[GEM] Kaitzilla vs. The World

[Kaitzilla]

Hopefully Suryavarman will decide that China is a juicier target than you...

How's your Power rating compared to Yue? Suryavarmen will choose the weaker target I presume.

I don't know my power rating compared to Yue, nor against Suryavarmen.
I could spend 40 on the slider and find out in a single turn, but money is so tight...
Not sure it would change anything if I did know.
Khmer looks very prosperous with the scoreboard indicating multiple 10 pop cities due to his lack of Wonders.
Will find out in 11 turns the power ratio with Khmer using the natural +4 per turn from Palace in capital.

Suryavarmen will choose anyone who is less than 150% as powerful as him to make war against. (My power ratio against him would have to be > 1.500 to be safe)
Land Targets are a huge temptation (Yue, but he is Pleased with them), and the odds are higher with people he has bad diplo relations with (Korea, Poland, and Ethiopia are all at Annoyed)
I'm at Cautious.
I think there is a range limit of something like 99 tiles, so he's not gonna target Spain.
Hopefully he picks Yue to attack.


If I'm the target, I'm not sure what I can do if Surya sends 30 Axes right now.
Just die I guess.
I'll need 8 or 9 turns to get down to the jungle in force (10 units), so hopefully he waits for me.
The roads over the rivers barely speed my units up at all since there are so many hills and rivers to cross.
Shifting units from North-to-South and vice versa won't get fast until Construction unlocks bridges.


I'm also up against the AdvancedAIMod (Better AI 6.0) here and a bit out of my depth.
I really don't know how war is calculated in my game right now.

Here's the article for standard BTS war calculations again.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7190899&postcount=84

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 41 (T239 to T240)

T239 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Julius of the Roman Empire DOWd Ragnar suddenly.
Isabella of Spain now has Alphabet.
Since Julius already has Monotheism, it appears that Isabella bribed him to DOW Ragnar with Monarchy.

Spoiler :

The Hindu Holy City Elephantine is still held by 1 barb Spear and 1 barb Warrior.
My Axe didn't like the 90% odds with possibly more barbs to the southwest, so he moved to a hilltop 1S of the city for defense and more vision.
Next turn the assault begins!

Spoiler :

Still no stack of units spotted down in Khmer.
Going to move my Axe east to search for the main stack since my Axe can quickly return to the chokepoint ahead of any enemy.
The info is more valuable than any 25% fortify bonus.

Spoiler :

Right away my scout Chariot in Invincible City got a chance to reach 5xp.
Unpromoted Chariots always get 2xp for killing a Warrior.
Will make two of these +1 Vision Chariots to keep eyes on my Northwest and Southwest for backstabbing neighbors.
This will be especially important as I deal with the Khmer situation.

Spoiler :

Here's my 2nd reinforcement Axe headed southeast past all my lovely cottages.
Varanasi has reached max size and is producing a Settler for a city gift to improve relations with my many terrifying neighbors.

Spoiler :

T240 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 1 Warrior died.

Ahahahaha YES!
The barbs got greedy and sent the Elephantine Spear to finish off Egypt because Ramesses is still defending Memphis with one Warrior.
Elephantine captured!
It gave 1 pop and 14

Spoiler :

After talking to all the AI, Ethiopia won't accept an Elephantine gift. (Financial Trouble)

Spoiler :

My choices are Rome, Egypt, Israel, Spain, Hungary, France, Korea, Arabia, Mongolia.
Who do I want to improve relations with most?
It has to be Rome, Israel, Spain, or Hungary.
They are amongst the strongest empires and all have Alphabet except Hungary.

While I ponder that decision, my #1 move right now is to convert to Hinduism now that I finally have a Hindu city
I'll take relationship penalties with all the Islamic civs (Khmer, Zulu, Babylon, Arabia), but only Babylon is the real downside at this point.
I'll gain relationship bonuses with all the Hindu civs, of which there are currently 10!
Let the Anarchy begin. ^_^
Revolted to Hinduism.

Spoiler :

After giving it a lot of thought, I've given up on Egypt ever making a Great Prophet to create a Hindu Shrine.
Ramesses is just too weak to live.
Gifted Elephantine to Rome.

After moving my Axe back onto the hill, the barb Spear has a lovely choice of retaking Elephantine or conquering Memphis.
I win either way!

Hehehe...urk
Wut?
NOES..
My city gift only gave +1 relations with ROME!
Is this some new torture from Genghis Kai's mod?
Do city gifts only give +1 relations now instead of +4????

Spoiler :

All of my planned Settler city gifts to my neighbors to improve relations might be doomed if +1 is all I get.
Did knowing the AI for 200 turns reduce city gifts from +4 to +1 "trade relations"?
I know that the longer you know an AI, the less gifts affect diplo bonuses (hence a 10 gift to a newly met AI gives +4 relations right away), but I always thought a city was a guaranteed +4.

