GOTM 19 Final Spoiler
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
Markus5
Code Monkey
I retired. :-(
Harbourboy
Deity
I suffered a conquest loss in about 1770 AD.
The turning point for me was my war with England, where I never had a big enough army to take on cities full of longbows and macemen. I managed to take one city but I was just falling further and further behind in technology.
After about 500 years of reasonable peace, the end was always going to happen as soon as someone delcared war on me, which turned out to be Gandhi with cavalry vs pikemen. I was just about to lose my last city when I culture flipped one of the Incan cities on an island. This kept me in the game for a few more years before Gandhi landed a couple of SAM Infantries on my island and took my last city.
I'm not sure what lessons I learnt from this, other than at Emperor level, the AI can tech away from you pretty quickly, so you'd better have a plan for dealing with that (I didn't).
One of the things that did not go well for me was Karakorum. This should have been a great city, but it took so long to get it up and running, what with expanding the cultural boundaries and then dealing with ease with which those precious sea resources could be pillaged. I never got the best of out that city and it cost me.
Well done in advance to those people who managed easy victories from this game.
The turning point for me was my war with England, where I never had a big enough army to take on cities full of longbows and macemen. I managed to take one city but I was just falling further and further behind in technology.
After about 500 years of reasonable peace, the end was always going to happen as soon as someone delcared war on me, which turned out to be Gandhi with cavalry vs pikemen. I was just about to lose my last city when I culture flipped one of the Incan cities on an island. This kept me in the game for a few more years before Gandhi landed a couple of SAM Infantries on my island and took my last city.
I'm not sure what lessons I learnt from this, other than at Emperor level, the AI can tech away from you pretty quickly, so you'd better have a plan for dealing with that (I didn't).
One of the things that did not go well for me was Karakorum. This should have been a great city, but it took so long to get it up and running, what with expanding the cultural boundaries and then dealing with ease with which those precious sea resources could be pillaged. I never got the best of out that city and it cost me.
Well done in advance to those people who managed easy victories from this game.
urbis
Chieftain
An excellent game! After being beaten in WOTM07 (and my second pass thru it!) and reading lots from the people who manage early rush attacks, I think I've gotten the knack of it.
The start:
The age of copper:
Reading and writing and warmongering:
Taking on the English and Romans:
The end-game:
Great fun as always - thanks GOTM staff.
The start:
- Moved warrior SW, and settler NW, NE
- Decided it was too risky to check out the goody hut with the warrior, so warrior SW. A few turns later Im thinking that was a mistake as one of the AI scouts jumps it - they got whatever was the benefit, and if it had been barbs they might still have taken my capital.
- Still not feeling like a good enough starting position so settler E. This looks better at least 5 tiles thatll generate 3 food each (including the lake tile if I build a lighthouse), which will let me work 2 plains hills and the furs or something similar.
- Early techs AH to work the cows, BW, Wheel
- Early builds worker, warrior, warrior, settler (whip and chop assisted), worker
- 3400BC Warrior has been exploring S then swung E; the Indian lands look very inviting; our warrior runs for his life from a bear, a lion and a wolf all appearing in same turn north of India.
- 2680BC we meet our first Barbarian warrior, who kills one of our 3 warriors
- 2340BC second city founded to the south (1S of the copper) to get the copper, horses and cows. It starts building a warrior to double its defenses, as we feel very exposed to barb attacks.
- 2230BC our people stand in amazement as they watch one of our mighty inventors push a barrow across the ground with ease, balanced on a marvelous round piece of wood. We put them straight to work on a road to the copper.
- 2140BC we can see to the north that the Incans now have copper hooked up hurry up with the roads and copper mine guys!
The age of copper:
- 1960BC we have copper hooked up, barracks nearly complete in capital and underway in Shanghai. Looking good militarily, but realizing we have a health crisis on our hands, with the capital city limited to size 2 before health problems kick in well need to hook up more health resources soon. Unfortunately all the likely 3rd city spots are already taken. But fortunately, thats consistent with my warmongering plans!
- 1600BC we attend a parade in Tiananmen Square to see the marching of our first unit of Axemen very nice axes, but those leathers look a bit unsettling. A turn later Shanghai completes its first one too (chop assisted, after a barracks and an obelisk). Time to plan our first target. Wed like this to be the Incans (a juicy city NE would give us clams, deer and pigs for 3 bonus health), but since they already have copper well go west against the Mongols (before they come at us with Keshiks). Their closest city will at least give us Corn, is defended only by 2 archers, is not on a hill, and can be attacked by surprise so 3 axemen and one warrior should do it.
- 1390BC The fool moved one of his archer out with a settler (west unfortunately), but this leaves the city easy pickings for my 2 axemen that have sauntered up to the walls. Our foreign advisor tells us that going to war with Genghis is likely to mean we can maintain good relations with the Indians, Egyptians, and English (all annoyed towards Genghis), but will have poor relations with Rome and the Incans (pleased towards him). Suits me, but Ill need to watch out for Praetorians later Our military advisor tells us well need to deal with 1 Mongol archer on our eastern flank.
- We declare, lose the first axeman, and only just win with the second. Tough little archer! Just as well we have reinforcements coming up quick.
- 1240BC Were no longer last on the scoreboard! Weve killed the mongol archer and scout on our eastern flank, and advanced a force of 3 axes and a warrior to wipe out a small mongol outpost on a hill the other archer was there and we lost another axeman.
- Karakorum has a veteran archer and a spearman defending it, on a hill, with 40% culture bonus; well need to come back with a good stack of axemen. We pillage a little then withdraw, hoping to lure some out.
- 985BC we decide to have a go at Karakorum with 4 axes and a warrior vs the tough archer and 2 spears. I figure if I can take the archer with 2 axes, my next 2 axes will much thru the spears. Sitting on the copper hill on the other side of the city is a mongol axeman with Shock promotion, so if we win well need to immediately sue for peace to avoid the counterstrike.
- We lose 1 axe, but our second kills the archer. Looking good so far. Rest goes as planned, and their capital is ours! Ceasefire, regroup for 10 turns, then finish him.
- 880BC 4 axes and a warrior attack his last city. He has 3 archers and that axeman, but to our delight the axeman heads out towards undefended Karakorum. We lose 1 axe taking his last city, and the problematic axeman is a problem no more. We raze the city to keep costs down.
- 685BC we declare on the Incans and take their city by the rice and 2 gold with no losses.
- 580BC we take another city (NE of our capital, with pigs and deer) for loss of 2 axes. Ceasefire, regroup. Rome is looking far ahead of everyone on the power chart Im guessing they have Praetorians, against which Id currently have no answer.
- 535BC The klaxon of war sounds. Ah oh. Rome declares war on India (whew)!
Reading and writing and warmongering:
- 445BC we discover the marvels of Alphabet and trade it for several techs including maths and iron working (and behold, we already have access to iron via a captured Incan mine!).
- 370BC our assault force fails to take the Incan capital, with several loses, so we generously grant them a peace break in exchange for their secrets of Priesthood. Were researching a secret of our own which will allow us to fling rocks at their walls, and shall return when the time is right
- 295BC we have our first swordsman, 5 axemen and 2 chariots ready for action; we declare on Gandhi hes still at war with Caesar, so lets kick em while hes down! And before he gets War Elephants. Caesar becomes friendlier and signs an agreement with us to open our borders. We spot Praetorians for the first time
- We take Indias northern city for the loss of one of our elite axemen
- 130BC we take a second Indian city to the south with 2 gems
- 115BC a Great Scientist arises from our research program in Beijings library, and constructs the Beijing Academy of Science to further accelerate our research into warcraft.
- 70BC the Romans have taken Delhi that trashes my plans to take that city to get Ivory for War Elephants as an answer to Praetorians. I take Madras for the loss of 1 swordsman (giving me bananas and gold for the health and happiness of my empire). We now have a large border with the Romans, and need to race for Macemen. We make peace with the Indians and redeploy our troops (which will shortly include our first catapults) to finish off the Incans. Weve moved up to the middle of the scoreboard now.
- 110AD We have taken the Incan capital and razed one of their other cities, leaving them with 1 island city. Relations with their friends the Romans are very sour, and with a number of Praetorians visible within the southern Roman lands we hastily complete walls in our southern cities and move axemen to defend them (axes with Shock promotion are the best we can manage against them if they come at us now).
- 140AD Caesar demands an audience but rather than declaring on us he wants our help against the Indians! We gladly join in to improve relations with Rome.
- 170AD The Incans are archeological. The English are well ahead on tech but look to have few cities and are weakest in power. Theyre also in a corner. So our strategy now will be to send all our catapults and swordsmen against the English while keeping a reasonable number of Axemen in walled border cities to deter Roman attack. Were researching Civil Service, but Macemen are still some way off. A domination win looks like the most likely path to glory.
Taking on the English and Romans:
- 300AD we declare on the English who are defended only by archers and spears, but they promptly upgrade to many longbows hmmm, London on the hill may have to wait for macemen, but we can try for York, which is a holy city of 2 religions.
- 500AD We are top of the scoreboard, have 12 cities, a strong ecomony, and are a few turns from being able to build Macemen looking good! Relations with Rome are worsening, but were nearly ready to take them on.
