[BTS] DIETY Continents - Darius Conquest

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I’ve been planning a certain civ4 play-through for years, and finally got to do it. I’m a busy man, so I often spend more time thinking about playing civ4 then I actually get to play. By thinking about things, I often write it down. I’ve written so much about this game in planning and strategizing that I thought I would post the story here. This story is full of Diety level strategies and is also just a fun play-through. I had played diety before and won, using exploits like pangea, quechua rush, AI crowding, and small map sizes. I had always wondered, could I win on a relatively standard map without the best known exploits? Could I win a fairly normal game? This story is about me trying to. I hope you all enjoy.

 

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The Map and Early Strategy

Our play-through begins on Diety difficulty using a standard map size, continents, and default number of AI (7), and default settings. Uncheck all win conditions except Conquest. Goodie huts remain, Barbs on, tech trading is on. No random seed on reload. This is to eliminate the diety win exploits from having a single continent and just rushing all the AI’s, which I’ve done before. The AI’s are also not boxed in and have plenty of land to expand into. The idea is that I wanted a map that didn’t help me at all.

Otherwise, there were no other restrictions on me. I could save and load as I pleased, re-roll the map as I pleased, and utilise any in game exploits.

I had a particular leader in mind, Darius. I would get the organised and financial traits, because they are my favourite. My early rush unit would be the special chariot unit, Immortals. Strength 4, a bonus against archers and axes, and their movement speed would be perfect for controlling the 3 AI’s that would be with me on the main continent. My strategy would be to rush Immortals and then to prevent the 3 AI’s from getting bronze so that I could eventually take them over. Once I control the main continent, I would then deal with the 3 remaining AI’s that have been left unhindered on the second continent.

 

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It Begins

I settle the capital and get familiar with the area. It’s a good roll. I move my settler a single tile and have access to one each of rice, horse, cow, and gold. It’s on a river too. The sort of start I’m going to need if I’m going to win diety. My first build is a warrior as I don’t plan on building workers, I steal them. I rush out the warrior through a 2 hammer, 1 food tile and send him south where Shaka has settled. I steal his worker through a war declaration. I send the worker back to the capital to start roads to where the horse is, though I don’t yet have husbandry. I build another two warriors but allow the capital to grow, and with my starting scout I take all the goodie huts that I can, securing a useless fishing tech and a bit of gold. I capture 2 more workers by declaring war with Mansu and Asoka.

Mansu and Asoka are North, over the equator through a thick jungle. This is a difficult position for me as it’ll take me some time to finish off Shaka and get to them in the north before someone starts pumping out spears. I will need to act quickly. I reach husbandry, and connect the horse to the capital. The other two workers are escorted by warriors to the south and through the jungle, my last warrior is camping the tile that will have bronze in Shaka’s capital. I finally get my first Immortal as Shaka’s archers push my warrior from the bronze tile and at the same time the other two workers arrive home. I have confirmed that neither Mansu or Asoka have bronze in their starting two cities.

 

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Seed weaving War Strategy

Let’s talk a little bit about my war strategy and a tactic I call seed weaving. Anyone reading this will understand the concept of the seed that randomises whether your attack is successful. My strategy for retaining units is to understand the seed that I am up against. Is it strong or weak? Am I dealing with a seed so strong that will give me victory on a 25% or a seed so weak that it will award a loss on a 75%. Before I attack, I will save scum. This is diety after all, and I’m playing to win, so leave your pride at the door. I maybe have a stack attacking a city and a few units chasing barbarians. The strategy is that you want to always win, but only just. Don’t waste your high xp unit on a strong seed. Use him instead on a weak seed so that you can then use your high xp unit to win a weak seed. Better yet, have another unit off chasing a barbarian warrior so that when you come against a really weak seed, you can get through it without losing a unit by killing that barbarian. You know you’ve done well if your stack is all in red. If you have no other choice than lose a unit, like your still losing your general mega units that have a 97%, you should instead sacrifice your worst unit in the stack to get past it. You have to deal with all seeds, good and bad. You want to weave yourself through these seeds using the appropriate strength unit to deal with the appropriate strength seed.

 

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The war with Shaka

The war goes well as both his cities are on low lands. His Capital is on the southern tip of the continent with fish and clams, and his second city is a little closer to the capital in some floodplains. I race my Immortal and start to kill archers and barbarians. He is soon joined by additional immortals and they continue to ruin Shaka, eventually taking both his Capital and the floodplains. I rename these cities South Reach, and South Basin. Shaka is eliminated.

