[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[Tiberiu]

Finished #97 with a T210 total DomV. Super fun game, thanks for the map @Tiberiu

Incredible! crushing victory, congrats! Thanks for taking the time to write a summary of how it went and for the pics. It's great that you posted your turn 100 since it helps me gain many insights and new ideas, and I love to compare how other people place their cities. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Comparing the turn 100 I noticed that

Spoiler :

while we are both score leaders, you have both slightly higher score and with better yields on everything, the score differential compared to other AIs seems to be higher in my game (at least temporarily, until the AIs stop existing, haha). I assume my style of play relies (maybe too much) on manipulating AIs and getting a strong endgame, with lesser focus on science and armies which translates into later finishes. I am starting to contemplate on putting higher focus on faster Machinery and Education and the NC, and also faster Artillery, I saw you had many of them.

 

[Nizef]

Here is a recap of the first 99 games in the Enjoyable Deity Games Experience (EDGE) series:

1. Korea (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
2. the Shoshone (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Really Advanced Setup (RAS))
3. America (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
4. Denmark (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
5. Byzantium (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
6. Germany (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
7. Polynesia (Small Continents Plus, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
8. Brazil (Continents, Standard speed, Large size, Modded with RAS)
9. Mongolia (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
10. Spain (Terra, Standard speed, Large size, Modded with RAS)
11. Carthage (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
12. the Aztecs (Lakes, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
13. England (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
14. Korea 2 (Small Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
15. Venice (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
16. Egypt (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
17. the Huns (Oval, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
18. Japan (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script)
19. China (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
20. Babylon (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script)
21. Polynesia 2 (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script)
22. Korea 3 (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script)
23. Russia (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script)
24. Portugal (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
25. France (Lakes, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
26. Germany 2 (Lakes, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
27. England 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
28. Sweden (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
29. Arabia (Sandstorm, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
30. the Mayas (Tectonics map, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with both RAS and the Tectonics map template)
31. Ethiopia (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
32. Assyria (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
33. Poland (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS)
34. India (Pangaea, Standard speed, Small size, Modded with RAS)
35. the Aztecs 2 (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Hellblazers map script)
36. Morocco (Sandstorm, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
37. Babylon 2 (Large Islands, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
38. Spain 2 (Inland Sea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
39. Greece (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
40. Carthage 2 (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
41. Indonesia (Archipelago, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
42. the Mayans 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Piety challenge
43. Siam (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Patronage partial challenge
44. the Shoshone 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
45. Poland 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Honor challenge
46. the Netherlands (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Liberty challenge
47. the Aztecs 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
48. the Celts (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
49. the Zulus (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge
50. Austria (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
51. Persia (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
52. the Ottomans (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge
53. Rome (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
54. Songhai (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
55. the Incas (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
56. Russia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
57. India 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge
58. Germany 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
59. Byzantium 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge
60. the Iroquois (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge
61. America 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge
62. Sweden 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Petra challenge
63. Morocco 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial Commerce challenge
64. England 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial UN challenge
65. Portugal 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial elimination challenge
66. Egypt 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
67. Polynesia 3 (Archipelago, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
68. Sweden 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
69. Germany 4 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded), War academy, part 1, DomV challenge
70. the Huns 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 2
71. Spain 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Huge size, Unmodded)
72. Denmark 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
73. Venice 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DipV challenge
74. Carthage 3 (Hellblazer´s Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Hellblazer´s map script), CV challenge
75. China 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 3, DomV challenge
76. Mongolia 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 4
77. Brazil 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
78. the Shoshone 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
79. Assyria 2 (Terra Incognita, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
80. Indonesia 2 (Small Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Liberty challenge
81. Portugal 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
82. Japan 2 (Ice Age, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Order challenge
83. Persia 2 (Random map, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
84. the Netherlands 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
85. Denmark 3 (Tiny Islands, Standard speed, Large size, Raging Barbarians, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
86. America 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded), No Tradition challenge
87. the Incas 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
88. Korea 4 (Pangaea, Quick speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
89. the Ottomans 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded)
90. Arabia 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
91. Ethiopia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Pantheon challenge
92. Greece 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
93. France 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge
94. Siam 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded),Incense challenge
95. Byzantium 3 (Continents, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded)
96. England 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
97. Sweden 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
98. Babylon 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
99. the Zulus 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded)

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Good job Vadalaz! Boom shakalaka! Nice to see pictures and a more detailed report, excellent work!

