Thibaulthc
Prince
I played as Suleyman (the Ottomans), on a huge continent, 12 cities and 24 CS, epic speed (I'll never play standard speed again I think), Emperor difficulty.
To be honest, the first 300 turns were really hard. My Mongolian neighbor attacked me early, the Aztecs also, and it was really difficult to contain them: Jaguar hidden in forests (+33%) and Mongolian Keshiks (mounted archers) which are NOT mounted units, so spearmen and pikemen are useless...
Spoiler :
I fought back the Aztecs... and here is a first weird thing: (that really helped me): he instantly offered me peace with all his gold (1200) and the very rare (only 3 in the world) spices, while I was not counter-attacking his cities
(Later I took him just one city to get some more Silk to trade, but let him his capital and we signed peace again.)
That was really helpful to hold against Mongolians. But I had no iron at all, and I was struggling with my poor units until i finally reached Gunpowder.
It took me some 100-150! turns before being able to push back Genghis, and I've been able to because of an OP combination:
My UU, the Janissary, heals 50 when he kills a non barbarian unit. But mines were recovering full health each time they killed an enemy; I sometimes got +97hp
Well, I had the Fountain of youth (Heals at double rate promotion), but I don't know if it's intended. So I finally fought back Genghis and took him several cities.
Spoiler :
What helped me a lot also is that I had all the Silver of the world. I had 7 deposits, and I've been trading them for money all game long. For 280-360
to friends, or 7gpt (45 turns, 305 total). That has been an essential part of my victory (all six silver trades are about 50gpt, for the whole game)This long war against Genghis slowed me badly on the tech sides, and I was several techs behind most of the Civs. Also I totally skipped the naval part of the Tech Tree to be able to reach Gunpowder asap, althought the Ottoman UA is naval (all melee ships have the Prize Ships promotion, and naval units maintenance is only 1/3). I had met almost no CS beacause of that. Accross a small sea was Elizabeth, and her UU is the Ship of the Line (stronger frigates). So my goal was simple: grouping a bunch of triremes and barbarian galleass, and steal her those powerful ships. It was a bit hard because of her UA (2 more
for all ships) but I got some of them, while I traded some iron with my numerous friends. I tried to disembark some troops in her land, but that was a total mess, so I signed a peace treaty with 3-4 Ships of the Line as a gift.Spoiler :
Elizabeth was on some kind of isolated part of the second continent, and was at peace with everybody, although relationships seemed tensed. But my closest friends, Theodora (Byzantine) and Gandhi, were both urging me to dow Alexander, who was expanding too much and already wiped off Ethiopia. I told them to let me 10 turns to prepare and found some uncoveted land north of England, and south of Byzantine Empire: I disembarked some elite troops there, immortal experimented Jannissaries, brand new Gatling Guns and canons. We declared war together to Alexander, and Theodora a good part of the work, but I took the biggest part of Alex's cities, while she just took the remaining ruins of Ethiopia. So on continent B, Alex had been pushed back to his original lands, Ethiopia was gone (but they managed to spread christianism on 2/3 of the continent!), Gandhi was calm, friendly, and not very strong, and Theodora was my closest friend till now. She was also confining Attila near the North Pole, so that one was no a threat. Further was Pacal the Maya, but I still had no contact. I had 4-5 cities between all those ones, but no harbor to connect routes to my capital, and Elizabeth had settled a new coastal city were I intended to.
