Accidently agreed to go to war with Germany when England asked. Trashed reputation in process, so eliminated Germany. Build forces and expand east to the islands and India's homeland. Maya decides he doesn't like that and declares war, bring in the Celts. At this point the only surviving nations are the Mayans, Celts, Indians, and I. Celts take my German holdings, while the Mayans knock me off the Indian sub-continent. Take most of the towns on Eastern Island, before I manage a peace treaty in 1700 with both. The Mayans could have won a domination victory, but razed every city attacked. Shortly after peace, Maya declares on the Celts.
Entry class: Open
Game status: Cultural 100K Loss to Maya
Game date: 1720 AD
Firaxis score: 2677
Jason score: 1040
At the end of the Middle Ages, I had eliminated the French with the help of the Germans and was deciding where I should advance next. I was hoping the Germans were a bit worn down and that I would be able to eliminate them with the help of the English.
I ended up getting hit hard initially by German cavalry but lucky the English captured a German city which ended up cutting off two German cities from the German core. So, while the English got caught in a stalemate with the Germans, I wore down and captured the two German cities.
Then, I stuck some of my berzerks in ships and headed for the German core. When I got there, I found a nasty surprise: infantry. The Germans must have finished researching RP shortly after the war began. I launched an attack anyway and got really lucky. I managed to capture the city and get a leader in the process. Then, I ran into trouble.
I replaced the captured city with one of my own in the hope of setting up a nice little beachhead to build up my forces. But the Germans kept attacking the city with the new cavalry they built. The cavalry would kill one of my units and then retreat. In order to prevent the cavalry from killing another unit next turn, I had to send a berzerk into enemy territory to kill it. Then, my vulnerable berserk would get killed by a new German cavalry. I was losing units as fast as I could transport new ones over. So, I ended up abandoning the city and launching further attacks from the sea and with the help of my new army. Slow going but eventually I finished the Germans off.
Now, I was eyeing the English who had lost a lot of units and were behind me in tech. However, they had huge stacks of rifleman wandering around and were still producing new cavalry rapidly. Since my holdings were effectively split in two, I didn't feel I had a had a strong enough defense to counter the rifleman threat. I wanted to wait until I got RP and could get some infantry and artillery shipped across. However, the next turn I learned that India was building the UN. I didn't have enough land or population to make it into the running. And even if I launched an attack against the English immediately and got lucky, I knew I wouldn't be able to make up the difference in time.
Not long after that the UN was completed and a vote was held. The result was a diplomatic loss to India.
Still, I really enjoyed this game. It was the furthest I ever got in a game of this level and I enjoyed giving the berserks another go.
Uff, after an almost sleepless night submitted 7 minutes before the deadline... What a timing...
But I really wanted to get this done this time, after the last couple failures in Demigod/Deity games. It was a tough ride, lots of warring here and there, never being able to finish a job properly, because of being surprise-attacked on the other end of the world and having to shift troups back, etc...
But the Berzerks were great! Undoubtedly the best UU of them all! I got a big chunk out of a couple of neighbors without them ever being able to strike back... (Just gift the captured towns away to some friendly underdog.) And once I had Tank Armies, things got easier.
I originally planned for space race, but after it became clear that I would run out of time on this one, I switched gears and opted for Diplomatic victory. For this I had to eliminate the Incas, Germans and English, who where all furious with me. Then I bribed the Arabs and the Celts and got 3 out of 5 votes (the Indians and Mayas were at war with us other three). Everything just in time (the English were gone 3 turns before my UN built was complete...)!
BTW: before I forget: the Barbs were hell! They almost wiped me off my island. It was impossible to settle the entire island, before the Deity AIs reached the Middle Age, so there were 2-3 un-cleared barb camps, which spat out hundreds of horsemen! Killed settlers, population, production, granaries, libs and approx. 1000 gold... Why does civ_steve like those raging barbs so much? (I guess, he is a bit sadistically inclined...)
