GOTM 09 - Second Spoiler.

[Jorunkun]

1. The distance from other Civs is a BAD thing. It makes you surrounded by barbarians which constantly attack you, especially with not being on a coast. Having Civs further away makes the game harder, not easier and it removes the best part of having Quechuas, capturing an early AI city.

Frankly, I`d rather be surrounded by barbs than by other CIVs. Barbs don`t concentrate their forces for attack, don`t help each other defend their cities and don`t tech ahead of you (unless you are very, very slow). Their attacks are predictable in their randomness, and largely preventable if you know how to fogbust.

Quechuas made for a minimal possible barb threat in this game - and you could still use them for a successful early rush, as some players have demonstrated.

2. Being on the continent with less Civs makes it hard to keep up in tech on higher levels. It's possible, but random and lucky if you do. It almost forces you to go straight to Optics so you can trade with the other continent ASAP.

Yes, it`s harder to stay up in tech,. Yes, being first to caravels is a big boost. If you know and plan for this, the outcome of the game is neither random nor lucky.

 

[Erkon]

The Domination Years of the Incan Empire
Leader: Erkon Capac​

This spoiler continues from the previous thread that described the Rise of the Incan Empire up to 10 BC (Civil Service Slingshot followed by a peaceful expansion and defence against barbarians).

Early Expansion (10 BC – 950 AD)

Spoiler :

The next phase included further expansion and trying to get a Greater Scientist or Prophet. I researched towards Music, which in retrospect may have been one of my mid-game mistakes (my main early-game mistake was to evacuate Cuzco once with the resulting population drop due to unhappiness & starvation), since I missed the Free Artist, although I got Notre Dame. After that, I targeted Optics, to get in contact with “the other side”. The detour to Music may have cost me more due to delayed tech trade than the gains from Notre Dame.

110 AD The Great Library was built in Cuzco, which speeded up research further and generated greater scientist points.
215 Built Ollantaytambo 1W of stone (Gems, Sheep and lots of flood plains in city radius)
305 AD Razed barbarian city 1W of Iron. I later built Corihuayrachina 1NW of Iron to get Marble and another forest in City radius.
470 AD Prophet – built Confucian shrine.
695 AD Razed another barbarian city to the very NW
920 AD Notre Dame in Cuzco

Research:
35 AD Mathematics
245 AD Music – Missed the Free Artist 
410 AD Calendar (trade)
500 AD Philosophy. This was my third religion (Taoism).
620 AD Currency
875 AD Construction
950 AD Divine Right and foundation of Islam.

The first Roman War (950 AD – 1142 AD)

Spoiler :

At this stage I had just finished the Heroic Epic in my southern city (Machu Picchu) and taken the first step to build a decent army. This was one of my luckiest moments, since Roman walked up a stack of war elephants, a praetorian and two catapults and declared war. I managed to kill him off, and turn the battle in my favour.

950 AD Romans declare war
995 AD Gandhi built the Sistine Chapel (this was one of the few wonders I really missed, since it helps a lot when capturing cities to expand the cultural border).
1040 AD Huamanga built to the east 2W of fish.
1070 AD Another prophet at Cuzco, which was a disappointment although I had more shrines to build.
1136 AD Captured Ravenna from Romans (city east of the inner sea with rice, fish and later oil in city radius)
1142 AD Razed a small Roman city and made peace

Contact with the second continent (1142 AD – 1400 AD)

Spoiler :

I continued to improve my lands and started building me an army that could win against the Romans. Since he has Praetorians and War Elephants, I had to wait for Knights to make the combat at least even.
I spread Confucianism to Gandhi to keep track of his development. I met the other civilisations and traded tech with them. Too late I realised how important Liberalism was, although I am uncertain what tech I could have skipped to get there quicker. Instead of me getting Astronomy as the free tech, it was the Germans. Up to this point, I had shared the tech leadership with the Germans by trading tech with the smaller civilizations. Now, two things happened: the Germans took a definite lead, and I didn’t manage to keep up with him. This was inevitable, but with me getting the free tech, I would have postponed this situation many, many years since I could have continued trading techs. Second, he could choose his resource trade partners. And due to the resource distribution on continental maps, this was possible as bad as the free tech since I could not control how the relationships evolved. I believe this was a pivotal point in my game, the second largest mistake I made.