Gnnn
I'll just have to deal with hostile neighbors as best I can until Alphabet.
No choice.
Moving on...

Traded Bronze Working to Isabella for Archery.
Archery discovered!
One more unit to put in my build queues for an emergency.

Spoiler :

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 42 (T240 to T243)

T240 Continued - Great Engineer born in a faraway land. (Isabella/Madrid/Pyramids?)

Met Frederick of the German Empire.
He is Islamic, has 1 city, and is the Worst enemy of Hannibal and Julius. (Dead Empire)
Signed Open Borders with Frederick to keep going west.
If Hannibal or Julius demands I stop trading with Frederick in 10 turns, I'll comply of course.

Spoiler :

Scouting has revealed the Polish capital Warszawa is formidable with 2 Bronze, 2 Silver, and plenty of food and rivers.
A 2nd Khmer city Bantu was unfogged and has a staggering 15 population.

Spoiler :

Arabia went to -3 heathen relations, Khmer went to -2, and everyone else Islamic went to -1 when I switched to Hinduism.
Khmer is still Cautious, but will likely grow to Annoyed depending on how high the heathen penalty gets.

Ethiopia and Spain will likely grow to Friendly in 60 turns since they care about religion so much and we are all Hindu now.

T241 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 1 Warrior died.

Poland is plotting war!
The odds are low-to-moderate the target is me.
Hungary is a Land Target to Poland, but Hungary reached Pleased relations with 100% no_war_probs, so Poland can't be plotting war against his close neighbor Hungary.

Spoiler :

I'm currently Cautious with Poland. (60% no_war_probability)
Maybe weak Islamic Germany is the target? (Cautious)
Or Islamic Babylon? (Cautious)
Scandinavia to the northwest is also a decent target for Poland. (Annoyed with Rangar, 20% no_war_prob)

This is a very worrisome development with all my units pouring south.
Bronze City would be the closest target, and a Polish attack right now would have no trouble removing my Bronze supply, canceling my Fur trade, severing my Gems supply, and directly threatening my capital.
Vision Chariot, go find Mieszko's stack of doom!
I need it to go any direction except east once it forms.
Please let it be somebody else.

Spoiler :

Isabella DOWd Ragnar and is now fighting alongside Rome!

Spoiler :

Traded Horse to Isabella for Stone. (I now have both stone and marble mmm)

Spoiler :

Elephantine was captured from Rome by barbs!
Without the fortify bonus, my Axe has better odds than 90% now.

Elephantine captured from barbs again!
Elephantine gifted to Israel!
+1 relations again.
I'll take it.
Israel is the best choice because I don't want barbs to retake Elephantine again, and David is close enough to send units down to protect it.
While the city is in barb hands, Hinduism won't spread to any new cities.

Spoiler :

Scouting has started to reveal the overall shape of the Khmer Empire.
The Yue are ready to rock if Khmer wants to pick a fight.

Spoiler :

T242 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Met Willem of the Dutch Empire.
He has 9 cities!
He's Hindu, has Alphabet, and is also at war with Ragnar.
Maybe he bribed Rome to DOW Ragnar, not Spain?
Anyway, the Dutch are large and in charge.
Signed Open Borders immediately.

Spoiler :

Canceled Open Borders with Ragnar.
Scandinavia is at war with too many of my friends and a demand to cease trading was coming any moment.
I hate accepting those because the civ won't talk to you for ages when you accept that kind of demand from their enemy.
Best to just sever all trades with Ragnar now while we are still on speaking terms.

My reinforcements are starting to arrive in the southeast.
My 2nd vision Chariot achieved 5xp and will now go patrol the southwest for invasion stacks.
The German capital Berlin is defended by 7 Archers.

Spoiler :

T243 - Still no Khmer stack spotted.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 43 (T244 to T248)

T244 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

Julius of the Roman Empire asked me to DOW Scandinavia.
This offer is very similar to the Greek war, but Ragnar is much stronger than Greece was, and he has 6 civs Pleased with him.
Also, shared war maxes out around +2 with most of the civs involved and I already have +1 with them.
War offer declined!

Spoiler :

Khmer not opening borders until Pleased is giving me a migrane.
No stack of doom spotted yet.

Spoiler :

Library whipped in Estruscan!
Cyrus is going to hate me when I start squeezing his cities.
Also, Persia converted to Islam.
That will reduce the amount of Pleased civs I anger when I DOW Cyrus some day.

Spoiler :

T245 - Barbarians: No deaths.

Great Scientist born in Israel. (Was hoping for Great Prophet )

Tashkent my 2nd city popped borders finally.

Gifted Pigs to Hammurabi to improve relations later.
Traded Horse to Willem for Pigs to improve relations later.

Babylon doesn't have open borders with Poland and has settled west of Bronze City.
I don't suppose Hammurabi could settle cities all the way to the north pole to protect me?

Spoiler :

T246 - Code of Laws was discovered by Israel.

