Deitymania #2: Lincoln

[Lain]

Turn 136 -> 160

Spoiler :

So I took out quite a few offensive units from Cyrus, which is why I dare to move my stack into open field like this. Alex just adopted Vassalage, his favorite civic. Since I am in it aswell, he will be friendly fairly soon.

The defenses in Evora don't look too bad.



I take it without much resistance and take a peek at Pasargadae with my 2-movement-medic. Mmmmh, a bit scary actually.



I still move forward, leaving some jumbos behind... But they fall victim to a sneaky counter attack next turn
9 -> 6 elephants.





I take it back fairly easily with reinforcements. And my stack was right outside the city aswell. I keep marching and attack Pasargadae. Hill city, but Trebs do their job, though I think I lost some more than is shown in the screenies. Combat rolls were very favorable though.







I trade for Civil Service from my friendly Greek friend. I make some other trades too, Currency for Literature for example. He already made peace with Cyrus... what a coward. Joao is still stuck in the war though



He reinforces the city foolishly. Round 2 of Pasargadae onslaught begins.





Still can't take the city though, he just has too many troops. Even for next turn he manages to scrap together some new troops. He has Knights now. Me too, haha! (then I notice I don't have Horses though...)



Round 3 of Pasargadae fighting begins. Still can't actually take the city though. But if I break him here, he is surely done.



Tech situation after reaching Guilds, looks healthy enough. Now Alex is becoming a monster though. Give me a break.



Next turn he can't bring reinforcements and Pasargadae finally falls. Only 6 jumbos left, but they will be elite ones now.





Few words on the other continent... I don't even know what is going on anymore. Genghis Khan, Ragnar and Wang Kon have all fought each other at some point. Relations over there are absolutely rotten. Mongolia seems to gather momentum though and I think they will conquer the continent eventually. I agreed to stop trading with Wang Kon at least 2 times over the course of these turnsets, since he is worst enemy of pretty much everyone (Alex too).

I get a map from Alex (who has Paper) and decide to take Persepolis next. Lots of wonders there including the Statue of Zeus. Though war wearyness hasn't been a problem so far. I barely lose any troops... if you don't count the nasty counterattack on Evora ... but even there, I lost only 4 units or so. In total, my losses are <10 units in foreign land.



I get a Great Scientist at last! I could bulb Philo, only Joao has it so far. Plan was to save him, get a 2nd one and bulb Chemistry later though. Could research Gunpowder soon, too. I don't really care about Liberalism at this point, though it is very much up for grabs.



I march on Persepolis and see a lot of nasty catapults. Well, hope he doesn't get brave and attacks me. I have to bombard walls for one turn... I promote all my jumbos and axes and start praying. Quite a few CR3 Catapults and Trebs in my ranks now. Persepolis is not on a hill. He will suffer.

Strength 4 Pikeman though and highly promoted Knights who can hurt even my jumbos.



He throws 2 catapults on my stack, but then it is my turn. Round 1.





Next turn, Round 2. He is feeling the impact.



I defy a resolution which wants me to cut trades with Joao. I have Hindu in only one city, no big deal.

Round 3, Persepolis falls on Turn 160. Heroic Epic?



He would give a lot for peace, of course I don't take it. He will be eradicated completely maybe.



Tech situation right now, Turn 160:



Not much love going around in this game. Only Joao/Alex and Joao/Wang are Pleased, everyone else is just sharing hate. Joao/Alex is a problem though... I bet Joao will peace-vassal once he hits friendly. Not the biggest deal, but certainly a nuisance. Wonder if I can stop that somehow. Maybe take Joao soon before he can do it. But I want to finish Persia aswell...

Alex hasn't even met Ragnar and Genghis...



Look at this disgusting distribution of land though. Cyrus' land... he could backfill for 15+ peaceful cities.



And Alex' land... easily 15 cities aswell. No surprise he is just getting into the roll now.



I am not last in score anymore. Persia's power is dropping rapidly. Look at Mongolia and Greece though.

Tarsus is next, Ecbatana will follow. Maybe make a 2nd stack and quickly take Joao aswell... but he won't capitulate while I am at war with Persia aswell. Problems everywhere.