- 590AD We can now create Cho-Ko-Nu and Macemen. Drums of war sounding are sounding in the empire. We change civics to Theocracy and Vassalage. A few turns later we remember were atheists and adopt Buddhism to get some benefits from the Theocracy...
- 935AD Caesar finally declares on me, while Im mopping up the English. Fortunately my border garrisons have a few macemen, cho-no-ku, catapults and walls should be able to hold while I bring in reinforcements.
- War with the Romans goes better than expected, and with our empire churning out soldiers and researching fast towards Military Tradition, were looking good.
The end-game:
- We're a little short of the land % for domination, so we deploy all forces to the Malinese border, attack the Malinese, and found some marginal cities around the edges of empire to gain a little more land, turn off research and crank up culture to make all our cities expand more quickly.
- The Malinese fall quickly despite a spirited resistance with Musketeers and Knights. We make some costly mistakes being too hasty to attack their cities, but our overwhelming numbers carry the day.
- We have cavalry (hardly used), which counters the riflemen that the Americans and Egyptians could have used against us
- 1406AD we dominate the world!
Great fun as always - thanks GOTM staff.
Domination victory in 1130 AD
warfare:
Chengis
Elizabeth
Ghandi
Capac
Julius
Mansa Musa
Egypt
I had not Metal Casting, but in Rome I found forge. So I recieved GE, but it was too late, so I decided to build Colosus intead of lightbulbing Engeneering.
warfare:
Chengis
Elizabeth
Ghandi
Capac
Julius
Mansa Musa
Egypt
I had not Metal Casting, but in Rome I found forge. So I recieved GE, but it was too late, so I decided to build Colosus intead of lightbulbing Engeneering.
cool, final spoiler thread is open, i had eventful era, lots of ward after taking the pyramids from Rome, (after asking Gandhi to soften him up for me, thanks to education bribe), then turning around to whip Gandhi with cavalry.
I then turned around to backstab Gandhi (who was previously +12 relation) taking all his wonders (and Buddhist shrine). This temporarily separated my roman territory from my main territory, making them unhappy, so instead of starving them I just whipped their pop down in building courthouses, graneries etc. then culture bombed Delhi with a great artist to open up a culture passage between my territory and my roman outposts(with FP built in Rome to reduce maintenance)
i had the Tec lead being first to cavalry and steel, while Hat + friends went the guilds research path. Mansa and Washington were fighting a bit, hat was my main contender, was going to whip hat, my cavalry, only to see riflemen, I could have struck quickly, but Mansa had 0 rep (after I lost diplomatic points when I declared on the final city of Elizabeth and Genghis which I had previously spared for peace treaty tec). I would have liked to swamp the hat’s riflemen before he built more, but declaring would have put Mansa relation to -1, canceling open boarders, making it hard to get to hat. So I decided to wipe out Mansa (I didn’t even spare a city, as he had some Tec, but he was too stingy to part with any Tec for peace)
After finishing off Mansa it had given hat some time to build some riflemen (with his golden age) I had decided to go for artillery, and went down the physics path before the rifling-artillery path to get the free scientist. However this meant that I didn’t have riflemen, and hat decided to take this opportunity and declared on me. Without riflemen of my own I had to fight hat’s invading riflemen off with cavalry and cannons. Not optimal, I switched research path, 13 hair razing turns to quickly research replicable parts and rifling. Then back to the half finished physics. In those turns hat threw everything at me, so I did a bit of cat and mouse. Thanks to Gandhi’s Chicken Itza my newly captured Mansa cities had some defense to boost. Hat made a solid attack on the lightly defended Rome, I whipped some cannons and hit his stack hard, forcing hat to heal while cavalry came as re-enforcement.
I held on that period defending with cavalry against his riflemen, till I got rifling, and had some defense. By then his main push was over, and I turned the fight onto him, shortly upgrading cannons to artillery to rapidly cut through his riflemen. Then on to cleaning up America which was a sinch after my tec lead.
Some more nice moves that I haven’t written here yet(I don’t have the log with me here at work), and a sweet victory. I’ll hopefully get around to writing a good spoiler with pictures tonight/tomorrow.
I then turned around to backstab Gandhi (who was previously +12 relation) taking all his wonders (and Buddhist shrine). This temporarily separated my roman territory from my main territory, making them unhappy, so instead of starving them I just whipped their pop down in building courthouses, graneries etc. then culture bombed Delhi with a great artist to open up a culture passage between my territory and my roman outposts(with FP built in Rome to reduce maintenance)
i had the Tec lead being first to cavalry and steel, while Hat + friends went the guilds research path. Mansa and Washington were fighting a bit, hat was my main contender, was going to whip hat, my cavalry, only to see riflemen, I could have struck quickly, but Mansa had 0 rep (after I lost diplomatic points when I declared on the final city of Elizabeth and Genghis which I had previously spared for peace treaty tec). I would have liked to swamp the hat’s riflemen before he built more, but declaring would have put Mansa relation to -1, canceling open boarders, making it hard to get to hat. So I decided to wipe out Mansa (I didn’t even spare a city, as he had some Tec, but he was too stingy to part with any Tec for peace)
After finishing off Mansa it had given hat some time to build some riflemen (with his golden age) I had decided to go for artillery, and went down the physics path before the rifling-artillery path to get the free scientist. However this meant that I didn’t have riflemen, and hat decided to take this opportunity and declared on me. Without riflemen of my own I had to fight hat’s invading riflemen off with cavalry and cannons. Not optimal, I switched research path, 13 hair razing turns to quickly research replicable parts and rifling. Then back to the half finished physics. In those turns hat threw everything at me, so I did a bit of cat and mouse. Thanks to Gandhi’s Chicken Itza my newly captured Mansa cities had some defense to boost. Hat made a solid attack on the lightly defended Rome, I whipped some cannons and hit his stack hard, forcing hat to heal while cavalry came as re-enforcement.
I held on that period defending with cavalry against his riflemen, till I got rifling, and had some defense. By then his main push was over, and I turned the fight onto him, shortly upgrading cannons to artillery to rapidly cut through his riflemen. Then on to cleaning up America which was a sinch after my tec lead.
Some more nice moves that I haven’t written here yet(I don’t have the log with me here at work), and a sweet victory. I’ll hopefully get around to writing a good spoiler with pictures tonight/tomorrow.
Infantry#14
Emperor
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2006
- Messages
- 1,601
Game: Recall from my last spoiler, I had already conquered the Mongolians and English and that the Romans had wiped out the Indians (the Romans acted in their discretion). I was # 1 in power and landmass, and my next targets are the Romans and Incans. By 500 AD, the America and Egypt were cautious to me, Inca and Rome were annoyed at me, but surprisingly Mali was friendly to me because we shared a State Religion together. In 770 AD, I declared war at Inca and took 4 of their cities, leaving them an ice city on the continent and 2 island cities that I didnt bother to invest my navy to take them. In 1220 AD, I declared war at the Romans. Actually they were pretty strong, with elephants, mace, pikes and crossbow to counter all my units. I managed to acquire the past Indian provinces from them and sued for peace. After I received my two great merchants, my cavalry army literally obliterated the Romans destroyed them in 1571 AD. Meanwhile, I bribed the Friendly Mali to attack America, thus severed his relationship with Washington and Hatty. In 1607 AD, I backstabbed Mali with my cannon army (he had riflemen) and by 1721 AD, I wiped the Mali. At this time, I had 55% land (60% required for domination), and decided to finish off the Incans. Domination victory in 1746 AD after the last Incan city fell. At this time, I was #1 in tech, at least 3 techs ahead over my two remaining rivals.
Conclusion: Overall, the Philosophical trait was pretty useful, because I received 13 Great People, mostly scientists, 3 merchants, 1 engineer and 1 artist. The ancient Mongolian capital provided at least 2/3 of these Great People, which provided a very excellent return for my early investment on conquering them. In comparison, the Organized trait was not as effective as Philosophical, but it did provided me a supplement to field a larger size army in my early empire. The most important factor that led to my victory was fighting war at my terms. I took the initiative against my rivals and weakened the strong Mali before conquering them (they fought the Romans and later Americans).
Awesome and relatively challenged game! Thanks to the GOTM staff
Conclusion: Overall, the Philosophical trait was pretty useful, because I received 13 Great People, mostly scientists, 3 merchants, 1 engineer and 1 artist. The ancient Mongolian capital provided at least 2/3 of these Great People, which provided a very excellent return for my early investment on conquering them. In comparison, the Organized trait was not as effective as Philosophical, but it did provided me a supplement to field a larger size army in my early empire. The most important factor that led to my victory was fighting war at my terms. I took the initiative against my rivals and weakened the strong Mali before conquering them (they fought the Romans and later Americans).
Awesome and relatively challenged game! Thanks to the GOTM staff
Harbourboy
Deity
Lots of good domination victories here so far!
Domination victory 1184 AD @ 177k points.
I didn't play well from 500 AD onwards and wasted a lot of turns due to bad planning.
I didn't play well from 500 AD onwards and wasted a lot of turns due to bad planning.
da_Vinci
Gypsy Prince
If you had cannons, then you also had (or could make) grenadiers. They do quite nicely against rifles (well, at least on the attack against them), so I wonder if you could have used that to repel without having to change research path? A few collat damage cannons and some grens should make good counterattack against invading rifles.
dV
I retired in about 1750. I don't know whether anyone would have wiped me out but at that point it was quite clear I couldn't do anything to actually win. I'm left thinking that Emperor is beyond my current abilities.