1244 AD Adopted Slavery. This civic was very useful since newly captured cities were too large to keep (very unhappy on emperor level), so I always whipped a theatre to get culture points. I lost count of the number of hilarious role playing episodes in this game. Imagine the horror in border cities when my armies advanced: -“Erkon Capac – he will slaughter men, women and children when he arrives, defend the city at all cost!”
1250 AD Versailles was built by the Germans (a wonder I would have wanted someone on my continent to build…)
1268 AD Circumvented the globe (very useful in the end game phase)
1286 AD Razed a barbarian city to the west of the inner sea. This helped Gandhi I believe, although it enabled me to pass my Confucian missionaries to his land (which was very useful for me later ;-)
1292 AD I shipped a Confucian missionary to Kublai Kahn and spread my religion to him. I had made the choice to make him my ally.
1304 AD Built the Spiral Minaret. I’m not sure if I really got all the money from this as I had hoped. Still, even small contributions are valuable to keep up research.
1364 AD Greater Scientist in Cuzco! Finally I got an Academy. With Bureaucracy, my capital was generating a lot of research points.
1376 AD Julius adopts Theocracy. Lamp starts to flash in the back of my head.
1382 AD Germans discover Liberalism – one turn ahead of me!

Research:
980 AD Metal Casting
1070 AD Feudalism
1106 AD Compass
1136 AD Machinery
1178 AD Optics
1196 AD Engineering & Drama (trade)
1220 AD Paper
1280 AD Guilds (trade)
1304 AD Banking (trade)
1328 AD Education
1388 AD Liberalism

The second Roman War (1400 AD – 1592 AD)

Spoiler :

I continued to spread Confucianism to the Indians. My army was now large enough to launch a strike against the Romans. I successfully fought him and captured Rome. At this time I had received enough warning signs that the other civilisations were accelerating (multiple golden ages, tech advantages, wonders etc) to rethink my strategy to conquer the Romans. A major part of my research was generated in my capital, and I didn’t have enough cities to compete with Gandhi. I should have realised my mistake to pursue the Romans instead of turning the Inca wrath against the peace-lovers. This was as far as I know the largest mistake I did in this game, and as such may have cost me the victory.

1400 AD Declare war against the Romans
1406 AD Razed a satellite city to the east on the edge of my lands.
1424 AD Razed another city on the east coast. I also managed to get Kublai Khan to join me in the war against Julius. My reasoning was that although he would not help in the battle (I didn’t want him too either), the joint military struggle would improve our relations. The downside was that I think he dropped behind in city development compared to the Germans.
1442 AD Captured Cumae (nice city 1E of Iron). That divided the Roman empire in two parts.
1460 AD Gandhi adopts Nationhood. The Indians are now ahead of me in tech. I curse myself that I didn’t acknowledge this warning due to being busy with the war against the Romans.
1478 AD Captured Antium (clam & corn city with lots of mountains)
1502 AD At this time, I understood that I had to do something about the state of peace on the other continent. So, I gave Peter four techs to convince him that a war with the Germans was in his best interest…
1523 AD The Russian-German war does not progress as I had planned, when Rostov is lost to the Germans. Gandhi switches to Representation, proving he’s more advanced than me.
1538 AD I manage to get Louis XIV into the war against the Germans.
1541 AD Captured Rome. At this point, I should have made peace with the Romans, and launched an attack on the Indians. Or better, after the capture of Antium.
1562 AD Captured Pisae (further south of the Roman peninsula). Russia makes peace with Germany.
1592 AD Peace with Romans

Research:
1424 AD Astronomy
1472 AD Nationhood
1514 AD Gunpowder (trade)
1526 AD Military Tradition
1529 AD Constitution (trade)
1535 AD Economics (trade)
1550 AD Chemistry
1574 AD Steel
1577 AD Corporation & Printing Press (trade)
1589 AD Replaceable Parts (trade)
1592 AD Scientific Method

The third Roman War (1592 AD – 1643 AD)

Spoiler :

During the period of cease fire, I prepared for the third and final strike that would end the Roman empire.

