450 is it complete nonsense or good playing? I rush the PALACE in Delhi.
To be honest, it would have been good playing if you had hand built FP somewhere else. Were you afraid of a flip since you didn't hurry FP in Delhi?
I have to say your result is impressive. Your game developed very differently from mine. Every AI pretty much kept their original territory until I rolled over them. Does it have something to do with you keeping everybody at war via alliances and me not doing this except in the beginning for war happiness and protection? It nearly cost me, because the last three AIs reached the Industrial age. Apparantly none of them got Nationalism and I only had to eliminate one of them to achieve domination.
I also had some trouble with establishing a second core. Rather stupidly, I used my first leader (280 AD) for JS Bach instead of palace even though I had built the FP in my core. The second leader (390 AD) hurried palace in Athens. The Greek core could have contributed more cavalries had I not been so fond of Herr Bach. Well, I guess it comes from playing too many short sessions. Here's the whole story:
MIDDLE AGES - 875 BC to the end
Now uninterested in Chivalry, we choose Engineering for research. We will build a small task force of immortals.
The question is who to attack. India for proximity? Babylon for Pyramids? Selected towns of a distant civ for safety? Well, India will have a lot of pikemen and Babylon won't. And Babylon has a nice collection of fragrancies.
Let's hope for a Great Leader, but with slow units, the chance is slim.
We'll wait a bit to build warriors, though. First there'll be some regularly built immortals.
In 775 the backwater Arabians declare war after demanding Polytheism.
We sell our only horses to Germany for 14 gpt. They will have their own horses soon anyway. In 590 the bloated Zulu empire makes demands and we gain war happiness. A horde of Arabian brutes appear and so we are forced to sign for peace with them, throwing in an alliance against Zulu. I have pillaged my own iron and have three towns making 10 spt. But I want to be able to do decent research, so the upgrades will be limited to around 8 plus two spearmen (for a total of 3 pikes.) With normally built immortals following along, we should be able to take Babylon, perhaps just after it has finished Hanging Gardens. 10-15 turns before Military Tradition we will start building horsemen for upgrades.
A problem seems to be that all the action takes place to the east while I am planning to invade Babylon to the north. It's a good thing the Zulu live so far away, but they are at war with India too, who could draw troops to us.
I am trying to claim the furs to the west but there is little protection. We resign ROP with India to give the Indian troops God's (or Shiva's) speed towards Zululand.
In 510 BC we get to trade Invention (1 turn) for next to nothing. We are able to sell Invention to Greece for a modest stack of gold and gpt. We trade Monarchy from Babylon for 29 gold per turn, make repeated outrageous demands on Babylon (many enough to make anyone furious) and then demand their stray bowman to leave our area. In the ensuing war, our one available immortal is barely able to kill the trespassing bowman (the immortal is red-lined) and I would only have had my two weak chariots available if the immortal had failed.
So I didn't use my immortals until longbowmen were in the loop. This gives me a queasy feeling that I have waited too long. But it could also show that research has been decent. I don't believe in conquering this world without cavalry.
Our invasion starts badly. We waste 2 immortals on a well-defended Ellipi, starting the Babylonian GA. Let's hope they can get Hanging Gardens thanks to it.
In 430 BC our attack goes well with the upgraded units in place. We trade Gunpowder (2) from Scandinavia for 17gpt, even though no other civ has gold to offer for it. Tyre turns out to be founded on saltpetre.
The AIs who have or will have their own saltpetre are:
Babylon
India (2)
Scandinavia
Germany
Zululand has it in a lonely town far from their home but rather close to us. They also have their only iron there.
In 270 BC we capture Babylon after waiting 2 turns for them to finish Hanging Gardens - historically appropriately for once. They actually did. They were the only capital to build HG and I figured they would make it. But I could hardly have waited even one more turn. I only had 3 immortals left to use when the great city fell.)
