deity aw 2

[shyuhe]

@Snaaty - the AP "return a city" vote should only come up in peace time.

 

[Snaaty]

@Snaaty - the AP "return a city" vote should only come up in peace time.

thanks, didnt know that... ...so that only leaves the "tiny" problem with the diplo-victory then (since i already have an ap reli city... ...idiot me, should have razed and resettled it instead)... ...or at least switched off diplo victory...

...

nobody left playing this btw? should i start the 3rd aw game of the series then?

...

i still havent completely abandoned my try, but like pointed out earlier, i dont have time the next 2 weeks or so, so i dont mind starting the 3rd try in parallel already for all those that already aborted this one... ...that is IF someone is still interested in playing deity aw (loosing can be fun folks)

 

[Habitus]

I'd try it even thou i generally can't survive into ADs Below is the save of easiest map i've play so far (ie i could get to ADs in it), use it if any good, or roll up another for AW3 and i'm sure people will play it

 

[Cusanus]

...

nobody left playing this btw? should i start the 3rd aw game of the series then?

...

I failed a one or two times and still want to give this another try some day, but I rarely find enough time for civ atm.

Still, I'd welcome a 3rd game. Always fun to read more about other people's failures as well.

 

[Snaaty]

brushing off the dust...

700 AD, still alive:

Spoiler :

things go very well in the first half of this turnset:


susa, the last persian city is captured, and a lot of pressure is taken from our persian gains (we yearn for our fatherland or something like this, 3or4 in each city)...

...

and things keep going smoothly, we get our hoped GS:


i could have lived also with a Gspy, but since we have to do a lot of teching for ourselves soon (either paper-edu for 6 unis+oxford or guilds-banking for grocers+banks and a civic switch to cast+merk) i have hoped for the Gscientists (odds have been around 82% for one btw, rest was spy)

...

hanni sadly isnt researching guilds, so we have to do the whole teching ourselves, but at least we get this:


this greatly reduced our remaining spoints, not even leaving enough for callendar... ...we have to make another decision therefore soon, IF we will keep our spoints on hanni after getting callendar or if we should switch on the top dog, caesar of hre...

as you can see i opted for going guilds-banking, despite the faint hope of hanni going guilds himself soon... ...there simply is nowhere the production nor the whipping capacity left to get unis up and running (not even libraries in most cases)

and banking will give us, thanks to merk an immediate boost (free specialist in all cities) and we can do 2 civic switches at once (going from slavery into caste... ...cast gives an extra hammer on all workshops and the possibility to hire merk-merchants in cities without buildings...)

...

but as good as this set started, as bad it ends... ...first, we have to stop this, heading for our completely undefended center through the void of expersia:



and, to make things even worse, we have to abort our advance on the first mongolian city (new sarai) because hanni now also seems to reroute his stacks through ex-persia and we will need all units back home to defend there:


we have some 10nish phants still healing in our borderland city, but they dont really do to well against the pikes hanni now is fielding... ...and no, we still dont have iron, thanks to the stupid move i made the other turnset...

 

[Snaaty]

to 900 AD:

Spoiler :

and that is how i managed to hold the center of our empire against hanni and justi:


timur, the super longbow got ordered there from phantblock, since there things were going very well since quite some turns (hanni and justi sending their stacks now the other way relieved quite some pressure... ...and having some 15+ units in there, mainly lbs, 2 of them beeing also superunits might also have helped

what you can also see in this screen is that ceasar got another wonder for his collection: notre dame...

the situation and plans for newpersia:


and, finally, we got iron online this turn... ...sad thing is that i had to do quite some emergency whipping to stop the center from collapsing against the united forces from justi + hanni, and i didnt get any plunder and razing gold in, basically for the same reasons (had to abandon all offensive thoughts thanks to hanni + justi). so banking will take quite some turns more

well, doesnt matter, games won anyways:


we are MORE advanced as justi... ...yay... ...get the champain... ...i would have expected ceasar a bit higher in the list, i must admit, but well

...

we are under heavy siege in expersia (i settled the coastblock city to hold off the hordes...) ...and i had the genius plan to get a fort on the hill behind the river up and running, but seeing the masses that are heading now down there, this plan gets cancelled and the incomedent advisor that came up with gets shot...


...

finally, turn 900, we are 1 turn short of banking:


it was brutally close to get there i can tell you... ...hiding in our blocking city in expersia, running out whenever possible with our march heroe + a charriot and plundering everything in sight we could reach was needed to make it... ...and see our mighty cities in central mali, mainly size 2-4... ...a sad place to be mali is, i can tell you... ...i even ended up whipping the capital down once we got iron hooked

and even better, the same turn we manage to steal callendar (but apparently someone has stolen said screen from me) and end up with something like 50 spoints left on hanni... ...so the plan for the next set is to put all spoints on ceasar from now on...

