Hate dealing with aggressive backstabbing AIs? What about runaway financials AIs? Here's a report that you might be interested in reading.
Rolling a start, Emperor/Continents...here we go. Hatty is is my favorite civ because of her frontloaded power: war chariots + creative means she is great against early barb defense, farming + wheel means that horses are one tech away and she can easily power out settlers/workers, while creative lets you get GS's early and win border wars.
Images are kind of bad because I forgot to take them during some time periods, sorry about that
Here's the start. I actually moved up 1N in order to get the hills into play. I'm not exactly lacking for food here so I like to change it into production early on. AH because I like my horses and because I have pigs.
My land, not too bad either. Warrior is already at second city site, because Elephants are yummy. Another warrior is checking out the stone/incense to see if there is food there. No horses, so I went mining/bronze working. I would have went mining anyway because food resource + multiple hills = early game production machine. No pottery yet because with 4 AI on the continent the chances of me getting boxed in are pretty big. Production first and then cottages later.
Oh and look at the AI. What fine group of gentlemen. Brennus is...erratic, Wang Kon and his elephwacha abuse, and Shaka, aka Mr. Farm, who I absolutely despise if he's right next to me. Strangely enough though he found Hinduism. Why do I have a feeling religious tensions are going to run high?
Yay for Bronze. I see two more good city sites (warrior is at bronze/wines/floodplains) while City four is horses/cows. City 5 is potentially cows + incense + stone (maybe it should have been City 3/4, but whatever). Oh and I see Napoleon. I actually have no idea how Warlords Napoleon acts like; I hated his Vanilla version.
Cottages are going up (hey just because I don't think financial is OP doesnt' mean I don't cottage). Heliopolis changed from a granary to worker, Memphis is using 2 scientists and Thebes is merrily building Stonehenge for no reason other than to get a cash refund (although it's probably best to halt growth at 5 and just run 2 scientists). With 4 cities it's a good time to stop before getting CoL/Currency.
Oh and Brennus found Judaism. Him and Napoleon are furious at Wang (man gotta love those hidden values). Brennus is also friendly with Napoleon (urk!). Better him than me.... Shaka's in the North. I'm trying to gift him tech so he'll be pleased with me, but it takes a while.
Further development. I see a nice cow/wheat/iron city, but I have to raze the Barb city first anyways. I can then plant a new city NE, getting fish some floodplains and other goodies. In my haste at everything I didn't notice Shaka's archer settler pair. They took my cow/incense site! Gah this is what I get for playing fast.
Oh and Wang has feudalism. He's running away with the tech game. Thank goodness I have warmongers here. If it was a bunch of lovey-doveys the game would be a LOT harder. OTOH, Shaka is willing to go to war. I'll try and sic him on Wang if I can. I also opened borders with Shaka, hoping that I'll get Hinduism and me and him can be all Batman/Robin.
1 AD passes by, I get the GL and suddenly the trumpets of war sound. It's Napoleon declaring on Shaka. Napoleon is way north of me so I decide to backstab Shaka. He's diplomatically isolated so his tech rate is horrid. Go for construction and start building swords/elephants/axes/catapults. I also want to make sure that Brennus doesn't get any funny ideas. OTOH, Shaka going against Napoleon makes him not as good against Wang, who is shaping up to be the leader here. So open borders with Brennus, hoping that he can be my weapon against Wang.
I pop philo in 375 AD and found Taoism. The following is why lightbulbing is SO powerful.
(Don't mind the 275 AD part. I had to go back to a 220 save and play a few turns to get his screenshot. Yea I generally play really fast so my game isn't optimal. Sorry about that).
Ruh roh. Brennus is willing to go fight Wang! Unfortunately he won't go to war for Drama/CoL. But wait! I just popped Taoism. So I sell him Drama for some gold. The next turn:
Hooray. That basically accomplishes two things.
1) I'm immune to sneak attack. I really like having the peace of mind.
2) Brennus will hate Wang forever.
3) This more reinforces my decision to press full on for war against Shaka. Shaka's tech is so slow he doesn't have Longbows yet. Since everyone else is at war, I wont' fall as hopelessly behind in tech as I normally would.
