HFC- Cup 3 - Catherine of The Vikings

[Metzi]

Round 3 - The wooing of the Old People

Well, this round was definetly the most enjoyable of the lot. Unfortunetly, not much excitement.

We start by getting a religion started...

Happiness! We celebrate the day by sacrificing a Goat and, with the help of CoL, order new Courthouses around our 6 citys (Rule 1, is complete!)...

Some trades with our 'fuzzy-pets'...

The Queen stared at her Nation. After realising that Imbreeding is NOT the awnser, she decides to improve the land around the Citys. Cottages fill the lands, commerence fill the pots. And then a discoverey to change the way we think about the Universe. Unfortunetly the Queen was to busy eating last nights sacrifice...

Soon, many people began to think for themselves. The began to think about a new Democracy, where one could walk the streets without gun fire, or High-Fat Yogurt. To solve this, the queens chief Inquistador comes up with a revolutionary idea of culling the philosiphers. Apparently, human flesh doesn't stand well against 2000 Degrees of Molten Element. The Queen is most pleased...

(At this point, we are speeding along in tech. Finical doesn't seem that OP right now. )
Another tech, for her Highness! The savior of Skandinavia, the Womb of the Land, the Sun-Teacher, the Light Giver, the Bastion against Evil (or good, depends...) and the Reverant against Feminimity! We get Longbows...

One of the better events, if only for Hyuna Capac...

Another trade, helps keep our Slider at 100%...

Our 3rd Great Scientist! Settles a new Academie...

The Queen Laughs Manically as she swims in technoligies!

And some more trades. Unfortunetly, Hyuna gets Greedy. We must accepts, as of rules 2...

And a double dose of Awesome! We build a Wonder, and are the first to Lib...

A Great Merchant. He will now go to the capital of Russia, but we don't know the money quantity now...

L-I-B-E-A-L-I-S-M!!!!!

Tech...

Diplo (MUHAHAHAHAHAhAHAAHAHAHAhAHAHAHAAHA!)...

And end the round there.
Am I doing well? Crap?
I realy need to find the other AI...

 

[Metzi]

Round 4 -

Queen Catherine awaked from her royal slumber. She refreshes herself with some herbal-tea when a friend comes knocking on the door...

Reports come back from the Russian Capital. We have ranked in a GRAND TOTAL of 1790 GOLD! The Queen cranks up the Science up to 100%.
The Vikings learn a new technology and sell it immediatly. Kind of like the Goverment, no?

We soon learn (Cough...Steal...Cough) the secrets of Guilds, Banking and Optics.
A new Caravel is sent to explore the unknown world, hopefull of some Female Obominations (No offence inteanded, but the Queen can be THE ONLY candidate!!!).
The Queen, tired of her Palace, ordered a new one to Bring the continents together.
The Aposticalist Palace!

I have no Intention of Winning. I don't want it to fall into the wrong hands.

The Queen soon meets the Egyptians and thier pet, the Mayans.
(Wow...the Egyptians have done some serrious warring but they are VERY backwards)

We learn the secrets of Economics. As we are the first to reaserch it, we get a Great Merchant. The Queen starts a golden age!
The Queen then understands the secrets of Gunpowder!!!
The next AI we meet...

A double dose of backfilling...

We then open borders with all our foriegn dignities (Cathy's got an eye for Periciles. She likes teh Bald ones!). Yes, we reaserch Astronomy, the traderoutes reack in-ish.
A demand from our exotic friend...

A nice little (if bizarre) wonder we built in our #1 Production City (Nicely placed on our border)...

We vote for ourselves in the Apostolict election. We lose. Bugger.
We build Hindu religious buildings everywhere for Happiness and the +2 Happiness.
A nice wonder...

Two events that change to face of the planet.
The First: We get Production, lots of it!
The Second: There is War in the other continet. Obviously other our monarch...

We meet the last AI, the Ottomans...

Diplomacy at it's finest ...

Spoiler :

BUGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I save there. We learn Chemistry and Nationhood.
The Tech...

Spoiler :

The Diplo screen-tingy...

The Save...

 

[Cam_H]

Good to see your progress ...

2) You must befriend all of the MALE LEADERS (you must accept ALL demands from them. You may NOT declare war against them.

... and then ...

... Contradictory loophole in the rules? You can't deny Pericles but you can't declare war on Julius Caesar either.

Anyway - seems that the former overules the latter.

Keep up the good work! Victory target in mind?

 

[Metzi]

Oh the irony!
Regardless, I'm in war now.

I don't know about the Victory Conditions.

My main plan is to eliminate backwards Juilius and his Vassel (His Vassel will be target #1 as he has only 1 city. MUHAHAHAHAHA!)