 

[Snaaty]

to 1020 ad:

Spoiler :

i apparently decided to keep spoints on hanni despite planning on changing them to ceasar, so i guess we will have to keep stealing from hanni a bit more... (another advisor got shot)...

...

have i already mentioned that i did "a tiny little bit" of whipping around the time we hooked up iron and were able to build trebs?


harhar, you gotta love that, size 2 and 1pop away from happycap... ...whip, whip, whip (6 from whipping and basically all cities look the same... ...the bigger ones simply have more mp)

...

so i guess switching now out of slavery might be a very valid option, or i simply will end up whipping us to death


merk+caste it is then, long live the king...

...

but at least, we now manage to wrestle down justi (with sheer numbers, i can tell you... ...we had like 20-25 attackers and it still took 2 turns to take his stupid borderland city:



attacking the city, i also found out, that it was on a hill (should have looked closer before putting down the raze-me marker...), so i kept the city. the attack was a desaster btw, costing us a gg. we actually didnt really loose him, but i opted for spreading the xp on 3 trebs (getting them to cr3) and 1 mace (woody3). plan behind that was that cr3 trebs had 70+% chances of whinning against the first lb there... ...so i hoped on winning basically all fights...

...guess what happened:

lost all 3 cg3 trebs, not even scratching the stupid lb, 3/4 of the gg-xp down the drain... ...but at least timur our super lb won the next fight at 98% odds against this aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh-lb (i guess i would have thrown my laptop out of the window, would he have lost also).

our remaining trebs (have i mentioned i did REALLY whip a lot? so we had something like 10 trebs left) then did a decent "bombard them to pieces job and most remaining fights got won then at odds above 90%...

...

justi hasnt much left... ...so the plan now is to raze ninghsmf next, dealing him a blow he wont be able to recover from (its his moai city):



we are number 5 in army now, having about 50% more then number 6... ...which must be justi. so the time is now to push a bit more on him i guess. there is again 1 top lb in this city, but at least this city isnt on a hill (and will get razed) and it is defended really poorly. once our army has healed that should be easy.

...

the victory screen:


having now the land of 1,5 ai, we still have less land then ceasar... ...yup, i guess he will be a serious problem...

...

ask if you want a save

 

[admtanaka]

I don't want to jinx you snaaty, but it seems like you might be nearing a winnable position. Great game so far.

 

[DanielTorrence]

@snaaty

its absolutlely amazing for me to read, and to see what you take into consideration when specializing your cities and planning your moves, I guess, thats why I stuck at Emperor - I just dont think about my moves enough. I just loaded one of your saves (I think the third one, when the three stacks where approaching and you attached the GG to the new skirmisher with extra movement), did some promotions, did not attach the GG but settled him, hit end turn - bang, half of the defenders where gone and there were still two large stacks waiting for their move.
I have no idea how you do/survive that and even expand - on deity - but its very entertaining to read and I hope I can pick up something to improve my play.

Thanks for the effort.

 

[Snaaty]

@ admtanaka:

hard to say at this point... ...but im also positiv surprised how things went so far, that much i can say for sure


...

@ danielT:

thanks. as you stated yourself, a lot depends on city specialisation and planning, combined with reading the map + the enemy armies. i will try to include more city screens in my updates from now on, so you get a better overview of what im doing and why + a few more markers in the saves, so you can see a bit more into planning.

as to the battle your refering to (not sure if i remember right):
i also lost some units there (2-3 i think) but i managed to hold the city and killed the big stacks. thats what i mean with reading the enemie armies, when you think you are too weak, you have to whip and move whatever you have into the threatened city (i whipped and moved in all i had near, including a new general-unit + the mp from nearby cities)

...

@ all:

have i already mentioned that i hate gg-units?... ...yes, timur our superheroe with something like 500xp is dead (i played a few turns more, but thanks to timur dying at 99.9whatever odds agains a keshlik, my motivation right now to post the new update is a bit low)

 

[Eldariel]

Wow, incredible run thus far Snaaty. I'd have written the map off as unwinnable blind, but now I'm not so sure. Tried myself, didn't make it to the ADs. Then again, my normal level is Immortal so I can't really consistently win Deity, let alone Deity AW. Especially since diplo is one of my strengths.

If the GG regularly dies after the 200 fights, would it be possible to get near the limit and upgrade it? Would that allow circumventing the fixed odds? I could see some strat involving couple of early GG units that get superhigh and then keep upgrading them with regular intervals.