I'm currently do Babylon 98, edge. At turn 248 and just having a good time. Babylon is too much fun, especially with salt!

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#100: Carl von Clausewitz will have to wait, CV challenge

It is crazy that we have reached this milestone. This is something I didn´t have in mind one and a half years ago, yet here we are!

At the moment I am reading the great book by von Clausewitz on warfare. I accidentally found it in a bookshop in downtown Helsinki and just had to buy it (albeit a version in finnish instead of the original version in german, which I perhaps would have preferred). Interestingly the book was only published after his death. So far I have come to appriciate the high class of theoretical knowledge he has shown. It is the mark of every great book that they are seemingly timeless and I found it hard to believe that his findings are almost 200 years old. They could easily be applied to modern day conflicts. However, when I write this I am still in the middle of the book and combined with the fact that we in this series have had a discussion on cultural victories lately, I decided that his true legacy will have to wait a little longer. For EDGE#100 I wanted to use one of my favourite civs and now many of you already understand that this game is a game with Germany on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. I hand picked Austria and England but the rest of the pack were generated randomly. Here the aim of the game is to reach a cultural victory. In my own game I was on route for a CV in the region of 280 but forgot about the Great Firewall and had to settle for a more normal win on t303. The start is great, there is room to expand but you are in a central position on the map and thus it will be a long game if you decide only to turtle to victory. This is a game with a lot of potential and if a CV feels like a repulsive option, the secondary VC could be a DomV. I also uploaded pictures from t102 and t303 for you. Enjoy this road to cultural glory!

I played according to HOF rules and also submitted my win. There is a short recap of my game behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

I moved across the river and settled t1 next to the Salt. The BO was Scoutx2-Shrine-Granary-Settlerx3. I stole one worker from Indonesia and three from Mogadishu. First expand to the N to hook up Cotton and Mt Kailash. The second to the SW for a coastal city and Marble and Silk and the third to the E for Incense. 4 city NC on t90 and Education on t108. I took up on Dido´s offer and joined the assault on Indonesia. However, I could only get the "crappy" Surabaya wile Dido took the capital. Later it turned out that Surabaya was okay and had both Aluminium and Oil. I also built the Oracle before NC. I got a nice religion with Earth Mother/Tithe/Pagodas/Peace Gardens and Itinerant Preachers. Dido tried to shove her religion down most throats but I could maintain my religion with surprising ease. Decent start!

In the midgame, I added a sixth city to the S and focused on the upper half of the tech tree. I was able to hard build Sistine and Uffizi. Dido didn´t like that and she attacked but I had enough defenses near Surabaya. A little later Austria tried from the other direction (near Munich) but they lost a huge number of units (going from second in military strength to rock bottom at the end of the conflict). I got early enough to Archeology to pick up eleven AS but the competition for the sites was very fierce and both Babylon and Assyria got a lot of them. This game was in many ways quite strange: Assyria was the main cultural threat while Babylon and Carthage were the military powerhouses after Austrias destruction on the grassland outside Munich. England didn´t get anywhere while Indonesia and Songhai were taken out alltogether. Assyria was first to ideologies and picked Order and Carthage followed on that path later. I was second to pick and chose Freedom (and later Austria followed) while Babylon was the only one to go for Authocracy. I built Machu Picchu in Hamburg and Eiffel in Berlin.

In the endgame, I timed my Internet push quite well and built the necessary stuff. On top of that I also built SOH in Munich and Neuschwanstein in Hamburg. England succumbed to a babylonian push and after that I tried to keep Babylon busy with wars against Assyria and Carthage. Eventually Assyria and Babylon went into a destructive nuclear war against each other. However, I forgot to build the Great Firewall and Assyria built it. That set me back some 20 turns and I needed to generate 2 more GMus to win. All in all this was eventful and I had to be observant on what the AIs were doing all the way until I bought my first Atomic bombs. After that the win was uncontested even if both Assyria and Babylon had several spaceship parts. At the very end I donated Frankfurt to Assyria so that my GMus wouldn´t have to travel very far. SP: full Tradition, full Aestethics, Commerce opener, Exploration opener, full Rationalism and Order 8.

