France

[Slowpoke]

Well rather than start a story thread again, than abandon it after shortly getting brutally mauled, I've decided to actually play a few different games until I get a good start and start from there (not to mention having a bit more experience ).

Interestingly, while this particular game ended up being my luckiest beginning start ever, it started out almost overwhelmingly bad.

Settings:
-Pangea
-Deity
-Standard time
-HUGE
-France

So okay the very start isn't too bad. Can't complain with 2 luxuries and hut that gave mining:



And starting next to a maritime ain't so bad either. I queue up a mass of settlers, steal a worker from the other, hostile maritime, and start exploding on all the spices.
This is a deity game after all, so after getting calendar and masonry I immediately head for horses. Not for offense, but spearmen aren't exactly the best defense.




Oh dear, ottomons settling right next to where I want my settler. Well, I'm not about to pass up two sugars and be squemish, so I settle anyways.



And now the crap hits the fan. It's 1480 B.C. and Alexander and Suleiman both declare war on me at the same time. My maritime ally has yet to build a workboat for the whales, so I'm also pretty deep in the negative happiness. Luckily, I am able to capture a worker, and lure a spearman to capture it and get killed in the grasslands:



So now I'm wondering where alexander's been. It's been quite a few turns without seeing him thank god. Then I find a -hp floating above venice, the CS whom I stole a worker from, and find out he's sieging it with a bunch of guys. I send one of my two horseman up through the southern end, and smash a chariot, and two swordsmen in the grasslands. A heal promotion keeps him alive and well. Thank god they're stupid enough to keep concentrating on hurting venice through this:



I quickly retreat my horseman north, to avoid the embaressing situation of losing a city to scouts:



So Alexander's forces seem to have been decimated, allowing me to relax and send the horsmen south to the ottomons. Best of all, and this really alone seems to give me the lead I need to have a chance at this game, venice goes from -~30 relations to a whopping +80 after my efforts to keep it alive. Incidentally, I would have done it anyways out of self preservation. But man those furs helped a lot:



For now, my citizens get a reprieve, and get ready to threw one massive party:



For those curious, or wishing to play a deity game with a head start, here's the save file as an attachment.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

I'm subscribed

 

[Slowpoke]

Alright, well I'm gonna be busy with work for a while, so don't expect any long updates till thursday.

So continuing on, the greeks and ottoman's said "Just kidding! That was battle practice." and decided to throw forces twice the original size at me. Luckily, I meet up with some more civilizations who wish to buy spices from me, so I now have a total of 4 horsemen. Unluckily, a horseman dies when attacking across a marsh, as he rather unfortunately won a fight that he shouldn't have, leaving him stranded without the movement to get back to the safety of Marseille:



And here come the greeks again. Seriously? Are his citizens secretly swordsmen?



And of course, Suleiman just adds more and more and more. I lure a spearman to Tours with my archer, who thankfully survives with 1 hp. I wish there were a few more grasslands around marseille, as walking around with my horses and trying to keep one in the city healing is a hopeless task. Wish I had swordsmen at this point honestly, but then vienna would probably have been long gone.



And then, Suleiman just goes barking mad, and sends EVEN MORE troops. Thankfully, he's pretty dumb, and divides his forces to attack Ragusa, which can easily handle three soldiers by itself with it's city walls.



I attempt to sue for peace every turn, as is the french way, but to no avail. I may have to resort to selling a minor city to buy one last horsemen, or if I actually have the time, a catapult for marseille.

 

[Slowpoke]

Okay so this next session? Without a doubt the most epic battle I've fought in a civ game, and I've played them for years. Most likely the most awesome battle of the game as well, but I can hope for more fun

So, our story leaves off with the ottomons being stupid, and the greeks utterly swarming venice. To make matters worse, I take a gamble and lose a fight with a swordsman that was about a 60/40 chance. Decisive victory my butt!



Meanwhile the Suleiman continues spreading out and being stupid. While his attacks are ineffective and will never take a city even if I leave it undefended, every turn he occupies that land is a turn I miss 2 sugars. I am torn on whether to defend the area. If Alexander fails to take venice, staying there will have been the better decision, and I need every advantage I can get on deity. But if Alexander takes venice I will be conquered without a doubt:



The attack on venice goes on slowly but surely. My horseman is forced into making desperate attacks, attacking swordsmen on hills rather than archers, hoping they attack me instead of venice. As it stands, venice will probably make it:



Or not! COMPANION CAVALRY! CRAP!



Looks like my hand is forced. Time to get out of there!



Workmen! Operation human shield!



Almost there, venice goes in the red.



The archer falls for the bait! Venice survives with... NO HIT POINTS LEFT!



CHARGE!



My second horsemen to the south makes it to the scene, only to reveal even more troops. How many greek soldiers have been killed so far? 15? 20?



The greek settler was just too tempting. I take it with the horseman, but leave the settler turned worker to the barbarians. I can't have even one horseman away from this scene. Meanwhile, the catapult thankfully rides forward rather than blowing my horseman to smithereens.



