Emperor Assistance:

[Txurce]

Dojoboy, your UN strategy was mindblowing, and you deserved a victory for sheer ingeniousness. I've only gone for diplomatic once, so I don't know the ins and outs of all the rules, except that not every country can vote for itself. You'll probably never get Rome, unless you play up to them for the next 11, 22 or 33 turns, but it might be worth a try.

In general, you've obviously played a strong game, and I think you have a shot at winning the SR. (You'd have it in the bag if you'd built the TOE. Oh, well.)

Your biggest problem isn't being behind in tech, but how slow your research is. I would trade for France's two luxuries, giving up yours plus gold. This will allow you to drop the luxury slider to zero and put some entertainers to work, significantly improving your research rate, and making it viable.

What to research? Whatever the AI isn't likely to get soon, so you can trade tech and more-or-less catch up. (You only need to be pretty close in tech to win the SR, given the AI build strategy.) Rocketry isn't the best choice, because the AI already has it. I would stop where you are, buy it at a discount, and research the following three: ecology, synthetic fibers, and nuclear power. Those are probably the last ones the AI will go for.

Try to anticipate when you can trade for space flight, and prebuild the SW. Then try to prebuild your later SS parts, so that you can launch the turn after researching the laser.

If you can, pick up espionage in one of those trades, then try to plant a spy in France as late as possible (since it'll likely lead to war), so you can monitor how their SS is doing.

If you fail to close the research gap, and are in real danger of losing the SR, build one nuke and take Paris. If you're not at war, it should be pretty easy; if you are at war, make sure you can protect your attack force before they make their assault on the just-nuked city.

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Txurce
Dojoboy, your UN strategy was mindblowing, and you deserved a victory for sheer ingeniousness. I've only gone for diplomatic once, so I don't know the ins and outs of all the rules, except that not every country can vote for itself. You'll probably never get Rome, unless you play up to them for the next 11, 22 or 33 turns, but it might be worth a try.

Here's why Txurce, I checked it out in CFC's info center.

Diplomatic Victory:
The diplomatic victory condition is enabled after the United Nations wonder has been built. Once built, the UN will meet periodically to vote on a leader. Any civ that receives a majority of votes from the U.N. council wins the game. The catch here is that in order to even be on the U.N. council (and thus eligible to be elected U.N. leader), you must either control 25% of the world's territory or population. The civilization who builds the United Nations wonder automatically gains a permanent council position. There are always at least 2 candidates -- the civilization with the next largest population is used if there would only be one candidate.

I guess I allowed Rome to remain too large (25%+). I'll remember this next time. On to space!

 

[Txurce]

Interesting... and you're right, you could definitely have further whittled Rome's size, limiting the candidates to two. The definition is a little unclear, but do you read it as saying that all surviving civs may vote, but every civ with 25% of the global land mass is a candidate?

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Txurce
Interesting... and you're right, you could definitely have further whittled Rome's size, limiting the candidates to two. The definition is a little unclear, but do you read it as saying that all surviving civs may vote, but every civ with 25% of the global land mass is a candidate?

Yep. But, 25% of landmass is not the only one. The civ could also only have 25% of the world's population. Both or either.

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Txurce
Dojoboy, my best wishes to your nephew.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Txurce
Now, why'd you nuke Rome so soon?

Well, I nuked a large stack of invading Roman forces first to cull his offensive. Rome did not move a unit offensively from that point on. In retaliation, Caesar nuked my capital. So, I nuked his and razed it. I pillaged roads to his only source of aluminum and in the peace deal included a RoP to deny this strategic resource. WW devastated me, still recoveriing.

 

[Txurce]

I didn't realize you were at war with Rome - that's too bad. Those huge AI stacks are pretty intimidating, and I've nuked them in my time as well. A somewhat nerve-wracking alternative is to beef up the defense of the city they're heading for - it doesn't take much to make them move in a different direction for an easier target. Then soften them with artillery and units which can retreat (tanks vs infantry, MA vs MI). The AI tends to send its wounded units home to recover.

