DoC Domination Challenge

[blizzrd]

also a virtual UHV

Monarch/Normal
600AD start
Date: 1675AD
Score: 19192

So it seems like the only way to declare war on the independents at the start is to have already founded your capital. Without this, the Spanish troops can pass through independent lands without triggering war.

Founded the capital at Santiago, captured Barcelona and razed Marseilles and Bordeaux with the starting troops. Founded a city on the French Horses 1N of Marseilles after the French flip with the second settler. Gave France the mandatory 10 turns of peace before declaring war on them, razing Lyon and then Paris in quick succession.

Cordoba was next. It fell surprisingly quickly to my Knights, the Moors only had three units in their capital which proved fatal. Quickly sued for peace with Moors and gained Aesthetics in the process.

Holy Rome was next. After their 10 turns of mandatory peace, I let them have it with my promoted knights. Frankfurt was razed and suddenly I had a lot of space to myself in western Europe. Founded Vittoria 1W of the Iron and waited for the Portuguese and Italian spawns for a bit.

Following a similar pattern, Portugal got their 10 turns of peace and Lisbon exited stage left. They would actually survive for the remainder of the game with Ponta Delgada and a bunch of units that wandered around looking to attack independent cities. They would also later raze Naples and right at the end of the game I found the Portuguese units attacking an independent city in Libya.

Italy got their mandatory 10 turns of peace, during which time I managed to trade Compass from them and took Rome from the independents before they did. Then I razed Florence and they collapsed shortly afterwards. Venice was removed a little while later and I founded Vienna and knuckled down to teching towards Astronomy. My early tech path was Meditation, Engineering (for Notre Dame) then Gunpowder and a beeline to Astronomy .

Circumnavigated late 1380s by rounding Tierra del Fuego and sailing across the south Pacific to Thailand, who sold me their map for Alphabet. Met Aztecs next and razed their useless cities but kept one on the west coast, annihilating them in the process. This netted a lot more workers and slaves, which are invalueable to quickly develop the New World. Incan conquerors destroyed a bunch of units without actually capturing any Incan cities, but Inca still capitulated.

Used a Great Engineer to rush the Trading Company, triggering colonists in Manila (Indonesians had not founded anything in the Phillipines). Switched to Representation and founded Manila. Met Kongo at about this time and bought 3x slaves who were transported directly to Phillipines to hook up the new plantation commodities there.

Churned out a whole bunch of Settlers over the next 100 years or so and settled almost all of the New World. Resettlement is just so good. Built most of the Islamic wonders in Cordoba, but missed the Spiral Minaret. Tokapi Palace is an absolute powerhouse, once you tech to Rifling.

Just as I built the Taj Mahal, England declared war on me. So I loaded up 3x Galleons full of units and laid siege to Bath and London simultaneously. My suped up Cannons made mincemeat of their defenders and I captured both cities, sunk a few more boats and then England capitulated. I used all (4x) of my Great Generals during the game by attaching them to Galleons.

Next target was Eastern Europe. Turkey had vassalised Poland and now blocked my progress across Europe to the east. Once I had collected the various conqueror units and transported them back across the Atlantic, I declared war on Turkey and Poland. It took a while, but I razed a couple of Balkan cities, captured Constantinople (which wasn't their capital? Konya was the capital), then captured Athens and finally Poland broke free and Turkey capitulated. Poland capitulated shortly thereafter.

The Dutch spawned next. In their obligatory 10 turns of peaceful existence they managed to settle two cities in South America and send most of their troops on a walking tour of the Viking lands. This was a bad plan, because as soon as their 10 turns was up, two Cavalry made short work of their unpromoted defenders and I liberated Amsterdam to my English vassal. Some Riflemen wandered down from my city at the northern tip of South America and liberated the Dutch colonies to my Incan vassal. Right at the end I was in the finishing stages of liberating Egypt to Turkey when I triggered Domination Victory.

Spoiler :

 

[Jusos2108]

I overplayed it a bit, because I din't realise that my Great Prophets can also culture bomb. I would have won it around 1500, had I known that. I might later reaload to a 1400 save and go for the victory from there.

Anyways, I rolled a decent 3000BC start, went straight for Byzantion and Rome, capitulated HRE and peace vassalised Ethiopia and Moors. I helped HRE to conquer Europe, while teching towards Astronomy. I took the conquerors and vassalised Aztecs and Incas. Then it was all about sending settlers and GAs (and later GPs) around the world. When I decently set, I stopped teching and turned up the culture slider for the win. Annoyingly England collapsed Mughals just before the win and Chinese indies took down Thailand and the treshold jumped to 26% land, so I had to wait a few turns longer.

