Emperor Cookbook I: Ghandi

[Soirana]

to carl correy:

yes i saw that in YOUR report.

But not in Monterzuma's. Also this (Monterzuma having Catty with full hands) was not included in my summary and in yours summary. (or i need to read more cautiously).

In fact all three saves i voted for has Catthy in WHEOOHRN. Honestly i did enough building and cottaging in round two.

 

[ChromiumL]

In consideration of what Carl pointed out, lets go ahead and extend this round to 6 days (unless everyone has submitted before that time). That means we will start voting on Saturday (afternoon--to give weekend players a chance). We can push it back to Sunday if necessary.

I don't want people to not be able to participate because of lack of time to play. This will just give us extra time to start debating saves .

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Hi all !

Congrats to Monsterzuma!

And thanks Soirana for the discussion

Spoiler :

Some AIs want you to STOP playing offline games at monarch

Happy playing to all... well, have fun with Cathy at least

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

 

[Monsterzuma]

I went ahead and played the next round.

Since one of my saves has already been chosen, I won't be participating in the voting this round. (that is; I will vote but ask not to be given votes myself)

Report:

Spoiler :

Is drafting overpowered or something? Rethorical question...

This round involved a lot of zero-casualty warfare. Drafted macemen vs. the archers and swordsmen of the hopelessly outteched Isabella. Her cities fell like a row of dominoes and my army of macemen grew, grew and grew some more...

In between of the atrocities of the war, I teched in the direction of military science, bulbing the better part of chemistry. Currently, the empire is ready for extensive production of grenadiers. If this wasn't BTS I'd be drafting these guys and the game would positively be in the bag (not like it isn't now though).

Tech plans:
Bulb scientific method, tech to communism, run state property and maybe police state; spam workshops. Running wealth & research will get rates comparable to cottages, except we have the flexibility of being able to switch to production at any time. Frederick may tech to rifles in the meantime so let's not piss him off for the time being. Plenty of other kids to pick on.

War plans:
Attack Victoria without pausing after conquering what's left of Isabella that's worth keeping around; vassalize Isabella.

Building plans:
Heroic Epic in Delhi, War Academy in Delhi (great general), other than that, all out military; start spamming workshops


Notice: I didn't get any sort of trouble from Catherine. Never saw an army of hers worth mentioning.

 

[RJM]

Whoops - just noticed that we were only supposed to go to AD 1100 this time, so that rules me out (not that I had much chance anyway).

RJM

Spoiler :

I "improve" the save with a few trades and some redistributions. I decide to build 6 universities to allow me to build Oxford, although I do allow the settler in Nonamba to complete. The tech trading has given me aesthetics, so the Great Library is a possibility. I send the settler to secure the marble and a small army of workers to build and connect the quarry. Having traded for literature, I switch Delhi to the GL. Once the marble is connected my workers build a mine and chop a few trees to help the build in Delhi.

In AD 535 I finish researching Liberalism in and choose Nationalism on route to constitution for representation. In AD 550, (rather late in the day) I notice that we are not yet in pacifism, so I swtch and adopt hinduism as my religion. In AD 640, I complete the GL and Delhi can return to its university. In AD 745, I learn constitution and switch to representation. My next target is economics (for free trade).

Isabella decides to give me early warning of an attack by demanding tribute, turning furious, but not declaring war straight away. As a result I have already moved troops and started building more when the dow comes a few turns later in AD 930. She seems very unprepared for war. She loses most of her troops in an effort to recapture Seville while I pick up a few cities - Murcia in AD 960; Toledo in AD 980 and Kushans in AD 1020 . (I wonder whether I should have razed them, but I didn't.) A few turns later she becomes Frederick's vassal. After discovering Economics, I research gunpowder (in case the war lasts longer than I expect). In due course I bribe Frederick and Victoria to join the war and Isabella accepts terms.

After discovering gunpowder I research corporation, printing press, replacable parts, astronomy, chemistry, steam power (which gives me some coal in uMgxxxx) and steel. Shortly before the end of the turn set I realise I haven't done anything about the national or heroic epics so I start them, but they are still under construction when reach the end of the period.

RJM

 

[Soirana]

Played it. Probably should stop playing these in one go.