Another problem: 2 workers for 11 cities.

Quality of land in general is rather poor here.

 

[sampsa]

Lain! It's interesting how the AI tech pace can be sometimes so slow on deity, too. Religions fell in a pretty pleasant way.

 

[Fippy]

Lain like an Elite
And Cyrus is doing so bad at war now, i think it's a very nice example why war is always an option even on deity
Unless they get superior units.

 

[Lain]

Want to continue playing this so much, but better wait a bit for comments + your game. Don't want to finish this in 1 day

Only way to stop me from playing was to play 2 other deity games today though. I won last 8 deity games now. Form of my life

Random screenies from games I played yesterday + today. Too bad I can't make a forum game of every save though. Love them all so much. The ones I lose aswell. Every game is so special with own story and fun moments.

Will probably manage to lose this game somehow after I got a bit cocky now though

Spoiler :

 

[Lain]

Actually nevermind, I will finish Persia war now and update, because I can't play tomorrow. And I need some advice because Greece + Mongolia are going crazy mode.

 

[Lain]

Turn 160 -> 180, but as expected, many decisions I need to sleep on advice appreciated.

Spoiler :

Plan for this turnset:

- Finish Cyrus
- Don't crash economy completely

I redirect my espionage to Alex. He seems like the guy to watch mid-term. Cyrus is pretty much gone.



While my troops still celebrate taking Cyrus' capital (drunk jumbos), Alex declares on him (bribed by Joao?). This is actually rather bad and could have been prevented by bribing Joao off myself. Now I have less time.



I start moving towards Tarsus, which is weakly defended. Has Cyrus given up already?



I bribe Joao off now. Why? Because with him sharing a war with Alex, there is chance of peace vassaling and they also improve relations which I don't like.

It turned out to be a waste though. Next turn Alex bribes him back in... sloppy play.



Anyway, I take Tarsus. CR3 Treb has 71% chance, which is nice. But it lost of course, which is not so nice.





With Tarsus captured, I send a small stack to the city Alex is attacking, hoping to snipe it off. Cyrus seems to stack all his remaining troops there. Can't see Alex' stack, but I can't take the city without his help anyway. Main stack will go deeper into Persian mainland.



Then I made this trade. Looks nice until I realised that Chemistry bulb is ruined now. Oh well. Too much Civ today. It's annoying, but since there is no particular rush, I might aswell bulb Education and trade for Chemistry. Have a feeling I need to strengthen my economy after this war anyway. No way I can tech Steel for a long time.



Tech situation after this trade still looks fair enough. Slow tech pace helps me a lot, of course.



Alex manages to take the city by ONE freaking unit. Otherwise I could have stolen it on my turn. Guess this means Cyrus will capitulate to him if I don't hurry. Funny how small things snowball into game-threatening problems.



Well, I try my best and go for Ecbatana as planned. It falls next turn.





Ragnar wins Liberalism. Mongolia finally gets the breakthrough against Korea, taking a city (13 v 5 now)



Not sure it will help much, but I bribe him off to save Korea for a bit.



Surprisingly, I can bribe Alex into making peace with Cyrus. Disaster averted... for now. Cyrus won't capitulate to me yet, by the way.



So I take Bartra next. With so few defenders I attack over the river. Even though Alex is taken care off, I am still under time pressure. I reaaaally want to attack Joao next before he peace vassals like the nasty bighat he is. I also have to get my economy back on track to stay in the tech race (or "tech crawl", if you will).

I teched Gunpowder after Guilds by the way. Still want Steel eventually.





I trade for Philo from Joao and agree to pay tribute to mighty angry Mongolia. I can't afford any distractions there. Already burned bridges with the Koreans and my traderoutes with this guy will be key to staying alive.



Finally, some good news. After I have taken another junk city (not even worth a screenshot), Cyrus has come to his senses and is ready to give in. I can take it or go for his 5 remaining cities. After looking at my income at 0%, I take the capitulation. It will ruin my friendly relationship with Alex, but whatever. Just have to watch out for daggers.