1604 AD The French make peace with the Germans.
1619 AD Kublai made peace with the Romans
1622 AD War again against the Romans
1634 AD Captured Neapolis (city on the east cost far to the south)
1643 AD Razed Arretium (city even further south). This completes the destruction of the Roman empire.

Research:
1613 AD Steam Power
1628 AD Rifling

International Turmoil (1643 AD – 1752 AD)

Spoiler :

This was a period when I focused completely on building up an army. I knew at this point that I had to take on Gandhi, and I needed the force necessary to take him out in one blow. Or rather a slow, crawling push.

1697 AD Germany declares on Russia. I feel a sharp sting of guilt, as I probably doomed the Russians when I bribed them to attack the Germans in the first place. But if that is what it takes to keep Germany busy with military production…
1703 AD Germany captures St Petersburg. The German campaign scares me. Something has to be done.
1709 AD France declares on Russia as well. Poor SOB.
1715 AD Novgorod falls to the Germans.
1721 AD Again, I bribe Kublai to help me in my long-term goal: he declares on Germany. My hope was that he was equally strong as Germany. Illusions, dear me.
1727 AD Yekaterinburg falls to the French.
1738 AD Not surprisingly, the former Roman city Neapolis revolts and joins the Indians. I had already evacuated since I didn’t want to risk loosing any armies to him.

Research
1655 AD Railroad
1676 AD Physics
1718 AD Assembly Line
1721 AD Combustion (trade)
1734 Fascism (Police State - very, very useful on emperor level)
1752 Electricity

The Gandhi war (1756 AD - )

Spoiler :

Whatever victory condition I was aiming for (domination, space race, diplomatic), Gandhi was a major obstacle. He was annoyed with me and far ahead in the tech race. My first strike would be directed on his north-eastern borders, close to the Roman peninsula. I put defenders at his north-western border, close to my gems-city. Plenty of forest hills. My strategy was to attack when I had enough defensive troops to provoke counter attacks from him. By killing them off, I predicted that he would use newly created units as soon as they came on line, which is much easier to handle compared to stacks. On the other hand, his military rating is twice as high as mine is. And even if I win against Gandhi, can I then beat the other guys as well?

1756 AD I declare war on Gandhi
1762 AD Moscow falls to the French
1766 AD I raze Punjab, a small city close to my southern borders. I then withdraw since I expect an Indian counter attack. My most southern city is lost to the Indians. Since he has railroads, his stacks will show up on my borders next turn…

Research:
1760 Artillery

Comments on this GotM (9):
I think the start was very favourable (Inca and first city). The actual continent was not that favourable. Regarding resources – both Ivory and Fur is becoming obsolete in the end-game, while for example Sugar and Banana is not. I have never played deity, so I can’t compare. This game is significantly more difficult compare to the previous GotM (8), and more difficult compared to the one and only other emperor game I have played. The main reason I think is that the A.I. is very good at building large empires on large landmasses, and that the player (me in this case) has problems launching an invasion on the other continent.

 

[JerichoHill]

Updating my progress.

The year is now 1680. Gandhi has lost a border city and his capital city, and his western most city. It is only a matter of time before my rifleman destroy his horse archers and longbowmen. I'm in mop up action, taking my time to take out Gandhi's cities. He's got 3 left. I love the fact that he's got all these towns and villages everywhere.

Peter has settled in a bad city location on my continent. Bummer, but not a problem. I have not settled in the jungle area yet in the middle, and probably will not.

My research is up to 80% with the #2 economy, just a hair off the leader (thinking Khan...) However, through smart teching, I am now on par with Khan as the tech lead. I have revolted to representation , free religion, and other science boosting civics. Soon I will switch to free speech and my economy will rocket up further.