Chose Judaism to be the world's 4th religion.
Hevron is now the Jewish holy city.

Spoiler :

The Turkish Empire now has 2 million souls.

Spoiler :

Ragnar asked for war against Spain. Denied.

Met Elizabeth of the English Empire!
She is Islamic, has 6 cities, and is the Worst Enemy of Hungary, Yue, Israel, and France.
Declined to sign Open Borders.

Spoiler :

Library whipped in Chinook! (southern tip of India)
In 15 turns I can start stealing tiles to the north and build a road to connect Chinook to my empire through Persia.

Spoiler :

Biskek on the eastern front now has +20 per turn at Size 4.
I'll whip Axes every turn if I have to because if that city gets captured, the whip anger vanishes.

Spoiler :

There are only 7 unmet civs left on Earth now.
Mansa, Lincoln (Australia), and 5 more I can't remember.

Spoiler :

T247 - Barbarians: No deaths.

Temple of Artemis built in a faraway land. (Of course)
Israel started teching Math.
Judaism spread to Gems City.

Spoiler :

Settler 3pop whipped in Dhaka with overflow going into scout for money.
Will try to settle and (Liberate) two cities to Islamic Babylon.
Babylon is my #1 diplomatic priority now since all my trade routes with the west flow through them.
So do my Wine and Fur trades.
Annoyed is simply not acceptable since Hammurabi can't plot war with me if I reached Pleased with him.

Scouting indicates a stack might be forming in Poland's city Gdansk.
Will keep an eye on it.
No stack spotted in Khmer yet.

Spoiler :

The Netherlands Empire has some mega cities.
Amsterdam and Hamburg combined have 30 pop. (Wait, isn't that a German city?)

Spoiler :

T248 - Barbarians: 2 Spears died.

Wang Kon of Korea converted to Hinduism.
Willem of the Netherlands Empire got a Great General fighting Ragnar.

Met Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire just southwest of Egypt as predicted by RedKirrHelper.
Mansa has 1 City, is Hindu, and is the worst enemy of the Zulu and Khmer.
Chose not to sign Open Borders.

Spoiler :

Granary whipped in Khotan, the city closest to Khmer.
Soon it will be able to whip Axes, just like Biskek.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 44 (T249 to T250)

T249 - Barbarians: No deaths.

efforts have revealed that my Power Ratio with Khmer is 0.635
Khmer IS the most powerful civ on Earth. (militarily)
Also, a Chariot was spotted in Khmer lands, so he has horses too.

Spoiler :

A Stack of Doom™ has been confirmed forming in Poland's city of Gdansk.

Spoiler :

The Yue Empire has been almost entirely mapped.
The 2 China's have great land.

Spoiler :

Mmm, it's worth doing a military estimate of Khmer now.
I have 17 cities, 74 pop, 25 Axes, 5 Chariots, and 6 Barracks.
Khmer has 9 cities, 392k Soldiers to my 249k, Iron Working, and presumably Walls + Barracks in all 9 cities.
Assuming his average city pop is 10, he has 90 population.
From the Demographics guide:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/demographics.php
2 population is 1k soldiers, barracks is 3k soldiers, walls is 2k soldiers, Iron Working is 10k soldiers.
Spearmen and Chariots are 4k soldiers. Axes are 6k soldiers.

392k - 249k = 143k soldiers Khmer superiority.
Subtract 10k for Iron Working, 8k for extra population, 4k for Spear guarding Worker, 4k for Spear guarding Worker, 6k for Axe guarding Worker, 9k for Barracks superiority, 18k for Walls superiority.
Hopefully there are 2Axes + 1Spear garrisoning every Khmer city. (16k*9cities) = 144k cities.
Figure 26k for standard Deity techs so far.
392-144-10-8-4-4-6-27-18-26 = 145k soldiers for stack of doom, or 24 Axes.
There's probably more units guarding Workers, or more Spears and Chariots and less Axes hmm.

I probably did some math wrong somewhere.
Will remain scared of Khmer anyway!

T250 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

Delhi+Bronze City both popped borders.
Judaism spread to Invincible City.
Islam spread to Biskek.
Library 3-pop whipped in Biskek.
Exploration Workboat completed in Chinook. (Southern India)

Why won't Hinduism spread into my empire?

My two road projects are nearing completion.
I hate having all my trade routes going through a road to Persia, so I'm roading towards Babylon in case war with Cyrus occurs.
I'm also roading north and south of Khotan so my Axes can move much more freely depending on where Khmer's stack of doom is spotted.

Spoiler :

The stack of doom in Poland has grown to intimidating size.
6 Chariots, 6 Archers, 3 Spears, and 3 Axes.
Will have to keep careful watch for which direction is starts moving.
It's still probably smaller than what Khmer has.

Spoiler :

Scouting indicates I might have to sign Open Borders with France to reach Spain.
Also, Babylon has grown to the Persian Gulf and has a well developed empire.