 

[mbbcam]

@vadalaz Very interesting. I'm going to have to reappraise how I play Honor. I often choose it, but I hadn't really thought of settling more than three cities, and I hadn't considered delaying National College. But you have shown how that can work very well.

@Nizef Clausewitz is fascinating, though also puzzling at times. This is partly because "On War" was never finished, and the text we have was published after his death by his widow (I believe) from the incomplete revision he had been making. It is worth reading some commentary on the text, which further illuminates his thought. The standard English edition, edited by Michael Howard and Peter Paret is good. You might also find it interesting to look at Christopher Bassford's writing on Clausewitz: https://clausewitzstudies.org/readings/Bassford/CIE/TOC.htm. Clausewitz was very clever, but there were some things that he didn't get right. David Chandler commented that he didn't understand Napoleon's "manoeuvre sur les derrières". But a giant in military thinking.

PS: I also found this fascinating: https://www.clausewitzstudies.org/i...tzNonlinearityAndTheUnpredictabilityOfWar.htm

 

[Nizef]

@Nizef Clausewitz is fascinating, though also puzzling at times. This is partly because "On War" was never finished, and the text we have was published after his death by his widow (I believe) from the incomplete revision he had been making. It is worth reading some commentary on the text, which further illuminates his thought. The standard English edition, edited by Michael Howard and Peter Paret is good. You might also find it interesting to look at Christopher Bassford's writing on Clausewitz: https://clausewitzstudies.org/readings/Bassford/CIE/TOC.htm. Clausewitz was very clever, but there were some things that he didn't get right. David Chandler commented that he didn't understand Napoleon's "manoeuvre sur les derrières". But a giant in military thinking.

PS: I also found this fascinating: https://www.clausewitzstudies.org/i...tzNonlinearityAndTheUnpredictabilityOfWar.htm

You are indeed right. His widow published it in 1832 (he passed away in 1831) and she wrote the foreword and it is also true that it is incomplete here and there. From a scholarly or military perspective there are for sure angles that are puzzling or maybe have not been thought of/written down at all. My layman perspective on the book is that it is impressive. It is concisely written and the thoughts are presented in a clear and understandable way. I read Beyerchen´s paper and found it interesting. It seems to regard the theoretical framework of Clausewitz quite highly while still elaborating further on underdeveloped areas. The real finding for me personally is that I have played Civ for ages and still only now bothered to reflect on who he was and on his true legacy.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Edge 98, Babylon, turn 350 ... domination victory. Haha. Such a mess of a game but sure it's a victory. I felt very good the whole game except the late game. I screwed up but I felt that I was going to win. However it was a real ugly one. Babylon, isolated with salt is indeed a treat.

 

[mbbcam]

You are indeed right. His widow published it in 1832 (he passed away in 1831) and she wrote the foreword and it is also true that it is incomplete here and there. From a scholarly or military perspective there are for sure angles that are puzzling or maybe have not been thought of/written down at all. My layman perspective on the book is that it is impressive. It is concisely written and the thoughts are presented in a clear and understandable way. I read Beyerchen´s paper and found it interesting. It seems to regard the theoretical framework of Clausewitz quite highly while still elaborating further on underdeveloped areas. The real finding for me personally is that I have played Civ for ages and still only now bothered to reflect on who he was and on his true legacy.

Nearly thirty years ago, I spent several years researching Napoleon's early career for a fairly large book. So I see Clausewitz as one in a line of military theorists (the 18th century produced a good number of them) stretching back into the past. Maurice de Saxe, Frederick the Great, de Guibert, Bourcet, du Teil, Servan -- there are so many of them. But the challenge for those who came after Napoleon was trying to understand how he had achieved what he did. Clausewitz had been on the receiving end, of course, and I assume he must have felt quite a sense of disorientation at Napoleon's demolition of the Prussian army in 1806. That campaign was so astonishing that people have never really stopped studying it.

