[GS] How do I recover with this save? Disaster Saves.

[i_imperator]

Hey all. So here is the situation. I'm playing a game on emperor, standard Pangaea, where I attempted to rush Hungary with an Alex horserush. However he declared war on me early before I could get my horses online. He also took one of my cities. I managed to repel his attack and took peace, declared war on Grenada and by turn 143 i'm at 9 cities, however I am behind in tech.

I don't know how to come back from this situation. I was considering war against Hungary but his land is too defensible, between the encampments and mountains. I've also noticed that Korea and France have high science too. I wanted to do a domination game, with cannons and bombards, with this map but now I'm not sure what most suitable victory condition is. I have posted this map before in the struggling on emperor thread but I think it might be a good idea to start a thread where people can share disaster saves and have better players fix them.

I would like to win this map via domination as war (especially medieval and renaissance war) isn't my strongest skill in this game, and I would like to work on that. But if it is possible to win another way I will adjust my plans.

I'll post two save files, one right after I retook my city and one when i'm about to push for field cannons and bombards.

 

[Blue Odin]

I only see 1 Encampment in the screenshot. Any city that is building units should have an Encampment with a Basilikoi Paides. They give science equal to 25% of the production cost of military units when completing a military unit. I would have also keep Granada around to boost you military production. Build a few more Encampments with the unique barracks in any city building units, then crank out units. I would also build more melee units. Melee units are your meat to absorb damage, while your ranged and cavalry units are your knifes to kill enemy units.

 

[RohirrimElf]

On the current civ 6 build a well defended city is hard to take with medieval walls. If it has unfavorable terrain, like hills blocking sight and mountains, and a well placed encampment. With your current army i would not dare to attack without 4 bombards and 3 melee units that are not outdated. Bring some junk with you in hope they get attacked and not the bombards. Even then i did fail a couple of attempts so i dont feel comfortable giving military advice. I also feel uncomfortable attacking before biplanes. Attacking debrecen with this cannonfodder army wont go well. You will get oneshotted without breaking down the city walls.

My last win this week with Brazil on immortal happened without declaring war once. Just multiple city loyalty flips, good relationships and outsettling everyone on a tilted axis map. I did not capture a single city by force.

 

[kb27787]

you say horse rush but... where are the horses? (hetairoi) Which should be knights or cuirassiers by now. Meanwhile you have stockpiled 60 horses which went unused.

Hungarian cities are at strength up to 84, so your catapults and muskets will do nothing. I don't see a single great general either.

I would say this save is screwed unless you want to slog it out using planes (which I am not at all inclined to do).

I guess I can try from t76 instead.

even at t76... you have long passed horseback riding and not one hetairoi and no GG earned. I wouldn't say you "attempted" a horserush at all (or if you did, this was a settler-level effort). If you had done so, you would've beelined archery to horseback riding, and emperor AI's early attack dies to that easily.

Even at this turn number Hungary already has his black army.
Why did you buy into the crap spewed on these forums of swords + oligarchy? You should've gone horses.

Also, single promoted Pingala is useless; should've dumped the promotion into Magnus strategic discount.
Instead of ancestral hall, you need warlord's throne.

My advice is for you to go around his empire to the north and hit Kongo (I think I remember this map) who has tons of wonders instead and is a softer target, with horses.

Btw, if this is a domination run, get realistic... you never will be building all those fancy districts you planned (I get annoyed by the 20+ map pins!)

 

[Archon_Wing]

You built way too many commercial hubs. Gold is good but you need more science, culture, encampment, and probably faith. It should never be the first build in a district (well, could pull a harbor in a coastal city.) And then you have only 1 trade route somehow.

Something is very wrong with your development. You have barely any builders-- many hills have no mines and you could have Magnus'd an entire wonder in Alexandria. You have no cities at pop 10.

You also ought to get education earlier for universities and printing for a pop boost. Getting gunpowder will not change the tide. You need to build more catapults and swordsmen to upgrade anyways.

Alexandria in Aria should have been north closer to the hills. I mean game's obviously winnable but domination is probably not the best idea. You may try invading Kongo with Korea or something. You'll definite need corps for the rest.

 

[Beaver79]

I started playing it but I got bored. My suggestion is to build 2 more settlers and settle both cities up by Korea and move your army up there. That will put loyalty pressure on her cities that you are about to capture.

You have friendships and need alliances to get dip favor to trade. Monty and Indonesia were paying premium for it at like 7 favor per 100 gold. You have the pyramids and Liang out plus Monumentality so rush buy a bunch of builders in that city and pimp your empire out. Forget about the aqueducts and industrial zones as you don't really have great adjacency plus you need more science and culture.

I'd hardly call this a disaster though. You are close to science lead, you just need to build more campuses, infrastructure and the science buildings. You have a huge army and are already making bank with potential to make huge sums with the diplo favor trading. Hungry has renaissance walls up and 84 strength in his cities/encampments. You aren't taking him down without a corp of artillery, so pick on Korea and Kongo first if you still want a dom victory. I didn't play far enough to reveal oil, but you'll need some of that to finish the domination. Your land is green and doesn't look oilish to me which is why I'd suggest taking out Korea since she has some tundra up there.

Also stopping a dark age going into the next era is going to be rough. Start researching harbors and boats so you can explore a bit. I'd try to get a wonder somewhere too.

 

[i_imperator]

So after another failed attempt, I decided against playing from those saves and I replayed from the beginning, once again Hungary tried to rush me, but my warriors were able to stop him and be good meat shields for archer fire while I organised my 4 horses. I was able to take two of his cities and I've gotten loads of boosts for them. My districts order is going to be Encampment>IndustrialZone>CommHub>Harbor>TS.

Im going to use the UB to help the science. Mathias was kind enough to build two encampments this time, but in the wrong direction. Next target will be Kongo. I'm not sure what to do with the government plaza (which is in Dion, I placed it there because of all the forests and I need the slots in my other cities for Encamp>Ind>Comm). Should I build warlords throne or focus on settling with ancestral hall? Ill upload the T1 save if anybody wants to play it. Its on the King to Emperor thread too.

I went straight for HBR with a quick stop to mining this time. I was unable to get a GG as a result but I am very close to getting Boudica (Kongo got Sun Tsu ). I plan on chopping the project out in the capital to ensure it.