Spoiler :

This seems like a good time to attach a game save and some empire screenshots for curious Lurkers.

T250 EMPIRE SCREENSHOTS
I'm #1 in land area and food production, and top 10 in everything else.
Not bad.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

It is now 1000BC <('_'<)

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks for writeup. I enjoy it, especially when I am too lazy to play myself.

Now, go bribe Sury into a war somewhere as a preemptive move.

 

[Noyyau]

IIRC if you block the chokepoints leading to your cities the AI should have problems with the pathfinding and will take the long route around, so if Suryavarman will DoW on you, blocking the mountain passes on your eastern border should delay the invasion.

 

[Major Tom]

3 mountain passes to block and also Sury can attack tile 1S of Khotan from hill SE of that tile. This is getting exiting.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Thanks for writeup. I enjoy it, especially when I am too lazy to play myself.

Now, go bribe Sury into a war somewhere as a preemptive move.

I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.

I can't wait to start bribing AI's to war.
However, once an AI like Surya starts plotting war, they can no longer be bribed into a war anymore.
They say "We have enough on our hands right now" and all the bribe options are redded out.

IIRC if you block the chokepoints leading to your cities the AI should have problems with the pathfinding and will take the long route around, so if Suryavarman will DoW on you, blocking the mountain passes on your eastern border should delay the invasion.

I think the pathfinding trick only works against barbarians which are permanently at war with everyone.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=541759&page=18

The AI walk through you until they step into your territory to DOW, and then they go through you if you are blocking. (I'm pretty sure)

3 mountain passes to block and also Sury can attack tile 1S of Khotan from hill SE of that tile. This is getting exiting.

You and Noyyau bring up a good point.
I really should just empty Khotan and Biskek and jam those 3 mountain passes.
Maybe the AdvancedAI will be too chicken to blast their way through.
And even if they do kill their way through, best to have defenders on jungles than crappy 20% cities.

Will move all forces up to the 3 chokepoints.

 

[Noyyau]

I guess you need to be already at war for that to work with the AIs as well?

As you pointed out, AI will DoW when about to enter your borders, so the chokepoint defenders should be inside your borders to actually be effective (for that first attack anyway). I'm sure you know that, it's just that I noticed that until Khotan's border pops, you'd have to presidiate 2 tiles rather than 1 in that middle mountain pass.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I guess you need to be already at war for that to work with the AIs as well?

As you pointed out, AI will DoW when about to enter your borders, so the chokepoint defenders should be inside your borders to actually be effective (for that first attack anyway). I'm sure you know that, it's just that I noticed that until Khotan's border pops, you'd have to presidiate 2 tiles rather than 1 in that middle mountain pass.

Not necessarily.

Civ 4 has some really mind blowing teleport mechanics.
Team Kakumeika abused the hell out of teleporting in SGOTM15.
It ended up being a requirement to invade Churchill's overseas island pre-Galleons in SGOTM17 for teams that wanted to win fastest Conquest.

My units are allowed to be on the same tile as Suryavarmen's while we are at peace.
However, if 2 units are on the same tile and a Declaration of War occurs between their empires, the unit who's turn it is gets teleported to the nearest available tile in the direction of their closest city.

So if I put some units just outside my borders and Surya comes up to attack, he will teleport backwards as soon as he DOW'd and tried to move into my land. (We don't have open borders)

Try out this test game to see.

Spoiler :

 

[Seraiel]

I just found this story and wanted to say, that I find it brilliant. It's really awesomly well written, like basically every post of Kaitzilla (he puts a lot of work in his posts) , and the scenario is interesting. Some of the changes of the mod I don't like, like units being so cheap and fast while Settlers being so overly expensive, Water giving , Scientist-Specialists giving even more and also 1 ( ) , and I'm not sure, the AI will be able to adapt to them. What I saw from the beginning, the AIs also have been taken their most valuable bonuses, the ones that only make them capable of defending against human rushes, the Archers, the 2nd city, the free Workers, etc.. Kaitzilla that already noticing in the beginning from the demographics-screen really shows, that he's without a doubt one of the world's top10 CIV-players (he's probably more like top5, but it gets really hard to distinguish in that league, when the other names are players like WastinTime, duckweed, snaaty, doshin, kossin, bcool, kovacsflo, tachywaxon, STW, Pollina, and this list doesn't even take regular GOTM players into account i. e., so people who play GOTM but aren't really active in other forums, nor does it take former top-players like Moonsinger into account.