 

[dojoboy]

Its done! I've got my first emperor victory, and, boy, am I exhausted! Thanks for all the advice, Txurce.

Basically, it was pretty ugly. I got into the space race right as Rome was building s/s components. Rome and France would not sell any key techs until late, and then only France (nuclear). I ended up stealing two techs, causing a war in between successes. France never built a single s/s component. I think Joan lacked aluminum.

At the end, Rome was 1 component away from launching. I was too, but I didn't have lasers for the party lounge. Well, I had about 8 tactical nukes stock piled and a few on nuclear subs. I had France in a MPP; however, when I nuked Rome's new capital (New Delhi), France declared war on me. I quickly destroyed Rome's s/s and razed New Delhi. I then went on a nuke craze and laid waste to the Roman Empire. Unfortuantely, WW devastated my production & researching efforts. I wasted several turns trying to get the right combination and finally settled on a monarchy, still didn't have communism. When Rome was down to three cities, Caesar agreed to peace giving me Lasers in the deal (I still had 5 turns of research left). Well, I had a GL (Cheops) waiting out in the fields. I didn't want him getting nuked. It turns out I didn't need him because I switched Battlefield Medicine over and had one turn left. Next turn --- LAUNCH!

My score was 2777 in 1918 AD via s/r. My title was "Cleopatra the Great."

Whew! Txurce, I'll email it to ya, and I'll add a pic tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Txurce]

Congratulations, Dojoboy. Doesn't it feel great to beat not just a difficult level, but a civ (France) that was ahead of you from start to finish? You overcame a lot of obstacles, and were quite ingenious in doing so. It never occurred to me to steal tech to catch up, but why not if I'm going to have to nuke my rival anyway?

It sounds as if you would have won more quickly had you switched to monarchy sooner, so this will go better next time. Was continuing to nuke the quickest way to end the war, once you razed the capital in the first place? What did you do about your war with France? And finally, why were you in a hurry at the end, given that France hadn't started its ship, and Rome had been rendered impotent?

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Txurce
It never occurred to me to steal tech to catch up, but why not if I'm going to have to nuke my rival anyway?

If they would have sold the techs, I never would have attempted. But, I didn't feel I had a chance to catch up the way my tech research was moving and Rome building s/s parts.

Originally posted by Txurce
It sounds as if you would have won more quickly had you switched to monarchy sooner, so this will go better next time. Was continuing to nuke the quickest way to end the war, once you razed the capital in the first place? What did you do about your war with France? And finally, why were you in a hurry at the end, given that France hadn't started its ship, and Rome had been rendered impotent?

You're right, I've learned a lot. I had been use to wars where I could remain in a democracy because of multiple luxuries and minimal losses. I've not experienced the kind of WW I had this time since I was first learning the game. After the war w/ Rome I initially had posted, peace was signed. This war began because I needed to destroy Rome's s/s. Its the first time in a long time that I broke a RoP. Against France, I just bombarded Joan's coastline and nuked three cities (Paris 2x on different turns, Marseilles, and a city rich in luxuries) to cripple France's socio-economic system. I guess I hurried because of tunnel vision --- wanted that victory. Do you think France was just confident in its lead? I didn't see any aluminum connected to France's capital. Do all s/s parts require a strategic resource?

 

[Txurce]

France isn't one of those civs that doesn't focus on the space race, so something unusual was going on. I think all ss parts require aluminum. If the French had none linked, then they would have had to be trading for it from either Rome or England... presumably Rome - did Rome have any to trade?

I'd be surprised they didn't go to war for aluminum, but I don't think the AI is specifically coded for that. In a similar circumstance, I've been squeezed for saltpeter at times, but have also seen a civ do without it, and not even ask me to trade my extra saltpeter... even though when I offer it, they pay through the nose. I think this is yet another example of the edge human players have on the AI.

 

[dojoboy]

In this game, I may have received saltpeter twice in deals; however, once I reached tanks I could care less.