From there I think Space is the most predictable, though I could try and win a Diplomicay before hand...

If I win this game, I'm so trying prince .

 

[vicawoo]

About your start:
-Moving your settler wasn't really worth it. You lost fresh water, which will limit your capital's size.
-Plains/hill/sheep is a low food, food tile. Instead of growing to size 3, you should have been able to finish that warrior or scout soon after you grow to size 2, and switch straight into a settler, from which you'll receive imperialistic bonuses.
-Second tech is debatable, at size 2 I would have advocated mining instead of waiting 3 techs before you can make a useful improvement. Or farm a flood plain to speed your growth later.
-No need for archery when you have bronze working.
-Too many roads. Improvements increase your tile production. Roads can ... speed your units (0 extra production), have no other benefit if you're connected by rivers, if you're not connected can give you access to health resources when you're not unhealthy (0 benefit), give access to happiness resources (benefit if you're at max size), give access to strategic resources (good)
Instead of building roads, you could have prebuilt a cottage so birka could work it immediately
-While peacefully expanding, barracks are a waste of hammers. Unpromoted axes defend against barbs archers/warriors just as well as promoted axes, certainly 2.5 unpromoted axes can defend far more land at the same cost as a barracks axeman.
-Early unhappiness while you're still building workers is a big mistake. Just build the worker at a smaller size, get it sooner, and pay less maintenance.

If you manage fogbusters carefully, you might be able to convince barbs to set up extra cities exactly where you desire them.

 

[Metzi]

@ Vicawoo

Ty.
I usually build roads to everything...
I guess I can do that once I have improved everything.

 

[Metzi]

I've played the next round, but I think I will extend it so that the post ends in Victory or defeat!

 

[Metzi]

Round 5 - ​

Queen Catherine awakes to find that she is in war with Husband number 5 (Egyptians)
and 4 (Mayans). Finding the oppertunity to much to miss, she begins building a Great General farming force. (This plan worked, and we scored 4 GG's ).

As the queen orderes her plans, the vote for the Apostolict palace comes up. We vote to ourselved, but to no avail, Zara Yaqob wins. (Hubby No 2, Russian, Best Friend).

Soon the Queens Chief Scientist developes a new technology which enhances our army firepower with...cannons!

The Armada was being constructed (I knew we wouldn't be able to take the continent, but I wasn't going to sit there and waste the oppertunity for GG's), the Economy booming and the Culture pressing obruptley against the spanish border.
Soon, a vote for the Apostolic palace is issued.
"Return the city of Salamanca to Metzi".
The Queen smiles and votes "yes".
Zara Votes "yes".
Hyuna Voted "no".
The Queen looks apon her new city, undeveloped and un-healthy. (I'm seriously wandering what the spanish have been doing with it the past 400 years)

The armada is almost complete, yet we do not have a complete map of the other continent. To solve this, the queen makes the following trade.

The Queen admires herself while the Scientists unlocked the secrets of Constitution!
Then, an event that caused a small hole to appear in the world, happened.
Pericles capitulated to Egypt after losing 2 citys. The Queen was now at war with a whole continent. She now felt like a gullible AI.

To compensate for this, the Queen reaserches Rifling and upgrades all with Rifles.
The Armada sets sale for a small peninsula, our 'farming' spot.
We reaserch corporation, which gives our economy a nice (if small) boost.

The legion lands around the target city. After a succsessfull siege and assult, we take over the city and wait for the Combined Egy-othi-yan SoD.

After gaining 2 GG's from our farming spot, we reaserch 3 technologys. The second is debatable, but I did infact steal it from Hyuna Capac.

After valliant fighting, and gaining 2 more GG's, the city falls into the hands of the Egyptians.

We agree to peace, but not without giving Printing Press to him. Teh GG's are settled acordingly and both our Production city pump out nice 9xp units!

Pericles demands paper. We shove it down his throat.
We learn the secrets of biology! This greatly improves our Production citys population and our GP's-farm productivity.

The round ends there,
The Tech situation.

The diplomacy screen. As you can see, we have a defensive pact with the Russians, as he is our main bud ATM.

Next step, VICTORY!
The save, if you want it.

 

[Cam_H]

Metzi,

Thanks for posting the save.

Plenty of suggestions to make, but I'll keep it relatively short;

• Workers!

What on earth are your Workers doing?! They should be focussing on getting railroads on Mines in cities' big fat crosses and connecting up a railway network between cities for optimal intra-empire troop movement.​

• Trouble brewing?