I write the the former, because this story (like many others) seems to get too little interest yet. I personally only discovered it by accident, because I read the name Kaitzilla as the last poster in a forum I don't visit, and just because he actually posts really seldomly (his post count may make you think otherwise, but be aware, that I i. e. gathered more posts in less than half the time he's on these forums, and I also try to make my posts well and not 1 sentence or whatever) , I got curious what is behind that title, which is funnily very accurate, especially knowing that Kaitzilla really played (and plays? ) against the world's top players regularly, but the title might also make someone think, that it's "just a n00b story by someone who has seen too many Rocky films or played too much Street Fighter" ^^

I only advanced until T39 'til now and from seeing the length of the turnset reports I guess, that the future turns will sometimes become real megaturns, especially with the map being so huge. When I saw the Warrior "Jesus" , I had to laugh because of joy, that's a really seldom event. Seeing him scouting through various empires near Israel and him getting promoted to Woodsman II is actually really amazing, because the real Jesus is told to be a timberman like his father, and while you may think what you like, unintended conincidences astonish me.

Him surviving the inital meeting with the Bear btw. is from a mechanic, that I suspect from my last game, in which one of my Scouts was in a similar situation, which is, that there's actually a timespan in the beginning of a game, where animals disregard human units. Apart from that, I think that Jesus (real Jesus apart) would have had really good chances, because aren't there a certain number of free wins, even on Deity? I think even on Deity, one wins something like the first 5 battlerounds, that's usually enough for a safe win against the first barb unit. I believe I once saw a Warrior beat an Axe or even a Tank because of this mechanic.

I hope I'll find the time to read the rest, and that Kaitzilla will find the energy and endurance. For the last, I know that it is very helpful to read posts in regard to his own posts, because seeing people being interested in one's work is a very good motivation, and I think I made very clear, that I believe that Kaitzilla's posts are worth this, so take this post as an example and reply instead of staying non-active!

 

[Noyyau]

You are, of course, correct! I had not realized that Sury's units would be standing in the same tile as your sentry during the DoW.

Sooo... to further elaborate on this, would it theoretically be possible to spam your units around your own borders (well, in chokepoints anyway) and sort of "fill" the line of tiles that would be the direct line of teleportation destinations towards the closest city of whoever DoW'ed you, basically teleporting the attacking stack back the way it came?

(Does what I said even make sense?)

 

[Drakarska]

Additionally, it might be prudent to remember about the bombard feature of this mod. IIRC, archers have this ability as well.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I just found this story and wanted to say, that I find it brilliant. It's really awesomly well written, like basically every post of Kaitzilla (he puts a lot of work in his posts) , and the scenario is interesting. Some of the changes of the mod I don't like, like units being so cheap and fast while Settlers being so overly expensive, Water giving , Scientist-Specialists giving even more and also 1 ( ) , and I'm not sure, the AI will be able to adapt to them. What I saw from the beginning, the AIs also have been taken their most valuable bonuses, the ones that only make them capable of defending against human rushes, the Archers, the 2nd city, the free Workers, etc.. Kaitzilla that already noticing in the beginning from the demographics-screen really shows, that he's without a doubt one of the world's top10 CIV-players (he's probably more like top5, but it gets really hard to distinguish in that league, when the other names are players like WastinTime, duckweed, snaaty, doshin, kossin, bcool, kovacsflo, tachywaxon, STW, Pollina, and this list doesn't even take regular GOTM players into account i. e., so people who play GOTM but aren't really active in other forums, nor does it take former top-players like Moonsinger into account.

I write the the former, because this story (like many others) seems to get too little interest yet. I personally only discovered it by accident, because I read the name Kaitzilla as the last poster in a forum I don't visit, and just because he actually posts really seldomly (his post count may make you think otherwise, but be aware, that I i. e. gathered more posts in less than half the time he's on these forums, and I also try to make my posts well and not 1 sentence or whatever) , I got curious what is behind that title, which is funnily very accurate, especially knowing that Kaitzilla really played (and plays? ) against the world's top players regularly, but the title might also make someone think, that it's "just a n00b story by someone who has seen too many Rocky films or played too much Street Fighter" ^^

I only advanced until T39 'til now and from seeing the length of the turnset reports I guess, that the future turns will sometimes become real megaturns, especially with the map being so huge. When I saw the Warrior "Jesus" , I had to laugh because of joy, that's a really seldom event. Seeing him scouting through various empires near Israel and him getting promoted to Woodsman II is actually really amazing, because the real Jesus is told to be a timberman like his father, and while you may think what you like, unintended conincidences astonish me.

Him surviving the inital meeting with the Bear btw. is from a mechanic, that I suspect from my last game, in which one of my Scouts was in a similar situation, which is, that there's actually a timespan in the beginning of a game, where animals disregard human units. Apart from that, I think that Jesus (real Jesus apart) would have had really good chances, because aren't there a certain number of free wins, even on Deity? I think even on Deity, one wins something like the first 5 battlerounds, that's usually enough for a safe win against the first barb unit. I believe I once saw a Warrior beat an Axe or even a Tank because of this mechanic.

I hope I'll find the time to read the rest, and that Kaitzilla will find the energy and endurance. For the last, I know that it is very helpful to read posts in regard to his own posts, because seeing people being interested in one's work is a very good motivation, and I think I made very clear, that I believe that Kaitzilla's posts are worth this, so take this post as an example and reply instead of staying non-active!