The development of the World:

Spoiler :

The Caliphate and vassals:

Spoiler :

Other stuff:

Spoiler :

 

[blizzrd]

Monarch/Normal
Date: 1555 AD
Score: 15556

I think I got a lucky start, with an undefended Mumbai that I was able to take by amphibious assault after just a couple of turns. Early turns were a full assault against the northern Indian cities, took quite a while to gain control of the entire subcontinent in the end.

Next was beeline tech research towards Astronomy, skipping everything from the other paths that was not a prerequisite. Got there just after 1000AD. Settled Los Angeles and Buenos Aires early after circumnavigating. England peace-vassalised at about this time under some pressure from the Vikings.

By the time that the Mughals arrived, I had a stack of Musketmen waiting for them. Conveniently, their extra stack when I refused the flip managed to spawn in Tibetan lands where they were basically trapped (until I eventually caught up with them). Shortly after spawning, Turkey lost Constantinople to the Italians and promptly vassalised to me. I assisted them to retake Constantinople and expand through the Balkans and Arabia. Indonesia peace vassalised around the time of the Thai spawn.

Got 3x conquerors in 1310AD. Eliminated Maya and capitulated Aztec and Inca. Teched towards Rifling and got there just before the French trading company event. Rilemen made mincemeat of their troops near my capital. China collapsed right after eliminating Tibet and I grabbed Guangzhou. The last 100 or so years were a settler rush, with a couple of Great Artists to help with the area requirement. I was Unstable for the last 4-5 turns, but only temporarily lost Cape Town to instability.

Spoiler :

 

[Jusos2108]

This is pretty much straight forward conquering with few pauses to tech and to get peace vassals. Conquering and vassalasing order: Austria, Balkan, Greece, Italy, France, (peace vassalised Aztecs, China and Ethiopia), Spain, Poland, (capitulated Russia and America) and England. Few colonies were taken here and there for peace or by force.


The Development of the World:

Spoiler :

The German Empire:

Spoiler :

Other pics:

Spoiler :

 

[blizzrd]

Monarch/Normal
600AD start
Date: 1745 AD
Score: 8960

Fairly straightforward game this time. Apart from an early declaration of war on to raze Cordoba, the first half of the game was generally peaceful. Conquerors eliminated Aztecs and capitulated Inca. Trading company troops took Singapore, Macao and Quelimane. Egypt and Dutch peace vassalised along the way too.

Teched as far as Biology to be able to cut jungle. Waited until about 1700 to declare war on England (and their vassal Congo) to capture their African lands and then Spain to remove them from northern South America and Iberia.

Spoiler :

 

[ace99]

lol @ Poland for getting partitioned.

 

[Jusos2108]

I went to Rome from start and then against Byzantium. After securing Greece, I conquered HRE and Poland. I managed to vassalise Russia during the Mongol Invasion and saved them from collapse. After that I just prepared for colonising and fed Russia with settlers. I began the expansion phase around 1500 after vassalising Incas and Aztecs.


The development of the World:

Spoiler :

The Frankish Empire:

Spoiler :

Other pics:

Spoiler :

 

[blizzrd]

Monarch/Normal
3000AD start
Date: 1870 AD
Score: 9171

Founded capital on the coast within reach of all of the nearby food bonuses. Sadly the two whales are out of the BFC though. Razed Native Tucume and refounded 1N on the Dye, immensely better city location. Sent all of the starting troops minus the archers towards southern Mayan city and captured it without loss.

Strategy to was to avoid the conquerors initially, by sending the starting scouts to the NE coast of South America. An English Caravel found one of my scouts in 1350AD, no conquerors for me, but plenty for the Maya and Aztecs. The English polished off these hapless guys, but I managed to raze Tikal and Chichen Itza to claim the gold bonus before the English arrived. The English finished with two Mexican cities and later founded Road Town in the Carribbean also.

Next phase was steady growth, taking the best sites in North American and South America progressively. Priority was Iron in Brazil, then New Orleans before the French arrived. The Spanish were fighting with the Portuguese (and eventually lost) and didn't get interested in founding colonies until I had already occupied South America. Research was all about espionage and the stealing of techs from England in Road Town. My first three Great People were all Great Spies, thanks to careful micromanagement of specialists in all of my cities and timely whipping of Courthouses in my key GP factory cities. Plus a bit of luck on the third Great Spy (was only 20% chance or thereabouts). Circumnavigated in 1585AD for +1 ship movement.

By the time the Americans spawned, I was equal tech with England. England went to war with the Americans, who flipped several of their cities on the eastern seaboard. America started to win the war by about 1800 and had most of its troops in Canada moving westwards towards Vancouver when I stabbed them in the back, declaring war and razing Washington instantly with a couple of Tanks. The next turn as my Tanks approached Toronto and Boston, America capitulated.

