GOTM153 - Zululand Emperor Domination - Final spoiler - Game submitted

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue
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Jan 26, 2005
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Location
Vienna, Austria
This is the thread where you tell us how you did - win, lose or retire.

Only read or post in this thread when your game is ended and successfully submitted.
 
I deleted the notification email by accident, so i'm not 100% sure about the details. If i'm not mistaken, i hit Domination in 420 AD, with a Jason score of 11k plus something.

I managed to make contact with Persia in the early BC, and they fished the right MA tech (Engineering) so i could trade for all the 1-st tier techs and proceed to Chivalry. The barb uprising in the unsettled east gave me a few promotions, at the cost of two horses, one sword and a band of slaves. The conquest phase went as planned, with Korea being my first target, followed by India and England, followed by Scandinavia, Russia and a chunk of France.

A curious outcome was that i couldn't wipe out anybody before 300 AD. Korea was involved in a war with Russia, and managed to capture two towns in the Russian core. After i took over the whole Korean mainland, Russia managed to recapture one of their former cities, but the last one, which served as Korean OCC, somehow survived until i captured it much later, during the Russian campaign. About India, they had a stray settler that went into panic mode and settled inside French borders. War was automatically declared, but it took ages for the inept French forces to take over the Indian OCC. About England, they had a settler in a boat that went nowhere for the rest of the game. Stupid AS.
 
Also got this one done early. Fortunately I was able to solve my Great Wall problem without too much effort: I did not have to go back two auto-saves, but only one: I noticed that at the beginning of the turn that had triggered the crash, I still had two horses within reach of one of the threatened towns and I did not yet own the second threatened town: I got it in a peace treaty from France during the turn... So I just had to replay the current turn with two small modifications: send those horses into the empty town instead of towards the front (the barb Impi then did not attack the protected town) and obtain a different town in the peace treaty from France :D From then on I had no more problems with the Great Wall, only a small "hickup" later on: upon settling a town somewhere in the void west, a barb horse at distance 2 was revealed, and I immediately had to disband the town again, as no military unit was within reach. That was the "most short-lived town" in my entire Civ career... :crazyeye:

When I got Map Making and traded maps with all known contacts, I noticed that our main continent had enough tiles for Domination, so I never built many galleys (only a few to settle the small island north of Zululand and to get settlers faster into the void west) and consequently never met the Persians... (I can't remember many games of mine that finished before I had all contacts...:)) But as I sticked with horsemen for the rest of the game and never planned on using knights, missing out a scientific civ did not matter much to me.

As probably everyone else, I had a very early war against Korea, as I needed their territory... (One of their towns even was at the perfect distance for my second ring... :mischief:) That war went on, while I was still busy setting up my core. Afterwards the remaining troops from the Korean war (and reinforcements from the core) went on to France, where they captured the Pyramids (and the notorious Great Wall :() in Paris (using a RoP Rape), and more importantly gained my first and only MGL of the game. It was hurried back to Seoul to rush the Forbidden Palace there.

Shortly afterwards my first ring was up to size (thanks to worker joins), and I started the GA with a timely Impi-victory. During the GA, Zimbabwe and another first-ring city made 30spt, while Seoul and 7 more cities could be brought up to 20spt (or 21-23spt, I didn't care too much as long as it was at least 20...) In those cities I cash-rushed a worker for 80g and then finished a horseman in one turn. Also there were a few second-ring cities (as well as first-ring around Seoul) that were able to produce 10spt or even 15spt, so on average I was producing around 15 horses per turn during my GA. These were first sent to France to finish them off quickly, and then a second army was formed, which rolled northward through India, Scandinavia and Russia, while the remains of the French war took care of England. Russia and Scandinavia had beaten on each other for centuries, and also I had formented a few early wars between India - England, India - Scandinavia and France - England, so my forces did not meet much resistance, when they arrived there... :devil:

Then in the final turns joining captured slaves to size-1 towns and cash-rushing settlers to fill the gaps in conquered territory finally pushed me over the Dom limit in 380 AD - just a couple of turns after the GA ended, so I guess that worked out ok (or perhaps I could even have started the GA a little earlier?!) I think for this phase it pays off to invest early into the "cash-producing" infrastructure. Marketplace in all core cities are a must, and I also hand-built The Colossus and The Hanging Gardens in order to generate more cash. (That also help with getting 1-turn horses in all those 20spt cities.)

