Winged Monkey
Chieftain
Since it seems to be in vogue these days to post saves and screenshots to get constructive feedback, I thought I'd give it a go too. They usually seem to revolve around starting positions and early game scenarios though. This one is a little different. We're close to modern times, and we're at a crossroads. The wrong move will most likely cost us the victory, and we're faced with a number of serious challenges that need to be addressed.
(Save is at the bottom of the post.)
The game: We're playing as Qin Shi Huang (Ind/Pro), glorious emperor of the Chinese empire. Map type is Big/Small - standard size, and as the title of this post indicates, the difficulty level is Emperor.
The background: The RNG gods were pleased with the fledgling Chinese civilization and gave us a very good starting position. Thanks to a couple of gold mines, and bountiful food resources, we were able to REX without compromising our research rate. To the east we found Brennus of the Celts, and quickly decided to make him our attack dog. The decision was made easier by the fact that he founded buddhism, and it was the first religion to spread to our empire. To the south, we found Frederick of the Germans, whom I had little experience with. This was soon to change. To the west was Ramesses II, wonder hogger and good techer - my biggest worry at the time. The rest of the AI's are largely inconsequential.
At 1200 AD we were at the top of the world, with 6 good cities and a pretty clear tech lead. Things were looking good. With barracks and the correct civic combination, we started pumping out Drill III promoted Cho-Ku-Nu's en masse with an eye to taking out Egypt, which seemed like the biggest threat at the time. With a good mix of Cho-Ku-Nu's, Knights and Trebs, we declared. His two first cities fell quickly, and things were progressing smoothly. But then the . .. .. .. . hit the fan!
Frederick declares on us! The insolence!
This we weren't prepared for. In our arrogance, we'd continued to run caste system for the benefit of our GP farm (no whipping quick defense for border cities), and most of our forces were on the Egyptian front.
We immediately revolted into slavery (Nationhood was some 5-6 turns away from being researched), and sent our knights back home for defense. All new units being built were sent down south to withstand Frederick's assualt, and the war with Egypt froze to a grinding halt. Frederick did manage to take one of our cities, not only once, but twice, but luckily we managed to take it back both times since he was gracious enough to leave it defended by only one or two units each time. After some serious whipping we finally managed to consolidate the southern front, but constant pillaging and raids from Frederick remained a problem for the duration of the war. At some point, Ramesses actually voluntarily became a vassal of Frederick, and since Frederick wasn't too keen on peace, we had no choice but to continue the war.
Long story short, after about 400 years of war, we managed to wipe out the Egyptians from the main continent, and we finally made our peace.
For the most critical part of the conflict, Brennus, my good pal, had too much on his hands and couldn't be bought into the war.
Which leads to the difficult reconciliation period...
The current setting: We're in the year 1794 AD and things are looking bleak. Although we've managed to secure a lot of land, the demographics aren't looking too good:
And perhaps most troublesome:
The war with Egypt gave us some nice cities and a few wonders to boot, and after a few quick courthouses and the forbidden palace, the economy was in decent shape.
But...
The heavy lashing left us with reduced cities, and for the duration of the war, most of the other civs managed to outpace our teching, and we're currently lagging behind.
But that's not the worst part of it. The real problem as of right now, is that Frederick controls the Apostolic palace, and he and his lapdog Ramesses is continuously trying to return Ramesses' cities back to him. Since we don't have monasteries for the controlling religion (should have thought about that before d'oh..) we can't counteract it by spreading the religion to our own cities. And simply voting no won't do, since we don't have enough votes. So we have to defy and leave ourselves with lasting happiness problems. Which again means that our culture slider is at 30% and our tech slider at 30% (we also need 10% espionage to keep tabs of Frederick.)
So unless we somehow manage to remedy the situation, the game will most certainly be lost.
Another serious problem is that we're losing the culture battle in our border cities. My once glorious GP farm, have been reduced to a two-bit town, thanks to surprisingly high culture pressure from Brennus, and surprisingly clever sabotaging of infrastructure and tile improvements by Frederick:
Culture situation empire-wide:
Quick look of the Chinese empire w/ resources toggled:
Beijing:
The diplomacy situation:
What's next? That's the big question. Due to a series of unfortunate events and carelessness from my side, we are in a pickle. This is where you guys come in! What would you do to gain the upper hand again?
My current research path is Artillery (a tech noone else has). It can either be a good tech for trading, or... we could try to take on Frederick via an infantry/artillery rush. His 3 best cities (by far) are located relatively close to my borders. If we manage to take all three and withstand his counterassault, we would be in a very good position. Problem is, he isn't too far away from tanks (needs electricity and industrialism, and electricity he will probably be able to trade for) so we might have to start unit-spaming RIGHT now, and neglect further infrastructure updates. Also, he's way ahead of us on the power ranking, so it might just be too difficult.
Another option is to continue on peacefully, and hope we'll be able to convert our good land into a spacerace win. If that turns out to be the recommended path, I have a question. Does the Apostolic palace become obsolete if I tech to Mass Media, or does Frederick have to research it? If it's enough that I research it, I might be able to get there reasonably fast by doing some sacrificies.
Suggestions?
Oh, and feedback about all the stuff I've most certainly done wrong would also be nice. Be brutal and honest!
I will try to get as much feedback as possible and then try to use the advice to get into a better position. I still consider myself a noob, so there's probably a ton of things I could have done differently, and ways out of this tough spot that I'm not able to see...