I thought I started well, had a very quick and successful early war against the Mongolians, Karakorum was HUGE for doing.... well just about anything really
I built the Pyramids (somewhat of a surprise) and soon after got caste system running, Karakorum, Beijing and my city on the horse/cow location were all running 4-6 scientists.
My war with Elizabeth started well with maces & cats vs longbows but ground to a halt under huge bombardment from Lizzies stores of catapults. I restarted it several times but could never really get the momentum going again. Finally with cavalry I took London in a very costly war vs redcoats, only to culture bomb it and still only have a 1 square city. At that point I'd had enough. Everyone else (including Elizabeth) was miles ahead in tech, hattie and musa had roughly triple my score.
I spat out a lot of great scientists in this game enabling me to keep up in tech up to around liberalism, at which point they became fairly useless and I got left in the dust.
Major mistakes - not taking the double gold location early on, probably not making enough early war (I was worried about my economy), not having an entirely focussed overall strategy, being too impatient to wait for adequate unit build up in my various wars with lizzie. Who knows, maybe building the pyramids was a mistake...
Roll on GOTM 20.
I thought I started well, had a very quick and successful early war against the Mongolians, Karakorum was HUGE for doing.... well just about anything really
I built the Pyramids (somewhat of a surprise) and soon after got caste system running, Karakorum, Beijing and my city on the horse/cow location were all running 4-6 scientists.My war with Elizabeth started well with maces & cats vs longbows but ground to a halt under huge bombardment from Lizzies stores of catapults. I restarted it several times but could never really get the momentum going again. Finally with cavalry I took London in a very costly war vs redcoats, only to culture bomb it and still only have a 1 square city. At that point I'd had enough. Everyone else (including Elizabeth) was miles ahead in tech, hattie and musa had roughly triple my score.
I spat out a lot of great scientists in this game enabling me to keep up in tech up to around liberalism, at which point they became fairly useless and I got left in the dust.
Major mistakes - not taking the double gold location early on, probably not making enough early war (I was worried about my economy), not having an entirely focussed overall strategy, being too impatient to wait for adequate unit build up in my various wars with lizzie. Who knows, maybe building the pyramids was a mistake...
Roll on GOTM 20.
Military games arent really my style but given the difficulty level and the starting set-up I didnt think I could pull off a peaceful win. So I decided that this time I was going to really, truly, devote myself to warfare and either take over the world or die trying. The result was a long but victorious game, ending with Domination in 1782.
It was a slow, ugly, game. I generated a lot of great people but mostly used them just to try and stay even in the tech race, except for later in the game when I made many Great Artists and used them to expand my borders with Great Works. Other than that my game was utterly lacking in clever tactics. What it did have was persistence. I just kept on attacking people and overwhelming them with sheer numbers until I came out on top.
I settled 1 NW of start, meaning I missed out on the Corn and the Copper. I settled my second city on the SE shore of the inland lake, mainly to get access to Copper. After that I concentrated on units, and didnt build another city for many thousands of years.
I attacked England first, in 955 BC, because they had a juicy city and no friends. I captured one juicy city, with Gems and Horses, and razed another. The rest were too well defended, so that war ended in 835 BC. Meanwhile Id built a second army and struck at the Mongols in 790 BC. This war I fought to the bitter end, capturing two Mongol cities and razing a third to eliminate them. Karakorum became an awesome GPP.
By now it was about 500 BC. Id switched to Buddhism, making Huyana Capac Pleased with me. He remained my buddy for the rest of the game. I attacked Gandhi in 310 BC. He had somehow managed not to get any religion, and his cities had low cultural defenses. I gutted his empire with Axemen and Chariots. The war ended in 85 BC with the capture of Delhi, home of the Pyramids and the Parthenon.
In 65 BC I discovered Construction, unlocking Catapults and War Elephants. With these new, more powerful units, I promptly went out and lost a war with England. My army was shattered attempting to capture London and I made peace.
I started a new war with Gandhi shortly after this. It went slowly, as he had Longbowmen. I destroyed some minor cities but it wasnt until I brought Macemen and Cho-Ko-Nus into play that Gandhi was defeated and eliminated from the game in 1070 AD.
I had something like 30% of the worlds land area at this point. But I was starting to fall noticeably behind the tech leaders--Mali, Egypt, and America--as it became impossible for pillaged money to keep my research rate above 30-40%. Oh well. I kept pumping out units and laid into Rome in 1124 AD. This was another long war, but only because Rome had a fair bit of territory to grab. I had all of the Roman territory I could reach in my hands by 1322 AD, and made peace.
Next I promptly plowed into Mansa Musa, hoping to break his empires back before he became too advanced. I captured Timbuktu, and then a second city on the American border, in 1394 AD. Having chopped Mali in half, my plan was to garrison the captured cities heavily and send my field army south to get the best of Mansas remaining territory. But in 1400 AD Washington declared war and attacked my forces with Cavalry! I was still relying mostly on Maces and Catapults, so this was very bad news.
I immediately concluded that my newly captured cities couldnt be held. I made peace with Mali and pulled my entire army back into former Roman territory. Those that made it fortified in a hill city, where they were able to hold off the Americans while I pumped out War Elephants and Pikemen. As expected, the Americans captured Timbuktu and Gao. Gradually I picked off Americas Cavalry, and eventually I was able to go back on the offensive and recapture Timbuktu from the Americans before making peace in 1496 AD.
I celebrated this success by immediately declaring war on Mali again. My army, still relying on Macemen, captured a couple of nice Malian cities before Mansa demonstrated just how far behind the technological curve I was by upgrading his Longbows to Riflemen. I promptly made peace again.
OK, so I now had an army of highly experienced Macemen on the border of Mali, America, and Egypt, all of whom had Riflemen. I decided to go for easier pickings, and shifted my best units back west to attack England. I was able to take London with my Maces, and after that I was ready to promote the survivors to Grenadiers and the rest of England fell quickly. Elizabeth was eliminated in 1646 AD.
Meanwhile, Washington had attacked again. Id been funneling all of my newly built troops east, and was upgrading my best older units to Grenadiers, so I was able to hold off his initial assault without much difficulty. And after that I slowly overwhelmed Washingtons Riflemen, Cannons, and Cavalry with big stacks of Grenadiers and Catapults. By the time I reached Washington I had a few Cannons of my own, but they werent really necessary. America was eliminated in 1758 AD.
I wasnt quite at the domination limit yet, but Mansa Musa obliged me by declaring war just a few turns after I finished America off. I quickly captured his remaining mainland cities, and then destroyed Romes final city in the far north. The only civs left with more than three cities were myself, the Incas, and the Egyptians. Had I needed any more territory things could have gotten ugly, since those two both had Infantry already. But wiping out most of Mali allowed my borders to expand rapidly and I went over the Domination limit in 1782 AD. Final score: 3985 / 53879.
It was a slow, ugly, game. I generated a lot of great people but mostly used them just to try and stay even in the tech race, except for later in the game when I made many Great Artists and used them to expand my borders with Great Works. Other than that my game was utterly lacking in clever tactics. What it did have was persistence. I just kept on attacking people and overwhelming them with sheer numbers until I came out on top.
I settled 1 NW of start, meaning I missed out on the Corn and the Copper. I settled my second city on the SE shore of the inland lake, mainly to get access to Copper. After that I concentrated on units, and didnt build another city for many thousands of years.
I attacked England first, in 955 BC, because they had a juicy city and no friends. I captured one juicy city, with Gems and Horses, and razed another. The rest were too well defended, so that war ended in 835 BC. Meanwhile Id built a second army and struck at the Mongols in 790 BC. This war I fought to the bitter end, capturing two Mongol cities and razing a third to eliminate them. Karakorum became an awesome GPP.
By now it was about 500 BC. Id switched to Buddhism, making Huyana Capac Pleased with me. He remained my buddy for the rest of the game. I attacked Gandhi in 310 BC. He had somehow managed not to get any religion, and his cities had low cultural defenses. I gutted his empire with Axemen and Chariots. The war ended in 85 BC with the capture of Delhi, home of the Pyramids and the Parthenon.
In 65 BC I discovered Construction, unlocking Catapults and War Elephants. With these new, more powerful units, I promptly went out and lost a war with England. My army was shattered attempting to capture London and I made peace.
I started a new war with Gandhi shortly after this. It went slowly, as he had Longbowmen. I destroyed some minor cities but it wasnt until I brought Macemen and Cho-Ko-Nus into play that Gandhi was defeated and eliminated from the game in 1070 AD.
I had something like 30% of the worlds land area at this point. But I was starting to fall noticeably behind the tech leaders--Mali, Egypt, and America--as it became impossible for pillaged money to keep my research rate above 30-40%. Oh well. I kept pumping out units and laid into Rome in 1124 AD. This was another long war, but only because Rome had a fair bit of territory to grab. I had all of the Roman territory I could reach in my hands by 1322 AD, and made peace.