During the war with Shaka, Buddhism is founded on the other continent, and Asoka founds Hinduism in his second city. I use the workers to improve the cow and the rice and tech mining for the gold. Asoka builds Stonehenge in his Capital.

 

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Pivoting to the North

Mansu and Asoka have been left alone since their initial worker steal and are doing typical AI boom. They have a third city each, not good. Asoka’s third city has access to Bronze, which he techs to just as I arrive passing through the jungle. The jungle really slows my immortals down, and barbarians delay the push while I heal units from the wars. A summary of my cities and their intended specialisation are now as follows;

The Capital – Balanced. Income, production, growth. Slight production lean (rice, horse, cow, gold)
South Reach – Balanced. Income, production, growth. Slight production lean (wheat, bronze, clam, whale)
South Basin – Heavier Income lean. Growth and Income. (4x floodplain, cow)

I have the following units (I let the scout die);
3 Warriors – 2 city raider, 1 medic, varying exp
4 Immortals – all strength promotions, varying exp
~5 Workers

I leave the 1 CR warrior near the South cities and 1 CR at the Capital looking to farm barbarians and protect. I take the medic warrior north with the Immortals. The workers have finished improving the capital mostly so I use some of them to start constructing a road to the north to allow fast movement of the immortals. Newly captured workers begin improving the south cities with cottages. Barbarians are a real issue and newly constructed immortals are slow to make it north as they are often used to mop up units that I can’t deal with my warriors.

I do a couple cheeky reloads as Asoka techs into code of laws to ensure he founds Judaism in his second city. A single city with Hinduism and Judaism founded has some interesting specialisation possibilities

 

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The war with Asoka

I need Stonehenge. My south cities are severely limited as they cannot culture expand into the BFC. The free monument in all cities is critical for my game plan. Asoka’s capital is also an amazing city with gems banana fish and wheat. The Stonehenge will also give me religious GP points for shrines which I will need when I take Asoka’s second city. Asoka is also slightly closer to me, and Mansu doesn’t have much of interest.

I finally arrive with my battered army of immortals, with some still healing barbarian attacks and my warrior medic lagging behind with another immortal, protecting the workers making the great highway north through the jungle. So when my army finally arrives in Asoka’s land, they are just two Immortals, albeit my most experienced. Asoka probably has around 15 archers by this time. I don’t worry about the cities just yet. It’s time to grind him down. I fight archers when I can, and run away when Asoka pressures me. I ebb and flow against him, razing improvements. I send an immortal to his third city as he reaches bronze working to camp his bronze that’s on his third city.

My conquered southern cities are recovered somewhat and are able to deliver more production and my capital is churning out Immortal after Immortal. Without the highway, I allowed the capital to finish a granary and barracks. With the highway mostly completed, new build immortals with strength are able to reach the frontlines quickly. With overwhelming numbers, the tired Asoka eventually gives up his capital and his second city. I leave his third city, as I have plans to farm this humbled AI. (Though nothing goes perfectly to plan) I rename his capital Stonehenge, in honour of his wonder. I rename his second as Triumph, in honour of my hard fought victory against this foe.

 

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Pivot to Mansu

I now have the following cities;
The Capital – Inland, Balanced specialism (rice, horse, cow, gold)
South Reach – Coastal, Balanced specialism (wheat, bronze, clam, whale)
South Basin – Inland, Balanced specialism (4x floodplain, cow)
Stonehenge – Coastal, Growth specialism (1x gems, banana, fish, wheat) (stonehenge wonder)
Triumph – Coastal, Income specialism. (fish, no hills/problems with production) (founder for Judaism and Hinduism)

I have a large stack of Immortals ~10. Through the war I have received a great general. I instantly attach him to the Medic warrior and upgrade movement speed. The medic unit is now attached to my Immortal stack and moves as fast as the horses, allowing fast heal of the immortal units. The two CR warriors are garrisoning cities for the happiness bonus while I have a home force of roaming immortals to farm exp from barbarians and protect the capital and south cities.

