Darkness Monarch level, attempt #1

[Darkness]

I killed that spanish settler 2 turns later, right after I eliminated Carthage's last city (and they, fortunately, didn't have a settler sailing around somewhere). So, now it's just me and Japan. I already declared war and I have established a beachhead on Japan's island. There's about 2 dozen Sipahi in that town, and Japan keeps throwing units at it. I think I've killed at least 100 Japanese units (lost 3 sipahi) in the last 3 turns. I also generated my 10th leader (with a defensive battle!) there. That leader has sailed home and will rush Smith's when it comes available. I'm shipping 10-12 sipahi towards Japan each turn, so the offensive shouldd start soon.
I'm also in anarchy right now. I researched democracy last turn and I decided to switch, so I can milk some 300 turns in democracy...
I'm about 350 tiles short of the doimination limit, but that'll change soon, and then I'll start replacing cities to better terrain...

 

[superslug]

Is the Japanese island not a good place for a Palace exploitation jump? You could use the leader to move it there and then teleport your whole army...

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by superslug
Is the Japanese island not a good place for a Palace exploitation jump? You could use the leader to move it there and then teleport your whole army...

I might try that, but it's pretty close to my original core. But I'm pretty sure I'll get another leader(at least 2 dozen elite sipahi running around), so this one will definately go to Smiths', because I need a boost in income to buy marketplaces/aquaducts/hostpitals....

 

[superslug]

Sounds like a good plan! I'm really really impressed with your execution in this game. As you've no doubt seen in my Emperor thread, I've yet to truly master some concepts you're currently seemingly breezing with!

 

[Darkness]

I simply keep increasing my basic grasp of the game, and I combined that with some tricks (gifting techs to scientific civs, etcetera), combined with the excellent civ traits of the Ottomans plus their UU (the best in the game IMHO), and a good start location. That's it. I had a pretty good expansion phase, but what seperates this game from my earlier submissions to is the efficiency with which the sipahi take care of enemy units. My conquest was amizingly fast, IMHO

And I think the GA was perfectly timed in this game. During the Zulu wars (first 10 turns of the GA) I built 5 sipahi each turn and I generated money to upgrade 5 others, and kept 4-turn research going... .

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by Darkness
And I think the GA was perfectly timed in this game. During the Zulu wars (first 10 turns of the GA) I built 5 sipahi each turn and I generated money to upgrade 5 others, and kept 4-turn research going... .

I have to give credit to the Ottomans as well. I just hate using them because everyone else does. My current war/GA is impeccable too, I'm getting about a dozen myself too. Expansion, I'm improving at, milking, I'm good at, but I still haven't got a clue how you folks are getting four turn research. I'm still buying off the AI most of the time...

 

[superslug]

How goes the game, Darkness?

The reason I ask is that I've all but given up Emperor, I can't seem to hack it at that level just yet, at least for HOF games. I've decided to drop back down to Monarch...I tried waiting until I get Conquests for Christmas (I hope) to play again, but just about had a nervous breakdown not playing...

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by superslug
How goes the game, Darkness?

Slow, very slow....

I just have very little time due to RL commitments atm. I'm almost fully milking now, 'cause only Japan remains with about 10 cities, but he has only horseman, spearman and archers. So I'm GL farming really. Unfortunately this, coupled with 600+ workers, means my turns are like 90 minutes each...

BTW: I'm also getting C3C for christmas! I :love2: my girlfriend!

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by Darkness
BTW: I'm also getting C3C for christmas! I :love2: my girlfriend!

Man, that's rough! How are you going to choose between them? Coin flip? Lottery?

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by superslug


How are you going to choose between them?

Simple! I'll be away from my computer until january 6th, so she'll get all my time before that (she's getting me the game so I should show 'some' appreciation ). After though it's another matter...

 

[Darkness]

Well, in the year 990 AD the last Japanese city feel to the might of the Ottoman empire (they gave me 2 additional GL's too, for ToE and Hoovers), leaving them with only a single wandering settler (on land, 'cause I can see him and he's got no ships).... I think it's milking time.
I'll post a more complete 1000 AD update tomorrow, when I've reached that date....

 

[Darkness]

Finally my turns have become shorter, to the point that one turn now only takes 10-15 minutes (instead of 90 minutes) as I have improved all my teritory and my workers are rejopining my cities...

Japan has used its' wandering settler to found Bizen, it's current capital (and only city), though they gave me another GL (I'll save him for Longlivety, I think), before we made peace again.

I've been near the domination limit for around 30 turns, but I've now finalized all my teritory (moving cities etcetera), which puts me at 3833 of a possible 3834 tiles.

I'm reseraching at tech-per-4turns pace to reach minitaurization ASAP, to use my GL for rushing longlivety. I'll be getting Mass Production in 2 turns.

My score is now 10026 points with an increase of 129 points per turn (down from 134 around 10-15 turns ago).

Still 300 turns of milking left to go....

 

[superslug]

I suddenly feel so small...

 

[Darkness]

I've finished bulding hospitals and mass transits in my cities and virtually all of them are now on 'wealth'.
Japan has built a second city, but they're still in the Ancient Age, so that doesn't bother me.

Basically all I'm doing now is cleaning up polution and reassigning all the tiles back so they can be worked before I press enter each turn...

Score: 21454 with a 94 ppt increase

SirPleb's score calculater's got me finishing at 33000+ points, but I think it'll be a bit higher

Still 200 turns of milking to go....

 

[Darkness]

EMan can rest easy... His no.1 Monarch score is safe from me.

The increase in score in my game has dropped with an alarming rate, leading me to believe that the absolute max I'll end up with is somewhere between 33000 and 33500 points, which would still rank me second.

My score: 28770, with a 57 ppt increase.

Still 100 turns of milking to go on my last PTW game...

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by Darkness
EMan can rest easy...

I have to disagree with this statement. Even though I've currently got a thread about my pacifist game on Chieftain, I'm alternating between that and a 'standard' game on Monarch with the Ottomans in Conquests. I know I can improve on my current Monarch ranking.

Regardless, even without knowing your final score, I salute you, sir, on a game extremely well executed.

 

[Darkness]

I finally found the time to finish milking my game!

As far as I can tell, I'll get the no.2 spot at monarch level after the next update. I finished in 2050 AD wit a massive (650 tile) cultural expansion to achieve a domination win. This resulted in a final score of 33384 points (1500 points short of EMan's no.1 score)...
While I would have liked to have gotten the no.1 position I'm actually quite pleased with this game, as I feel I have improved my play with this marathon game....

Well, this was my last PTW game, now (after a break) I'll be moving on to C3C and those lovely agricultural civs.

 

[superslug]

Congratulations, Darkness!
You're right, this was a most impressive game and the ag civs are incredible!

 

[Darkness]

Thanks superslug...

Oh, playing time was a little over 152 hours, spread out over 2 1/2 months, with around 25 hours of idle time when I left the computer running during dinner or something like that...

 

[Svar]

Congratulations, Darkness. I guess I better finish my Monarch game with it's hoped for score of 24,000+ before too many of these really great games get entered and my game still doesn't make the top 10.