Thanks for the praise and support Seraiel
The thread title is part subliminal advertising to lure readers into Stories & Tales and part reference to a game long ago I was never able to beat. (Skateboarding the Great Wall of China is impossible!)

Yes, the scientist specialist buff is a bit too strong.
Thanks to +25% from Library, working even 1 scientist gives +5 and 1 instead of the usual +3
(25% Library boost to 3 is Floor(3*1.25))=Floor(3.75)=3
Used to have to work 2 scientists to get any boost from Library due to rounding problems.

As far as I know, there are no free wins against barbs on Deity difficulty.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=324961

Would you want to add information about free wins against barbs? At Prince and lower difficulties, you get at least 1 "barb free win". At Prince it's 1, and +1 for every difficulty level you go below that.

Your free wins counter will decrease every time you win a battle vs. a barbarian (including animals) until it reaches 0, at which point you have no barb free wins left and barb combat will be as usual.

When you still have barb free wins left, you are not quite guaranteed to win any battles with barbs but very nearly! For every combat round, the barb's odds will be reduced to 10% if not already lower than 10% (consequently your odds in each combat round cannot be lower than 90%). This means that even if the barbarian is very strong compared to your unit, it will be very unlikely to kill your unit, especially if your unit is uninjured.

Note that when you have barb free wins left, the combat odds shown to you by the game are false. Typically you will have more than 95% odds against any barbarian in any situation when you still have barb free wins left.

The barbs have a random dice roll every turn that makes them more timid to attack than Gandhi or more bloodthirsty than Ragnar.
Since the Bear had such good attack odds, only the very lowest courage roll saved my only explorer.
A shame Jesus died on Christmas in my game. (Another weird coincidence)

I will try hard to maintain the energy to complete this game/story.
There will be a week long break the first week of February, but I might be able to do a few mini updates.

Comments from readers are always very appreciated, but I am very guilty of gobbling up posts and not replying so I cannot urge too much.

You are, of course, correct! I had not realized that Sury's units would be standing in the same tile as your sentry during the DoW.

Sooo... to further elaborate on this, would it theoretically be possible to spam your units around your own borders (well, in chokepoints anyway) and sort of "fill" the line of tiles that would be the direct line of teleportation destinations towards the closest city of whoever DoW'ed you, basically teleporting the attacking stack back the way it came?

(Does what I said even make sense?)

^_^
Yes, it is very possible to do this.
Most times it isn't done because you only push the attackers back a tile or two and it gets a unit killed + ruins 25% fortify bonuses, but in this case it would definitely be worth it.
Every turn is 1 more Axe I can whip/build in multiple cities.
Based on the units in the area, I should be able to arrange my units so Sury gets pushed back 2 tiles.
That way 1 Axe will die and the rest can retreat back to a chokepoint just outside my borders.

Additionally, it might be prudent to remember about the bombard feature of this mod. IIRC, archers have this ability as well.

The bombard ability of Archery-based units in this mod is very much on my mind.
Will try to make an Archer soon and test it out.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 45 (T251 to T255)

T251 - Barbarians: No deaths.

Got a popup informing me that Israel is the most technologically advanced Civ on Earth.
I didn't make the list.

Spoiler :

Qin of the Chinese Empire DOW'd Scandinavia!
Spain, Rome, or the Netherland probably bribed Qin with a juicy tech.
Always be very careful when warring against Alphabet civs.

Hungary is no longer plotting war.

Poland's stack of doom hasn't moved.
Switched to Poland since I don't really care what Khmer is teching.

Gifted Cow+Rice to Carthage to build diplo relations.

Granary whipped in Bukhara, the cottage city near my capital.
Library 1-pop whipped in Delhi.
Delhi will soon have Wheat farms and enough population to work 2 Scientists.

Scandinavia and the Yue Empires converted to Judaism.
Israel randomly spreading a 3rd religion into civs with no religion is going to cause havoc.

Spoiler :

Redeployed my Axes and Chariot near Khmer to teleport any Khmer invasion 2 tiles backwards.
Once the road 1S of Khotan completes, I can move an Axe up to the middle mountain pass and move that Axe east to complete the trap at any time.
Want to keep 3 Axes bottling up the south mountain pass as long as possible. (+25% fortify bonus if I don't move for 5 turns)
The Axe furthest east is retreating to the middle mountain pass in two turns to help.
Chariot can do the scouting.

Spoiler :

T252 - Barbarians: No deaths.

Signed Open Borders with France. (Worst enemy of Babylon, England, Arabia, and Germany)
My western European scout reached the Mediterranean Sea, and it was the only way to explore Spain. (Pyramids!)

