How am I doing? (Monarch, Pericles, Toestra map)

[sampsa]

Honestly I think you can win any winning condition from here that you fancy. You have learned enough to be the runaway civ on monarch.

You seem to like slow building settlers. You should try to always whip workers/settlers to minimize the amount of stagnation! Unhappy citizens in capital cost close to nothing really. Having a size 9 capital at this point is a travesty. At least 15, why not more? You should have access to nearly every -resource already.

 

[skarpa]

I do usually whip settlers it's just that every time I start a new one in Athens it's a 3 pop whip or 3 turns to slow build and it didn't seem seem so good a deal. I'll check again at 2 turns left but I think it's a 2 pop whip whip again didn't seem good. What I thought Athens needed was me to stop building settlers. I've gone for a caravel this time

Ta again for playing along, it's much appreciated

 

[sampsa]

Yeah that is simply not a place to build settlers! You are way way below -cap and not working every strong tile. Capital is in general your most important city because of bureaucracy so grow it!

You also have clicked avoid growth on.

 

[sampsa]

My T128 capital

Spoiler :

Will be at -cap when the temple is finished next turn. I don't think it really makes sense to try to keep the -pool pure. You can start a golden age with the ones you don't like. Haven't bothered with non-river cottages, no big deal either way I guess.

 

[jorissimo]

That sounds really annoying. Get well soon

Thank you!

 

[skarpa]

Yeah that is simply not a place to build settlers! You are way way below -cap and not working every strong tile. Capital is in general your most important city because of bureaucracy so grow it!

You also have clicked avoid growth on.

point taken. I'll avoid that in future. No new settlers or workers have been built there this sess. Ta for spotting avoid growth, i don't usually use these so it may have been clicked by accident. Athens has been bigger.

Here I am at turn 200. At the end of my Taj GAge. GE, GM and GS all spawned in that order. Cities being starved to make most GP points from Pac and Caste before I go back to slavery and OR next turn. Econ should give me another GM next turn. Money is mostly me forgetting to tech but got 1900 from the first trade mission to Rome. I waited a few turns until Athens got bigger which I think put it up from 1300.

I've settled a new island to the North, horses about to come online. Built quite a few settlers, workers and units and held off buildings as no 25% boost from OR. Did build Oxford in Athens but held off running scientists until GE was safely out. Sparta was 50/50 GA or GM at the start but ran a ton of merchs and made it more like 70/30 so got lucky but not too lucky.

Teching was pretty shagged before GAge. I got Lib early on and chose Astro. I didn't want to wait. I don't think anyone could have beaten me to it but I wasn't sure I could reach Demo before they caught up and I wanted to get on and settle those islands. Bizzy is way behind but was beeline astro. Ragnar still at war with Bizzy. Presumably he's survived cos Bizzy has no tech edge. He asked for Con from me and got refused so now he's annoyed. I didn't want to lose brownie points with the other Hindu leaders and I don't need to fear him.

I finished settling the jungle - this is what goosed my econ but stuff is now starting to make money rather than just cost it. I beat Kublai to the fish in the west. He actually had a settler who was only a turn behind mine (I'd forgotten about the spot) and actually seemed to work out he'd lose the race and turned back 2 turns away. I got FP build before the GAge to try and contain my costs a bit more. I've won election to the AP but not had chance to try for a diplo victory yet. I've just bribed Caesar and Bizzy with some old tech to see if they'll become friendly. I don't really know how this works. Whenever I've won a diplo victory before I've been on the verge of a domination win. Now cuirassiers are about to come online I have 11 phants ready and more in the pipeline. Prolly enough to take Upsala but not enough to kill Ragnar. I don't wanna vassal him if it'll make other leaders wary. I wonder if they'll give me credit if I make him take up our one true faith. If not another 11 cuirassiers will be enough to finish him I reckon.

If I can't get voted winner I'll have to consider who else to take down I suppose. Once again Kublai is my only real rival with 20 cities. Suggestions for the quickest way to win most welcome!

 

[skarpa]

Here we are at turn 225

I sent Ragnar to Vahalla a couple turns ago. Easy meat. Hard to see what he'd be doing all these turns. It sure wasn't teching. He managed to get a pikeman out at the very end. He had a holy city but no shrine which reminds me to see if I can get a GProphet out. Just as I was about to go to war the AP gave me the chance to mass boycott Ragnar which passed nearly unanimously and later while I was at war there was a resolution for all members to declare war on Rag. Kublai had been plotting for some time - not against me unless he does that at friendly, I thought it was Ragnar but he was a little miffed I'd declared war on him. Still friends though. He's just attacked Ramesses instead. He's got rifles again. My spies watched him beeline for 'em. Do I intervene? I've not enough troops ATM but I can build cannons now and maybe take a nice city off Kublai or do I help dispatch Rameses? The later is probably easier. I'm hoping a AP resolution will let me halt the fighting or better still win the game. Will Kublai be pissed if I stop his war? Hmmm

As you can see I've just started my 3rd GAge with a GS and a GE I'd got last GAge for Statue of Lib but decided I wasn't getting Demo any time soon enough and a GAge would be better anyway. I built NE in Athens first for some extra boost but first out will be island Ephesus with possibly a GSpy even. Athens is aiming for GA, Sparta for GM and Rhodes for GM too. Mycenae will go for a GS in a few turns, as that's a gimmee and I don't wanna delay the others. I'm not not sure if I'll get em all, one or two may need to starve some peeps away

Settled another couple islands not in view and slow capping a barb city with a Cav and a Rifle who need to heal a bit before taking out the last longbow. Aug is now friendly and I've been sweetening Bizzy with gifts but he's not cracked yet.
Oh well, how to proceed.

