Horrible Last Stands & Pushes of Horrible Doom

[smallfish]

So what are some of everyone's desperate, shoestring operations pulled off in the many games you all played, if any?

I'll start the ball rolling with this:

This was Prince Continents, one of my first games back when I was still clueless about the game mechanics. Originally, I started out on that bulgy part of western blue landmass, but given I was Monty's neighbor, our history has been one of semi-constant warfare. At some point in time, not long after Modern, I decided that if I was going for full dom (and frankly, other options for victory were closed off by then - French won the first victory with Time), he had to go first.

There were three stages to this, three peace treaties as I nibbled his empire to death with salami tactics. This screenshot below was one of them, when I had established two footholds on his continent while denying him that uranium. At some point back then, Monty decided that attacking a city-state ally on my own side as payback for his losses was a good idea. It was, because the CS couldn't defend itself even with the B17s and artilleries and destroyer I gave it, and I was forced to intervene by declaring war on the CS, and then Monty.

The fighting was both semi-prepared and desperate, especially Seattle. It got hit hard by the full weight of the Aztec air force (eight jet fighters/bombers IIRC) and his mech-inf force. He knew that with Seattle in his hands, there will be that juicy uranium for his atomic bombs to make sure I knew MAD. What he didn't expect was the desperate lengths I'd go through to make sure he didn't get it.

Spoiler :

 

[Peng Qi]

Is that the OE clinging desperately to its two-island empire?

 

[smallfish]

Is that the OE clinging desperately to its two-island empire?

Pretty much. They lost the nuclear war with the French, who had the most, if not all the Wonders of the World in the capital (after grabbing Paris, my happiness boosted all the way to 40+, for instance).

 

[jbevermore]

Fondest memory was back when I first started playing Civ back at the Civ3 days.

Playing as England and just south of London was a very hilly swatch of territory that formed a buffer with my southern German neighbor.

Right around the industrial era Germany declares war on me. Unfortunatly they had a slight tech lead and had tanks where I was still two techs away. This resulted in a very "Saving Private Ryan" kind of war where I was desperatly trying to hold off a tank invasion in the hills with only basic infantry. I attacked as often as I could (for those that haven't played 3 offense and defense were seperate stats) as the numbers were slightly better. I would lose a unit more or less every other combat and was rushing in reinforcements as fast as I could. Somehow I was able to hold the line and once the English Armor division came online we were able to push all the way to Berlin.

I wound up losing that game to China but it didn't matter, I had survived. No Civ memory will ever top that one.

 

[Peng Qi]

Fondest memory was back when I first started playing Civ back at the Civ3 days.

Playing as England and just south of London was a very hilly swatch of territory that formed a buffer with my southern German neighbor.

Right around the industrial era Germany declares war on me. Unfortunatly they had a slight tech lead and had tanks where I was still two techs away. This resulted in a very "Saving Private Ryan" kind of war where I was desperatly trying to hold off a tank invasion in the hills with only basic infantry. I attacked as often as I could (for those that haven't played 3 offense and defense were seperate stats) as the numbers were slightly better. I would lose a unit more or less every other combat and was rushing in reinforcements as fast as I could. Somehow I was able to hold the line and once the English Armor division came online we were able to push all the way to Berlin.

I wound up losing that game to China but it didn't matter, I had survived. No Civ memory will ever top that one.

I had a similar experience in Civ3, wherein a network of defensive pacts caused me, England, and Persia to be fighting a desperate war against Germany and the Aztecs. I was on my own island and almost completely unthreatened, but Persia and England both shared a continent with Germany, who was by far the most powerful civ on the map. I started pumping out transports and infantry to try to help England hold (Persia was basically doomed), but it quickly became apparent that by the time I finished production, the narrowest point in England's territory would be overrun and there would be almost no chance of holding in the open terrain, so I drafted from every city I had until I could fill three transports full of infantry, who all fortified in the hills along a narrow isthmus. IIRC, every last one of them died, but it bought me enough time to field a more professional army with tanks and bombers. I think I won that game via domination after I took all of Germany and most of the Aztecs.

 

[smallfish]

I hear 3 is good and bad at the same time. Like some other not-civ game where nuking trees was a viable resource denial strategy.

Anyway:

Spoiler :

This doesn't look horribly lopsided right? Looks more like a city about to get its head handed on a platter eh?

Only two cannons survived, heavily wounded.

If it wasn't for two other reinforcements I had almost forgotten about arriving in the nick of time, that whole expedition (pushing through mountainous jungle terrain on foot is no fun) would have been a foregone conclusion.

e: and yes, that is an OCC.

 

[SlithyTove]

Was playing an India emperor standard size occ game trying for a cultural victory. My city was HUGE, extending many tile past workable land. Mountains made the land acces restricted to only six squares which were all hills. 4 of those squares were to CS to the south. Th other two faced east. A runaway England showed up there in medeival times.

They immediately declared war. So began an epic centuries long defense. They also allied with both CSes so i was fighting on three fronts. Because the city was so productive I had a surprisingly large force but it was always a tier or two behind in tech.

By the time England won a cultural victory I was holding off waves of rocket artillery, gunships and modern armor with mostly cannons and a few riflemen. There was so much continuous carnage generating generals that I had no less than four citadels in place. Not to mention a coast lined with cannon in forts.

I lost but take comfort knowing that England had to win by culture, they never got more than one square into my territory.

 

[Rpger29]

My favorite last stand was playing as Greece in my first deity game. I went on the offensive with Hoplites very early and took several German cities. Shortly thereafter, Songhai declared war on Germany as well.

After we split the German empire (I let Askia take the last German city for the extra WMH), America declared war on me. For some reason, Washington even allied with Askia despite the fact that all three of us shared common borders.

Faced with a two-front war, I teched the bottom of the tree as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I had no iron. My last stand was made with pikes I upgraded from remaining hoplites and the one cannon I managed to make before being overwhelmed. Athens fell to Longswords on one side and Mandecavs on the other.