France was the next target. I captured their Canadian tundra cities and liberated to my American vassal. England was next. I took most of their cities for myself though, with the exception of a few Canadian ones. Around 1850 I briefly switched back to Resettlement to found a whole bunch of cities in the Arctic, Falklands, Australia, New Zealand and eastern Siberia, before again adopting Occupation and blitzing England's homeland and also their Australian colonies. Did a bit of fighting with Portugal and their host of vassals but I only took their Carribean colony. Special touch near the end was to found Honolulu for the Americans and then gift it back to them. Had to wait until the English cities came out of revolt to get to the land goal, with Domination in 1870AD.

Spoiler :

 

[Jusos2108]

Japan's tech modifiers aren't as good as they were in original RFC, but they can still dominate the Far East quite easily, if succesful in tearing down China. My initial strategy was to strike at Korea first, but then I saw undefended Shanghai on the Chinese coast, while sending my third settler to the Philippines, so decided to strike at once with the two swordman and every merc I could get my hands on. My lightning strategy worked and I managed to take Shanghai, Nanking and Guangzhou quickly and raze Kaifeng in order to sue peace for my badly over extended army. China survived up to about 1050, and after their collapse I took Beijing and Xian before the Mongols spawned and razed Mukden to deny it from the Mongols.

After that everything was quite easy and I got several vassalisation offers from the Asian civs, but I only accepted Mongolia, who was fighting Russia at that time. I colonised the NA, vassalised Incas and Aztecs. Spain declared war for Philippines, but I killed them easily with my veterans Samurais and pinch Musketmen, I also conquered Caracas from them for the Incas with my SAn Conquerors. Same thing happend with Portugal and I liberated Sao Paolo from thm to the Incas and they sued peace for Sao Luis, which I then liberated to Incas. I extended my territories in NA and Australia, while capitulating respawned India and steamrolling the Mughals. I continued to Persia and eventually won few turns after capitulating Iran. I still feel that the results was quite far from optimal though, i.e. I never got a single GA.

The development of the World:

Spoiler :

The Japanese Empire, and vassals:

Spoiler :

Other pics:

Spoiler :

 

[SheaferDaDawg]

Jusos, have you modified your map or do some of the mountains in S.A. get replaced later in the game? I loaded up an Inca game, and there is no path out to Argentina through the Andes.

 

[blizzrd]

Jusos, have you modified your map or do some of the mountains in S.A. get replaced later in the game? I loaded up an Inca game, and there is no path out to Argentina through the Andes.

One of the mountains at both north and southern ends of the Andes is replaced by a hill at the same time as the first Old World civ contacts the Inca. This may or may not trigger the conquerors, but it always changes the two mountain tiles at north and south ends to hills.

 

[SheaferDaDawg]

Thanks, and sorry for calling you Jusos.

 

[Jusos2108]

From the start I expanded to Greece and Egypt. After regrouping I also took indy Babylon and soon after the Persians declared war on me. The war was short and resulted to their collapse and I added Jerusalem and Parsa to my empire. I was up to ten cities, so I halted my expansion, vassalised Ethiopia, built wonders and teched. Once I got Astronomy (around 850AD), everybody wanted to vassalise. I took Spain (it is too crowded to conquer), Vikings (too far away) and India (obviously). I left the last slot free, eventhough France, England, Khmer, Tibet, Korea and Indonesia begged me to protect them. I was saving the last slot to Russia, until suddenly, second on the scoreboard, China offered to vassalise for war against Tibet and Japan. Of course I took the offer and gave them techs to conquer Tibet. I sent few caravels to fend off Japan and China was secured. Khmer declared on us and China took Hanoi from them in the end. With Asia on my lap the Silk Route netted 5 food and 15 gold per city.

Meanwhile I prepared for domination by annihilating France and HRE. I dropped my settlers around the world, turned the culture slider and won.

The development of the World:

Spoiler :

The Roman Empire (I forgot to take the pictures after victory, so I had to load an autosave):

Spoiler :

Other pics:

Spoiler :

Jump start to Middle Ages:

Spoiler :

 

[ales_]

I left the last slot free.

Is the number of vassals limited?

 

[SheaferDaDawg]

I have a question: what precisely determines the economy score in the stability advisor? I am playing as the Spanish, who have a thriving and vast economy which has been steadily growing, yet for almost all of the game I have had a negative economy score.

 

[Jusos2108]

Is the number of vassals limited?

Vassals are limited to five.

I have a question: what precisely determines the economy score in the stability advisor? I am playing as the Spanish, who have a thriving and vast economy which has been steadily growing, yet for almost all of the game I have had a negative economy score.

The economy meter in the new stability advisor is broken.

 

[SheaferDaDawg]

Oh, well that makes more sense. Is there anyway at all I can gauge the effect?

 

[Jusos2108]

Not really.
I have been playing RFCs so long that I can ignore the stability screen pretty much completely for most of the game, so it doesn't bother me that much.

 

[Leoreth]

Good that you're reminding me of that problem.

 

[Woody5000]

What's the secret to a stable economy?