I liked the map a lot, especially the fact that it was so "straight-forward". For once there was no need to use heavy ship-chaining ( :thumbsup: ), which greatly reduced the "real time" required to play this game. I think I needed less than 20h (game time says "34:06:55", but I played this partly on my netbook, where I simply close the lid when done playing, so the game keeps running in sleep modus). So for once I was able to submit way ahead of time. (Alan and Piú will be glad to receive no last-minute requests from me this time... :mischief:)
 
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OK, no more troubles after troubled AA. AIs were incapable become serious threat to (finally) organized human. See almost no single SoD for entire game. Which feel certainly below emperor level, probably due fast barbs, who can severe damage early land development for AI. So may be for Deity level this scenario can bring much neater challenge (with player be informed about fast barbs, of course).

800ad, 10k jason.
 
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My results:

Somewhere in the middle...

Game status: Domination Victory for Zululand
Game date: 690 AD
Firaxis score: 9205
Jason score: 11129
 
Game status:Domination Victory for Zulu
Game date:620ad
Firaxis score 9119
Jason score 11080

Following on from the AA. I built several impi and horsemen to defend against the expected barb uprisings, but the Koreans had settled a town to the west and I guess that the barbs ransacked this town to pieces. Only a few barb horses came to my borders. So in 430bc I hit the Koreans first with my horses, who were destroyed by 170bc. I kept Seoul with the Great Library and after researching Cavalry, research was reduced to minimum. Both Russia and Scandinavia had reduced India to a 2 city state and settled many towns in the center area. I am still in a false war with India from 1730bc. In 130bc I goad Russia into declaring war, and in 90bc I declare war on Scandinavia. I get both France and England to agree MAs against both Russia and Scandinavia. India was destroyed in 70bc,

After destroying the viking capital peace is agreed with Russia and Scandinavia in 370bc. The Zulu lands stretch to the East coast separating Russia and Scandinavia to the North and France and England to the South. I then take out England (destroyed in 460ad), keeping London and Nottingham with Sun Tzu's, and The Great lighthouse. In 500ad I declare on France and push into their territory until the Dom limit was triggered.

After numerous unsucessful suicide galleys, and thanks to the Great Lighthouse, the Persians were discovered in 480ad. They were a mile behind in tech still lacking literature, republic. I just left them alone.

I really miss haveing the utility CA2, it is impossible to effectively manage the pop growth on so many towns correctly. Not knowing how far away I was from the dom limit was frustrating, as for many turns I sat in hope it would be triggered this go. If I knew I needed so much more territory I propably would have attacked England and Framce simultaneously.

But, it was an enjoyable game, thanks to the guys that still put in the effort to keep this GOTM alive.

Scratcher

What was the easter egg? That the map looked like a (yellow) flying ghost?
 
Wow, very different game plan here, but similar results. The game plan was to research very little myself then use the "pointy stick" method.
Early goals, build a 4 turner from the capitol, research full speed ahead to iron working.
Build up a core at ring 4, then build veteran warriors by the dozen and upgrade as needed.

Lets see what I can remember.

Popped two free villages, used one for workers every 10 turns until almost the end of the game, saw iron was nearby, and built the core. So far so good.
Move the warriors prepare for a war against Korea, and "game gods" are smiling on me as Korea builds the Great Library as I am upgrading.

Then it is non-stop war. Attack Korea, start fake wars and get India and Scandinavia to fight Germany for me.
Get the Library, and find out I am further behind than I thought.
Tool out Korea, move on to France, and ignore England for now. Upgrade another 15 swords, and set them after India.

Around 650BC moved into the middle ages, and got republic. 7 turn Anarchy.

Upgraded a lot of Swordsmen, then attacked Germany while expanding westward into empty land.

Met the last nation, don't think I need to attack so it is time to save some money then build temples.

Leaders
Build FP in Korean Captital
Build Great Wall so no one else could.
Army with Swordsmen
Army with Horses

Thats all folks.
 
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