Jason score was surprisingly low: 6000. I thought 1575 is quite ok for UN victory, isn't it?!
And now I'm hoping for a nice and easy game with my favorite Germans...
Went on researching towards Military Tradition. For a military victory condition the main challenges were:
1. How to break the powerful Celts, who owned the Temple of Artemis, had a really big heartland and had begun to chew England up. The huge culture of the Celts made it clear that they had to be wiped out altogether in one swoop. So it had to be done by sea and Entremont (Copernicus' Observatory, Temple of Artemis) had to be taken last or it would flip constantly.
This map was constructed in such a way that it would have been very cumbersome to invade the Celts by land and it would take a very long time to reach the rather powerful cities south of Entremont. In my first picture you can see the plan set in motion. Note that I have just cancelled a Right of Passage and will not violate any agreement. Lugdunum and Camulodunum were to be sacked, while I was able to hang on to Augustodorum and Agedincum to the northwest of it.
2. The second challenge was to invade the Inca/Maya/India/Arabia continent before riflemen became abundant. Maya learned Nationalism way before the end of this game, and my 10 cavalry armies faced a lot of those - one was even killed by some riflemen, while defending Mecca. The fact that Maya lacked salpeter and that Inca never learned Nationalism worked to my advantage.
3. The third challenge may be minor compared to the other two, but not unimportant: Was it possible to save any money without slowing down research too much? Often it is necessary to hurry barracks, settlers or boats in order to have an effective offence. For example I needed some extra 100% Viking towns (with no flip risk) with barracks in the Anglo-Celtic area where my troops could rest as the Celtic forces poured into our area, and preferrably also a few extra cities to protect luxuries from flipping back to England - see my third picture and the town "Thunderfall" for examples of all these factors. (At this time we owned London and most of central England, but these towns were not flip-free because there were distant English towns that had made it impossiible for us to eliminate England.)
I decided that Gunpowder would be the tech that I would trade or rather squeeze out of some civ. It is too unpredictable to know when the AI will learn Chemistry and Invention of course I had been in a hurry to get. But it took me 31 turns between Invention and Gunpowder, which may have been too long even if there were 27 archers to upgrade. A somewhat messy war with both England and Germany slowed things down.
Engineering (from Germany 390 BC, 3 turns remaining)
Feudalism (from Maya, 390 BC)
Republic (from India, 270 BC)
Invention (10 AD)
Monotheism (from Celts, 10 AD)
Gunpowder (450 AD, from England, 6 turns remaining)
Chemistry (550 AD)
Metallurgy (640 AD)
MT (720 AD)
Chivalry (from Germany ~750 AD)
I did not want Theology as I controlled the Oracle in Berlin.
I reached shomination just before supersova_SU.
@Lancelot: I know the feeling of just making the deadline. I also know what it's like to miss the deadline by about one hour.
Edit: I just realized I've left out the entire French campaign in the early MA. So here it is in a rather ill-structured form:
Spoiler:
MIDDLE AGES
775 BC - 37 barb horsemen line up around the borders. Hurry library in Trondheim and some other stuff.
610 BC - Finally met India.
550 BC - Peace with Germany. Their free tech is Engineering (10t.)
Statue of Zeus finished.
470 - Finally meet Arabia.
390 - We buy Engineering (3t) from Germany for Literature, 33g, 3gpt.
We trade Feudalism from Maya.
We sell Engineering to Arabia for 879g, 1gpt.Open (Couldn't resist the free curragh)
370 - Upgraded 3 vet warriors to MI.
350 - Vet archer fails to kill barb horseman. I've had a lot of this and I've perhaps
compensated for forgetting NoAIPatrol=0.
130 - We get 10gpt from Inca for alliance vs India, tied to peace of course.
110 - Connected incense.
30 BC - War happiness from Inca.
10 BC - Maya beat us to Invention.
10 AD - Invention. We sell it to Arabia for 730 gold, 20 gpt.
We then break our alliance against Celts, gaining Monotheism.