 

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Troubles with Economy and Mansu Surprises

I have some major economic troubles now. I have a large army and many cities, many of which are far from the capital. My research is running on savings which will not hold out for long. I have gotten pottery and am spamming cottages among all cities to play catch up. The gem mine in Stonhenge helps a lot too, as do the floodplain cottages in South Basin, but it’s not enough. I had planned to go for writing and alphabet before bronze working, but it appears that Manu has a surprise for me. Expanded to 4 or 5 cities now, he has secured 2 iron plots and has teched into Iron Working. He has swords, spears and axes. I need to counter with bronze.

Unfortunately the bronze available at South Reach is two squares away from that city, meaning I would need to wait until the culture expand from the Stonhenge monument, which is just not fast enough. I realign my tech and production path during the mop up of Asoka to respect my new strategy. I know there is a bronze along the great highway to the east of my capital. I build a settler out of the capital and settle a new city.

Factorum – Inland, Production specialism. (cow, bronze, rice, many hills and plains, 3x dye in jungles to the north)

 

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Tech Progression

I tech towards bronze instead of writing. I know how powerful slavery and chopping is, plus the access towards axes is imperative for dealing with Mansu. I was already leaning towards this before Mansu surprised me so it became a no brainer. I had left Asoka alive because I wanted Alphabet to trade peace with Asoka for tech. Well that wasn’t happening anymore, but I had left Asoka’s last city alive, which was now heavily fortified on a hill with walls. I kept camping his bronze, but his city was untakeable with my immortal army.

With my gold savings, I could make it Bronze and Writing before I ran out of money and had to set the slider to zero. Money and research progression was going to be an issue until currency and code of laws and I had no clear way of getting to those with the economy I had.

 

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War with Mansu

The war with Mansu went terribly. He early built a lot of walls, and without a strong city raider unit, I couldn’t crack any of his cities. Not that I could really afford to take them anyway with the heavy economic penalty I would receive. I stopped constructing new Immortals and began building axes. The barbarians were sending spears against me now and even founded a barb city along my highway between Factorum and Stonehenge, which I raised 3 times over. I quickly got enough axes because of overproduction from whipping and chopping. This meant I could grab libraries in all of my cities. I also took barracks in the South cities. My lack of tech progression and production spike from bronze quickly saw me running out things to build. It wasn’t for too long though, I found an out.

If I couldn’t take Manu’s cities, then he couldn’t leave them either. I destroyed all his improvements, beginning with his two irons and all his cottages. I started building a savings bank from all this raiding. Mansu was whipping units furiously and launched a stack of swords, axes and spears against Stonhenge. I was able to rebuff without any losses and wiped the stack. His cities were much reduced now and I had popped another great general, which I attached to one of the CR warrior units and free upgraded to axe and gave movement speed. I now had a mobile stack of experienced Immortals with a medic axe, and a city raider axe. It was a potent and quick force.

 

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Grinding to Alphabet

I had no income with the slider set to zero research. I was stagnating heavily. I had run out of useful production so I set some of the cities with libraries to convert production to research, something I never like to do. I was running around with an amazing army stack, trying to find damage but not really finding any, as Asoka and Mansu had both holed up in their cities. I had a reasonable bank from raiding and the Monuments finally popped to BFC in my South cities, and the religion and wonder in Triumph and Stonehenge popped to BFC around the same too. This opened up more cottages and natural city growth, allowing some science specialist in Stonehenge. Eventually I realised that I could set the slider to full research, and my savings would not run out before achieving alphabet. I went for it, and got to Alphabet.

 

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Grinding to Currency and Code of Laws

The same turn I reached alphabet, I traded Asoka peace for mysticism. A little while later I was able to build the Hindu Shrine with a great person from Stonehenge. Mansu and Asoka had adopted Hinduism as the state religion and I got a good chunk of income from this Shrine which helped a lot in rebuilding the bank. I traded peace a few times and got my minor tech upgrades. I cut all military production, I turned it instead to research on all my cities, this gave me the bare minimum to reach currency and it appears that the worst of my economy issues are over. With currency, I could trade peace for money, an absolute game changer. I became the neighbourhood bully, I would rush into Mansu and Asoka territory, levelling all tile improvements and killing anything that left a city. As soon as the deal was good enough, I would take a big pile of gold and peace out both of them. I would spend the next 10 turns running killing some barbarians, healing troops, and positioning them to rush down Asoka’s bronze, and Mansu’s two Irons. Mansu and Asoka both tried to settle new cities but I knocked them down before they could get any defence bonus through my two city raider axes. I had popped another great general which I attached to my third warrior who was a city raider. My mobile army now had 3 great general axes, two of which were city raiders. The formula was always the same. I had a tech progression plan that I called ‘leap frogging’. I would set the slider to zero and just wait until I had enough money to ‘buy’ the next tech. My plan was such;