However, there is a difference between theory and practice. One of the remarkable things about Napoleon was that he was able to read the theory, and then carry it out. Almost everybody else failed at putting things into practice. I think I have an inkling of what this is like, because I can read all the Civ guides I want, and play endless games, and I am still rubbish! There is quite a gap between the ideas and the practical application of them.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#101: Green moon rising

This is a special "gift" to Tiberiu.

Where should I start? The coastal starting location is nice but still slow. There is a lot of terrible terrain in the middle of the map and thus the starting location is somewhat isolated. You have fantastic possibilities to expand, as a benchmark I settled seven cities myself and conquered 10 more... But still the strategic resources are somewhat disappointing. Don´t get me wrong, there are horses, iron and coal but not in any great quantities. However, if you like aluminium this is the game for you! This is not an easy task since some of the AIs are expanding like there is no tomorrow and thus they generate huge armies. Throw in a highly cultural civ or two and you have it all to do. In fact, I think that a peaceful CV is more or less off limits! (I know somebody will prove me wrong but I still wanted to be provocative). Help yourself to some of the nicest AI cities and also a CV is on the board again! Or maybe you would like to go for a mid/lategame DomV. This map offers it all. The task is to play as Brazil on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. I hand picked the Incas and Portugal but the rest of the pack were generated randomly. I also uploaded pictures from t104 and t308 for you. Obviously Bucarest is in the game as well! Warning, this one might be addictive!

I made a mess of my first game but got it right on the second attempt. There is a short recap of my second game behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

I moved up on the Gems and settled off river on t1. The early BO was Scoutx2-Shrine-Settler-Granary-Settlerx2. I stole one worker from Venice, one from the Incas and multiple from Manila. First expand to the S to hook up Citrus, Copper and Mt Kailash. The second to the W for Silver and halting Pacacuti´s expansion plans and the third to coastal the E for Dyes and Flood plains wheat. Nice spots but the production capacity in tha capital was a problem all game long. Thus the start was slow and I built NC on t93 and reached Education on t114. The AIs were also sort of developing late and I was more or less satisfied with the start. Portugal was in trouble from the start and they were out of it when we came into the Renaissance. Mongolia did something I have not experienced before: they left the CS alone and focused on settling cities themselves! They were up to 20 cities very early on! Thanks to Mt. Kailash I got the second religion with TotG/Tithe/Pagodas/Plowshares/IP.

In the midgame, I was able to build both Sistine and Uffizi but when I came to Archeology I had a nasty surprise. I could only get 4-5 AS outside my own borders because both the Incas and Mongolia were digging for their lives as well. The Incas and Carthage divided the mayan territory between them and Dido and Genghis took out Assyria. Thus we were down to 4 AIs and one of them was Venice (and they managed to build Forbidden). I added three more cities after NC mostly to fill out the land and because I could sustain the happiness, picking up one new luxury in the process. I was the only one to go Order, the Incas and Venice went Freedom and to the surprise of nobody, Carthage and Mongolia took Authocracy. I was first to Modern and built Eiffel and Broadway but then going for Dynamite. I was aiming for Venice and it fell in only a few turns. I also took Ur because it was a good city (and part of Venice) before making peace with Enrico. Surprisingly he (besides the new capital Wittenberg) had four cities at the other end of Pangaea.

In the endgame, I didn´t know what to go for and in the end I decided to attack the Incas with Rocket Artillery, Bombers and Landships. The battle for Cusco took 6-7 turns but the rest was a mop up operation to take them out entirely. I paused to heal my units before attacking Mongolia and together with Carthage we more or less took them out in 15 turns. Genghis finished on two remote cities. I had a short thought about what to do next? Go to war with Dido for the last four capitals or just finish the spaceship. I decided to take the easy way out mostly because Dido´s army was impressive: she had three times my army score, even if I had 10 RA, a lot of Bombers, Tanks and Pracinhas and even Atomic bombs. The easiest way to achieve a DomV would have been to build some XComs and combine that with Atomic bombs. However a SV was less messy and I still had had an interesting game. SP: full Tradition, Honor 2, Aestethics 2, full Rationalism and Order 7.

 

[Tiberiu]

Thank you for the Brazil game, Nizef. I will play it as my next game and I want to make a good game, since my last one went super bad, the #93 with France. It was a game that I totally botched from the start, but I decided to play it just for the record and as a learning experience for future games.