50 AD - Captured first AI town, Lyons. GA.
130 AD - Captured Paris.
190 AD - We lose the race to Leo's, but gain our first military leader. We make FP, ancient cavalry army. Hard decision, but realistic. Sistine Chapel is not an option.
270 AD - Destroyed France and connected their silks. Can trade Celtic dyes. Maya has Gunpowder.
Embassy with Celts. They have six pikes in Entremont, two thirds veterans. Huge culture.
Unfortunately, it is an inland town.
Declared war on England. But Celts refuse to join. They probably have a recent peace treaty.
We declare on Germany. Celts agree to an alliance at a huge price (horses,silks,ROP,59gpt).
But they had troups in our territory.
400 AD (Ca) - Peace with Germany, Heidelberg gained.
450 - Became a republic (7 turn anarchy.)
460 - Peace with England for Gunpowder. We start on Chemistry (~10t) with some fresh libraries.
520 - We are average cf Celts.
530 - Peace with Inca. Trying to snatch Hanging Gardens from the dwindling Arabs, we don't need
to be killed by Incan archers. In fact, our longboats run into a nasty league of Incan curraghs
next thing.
590 - Double Celtic flip.
600 - mAYA DECLARE OVER saltpetre. We lose an Indian lux but gain war happiness. Starting horsemen
in core.
630 - RoP with Celts expires. Now comes the big showdown. Scorched earth policy. (See screenshot.)
War with Celts:
Lugdunum (12) destroyed.
Camulodonum (12) destroyed.
Augustodurum (8) captured.
Nottingham (7) captured.
Oxford (3) survives because our beserks weren't quite ready.
640 AD
Oxford (3) captured.
Agedincum (6, dyes) captured.
(Metallurgy)
670 - Our military is now stronger cf Celts. But this is doubly false. Their defensive units
and our horsemen are overestimated. Lots remains to be done.
690
Alessia (12) destroyed.
Gergovia (3, Sun Tzu) captured.
700
Eboracum (6) captured.
Dyes connected. Leader #2.
710
Leader #3.
Lapurdum (2) captured.
760
Warwick (12) captured.
770
York (7) captured.
780
Cataractonium (2) captured.
Ratae Coritanorum (2) captured.
Verulamimum (7) captured.
790
Richborough (5) captured.
830
Burdigalia (3) captured.
840
Entremont (ToE, Copernicus Obs.) captured, strong Celts destroyed.
880 - England destroyed.
890 - Leaders 4 and 5 - against Germany.
1010 - Germany dead.
1060 - Suffered a crash while shifting from F4 to F3. Forced to use autosave.
1130 - India destroyed. Lost Hanging Gardens to Maya as riflemen killed army. This will further delay the game. Will now turn on Inca.
Summing up: Enjoyable game, as always when they are difficult enough to make you feel a bit uncertain about whther you will win the game at all. The map was great, the way it encouraged the use of beserks but I think Maya should have been give salpeter too make the game a little bit harder still.
When did I know that I would win this game? Check out the third picture below. You will see a forested tile with an elite celtic MI on it, near the town of Thunderfall. When I managed to destroy the road on that tile, that was a major breakthrough, because it sufficiently slowed down Celtic attackers coming that way!
I reached the MA in 975BC. Because there was only 1 scientific civ with which I was in war I decided not to gift them into the MA (especially since the civ was Germany which are not the most willing trading partner!
I went for Feudalism while preparing the invasion in France and fighting the (anoying) barbs. Discovered it in 590BC and gifted the Germans whom got engineering. The turn before I made peace with the Germans and had a ROP + alliance against the Celts and English with them. Ofcourse I traded for engineering and started invention going for Militairy Tradition asap.
I landed 9 horsemen and an ancient cavalry near Paris (by then France was reduced to 2 cities, thanks to the Germans) in 410BC. The first attack in 390BC failed miserably, leaving me with a dead AC and 7 wounded horsemen! Paris was left with only 1 archer so I took Paris in 370BC and marched to their last city which I captured in 350BC.