 

[Dirk1302]

Looks good, you may actually win it from here .

 

[Snaaty]

actually, yes, after the last 2 turnsets have been a quite easy ride, i´m quite confident of winning this one now (no guarantee thought, cause still losts can go wrong, but the position is really strong now)

to 1130, part 1:

Spoiler :

you have to take what you have been dealt, so we settle this junker island for the 3rd two gold traderoute (after building the castles, which we will do anyways for the +25% spypoints)


there is nothing there, no seafood, no hope, nothing, so well, but it will still pay back... ...and it will help to stop the stupid barb galleys from spawning there also (they have actually been a big pita, razing our seafood like 5000000times, always comming in pairs)

shrine:


not that much money right now (9 gold if i remember right, still no bank, only a market in the city). but every bit counts. this city was one of the cities that suffered the most from the last whipping excess, cause it hasnt much food to grow back, so we are lacking basically everything there... ...and spreading our religion also is somewhat slow, cause there always seems something more pressing to build then missionaries...

...

THIS is sooooooo sad:


that´s the reason why i dont like fighting ggs... ...but i guess you simply have to live with it... ...the stupid idiot did exactly 1 lousy fight and got killed... ...against a keshlik... ...but since you get double xp whe fighting with gg´s (leadership promo), i think it still might be worth it, but honestly, im not sure about it, because it tends to REALLY piss you off loosing a gg with 500+ XP (and against a keshlik)

...

but justi was immediately punished for this sacrileg:


the city got razed and resettled on the marker 33 from it (highblock). game over for justi, from this blow he wont recover anymore (still, we didnt have a lot of fighting luck, 4-5 units lost attacking the city NOT on a hill and with cg3 trebs + cg3 maces, all fights well above 90%). justi got a gg from it, but at this point, it wont help him anymore.

...

and we keep on stealing stuff:


i toyed around with the spyslider a bit, to get there in time. hanni still is doing surprisingly well reseachwise, and gunpowder is a mighty tech for us, since we are approaching the nationalism aera.

with the 700 gold in the bank and +150 each turn at 0% research and about 500beakers at 100% research it should be something like 12 turns to get there as a rough estimation (hopefully we will get some more plunder + razing money in soon)

 

[obsolete]

Hmm. Seems in the middle of my game the camera just went to hell.

Now I can only see a unit if I am zoomed in very, very close. And if I zoom out a little everything disapears and I'm in like globe-view or something. I guess it's a focal glitch or something. Even starting a new game has a messed up camera.

 

[sadmachines]

Is it something to do with the 'field of view' slider?

 

[Snaaty]

hi obs, great you found the time to try this one... ...it might be doable after all

...

i hope you get your camara problem fixed

to 1130, part 2:

Spoiler :

like promised a bit more insight in city management:


again the classical helper city, but this time a bit more developed and under castworkshops... ...costing 10 gold, bringing in 40 gold (at 100% money), so each of these cities is worth 30 gold.

and thanks to the hammer & food specialisation, they are very versatil overall, in case you need more production, army, whips, science (in that cahire scientists, build science)

...

our capital and science central:


225 beakers now, pre uni + oxford. not perfect, but also not bad (the whipping did also quite some damage here, concerning the cottage growth). the city has still to grow back a bit to get all cottages worked. 1 cottage gets worked by a nearby city to help out a bit (41 of the city).

...

oracle city:


i might have mentioned it before, but this city got hit hardest by the excessive whipping... ...not enough food to grow back quickly and not enough production to get the needed infra up in time (and right now working the cottage for the capital)... ...well, cant have everything i guess...

...

demo screen:


second in production, second in food, only a bit more to go to overtake the leading ai here (8 food & 5 hammers short only). we will get there

third in research at 100% research, 200 short of the leading ai (and last at 0% research, 500 short of the leading ai). so the truth should be somewhere in the middle of both, which is 450 short of the leading ai. substracting culture i would guess we are about 150-200 behind each turn... ...we need to hit ceasar (the leading ai) within the next 20-30 turns i guess, or he will be too far ahead and we might have to wait for rifles for a second chance here...

getting the reli a bit more spread and the money buildings up in oracle city, togehter with getting uni + oxford in our capital should provide us with enough boost to get to rifles in time if we need to (meaning before ceasar has infs and tanks)

...

the tech screen:


sal got lib (+ the circumnavigation bonus) and apparently has picked astronomy as freebe (you can deduct that by the techs an ai wont trade and can research... ...sal wont trade compass, meaning he has compass and cant research callendar, nor optics, nor astro -> he must have them all. and since he has researched paper, phil, edu + lib, he cant have researched astro also -> there you go, we have found the lib pick)

a very wise choice btw... ...on a pangea map and in an aw game... ...gotta love the ai for that... ...asto will save his butt for sure

 

[obsolete]

Is it something to do with the 'field of view' slider?

