[C3C] COTM133 Carthage Emperor - Spoiler

[Più Freddo]

This is the thread where you tell us the whole story of your game and how in the end you did -- win, lose or retire.

Only read or post in this thread when your game is ended and successfully submitted.

 

[greatbeyond]

What a close game, at least at the beginning. I did manage to just eke out a Space win at 2024AD. I wasn't sure if a space win scored more than a histographic win, but it felt more like a victory than just surviving.

The raging barbs did not turn out to be as much a factor as I feared. The Romans seemed to make it a priority to wipe out any new settlements that popped up and none were able to make it to the stage of popping out 20 barb horsemen at a time.

I assume that the game was designed on purpose for Carthage to have Rome as its only neighbor and to have only one source of Iron. The placement of the Iron surely benefited Rome but for some reason they did not settle it right away. I lost the second settler I built as it and its warrior escort were killed while on a hill by a conscript barb warrior who popped out of the fog.This was the start of bad combat results. Rome not settling the iron right away was key as Rome attacked early and I was just able to get out 2 Numidian Mercs to stave off the stack of Archers and warriors that Rome sent. IIRC I had just 3 cities at the time and Rome razed the one I had just settled to the southeast near the wine. It was very touch and go as I was unable to get enough Numidians to successfully take any Roman cities. I seemed to suffer terrible odds as Roman warriors killed many Numidians and I was frequently frustrated by Numidians who couldn't seem to kill warriors much less archers. Rome wasn't interested in peace it seemed, only conquest.

The tide turned when I was finally able to get IW and saw where the only iron was and sent a pair of Numidians in a beeline there to keep Rome from settling near it. I also had a stack of 4 Numidians who worked their way through Roman territory pillaging as they went. I was able to get 2 or 3 cities built and a sufficient supply of Numidians to get Rome to settle for peace and they gave up a city to the SW of Rome. At this point my 2 NMs were positioned near the iron to keep Rome away and I rushed a settler and sent him that way. It took a few attempts to successfully get through Roman territory as Caesar would demand they leave, and then I settled on the Iron. I still had to get construction to build harbors connecting the isolated iron city and my territory but once it was done the swordsmen started rolling off the assembly line. Rome still had large numbers of archers and spearmen but by smart settling and blocking I was able to eventually push them back toward their own lands while building settlers to claim the open spaces. My army of 12 swordsmen and 4 NMs started on a march to Rome and eventually eliminated Caesar. By then I was far behind most of the other civs in technology and production.

It took until the start of the Industrial age for me to finally pull ahead of most of them, with the Mongols enjoying a tech lead up to the middle of the industrial age. I managed to settle next to oil on the Persian (former Greek lands) continent and thought I was pretty well set on my way to space. Apparently the Persians had other ideas and had focused on Ecology then Composites to get modern armor and captured what I thought was a very secure city. Of course with no oil and no one willing to trade it nor any left unclaimed It took awhile to assemble enough units to retake the city. After retaking it I was able to successfully take 2 more Persian cities and I decided to take a pile of gold for peace to allow me to get back to the space race.

While waiting for the necessary space ship parts to be built I continued to prepare for war including some tactical nukes for deterrent. I was sure that the AI would see the inevitability of me winning the space race and would assemble a coalition to attack me. It did not happen so I was able to ride the fiery plume all the way to AC.

 

[Lanzelot]

Rome not settling the iron right away was key as Rome attacked early and I was just able to get out 2 Numidian Mercs to stave off the stack of Archers and warriors that Rome sent.

So I assume that means you got a despotic GA, and with only two towns? That was really a major setback. I did not build any NMs for that reason, until I had Republic and a full ring of reasonably sized cities. Instead I built mostly Archers (and a few Warriors for "protection", i.e. for absorbing the first attacks). Archers and NMs have the same attack value, but Archers cost 20s, while NMs cost 30s. That means, for the same number of shields I had 33% more fire-power, which is probably the reason why the Romans did not dare to attack me early on. So I was able to settle the iron peacefully, build a harbor, upgrade all warriors and then conquer Rome in a swift campaign. Republic was finished in 1450 BC, iron connected in 510 BC, and the Romans finally sneak-attacked me in 470 BC, when it was already "too late" (all Warriors were already upgraded and Swordsman production had started in 3 productive core cities). I started my GA in 450 BC, spent a few more turns producing Swords at full scale and then marched right on Rome. Rome fell in 350 BC, and then it was only a matter of "collecting" the remaining small towns one by one -- they were never able to put up any resistance after losing their capital, their only halfway decent production site. In 130 BC, Rome was reduced to 2 towns on the far south-west end of the continent.
The game went much easier after that, finishing with domination in 640 AD. (Though this is probably not a good date: I got side-tracked and built too many wonders (Colossus, Lighthouse, Zeus and the Hanging Gardens), and spent too many resources on building the Forbidden Palace in Rome, which finished only in 600 AD and never payed off...

 

[templar_x]

after quite a while, i was able to submit another XOTM game...

Game status: Conquest Victory for Carthage
Game date: 450 AD
Firaxis score: 9***
Jason score: 11***

bc750 i started my GA
bc570 i left only Rome to build the Pyras for me
bc470 they were finished and Rome taken out
bc350 GA Ends
bc190 FP finishes
bc30 sees first war against China
ad20 war against Greece starts
ad170 China gone
ad230 war against Egypt
ad360 Babies settle the 1-tile-island 2t too early... Need to get that in a PD
ad370 Greece gone
ad309 Egypt follows
ad430 Mongols and Persians out
ad440 Babies, a bit lucky, preparations may only have sufficed for next turn
ad450 conquest message

what a cool game! i feel i got lucky or the right turn or both on Rome early on. Editing and adding to that, i fought that first war with archers and few mercenaries, which is rare and was fun. after connecting the iron town via a Harbour, These became swords of course, but for the war with Rome they did not Play a role, afair. what i especially liked was that Rome only built ONE legionary, and i offered a 3/3 warrior against it in order to Trigger their GA - and give me the Pyras in the mid term. That worked out and I was very happy about that.

t_x

 

[Lanzelot]

i offered a 3/3 warrior against is in order to Trigger their GA - and give me the Pyras in the mid term.

Brilliant idea!
I guess, I started my wars too late: didn't want to fight with Archers and built wonders instead...
BTW: how did you get your FP so early? Did you build it in the core or did you use a leader? I had the very stupid idea of building it in Rome, forgetting that this is not PtW... Rome was indeed very productive when it was finished: 30spt. But only for the last 4 turns of the game...

 

[templar_x]

i built the FP in the 2nd ring mostly during my GA. the town needed a lot of worker turns for that stunt but then was able to work a lot of the hills SW of the capital and reached 20spt with ease, but impossibly 30spt. the spot was not a natural choice but just in the right place to be useful for the semi-core towns there.
i had planned the GA even earlier, but got the traits wrong when i built Col and TGLight in the town right N of the capital. a NumMerc had to do the Job...

another thing to add: i did not get a single MGL in my whole game!
t_x

 

[supersova_SU]

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1000AD Domination...