Code of Laws 350, Meditation 80, Priesthood 60, Mathematics 250, Construction 350

With Code of Laws I would be able to build courthouses, in my northern cities especially because the distance penalty was killing me. Meditation would get me a Monastery in Factorum which I saved trees to chop out heaps of missionaries to spread Hinduism. Priesthood would give me temples which I could use for religion specialist to get the Judaism shrine in Triumph. Mathematics was just a speed bump on my road to construction and the Catapults which I so desperately needed to finally destroy Mansu and Asoka.

 

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Following the Plan, Expansion and Sayonara Asoka-san

While I was waiting for my tech to reach construction, I realised that I could expand more. I started built two settlers and dropped them strategically along the highway between Factorum and Stonehenge. I called them Bayside and Kings Retreat. As Asoka had settled a new city north of Triumph, I decided I could take his new capital with my City Raider Axes who were now upgraded behemoths and still drain him of gold. He had founded Christianity in his capital so I named it Christendom. As I finally reached construction and built catapults, my army and city situation looked like this;

The Capital – Inland, Balanced specialism (rice, horse, cow, gold)
Factorum – Inland, Production specialism. (cow, bronze, rice, many hills and plains, 3x dye in jungles to the north)
South Reach – Coastal, Balanced specialism (wheat, bronze, clam, whale)
South Basin – Inland, Balanced specialism (4x floodplain, cow)
Stonehenge – Coastal, Growth specialism (1x gems, banana, fish, wheat) (stonehenge)
Triumph – Coastal, Income specialism. (fish, no hills, Judaism and Hinduism Shrine)
Bayside – Coastal, Balanced specialism (clam, cow, wine, river, hilly)
Kings Retreat – Inland, Commerce specialism (wheat, 2x gems, banana, ivory, river, only fields)
Christendom – Inland, Commerce specialism (rice, cow, floodplains) (Christianity founder)

Mobile Stack - 10+ most experienced Immortals, 2x CR General Axes, 1x Medic General Axe
Core Stack - 5x Axe (low xp), 2x Spear (low xp), Catapults to come (low xp), 2x Archers
Various roaming stacks Immortals for barbarian control, and 1xAxe garrisons in all cities.

 

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New Tech Path Planning and Building Catapults

While I was putting my catapult army together, Mansu counter attacked me at Christendom. The city is low land and recently captured by me without much culture defence. I had allowed him peace too many times for gold and he had a big sword stack coming for me. I swivelled my core stack to fortify it and rebuffed his advance. My mobile army clean house after that. With construction tech achieved it was time for me to plan my tech progression. I would kill Mansu with catapults, that much was certain. He had been hamstrung by constant raids, and he had whipped his cities into low population messes. I no longer had a care for him. I had seen in the notice bar, that the unfound AI on the second continent were screaming ahead in tech and my focus needed to be on them. I couldn’t wait, I needed to get to Optics. I needed eyes on my new enemies.

My tech plan was as follows;
Metal Casting 450 – provides Trireme tech (produce two instantly)
Compass 400 – provides harbor, (prod n/a)
Machinery 700 – gives the crossbowman (prod n/a)
Optics 600 – gives caravel (spend gold to upgrade Triremes to caravel and send one east, one west)

 

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The New World and Mansu’s send off

There’s not that much to say about conquering my old foe Mansu, he couldn’t stand against the catapult bombardment and my deadly generals. His cities fell one by one. I just completed compass when a Caravel arrived on my shores bearing news of a far off Greek Empire and their leader Pericles. The caravel saw my sprawling backward empire and left. I was just conquering the last of Mansu’s cities when I popped Optics and upgraded my triremes to Caravels. I managed to achieve circumnavigation before the other AI, receiving the much coveted +1 naval movement bonus. I met the other two civilisations, led by Hannibal and Justinian. Their cities were massive, each 14 population minimum. The Greek capital was incredible, 22 population, 6 wonders, and endless stacks of knights, maces, muskets and trebuchets. Each empire had at least 7 or more cities. My capital had just breached 10 population, and my stack of Immortals, Axes, and Catapults paled against the might of these Diety Empires. The points system placed me in second, well behind Pericles, with Hannibal and Justinian bringing the rear not far behind me. In the demographics tab, it told an even worse story. My GDP was 10 times smaller than Pericles. My population lower, all production lower. My tech delays during alphabet, currency and code of laws had killed me. How could I ever hope to catch and kill these Empires?