I would hope it's as simple as that, but I don't have the slider present.

...it might be doable after all

I'm so rusty, I doubt it!

 

[Snaaty]

...

I'm so rusty, I doubt it!

my shedule is clearing up a bit, so if you can find a bit time also within the next weeks, we might try another teamer (or a ffh2 game, dont mind really). i have to say i really enjoyed our teamers, so even if you dont have time/motivation thanks for the ones we played anyways, was great fun and i did still learn quite a bit

 

[Snaaty]

but now on with the update... ...to 1250, part 1:

Spoiler :

hanni provides us with another tech:


and since he still seems to tech quite nicely (i can see his worker actions at our new border... ...i can tell you the ai loves to mess up BIGTIME when enemy borders change/appear near his cities... ...he keeps workshopping over his cottages only to cottage over the workshops with a team of 4-10.000 workers in all new borderland cities... ...hell, that he actually keeps teching at all is an impressive archievement alone)

...

doesnt help him... ...apparently, despite the impressive workshop->cottage->workshop->cottage->forever cycle
he somewhat didnt expect a heavy assault from this side


6 or 7 defenders only, some trebs died (again, at high odds), but the city got burned to the ground... ...btw, in this screen you can also see very good all the fresh cottages (and workshops)

...

another tech (which we actually dont really need, but well, if its for free, i wanna have it:


on a second thought it would have been better to save the spoints for something later we really might need, but well now its too late... ...advisor shot, problem solved

...

and, as you already could deduct from the screens before (if you did look at the reseach progress), we are approaching nationalism (we went phil-nat)... ...and, 2 turns later:



but not only do we have now a new and interesting civic to play around with (nationalism, to draft), we also did nicely time THIS:



our new GP farm did breed its first gp, a gm, exactly the same turn we got nationalism researched (didnt really care what it would be, since he will get burned for a GA anyways...)

 

[Snaaty]

to 1250, part 2 + save:

Spoiler :

since hanni doesnt do exactly much to defend his cities, we raze the next city without bombarding... ...with some few 5ish units in the city at 100% city def (castle) i opted against bombarding and for loosing 3 cg3 trebs, a knight, 2 cg3 maces and 2 30xp phant instead instead... ...big time fun this was, we did only 1 fight below 50% odds, at 36% odds to be precise, the rest was from 69% odds rising towards 90% odds... ...and lost 7 units in the process


hanni got a gg for it... ...well, couldnt care less i have to admit, but loosing all these expert troops really DID hurt...

...

well, anyways, we reached our next goal with sealing the breach there with another blocking city:


when settling these blocking cities, it´s not only important that they are on a hill, you also have to take care that it isnt possible for the ai to simply resettle the city you have raze, or settling a city too close to your new blocking city... ...in that specific case you would get killed by the ai culture really fast, since the culture on the tiles remain, all the ai needs is a borderpop in the new city...

...

and we also did some scouting (spying) during the last set, to get some more infos about our new (and old) neighbours:

an overview of what´s left of mongolia:


what a horsehockey start actually for a deity ai... ...iron + plainscow + 2silk near the capital... ...poor justi... ...the rest of his remaining land is also quite meh, after we took the best 2 cities from him

...

hanni on the other hand has been dealt some really beautifull land:


floodplains, food, green, bronze, horses, iron, phants...

no wonder is he still teching at surprising speed while trying to counter our spy-activities... ...he now even got education, some other tech we might try to lay hands on (but we are somewhat lacking a "few" spoints)

...

the big question now is, where to go from here?

1. go "all in" on nationhood and eliminate justi + hanni

2. go "all in" on nationhood, eliminate hanni, ignore justi and try to weaken ceasar as much as possible before he gets to rifles

3. keep killing justi + hanni "bit by bit" and go "all in" teching by stealing edu asap, whipping 6 unis + getting oxford for capital while keeping the slider at 0% reseach then go 100% reseach through pp, repparts, rifling after oxford is in (with oxford we should have around 800 beakers at 100% research while loosing 300 gold, so it shouldnt take more then 12 turns to reach rifling after we have the needed gold in (3600 gold)... ...with the ga and focussing on spreading our reli + getting wealth in + rahing and plundering a bit, that should take around 15 turns i guess...

...

opinions?