I let him keep the city he wanted to give. No food. Edit: It actually had food ... I didn't see it in the fog. Grr. Well, a strong vassal can't hurt, right? Deity AI can tech some stuff with that land and help me out.



Turn 180 already and here we are now. I will have Cyrus research Chemistry in 18 turns, meanwhile I can go beat up Joao or tech something else. His remaining land:



Tech situation. Not too inspiring.



Even though the war was won and nobody vassaled anyone (except me ), it didn't feel like a great turnset. Maybe there is no reason to be depressed though.

I can settle some cities into Cyrus' face and claim most of his land, if I really wanted to. Would you do that?



I have city visibility on Alex. Here is his main stack. Apart from this, he basically has nothing. No idea how I am only at 0,5 ratio. However, he is 2 turns away from Cuirassiers. Don't want to mess with him before Steel.



This is Joao's remaining land. Nice and compact. My troops are swinging back and will attack this. I would love to declare right away but I have 3-4 cities he can snipe with Knights, including my new capital (Lisbon, I moved palace). So I need some preparation. If he peace-vassals to Alex in these 3-4 turns I will scream like you never heard before.



My remaining troops. More than adequate to deal with slimy bighat.

Some questionmarks still remain, though. My economy needs to recover. Courthouses are being built, some finished already.

I need to change civics. I am still in Vassalage.

1 Great Scientist and 1 Great Engineer are ready. Could start Golden Age (12 turns) if I wanted. Could save Engineer for Mining. Could part-bulb something with Great Scientist for trade bait. Next Great Person will be born soon enough if needed.

Personally, I want to wait until all captured cities are online and National Epic is built. I could probably get 2-3 Great Persons in Golden Age with some planning. Maybe a Great Merchant and go with corporations this game. Normally I would go State Property and whip until the end, but there is quite a bit of anger already. With State Property I could start teching again though because paying for 20+ cities won't be fun. Actually, corporations seem rather unattractive to me. Other opinions?

The balance between taking Joao and fixing economy has to be found. In an ideal world, I wait 10 turns and attack then. But complications have to be assumed, I think. Alex could declare on me (I will convert Cyrus to Confu to improve diplo a bit). Alex has to be taken care off in a reasonable time frame. Ideally before Mongolia runs away with the game.

Alex has to go at Steel. Tanks for Mongolia?

Concrete questions:

1) Settle the 3 cities in Cyrus' face?
2) What to do with Great Persons?
3) How to get economy on track mid-term?

There is some time to answer, don't think I will play tomorrow. Hope to update on thursday. This would be the hardest deity map I won so far. Sooo really don't want to screw it up. Already more hours invested here than in a full average game (with continents).

PS: One jumbo died to sneaky attack between turns. 5/10 left though.

 

[Fippy]

Oh you should not wait for me, sadly tough games do not get too much attention overall.
It's mostly yours, mine & BiCs personal game with Sampsa looking sometimes.

Took a quick look, and i must go peaceful after finishing horsies rush cos Jumbos would be a new army from 0 and my remaining HAs will mostly die against Bighat's hill city & his other one + island.
Interesting part was the breakout

Now looking at yours, hmmm i thought friendly removes all trading restrictions but Alex still fears you are too advanced.
I would give Cyrus Gordium back, crappy city.
Still needs 17 turns for Chemistry thou.
You could also settle those cities for him instead, making him more useful for research.
Imo they are not too great for you at this point, he could make use of desert gold quicker.

I would probably not have started NE in Washi, you have an academy and there are some commerce tiles here you can work.
Could use a harbor

Economy is mostly city management, we have Washi on commerce tiles as mentioned.
New York can use collosus coast in place of farms, Boston not sure, Phila i would forget about and build wealth after courthouse so it's paying for itself.

Atlanta i would get harbor for the nice trade routes and keep using more coast (not whipping much, i think Treb is not great here),
Chicago would need sheep from Phila for any hope on CH, Seattle wealth & forget, Lisbon i would use farm over silk for bit more growth until multipliers.