Julius Caesar has "enough on his hands" and you're his worst enemy. Be wary of possible invasion, although he could well be after Ramesses as another potential vassal (presenting himself as a Domination / Diplomatic victory threat). At very worst put some decent units in Uppsala.​

• Democracy

Consider Democracy for your current technology. Zara's being too demanding to justify that trade, so think about investing six turns on researching it for; combating your Emancipation unhappiness, getting Universal Suffrage's +1 from your numerous Towns, build the Statue of Liberty (even if you're not really running a specialist-oriented game), and Security Bureaux will aid in your espionage efforts with +8.​

• Victory Variant

Speaking of espionage, do you have a strategy for getting all AI leaders under one religion and/or free religion on your winning turn? Note that both Ramesses and Zara Yaqob have religious favourite civics, and will be reluctant to move into Free Religion. You're unlikely to be elected to Secretary General of the United Nations either given Caesar's size. Indeed you run a risk of gifting Caesar the game if you build the UN.​

• Builds

Very quick suggestions on some builds: Uppsala will make a much better Great Person Farm for your National Epic city than Haithabu with its food resources. Haithabu should continue to focus on its cottages, and for starters work those two riverside Villages that are only a few turns off developing into Towns. Birka's a unit pump, and should press on with military. Nidaros continues to be without Hinduism and is missing out on the benefit from Organised Religion as well as happiness and the benefits extended to Hindu buildings - as such send a Missionary there.​

 

[Metzi]

I put the workers on automate for a bit (Keep old improvements) while I was farming GG's .

Thank you, and I think the Egyptians are going to be a pain. I will start pumping out units and start changing the GP farms.

The Religion thing.
I'm hopeing that I get some buddist citys actually.
Then I could mend the gap between Egypt and we.
Not to metion possibly emlimenating some of the opposition.

This has been a great learning experiance, and I already have a crazy idea for the next HFC.

 

[Cam_H]

I put the workers on automate for a bit (Keep old improvements) while I was farming GG's .

You will hinder your efforts to improve your gameplay if you do this. I can go 'on and on' about how 'unadvantageous' automating your Workers are, but you need only look at the pathetic actions that they're currently undertaking in your game to see what a bad idea this was.

Thank you, and I think the Egyptians are going to be a pain. I will start pumping out units and start changing the GP farms.

The Religion thing.
I'm hopeing that I get some buddist citys actually.
Then I could mend the gap between Egypt and we.
Not to metion possibly emlimenating some of the opposition.

Best of luck with all of that. I'm concerned that this will be an 'uphill battle' for you now. While a standard victory is quite do-able, the variant will make this quite difficult I suspect in your game.

 

[Metzi]

The workers where only on for 10 turns I believe. Then I switched them back to un-automate.

This is going to be tough, and the demanding rule could cause me to commit suicide .

 

[Cam_H]

I took your 1778AD game ... and it's certainly winnable. Focus on technological superiority. You will probably have to battle quite a bit, but with better quality units you should prevail.

Your cities have very defined roles - take the opportunity to leverage each one's strength, such as (but not necessarily!);

• Nidaros: Science Centre
• Uppsala: Great Person Farm / Naval units
• Haithabu: Wall Street / Corporation HQ
• Birka: Unit pump
• Bjøjgvin: General commerce / Scotland Yard and espionage focus
• Jelling: Ironworks / Unit pump / Wonders
• Salamanca: Moai Statues / Naval units

Obviously you will need to be a bit flexible to move with the circumstances of the game, and take into account other factors (e.g. clearly Jelling can't build the Three Gorges Dam, so look elsewhere if you want that Wonder), so while trying to keep focus on cities' roles there's no need to be detrimentally blinkered about their respective functions.

 

[Metzi]

The round has been played, but I'm to busy to post it.

 

[Metzi]

Round 6a - An Acopaliptic Revenge

Things where running smoothly. We where ahead in tech. We used spys to sabotage Hyuna's plans for Culture.
Then, Ceacer (Egypt) declared on Ramsees (Ottomans).
He capitulated after 2 turns .
As expected, Ceaser came to my door step.
Yet all was not lost.
Ceaser = Trebs + Curassiers
Metzi = Machineguns + Infantry

This is his first wave. (He had about 7 there after )
He used two stacks off outdated units to take my two coastal citys. We had the victory in both citys, without loosing a single unit! Unfortunetly, his second wave was only 3 turns behind.

As Ceasar was constantly forcing units down my throat from the East, I decided to counter-attack with this little fleet. It came to be transporting tanks by Transporters later on!

A very nice wonder, that makes rule 2 a blissfull nip instead of a heartless stab.

The takeing of the Ottomans Island!!! (MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

A very interesting thing happened.
Stalin showed up.
Apparently Caesar made a Colony containing 2 citys on an island.