I needed a good plan to beat these guys. I know enough about Diety level AI to know that once they get away from you, there is little that can be done to catch up. Obviously I have some advantage in terms of how large my empire can grow. I have the larger continent all to myself while the AI is splitting the smaller continent among three. Also I had noticed that the AI has slowed down on how quickly they are getting great people as they had been popping them constantly through my journey. Perhaps I will have an edge in regards to founding corporations as I had only popped two GP for the shrines in Triumph.

I don’t think I can catch up for tech trading, and I don’t think I can rush them with my current army. What I need to do is hope for some wars between the AI’s and hope for some defensible wars from them. I could go for supremacy on water, though I won’t ever have better tech on water and so that’s not really an avenue either. There are no good options. Darius calls hills generals together for war games. They have planned strategies for conquests of the new threats.

 

[dietydunk]

War Games – First Attempt

I grow out with my empire size, and maybe not catch up, but stay close enough that I can win defensive wars until such time as I bleed the AI out of its excess production with favourable trades. I aim for cannons and launch an assault on Pericles.

My tech plan is then as follows;
Civil Service (Mace for defence)
Paper 600 (does nothing for me)
Printing Press 1600 (massive econ boost without productivity spend)
Feudalism – allows guilds
Guilds 1000 (upgrades knights for defensive wars)
Education 1800 (massive science boost with university improvement)
Gunpowder 1200
Chemistry 1800 (req engineering 1000)
Steel 2800 (upgrades my catapults to cannon)
Astronomy 2000 (for carting cannons across to begin offensive against Pericles)

This gets me key unit upgrades for defence with key techs needed for tech and commerce. Once at steel and astronomy, I then begin an offensive war against the AI. My production focus in the meantime will be;

Settlers – Land grab the entire continent as soon as possible. If the AI settles on my continent, it’s over.
Coastal garrisons – Mace, Longbows and Crossbows into all coastal cities. I want around 4 units in each coastal city, while inland cities have one old tech units like axe or archer.
Missionaries – Hinduism and Judaism in new cities asap for quick BFC expansion, culture defence and income from Triumph.
City Improvements – Continue along building courthouses and granaries in new cities, improve older ones with science based improvements primarily.

Defensive Wars with Pericles, Justinian, and Hannibal

Pericles attacks me after I hit Guilds, and not long after that I get attacked by Justinian and Hannibal as well. Pericles attacks my eastern coast with a large navy of Caravels and Galleons. He dumps knights, maces, crossbows and catapults into Triumph, which he correctly judges as my most valuable city. I am ready for him. My mobile army of Mace Generals and Knights arrive in time to push him back. My Knights do nothing, but the maces kill 4 units and he gives up. He drops his remaining stack of Knights to the north, which my higher exp Knights swoop north to mop up while my Mace Generals heal. Justinian drops a stack of Cataphract (12 strength knights) and Crossbows into a recently settled city on the west coast. The marine landing penalty kills his chances, and my crossbow and mace garrison clean house. The last attack comes with Hannibal dropping an 8 stack of cavalry on my east coast. He raids deep against me. This is painful. I have nothing that can stand against a 15 strength unit and he would destroy even my Mace Generals. I need peace. My victories against Justinian and Pericles allow me to sue for peace on favourable grounds, securing some pocket change. His friends have given up the fight and Hannibal is amenable to me buying him off with 140 gold. Peace returns to my continent.

Invading Pericles

I have settled the entire continent and rebuffed the AI attacks. My mace and knights performed well against the AI and all I need is proper siege craft in order to begin an invasion. I trigger a golden age with a great scientist and I let my nation race through techs and city improvements. As soon as I pop steel I upgrade my catapult stack to cannons. I rush out a bunch of muskets with Hill and City defence upgrades and pile them into my new Galleons. I put out to sea, ready for war. I figure I may be going against rifles, how wrong can I be.