Difficult on great peoples and stuff, you will get some random ones from Persepolis & Lisbon for 3rd GA hopefully.
Need to think some more later, bulbing seems mostly over cos you can make 500+ beakers / turn soon with all your cities + what you expect from Bighat. So Golden Ages should be better at this point. But difficult when / how.

You could sell some maps for gold currently, adjusting cities a bit + capture gold from Bighat soon i think you will be fine for some time.
Not sure what tech now thou, will look again later
AIs always trade printing press, something to keep in mind.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

My thoughts :

Well done ! Warring while being the underdog can be extremely stressful. And you managed very well the diplo, avoiding any capitulations at all.

I like that you made a new palace in Lisbon. I kinda thought about that when reading your previous turnset.

Persia : like Fippy, I'd rather give back some cities than settle new ones for yourself.
Settling cities to give away is an interesting idea. Even Bactra isn't too good. Stuff past Ectabana I'd consider giving away.

Do I understand right that you intend to delay the war against Portugal until after you've set up your recovery ?
You've got a real standing army right now. What sort of investment do you need to kill them ?
I'd think it's minimal : mostly, you need some stray units to catch off random Portuguese units that go within your borders in the first turns of the war. Some Pikes, maybe X-bows, maybe maces. So... 5 new units ? If you want better counter in your stack (more pikes), then it tops around 10 new units ?
Your stack is a hammer with plenty of siege : it won't be countered. Where you need those stray, counter units is where you don't send your stack (there are the NE area by Pasargadae and the S area by Lisbon).

Recovering before attacking the next target makes sense, however (Alex / Wang). If you can do that while killing Portugal, it's all for the best.

I don't see the special appeal that Corporations can have, here. (Resources ?)
I tend to think State Property would be just as strong, if not stronger.
Have you thought about your victory condition, yet ? If you're going to invade the other continent, that's an extra argument for SP.
Speaking of them : I wouldn't be too worried about Mongolia. Sure, they can get hundreds of units but you'll have an easy time out-teching them. Ragnar/Wang overtaking that continent would have been more dangerous, imho. You don't need to plan the tech you'll use against them already. A navy would be nice, however (extra fast movement ; bombard).

Golden Ages, agreed. Especially with a captured MoM.

Edit :
You can get a 10 turns peace treaty with Alex (beg gold / resource).
So just do that when you DoW Portugal, or shortly after (when you capture the first city ?), and Greece won't be able to take them as a vassal.

Edit :
re : spreading counter units against Joao :
you have 4 cities on the frontline. Each of them needs maybe a couple of garrison units to start with. + 3-5 mobile units around, ready to reinforce, clear what Joao would send at you.
Might be wise as well to put a higher tier unit than a warrior in Washington. Getting the city sniped would be bad (Carracks).
He has a mini-stack with Trebs in the NE, in your territory. Easy to clear if you invade over there. Still manageable otherwise.
Split your X-bows, probably. Get more pikes. Too bad you don't have horses. Knights/Pikes would be the perfect unit composition for counters.

 

[Fippy]

Hmm so, i think my game is probably won (or not much different than others from now), these are great cities:

Spoiler :

Especially after getting Calendar from Bighat for peace.
Cyrus "stole" his last continent city north
But would be under culture pressure for it's only good tiles (cows + copper) from his Cap anyways.

I can now also still go Aest nobody has it yet, and you can see the tech situation does not look so bad (these guys are all rather slow)

Spoiler :

I might look for another difficult map today, and post that.
And we can help Lain with his game
I do not like abandoning maps, but i think nobody wants to see this turn into Cuirs anyways.
Ty for the really interesting map, was among my most challenging HA rushes.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

I might look for another difficult map today, and post that.
And we can help Lain with his game
I do not like abandoning maps, but i think nobody wants to see this turn into Cuirs anyways.
Ty for the really interesting map, was among my most challenging HA rushes.

And very impressive play from you.
Yes, please do

 

[Arvoreniad]

Oh you should not wait for me, sadly tough games do not get too much attention overall.
It's mostly yours, mine & BiCs personal game with Sampsa looking sometimes.

There might be more people following this than you think, just too out of their depth at this level to add much (like myself). Watching tough games like this always inspires me to play more and better, so thanks to all!

