DDD VII: Napoleon

[Doshin]

Round 6

In 1675 AD, Frederick completes the Internet

Spoiler :

He also has Robotics, apparently. A weird tech path, but actually useful given that he's pursuing a culture win.

I didn't expect him to get the Internet so soon. It's a little awkward, because it limits the trades I can make with my vassals and the other AI.

In 1680 AD, the UN gets build. I am elected Secretary-General:

Spoiler :

Always nice. I propose the following motions: (1) +1 trade routes in all cities; (2) nuclear non-proliferation; (3) universal civic, Emancipation.

In 1690 AD, Frederick declares war against Hatchet, who was plotting at that time (possibly against me, thanks to Boudica):

Spoiler :

I consider bribing Freddy off with the following deal:

Spoiler :

But my Airships couldn't find any sort of invasion fleet and I'm quite happy for Hatchet and Freddy to stay at war if neither of the pair makes any headway. If they're constantly rebuilding their navies, they won't be able to build research or wealth.

In 1715 AD, I tech Medicine, meaning that I can build Sid's Sushi. My GP farm had been tweaked to generate another great person on the following turn:

Spoiler :

I have a Great Merchant and Great Scientist stockpiled. A civic switch from State Property into Free Market will consume two turns of Anarchy. The way I see it, I have a 34% chance of building Mining Inc, a 53% chance of starting a Golden Age, and a 13% chance of growing mad when I generate another Great Scientist.

Things worked out:

Spoiler :

Anarchy it is:

Spoiler :

Washington now entered into Executive spam mode. Mining Inc. was spread first, which allowed other cities to build quick Executives. Sid's Sushi went into my GP farm, and everywhere else after Mining Inc. was well spread.

No need to document this period, I think. I was mostly pumping out Executives and building health/happiness buildings. In 1816 AD I start a second Golden Age:

Spoiler :

I switch into Vassalage.

In 1840 AD I start a third:

Spoiler :

I headed to Industrialism, for Tanks and Marines, Robotics, for Missile Cruisers and Mech Infantry, and Advanced Flight, for Jet Fighters and Gunships.

Here are my super-specialized cities, before their improvements get smashed in the incoming war:

Spoiler :

GP farm:

Iron Works/West Point:

Capital:

In 1850 AD, Freddy is 30 turns away from a culture victory:

Spoiler :

Should I choose to attack his capital immediately, I will have to deal with the following:

Spoiler :

My stack:

Spoiler :

 

[Manco Capac]

What an army! Crush that pitiful german nation and reign over the world with your corporative tentacles.

 

[Grashopa]

1AD Religion and Espionage

Spoiler :

I went straight for caste which enabled me to flip the marble and get the great library. Then I stole math and got a late Taoism bulb at 25 BC (I should have saved the first GS instead of going academy for pretty much no reason with that capital). This allows me to steal MC here and CS in 3 or 4 turns.

Beakers have been higher since I never went into slavery so all I have is monuments and courthouses in my cities balanced against having the extra coastal commerce tiles I didn't whip off.

Our neighbor picked up pyramids at 1080 BC - I wanted to attack him so badly, but he has two stacks with a total of 15+ axes and swords... Ahh!!

 

[Prodeo]

Another great read. Loving the series!
You made some creative moves here; the settling behind Lincoln and the rendering useless of Boudica's stack with border pops .
One question: Why did you enforce emancipation? Even if you can't run CS (which is imho preferable with Sid Sushi) because the happy penalty would be to big too handle, I don't see what you gain from it?

 

[Grashopa]

reign over the world with your corporative tentacles.

Haha I love these writeups Doshin.

 

[Manco Capac]

That's just a shame that -40% discount effect will be only one turn. Lincoln doesn't have his own religion. Otherwise, that would be so nice.

 

[Doshin]

@Prodeo

I introduced the resolution when Sushi had spread to about half of my cities and the Emancipation unhappiness was beginning to sting:

Spoiler :

If you switch civics through a UN motion, you don't enter into Anarchy.