Save: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/63131/Glorious_Spam_AD-1794.CivBeyondSwordSave
(Save is at the bottom of the post.)
The game: We're playing as Qin Shi Huang (Ind/Pro), glorious emperor of the Chinese empire. Map type is Big/Small - standard size, and as the title of this post indicates, the difficulty level is Emperor.
Spoiler :
The background: The RNG gods were pleased with the fledgling Chinese civilization and gave us a very good starting position. Thanks to a couple of gold mines, and bountiful food resources, we were able to REX without compromising our research rate. To the east we found Brennus of the Celts, and quickly decided to make him our attack dog. The decision was made easier by the fact that he founded buddhism, and it was the first religion to spread to our empire. To the south, we found Frederick of the Germans, whom I had little experience with. This was soon to change. To the west was Ramesses II, wonder hogger and good techer - my biggest worry at the time. The rest of the AI's are largely inconsequential.
At 1200 AD we were at the top of the world, with 6 good cities and a pretty clear tech lead. Things were looking good. With barracks and the correct civic combination, we started pumping out Drill III promoted Cho-Ku-Nu's en masse with an eye to taking out Egypt, which seemed like the biggest threat at the time. With a good mix of Cho-Ku-Nu's, Knights and Trebs, we declared. His two first cities fell quickly, and things were progressing smoothly. But then the . .. .. .. . hit the fan!
Frederick declares on us! The insolence!
This we weren't prepared for. In our arrogance, we'd continued to run caste system for the benefit of our GP farm (no whipping quick defense for border cities), and most of our forces were on the Egyptian front.
We immediately revolted into slavery (Nationhood was some 5-6 turns away from being researched), and sent our knights back home for defense. All new units being built were sent down south to withstand Frederick's assualt, and the war with Egypt froze to a grinding halt. Frederick did manage to take one of our cities, not only once, but twice, but luckily we managed to take it back both times since he was gracious enough to leave it defended by only one or two units each time. After some serious whipping we finally managed to consolidate the southern front, but constant pillaging and raids from Frederick remained a problem for the duration of the war. At some point, Ramesses actually voluntarily became a vassal of Frederick, and since Frederick wasn't too keen on peace, we had no choice but to continue the war.
Long story short, after about 400 years of war, we managed to wipe out the Egyptians from the main continent, and we finally made our peace.
For the most critical part of the conflict, Brennus, my good pal, had too much on his hands and couldn't be bought into the war.
Which leads to the difficult reconciliation period...
The current setting: We're in the year 1794 AD and things are looking bleak. Although we've managed to secure a lot of land, the demographics aren't looking too good:
Spoiler :
And perhaps most troublesome:
Spoiler :
The war with Egypt gave us some nice cities and a few wonders to boot, and after a few quick courthouses and the forbidden palace, the economy was in decent shape.
Spoiler :
But...
The heavy lashing left us with reduced cities, and for the duration of the war, most of the other civs managed to outpace our teching, and we're currently lagging behind.
Spoiler :
But that's not the worst part of it. The real problem as of right now, is that Frederick controls the Apostolic palace, and he and his lapdog Ramesses is continuously trying to return Ramesses' cities back to him. Since we don't have monasteries for the controlling religion (should have thought about that before d'oh..) we can't counteract it by spreading the religion to our own cities. And simply voting no won't do, since we don't have enough votes. So we have to defy and leave ourselves with lasting happiness problems. Which again means that our culture slider is at 30% and our tech slider at 30% (we also need 10% espionage to keep tabs of Frederick.)
So unless we somehow manage to remedy the situation, the game will most certainly be lost.
Another serious problem is that we're losing the culture battle in our border cities. My once glorious GP farm, have been reduced to a two-bit town, thanks to surprisingly high culture pressure from Brennus, and surprisingly clever sabotaging of infrastructure and tile improvements by Frederick:
Spoiler :
Culture situation empire-wide:
Spoiler :
Quick look of the Chinese empire w/ resources toggled:
Spoiler :
Beijing:
Spoiler :
The diplomacy situation:
Spoiler :
What's next? That's the big question. Due to a series of unfortunate events and carelessness from my side, we are in a pickle. This is where you guys come in! What would you do to gain the upper hand again?
My current research path is Artillery (a tech noone else has). It can either be a good tech for trading, or... we could try to take on Frederick via an infantry/artillery rush. His 3 best cities (by far) are located relatively close to my borders. If we manage to take all three and withstand his counterassault, we would be in a very good position. Problem is, he isn't too far away from tanks (needs electricity and industrialism, and electricity he will probably be able to trade for) so we might have to start unit-spaming RIGHT now, and neglect further infrastructure updates. Also, he's way ahead of us on the power ranking, so it might just be too difficult.
Another option is to continue on peacefully, and hope we'll be able to convert our good land into a spacerace win. If that turns out to be the recommended path, I have a question. Does the Apostolic palace become obsolete if I tech to Mass Media, or does Frederick have to research it? If it's enough that I research it, I might be able to get there reasonably fast by doing some sacrificies.
Suggestions?
Oh, and feedback about all the stuff I've most certainly done wrong would also be nice. Be brutal and honest!
I will try to get as much feedback as possible and then try to use the advice to get into a better position. I still consider myself a noob, so there's probably a ton of things I could have done differently, and ways out of this tough spot that I'm not able to see...
Save: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/63131/Glorious_Spam_AD-1794.CivBeyondSwordSave
button in the down right corner just above the minimap.