700 AD...uh oh Napoleon signed peace with Shaka. Shaka also has Feudalism.
Crap, I probably wasted time setting up economy and other stuff. Oh well, he's probably depleted from Nappy's war, so let's attack! I gather some units and start the attack circa 800 AD.
In other news, in 520 AD Brennus asked me to declare against Wang. Sure thing buddy. Wang only had one way to reach my borders and it was blocked by jungle so I wasn't TOO worried. Unfortunately, after ten turns he wanted Memphis in order to end the war; no way buddy! Thankfully he brought in duo of Elephant/Horse Archer. I killed those and he signed peace
. In addition, Brennus and Wang Kon signed peace in 960. I then bribed Napoleon to declared on Wang in 980 . Unfortunately Wang's superior tech and numbers crushed Nappy. On the other hand, Nappy lost the Confucian holy city and converted...to Judaism!
In 1090, Brennus declared on Wang again (I might have bribed Brennus this time too, I'm not too sure). Sorry Wang, I don't care if you're financial or not, facing constant attacks is going to do a number on you.
Oh and Judaism FINALLY came into my borders. Time for spiritual power! Revolt into Organized Religion (Brennus' Favorite Civic) and whip a missionary to Thebes, then go run Pacifism/Caste to get some GPP while being in the same religion as Brennus, then back to Paganism for the war, then back to OR for infrastructure, etc. etc. Spiritual is just soooo good.
400 years and 2 Great Generals later....
I have lots of decent land. and Shaka is now nothing. Good riddance Shaka. Unfortunately my tech rate is horrid. Wang has 7-8 techs on me. I'm going for Nationalism because Wang a) beat me to Liberalism b) Thebes can produce about 100 shields a turn with Forge/OR/bureacracy/Marble bonus. My next goal is Military Tradition; Defensive Pact means the chance of enemy sneak attacks is LOW.
(The next part is without pictures...sorry about that);....
A few hundred years pass, I get the Taj built, form a defensive pact with Brennus, trade some maps and notice that the last two civs are tightfisted Ragnar and curiously warlike Washington.
Checking the diplo screen is very important! In this game I knew Brennus and Napoleon were going to be my buddies while Wang was gonna be my enemy. What about Ragnar and Washington? Well Brennus and Napoleon don't seem to be fans of Washington (Brennus is furious with him...) so Ragnar it is. I gift him a tech and he instantly opens up borders.
BTW what is up with all the new AIs introduced in warlords being so tightfisted. Shaka/Stalin/Ragnar are a PITA to trade with. Ah well.
By this time I had already decided to go for a diplomatic win (with spaceship on the side. I was also thinking maybe I could try culture, but diplo was the goal). I was already friendly with Nappy and Brennus, so now it was time to get Ragnar on my side and reduce Washington's population. Here we go again....
Then in 1735 my defensive pact was broken. Brennus went after Wang Kon AGAIN. Furthermore he bribed Napoleon to enter the war too. This could prove to be a complete disaster. If Brennus' population became second, then diplomatic would be unobtainable. In fact I wanted Wang to win the fight, so that there was a greater chance he would be #2. As a result, the next turn I bribed Napoleon to immediately stop attacking Wang.
Meanwhile I had been gifting tons of resources to Ragnar in hopes of getting more bonuses. Ragnar asked me to declare against Washington. Seeing that Ragnar's power was slightly and that Washington was far away from me, I said "yes." It was a phony war, and as soon as Ragnar signed peace with Washington so did I.
At around ~1820 Wang was in danger of running over Ragnar, so I eventually bribed Wang to stop fighting Brennus. And you don't see this everyday....
Eventually I got the UN built. Strangely enough my opponent was Washington (is there a way to check other civ's population?). Anyways, the results of the first election:
Nice. Now just to wait and see if I can win or not....
And...
Hooray. Fully legitimate Diplomatic Victory (4 civs voted for me, 2 against and Shaka is just irrelevant).
Hope you enjoyed the report. Any questions or comments just ask. I know I'm a bad microer and I probably talk too much smack, so any comments about that have already been noted by me
.