Spoiler :

I went for Archery and failed ToA on T36 because I didn't bother to starve some food and get it faster like it's normal to do. I felt like not continuing after that, I eventually tried my best and played very well but it wasn't enough. The map is super cool since your position is unassailable and you can settle a lot of mountain coastal cities. Lucky with barb quests I early allied 3 food CSs and Geneva. Settled a city near Uluru and attacked Ethiopia to capture ToA from him. Unfortunately it's also him who built Great Wall. To make things as worst as possible he also took God of Protection pantheon, and coupled with Oligarchy, it meant that I cannot station a unit permanently near his city in the citadel to make progress. As if not enough, he later built Red Fort. And worst of all I had to go for Steel instead of normal science tech, just to make sure Ethiopia can't capture my Uluru expansion.

My religion was good, food based, with Cathedrals, and his was with Pagodas and Mosques, so I slowly built Pagodas and Mosques in all my cities.
Unfortunately, everybody in the game except Persia played badly, losing cities to each other or doing nothing special, leaving Persia as the sole uncontested runaway civ, always ahead with 1 era from the others from the medieval. I proposed Scholars in Residence 2 times but Persia blocked it as he had too many CSs. I won World Fair with 1800 production invested from my 9 cities, but without city connections my economy was lacking and I couldn't get enough gold to fund serious operations.

Persia got Rationalism and Freedom, with a lot of CS allies. He captured China's capital and was in the process of capturing the Huns too. Nobody could stop Darius.
I felt that I have to forward settle him and attack but Muskteers in citadels with a few crossbowmen as support weren't a match for Great War Infantry so that was a plan which ultimately proved unsuccessful. He had only 1 coastal city but still managed to get 3 Ironclads and 5 frigates and pillage my sea routes and my improvements, and I decided to resign there as the chances for a comeback were too low.

 

[Nizef]

Nearly thirty years ago, I spent several years researching Napoleon's early career for a fairly large book. So I see Clausewitz as one in a line of military theorists (the 18th century produced a good number of them) stretching back into the past. Maurice de Saxe, Frederick the Great, de Guibert, Bourcet, du Teil, Servan -- there are so many of them. But the challenge for those who came after Napoleon was trying to understand how he had achieved what he did. Clausewitz had been on the receiving end, of course, and I assume he must have felt quite a sense of disorientation at Napoleon's demolition of the Prussian army in 1806. That campaign was so astonishing that people have never really stopped studying it.

However, there is a difference between theory and practice. One of the remarkable things about Napoleon was that he was able to read the theory, and then carry it out. Almost everybody else failed at putting things into practice. I think I have an inkling of what this is like, because I can read all the Civ guides I want, and play endless games, and I am still rubbish! There is quite a gap between the ideas and the practical application of them.

Thanks for the additional insight. I had already guessed that you have deep knowledge in many historical matters. But to do extensive research on Napoleon! Wow!

Thank you for the Brazil game, Nizef. I will play it as my next game and I want to make a good game, since my last one went super bad, the #93 with France. It was a game that I totally botched from the start, but I decided to play it just for the record and as a learning experience for future games.

Nice that you tried to come back from the early setback and thanks for trying it. Interesting that Persia was the runaway in your game. Vadalaz and I both had Washington as the major player. I want to promote some of the latest additions into our series as well. I would make a bald statement and say that EDGE#97-101 are all above average in satisfaction potential.

 

[mbbcam]

But to do extensive research on Napoleon! Wow!

There was a time when I knew more about one particular year of Napoleon's life than any sane or sensible person could possibly want to know. I've forgotten a lot of it now. But I've never wanted to play Napoleon in Civ, probably because I know too much about him and his methods. And they are not replicable in Civ.

 

[vadalaz]

Finished #101 with a T215 CV

Spoiler :

Settled on the coastal desert Gems, build order was Scout x2 - Worker - Archer - Settler - Archer - Settler if I remember correctly. The land was infested with barb camps, which caused all kinds of issues, forcing me to build archers earlier than I would've liked. I also didn't get to steal any workers from a CS and only stole 3 from Venice. Despite the barbs' best efforts to slow me down, I settled my 4th city pretty quickly on turn 54.