 

[Lain]

Soo I played just 20 more turns, but needed quite a long time for that. Turn 200 now, update soon~ ... I tried to use the advice both of you gave me. Went to war with Joao very quickly economy suffered a bit because of that though.

Regarding participation in games: I definitely think that people follow threads like this, even if they don't post. I have done that myself for years. With that in mind I am quite motivated to make detailed write-ups and post them here. Just to give something back to the community, and maybe someone "only" reading this will do the same in a few months or years, you never know

Besides that, I am having quite a lot of fun myself. While taking screenies, I think about every decision much more than in offline games. Because I want to justify my decision when I post here. I still make mistakes of course, but I play more mindfully and feel that my understanding of some game mechanics improves a lot because of that.

So making threads like this is a win-win situation for me nobody has to feel pressure to post, though of course I appreciate every kind of participation. Having lots of fun with the new Brennus game right now, because people post games and you can compare and discuss stuff. Having a really great time.

One month ago I was 80% winrate Immortal player with some Deity wins, now I am on a 9-win-deity-streak. Hoping to add number 10 here, of course. Don't think this game is done yet. Maybe it is a technical win for a veteran player, but sometimes I still struggle with Deity unit spam and Mongolia with 15+ cities, aaaaa.

 

[Arvoreniad]

Looking forward to the update.

I'm in a similar situation I guess, I've lurked on and off for years but now gaining confidence on immortal I feel like I can contribute something and improve further.

 

[Lain]

Turn 180 -> 200

Spoiler :

First thing I did was to gift back Gordium, a city without food. Another reason for doing so was Cyrus getting back his horses so I could trade for them and make some Knights.



Not sure if I can just "demand" the horsies? But I didn't want to risk him breaking free or whatever. Paying that doesn't hurt me for 10 turns.



I kept the other cities though. Even the furthest one (Bactra?) had a decent population and rare resources (Deer+Furs) so I felt I could do something with it.

I traded my World Map around, making about 100 gold.

What to do with Great People? First, I move them away from Washington which could be attacked by Joao with carracks (good call!). Next turn I decide that Lisbon needs an academy as my new capital and future science power house. I will get someone else for a Golden Age after war.



My army is still in the east, but Joao would threaten quite a few cities in my mainland. Because of that and just for some more reinforcements aswell, I get out some more troops. Pikemen for defense, Knights for flexibility, some Jumbos for... the Jumbo factor. Special mention to the 17 XP Pikeman in Persepolis.

I hope to declare in 2-3 turns, before Joao-Alex hit Friendly and he peace-vassals.



I also micromanaged each city, getting the recommended harbors, working more colossus coast and stuff. It was a bit tedious so not many screenshots of that.

4 turns after Persia capitulated, I declare on Joao with my main army just arriving on his borders. Joao moves this little stack and threatens my capital. Preparing for that was really important. His stack and my defenses in Lisbon on second screenie. I threw 1-2 trebs on him and then lost some unlucky battles on offense, so I decided to sit back a bit... it's actually a bit scary.





Meanwhile, I am threatening 3 of his cities. Keep in mind that I begged 1 gold from Alex on the turn I declared. I have to wrap this up in 10 turns. I would have preferred to attack Guimares, but it just wasn't to be with where my troops were.







He threw some catapults on my stack outside his city. You would think he should have less troops than that with his 6 cities.



I couldn't really attack his offensive stack outside Lisbon... not enough siege and I just had 50:50 vs his knights, so I decided to sit back with some CG3 promoted guys. I didn't check the odds, but this surprised me... with just a few trebs he hit me hard. Basically only my Superjumbo won his battle. Everyone else disappointed me.





I kind of prepared for this and was able to mop up the remaining danger with reinforcements rather easily. Good thing I inserted some new troops in the mainland.

Wang Kon finally crumbled like a cookie on the other continent. Mongolia took out his capital...



I was waiting 2000 years for that. At last I get to work the clam with my otherwise starved city ha.



