Domination wins in Emporer 2.08

[Pete2006]

Time to finish him off. We're both close to Liberalism and I want to win this race.

Whipping the Forbidden Palace here.

Gao falls.

That results in another GG.

I'm #1 in GNP and have invested a couple turns towards Liberalism so I can trade this one away.

I win. Unfortunately, since I had to rush there isn't much to choose from. I'm taking Printing Press since none of the available military techs are really useful right now so I may as well solidify my GNP lead.

Civics switch. At this point I realized I never ran bureaucracy. Oops!

Walata falls.

Trading with Cyrus to catch up with all the techs I skipped over for the Liberalism race.

I pop another Prophet and build the Jewish shrine. It is the #1 religion on this continent.

The king is dead! Long live the king!

Trading.

Three civs left so I need to know the lay of the land to plot a proper attack.

I see many cities that would benefit my glorious empire.

 

[Celaborn]

Interesting game. I'm currently struggling at Prince level (I know, horrible) but I'm curious, after following your game, as to how you build such a big army so quickly? My cities usually can't produce very quickly, so even if I have all of them building catapults, for instance, it takes a very long time.

Keep the game going, I'm looking forward to seeing it play out!

 

[Pete2006]

Interesting game. I'm currently struggling at Prince level (I know, horrible) but I'm curious, after following your game, as to how you build such a big army so quickly? My cities usually can't produce very quickly, so even if I have all of them building catapults, for instance, it takes a very long time.

Keep the game going, I'm looking forward to seeing it play out!

In the early game I only build what is absolutely necessary which is usually a granary, barracks and maybe a forge. Then I build courthouses when my research drops to 50% or so and I build libraries or other buildings if my current army is big enough. Otherwise, I use all my cities for units.

Also, since I never chose a religion, I didn't have to build missionaries.

 

[Galileo44]

I would guess that you are trapped building every building in your cities. If it is a military production city with 6 commerce, then a library and market are unnecessary. You can build an army rather quickly with whipping and ignoring uneccessary buildings. Not being afraid to drop the tech slider also helps.

 

[Pete2006]

I would guess that you are trapped building every building in your cities. If it is a military production city with 6 commerce, then a library and market are unnecessary. You can build an army rather quickly with whipping and ignoring uneccessary buildings. Not being afraid to drop the tech slider also helps.

Once I get monarchy, every city I have is going to be doing more than 6 commerce. I can skip libraries in every city if need be to build troops. One captured city will yield much more in commerce and production than any one building. The only absolutely necessary building are the granary and barracks and once the empire is large enough, courthouses. I also postpone forges until the city can build one in 4-6 turns. Everything else can be skipped... unless health is a limiting factor and then I will build the health buildings such as grocers, aqueducts and harbors.

You'll see from this game that I forgot to research or trade for Literature until 1000+ AD. That was quite an oversight! I also forgot to run bureaucracy. Big mistake there but I could overcome that because I had so many cities and most of them were building units.

 

[Galileo44]

Just a bit of confusion, i was talking about Celaborn's inability to see how fast you could raise an army.

 

[Pete2006]

Let's scout Cyrus' land. In the meantime, I popped another gold. Not really needed at this point.

Cyrus is loaded with... Horse archers?? I know he has guilds because I traded him something for it.

Let's check the Info screen to see where things stand. Looks good.

Got the GM from economics. Let's run a trade mission for the troop upgrade.

Hello Genghis.

1700 is rather pathetic but it is the best I'm going to get. Looks like Cyrus upgraded his horse archers.

I would prefer to upgrade to rifles but that would be another 8-9 turns. This ain't marathon.

Grenadiers v Knights = big win for me? May be worth pointing out that Qin is Cyrus' vassal.

 

[Galileo44]

I think you certainly have your continent in the bag right now. The CR Grenediers will take out anything before their time with proper catapult support.

 

[Pete2006]

I decided to go straight for Pasagardae. Cyrus responded with knights but I had elephants and grenadiers so they were easy to take out.