Enrico didn't help with the barbs at all, instead he sent me a trade route that got pillaged almost instantly, spawning yet another brute. Interestingly enough, Pacal sent 3 warriors to clear a barb camp next to Rio, and in the meantime he lost his capital to Assyria. I think Pacal dying early is quite fortunate, because he usually likes to build the Oracle and Borobudur. I ended up getting both of those and also had my favourite religion with DF / Tithe / Pagodas / 15% production / 50 faith per GP used. All the AIs except Pachacuti were really slow to even take pantheons for some reason.

4-city NC on turn 91, then settled two more cities to pick up some resources and jungle tiles for the late game. I was way behind the schedule on tile improvements and road connections, so I had to build 4 or 5 more workers. Made tech detours for Optics, Guilds and Engineering, then reached Education on turn 118. Built Machu Picchu along the way.

Spoiler T100 :

Really strong Renaissance gpt and happiness. I actually triggered a 2nd natural Golden Age around turn 150, which very rarely happens to me. The timing of this GA was very good as I'd just researched Architecture and went for the three wonders it unlocks (and got all three):

Spoiler T150 :

I saved up the gold and rush-bought three Factories. I went Order this time and didn't take any tourism-boosting tenets. Instead I got Skyscrapers, +25% GP generation and Five-Year Plan, and all of these proved to be very useful. Instead of investing more culture into ideology, I completed Rationalism. This felt like a strong play, at least in this particular game.

I didn't make it to Radio in time to unlock International Games for the second Congress, so instead I proposed World Religion and with some diplomat action I managed to pass it. I'm not sure International Games would've really sped up my victory here anyway - it'd be a 190s vote and I'd need to put a ton of production into it.

I reached Plastics on T191 and the Internet on T207, and faith-bought an Artist to start a Carnival. There wasn't a clear target to musician-bomb, as all AIs had pretty much the same culture to beat (just shy of 10,000), so I simply sent my two faith-bought musicians to Venice. Another musician would spawn on turn 216, but it turned out I didn't need it. Assyria took a couple more turns to succumb to my blue jeans than others, because they were hostile and wouldn't sell me open borders.

Spoiler T215 :

 

[Nizef]

Finished #101 with a T215 CV

Great job! What the heck was Pacal thinking clearing the camps next to you?

In my game Assyria performed very poorly and thus left the field open for the Incas and Mongolia to become cultural powerhouses. Actually the Incas took Palenque in my game and had something like 75% of all wonders before I decided to take them out.

 

[BlackWizard]

EDGE#100: Carl von Clausewitz will have to wait, CV challenge

[/SPOILER]

How on earth does Venice have those cities beyond carthagian territory? Are they all former city states or did he invade them or got in peace deal

 

[Nizef]

How on earth does Venice have those cities beyond carthagian territory? Are they all former city states or did he invade them or got in peace deal

Did you mean my Brazil game in EDGE#101? Mongolia settled a string of cities to the west of the Carthage empire and those cities were of course hard/impossible to defend properly. Enrico bought one city, Kathmandu, if I remember correctly. It was a city with a big army and thus he conquered at least two mongolian cities with that army alone. Maybe he got the fourth in a peace deal or something similar.

 

[raider980]

I attempted Edge 97 also. I resigned T284 when it was clear I was not going to be able to get my Diplo Victory.

Spoiler :

I moved SW to settle next to the salt. I was going to try for a Diplo Victory by saving all my Great People and using them to ally all the CS right before the World Leader vote. It started off well. Went full Tradition. Got 4 cities that could build gardens. Allied Denmark and the Inca for the bonus to GP. I was getting Great People left and right, more than I ever have gotten before.

Edit. I also got Petra and Broadway! Two wonders I never get.

But I didn't count on Shaka taking over half the world including 6 or so CS and three AI civs. But I guess a brawl is inevitable when Shaka, Alex, Atilla and Genghis start right near each other. Shaka took out Alex T105; Atilla took out Genghis T110; then Shaka took out Atilla T130. I would have liked to watched that. But I never even met Alex, Atilla or Genghis. I couldn't get my scouts west past Denmark and the Inca.