 

[Dagnabit]

Not sure how I could have survived. As I mentioned in last spoiler, I was never to get JC or Indians to trade so fell hopelessly behind in tech. When French settled under my nose on Northern coast I fatefully decided to send them home. Oh woe is me as he and his buddy Kublai come in full dress blues and made it painfully clear they were here to stay. Shortly before 1800 I ceremoniously offered my resignation and retired to the reading room!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

On the other continent i've seen SILVER in a plain hill (France) when usually you can find it only in polar regions :thumbdown

btw I now have a view of the whole map and I don't see any silver other than the couple of polar ones at the bottom of our continent and a similar one in the South polar region of the other continent (under the control of the Germans on my map). Could your silver be one of the random discoveries that happens under mines, not a starting silver?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

1. The distance from other Civs is a BAD thing. It makes you surrounded by barbarians which constantly attack you, especially with not being on a coast. Having Civs further away makes the game harder, not easier and it removes the best part of having Quechuas, capturing an early AI city.

2. Being on the continent with less Civs makes it hard to keep up in tech on higher levels. It's possible, but random and lucky if you do. It almost forces you to go straight to Optics so you can trade with the other continent ASAP.

I would say on reflection that this game is not particularly easier or harder (other than the early UU helps you get your civ established, and being a financial civ helps a lot). I think the thing is that, compared to almost every other GOTM, this map is much more favourable to early building and less favourable to early warmongering. (I'm not sure whether I might be partly to blame for that : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=173646). Personally I think that's a good thing on grounds of variety - ISTM we've had a lot of GOTMs that lend themselves to early conquest and this is the first time since GOTM1 we have a game where not only is a very quick conquest victory impossible, but early conquest of neighbours isn't such a favourable strategy in the first place. I would imagine that means that people who always use an early conquest strategy will find this game harder, while builders will find it easier, and people who are able to quickly adapt all parts of their strategy to whatever the conditions are will - ummm- do so.

I think it's going to be very interesting to see what the results of this game are. I'm guessing a higher proportion of the wins than normal will be spacerace and diplomatic wins, and just maybe, conquest and domination wins won't have such a monopoly of the top 50 or so scoring positions...

 

[blastoidstalker]

I think the thing is that, compared to almost every other GOTM, this map is much more favourable to early building and less favourable to early warmongering. we have a game where not only is a very quick conquest victory impossible, but early conquest of neighbours isn't such a favourable strategy in the first place. I would imagine that means that people who always use an early conquest strategy will find this game harder, while builders will find it easier, and people who are able to quickly adapt all parts of their strategy to whatever the conditions are will - ummm- do so.

I found that early war mongering worked very well for me as long as I changed my goals a bit with farther oppenents. The goal to me was to capture workers and settler and force Gahndi and JC to expand into each other instead of towards me. The early wars for me were key and by 1000 AD as was far ahead of the rest of the continent score and tech wise, making them easy to wipe out with the advent of gun powder with about 3 grenadiers 4 cannons, while the rest of the military was gearing up for the larger wars on the other continent. I think this map and level make you have to be much more choosy and what cities you keep and which to raise.

The only downside of this stratigy if I feel a little behind tech wise of the other continent before optics, but by some carefull researching of techs the AI did not have (astronomy) and not bieng afraid to trade it to everybody. I was able to get right back into the tech race.

 

[Vynd]

GOTM-09 Second Spoiler

Please note: Given the previous poor(er) participation in spoiler 2, I am delaying spoiler 3 until the 15th. I am still trying to get the balance right - please make your comments on that in this thread - should we have only two spoilers? SHuold we have 3, but spread on the 5th, 10th & 15th? Or should we maintain 3 (with two released on the 10th)?

I don't have any problem with their being three spoiler threads, but personally I think I'll only be using the first and last threads, or even just the last thread, most of the time. This being the case I liked it better when the second and last spoilers were started simultaneously.