Rolling a start, Emperor/Continents...here we go. Hatty is is my favorite civ because of her frontloaded power: war chariots + creative means she is great against early barb defense, farming + wheel means that horses are one tech away and she can easily power out settlers/workers, while creative lets you get GS's early and win border wars.
Images are kind of bad because I forgot to take them during some time periods, sorry about that
Here's the start. I actually moved up 1N in order to get the hills into play. I'm not exactly lacking for food here so I like to change it into production early on. AH because I like my horses and because I have pigs.
My land, not too bad either. Warrior is already at second city site, because Elephants are yummy. Another warrior is checking out the stone/incense to see if there is food there. No horses, so I went mining/bronze working. I would have went mining anyway because food resource + multiple hills = early game production machine. No pottery yet because with 4 AI on the continent the chances of me getting boxed in are pretty big. Production first and then cottages later.
Oh and look at the AI. What fine group of gentlemen. Brennus is...erratic, Wang Kon and his elephwacha abuse, and Shaka, aka Mr. Farm, who I absolutely despise if he's right next to me. Strangely enough though he found Hinduism. Why do I have a feeling religious tensions are going to run high?
Yay for Bronze. I see two more good city sites (warrior is at bronze/wines/floodplains) while City four is horses/cows. City 5 is potentially cows + incense + stone (maybe it should have been City 3/4, but whatever). Oh and I see Napoleon. I actually have no idea how Warlords Napoleon acts like; I hated his Vanilla version.
Cottages are going up (hey just because I don't think financial is OP doesnt' mean I don't cottage). Heliopolis changed from a granary to worker, Memphis is using 2 scientists and Thebes is merrily building Stonehenge for no reason other than to get a cash refund (although it's probably best to halt growth at 5 and just run 2 scientists). With 4 cities it's a good time to stop before getting CoL/Currency.
Oh and Brennus found Judaism. Him and Napoleon are furious at Wang (man gotta love those hidden values). Brennus is also friendly with Napoleon (urk!). Better him than me.... Shaka's in the North. I'm trying to gift him tech so he'll be pleased with me, but it takes a while.
Further development. I see a nice cow/wheat/iron city, but I have to raze the Barb city first anyways. I can then plant a new city NE, getting fish some floodplains and other goodies. In my haste at everything I didn't notice Shaka's archer settler pair. They took my cow/incense site! Gah this is what I get for playing fast.
Oh and Wang has feudalism. He's running away with the tech game. Thank goodness I have warmongers here. If it was a bunch of lovey-doveys the game would be a LOT harder. OTOH, Shaka is willing to go to war. I'll try and sic him on Wang if I can. I also opened borders with Shaka, hoping that I'll get Hinduism and me and him can be all Batman/Robin.
1 AD passes by, I get the GL and suddenly the trumpets of war sound. It's Napoleon declaring on Shaka. Napoleon is way north of me so I decide to backstab Shaka. He's diplomatically isolated so his tech rate is horrid. Go for construction and start building swords/elephants/axes/catapults. I also want to make sure that Brennus doesn't get any funny ideas. OTOH, Shaka going against Napoleon makes him not as good against Wang, who is shaping up to be the leader here. So open borders with Brennus, hoping that he can be my weapon against Wang.
I pop philo in 375 AD and found Taoism. The following is why lightbulbing is SO powerful.
(Don't mind the 275 AD part. I had to go back to a 220 save and play a few turns to get his screenshot. Yea I generally play really fast so my game isn't optimal. Sorry about that).
Ruh roh. Brennus is willing to go fight Wang! Unfortunately he won't go to war for Drama/CoL. But wait! I just popped Taoism. So I sell him Drama for some gold. The next turn:
Hooray. That basically accomplishes two things.
1) I'm immune to sneak attack. I really like having the peace of mind.
2) Brennus will hate Wang forever.
3) This more reinforces my decision to press full on for war against Shaka. Shaka's tech is so slow he doesn't have Longbows yet. Since everyone else is at war, I wont' fall as hopelessly behind in tech as I normally would.