Spoiler :

Did basically that i was planning. Whipped an army that is. (Also used gold for axes to maces uograde, was not worth it.)

Initialy i thought attacking England, but she was one tech away from maces and i had no wish to fight at parity with our production capacity, so truned on Spain.

Take Madrid, take iron city, kill remaining archers with maces. Nothing do it.

Well, almost. Took Madrid and iron city (and still saw axes and swords nearly to the end). When i decided i can pull it while my cities build temples and things like that.. Who said only Ai's build wonders while in war.

Also severely messed in conquest order. Toledo is last Spanish city standing.
Splitting was also brilliant idea as i lost initial northern stack (if at moment i have thing called stack at all) cause she chopped, whipped some forces in her middle teritory (Toledo+ex barb city).

Probbaly should have vassalized here. At least at moment she was offering quite reasonable city.

Well, all i can say i got stuck with my stuborn ideas and in the middle went into semiautomatic right click mode.

Also built Taj (in middle of war). I am in last turns of golden age, so don't think all these beakers are for ever. One GS is stacked somewhere as is settler for dye city, which is naturally English now. Got to GG, one went for medic unit, another... Well, i was pissed, so it went straight on mace. HElped a bit.

Oh, and Issy is hindu now so on last turn i got nice AP voting to stop me. I had remaining sanity not to defy it. vassalizing her now when she is down to two archers is... Although getting to peace and seeing her vasalized by someone else is even worser.

Looking back - teching to rifles and drafting while rebuilding some production potential, should have worked better. There was really no need to rush on poor spanish.

Re: Catthy, well she went out full hand mode in middle of round and went again in. Never saw something more serious then 2xlongbows+charriot.

 

[Soirana]

to RJM

Spoiler :

I thought fastest way to get into representation was capture Madrid

 

[Monsterzuma]

@ soirana

Please post your save.

Spoiler :

- Am surprised you would give up a such a powerful GP farm as Ulundi just for the ability to whip when drafting was also an option.

- Vassalizing Isabella is still a good move as it gives all of your cities a +1 happiness boost.

 

[RJM]

Soirana

Spoiler :

I know Isabella was unprepared, but so was I. Madrid would have been several steps too far for me. In anycase, I was already in representation by the time she attacked me. (I'm not prepared to launch an unprovoked attack. This may be a problem for me at this level.)

RJM

 

[Soirana]

forgot that save

Spoiler :

re: vasalizing. Half of empire is spanish crying about motherland and not being enough indian to be drafted. If i could finish her off (and let spanish ones grow) i'd have 10+ cities to draft rifles. Never went on emperor so far, but should be end of game.

re: drafting. Incredible but i do not believe I drafted at all. Overall i was mainly missing siege, which was not draftable. Smehow i managed to persuade myself Nationalism and Heredidatry rule is self exclusive. Silly me, they are in different collons.

re: spanish rush - I did remeber why i pushed that hard. I was somewhat afraid she vasalizes under somone else.
Unprovoked attack? Having holy city, mids and being outteched without any allies is provocation in my book. At least AI's always declare in situation like this

Oh, and i have town on that iron near capital. Production rebuild, yeah.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Hi ,

my round:

Spoiler :

In short:
vassalized Izzy

Teched Liberalism taking printing Press
Teched Nationalism
Teching economics (will be first there so GM for us!)
Build Buddhist shrine...

Building HE and NE
Vicky is the next to go...

tech situation

Overall situation:

Sorry for the short report but I lacked of time and I am leaving home for the next 4 days...

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

edit: I REALLY lack time... I can't vote because I don't have time to make a good analysis of saves... and I don't want to do this in a hurry, I woudn't be fair with you guys. Really sorry... I hope I will have more time for the next round.

 

[KingMorgan]

To 1100AD

Spoiler :

Steady as she goes was theme in this round. Teched away, few trades. Took Demcracy from Lib, figuring cottage heavy would benfit from Empan.
No new citites founded as Liz beat me to the planned spot. Took the barb city. current civics are US/FS/EMC/default/FS. took a hit on research , but needed the hammers, can rush buy too.

sadly liz declared at 1090AD and took seville, i had thought i'd brought her off, but after the 10 turn peace straight DOW. Was just about to draft muskets and build trebs.

