian city was surrounded and captured with significant losses - once again on a hill:



Cyrus is gone and I decide to end there.

State of the World:

Continent:



Domestic:





Military:



Tech:



Power:



Demo:



Victory:



Top Cities:



Yaso:



Hari:



Paris:



My Thoughts:
1) I'll allow the golden age to pass before I invade Roosevelt. During that time, I intend to get some infrastructure up to consolidate the economy, build some military in Hari and collect cash to upgrade troops.
2) I think I should research Military Tradition and Engineering during the golden age. I'll upgrade all Chariots and maybe Elephants to Cuirassiers if I can and build Trebuchets and that should take care of Roosevelt.
3) Someone on the other continent is doing well in tech. They beat me to U of Sankore. That's why I went for Liberalism rather than wait. Being beat would suck.
4) I'm gonna optimize Hari a bit. Gonna construct a few workshops and use the next GG to build a military academy. This is gonna be my main military production city. Yaso is also a production city, but it's gonna end up building wonders and it's also a commerce city. Paris is closest to the GP (GS) farm I have. Right now, I'm letting it grow a bit, but I'll run at least a few more scientist there once it grows.
5) There is not enough land on our continent for domination. Once I see the power rating of the civs on the other continent, I'll decide whether to conquer Roosy and then one civ on the other continent or cap Roosy ASAP and then try to cap everyone else for a conquest victory.

Anything else?

 

[DMOC]

You should conquer Roosevelt. He's right on your continent and easy pickings once you start making some more military units. He's also got the second most land and population on the map...meaning those other civs are smaller!

 

[cripp7]

you're attaching a GG spreading the exp across the whole stack instead of applying that 20 exp to just a single unit, which could be made into a super medic3 or a combat IV elephant. Otherwise looks like a pretty good game

 

[dankok8]

1460-1826AD

This was a huge round in terms of number of pics (really only like 50 turns) so I'm gonna post in 2 parts. I popped about 6 GS during this round and a Great Spy. I used them most for Golden Ages and 2 for bulbing academies. I also popped a Great Priest during the first part and built that Islamic Shrine in Paris.

Part I - to 1735AD

Tech: Engineering, Music, Mil. Tradition, Steel, Scientific Method, Replacable Parts, Rifling, Steam Power

As the round started we entered a Golden Age and I switched civics:





Yea Theocracy would give more XP to my units. Hari also got started on the West Point later on.

We met these 3 on the other continent:







All ridiculously backwards except Vicky who would actually be on par with me in tech later on. Before I invaded Roosevelt, I figure this trade should help me fill on a few techs I missed:



It gives no military advantage to him whatsoever. Drama would especially prove useful to me to raise my culture slider to fight WW as well as grocers from guilds. Chemistry not so much except for unlocking Steel.

Regardless, I invaded Roosy a turn later...



Not a huge main stack, but it did ok.

Roosy had this in his city:



The city fell although I think I lost 2 trebuchets in battle.

His northern city of Atlanta was also attacked by another smaller stack and captured:



I founded a city on the southeast coast of the continent:



It also has a source of fish in its BFC that is not visible here.

I sold Pericles and Vicky some old techs for Banking gold that I really needed for upgrades. My main stack saw heavy defenses in Washington hoping to capitulate Roosy so they just moved on New York which was easily captured:



Another army newly built assaulted Chicago and it was captured with the loss of 2 cannons (I had Steel by this time).



At this point, I wanted to upgrade my trebs so this war foes faster and I signed a cease-fire with Roosy. He even opened borders during this time, allowing me to bring units into cities that were enveloped by his culture. Nice guy.

4 turns later:



Washington was surrounded:



... and captured. What a city!!!



Also has MoM and a few buildings too!!

After this, the rest of the American empire quickly disintegrated... I don't think I lost any more units in war:







Roosy's last city:


I lost had more units in some of those pics outside of the main stacks pictured. And so there was peace... to be continued.

 

[dankok8]

Part II - 1735-1824AD

Tech: Communism, Biology, Railroad, Combustion, Physics, Artillery

The first 10 turns, I was consolidating the troops in the southeastern city of Illinois before they boarded Galleons that would take them across the city as peacekeepers. My galleons were already built by a few of my coastal cities as I was warring against Roosevelt. Soon enough, the first wave of troops set sail:



I also switched to State Property a turn later. Then, I paid Vicky a bit to start the war. I did this to get Toku to move his stacks to her + being close to the domination limit, I wouldn't need to fight her anyways.



Predictably, Toku was declared on and:



This worried me very much:



It would suck if Pericles won by AP; he's next!!

A few turns later:



I killed a sizable stack there and Toku was willing to talk:



I finished the Kremlin in Hari and needed 2% for domination so:







I unloaded 3 armies on the continent and was gonna strike Pericles in a multipronged attack:



Knossos was captured:



as was Pericles' core city of Sparta:



He waved the white flag:



And it was all over!!!













Our Cities in the End:







Yaso was the highest production, gold, and science city by the end.

Hari was a great military city. With Barracks, Stables, Heroic Epic, West Point, and Theocracy, it pumped out 13XP Cavalry in 2 turns and 11XP Cannons in a single turn. With Pentagon which I would have built and Vassalage, I could have gotten 17XP Cavalry (4 promotions!!), but the game didn't get that far. I unfortunately have no new pic of this city.

Paris would get the Wall Street very soon and I would probably found a corp of 2 there. It certainly had potential.

Washington became a new GP farm.

Recap - Why we won?!?
1) Killing the French early on - this gave use huge land to expand to.
2) We leveraged the vertical growth advantages of our leader. Up until war weariness began to limit our growth, we had 4X the best rival's population!!
3) Cannon!! This was also in the Joao game. Cannons against medieval armies are mad good. I lost no units conquering Toku and Pericles. I guess the Cavalry helped a bit too.

Mistakes:
1) Not taking out Roosy early with the veteran chariots from the French war.
2) Little worker micromanagement from like 1000AD onwards.
3) Not getting an Islamic shrine built faster and a religion spread more diligently.

Thoughts?

 

[deathturnip]

Could have been alot quicker if you had the shrine built within a reasonable timeframe, but still very nicely done.

Like you said, your chariots where plenty to wipe out washington and you probably should have done it. But overall it probably didn't slow you down much.

Why attack japan first? generally i find that picking on the bottom of the pile capitulates alot more readily. Could somebody confirm/deny this? It could be an illusion from an easier fight.

 

[JTMacc99]

3) Not getting an Islamic shrine built faster and a religion spread more diligently.

I'm taking this one back with me to my current game. I've got like four holy cities and not a single shrine. I guess I should build a couple temples somewhere and run a few specialists, eh?


I think the lesson learned here is, if you want to win regularly at Noble and/or Prince, kill off your closest neighbor at your earliest convenience and then unify the continent as soon as you have the military advantage. Period. It was done perfectly here. To be honest, I was a little amazed that the Americans did so well, considering how nicely you blocked him off. Even so, once you were attacking his bows with gunpowder units, he was dead meat.