When Babylon (the nation) is finally terminated in 30 BC no Persian "Horrays!" can be heard. The immortals designated to grind Greece down have been decimated by around half a dozen by super spearmen in the last Babylon city. There are now only 16 immortals up in the north. In 10 BC (IT) the Greeks save us the moral qualms of declaring on them. We are not perfectly positioned, but troops positioned to quell resistance make sure we don't lose any towns. Our new plan for Greece is to use our first cavs to break the first Greek wave, capture 2-3 cities, and then leave the rest to the immortals. (I may have done it this way anyway, since slow units only doesn't go well with smart wars. Besides, I will need to have almost all 29 horsemen upgraded before an attack on India can bear fruit.) When this phase is over, all cavalries can turn against India. A gratifying fact is that India is in a prolonged war with Zulu and have sent dozens of elephants there. With any luck, they will have wasted their Golden Age on that. But the number of elephants is a bit awe-inspiring and there could be peace soon. If there is, I will wreck my rep by reallying India against Zulu, giving them MT if it's necessary.
IN 10 ad Military Tradition comes in.
In 90 aD India does sign for peace with Zulus. I immidiately sign an alliance with India against Germany, who has declared on us a couple of turns back. It's a pity I will have to break that alliance, but Indian troops can't be allowed to stomp back home through our territory.
In 130 AD Kolhapur flips to us. I can't recall when I last got a flip my way in the build-up phase of a deity game. The odds were about 0.6-1% according to civ-assist. How about that free musketman!
It's now 190 AD and the Greeks have just been eliminated. It went quicker than I thought; the cavalries were involved more than I had planned (none died) but this is OK since I still have 6 horsemen and one accursed CHARIOT to upgrade. Now all cavs and even a few immortals head south to roll over some elephants (?)
The Indian war started almost as badly as could be feared. Die-hard musketmen were redlined but seldom killed. An elephant sitting on a mountain on its way through our territory defeated two cavalries before succumbing to the third. Lastly, I failed to take a size 12 town because I sneezed(!) the moment I was going to attack the last defender, pointing and clicking on the wrong tile! We captured 2 core towns and one minor town, which was OK, but with too many losses.
But in 280 AD the Indians are crushed as Delhi and another core town falls. A leader builds JS Bach's Cathedral, a project that had been abruptly curtailed for Delhi's labourers. This was an easy choice for me for the leader; besides boosting the score slightly, JS Bach will be a shield against war weariness. But what am I thinking? I was going to use that first leader for a palace in Babylon or Delhi. Ah well, it's so late in the game (hopefully) that it will make little difference.
India did send back 8 elephants who did cause me some losses, especially the immortals hanging out in the east; all of them (5-6) died. But in 350 AD the fun was over for Gandhi. Doesn't being a poor, enlightened vagabond suit him much better anyway?
In 380 our second great leader emerges (in the newly started Scandinavian war) to hurry palace in Athens. In 440 the Scandinavians are gone. I expected heavy resistance in Nidaros, with 5 wonders, but three vet musketmen were lured out on the turn before annihilation, so I faced 8 defenders instead of 11.
But on the interturn of 440 AD all the three remaining civs enter the Industrial age. This year we declare war on Arabia, wavering the ROP rape method according to an ancient Templar code.
In 470 the Zulus attack us from out of the blue. We can't afford to have Zulu cavalries galloping through Germany so we ally Germany against Zulu for 91 gold per turn.
In 530 our 3rd Great Leader hurries library in Mecca. On the same turn the strong Arabs are eliminated. But we are 67 tiles from the domination limit. Now the question is if we should disband 2 cavalries per town for libraries instead of quelling resistance. We decide to do it: Settling the gaps in Arabia AND quelling resistance with only 29 cavs and the odd immortal/musket in order to hurry libraries takes too long. And capturing Zulu towns will also be slow because roads are blocked by German troops. (We did manage to capture one Zulu city via ship.) We sacrifize 9 cavalries to hurry 5 more libraries. Two turns later we disband-hurry temples to shave off one turn on expansions. In 560 domination victory is announced, 40 tiles above the limit.
Did you control this one early on, or did it require some late game strategy to finish it off?
my AI enemies.
i did not know that the way the towns are connected has an influence on corruption.