 

[RobertTheBruce]

Had a bad start to the GOTM and not very interesting but I few quirks.

Sent my first two quechuas out worker stealing/exploring. There are no near neighbours and they are both killed by lions while in jungle or forest. That's life! I now spend the rest of the BCs slowly expanding and fighting off barbs, I lose a lot of research when an early axe pillages my gold mines while I'm finishing mining iron. After axes, I can start pushing back the barbs and thinking about Ghandi and Julius. I am able to found Cunfucianism but both my neighbours are Buddhist. Never switch to a religion because I can't afford a war with Caesar's praets. I meet the other continent before I am confident I can handle the demerit with Caesar. Then I don't want to switch and pick up demerits with the other continent.

Fortunately, I have more room than I can handle. Expand to 7 cities and start pumping swords and cats while pushing to machinery. I am way behind my usual tech pace and don't get maces until 1000ad. I just didn't focus well on my tech path.

Caesar didn't expand past the southern jungle and declared war on Ghandi. He asked me to join in about 900ad. I take on city and raze another with swords and cats and then switch to maces and take another 4. I couldn't ask more of Caesar, he kept wasting units stupidly chewing up Ghandi. While I was seiging Dehli (the last city I took in my first war) I removed the defences and Caesar attacked ghandi's CD2 longbow with two cats and a mace. They all lost but left an easy target for my forces. Thank you Caesar!

"I come here to bury Caesar not praise him." I now declare on Caesar after a bit of rest and am starting to take his cities. I am staying no religion until Free Religion to make sure Ghandi and Caesar are the worst enemies of the other continent. After they are gone, hopefully Fred will become Louis' worst enemy.

I'm using a barb factory for promotions rather than Theocracy. there is a barb city NW of the capital I haven't taken. I got a second promotion for a lot of swords by parking a sword near the city and waiting for an archer to attack.

I got the circumnavigation bonus before I built my first Caravel. Kublai and Louis arrived from opposite directions and both traded me maps (Louis traded me Optics as well). Its a bit wrong but handy.

The four leaders on the opposite continent and all Hindu. Ghandi founded Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity and Louis founded Hunduism, Judaism, and Islam. I am taking any trade with Kublai and Louis to become there best friends and heading to Liberalism to let it work its magic. I will spam Kublai with Buddhist and Confucian missionaries since he only has one religion in his borders. With three religions Louis should switch to Free Religion as soon as available. I'm almost even in techs with Kublai and even with Louis. I've had some bad trades with Louis and Kublai but two bad trades for the same tech is ok and I want to be their best friend.

I will finish Ghandi and Caesar quickly, spam my continent and try to take Fred and Peter to finish the domination after Louis and Kublai switch to Free Religion.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Going to war early did slow my tech pace significantly (as DynamicSpirit suggested), but this game has been difficult for many reasons, not the least of which were my flawed strategies, as discussed in the first spoiler.

Post 500AD: For about 1,000 years the Incas were consumed with taking over their home continent (easily finishing off the Indians) and developing a powerful empire. Scientific research was painfully slow, and there were setbacks. I was been beaten first to Liberalism and then to the Taj Mahal by two turns; however, what has really frustrated me is the lack of trade routes developing (no problem exchanging resources). Have other players reached the far continent expecting great commercial advantages from foreign trade only to acquire a mere handful of gold pieces from a few Russian cities? I have no idea why I'm not exchanging goods regularly with Berlin, Paris, etc. -- I've sailed to French and German shores and sent explorers into their capitals. A civ that ventures so boldly should get rich quickly. What is the explanation?

1500AD: For what I expect will be an extremely brief interval, I have a monopoly on cavalry. Since trading isn't profitable, there's no reason to delay domination. Gold from conquered cities will have to support Incan intercontinental expansion.

 

[Thrallia]

Cactus Pete, perhaps Germany and France both have mercantilism enabled.