Next I promptly plowed into Mansa Musa, hoping to break his empires back before he became too advanced. I captured Timbuktu, and then a second city on the American border, in 1394 AD. Having chopped Mali in half, my plan was to garrison the captured cities heavily and send my field army south to get the best of Mansas remaining territory. But in 1400 AD Washington declared war and attacked my forces with Cavalry! I was still relying mostly on Maces and Catapults, so this was very bad news.
I immediately concluded that my newly captured cities couldnt be held. I made peace with Mali and pulled my entire army back into former Roman territory. Those that made it fortified in a hill city, where they were able to hold off the Americans while I pumped out War Elephants and Pikemen. As expected, the Americans captured Timbuktu and Gao. Gradually I picked off Americas Cavalry, and eventually I was able to go back on the offensive and recapture Timbuktu from the Americans before making peace in 1496 AD.
I celebrated this success by immediately declaring war on Mali again. My army, still relying on Macemen, captured a couple of nice Malian cities before Mansa demonstrated just how far behind the technological curve I was by upgrading his Longbows to Riflemen. I promptly made peace again.
OK, so I now had an army of highly experienced Macemen on the border of Mali, America, and Egypt, all of whom had Riflemen. I decided to go for easier pickings, and shifted my best units back west to attack England. I was able to take London with my Maces, and after that I was ready to promote the survivors to Grenadiers and the rest of England fell quickly. Elizabeth was eliminated in 1646 AD.
Meanwhile, Washington had attacked again. Id been funneling all of my newly built troops east, and was upgrading my best older units to Grenadiers, so I was able to hold off his initial assault without much difficulty. And after that I slowly overwhelmed Washingtons Riflemen, Cannons, and Cavalry with big stacks of Grenadiers and Catapults. By the time I reached Washington I had a few Cannons of my own, but they werent really necessary. America was eliminated in 1758 AD.
I wasnt quite at the domination limit yet, but Mansa Musa obliged me by declaring war just a few turns after I finished America off. I quickly captured his remaining mainland cities, and then destroyed Romes final city in the far north. The only civs left with more than three cities were myself, the Incas, and the Egyptians. Had I needed any more territory things could have gotten ugly, since those two both had Infantry already. But wiping out most of Mali allowed my borders to expand rapidly and I went over the Domination limit in 1782 AD. Final score: 3985 / 53879.
Harbourboy
Deity
Vynd, that has been the single most useful game summary in this thread (for me, anyway) because it shows how you managed to pull through (without fancy gambits and slingshots and exploits) in the face of the same seemingly overwhelming technology deficit that I thought had caused my downfall. I now see that I probably gave up the fight a bit too quickly. I will try and follow your approach next time.
Summary to date: safe and solid tech and war expansion up til 500, with Lizzy eliminated and the Mongols reduced to cities on islands.
I was planning on taking the score leader, India next, because he had the Hindu shrine and wasn't particularly strong militarily. A few turns before I was to declare on him, however, the Incans declared on ME. After absorbing his initial pathetic attacks, I retalliated with macemen, horse archers, cho ko nus and catapults and soon had all his cities bar one useless one.
Now that he was out of the way, I had a fairly wide border with India, who by now had built a heap of horse archers. It was a good thing that I'd just traded for guilds and was able to build a few knights to take care of their frequent pillaging forays into my territory. By about 1000 AD I had taken about half of India with macemen, catapults and then later knights. That's about when I got liberalism for nationalism, and about 1100 AD I upgraded a handful of knights to cavalry.
The Malinese and Egyptians started to run away with the tech around now, so I had to bribe the Mali to DoW Washington, to slow him down a bit.
Cavalry demolished the rest of India and it was a similar story for Rome. I then declared on the Mali, but on the same turn he obtained rifling and upgraded a heap of units to riflemen! This delayed my finish by a lot of turns, as I had to fight using catapults too.
Another mistake was that I thought the domination limit was 64% for a long time, so in my planning I had planned to take 3 or 4 major cities of Washington in the turn before winning to maximise the score. That of course didn't happen, and I didn't finish a tech that I had pumped 10 turns into.
Final result: domination in 1541 for 137k
I was planning on taking the score leader, India next, because he had the Hindu shrine and wasn't particularly strong militarily. A few turns before I was to declare on him, however, the Incans declared on ME. After absorbing his initial pathetic attacks, I retalliated with macemen, horse archers, cho ko nus and catapults and soon had all his cities bar one useless one.
Now that he was out of the way, I had a fairly wide border with India, who by now had built a heap of horse archers. It was a good thing that I'd just traded for guilds and was able to build a few knights to take care of their frequent pillaging forays into my territory. By about 1000 AD I had taken about half of India with macemen, catapults and then later knights. That's about when I got liberalism for nationalism, and about 1100 AD I upgraded a handful of knights to cavalry.
The Malinese and Egyptians started to run away with the tech around now, so I had to bribe the Mali to DoW Washington, to slow him down a bit.
Cavalry demolished the rest of India and it was a similar story for Rome. I then declared on the Mali, but on the same turn he obtained rifling and upgraded a heap of units to riflemen! This delayed my finish by a lot of turns, as I had to fight using catapults too.
Another mistake was that I thought the domination limit was 64% for a long time, so in my planning I had planned to take 3 or 4 major cities of Washington in the turn before winning to maximise the score. That of course didn't happen, and I didn't finish a tech that I had pumped 10 turns into.
Final result: domination in 1541 for 137k
lightsedge
Chieftain
Previously I attacked Ghandi first, probably the worst option of all my neighbors. I took Delhi and another city before Elizabeth declared war on me. I took their gems city and built up before she attacked me again. I'm able to hold off her attacks easily enough.
My army is now large enough, and takes London in 785 before obtaining peace to build up my army more. Ghandi is developing too fast culturally, and eating away at the land I took from him. I've been building culture structures in my captured cities, but I'm losing ground. The lesson there: Don't capture cities unless you're sure they won't get swallowed up culturally.
I declare war on England in 1112. England catches me off-guard with knights, but they're mostly just annoying. I capture two cities, with two remaining. However Genghis Khan declares war on me in 1208. Luckily, I pull together enough units to fend off his stack when it reaches Beijing. I knew this would come sooner or later, but the timing was rather unfortunate. I make peace with England, and move my army back to fight the Mongols.
I capture the 3 Mongol cities on the continent by 1424. His capital took longer than expected. There was a large defending stack, but the he wasted it in fairly ineffective attacks against my stack. I had to retreat to heal and regroup once, but Genghis lost many more units than I did to hold off the inevitable by a few turns. Genghis had two island cities, so I make peace for a tech.
Lessons:
- Always be aware of movement capabilities, especially with regard to territories. Roads really help defenders.
- Always have a defense plan against dangerous neighbors.
- Attack with overwhelming force (which doctrine was this again? Powell?) - always in [balanced] stacks. The goal is a quick and profitable war.
- Cho-Ko-Nus generally are not that useful. Catapults do a better job attacking cities, and a variety of units is always best on defense.
After my acquisitions, I had to take some time to build up my economy. Egypt is in second place and America is in third (I'm in first). I want them to fight, so I convert all of America's cities to Judaism. Unfortunately I still have to bribe Washington to convert. Everyone else is Jewish at this point except for HC. I want to take land from the Romans and Indians eventually, so I make sure Mansa (who has been warring on and off with Caesar) is my friend.
Elizabeth is pretty much out of the game by now with 2 cities, but her borders are expanding on me. So I take the small diplomacy hit (some people like her...why?
), and attack England with Grenadiers. Right after I take the first city, Huayna Capac takes the opportunity to declare war on me. I knew I should have taken him out earlier. My neighbors have been very sneaky. 
I assemble a defense force as quickly as I can to fend him off. Meanwhile, I take the other English city, but not before they escape to a 1-square island to the south.
Now I get cannons and prepare to destroy the Incans.
While I'm massing my army, I give Washington 700 gold to become Jewish, putting him at odds with Hatty, who's in 2nd. I also get Caesar to declare war on Ghandi, who has a defensive pact with Mansa. Mansa asks me to help him against Caesar. I agree because he's my best ally (still stingy with the techs though, because I'm pulling away in points), and also because Caesar has a city that I want, which I proceed to take in 1622.
Meanwhile Mansa takes a Roman city and Caesar takes an Indian one. The Indian empire is fragmented into 3 parts now by my empire, which I find amusing, yet annoying.
Everyone then gets peace with Caesar, and I return to take out Huey. He's been sending granadiers against me sporadically, but his cities are still garrisoned by longbowmen for some reason, so I make short work of him. I capture two and raze two (in the ice), eliminating him in 1688.
During the war I learn Democracy and switch to Emancipation, Universal Sufferage, and Free Market. Having to fight a culture war with Ghandi is really starting to annoy me now, so I take him out the good old-fashioned way, eliminating him in 1738. Genghis has two island cities still. I was going to leave him alone, but his border expansion is causing his former capital to go into unrest, and stealing my fish.
I take him out in 1772 to get my city's land back without having wait for culture to kick in.
I tech towards Mass Media for a Diplomatic victory, which I get easily in 1820. Washington, Mansa, and Hatty were the 3 major players left in the game. Hatty was in second, so I became friends with Washington and Mansa, who both shared my religion by now (I had to convert Washington earlier).