Spoiler :

Settler constructed in Varanasi.
It will join the other Settler as 2 city gifts for Babylon.
Two (Liberate) city gifts should give me +3 Liberated City and +2 Fair trade relations, and get me back up from Annoyed to close to Pleased.
Babylon won't plot war at Pleased and is the gateway to all the civs to the west for me.
I can't stress enough how important relations with Hammurabi of Babylon are now that he stretches from the Persian Gulf up to the Ural Mountains.

Julius of the Roman Empire already has Mathematics.
Combined with Israel teching it in 15? more turns, my Math bulb in 30 turns won't be as strong as I'd hoped.
Can pretty much forget about building Hanging Gardens first too.

Spoiler :

A 3rd Khmer city has been discovered thanks to the Chinese Scout.
Banteay Kdei is a 7 pop hilltop city protected by 3 Axes.
Khmer really likes protecting his cities with 3 strong units.

Spoiler :

It's been a while since I've seen the Military Advisor assign a civ so much danger as Khmer.
Thanks to my discovering Khmer's power rating, it isn't an estimate either. (est)

Spoiler :

T253 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Great Scientist born in a faraway land.

My western road project to Babylon completed.
I now have a sold connection to the west if I go to war against Cyrus.
Going to send 1 Worker down to Egypt to complete 2 desert roads so I can trade with Ethiopia before Sailing arrives in 30 turns.

Spoiler :

Will send the 2nd road Worker up to Kashgar to road from Fury Road northeast across the desert so I can get a 2nd source of Copper in about 25 turns.
Just need to whip that Library in Kashgar soon.

Spoiler :

My 2 Settlers are heading west towards Babylon.
I really don't think any barbs will spawn north of Persia's capital.
There just isn't enough room anymore.

Spoiler :

T254 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Qin of the Chinese Empire converted to Judaism.
All of China is now... Jewish!

Gifted Rice+Ivory to Babylon.
The new source of elephants from India is a great boon as I can build up to +2 Shared resources with Babylon even faster now.

Scouts 1-pop whipped in Tashkent and Invincible City for a big chunk of overflow gold.

Pyramids spotted in Madrid, Spain.
Khmer has a secret mountain pass to send an army between India and the area southeast of Bactra, but I'm keeping an eye on it.
The Khotan road is complete, so there is nothing more I can to prepare for Khmer unless I want to spend more money.

Spoiler :

Worker is starting the 2nd Bronze road near Kashgar.
Settlers moving into position for Babylon gifts.

Spoiler :

T255 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Poland's stack of doom still hasn't moved.
It is now comprised of 9 Archers, 5 Axes, 4 Chariots, and 3 Spears.
The tension is killing me.

Spoiler :

Babylon has settled all along the Persian Gulf.
Carthage is just across the sea south of Spain.
There is extra coastal tiles east of India that shouldn't be there.
Will investigate with my workboat.

Spoiler :

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 46 (T256 to T258)

T256 - Barbarians: 1 ARCHER KILLED!
The barbs have themselves an upgrade.
It attacked my Axe and died out of the fog, so I didn't get a picture of it.

A Great General was born in a faraway land.

Goujian of the Yue Empire is now plotting war.
Stephen of the Hungarian Empire is once again plotting war as well.

Trade window indicates that Khmer no longer has horses.
That is welcome news!
If I have to slug it out with Axes, Suryavarmen's supply of Chariots will be limited.

My exploration Workboat might be able to travel down to Indonesia.
Hopefully Khmer isn't blocking anything with island cities that have closed borders.

Spoiler :

Qin has 9 Axes sitting in Nanjing even though he is at war with Ragnar. (Silly Deity AI)
Spain has a nice little empire.
Babylon is now quite well developed.
Still no activity in Poland.

Spoiler :

T257 - Barbarians: No deaths.
Two of the hates Archers spotted.
I guess the barbs are done spawning Warriors?
Regardless, I managed to get the newly powerful enemies of civilization on film.

Spoiler :

Great General born in a faraway land. (again)

Wang Kon of the Korean Empire is now plotting war. Jeez!

Settler produced in Pataliputra.
Will be a city gift for Qin in about 20 turns.
I now have 3 Settlers walking the map, eating my precious gold.

Spoiler :

T258 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 1 Archer killed.

Isabella of Spain has asked me to join the war against Ragnar of Scandinavia.
I already told Rome no on T244, but now the Dutch and Chinese are at war with Ragnar too.
Also, Ragnar switched to Judaism on T251.

Spoiler :

Only 1 civ is Pleased with Ragnar right now, the Yue Empire.
I don't really care about good relations with a warmonger like Ragnar who is far away from me.
Shared war with 4 civs is very good diplomacy.
Just need to check if Ragnar has any forces nearby with military advisor.

Spoiler :

Looks like a Scout near Khmer borders and an Archer west of Tashkent near my 2 Settlers if I squint.
Ok, war it is!
I told Izzy YES and DOW'd Scandinavia. (My 5th war...)
Hopefully Ragnar the psycho doesn't make me regret it.
Need 23 more turns to hopefully get Alphabet so I can turn the war off if needed.
All the power of Rome, Spain, Netherlands, and China should keep him busy.