View attachment KingMorganAD-1100.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[ChromiumL]

I haven't had much time this week to play my round--so it was sorta rushed.

We will probably start voting tomorrow evening after I put together a post listing all of the submissions (does this help anyone other than me stay organized?). However, if the weekend people haven't posted by that time, we will extend the round to Sunday before we start voting.

Spoiler :

My main goal for the round was to build up my tech and military to prepare for an invasion of either Victoria or Isabella. As time passed, it became more and more apparent that Isabella would be the target of choice.

Used liberalism to get nationalism since not only was it the most expensive thing, and it will also let me switch to nationalism when the time comes. After that, I teched to machinery so that I could built macemen. Then engineering=trebs, then printing press=money, then to economics so that I could hopefully get a free great merchant (and more money). Got the merchant and just as the round ended I sent it over to Fred and used it to get some major $$ to fund either the coming war/upgrades or a rapid tech boom. I decided not to tech gunpowder yet because I would rather use nationalism to draft macemen. I also traded quite a bit of tech and backfilled part of the tech tree.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to gather my army together in time to take the barb city, but I can take it from Isabella soon enough . I built a few macemen, then switched to trebs. I have a nice little army forming in the capital. I didn't have time this round to declare, but it won't take long to be ready as I already have 5 trebs built. The macemen are a little scattered because I was suspecting Isabella might declare after she switched to theology--but nothing has happened yet. Interestingly enough, her new worst enemy is Victoria. How convenient for me!

I also switched to free religion, since that would help out with all those cottages. Not quite sure why we have caste system, but by the time I noticed it, I didn't want to change it right away since I might need to switch to nationalism if Isabella attacked.

Other than that, my workers built tons of roads--I like being able to get my units to the battlefield quickly if needed (I also didn't really know of much else to do with them right now). You also might ask about why I mined hills that weren't in a city's radius--I like to do this if I have nothing better to do with workers just incase I get a random bonus resource.

My save is pretty bland. I haven't looked at other submissions yet, but I imagine that other people are much quicker at preparing for the war effort. But, if nothing else my save does provide options. Switch to nationalism right away and attack the tech-backwards Isabella? Wait to get more advanced gunpowder units? Right now I am friendly with everyone except Isabella and Victoria, so not too many worries about immediate backstabbing.

 

[carl corey]

I've finished my round but it's late here (2AM). Will post the report tomorrow.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Spoiler :

I also switched to free religion, since that would help out with all those cottages. Not quite sure why we have caste system, but by the time I noticed it, I didn't want to change it right away since I might need to switch to nationalism if Isabella attacked.

Caste System is there for the scientists in Ulundi. We can only run 2 there without Caste System; 4 or 5 with a university (not sure which).

Steady as she goes was theme in this round. Teched away, few trades. Took Demcracy from Lib, figuring cottage heavy would benfit from Empan.

Switching to Emancipation any earlier than we strictly have to is not something I recommend. It means we have to switch out of caste system, which in turn means we can't run as many scientists in Ulundi as it takes for that city to perform well as a GP farm. There are still plenty of uses for Great Scientists, so we'll want to get as many as those as possible. My own plan was to bulb Chemistry (already done in my save) and Scientific Method, so that Communism could be teched early. State Property can raise the beaker output of a large empire by as much as 30-50%... A very big deal if anything is. I picked up Military Science for the grenadiers along the way as a nice extra.

 

[KingMorgan]

@Monster

Spoiler :

Your are right, civic change wasn't optimal, a little too early. However had Izzy not DoW, once rifling was in we could have rush brought 10 trebs and drafted / brought 15 rifles within a few turns and still had an ecomany to support the takeover of Izzy.

 

[carl corey]

Round 3 report:

Spoiler :

First things first: adopt Hinduism. Switch to Slavery and OR to spread the religion fast, then whip cheap Universities.

Delhi switches to University.
Bombay doesn't need an Aqueduct for now*, switching to Hindu Missionary. (* why are we building one while selling two health resources? Building wealth in Bombay instead of that Aqueduct would give us slightly fewer money but would let three of our cities be healthier!)
uM also switches to University.
So does Ulundi.
Nobamba gets a University inserted after the Settler.
Seville goes for Hindu Missionary.
So does Vija.