Joao didn't put up much resistance apart from his push towards Lisbon. Only one screenie from the war... I took Coimbra too. After that, the 10 turns were running out and I took his capitulation (he was ready to capitulate before I even took a city). I put some beakers into Education so Joao would give up this technology aswell. Now I have something to trade to Cyrus for Chemistry.





I settled a city and gifted it to Cyrus (San Francisco) so he would become a bit more useful with his deity bonuses. Also a suggestion from you . I settled one more later for him.



I gifted confu missionaries to both my vassals since they were in Theocracy. They used my missionaries and so I was able to convert them to my (and, more importantly, Alex') religion. Greece beelined Rifling and I don't really want to take on Rilflemen and Cavalry right now. Hope he doesn't start plotting. I could fight him back somehow though.



As planned, I traded for Chemistry from Cyrus. Steel could be researched now.



Then I went into builder mode. A Great Spy was born, Golden Age could be started. I whipped 6 cheap universities and started on Oxford in Lisbon. I had a silly idea of finishing Oxford with the Great Engineer, but I think I will just start a 12-turn Golden Age next turn and finally switch to Bureaucracy, maybe starve out 1-2 Great Persons.

Tech situation. I could reach Steel in about 10 turns if I really wanted to.



Didn't plan to give back any cities to Joao. Maybe I should, but I am just too greedy for that. Think my economy should be fine, just need a few turns to grow cities and get everything online properly.

Alex is not stacking on my borders. I sent a knight to look for his stack. Good sign though. Declaring on him with only Steel seems a bit dicey. Cannons+my veterans > Rifles, but Cavalry are a bit nasty with flanking.

Maybe just tech to Rifles myself? Can tell Cyrus to tech Steel... somehow his BPT is really bad right now, don't know why. Hope he could reach Steel in 20 turns maximum.

I attach save, there is so much information I might forget writing about. I would do some more micro before finishing this turn.

Golden Age next turn?
Gift cities back to Joao?
Cannons + Rifles for Alex? Or defend vs Cavalry with Superjumbos?
Mongolia doesn't look too bad.

 

[Arvoreniad]

I'd lean towards going straight to steel and attacking with cannons/maces while teching military science for grenadiers. Depending on what Cyrus can research for you, you may need another 3 techs to get to rifling, during which time Alex will only be stronger, and Mongolia stronger still.

If you can lure Alex's big stack and hit it first with siege he should crumble even if he's got rifles. CR cannons are very strong and CR macemen can be easily upgraded to grens. 14 cities should provide plenty enough production and your existing trebs/cats can of course upgrade to cannons also.

If triggered now, the GA should help get to steel faster and churn out more troops and GPs at a pretty crucial time. Probably worth it.

The overall game position looks strong. If Alex can be taken out efficiently enough it should be a win.

 

[Fippy]

Tricky (and your reports as great as ever ).
I think Grens are a great suggestion by Arvo.

While cannons are good, my bigger worry here would be having something that can actually survive Alex stack attacks.
Grens counter Rifles nicely on offense, and if you move carefully (on hills under Oporto i.e.) def bonuses can also make them tough enuf on defense.

Cyrus research is shockingly weak yup, not sure what's happening there.
But seems you are on your own with research, besides Joao on Astro in 18 is okay.
Golden Age sounds good, you could reach Grens + Cannons during it, and then fight Alex with quantity and also reasonable quality.

I think i would stop buildings (or finish ones with more hammers in, but not start new ones), and put everything into units and gold (to upgrade).
Can also get extra gold with some little trades, Wang would give you 110 for maps.
If Alex gets even more gold, i might sell Optics (small tech by now). Every bit counts for such a huge war.
Great Merchant maybe possible somewhere during GA?

If you can beat Alex, you win so i would focus 100% on that effort once i choose doing so.
I would keep all cities just for whipping some units if possible
Only those where you think they are hopeless i would give away at this point.

 

[Lain]

Turn 200 -> 250 ... Part 1

Spoiler :

So I will go with what you suggested. Started Golden Age immediately, going to research Steel+Military Science and will also try to get some Great Merchants for upgrade.