The catapult gets smashed, and the hoplites wounded.



600 years of war have passed. I try diplomacy, but there is still no sign of peace.

As usual, here is the save, if you really want to try it out. Honestly, I'm almost afraid to play it at this point!

 

[Azedenkae]

Oh wow, Greece really is persistent... Alexander must really, really, really want Venice. XD

I actually only ever meet Greece once in a game, and he was kinda restricted to a small piece of land so kinda sucked.

Now I feel super lucky, looking at what you have to go through... XD

 

[Slowpoke]

It's probably best that I ended up his neighbor actually. At least this way he's a jerk, but he won't conquer half the world and come down on me with artillery.

 

[Azedenkae]

Hm, true enough... XD

 

[Slowpoke]

Alright, well so much for getting work done.

So now greece... still... is attacking. I don't know what he has against venice. The forces he's spent trying to take it would've been enough to take half the globe.



A great general is born! About time!



Suleiman finally gets a bit more coolheaded. He's won't accept but at least he's talking



This should've been done a long time ago. At the time I researched currency, I thought the war had ended. Oh was I wrong.



Suleiman starts getting organzied. I'll blow the ending. It Fails (duh). Stupid suleiman.



HAlf a dozen turns later, the siege of venice takes a turn for the worse. While the great general is a great help, I've run out of easy quick heals and, well, it's horsemen vs hoplites at the moment.



Finally, Alexander parks a longswordsman outside venice, and sends me the following message. I do a quick calculation, and find he's asking for more than 2000 gold worth in items. At this point, now that the colloseums are dowwn and the military is pumping, I can afford the loss of venice. I'm not throwing away 5 longswordsmen for your "peace"



A sad, sad, day. So many valiant french die in vain.



Meanwhile, greece further expands into my turf. He gives me a breather for a few turns as he reassambles his army. Bad move alex. After finding a 6 iron tile near one of my cities, I buy it and start working it immediately. All cities build warriors for upgrading and horsemen. My horse supply goes down from 6 to 0. It's on.

 

[Slowpoke]

So continuing on, things are looking up at the moment. Yes venice fell, but now I have the time to work on my military, and a *gasp* whole 4 turns have gone by with little conflict. Then THIS:



So Suleiman finally grew a brain and sent everything on marseille. Not good. Meanwhile things get even worse on the greek front. Luckily my catapults can deal significant damage to these longswordsmen:



Ephasis is captured, only to reveal greece must have 400000000000000000000 production per turn, using it all on units. OMFG. Neadless to say, that horseman get squished:



I just don't know what to say. Alex is building literally 5 times as many soldiers as I He continues smashing both south and north:



Things get ugly at tours. Luckily, while Suleiman's strategic sense woke up, his tactical sense stayed blissfully asleep, and this attack fails.



Luckily, alex spreads out to far. Chartres mops this up with a flawless victory.



My swordsman tries for an easy kill only to find the ottomans, too, build units over 4 times as fast as I can. He falls:



All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to <boop!> with you.



The northern catapult and the city bombard the longswordsman rather ineffectively, the near dead horseman takes out a bowman easily, one of the northern horses smashes at the swordsman in the plains, in an effort to keep the catapult safe







Success! The greeks are driven away, while the ottomans remain. However, my horses gain several heal promotions to deal with them.



A great scientist at last! I burn it on longswordsmen in an act of desperation:



SERIOUSLY?!?!?! My horseman pick and run some spearsmen, and one stays in the city to heal, a catapult moves behind tours to relative safety.



Meanwhile, greece's failed attack on chartres leads to a succesful recapture of venice! 227 favor. Pretty snazzy.



However, tours is captured. At this point, my army nearly decimated, facing far superior numbers and my entire southern army lying crushed and healing, I raise the white flag of defeat.

One might consider this story a loss, but not me. I stood under fire for an entire 1500 years, with enemies more advanced, and literally 10 times in number. So deity's a cakewalk eh? Clearly not always.

 

[Ravellion]

A nice read!

 

[Slowpoke]

Mainly what I liked about this game was how I ended up getting so involved with a city state. Admittedly, I was just using it as a meat shield, but venice's hills and city walls provided such a massive strategic value that the major battle was fought there.

 

[Civ'ed]

I get a strange feeling the war with greece was thought over Venice...

 

[biohazard72]

One Deity AI is tough, especially if you aren't ready. Two is near impossible.

If one of those is Alexander?

Good freakin' luck. Well played game. It's probably lost because of the effect the warmongering has had on your expansion, but it might be interesting to play it out to see if you can survive and turn the tide - if you can get peace with one, maybe you could buy him into a war with the other! Then conquer them both

 

[Revoran]

Now i'd love to see a modern era battle of this epic-ness

 

[DonChipotle]

Thanks for the story! Diety is really hard when you get attacked early. Especially when one of them is Alex, with Hoplites and Companion Cavalry. Something like this happens to me in about 3/4 Diety attempts, but if I make it through those crucial first 80 turns without being declared on by more than one AI (or by a single AI in the first 40 turns!), things go much better.