Base/Final score: 5700/59403
I think my main mistake was having to fight all these short wars. Instead of taking two cities from Ghandi, I should have wiped out the Mongolians. This robbed me of a GP farm for most of the game. I thought Delhi was very nice, but it didn't have much land for many centuries, because Ghandi's remaining cities kept expanding borders. Actually, culture was constantly a problem with captured cities, because I didn't finish them off in one attack. Also, when I went to war, I allowed too many cities to continue building up instead of producing units. But next time, I'm ready.
My army is now large enough, and takes London in 785 before obtaining peace to build up my army more. Ghandi is developing too fast culturally, and eating away at the land I took from him. I've been building culture structures in my captured cities, but I'm losing ground. The lesson there: Don't capture cities unless you're sure they won't get swallowed up culturally.
I declare war on England in 1112. England catches me off-guard with knights, but they're mostly just annoying. I capture two cities, with two remaining. However Genghis Khan declares war on me in 1208. Luckily, I pull together enough units to fend off his stack when it reaches Beijing. I knew this would come sooner or later, but the timing was rather unfortunate. I make peace with England, and move my army back to fight the Mongols.
I capture the 3 Mongol cities on the continent by 1424. His capital took longer than expected. There was a large defending stack, but the he wasted it in fairly ineffective attacks against my stack. I had to retreat to heal and regroup once, but Genghis lost many more units than I did to hold off the inevitable by a few turns. Genghis had two island cities, so I make peace for a tech.
Lessons:
- Always be aware of movement capabilities, especially with regard to territories. Roads really help defenders.
- Always have a defense plan against dangerous neighbors.
- Attack with overwhelming force (which doctrine was this again? Powell?) - always in [balanced] stacks. The goal is a quick and profitable war.
- Cho-Ko-Nus generally are not that useful. Catapults do a better job attacking cities, and a variety of units is always best on defense.
After my acquisitions, I had to take some time to build up my economy. Egypt is in second place and America is in third (I'm in first). I want them to fight, so I convert all of America's cities to Judaism. Unfortunately I still have to bribe Washington to convert. Everyone else is Jewish at this point except for HC. I want to take land from the Romans and Indians eventually, so I make sure Mansa (who has been warring on and off with Caesar) is my friend.
Elizabeth is pretty much out of the game by now with 2 cities, but her borders are expanding on me. So I take the small diplomacy hit (some people like her...why?
), and attack England with Grenadiers. Right after I take the first city, Huayna Capac takes the opportunity to declare war on me. I knew I should have taken him out earlier. My neighbors have been very sneaky. I assemble a defense force as quickly as I can to fend him off. Meanwhile, I take the other English city, but not before they escape to a 1-square island to the south.
Now I get cannons and prepare to destroy the Incans.While I'm massing my army, I give Washington 700 gold to become Jewish, putting him at odds with Hatty, who's in 2nd. I also get Caesar to declare war on Ghandi, who has a defensive pact with Mansa. Mansa asks me to help him against Caesar. I agree because he's my best ally (still stingy with the techs though, because I'm pulling away in points), and also because Caesar has a city that I want, which I proceed to take in 1622.
Meanwhile Mansa takes a Roman city and Caesar takes an Indian one. The Indian empire is fragmented into 3 parts now by my empire, which I find amusing, yet annoying.
Everyone then gets peace with Caesar, and I return to take out Huey. He's been sending granadiers against me sporadically, but his cities are still garrisoned by longbowmen for some reason, so I make short work of him. I capture two and raze two (in the ice), eliminating him in 1688.During the war I learn Democracy and switch to Emancipation, Universal Sufferage, and Free Market. Having to fight a culture war with Ghandi is really starting to annoy me now, so I take him out the good old-fashioned way, eliminating him in 1738. Genghis has two island cities still. I was going to leave him alone, but his border expansion is causing his former capital to go into unrest, and stealing my fish.
I take him out in 1772 to get my city's land back without having wait for culture to kick in.I tech towards Mass Media for a Diplomatic victory, which I get easily in 1820. Washington, Mansa, and Hatty were the 3 major players left in the game. Hatty was in second, so I became friends with Washington and Mansa, who both shared my religion by now (I had to convert Washington earlier).
Base/Final score: 5700/59403
I think my main mistake was having to fight all these short wars. Instead of taking two cities from Ghandi, I should have wiped out the Mongolians. This robbed me of a GP farm for most of the game. I thought Delhi was very nice, but it didn't have much land for many centuries, because Ghandi's remaining cities kept expanding borders. Actually, culture was constantly a problem with captured cities, because I didn't finish them off in one attack. Also, when I went to war, I allowed too many cities to continue building up instead of producing units. But next time, I'm ready.
JackOfClubs
Warlord
185 AD: Rome demands that I join the war against Mali. Why do AI civs never try to bribe you to go to war. I really can't afford this but I can't afford to refuse Julius either. Reluctantly I agree, taking hits with several countries I was buttering up. Well maybe I can make my involvement short and extort something from Mansa.
215 AD: Julius takes another of Mansa's cities and signs a peace treaty, leaving me holding the bag! Bastard. Mansa refuses to talk so I'm stuck with a war I didn't seek for who knows how long. When Caesar came knocking, Mansa had a chariot roaming around by Turfan. The DoW kicked him out to the nearest neutral spot which happened to be the southern horse ranch. I put my Axe on the Iron hill, trapping him, but Mansa evidently disbanded the troops rather than fight me. So I didn't even get any kills out of the deal. Well, I was gearing up to attack Huey anyway so my border cities are well defended if Mansa should send a stack, but I don't think he has much fight left in him.
530 AD: Declared war on Huey after many more turns of preparation than expected. I decided to have at least some Macemen and Chokonu in my stack so I needed to get both Machinery and Civil Service. I bring 2 stacks from Beijing and Guangzhou. Huey actively defends with three catapults and kills all three defenders, one of which was a mace. Unbelievable! And the stack is so damaged that I take several turns to heal. Finally attain Machu Picchu in 680 AD.
725 AD: While building up my invasion force to continue the push into Inca lands, Gandhi asks me to help fight against Julius. Since I am already in the midst of a war of invasion, I refuse, of course losing a diplomacy point. That seems unfair to me, but it gets worse. In the same turn (though the log considers it to be the start of the next turn) Julius asks me to help defend against Gandhi. Knowing how my last alliance with Julius against Mansa Musa turned out (Julius made peace shortly after I entered the fray) I would have refused even if I weren't currently at war. But here something terrible happens. I am still not exactly sure what I did. Perhaps I clicked the mouse prematurely while moving it onto the button, I don't know. But when 740 began I discovered to my dismay that I was indeed at war with India. I stared with sick disbelief at the screen for several minutes perceiving (rightly as it turned out) that I may very well have lost the game with that one inaccurate click.
After a few moments I managed to convince myself that it might not be all that bad. After all, Gandhi also was fighting a war on two fronts and hopefully Julius would keep him occupied enough that I could ignore him and sue for peace at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, I would be racking up mutual struggle points with Julius of which I had been cheated in our earlier alliance. So I began moving troops into Machu Picchu and Guangzhou, the two cities which shared a border with India and prepared to wait out the storm.
755 AD: But it was not to be. Gandhi sends fast attack troops to Guangzhou and wins the city at long odds. The luck I had against Genghis has evidently worn out and I can hear him laughing grimly from the grave. I recapture it two turns later in 785, but it depletes my army. A long period of indecisive skirmishes ensues in which I am generally victorious, but cannot produce units fast enough to cover my losses.
815 AD: I discover Theology and revolt to Theocracy for some much needed XP on new units.
905 AD: Julius and Gandhi make peace without, as far as I can tell, a single city changing hands. Great. Once again Julius has left me holding the bag. Next turn it gets worse as Mansa declares war on me. Looking at the diplomacy screen for possible assistance, I realize that my accidental war with Gandhi has been more costly than I had realized. No one is pleased with me and even Julius is cautious, having only gained 1 measly point for our mutual conflict. I would like to make peace with at least one of my antagonists, but Huey will only accept the return of Machu Picchu (which is kind of fair) and Gandhi requires Guangzhou (which isn't)!
950 AD: Washington declares on Julius. I am so not heartbroken.
1010 AD: The 3-way war drags on until my troops are unable to defend the border cities. Machu Picchu still has a sizable army but both Gandhi and Huey have bigger stacks on the way. Guangzhou has only two wounded units against Indian and Malinese stacks. I take the better part of valour and buy peace with Huey and Gandhi, losing the cities that I couldn't keep in any event. Mansa is still not talking to me, but as he is now my only enemy, I am not too worried. I easily defeat his stack when it enters my now diminished borders and wait him out.
1130 AD: Washington and Julius make nice.
1160 AD: Mansa will now accept peace for Literature. I had sent a stack out to try to take his two cities, but Julius (who is now annoyed with me due to religious conflicts) completely blocks my path. Since Mansa does not have any techs that I can trade for anyway, I give accept his terms and continue rebuilding my army. If things had gone according to plan earlier, I would already have conquered the Incan empire and would now be plotting against Gandhi or Elizabeth, but I am now a civ and several hundred years behind.
1226 AD: I renew the war against Huey and this time it goes according to plan. Machu Picchu falls in 1238, followed by Tiwanaku (1280), Cuzco (1406), Corihuayrachina (1436) and Ollantaytambo (1454). The last two cities are on the barren island to the north of former Mongolia, and I consider leaving Huey there, but I won't be able to afford the extra diplomatic hit if I need to take him out later so I send forces slowly across on galleys.