700 AD...uh oh Napoleon signed peace with Shaka. Shaka also has Feudalism.
Crap, I probably wasted time setting up economy and other stuff. Oh well, he's probably depleted from Nappy's war, so let's attack! I gather some units and start the attack circa 800 AD.
In other news, in 520 AD Brennus asked me to declare against Wang. Sure thing buddy. Wang only had one way to reach my borders and it was blocked by jungle so I wasn't TOO worried. Unfortunately, after ten turns he wanted Memphis in order to end the war; no way buddy! Thankfully he brought in duo of Elephant/Horse Archer. I killed those and he signed peace
. In addition, Brennus and Wang Kon signed peace in 960. I then bribed Napoleon to declared on Wang in 980 . Unfortunately Wang's superior tech and numbers crushed Nappy. On the other hand, Nappy lost the Confucian holy city and converted...to Judaism! In 1090, Brennus declared on Wang again (I might have bribed Brennus this time too, I'm not too sure). Sorry Wang, I don't care if you're financial or not, facing constant attacks is going to do a number on you.
Oh and Judaism FINALLY came into my borders. Time for spiritual power! Revolt into Organized Religion (Brennus' Favorite Civic) and whip a missionary to Thebes, then go run Pacifism/Caste to get some GPP while being in the same religion as Brennus, then back to Paganism for the war, then back to OR for infrastructure, etc. etc. Spiritual is just soooo good.
400 years and 2 Great Generals later....
I have lots of decent land. and Shaka is now nothing. Good riddance Shaka. Unfortunately my tech rate is horrid. Wang has 7-8 techs on me. I'm going for Nationalism because Wang a) beat me to Liberalism b) Thebes can produce about 100 shields a turn with Forge/OR/bureacracy/Marble bonus. My next goal is Military Tradition; Defensive Pact means the chance of enemy sneak attacks is LOW.
(The next part is without pictures...sorry about that);....
A few hundred years pass, I get the Taj built, form a defensive pact with Brennus, trade some maps and notice that the last two civs are tightfisted Ragnar and curiously warlike Washington.
Checking the diplo screen is very important! In this game I knew Brennus and Napoleon were going to be my buddies while Wang was gonna be my enemy. What about Ragnar and Washington? Well Brennus and Napoleon don't seem to be fans of Washington (Brennus is furious with him...) so Ragnar it is. I gift him a tech and he instantly opens up borders.
BTW what is up with all the new AIs introduced in warlords being so tightfisted. Shaka/Stalin/Ragnar are a PITA to trade with. Ah well.
By this time I had already decided to go for a diplomatic win (with spaceship on the side. I was also thinking maybe I could try culture, but diplo was the goal). I was already friendly with Nappy and Brennus, so now it was time to get Ragnar on my side and reduce Washington's population. Here we go again....
Then in 1735 my defensive pact was broken. Brennus went after Wang Kon AGAIN. Furthermore he bribed Napoleon to enter the war too. This could prove to be a complete disaster. If Brennus' population became second, then diplomatic would be unobtainable. In fact I wanted Wang to win the fight, so that there was a greater chance he would be #2. As a result, the next turn I bribed Napoleon to immediately stop attacking Wang.
Meanwhile I had been gifting tons of resources to Ragnar in hopes of getting more bonuses. Ragnar asked me to declare against Washington. Seeing that Ragnar's power was slightly and that Washington was far away from me, I said "yes." It was a phony war, and as soon as Ragnar signed peace with Washington so did I.
At around ~1820 Wang was in danger of running over Ragnar, so I eventually bribed Wang to stop fighting Brennus. And you don't see this everyday....
Eventually I got the UN built. Strangely enough my opponent was Washington (is there a way to check other civ's population?). Anyways, the results of the first election:
Nice. Now just to wait and see if I can win or not....
And...
Hooray. Fully legitimate Diplomatic Victory (4 civs voted for me, 2 against and Shaka is just irrelevant).
Hope you enjoyed the report. Any questions or comments just ask. I know I'm a bad microer and I probably talk too much smack, so any comments about that have already been noted by me
.
They could modify him a bit so he is more eager to trade without messing things up. Imagine a trade-happy backstabber in your game, would be lots of fun. 