 

[PeteJ]

Here's a shadow... I'm up to 1040ad:

Spoiler :

I SIPed and tech fishing>mining>BW in the beginning. I was able to get a better second city out than the other guys, settling 1E of the wheat. I decided to not mess with early wonders this game and just claimed what cities I could. I ended with 5 although I probably could have settled 6 if I had settled them differently. I built the Great Library in my capitol and also the NE and I built a bunch of fail gold using the Parthenon and the NE. I went for an astro bulb and I was able to bulb machinery, optics, and half of astro. I'm now on my way towards winning lib and taking either chemistry or steel if I have time.

A couple of pics:

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Doshin]

Round 7

To the end:

Spoiler :

I'll give some selected highlights:

Spoiler :

(Need... more... wonders...)

The loss of Munich more or less ended Frederick's culture attempt. Hatchet took over as the front runner:

Spoiler :

I quite like the following shot. It illustrates the differing approaches employed by Germany and France in this game:

Spoiler :

More cities:

Spoiler :

Moscow:

In 1882, after the loss of a mere sixteen cities, Freddy finally threw in the towel.

Spoiler :

This left him with one city.

With his master gone, Peter was willing to capitulate too:

Spoiler :

HAHA. All your cities are belong to us.

The first few cities that I had captured were just coming out of Anarchy. So I turned up the culture slider and, a few turns later, won a Domination victory:

Spoiler :

Stats:

Spoiler :

Boudica's stack, still too ashamed to return home after all these years:

Spoiler :

Thanks for reading everyone! This was a lot of fun, although (as usual) the inter-continental invasions took up waaaay too much of my time.

It's nice to get back to winning ways.

Till next time.

 

[joanne]

Very nice game (and game series for that matter)! Delurking to say thanks, and congrats! If I were the one playing and had seen this I would have quit immediately, even if it were on a lower difficulty level. How you managed your way out of that four-city confinement into a winning position (on deity nonetheless) was really clever.

 

[The Oz-Man]

Little-known fact: Boudica's knight on that one-tile island is named Gilligan.

Grats on the win; I thought for sure this was a loss seeing how Lincoln settled toward you early on. Very impressive, I'll never underestimate GLH madness again.

 

[Grashopa]

1030 AD

Spoiler :

I stole MC, IW and machinery while bulbing optics and astronomy.

This is why I hate caste - it made me workshop everywhere. Whipping seems so much faster. I feel silly attempting to hammer everything out now instead of spending 3 turns whipping the initial army. I'm in vassalage and theocracy so 7xp charismatic macemen and cannons is going to dominate at this point if I'm not too slow getting them out. Lots of CR3 rifles backed with CR3 cannons will be effective for quite a long time.

 

[MeowZeDung]

Loved how you trolled Boudica's units Good job this game!

 

[Manco Capac]

In fact, he trolled so many people in this game. Lincoln was trolled when he settled behind his back.

 

[MeowZeDung]

In fact, he trolled so many people in this game. Lincoln was trolled when he settled behind his back.

Indeed. It's fun to watch a player make deity ai look silly

 

[Shaandore]

Congrats on an impressive game. Good job on not falling behind in tech! A Deity AI with 18 cities is quite OP techwise. i guess the Corps helped a lot. With nukes out of the equation, getting Gunships, Jets and Mech Infs in time was the key to killing Freddy.

Thanks for the nice read!

 

[vanillasine]

great game -- thanks again

 

[Pangaea]

An excellent read Doshin

Looked like an impossible position early on, but you cleverly got out of it to win. Very impressive to manage that on Deity.

 

[ben-jammin]

10/10, would read again.

edit: seriously though, really nice play-through on a map that looked pretty much hopeless to me at the beginning.

 

[Doshin]

Thanks all! As usual, the shadow players are demonstrating interesting and superior ways to play the map.

I don't think this was the toughest DDD game I've played. That, for me, was the game with Joao, even factoring the Lincoln game that I lost. In this game, having Lincoln as a neighbor made a large number of potential plays possible. I could sit back and tech peacefully to Lib, or start an early war, or REX and explore (like I did). How many AIs in the game reach Pleased before a religion has spread, before you share a favorite civic, and before you fight a war together?