1523 AD: The Incan civilization is no more, though much later than I would have liked. Throughout the war my science has tanked due to an unexpectedly high hit of religious unhappiness in my GP Farm, Karakorum. I have never seen that be a factor before, is that due the Emperor-level difficulty? I begin scouting for my next opponent while building up my army. Gandhi is dangerously advanced and very popular so I guess he is out for the present. Liz looks promising, but has been isolated from combat, so her troop strength is rather daunting. No one but Hatshepsut is pleased with me. I am beginning to think a cultural victory might be more plausible than my original plan of domination, though I am not well set up for that either.
1547 AD: Washington decides the issue for me by declaring war with an obscene number of troops. His initial stack is mostly Knights, leading me to believe I can put up a fight. But before too long there are several stacks of Cavalry and I know all is lost. He races through my Incan cities then bears down on China proper. At some point he sends a Galleon across the international date line, landing several Cavalry in former Mongolia. Beijing falls in 1586. Karokorum puts up a fight, but finally succumbs in 1610. I gift Beshbalik to Liz, just to spite Washington. Vilcas, Huey's last city in the barren island to the NW, becomes my capital. I assume that Washington will quickly send troops across to take it and end the game, but his Galleon is nowhere to be seen. Did it sail back to America for more troops? A lone Frigate harasses my cultural defenses, but no troops come to take the city. Huey had built this city out of range of the copper on the island so I have zero chance of building up a retaliatory force. I should retire but I am curious how long this farce will continue.
1830 AD: Hilariously, Gandhi completes the UN but the secretaryship goes to Elizabeth. Is it possible I will lose diplomatically after all of this? Liz proposes several resolutions which benefit my empire (I built a settler some time ago and founded Nanjing out of pure boredom). After several more rounds of this, Liz pops the question in the 1850s, but Gandhi gets more votes due to Julius and Mansa abstaining. Still not enough to win, so the clock ticks on. Liz, Gandhi and Hatty are all racing for the Spaceship as well.
1863 AD: Hatty declares on me! She was formerly my only friend but I haven't checked the diplomatic screen in centuries, so I have no idea what prompted this. Unlike Washington, however, she is willing to cross the channel and takes my cities out. Ironically she defeats my last troop in Vilcas with a copter, though, so I have to wait 3 more turns while her SAM Infantry marches through the forest from Nanjing's ruins.
1874 AD: Conquest loss to Hatshepsut, an unlikely end to a truly insane game.
I enjoyed this game but it was very disappointing to lose over one stupid mouse click. I thought I was doing fairly well up to that point, though admittedly, if anyone else had declared war on me I would have been in much the same position. Still, what finally killed me was the diplomatic hits more than the loss of troops.
215 AD: Julius takes another of Mansa's cities and signs a peace treaty, leaving me holding the bag! Bastard. Mansa refuses to talk so I'm stuck with a war I didn't seek for who knows how long. When Caesar came knocking, Mansa had a chariot roaming around by Turfan. The DoW kicked him out to the nearest neutral spot which happened to be the southern horse ranch. I put my Axe on the Iron hill, trapping him, but Mansa evidently disbanded the troops rather than fight me. So I didn't even get any kills out of the deal. Well, I was gearing up to attack Huey anyway so my border cities are well defended if Mansa should send a stack, but I don't think he has much fight left in him.
530 AD: Declared war on Huey after many more turns of preparation than expected. I decided to have at least some Macemen and Chokonu in my stack so I needed to get both Machinery and Civil Service. I bring 2 stacks from Beijing and Guangzhou. Huey actively defends with three catapults and kills all three defenders, one of which was a mace. Unbelievable! And the stack is so damaged that I take several turns to heal. Finally attain Machu Picchu in 680 AD.
725 AD: While building up my invasion force to continue the push into Inca lands, Gandhi asks me to help fight against Julius. Since I am already in the midst of a war of invasion, I refuse, of course losing a diplomacy point. That seems unfair to me, but it gets worse. In the same turn (though the log considers it to be the start of the next turn) Julius asks me to help defend against Gandhi. Knowing how my last alliance with Julius against Mansa Musa turned out (Julius made peace shortly after I entered the fray) I would have refused even if I weren't currently at war. But here something terrible happens. I am still not exactly sure what I did. Perhaps I clicked the mouse prematurely while moving it onto the button, I don't know. But when 740 began I discovered to my dismay that I was indeed at war with India. I stared with sick disbelief at the screen for several minutes perceiving (rightly as it turned out) that I may very well have lost the game with that one inaccurate click.
After a few moments I managed to convince myself that it might not be all that bad. After all, Gandhi also was fighting a war on two fronts and hopefully Julius would keep him occupied enough that I could ignore him and sue for peace at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, I would be racking up mutual struggle points with Julius of which I had been cheated in our earlier alliance. So I began moving troops into Machu Picchu and Guangzhou, the two cities which shared a border with India and prepared to wait out the storm.
755 AD: But it was not to be. Gandhi sends fast attack troops to Guangzhou and wins the city at long odds. The luck I had against Genghis has evidently worn out and I can hear him laughing grimly from the grave. I recapture it two turns later in 785, but it depletes my army. A long period of indecisive skirmishes ensues in which I am generally victorious, but cannot produce units fast enough to cover my losses.
815 AD: I discover Theology and revolt to Theocracy for some much needed XP on new units.
905 AD: Julius and Gandhi make peace without, as far as I can tell, a single city changing hands. Great. Once again Julius has left me holding the bag. Next turn it gets worse as Mansa declares war on me. Looking at the diplomacy screen for possible assistance, I realize that my accidental war with Gandhi has been more costly than I had realized. No one is pleased with me and even Julius is cautious, having only gained 1 measly point for our mutual conflict. I would like to make peace with at least one of my antagonists, but Huey will only accept the return of Machu Picchu (which is kind of fair) and Gandhi requires Guangzhou (which isn't)!
950 AD: Washington declares on Julius. I am so not heartbroken.
1010 AD: The 3-way war drags on until my troops are unable to defend the border cities. Machu Picchu still has a sizable army but both Gandhi and Huey have bigger stacks on the way. Guangzhou has only two wounded units against Indian and Malinese stacks. I take the better part of valour and buy peace with Huey and Gandhi, losing the cities that I couldn't keep in any event. Mansa is still not talking to me, but as he is now my only enemy, I am not too worried. I easily defeat his stack when it enters my now diminished borders and wait him out.
1130 AD: Washington and Julius make nice.
1160 AD: Mansa will now accept peace for Literature. I had sent a stack out to try to take his two cities, but Julius (who is now annoyed with me due to religious conflicts) completely blocks my path. Since Mansa does not have any techs that I can trade for anyway, I give accept his terms and continue rebuilding my army. If things had gone according to plan earlier, I would already have conquered the Incan empire and would now be plotting against Gandhi or Elizabeth, but I am now a civ and several hundred years behind.
1226 AD: I renew the war against Huey and this time it goes according to plan. Machu Picchu falls in 1238, followed by Tiwanaku (1280), Cuzco (1406), Corihuayrachina (1436) and Ollantaytambo (1454). The last two cities are on the barren island to the north of former Mongolia, and I consider leaving Huey there, but I won't be able to afford the extra diplomatic hit if I need to take him out later so I send forces slowly across on galleys.
1523 AD: The Incan civilization is no more, though much later than I would have liked. Throughout the war my science has tanked due to an unexpectedly high hit of religious unhappiness in my GP Farm, Karakorum. I have never seen that be a factor before, is that due the Emperor-level difficulty? I begin scouting for my next opponent while building up my army. Gandhi is dangerously advanced and very popular so I guess he is out for the present. Liz looks promising, but has been isolated from combat, so her troop strength is rather daunting. No one but Hatshepsut is pleased with me. I am beginning to think a cultural victory might be more plausible than my original plan of domination, though I am not well set up for that either.
1547 AD: Washington decides the issue for me by declaring war with an obscene number of troops. His initial stack is mostly Knights, leading me to believe I can put up a fight. But before too long there are several stacks of Cavalry and I know all is lost. He races through my Incan cities then bears down on China proper. At some point he sends a Galleon across the international date line, landing several Cavalry in former Mongolia. Beijing falls in 1586. Karokorum puts up a fight, but finally succumbs in 1610. I gift Beshbalik to Liz, just to spite Washington. Vilcas, Huey's last city in the barren island to the NW, becomes my capital. I assume that Washington will quickly send troops across to take it and end the game, but his Galleon is nowhere to be seen. Did it sail back to America for more troops? A lone Frigate harasses my cultural defenses, but no troops come to take the city. Huey had built this city out of range of the copper on the island so I have zero chance of building up a retaliatory force. I should retire but I am curious how long this farce will continue.
1830 AD: Hilariously, Gandhi completes the UN but the secretaryship goes to Elizabeth. Is it possible I will lose diplomatically after all of this? Liz proposes several resolutions which benefit my empire (I built a settler some time ago and founded Nanjing out of pure boredom). After several more rounds of this, Liz pops the question in the 1850s, but Gandhi gets more votes due to Julius and Mansa abstaining. Still not enough to win, so the clock ticks on. Liz, Gandhi and Hatty are all racing for the Spaceship as well.