I get to meet the final AI of the game. Looks like he and Kublai are best buds.

Persepholis falls as does the majority of Cyrus' army. My guys are a bit wounded though.

Cyrus builds a perfectly placed Versailles for me.

Going to torch this terrible city. Lost a grenadier or and treb since I was in a rush. War weariness is such a pain.

Gordium falls. No losses that I can remember.

And Qin is eliminated. Bye bye war weariness!

My units need a little time for rest.

 

[futurehermit]

Incredible play so far. Well done.

 

[Gudhjem]

Yep, nicely done.

I've been trying to mimic this game (not copying start, just civ and basic strategy) and can't keep up. My research rate is nowhere near yours once I've captured so may cities. Must be a city management issue.

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, the main thing I'm always amazed at when I watch solid players play at emperor+ is how their tech rate is insane. When I see CS for example being researched in the BCs or pricy renaissance techs before 1000AD I'm always in awe.

 

[mutax2003]

Are you sure you don't want to sign peace to extort some techs before going for war again in 10 turns, that will give you time to build more units?

 

[Pete2006]

Yep, nicely done.

I've been trying to mimic this game (not copying start, just civ and basic strategy) and can't keep up. My research rate is nowhere near yours once I've captured so may cities. Must be a city management issue.

I think the early shrine and early adoption of Hereditary Rule makes a big difference. The shrine is the equivalent of several courthouses. Even more if the religion spreads. HR means big cities early which means you can work a lot of cottages.

Yeah, the main thing I'm always amazed at when I watch solid players play at emperor+ is how their tech rate is insane. When I see CS for example being researched in the BCs or pricy renaissance techs before 1000AD I'm always in awe.

It also helps to have 1-2 steady trade partners. I did get lucky with Mansa and Cyrus. They traded with me until I eliminated them.

Are you sure you don't want to sign peace to extort some techs before going for war again in 10 turns, that will give you time to build more units?

The best he offered is Music which isn't worth 10 turns of peace. I'd do it on marathon though.

 

[Pete2006]

Another prophet. I have no use for 1/2 of Divine Right so I settle him.

3-4 turns of peace. Let's go to war!

Thanks for Versailles!

Now Cyrus is down to two cities which are both south of Catherine.

What other option do I have?

I take the old barb city, which is in a fantastic location, first.

Aerial view here. You can see I have a lot of cities building cannons. Looking back, I should have built a city halfway between Cuzco and Ollyontombo.

Cyrus get peace. There's Music. It'll be 10+ turns before I can get through Catherine.

 

[Galileo44]

Amazing! I am impressed by this performance. My bids at domination usually stagnate around the time you are picking up.
Could we see a picture of the victories screen to know how close you are to domination?

 

[Gudhjem]

^^^ yes please. And if you wouldn't mind posting a capital city screen or 2, that would be useful.

 

[Pete2006]

Catherine sent over a decent invasion force towards Arbela. I was able to take them out before they attacked the city. Lost a few troops and the survivors are seriously injured.

Catherine is just starting to upgrade her longbows to grenadiers.

Longbows fall easily.

Catherine takes Arbela from me. I pulled all my troops out and let her walk in. My guys are too injured and they are all city raider troops so it is much easier to reconquer than to hold the city.

I sent a handful of troops to take these two cities. They only had 2-3 defenders in each city.

I take back Arbela after I rest my troops.

I've been too distracted with war to decide what to do with these great people. GGs are so overrated.

Yaroslavl falls.

Got the GS from physics and I can pair it with my GM for a golden age. Wish I could use GGs for that.

I wipe Catherine from the map and erase all that terrible war weariness.


I'll take some screenshots of the victory screen next time. Right now I'm around 60%

 

[futurehermit]

Masterful play. You should come in with a domination victory at a very nice time. Well done.

 

[tycoonist]

wow, impressive conquesting. beautifully methodical and calculated