Spoiler :
On my continent were also Ceasar, Dido (carthage) and the Songhaï Askia. Ceasar was fighting against both, and while he managed to almost kill Dido, he probably weakened himself to much and couldn't resist against Askia to the North, and Genghis to the South. So he lost his Carthaginians cities to the Mongols, and was having a rough time against Askia, who was now occupying half the land of my continent. Dido was gone, Ceasar was weakened, and Askia was strong, extensive and aggressive. And he had a lot of oil deposits. He was gonna be my next target, before becoming too strong. But I first would have to strengthen my economy and happiness, which were both dying. We were just reaching the Industrial Era; and I was finaly gonna be able to spend all those
point I was saving for some decades: Autocracy, and its huge opener, the -33% maintenance cost on military units! I could finally keep my head above water and strengthen the lines of my army.I first took the remaining cities of the Roman Empire, and let Ceasar with only one city. Then I Dowed Askia, who was denounced by most of the Civs, and weakened him and his numerous UU (mounted unit strong against cities) with my Sepahis (stronger and faster lancers stronger against...mounted units). Those were a big part of his forces, and I just wipped them off. But I had not enough unit to attack his cities, so I just pushed to the desert and two big 5 oils deposits, razed two cities to create a no-man's land between us, and installed two citadels to prevent any counter attack.
Spoiler :
I got back to the second continent, where I had to open a breach in England territory to be able to connect my greek cities to my Empire. That was a hard time because Elizabeth had the Great Wall and a bunch of Longbowman Archers (3 ranged). I thought that discovering Dynamite would break that wall (making it obsolete) but actually, it seems that SHE has do discover it to cancel its effects... Took me some time but I managed to take her two cities and thus connect in once 7 already grown cities to my Capital and the.. Machu Pichu. Bings, a bunch of money every turn. From that moment, I'd be rich and richer every turn. (300 gpt, ended the game with almost 500 net gpt with a huge army; trade routes total revenue above 1000 gpt!)
Spoiler :
From that point, the game became boring, I had taken most of the strategic resources to prevent enemies to build good units, I had a lot of money to grow cities fast and support a large army, and I just encountered some happiness problems, but I managed to get several 30-40
booms each time. (Humanism +1happiness for every Library, University and Observatory.. I had a bunch of those -> +35 with +- 15 cities; Meritocracy: +1 happiness for every connected city, I had 30 at that time; Forbidden Palace, -10% 
for non-occupied citizens, I had about 250 pop, Newshterstuff Castle, +1 happiness for every castle (and +3 and +2 for each castle! really OP! for wide empires) hop +35 again...)I thought I'd get another challenging war when I'd have to defeat Theodora who had still a slight lead in Techs and some good units, but after sending two overpowered Great Prophets (+25% power, -25% cost with my religion) to avoid her to benefit from Defender of the Faith (+20% near Friendly City) and thus easily converting 7 cities in once, I just dig a 8-10 cities hole in her empire with my TOTAL WAR huge bonus (+25% for all units for 50 turns, autocracy finisher). Killing the last ones was just a waste of time, no challenge at all, I had too many units, well too-improved most of them with 500+ xp!) and I just wiped everything off well too easily. Sometimes I had a hearth-boom when I saw the "enemy in territory" icon appearing, hopefully facing a counter-attack where I didn't expect to, but nope, most of the times it was a lost worker...
I managed to keep friendly relationships with most of the Civs as long as I was able to, and they never backstabbed me.. good yes, but I'd have like them to make a strong alliance and attack me together when it was clear that I was overwhelming them. Instead they sneaked some small attacks between them, just making my task easier. My very wide empire had some big weak points, especially only two harbors on the second continent with my trade routes revenues being more than 200% of my net gpt (1000 gpt from
and "only" 500 net gpt); they also could have attack me were I only had few units between Alex, Theo and Gandhi; Nothing happened, and in the sixties I won with 4000 points.If I have some reads and some comments, and if I can fix the snapshot bug, I'll add pictures. Thank you if you read more than the ten first lines and those three last ones, and sorry for all the faults, my English isn't very good. Any comments very welcome.
Edit: added some pictures, but I don't have a lot of savegames. All this is quite drafty, I'm tellingthe whole game in once with what I remember, then modified it a bit after viewing my savegames... And I'm also quite drunk right now^^. If some of you like it, next time I will try to make a "daily" report, more accurate, with more pics and more real numbers.
Thibault.
I know where you were coming from.
