Dr kossin #20

[kossin]

well next time you play tectonics (offline or not) i suggest you use 70% water, its much more enjoyable.

I'll give it a shot. I kinda like seeing the geography of the land from this particular map so far I must say. I'll check some more maps and see where that leads me.

interesting game.

I like the early war path, we have more hammers than normal and two AI who wont have large armies.

Probably go for Darius so you can have two trade partners, plus it may be harder to gain a march on Darius tech wise.

Technically, Darius has a higher unitprob than Hatty/Lincoln (30 vs 20/25).

Darius is interesting because of his closeness, the quality and amount of land seen, his diplomatic standing and it would secure one side of the empire.

Hatty is also interesting because she really neglects units, has some good wonders already and might just get The Pyramids by the way things look right now. She's farther away, liked by Washington and across the jungle strip however so that's a small minus for her. It'd also cut my trade routes with Lincoln.

not sure you can spam very much.

I do net get why youare starving capitol... by working mine instead of onbe more clams you loose one coin and gain effect which is basically loosing 1food in city for one hammer in settler. Not really sure it is worth doing.

At most, 4 cities can be spammed as far as I can tell. Most cities have decent food so the whip is going to be quite useful here.

Regarding Moscow: I was switching tiles around to see the end-result and left it like that before saving. 7 hammers (vs. 4) as you noted only adds 1 bonus hammer from Imperialistic at the cost of 1 food and 1 commerce so it isn't worth it.

 

[shyuhe]

Darius has really nice land. I'd push for an earlier war against him since he doesn't spam units.

 

[kossin]

Round 2

Whenever I build the Great Lighthouse, it seems no matter the odds, my first GP is always a Merchant.

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He was actually useful this time around though:

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I met Louis with an exploring workboat for more intercontinental trade routes.

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In 50AD, Darius gives me even more incentive to fight him...

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The tech rate is actually pretty fast on this map. I suspect Lincoln has very very good land (I've seen parts of it.... double gems, a ton of calendar resources, great food...).
I have to trade quite a bit to stay in the loop.

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When I reach 20-units in my SoD, I announce the bad news to Darius.

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Of course, he gets magic longbows the next turn rather than the archers I've been seeing... it doesn't stop me though.

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At this point I revolt to Representation since the slider is often on the 0% mark.

Once Lincoln gets his hands on Civil Service, I trade it to Hatty rather than be left out.

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Darius is actually still teching really well (go figure) and he starts fielding Maces. To counter this, I change civics...

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A-la-Artichoker. Caste is to get a Great Scientist for the Liberalism race and Vassalage will greatly help with Catapults (I've been suiciding them rather than units).

Lincoln actually edges me out to Paper! I've never seen him be relevant in any game so far so I'm not too used to his tech path...

I pull another trade with Hatty to help the Liberalism line.

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This also helps a bit...

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I've captured 3 more cities from Darius and taken away his Iron I believe. Which is actually a good news because he already has Engineering =\.

I'm pretty sure I'll just keep taking Darius's cities, they're just to good to be his.

I stop here due to time restraint.

Techs

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Diplo

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Top 5 cities

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Hatty and Lincoln are wonder spamming...

Darius won't give me anything nor Capitulate so I'll just continue -ing him.

I've now got horses. Should I decide to take the fight to Hatty in the future, it could be useful.

It turns out there's a lot of land available for a few AIs while I was pretty cramped and in a sucky spot compared to their starts. Not my favorite kind of map but it's different.
I'll try a 70% water sometime in the future to see the difference.

 

[Soirana]

Bad thing Darius has copper in trade [i believe] so troubles with maces ain't over yet. At least no pikes...

 

[Artichoker]

[Darius is actually still teching really well (go figure) and he starts fielding Maces. To counter this, I change civics...

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A-la-Artichoker. Caste is to get a Great Scientist for the Liberalism race and Vassalage will greatly help with Catapults (I've been suiciding them rather than units).

Good to see the civic in play from time to time by more people!

I looked at the save. Darius indeed had a lot of land before you started the war. You already have a 4th level unit, but you still need to catch up on a few techs on the Literature line before you can build HE.

I don't know whether Literature is more important than Liberalism at the moment...Hatshepsut and Lincoln both have Philosophy and Paper, so it's probably wise to stay focused on Liberalism and get it out of the way before going for Literature.

As for units, ideally you want to be able to transition to Trebuchets in this kind of war but you still don't have Metal Casting. Both the Literature and Engineering tech paths would allow you to go further in the war effort at this point in the game.

 

[kossin]

Bad thing Darius has copper in trade [i believe] so troubles with maces ain't over yet. At least no pikes...

Maces are not so bad as catapults target Longbows first so collateral damages them enough for Elephants. Darius hasn't attacked my SoD so far, devoting all his units to city garrison instead.

Good to see the civic in play from time to time by more people!

I looked at the save. Darius indeed had a lot of land before you started the war. You already have a 4th level unit, but you still need to catch up on a few techs on the Literature line before you can build HE.

I don't know whether Literature is more important than Liberalism at the moment...Hatshepsut and Lincoln both have Philosophy and Paper, so it's probably wise to stay focused on Liberalism and get it out of the way before going for Literature.

As for units, ideally you want to be able to transition to Trebuchets in this kind of war but you still don't have Metal Casting. Both the Literature and Engineering tech paths would allow you to go further in the war effort at this point in the game.

Hatty is going for Nationalism right now and I expect she'll start on Taj Mahal right away. I'm really not sure what I should take from Liberalism, provided I am first there...
Military Tradition would be nice but it won't happen unless I can trade for Nat with Hatty and get enough time to reach Music.

Hopefully I can backfill a few techs here and there to open up possibilities.