Remark: we have a grand total of one productive mine (copper, I don't count the gems). Need to get more online if we're gonna compete in production, as Slavery won't help us forever and we have almost no farms so regrowth will be slow. Cottages are great, but only cottages?

Trade Alphabet + Monotheism + Currency for Metal Casting and 50 gold with Cathy. Ask Hammi for 120 gold, he accepts. Same with Freddy. In 10 turns I plan to ask them for some techs.

Switch research to Machinery.

Send some Axes to take down the barb city.

Finally, end turn.

Whip everything next turn. Looks like Vicky will beat us to the iron & dye. Move settler towards Horse site.

After a lot of whipping Delhi is set for Forge -> Oxford.
Finished Machinery, Aesthetics -> Drama -> Literature next, for GT & NE in Ulundi, and hopefully HE. Not sure where, as capital will focus on research.

Izzy captures barb city. Crap...

Send Axes back to Seville, hopefully I'll start an attack from there.
Switched back to Caste System to get Ulundi going on GSs.

Ugh, forgot about southern barb city, see it on a map from Hammy. Going to get it. Might get the other one too, and really box Vicky in.

Finish Drama, switch to Slavery to whip Theatres.

Izzy takes the southern city too. Drat...

Whip Oxford somewhere in the process. GL isn't built yet, but I don't have Marble online yet. Screw it, I'm going without wonders.

Cathy asks for Machinery. Heh, good riddance. Trade Philo for Feudalism with Vicky. She'll die anyway.

Switch to Vassalage and start building some units.

Liberalism next, will research within one turn and see where the others are by then.

Whip GT in Ulundi, NE in it next. Will redistribute Warriors from it.

Switch to Caste System and out of OR as I'll be mostly building units now.

No one has any chance of Liberalism yet.

So I switch to Guilds -> Banking, maybe I'll manage to get Economics from Liberalism. I plan to bulb Printing Press with a GS and Replaceable Parts with the GM from Economics.

Finished Guilds, Ulundi GS bulbs part of Printing Press. Still nobody has Paper.

Finish Printing Press, Hindus get Paper. I'll finish Banking in 4 turns anyway, probably with a shot at normally researching Economics.

Finish Banking. Nobody has Education... That means no one can get Economics either... I'll go Economics first and see if I can pick Rifling from Liberalism, although that will be for the next round.

Apostolic Palace elections: Barack Hammurabi vs Frederick McCain. Frederick's first in score, so I vote for him.

Fred would actually trade Nationalism. Not yet, son, not yet. He wins the AP vote, thanks to me. +2 voted for us!

I also get another GS in Ulundi, it's yours to do whatever you want with (Ulundi Academy would look nice considering how many Scientists we're running in there). We're 4 turns away from Economics, 1 turn from Liberalism, so I'm thinking Economics -> GM -> Replaceable Parts (partly bulbed by GM) -> Gunpowder -> Liberalism -> Rifling. Trade for Nationalism and start drafting; game over.

 

[ChromiumL]

Lets try for 3ish days of voting, so voting concluded on Monday or Tuesday-ish. If it appears all votes are in before that, we will go ahead and start the next round. This is a little long, but I am trying to work us into the Wednesday-Sunday play cycle that Carl suggested so that weekend players have a chance to play.

Here are the submitted rounds and their saves:

Monsterzuma: Post, Save (Monsterzuma has asked us not to vote for him this round since one of his saves has already been chosen)

RJM: Post -- his save is pretty far over the year limitations, and he has disqualified himself from the round. RJM can still vote though .

Soirana: Post, Save

RRRaskolnikov: Post, Save

KingMorgan: Post, Save

ChromiumL: Post, Save

Carl Corey: Post, Save

 

[Soirana]

Since Monterzuma asked not to vot for him:
1.Raskolnikov
2.Carl Correy
3.Chromium.

 

[KingMorgan]

1. Raskolnikov
2. Soirana
3. Tied. - I'll award a point each.

I'm off to read this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=217566