1863 AD: Hatty declares on me! She was formerly my only friend but I haven't checked the diplomatic screen in centuries, so I have no idea what prompted this. Unlike Washington, however, she is willing to cross the channel and takes my cities out. Ironically she defeats my last troop in Vilcas with a copter, though, so I have to wait 3 more turns while her SAM Infantry marches through the forest from Nanjing's ruins.
1874 AD: Conquest loss to Hatshepsut, an unlikely end to a truly insane game.
I enjoyed this game but it was very disappointing to lose over one stupid mouse click. I thought I was doing fairly well up to that point, though admittedly, if anyone else had declared war on me I would have been in much the same position. Still, what finally killed me was the diplomatic hits more than the loss of troops.
Mine was a spaceship win, with my plan being to go warmongering until I had about 50% landarea then use my massive size to tech quickly. I'm quite pleased by the result - 1871AD isn't that brilliant in absolute terms, I'm sure someone will manage it in the early 1800's or even 1700's, but I'm happy that I finally seem to have escaped from my trap of spaceraces always ending up in the 1900's.
After my first spoiler, I just kept warmongering. A few interesting events:
In 1328AD, just after I'd finished off the Indians, I got an envoy from Genghis: "Fool! Now we shall destroy you". At that point I wasn't worried, since Genghis had two workable cities on his peninsula, and I had most of ex-India, ex-England and ex-Inca: More cities than my poor braincells knew how to count. Besides, the nice chap Mr Khan had given me a bit of warning a few turns earlier by placing some elephants on my border, as a result of which I had a stack already on its way from ex-India to the likely battlefront of Beshbalik (captured from Genghis early in the game). So when his stack of keshiks, maces, crossbows and cats arrived by Beshbalik, I had 10 similar-teched units there. Should be more than enough at this stage of the game.
Only trouble was his stack had 19 units. And on checking, he had about the same number in Karakorum. How the.....? He must've been building nothing but units for the last 2000 years. Of course Beshbalik fell, before I was able to recapture it with more forces returning from India. Sorry, ex-India.
I then had a problem. The only land route to Karakorum was via that forest-hill SE of the city (I assume this was the same in everyone's game). Of course, he had units on it with the 75% bonus. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, but I eventually stormed it and captured it, losing all my CR3 maces in the process. But once I had it that was the turning point. I'd lost too many units to have a hope of capturing karakorum (longbow-on-hill-defended), so I just parked my units on the hill forest for ages. Like, centuries, while Genghis sacrificed a keshik to the units there every so often. I waited until I had steel, upgraded my catapults, and that was the end of Mr. Khan.
One bit of my strategy at that point: Since I didn't have any CR2 or CR3 maces any more, I built some grenadiers, but always kept some maces in the stacks to attack the weakest units towards the end of the attacks. In that way I quickly got CR2/CR3 maces which I could upgrade to grenadiers.
After Genghis, I finished off Inca and England (both confined to marginal cities in the north) and prepared to turn on Rome, which had cavalry and riflemen. Amazing stroke of luck. Just as my forces were heading for the border, Rome and Mali went to war. Even better. Mansa Musa asked me to join his crusade on Rome, just as I was about to join in anyway!
Rome was powerful and had very good land, but just melted away, I think because my army was so big by that point. That war had the bonus of turning Mansa from annoyed to pleased towards me. That was important because he had a massive tech lead over me, so tech trading really helped speed up my spaceship win. I didn't realize till later on how big his lead must've been: After the Roman war, my GNP jumped to about twice his size, yet right up to almost my final spaceship launch, Mansa still had techs he could (and did) trade to me!
After Rome I had my 50-ish% land, and chose no more wars as I didn't want to upset Mansa (for the reasons above) or Hatty (because I was scared of her).
Yes, I was scared of Hatty. I don't get what happened in this game. Usually, she's lovely and peaceful. The kind of woman I could imagine cuddling up to in bed, and having intimate discussions about philosophy and the universe etc. (Yeah, like you all do, don't you...
) Not the kind of woman who'd be always getting her defences up. Yet throughout this game her military power was incredible. Did she have a personality transplant for this game or summat? When I explored, every city of hers was choc-a-block with longbows and rifles and whatever. Even when I was big enough that I wasn't far from a domination victory, her military power was miles bigger than mine or anyone elses. I don't recall her ever actually declaring on anyone, but I certainly spent most of the late game gifting her, giving in to every demand she made, etc. etc. to make sure she stayed sweet.
Well, it worked, I got my spaceship. I'd offer to share it with her, but I don't think my spaceship would've made it off the ground with the weight of all her infantry inside it.
After my first spoiler, I just kept warmongering. A few interesting events:
In 1328AD, just after I'd finished off the Indians, I got an envoy from Genghis: "Fool! Now we shall destroy you". At that point I wasn't worried, since Genghis had two workable cities on his peninsula, and I had most of ex-India, ex-England and ex-Inca: More cities than my poor braincells knew how to count. Besides, the nice chap Mr Khan had given me a bit of warning a few turns earlier by placing some elephants on my border, as a result of which I had a stack already on its way from ex-India to the likely battlefront of Beshbalik (captured from Genghis early in the game). So when his stack of keshiks, maces, crossbows and cats arrived by Beshbalik, I had 10 similar-teched units there. Should be more than enough at this stage of the game.
Only trouble was his stack had 19 units. And on checking, he had about the same number in Karakorum. How the.....? He must've been building nothing but units for the last 2000 years. Of course Beshbalik fell, before I was able to recapture it with more forces returning from India. Sorry, ex-India.
I then had a problem. The only land route to Karakorum was via that forest-hill SE of the city (I assume this was the same in everyone's game). Of course, he had units on it with the 75% bonus. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, but I eventually stormed it and captured it, losing all my CR3 maces in the process. But once I had it that was the turning point. I'd lost too many units to have a hope of capturing karakorum (longbow-on-hill-defended), so I just parked my units on the hill forest for ages. Like, centuries, while Genghis sacrificed a keshik to the units there every so often. I waited until I had steel, upgraded my catapults, and that was the end of Mr. Khan.
One bit of my strategy at that point: Since I didn't have any CR2 or CR3 maces any more, I built some grenadiers, but always kept some maces in the stacks to attack the weakest units towards the end of the attacks. In that way I quickly got CR2/CR3 maces which I could upgrade to grenadiers.
After Genghis, I finished off Inca and England (both confined to marginal cities in the north) and prepared to turn on Rome, which had cavalry and riflemen. Amazing stroke of luck. Just as my forces were heading for the border, Rome and Mali went to war. Even better. Mansa Musa asked me to join his crusade on Rome, just as I was about to join in anyway!
Rome was powerful and had very good land, but just melted away, I think because my army was so big by that point. That war had the bonus of turning Mansa from annoyed to pleased towards me. That was important because he had a massive tech lead over me, so tech trading really helped speed up my spaceship win. I didn't realize till later on how big his lead must've been: After the Roman war, my GNP jumped to about twice his size, yet right up to almost my final spaceship launch, Mansa still had techs he could (and did) trade to me!
After Rome I had my 50-ish% land, and chose no more wars as I didn't want to upset Mansa (for the reasons above) or Hatty (because I was scared of her).
Yes, I was scared of Hatty. I don't get what happened in this game. Usually, she's lovely and peaceful. The kind of woman I could imagine cuddling up to in bed, and having intimate discussions about philosophy and the universe etc. (Yeah, like you all do, don't you...
) Not the kind of woman who'd be always getting her defences up. Yet throughout this game her military power was incredible. Did she have a personality transplant for this game or summat? When I explored, every city of hers was choc-a-block with longbows and rifles and whatever. Even when I was big enough that I wasn't far from a domination victory, her military power was miles bigger than mine or anyone elses. I don't recall her ever actually declaring on anyone, but I certainly spent most of the late game gifting her, giving in to every demand she made, etc. etc. to make sure she stayed sweet. Well, it worked, I got my spaceship. I'd offer to share it with her, but I don't think my spaceship would've made it off the ground with the weight of all her infantry inside it.