I enabled it as soon as I got access to it, for the free specialists, and saw my income plummet a good deal, but before I could revolt back out of it, France, Russia, Germany, and India all revolted to mercantilism, so I decided I was glad that I caused my income to sink, rather than being caught by surprise by the AIs doing so.

 

[Lawrence]

Finished with a diplomatic victory in 1544.

Tech sequence (only listed self-researched tech):
Astronomy 605AD
Paper 695AD
Education 905AD
Printing Press 1055AD
Scientific Method 1190AD
Liberalism 1196AD
Physics (free) 1202AD
Electricity (2 Great Scientists devoted to it) 1256AD
Radio 1370AD
Mass Media 1436AD

End game diplomacy status:
Louis: Friendly +15
Gandhi: Pleased +9/-7
Kublai: Pleased +15/-6
Caesar: Friendly +11/-1
Frederick: Furious -17
Peter: Friendly +17/-4

Voted with Gandhi, he got the votes from Germany and I got the votes from everyone else.

Building Highlights:
The only thing worth a say is that I pursued a Great Engineer in Zapotec, my production powerhouse. But started too late and costed the city way too much. I built Hanging Gardens, National Epic and Hagia Sophia in Zapotec, all after 1000AD. Costed so many forests that I didn't have enough forests to rush UN when Mass Media was researched in 1436AD and the GE showed up in 1442AD. Should have started earlier. Actually took me 13 turns to build the UN.

Strategy:
My research plan was to beeline to Astonomy and then immediately to Mass Media. Astronomy is very important in a continents game, since you will get multiple gpt deals which can immediately give you 20+ gpt. And the luxury resources, the health resources and good relationship with civs on the other continent. The other plan was to restrict the global tech pace by keeping Paper and Astronomy in hand. Since the AI priority for Education and Liberalism is very high while the priority for Paper is very low, not trading Paper to anyone will delay the speed AI getting Liberalism and possibly gain a better free tech from Liberalism. The best free tech will of course be Radio, but it will be too risky to try that in an Emperor game. So I chose to go for Physics. Since you can devote the great scientist from Physics to researching Electricity but not Radio nor Mass Media (Fission's got a much higher priority than those), getting Electricity as a free tech is not as worthy.

The primary issue in getting diplomatic victories in a continents game is that you don't know who will vote against you. Nearly all the AIs got similar population and the population leader changes from time to time. My first plan was to vote against Frederick who was hated by everybody. However, although Frederick lead in land area, his population was slightly lower than Kublai and Louis. So I bribed Peter, the weakest and least advanced nation to start a war with Frederick, hoping that Frederick will take one or two cities and become the population leader. However the plan failed when Peter actually brought Louis and Kublai as war allies! Louis promptly took a couple of German cities and became the population leader. That's the worst scenario I would like to see! Since Louis founded Hinduism, his relationship with Kublai is +13, while ours was only +11, after a rejection of gifting Astronomy to them. So I had to switch to plan B, which was to kill Frederick and collect all the remaining votes (Louis and Kublai combined for only about 37% population, not enough to strip me of the victory). However, when my cavalries had just reached the German lands, Gandhi's got a golden age and became the leader in population. That's great news for me since Gandhi, as the founder of Buddhism, was hated by all those Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity nations on the other continent. I gifted Liberalism to Caesar and he took free religion, so no one except the crippled Frederick will vote for Gandhi now. And, diplomatic victory!

 

[Jorunkun]

Finished with a diplomatic victory in 1544.

Hats off, what a brilliant game. Also, really appreciate your comments on beelining for UN and playing the other civs diplomatically. Never seen this described as a strategy for early diplo wins, so v interesting.

J.

 

[Vynd]

Cactus Pete, perhaps Germany and France both have mercantilism enabled.

I enabled it as soon as I got access to it, for the free specialists, and saw my income plummet a good deal, but before I could revolt back out of it, France, Russia, Germany, and India all revolted to mercantilism, so I decided I was glad that I caused my income to sink, rather than being caught by surprise by the AIs doing so.