My scout Workboat met Tokugawa of the Japanese Empire.
He has 5 cities, is Islamic, and refuses to Open Borders.
More importantly, Japan is at war with Korea!
So Korea isn't plotting war at all, they are already at war.
Only 5 civs left to discover now.

Spoiler :

Bad news with the 2 city gifts to Babylon diplo plan.
The trade window indicates Hammurabi is in Financial Trouble and won't even take Tashkent which is close to his empire.

Spoiler :

I wrote an entire post on City Gifts and (Liberate) so I could link it for this kind of situation.
Now I have a question that I didn't answer before.
Can I (Liberate) a city to an AI that is in Financial Trouble? (Expenses exceed 60% of Income roughly)

**Edit**
Ok, test game tentatively indicates that (Liberate) works during Financial Trouble for the AI.
First I show that a well funded AI will take both a (Liberate) and regular city gift.
Then I perform Kossin's patented method of giving Test Mansa 100 Lions to pay upkeep for.
Instantly his small test empire is negative gold per turn and he will take (Liberate) but not a regular city gift.

Spoiler :

So, I should be able to do city gifts to Babylon in my game as long as they are of the (Liberate) variety.
Will try to move my settlers past that Ragnar archer so I have a margin for error in case the Test Game didn't simulate something correctly.

Hinduism spread to Lahore.
Now I finally have a city to spread Hinduism from once I get Organized Religion.

Struck the first blow against Ragnar.
My Axe easily won against a Scout at 100% odds.
The Archer will be harder to deal with. (Only my Vision Chariot is nearby and available)
All I can do is take care that my very expensive/vulnerable Settlers don't get captured by Ragnar.

Spoiler :

Further scouting has revealed nearly all of Spain along with southwest Africa where Ethiopia, Zululand, and Carthage meet.

Spoiler :

 

[BarrageQueen]

Wow what a map and write up. It's fun reading, keep it up !

 

[RedKirrHelper]

Always very happy to see some updates And totally agree with Seraiel. Not only the story is interesting, but also very informative about game. Especially, there are many uncommon things for regular players...For example, I need to make resourse gifts for diplo more often.

I the beginning I thought that after finishing barbs the victory should yours, but now I am not so sure...Khmer looks quite dangerous. Or may be looked. Just wish you to get number 1 in score and tech leading soon. Also I am sorry that Mansa found out to be so useless... The land to east of India looks like Shri-Lanka. Big big Shri-Lanka

To Seraiel: Turn 39 is very nice. You will have a lot of pleasure reading later.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Wow what a map and write up. It's fun reading, keep it up !

Glad you like it!

Always very happy to see some updates And totally agree with Seraiel. Not only the story is interesting, but also very informative about game. Especially, there are many uncommon things for regular players...For example, I need to make resourse gifts for diplo more often.

I the beginning I thought that after finishing barbs the victory should yours, but now I am not so sure...Khmer looks quite dangerous. Or may be looked. Just wish you to get number 1 in score and tech leading soon. Also I am sorry that Mansa found out to be so useless... The land to east of India looks like Shri-Lanka. Big big Shri-Lanka

To Seraiel: Turn 39 is very nice. You will have a lot of pleasure reading later.

Diplomacy pays off big time on Marathon speed.
On normal speed, you don't get Friendly with civs until around Education.
On marathon, it can be done by Code of Laws/Currency.
It still takes 25 turns for Open Borders to +1, 50 turns for 1 resource to give +1 shared resource, 10 turns for a shared religion to increase +1 etc. no matter the game speed.
And Marathon has 3x as many turns as Normal Speed.

I should be ok with the barbs unless they get Chariots or Horse Archers or somesuch.
Not sure I can handle rampaging 3 units that crush Axes with my current budget.

Khmer is very dangerous.
A big powerful Deity AI with huge walled cities that only has 2 neighbors is a big threat.
Since he won't sign Open Borders until Pleased, I can't build good relations either.
There isn't enough neutral land next to his empire to do multiple (Liberate)/ city gifts either.
Every time he plots war will be an emergency for me until I can get Walls and Longbows.
Khmer is currently Annoyed with me. (10% no_war_probability) ugh
Civ Illustrated has him rated (7.6/10), just outside the top 10 warmongers in Civ 4 out of the 52 civs in the game, so he Declares/Plots war all the time. (Slightly more than Tokugawa)

The land to east of India looks like Shri-Lanka. Big big Shri-Lanka

Shri-Lanka does look like the best land to conquer after I take over India.
The Middle east is peanuts without any religious shrines to tempt me.

All I can do is defend myself right now until Alpha+Currency arrives.
Keep trying to build good relations with Poland+Babylon (Pleased) so they won't plot war against me and I can focus on Persia+Khmer and ignore the West.