Emperor Game (COMPLETED)

[Wrathful]

I just realized that begging from Pacal prevents me from attacking him next. I have 8 turns until I can declare on him

So I'll have to go after Gandhi next instead. I can still stack troops on Pacal's borders to prepare though.

Played a few more turns of the war.

Spoiler To T145 :

Went ahead and capitulated Mansa.

Going for Gandhi next.

T142: Declared war on Gandhi. Sent in a small stack to take Agra:

Various Cuir stacks are are heading towards Bombay.

T143: Took Agra with no losses:

Bombay has two spearmen, a swordsman, and an archer defending it. I decide to wait one turn for reinforcements before taking it.

T145: 13 cuirs vs. 2 spears, 2 archers and a sword. Guess who wins?

Took Bombay with no casualties.

Gandhi the wimp is ready to capitulate. I should take it yes? Marching to Delhi would take a few turns.

Next target is Pacal. Already stacking some guys on his border. Workers roading to his land. I can declare war on him in three turns.

Took a peak at Justinian too. Geez, these guys aren't even trying!

Will probably split my stack near Bombay. A few guys will swing back to Pacal's border. The rest will head to Justinian's lands.

 

[Gumbolt]

Yeah only beg if you fear the AI. I really doubt that will be needed with any of the AI here. Most of their power is population, techs and buildings. Castles, walls etc.

Gandhi will capitulate. Move to next target.

You could gift Bombay to Justin before you declare then retake it. Gives you +10 war points. Usually require 40 for ai to cap. Axe and sword in border city. He looks weak. May have a stack in capital?

Pointless putting ep on Justin. He will be dead before you reach 32 points.

 

[Wrathful]

You could gift Bombay to Justin before you declare then retake it. Gives you +10 war points. Usually require 40 for ai to cap. Axe and sword in border city. He looks weak. May have a stack in capital?

Good idea. Better than waiting 6 turns for Bombay to be pacified.


I made more progress with the war.

Spoiler To T150 :

Capitulated Gandhi. Pacal and Justinian are next.

T147: Gifted Justinian Bombay. Declared on him. Recaptured Bombay. I gave it back to Gandhi. Sent in a rather large stack into Justinian's territory. Took Thessalonica.

T148: Constantinople was the hardest conquest yet. (That's not saying much.) Faced some longbows. But it is not on a hill. No walls either.

Took it with one loss.

Also declared war on Pacal this turn. Peace deal expired!

Took Uxmal with no losses.

T149: Capitulated Justinian.

T150: Took Chichen Itza with no losses (lucky combat rolls). My population now exceeds the Domination limit.

Pacal's had enough. I capitulate him and move on.

Just a peek at what's waiting for me with Saladin:

Protective Saladin doing his thing. It's good that he only has four cities.

Will stop here. The game is won of course. Everything from here on out is a formality.

 

[Wrathful]

Update to the end.

Spoiler To T157 :

T151: Traded for the rest of Engineering from Mansa. +2 movement for my Cuirs.

T152: Declared war on Saladin.

As expected, the battles were a bit tougher this time...

I took the city with two losses.

Was able to get an easy longbow kill here:

T153: Damascus was on a hill, had walls, and was defended by a CG3 Drill1 longbow. (and some other guys too)
But it fell in the end. Lost around five cuirs.

I just barely managed to grab Medina this turn too.

T154: Saladin would capitulate, but he's still unwilling to talk. I suppose complete annihilation is in order.

T155: He still won't talk. Okay, have it your way.
Lost a cuir, but still got Mecca this turn:

Only one civ left now. Already have troops headed towards Germany.

T156: Declared on Bismarck.

T157: Took Essen and that's it! He's giving in already.

I accept his capitulation.

And that's game! 960 AD Conquest. My earliest victory ever.
It was an odd game. There wasn't much land, leaving the AI capped at 7 cities. Some, like Saladin, got stuck with fewer than that. I was able to expand to 10 cities peacefully, but many of these were island or coastal tundra spots.

Started with a plains hill settle and building a settler at size two. Went for the Mids and Representation. Expanded to ten cities, got Currency, CoL from Mansa, Civil Service, won Music, started a golden age and got great people for bulbs and trade missions. Libbed MT and rolled over the map with cuirs...half my opponents didn't even have longbows. This game made me lose respect for Emperor AI and Gandhi. (Gandhi teched horribly during the game and was easily defeated.)

Produced 47 Cuirs and 16 Horse archers total. Lost 11 cuirs.

Couldn't have done it without the great advice I got. Thanks again everybody.
Final save attached if anyone is curious.

With this game finished, I will play one more Emperor game offline and then I will post my first-ever Immortal game. Once again, thanks to to everybody who gave advice. I learned a lot from this game.

 

[Pedro78]

Congrats! A well played game and interesting write-ups to read. You've played short turnsets all the way through and listened to all the advice that was given. That's what all threads asking for advice should look like

You're definitely playing way above Emperor level, even most IMM games would be easy IMO. I'd suggest you post either an IMM game with a fairly crappy start so there is a good chance that you don't go through the standard lib-cuirs route, which you already handle quite well. A map with several continents would also be good (although longer) as you won't always have the tech trading opportunities as on a Pangaea.

 

[Gumbolt]

Yeah skip to immortal. Congrats on the win. Pre 1000ad finish is nice.

 

[lymond]

Excellent job, Wrathful. Props to your sticktoitiveness on this training exercise. Bright future ahead.

Play whatever start you want. IMM is still a challenge regardless. I think sometimes the pros forget what it is like moving up the ladder. However, a different map might be good like the goto Fractal.

(oh...and keep HOF and GOTMs in mind for more fun)

 

[Wrathful]

Thanks everyone. These replies are very motivational. I will post the next game in a few days or so. The map script will be Continents I think. Difficulty will be Immortal. Looking forward to it.

 

[Pedro78]

Play whatever start you want. IMM is still a challenge regardless. I think sometimes the pros forget what it is like moving up the ladder

Well as this is going to be a forum game anyway, I think it's healthy to play a harder map/difficulty. I'm not talking about stuff like deity iso, but I'm quite sure that playing a "hard" IMM map is the right choice. IMO it's better for OP to play a map that he couldn't win by himself (or at least that would give him a lot of trouble), that would teach him even more. Plus learning to optimize a crappy start is very important (and interesting). And it would avoid another pre-1000AD win

For the record a few months ago I was able to win "easy" deity maps with less skill than Wrathful has just displayed: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/standard-deity-playthrough-any-advice-is-welcome.611976/

 

[Fippy]

Deity is scary while you think in playing against AIs dimensions
But playing against AIs is always easier, and so beating deity AIs gives happy feelings but it's nowhere near the end of difficulty ladders.
Once you see that, it's nothing special anymore.