 

[Lennier]

N.B.: To enable AP diplo win, every civ has to have at least one city with AP religion.

 

[skarpa]

N.B.: To enable AP diplo win, every civ has to have at least one city with AP religion.

thanks, didn't know that. Should be OK here, only Ragnar had no hinduism and now there is no Ragnar

 

[skarpa]

Diplo win at 1640, many thanks to Sampsa and others for the advice. I felt I should have won this the first time but now I've certainly learnt a thing or two about super rapid expansion and a good deal more. First time I've starved cities in GAges too while running max specialists on caste and pac. My final GAge spawned GA, GE, GM and GS. I blew the GE on SoL and would have started a 4th GAge once completed.

The AI can be soooo dumb. I thought I was too late to grab this well developed barb city. Aug had a stack there ready and could have beaten me to it but he still waited a turn which was just long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

Thanks for reading and playing along

 

[sampsa]

Great job!

 

[skarpa]

Thanks I've tried to take everything on board with this new game. I started it when I originally gave up the last map as beyond me. I've played this as far as cuirassiers but wasn't happy with being about 30 turns later than usual. This time I'm ahead and about to build a phant rush to crush SB. Henrik said it was possible to get CON by 1000bc, mine was 800 and then there was a bit of a kerfuffle with a Philistine uprising. Anyway I've now got Mids and GLH. Don't usually build 'em but I had stone and you'd reminded me how good LHS is on coastal maps. Last game I managed a successful peaceful expansion, gave SB Taoism, converted myself and he still attacked me without warning, he lost of course but unplanned wars are really annoying. Plus his bowmen are annoyingly tough even for phants. This time it won't be unplanned. Thanks again for reading

 

[sampsa]

Remember that dates are also very map dependent. On some maps you just can't get a construction-attack going by 1000BC. Also if you are playing monarch, even 1AD construction attack will win. Move up, asap!

 

[skarpa]

It's one thing having the tech, another thing actually having the forces ready. I think I may have been quicker if I'd not built the mids or GHL but 25 turns later I was still building forces. I made a late decision to build some pults to put a couple in first to soften up the defenders. Even if the guy they attacked was unscathed the splash would wound others. I have noticed how the best players seem to rustle up an army almost outta nowhere. Even whipping freely I struggle.

25 turns after that though the first round of the war has been won, SB's best 2 cities capped and 3 techs extorted out of the peace agreement. He was too stingy to trade earlier even after we became religious together. I really had to stop fighting anyway as I was actually losing gold even at 0% research. I may have built too much - 15 phants and 15 pults. I've spent 10 turns fixing my econ as much as a I can. Athens and Sparta building wealth and growing cottages. Other cities now have courts and I'm getting ready for the next wave of settlement. CS neary teched but I'm slow again. I don't know whether to wipe SB out completely. I have the forces but half of his cities are rubbish I think I'll raze. If I leave him alive they'll be spy crap and culture wars forvever, he's already taken MY marble. from Knossos. If I could vassal him it'd lose my points with the other AIs when the show up. They will. This continent is actually only semi-isolated. For some reason no one has sent a fishing boat. Prob barb galleys but I hope they are too busy fighting each other. Now lets see if I my econ can take a war again

 

[skarpa]

Turn 175

Sitting Bull is now lying flat, I razed the barb city and re-founded it 1 tile west to get the clam. Now I've an island continent to myself - or have I? Finally met Hannibal who sold me 3 backfill techs and his map for CS. Cahokia built me MoM. I've got meslef Educated, am a couple turns off optics and then I'll bulb most of Lib with my nearly here GS. I'll then decide whether I need to finish it asap. I fear so but then in a world where the AIs couldn't even build MoM will any be close?

GM should be right behind just in time for a trade miss. Not met any other AIs but probably will soon enough. Right now plan is to settle remaining good city sites, best is for copper, sheep and fishnext turn then there's horse and fish and the rest are pretty marginal but will pay for themselves eventually I hope with cottages. I need to decide on somewhere for FP and spread Taoism around some more. I also need to think of how to win from here? Get cuirassiers and then cav and go conquer Hannibal? I'd kinda like to do something different...

 

[pigswill]

If you've nearly got optics then GS will bulb optics or astro instead of lib. If you wan something different you can go siege instead of cuirs.