At the moment even 6-city-Ragnar is stronger than me (pff), so lots of whipping to do soon~



I managed to get 2x Great Merchant during Golden Age, also another Great Engineer, who will be saved for future. Shipped them to other continent -> 3000 Gold for upgrades. Mongolian army is a bit scary. He will be bribed on me by Alex for sure. But AI doesn't know how to launch a proper naval attack, right?



Tech situation after I reached Military Science... Alex has neither, but Rifles+Cavalry of course.



Battle plan... I made two stacks.

#1 will take Susa over a river on second turn.



#2 will do the same thing with Oporto.



Why do I plan to attack so bravely and where are Alex' troops? Sitting in his capital. He needs 4 turns to reach the frontline and I calculated that no matter whether he goes for Oporto or Susa, his stack will arrive just outside the city on Turn 4 ... so I should have first strike.



Time to start the madness.



Alex can bribe everyone on me next turn. Nothing I can do about Mongolia. But I demand 1 gold (tribute) from Vikings, at least he won't be able to declare on me.



I capture both cities as planned. And he didn't bribe Mongolia yet ... hmm.





Oh, but here we go, at last



Alex captures Lagos from Joao. I will help take it back, don't want a broader frontline like that.



Then basically nothing happens for 4 turns... I just sit and wait for his stack, which doesn't arrive as planned. What is he doing? I make some spies and promote a brave Jumbo with +1 sight to go look. But there it is finally



Next turn, his stack is just outside Oporto.



And I strike him with everything even though he is on a hill. Quite a few cannons die. After the battle is over it looks like this...

Merry Christmas, Alex.



So far so good. Now I start moving towards Corinth. Quite a few troops in there. He still has more power than me.



Meanwhile, Genghis Khan takes a city I captured from Joao earlier. Pff.



I keep marching on Corinth and take it easily, but Alex launched some naval action himself and captured Boston. With a decent sized army actually. Enemies everywhere.



Genghis tries to conquer my strategically important island, but fails. I whipped some defenses before.



I take back Braga vom Genghis soon.



Main army is still going for Greece mainland. I will split my stack here and take Sparta + Argos.



Genghis doesn't have enough yet. He takes Seattle.



Sparta and Argos fall easily, he doesn't have many troops left there. But he could get Infantry soon, so going to hurry a bit.





Instead of taking Boston back and destroying Alex last mentionable stack, I throw Mongolia off my continent first. That way, I can make peace with Genghis and then beat down Alex. Otherwise, peace vassal is a real danger here if Alex drops too fast.

 

[Lain]

Part 2

Spoiler :

Now he will talk as I thought. At least he didn't run away with tech or capitulate Ragnar while he was busy with me...



Athens drops next and I am standing in front of Knossos...



... when Alex gets another naval stack from somewhere and takes Tarsus. My Forbidden Palace was there



I fix that, take his last city on the landmass and check diplo screen... still no capitulation. Stupid Joao is dragging down the team score here? Anyway, I take Printing Press and make peace, no point to keep this war going. Upon making peace I use my pre-built workboats to fix seafood quickly. I stop training units and switch to wealth or buildings. I also revolt to Free Market+Organized Religion (2 turns... only one civic would have costed 2 turns aswell)



Tech situation after war is over. I didn't research anything myself, just some cross trading with my vassals (I got Astro, Nationalism, Liberalism for Steel and Military Science)



My army looks quite decent now, but expensive in upkeep.



Mongolia is plotting again, will probably finish off Ragnar. I have 2 Great People, another one for Golden Age in ~15 turns. I will tech to Factories, somehow get Communism (Cyrus can get Scientific Method at least) for State Property. Artillery is needed aswell. Maybe include tanks during the war.

Build navy, ship everything and take out Mongolia for Domination or Diplo.

1700 AD is quite late though... but not like anyone will win space or culture soon. If I don't run into some troubles, this will probably be the last detailed write-up for this game

Thanks everyone for advice. Hope it is enough to win now

 

[Fippy]

It's just so amazing, best war reports i have seen for a long time

 

[Fippy]

I just noticed Rags has Infantry, he should declare on Genghis who misses Rifling that could be fun