Ronnie1
Deity
I played a few test games and really felt that a fast Domination win was possible for me this month. I've been playing at Emperor for the last month or two and have been gaining confidence. My tests showed that the main problem was going to be getting good sites for cities 2 and 3. Barbs shouldn't be a problem because of the crowded map. SO MUCH FOR MY PLAN AND MY CONFIDENCE AT THIS POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well I mucked this one up real well and won't be submitting for the first time in months. I started with the same moves DynamicSpirit did above. But on turn 2 I moved my settler back SW-SW to the coast (ending 2W of the starting position). I founded on turn 3 and regretted it almost immediately. My warrior did pop the hut for Hunting and I had some misguided confidence for a little while. As soon as I founded I saw Kahn's scout on the peninsula, only later did I realize this was the start of my problems. My build order was worker, warrior, warrior (till size 2), settler, warrior, archer, worker, barracks, and then nothing but axes. My research went AH, BW, Archery, Myst, Wheel, Masonry. My test games led me to believe that with stone I had a good shot at either SH or Pyramids, wrong!!! SH was built on T82 and the Pyramids an T89, both by Hatty, I barely had the stone hooked up by then. Shanghi has founded on the plains hill SE of the lake on T55 and started an Archer. To make an ugly story short, I decided that Kahn was a good first target, and on T124 I declared with about 8 axes and a few spears on his border. I took his first city on a hill with more losses than I had hoped for and moved towards Karakorum. I really wanted it early because of all the food to leverage my Philosophical trait. After losing 2 stacks of about 10 axes each, I realized I had made a serious mistake and resigned to a cold beer, hoping like hell that that WOTM10 would show up sooner rather than later. My biggest mistake was moving away from the forests in the beginning. Without them, the health cap held me down early and forced me to found Shanghi in a rather poor position as well. I think founding in place, or even moving to the other side of the lake would have been much better. Waiting for Cats to go after Karakorum on the hill would have been much wiser also. At least the beer was Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well I mucked this one up real well and won't be submitting for the first time in months. I started with the same moves DynamicSpirit did above. But on turn 2 I moved my settler back SW-SW to the coast (ending 2W of the starting position). I founded on turn 3 and regretted it almost immediately. My warrior did pop the hut for Hunting and I had some misguided confidence for a little while. As soon as I founded I saw Kahn's scout on the peninsula, only later did I realize this was the start of my problems. My build order was worker, warrior, warrior (till size 2), settler, warrior, archer, worker, barracks, and then nothing but axes. My research went AH, BW, Archery, Myst, Wheel, Masonry. My test games led me to believe that with stone I had a good shot at either SH or Pyramids, wrong!!! SH was built on T82 and the Pyramids an T89, both by Hatty, I barely had the stone hooked up by then. Shanghi has founded on the plains hill SE of the lake on T55 and started an Archer. To make an ugly story short, I decided that Kahn was a good first target, and on T124 I declared with about 8 axes and a few spears on his border. I took his first city on a hill with more losses than I had hoped for and moved towards Karakorum. I really wanted it early because of all the food to leverage my Philosophical trait. After losing 2 stacks of about 10 axes each, I realized I had made a serious mistake and resigned to a cold beer, hoping like hell that that WOTM10 would show up sooner rather than later. My biggest mistake was moving away from the forests in the beginning. Without them, the health cap held me down early and forced me to found Shanghi in a rather poor position as well. I think founding in place, or even moving to the other side of the lake would have been much better. Waiting for Cats to go after Karakorum on the hill would have been much wiser also. At least the beer was Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
godotnut
Inverted Unicycle
This was my first game of Civ in several months. I posted a "goodbye until I'm done with my dissertation" post a while back, and I mostly kept my promise. I say mostly, because I'm not quite done with the dissertation yet, but I'm close.
Anyway, here's what happened on my first game back.
I decided beforehand that I wanted to go either space race or diplo, partly because everyone seemed to be going aggressive, and partly because these games are much quicker for me to finish. I didn't want to go cultural because that seemed too easy.
Settled in place. I knew that with the crowded map and aggressive AI, I would need early war. To have a chance at fastest, I would need a powerful early boost from captured cities and stolen workers.
So I crunched out warriors, stole a worker from Genghis, hooked up copper, and took him out with about six axes. I targeted Genghis because of the awesome potential of his capital in combination with the philosophical trait. That paid off in spades. I had three great scientists by 500AD and a total of about 14 in the game, along with two artists and an engineer (from fusion). I used five scientists on academies, added seven to my capital (with the Oxford), and used one to lightbulb education.
After taking out Genghis and his two choice great people farms, I hit Ghandi, taking the gold city and two others, then declaring peace when I saw the stack on his capital. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake, as I later wished I had the aluminum provided by that city. I had to find other means to score my aluminum, which caused a sub-optimal finish, as I spent at about a dozen turns building spaceship parts without the aluminum bonus.
I built a grand total of one settler and one worker in this game. The rest of my cities and workers were stolen from assorted AI.
At 500 AD, I had six cities. I discovered education around 400AD, and built universities immediately in all cities but one, which I used to crank out troops.
I hit Liz around 600 AD and took her gems city and a couple others, pushing her back to her subcontinent, where I left her alone for the remainder of the game. I then had nine cities--perfect for a cultural victory, but not quite enough for a really good space race. I wanted Ghandi's cities but he had substantial stacks and rifles by the time I was in shape to hit him.
So I took out Huyana's two cities to the north of me, both of which were choice tech cities, and one of which provided (another) great scientist farm. I destroyed his two other cities to get rid of the "we year to join our homeland" negatives. I then had eleven cities, sufficient, I thought, for a good win.
Settled into pure tech mode.
Trade, trade, trade. Cash flow. Constant 100% science bar. Used liberalism on Astronomy for early observatories.
Was disappointed when I discovered no aluminum in my borders. My neighbors, Liz and Ghandi, both had it, but both had substantial stacks that would distract me from teching.
But the cool part about aggressive AI, especially on a crowded map, is that you can almost always bribe someone to go to war. So I bribed Hatty to attack Washington. Sent a two transports with infantry and artillery, to hover around the aluminum city until she had wounded him pretty bad. I then invaded and took the aluminum, but his culture kept me from it. I tried to take out his capital, but got some really crappy rolls and failed.
I was pretty bummed. But lo and behold, here comes Hatty with a big-ass stack. Ka-boom! Washington falls, the culture evaporates, and I have aluminum, hooray!
I built only one wonder, the Great Library. I captured several others. I was sneak attacked once by Washington during the middle of the game, but all he succeeded in doing was take out some fishing boats.
In the end, I finished a space race victory in 1818. Not bad. Late 1700s is possible.
Anyway, here's what happened on my first game back.
I decided beforehand that I wanted to go either space race or diplo, partly because everyone seemed to be going aggressive, and partly because these games are much quicker for me to finish. I didn't want to go cultural because that seemed too easy.
Settled in place. I knew that with the crowded map and aggressive AI, I would need early war. To have a chance at fastest, I would need a powerful early boost from captured cities and stolen workers.
So I crunched out warriors, stole a worker from Genghis, hooked up copper, and took him out with about six axes. I targeted Genghis because of the awesome potential of his capital in combination with the philosophical trait. That paid off in spades. I had three great scientists by 500AD and a total of about 14 in the game, along with two artists and an engineer (from fusion). I used five scientists on academies, added seven to my capital (with the Oxford), and used one to lightbulb education.
After taking out Genghis and his two choice great people farms, I hit Ghandi, taking the gold city and two others, then declaring peace when I saw the stack on his capital. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake, as I later wished I had the aluminum provided by that city. I had to find other means to score my aluminum, which caused a sub-optimal finish, as I spent at about a dozen turns building spaceship parts without the aluminum bonus.
I built a grand total of one settler and one worker in this game. The rest of my cities and workers were stolen from assorted AI.
At 500 AD, I had six cities. I discovered education around 400AD, and built universities immediately in all cities but one, which I used to crank out troops.
I hit Liz around 600 AD and took her gems city and a couple others, pushing her back to her subcontinent, where I left her alone for the remainder of the game. I then had nine cities--perfect for a cultural victory, but not quite enough for a really good space race. I wanted Ghandi's cities but he had substantial stacks and rifles by the time I was in shape to hit him.
So I took out Huyana's two cities to the north of me, both of which were choice tech cities, and one of which provided (another) great scientist farm. I destroyed his two other cities to get rid of the "we year to join our homeland" negatives. I then had eleven cities, sufficient, I thought, for a good win.
Settled into pure tech mode.
Trade, trade, trade. Cash flow. Constant 100% science bar. Used liberalism on Astronomy for early observatories.
Was disappointed when I discovered no aluminum in my borders. My neighbors, Liz and Ghandi, both had it, but both had substantial stacks that would distract me from teching.
But the cool part about aggressive AI, especially on a crowded map, is that you can almost always bribe someone to go to war. So I bribed Hatty to attack Washington. Sent a two transports with infantry and artillery, to hover around the aluminum city until she had wounded him pretty bad. I then invaded and took the aluminum, but his culture kept me from it. I tried to take out his capital, but got some really crappy rolls and failed.
I was pretty bummed. But lo and behold, here comes Hatty with a big-ass stack. Ka-boom! Washington falls, the culture evaporates, and I have aluminum, hooray!
I built only one wonder, the Great Library. I captured several others. I was sneak attacked once by Washington during the middle of the game, but all he succeeded in doing was take out some fishing boats.
In the end, I finished a space race victory in 1818. Not bad. Late 1700s is possible.
I had only the capital left at size 4 with no building but a barrack in 500AD.
I actually managed to attack gengies with axes, cats and some spearmen and took the city SW and Karakorum. So I was somewhat alive again until the Inca attacked me with knights and I lost in a (heroic ) last stand in Karakorum somewhere around 800 (can't remember if it was before or after).
I did do a replay and this time I had the most of Inca and English land and was marching on gengies at 500 AD.
I will never do a worker steal again! Stealing is bad!
I actually managed to attack gengies with axes, cats and some spearmen and took the city SW and Karakorum. So I was somewhat alive again until the Inca attacked me with knights and I lost in a (heroic
) last stand in Karakorum somewhere around 800 (can't remember if it was before or after). I did do a replay and this time I had the most of Inca and English land and was marching on gengies at 500 AD.
I will never do a worker steal again! Stealing is bad!
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