Literature is a given after Liberalism. I think taking the fight to Hatty will be worth it with all those wonders she's hogging. She might be going for Culture too so that's another reason to do so.

 

[kossin]

Round 3a
A long round. Not so much in turns but in time playing.

The French finally managed to get a tech I could use.

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I kept capturing Darius's cities...

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My exploring workboat met Isabella who I'd known was there from a map. It was killed by a barb galley before reaching the last AI.

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I was able to backfill the bottom line thanks to the Spanish.

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Trading Philosophy had side consequence... Louis researched Nationalism next!

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Since this trade got Education out of the bag, I trade it away some more.

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And you know it... Liberalism comes very shortly after...

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Ah! Die!!!

I revolted to Free Religion as adopting any religion right now would be bad with everyone in the game.

Liberalism finally got me better road movement.

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I captured another city from Darius

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Somehow, he managed to pull together a bunch of maces and pikes so I dial him up and get Optics for free.

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Lincoln comes begging... easy diplo.

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I used another Great Merchant at Thebes to fund deficit research and upgrades...

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After whipping some more troops, I triggered a Golden Age to let the whip anger cool down and change civics (Free Market).

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Isabella had actually been at war with Willem, the last AI - her vassal now.

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AIs are starting to go Mercantilism on me... can't have that so...

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Pricey but it paid for itself in a few turns.

Continued in the next post...

 

[kossin]

Round 3b

I redeclared war on Darius with my improved army... however he sneaky vassaled to Hatty!

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I wasn't ready for that! (well, I was planning on attacking her soon since she was heading for culture and stealing away my tiles).

Not that she managed to do anything though!

First, I killed off Darius. Good riddance!

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Meanwhile, I convinced Isabella of the power of Free Market. I also brought her in the war even though she didn't actually do anything.

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I then started sending units at two fronts. East and west.

West

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East

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Since she's stupid enough to do that, I keep blitzing west...

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She then thinks to counterattack west... bad idea. I kill the stack she sent in the open.

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It takes a while but progress is steady on her cities (hills really slow me down).

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I decide to obsolete the GLH

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And finally Hatty bows out, thanks for playing!

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Stopping point of course...

Techs

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Diplomacy

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Victory Conditions

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No one seems to be going for Culture so a peaceful end is possible. Heading straight to Mass Media and gifting it to Willem should get Isabella and Lincoln to vote me for the victory. Louis is Lincoln's worst enemy at the moment otherwise it'd be simpler to use him.

I don't really want to capitulate 20-cities empire again....

 

[obsolete]

Start to Finish

I had this one completed 48 hours ago, but haven’t got around to posting it until now. I’m not so sure I like this kind of map, but it is probably my favourite UU.

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With such a strong UU, it’s like having a mobile Redcoat. Because of this, I decided not to bother wonderspam since I was obviously going to be capturing them. Of course, I couldn’t resist TGLH, but that was all I bothered with.

Interestingly enough I got screwed by barbs. It got so bad, that despite I had archery, I was stuck holed up in my capital until Egypt finally planted a blocking city at my entrance so the barbs couldn’t get through anymore. Haha. I don’t know WTH happened there, but she had TGW and somehow, every god damn barb on the entire continent went funneling right through my entrance and I couldn’t get any head-way to that stone resource, even if I had wanted to build the Mids.

I was able to expand south though and I snatched a few decent places. I also was able to research Nat this game before Liberalism, (despite I didn’t bother building Taj), so then I took Constitution with Libreralism.

I built some Cuirassiers, and then when the time was right, I upgraded all to Cossacks. At that point, I am 100% unstoppable. I immediately plow in a beeline straight up toward Egypt’s wonder-spammed capital. I bust up everything on the way, not even stopping for anything, not even bombards.

I started with less than 20 Uus, and split up in two stacks, but they are powerful enough that you can get away with this. Needless to say, it did not take long to march right into that capital. Then, I had to take a few more cities, but eventually she Capits. Of course, she capitulates right when capitulating totally screwed her, instead of doing it earlier when she would have had a chance to pull off culture still.

Hahaha! Firaxis theory at work there.

I move my UU down south, heal, then DoW on Darius. I take 3 cities and he already wants to vassal. He even wants to vassal while I am at war with Luis at the same time. Just to save time I take it, despite I could have easily wiped him off the continent without even thinking about it.

Then, to save even more time, I quit this game while ahead. I have my entire continent under my control, two vassals which can still tech half-decent, and an entire army of promoted Uus. There really is no point in continuing from here.

 

[kossin]

Round 3c

I beelined Mass Media, gifting Willem up the line. Sure enough, he builds the U.N.
I was massing EPs to see his progress but he managed to build it 1 turn prior to me getting vision.

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I had to dodge some requests as Izzy was trying to fight Lincoln. Theocracy+NSR got me enough diplo from her to get the vote over WvO. (+11)

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Post-game

I'm not playing this map type again. Too much land. Perhaps 70% water is more reasonable but this just gets tedious. I'll play HUGE if I want this many cities.


Top 5 cities

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Demographics - outside Representation

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Things built/killed

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Ironworks City

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Stupid global warming. This is an all riverside tiles city!

Moscow turned out ok

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Cossacks are reallllly nice. They plow through Cuirassiers/Knights very easily.

Anyway, next game starts tomorrow.

@obsolete: Nice game. I had trouble with barbs too - Axes really helped me there.

 

[raxid]

told ya 60% has its problems, so much land.... too bad i didn't chime in before you started. o well.

oh and your right about 70% and deity, its definitely a . you get blocked in real nice.

 

[UWHabs]

Most fun things to do when playing russians is gifting neighbours your extra horses if they don't have them.