Then I decided to march to the English and Celts. But when the Germans killed the ROP/alliance deal in 310BC I changed plans and decided to first take on the Germans. So I waited till our peace deal expired and started war with the Germans in 190BC while also making peace with the Celts and forming an alliance with them against the Germans and English. By this time I only had peace with the Celts and Maya!
The war with Germany went really slow! I finally finished them off in 210AD. By that time the Mayan had killed the Arabs, I just started my golden age 3 turns ago and was 2 turns into researching Chemistry. I was still in war with the English and India and had an army of 28 horsemen, 3 berserks, a couple of AC, 5 Trebuchet, 1 catapult and 5 longboats. I also had settled my entire island and had a total of 39 cities (114 pop) and 35 workers (20 slaves).
After I finally finished off the Germans I shifted my focus to the english whom had 5 cities remaining. They were reduced to 1 city in 280AD, a city which was 2 far for my taste so I shifted my focus to the Celts with whom I still had a ROP deal for 3 remaining turns.
I ROP-raped them in 310AD, taking 5 of their cities, killing of a lot of their MIs and most importantly; cutting of their Iron supply so they couldnt produce anymore MIs or pikemen!
In 430AD I captured Entremont with the Temple of Artemis! And in 490AD I discovered MT, switching off all research.
In 560AD I captured the final city on the Beta island. I captured Kirachi (India) in 620AD, the Berserks definitely came in handy for this (the second time I could really capitalize on them, the first time being starting my GA!!!). I made peace with them in 710AD, leaving them with 2 cities and redirecting my army of 40 cavalry to the Mayan (which started the war with me in 690AD). I made an alliance wit the Incas against Maya and killed them (the Mayan) in 920AD, the same year I started my second war against India whom I killed in 940AD. After which I reached the domination limit in 950AD.
Game status: Domination Victory for Scandinavia
Game date: 950 AD
Firaxis score: 11860
Jason score: 9828
Time played: 26:45:40
I absolutely loved this map, especially the twist that only we could build galleys which made a militairy victory possible. Great job Civ-Steve!!!
thanks, it looks like I got you this time after you beat me in both GOTM90 and 91!! It's nice to see that our approaches were very different (you monarchy and lots of Berzerks and me Republic and almost no Berzerks) but both finished in domination victories! Why did you go the Monarchy route? Was it because of the fear of not being able to complete the slingshot??
Yes. I was happy just to get Monarchy as a free tech and it made our paths entirely different. I did not get Republic until 270 BC. I guess I thought getting Monarchy was an advantage and so I wanted to cling to that perceived advantage.
Well, I'm happy to beat the AI on this one and a victory before 1000 AD looks like a strong candidate for the gold!
Aim was world domination with cavalries using Golden Age and Leonardos Workshop to get them faster. Unfortunately I ran out of time with a good chunk of game played.
After entering Middle Ages in 470 BC my goal was to reach Military Tradition (cavalries) ASAP. Research was set to maximum to learn Engineering in 290 BC, traded for Feudalism the same turn, then learned Invention in 130 BC.
Golden Age was vital to reach MT and to build Leos fast so in 10 BC one of our 2 berserks is victorious against Indian (phony war for WH from earlier) spearmen and we have our GA. Tech progress was as follows: Gunpowder learned in 10 AD (buy rest of it), Chemistry in 150 AD, Metallurgy in 260 AD and finally Military Tradition in 320 AD. In 330 AD Vikings had 17 longboats, 7 berserks, 20 workers, 19 horsemen and 1600 gold. After learning MT research was turned off. Production and income was good most of the time allowing me to upgrade 4-6 horses to cavs each turn.
Once with cavalries available conquest was swift: firstly captured India, then Arabia (ToA in Mecca so free border expansions for me). My game ended in 550 AD with 33 % of the world and 85 cavs in possession. I think Vikings were 15-20 turns from world domination: were about to ROP rape Mayans and new troops were positively assembling in France and Germany.
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