When the WL vote rolled around it required 37 votes to win. The most I could get with all the CS that were alive and Diplomats from Globalization would have been 29. I would have had to liberate 4 CS to win the second vote and that wasn't going to happen against Shaka.

Here's my T102 and T284 screenshots for comparison even though they are embarrassing compared to the others posted lol. Triple my science at T100. A size 77 city? I didn't even know that was possible.

Spoiler T102 and T284 :

 

[mbbcam]

It looks as if you must have built settlers very late. I usually try to get the third city founded by around T50 if I can.

 

[penguin74]

double write up.

EDG96 Turn 267 rage quit.

Spoiler :

5 city liberty. Morocco beat me to 2 other spots I wanted, so I just figured Id conquer them later. Farmed 3 or 4 workers from France. Probably could have had more, but I didnt really need them, so stopped. Stayed at war with them all game. Im england, it was France, so I sort of had to. Built a bunch of archers, and once I hit comps started picking off french units. By the time I hit longbows, the promotions flowed in, and I had 8 or 9 with ballistics. France fell, and Morocco followed quickly after as they decided to try and backstab me. The Inca were going nuts in the east, and the Shoshone in the west. As the game progressed, the world was basically split into 3rds. Unfortunately, I was in the middle. Venice, Assyria and Morocca were gone. France and The Songhai had 1 city each, but the capitals had been taken, so it was a 3 horse race. I had the 3rd biggest army, but it was plenty big enough to take on either opponent. However, they did the one thing I could not handle, and both attacked me on the same turn. I could have held off the Inca if I reinforced Paris, but then the Moroccan lands would have fallen. I had fighters on intercept, but not enough for 2 fronts, so my ranged defenses fell to bombers. Called it quits shortly after as my happiness had fallen to -18 with the war, and so even if i fought them off, i was pretty much toast. Game was fun up until that point. was basically a 265 turn war and non stop action. may try a replay a little more cautiously.

Needed something a little calmer, and boy did EDG 98 fit the bill. Turn 323 SV/

Spoiler :

where England was non stop war, this was the exact opposite. Except for stealing 2 workers from Rome, never went to war all game. 7 city Liberty. 2 of those covered the mountain pass, so I was able to pull a 300 like defense. Nothing could get to me by land, and I stayed alliied with Bogota all game, so I was kind of walled off from the rest of the world. Kept up a decent navy just for protection, but no one ever tried to attack that way. Only reason this game was interesting was a little bit of luck. Usually when I finish Liberty and am playing peaceful, I take a GS and build an academy. That didnt seem needed here though as I already has one, and with the way they generate more, I might never get an engineer, so I took that and held onto it in case I wanted Porcelain tower, Hubble, something like that. Managed to get the tech lead, but even with like 9 GS to pop, China was keeping pace.

Here is where I got lucky. I had completely forgotten to build an artists guild, so as we got towards the end game, I still never had it. I knew I would need the order 3rd tier policy to use GE's on spaceship parts to beat China to space, but even with decent culture, i might not get there in time. I finally remembered to do it and built it quick. Because I had never earned a GA all game, and had all the bonuses now to great person generating, I managed to get 2 artists pretty quick. Both went to golden ages, which pushed my culture up high enough to get to the 3rd tier policy several turns faster. China had built 5 parts already though, including the bottom tier one, so it could end at any time. I had built 3 already, and used the GS from that policy to pop the final tech. I used the GE from the policy, plus 1 i had generated in the game to get the next 2 parts That left me 9 turns to hard build the final part and beat China. Except, remember that Liberty finished GE from before, yeah, well, i never actually used him for anything. I hard built Porcelian Tower and Hubble, and never tried for Kremlin, so he was still sitting there unused. That let me pop the final part before China could launch. Luckiest GE ever, but I'm not complaining.

May try Brazil next, Still looking for that first ever diety CV.

 

[Nizef]

May try Brazil next, Still looking for that first ever diety CV.

For me it was easier to reach a CV in #49 (Zulus), #57 (India) and #100 (Germany) than #101 with Brazil but I still regard GotM160 to be the easiest game to record a Deity CV. The India game might be the easiest task for a CV in this series.