More screenies!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Hyuna demanded Biology. We shove it down his throat, and become pleased with him in the process.

We take the capital.

We finish Plastics.
And a nice wonder, enabling our Hammer city to pump out level 4 units!

Our next target. (As Caesar refuses to make peace, we will hit him HARD!)

The island, nearly conquered as soon as my tanks get those citys.

Thoughts:
1) I will hit the bloody Egyptians hard with tanks and artilliary until they sue for peace!
2) I will seduce both males on my continent. Prehaps with some 'junk' resorces or commonly known techs.
3) I'm thinking Space Race, but prehaps a culture as a back up..

The save...

 

[Cam_H]

Metzi,

Best of luck with the war effort.

One small suggestion regarding your espionage: You've got well over 14,000 and growing directed at Huayna Capac, who has already researched Artillery, the tech' that you're now self-researching. I'd self-research the rest of the technology given that you've invested so many beakers into it, but do be mindful of the option of stealing his technology in the future (hopefully he'll research Flight for you next). Also, Zara's the only non Buddhist / Free Religion, so you might direct some points at him for the end game.

 

[Metzi]

Yes, I forgot to mention that Zara is my last target for a Whole-religion world.
Ty for that advice. I will let hyuna research the improtant ones, and prhaphs invest some into Zara.

 

[bhavv]

TBH, I stopped playing CRE leaders a very long time ago since stepping up to Monarch difficulty and higher.

Recently, I started playing Sury and Gilgamesh on Monarch, and have really gotten into playing CRE on higher levels.

I previously never understood how cathy, or any CRE leader was good for REXing, because I thought you needed FIN or ORG to do that to afford the upkeep, but now I learnt how to completely crash my economy and recover using the cheapo libraries, I want to give Cathy a try .

Sury benefits from cheap Granaries, Workers and Libraries, very powerful in the Ancient Era.
Gilgamesh gets cheap libs, early cheaper courthouses (great for economy), plus a powerful ancient era UU.
Cathy gets the cheap libs, plus cheap settlers which should allow for a faster rex than the other two.

Once you know how to play Creative at Monarch+, it becomes very powerful, particularly with those three leaders. But I would prefer to play Cathy of Russia as I hate the Viking UB.

By the way, at the pics in post 21, why are you building monuments if your playing a CRE leader?

 

[Metzi]

The monument building - I'm doing it for two reasons:
1)Because I ran out of things to build.
2)Because of culture, which is my back-up plan, the culture
doubles after a certain amount of time. Every little helps in
a Culture victory.

bhavv play random leaders! By the sounds of it, trying to avoid creative civs is seriously undermining your fun/experience. And creative leaders are very fun, as you can block in civs quite efficiently.

 

[Metzi]

Round 7 - Victory!​

We began the round by finishing off the war. Ramsees II, the Ottoman Empire, is now dead.

Spoiler :

After capturing all of the Island and one of Ceasars citys, Ceasar agrees to peace.

Spoiler :

An interesting event. Hyuna pleads to be our Vassal State. Obviously this is because he wants protection to win a Culture victory, but it will act as a barrier just incase Ceaser gets any ideas.

Spoiler :

A few techs, the first stolen from Hyuna Capac. As he wouldn't give it to me diplomaticaly and he already built the UN, I decided to steal it.

Spoiler :

Our Hubby gets greedy.

Spoiler :

The reasons we built the Cristo Redentor. This is a wonder we will build every game if I can. It's to bad it comes a little later.

Spoiler :

The U.N elections. We abstain, hoping that Ceaser doesn't get into power. And, he doesn't! .

Spoiler :

More techs! None stolen this time. As you may see, we are aiming for a Space Victory.

Spoiler :

More diplomatic demands. More Cristo Redentor love.

Spoiler :

A new wonder. I built it because I don't want anyone else to have it. .

Spoiler :

We built all the Spaceship parts and launched!

Spoiler :

The standing.
We will win in 15 turns.
Pericles built 2 parts. The Life Support. And a Casing.
Hyuna had one legendar city. His capital. The over two where 100+ turns off Legendary status.
Ceaser built one Casing for his space ship.

The Queen arives in space. She looks for Alpha Centuri, gets bored and sends for one of her Husbands to do it instead.

Spoiler :

We WON!!!
Our standing, very good for me. .

Spoiler :

Unfortunetly, we where unable to unite the earth under one Religion. We had many attepmts to do so, even using the 'adopt Free-religion' using the UN. But unfortunetly, Zara defied it every time.
We will count this as a win, as well....we won.

Now feel free to explain your lovely wins!​