I had kind of the mirror image experience, in that Gandhi and Caesar both went to Mercantilism, putting a noticeable dip in my economy until I discovered Astronomy.

 

[Lawrence]

Hats off, what a brilliant game. Also, really appreciate your comments on beelining for UN and playing the other civs diplomatically. Never seen this described as a strategy for early diplo wins, so v interesting.

J.

Thanks. The "beelining for UN" strategy actually came from chunkymonkey's diplomatic victory in GOTM 7. However that was a pangaea game so astronomy was not an issue.

 

[Cactus Pete]

I think Mercantilism was what I was overlooking.

Thanks

 

[Harok]

First Spoiler

I declared on Julius in 545 AD taking out his iron on the next turn and then his major cities to the east after that. He didn't put up much of a fight as he only had a couple Praetorians and after I took his iron all he coule make was archers. It did take awhile to finish him as the troops had to backtrack to get his southern cities. About half the way through the war with him I started moving new troops into position for taking on Ghandi also. I declared on Ghandi in 1070 AD and finished Julius in 1184 AD.

Ghandi had longbows but those weren't much of a match to my now veteran maces and cats along with Knights. He had a lot of cities and the main thing that slowed me down against him was not having enough units to leave behind in cities. I took all of his main cities and then gave him peace in 1328 for a tech and some gold leaving him with like 4 or 5 western coastal cities. I declared again 10 turns later after getting some longbows in cities to free up maces and knights and quickly finished him in 1442.

My research was still strong but quickly dropping because of all the city maitenance. Some of the key techs during this time were:

695AD - Guilds
1100 AD - Astronomy
1424 AD - Chemistry (from Liberalism)
1532 AD - Steel
1565 AD - Military Tradition
1610 AD - Rifling (last tech I researched)

After getting Chemistry I stopped research for a bit and upgraded all Maces to Grenadiers and Caravels to Frigates. I did the same for cats to cannons and knights to cavalry after getting Steel and MT.

With Ghandi gone and newly upgraded units I immediately started shipping them over toward Fredrick who I picked as my first opponent on the other continent because he had built Versailles in 1370 and he wasn't that well liked by Peter and Khan who I was friends with so I could probably get them involved in the war. With my troops half way across Peter's option of declaring on Fred turned red saying he had too much on his hands already.

I declared on Fred in 1496 AD and took his capital just a few turns later as it had Versailles. Little did I know that it also had the Pyramids, Hagia Sophia, and Chichen Itza. Thanks Fred.

Peter was apparently too busy to agree to declare on Fred for a couple of techs because he was getting ready to declare on Fred all by himself. He declared in 1520 but didn't do much other than pillage my future lands. Fred had no answers for my city raider grenadiers (the main advantage to upgrading maces over building grens from scratch) and cannons and was eliminated in 1604.

I quickly bribed Peter into war with Louis in 1610 and then declared on him myself in 1613. Louis was able to launch a surprise attack on one of Fred's old cities taking it from me which I took back the next turn. Louis was more heavily defended with modern defenders who had good promotions but was still a walkover. When Peter managed to take Rheims from Louis I was so proud of him I nearly gifted him a tech or some money.

I shut off research in 1610 after getting rifling to up the culture slider to try and get more land for domination limit. I whipped theaters and other culture buildings in Fred's old lands and continued taking cities from Louis until 1688 when I realized I had enough land and pop and made peace, getting a domination win the next turn.

Result:
Domination win - 1691
Score - 78482

I looked back at some of the stats as I always find the kills and loses an interesting stat in war games. I killed over 200 units (not counting workers or sea units) and lost just 30 (17 of which were suicide cats or cannons).

 

[Alraun]

Barbs don`t concentrate their forces for attack

Civs don't attack at all until it's too late.

Quechuas made for a minimal possible barb threat in this game

Quechuas aren't that great against barbs. Barbs have axemen coming at you way too fast way too often.

 

[Thrallia]

I only saw one barb axeman the entire game, Alraun...perhaps you just didn't change your game plan well enough when the circumstances of our placement were made clear to you.