My strategy is to go straight for the throat. Athens. There is a hill next to it. This hill is to be my springboard. I have maybe 15 knights, 10 mace, 5 muskets, and 15 cannon. The fog is busted as I declare war and drop my stack on the hill. I see the army waiting for me. It’s infantry. It’s goddamn 20 strength infantry, with stacks of cavalry in support. I fortify my insane xp army lower tech army and hope for some pacifism. I bombard Athens with my Frigates and watch the army come at me.

Pericles begins his bombardment with Airships, with limited effect. Luckily it hits mostly my cannon stack and misses the General units. I whole bunch of ancient tech siege hit my position, first catapults then some trebs. I easily rebuff this but it starts to take some edge out of my stronger units. From the Greek heartlands comes the endless stream of cavalry. They strike me one after another, ceaselessly. My mace kills some but it quickly becomes a slaughter. Cavalry destroy cannon on masse by flanking my position and my meticulously crafted army is decimated.

Darius has failed. This will not do. The enemy is not to be bested in this manner. The war game is over. Try again.

 

[dietydunk]

War Games Second Attempt

Perhaps the issue was going for the Greek Heartlands straight away. If I retain the successful defensive wars and go against Pericles in from a more isolated position. In this attempt I tech to astronomy directly after guilds during my defensive wars.

Civil Service (Mace for defence)
Paper 600 (does nothing for me)
Printing Press 1600 (massive econ boost without productivity spend)
Feudalism – allows guilds
Guilds 1000 (upgrades knights for defensive wars)
Astronomy 2000
Education 1800 (massive science boost with university improvement)
Gunpowder 1200
Chemistry 1800 (req engineering 1000)
Steel 2800 (upgrades my catapults to cannon)

I take out Pericles new island holdings, 3 cities but I raze one of them. I also destroy much of his navy with frigate on frigate wars. I progress tech towards steel, consolidating my continent and attack Pericles at much the same time as the first attempt. This time I drop my army in the northern tundra, hoping for less resistance further away from the Greek heartlands. I deal with a stack of frigates and begin bombardment. I eventually take the first city with relative ease. The same turn Pericles launches his stack of cavalry against my siege position. I lose half my fighting units and the cannons get wrecked from flanking. All my general units get destroyed.

Darius sees the damage to his army and realises this is a lost cause. The attempt is over.Try again.

 

[dietydunk]

War Games Third Attempt

The issue is the quality and volume of units that Pericles has when I try and take him on. My advantage during the early game from having such a stack of experienced units disappears when confronted by such advanced units. I have parity at sea; perhaps I can make a play with this? I call a war after my successful island takeover, and aim at farming his frigate production against my frigate stacks and beating him at sea.

I am able to farm off maybe 4 frigates and 8 galleons. Including another Hannibal attack that sees cavalry on galleons end on the ocean floor. Pericles makes combustion and upgrades to destroyers and I sue for peace, while trying to make combustion myself. Perhaps I can eke my way to the late game and hope for tech parity eventually. I don’t make it before Justinian declares on me, sinking my frigates and landing stacks of cavalry and rifles on my continent. I cannot even stand up against my weakest foe.

Darius sees that making it to the late game is not viable. His enemies must be challenged before then. Try again.

 

[dietydunk]

Planning the Fourth Attempt – Advice from Civfanatics

I’m seeing that I really don’t have many options to win this play-through so im throwing out for advice from the forum. In the meantime, I’m going to try strategy that gets astronomy.

All the way back to my old foe Mansu and finalising my tech towards Optics. What if I went directly to astronomy? I could build a bunch of Galleys in while I progress tech towards Astronomy and then upgrade the galleys as soon as the tech arrives. Load my axe and catapult army and set sail for Pericles. The tech progression would be something like this;

Calendar 350
Astronomy 2000
Monarchy 300
Civil Service 800 (Mace for defence)
Paper 600 (does nothing for me)
Printing Press 1600 (massive econ boost without productivity spend)
Feudalism – allows guilds
Guilds 1000 (upgrades knights for defensive wars)

The likelihood of some serious resistance to my army on arrival is pretty high. I would estimate that Pericles will likely have Knights and Muskets to contend with, possibly rifles. It is guaranteed that someone will get to rifles and cavalry while I’m fighting them. If it’s not Pericles, Hannibal will get to it.

The hope will be that they load up armies in galleons that are susceptible to my own Galleons or experienced caravels and I send armies to the ocean floor. Take the Russian strategy by killing them on my own continent while I take over theirs.

Anyway, does anyone have any advice on my current play-through? I’ll post updates if I have any success.