How to win this immortal level game?

[playshogi]

I'm wondering how to win this immortal level game. I had hoped to build the Internet and win by space colony, but Hannibal is about 80 turns away from cultural victory. All of his candidate legendary cities are inland. In fact, despite being the largest civ in area, Hannibal has ZERO coastal cities.

So, I need a plan to capture and raze one of these cities. I can land my force in one of Hammy's cities, but how many units and what type do I need to survive the 3 square trek to Utica? I suppose to start with nuking all 3 of the legendary cities, although detouring to get the necessary tech for nukes willl cost me time getting to computers for the Internet.

I'm getting a GP next turn to start a golden age and switch to emancipation and free market and possibly, pacifism. I control the UN and I recently had to pay 325 gold to Caesar to adopt his favorite civic and keep relations at friendly. A complication is for Caesar to drop to pleased again and then attack me.

THIS GAME REQUIRES THE HOF MOD.

 

[vranasm]

some players will give you certainly better advice then me, but I wonder why you didn't tech AL much sooner, factories and CP's are killer thing even for building wealth/research (and if the plan is SS then 100% will pay back) and why you let live the Romans.

Did you start in semi-iso?
You have 15 cities, that looks like very good base for doing things. I didn't check the save since I can't right now, but this is generally my line of thinking based on screens.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You probably won't make internet if you intercept his culture.

Then again, if you nuke + paratrooper race his #3 city, you can buy time. I recommend you use that time to close out a different victory condition .

And yes, AL sooner. The production for long-haul games is too valuable.

 

[OneLeggedRhino]

If you just need to bring down cities, not actually expand your empire, then I'm thinking ICBMs. Take out the artists, take out the non-wonder buildings, take out the land, ruin his day. If he's like 2 turns away, then yeah it's too late, but if he's 100 turns away, nuke all 3 of them and call it a day.

 

[dimatud]

he's in war-mode, a few ICBMs should do the trick assuming the other AIs will be clever enough to take him out after you nuke him. if you have a monster production city i would go internet and take rocketry from that (rather than self-research arty/rocketry) and self-research fission while building the project. i don't see other ways of winning this unless you go crazy with nukes and dominate (which is probably the safest way). 900 beakers a turn in 1800 with 15 cities? what civics are you running?

 

[ahcos]

Instead of building culture with a Pop3 city right next to the border, i'd gift that city to Julius. The city will cost you more than it does for you, and it'll make you pretty save from him on top. Ofc unless it's important for resources or so.

I'm a little surprised you are that backward... Guess Julius went after you for a couple hundred years, but even then you should be at least on par with him i'd say. Not sure if you went for corporations, but unless you did that you're wasting alot of research and production by not adopting SP. The reason that you went towards railroad first at least indicates that you wanted Mining Inc. Anyway, with 15 cities stretched that far and a need for production in the near future, unless you have a Corp i'd say get Communism right after AL.

 

[vranasm]

I am checking the save now...

you have there some really big problems going. Happy cap standing out. You either have to adopt Eman or build Theatres and move the slider.

you have around 20 towns (some of them still villages) I would strongly think about moving into US+FS.

You should really be in FM.

I don't like the fact you let live Rome. I don't think he was good partner even if it seems from the log that you didn't had any wars.
You had BFC Ivory, BFC horses couple of reasons to go for HBR soonish and take land from JC.

well that's my view on the situation ;-)

edit:
another big mistake is that you didn't launch any GA yet.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Tac nuke > ICBM in the vast majority of the cases. Cheaper, same damage, and you can base them in any city you have open borders. Hell, you can even gift them to affect how wars go.

ICBM are generally just inferior.

 

[JammerUno]

In any intercontinental war you want to build up your forces in one of the countries neighbouring your target.

You should really have been way ahead in tech by now considering your number of cities. In fact, the techpace in this game seems rather tame all in all. 1844 and no AL, what's up with that?

ps. and 1844 and no communism really takes the prize for good play with 15 cities.

 

[vranasm]

just clicking few turns... it seems that Hanni really skyrockets going from 80 turns cultural into <30 turns...

so any plans anyone thinks about have to be really really quick.

I after ~12 turns of clicking not sure if this even is winnable from that position. launched naturally the GA with the GS next turn, spread factories and CP's in the GA, but still too far away from something suitable...

Maybe should have switched into slavery with US and try to whip+buy Infantry+cannons and gambit on legendary city from hanni.

the timeframe is really going to close soon.

edit:
btw no HE built yet too ;-)

edit2:
well at 1868 I am 2 turns from Ind and Navy seal+tanks... maybe this is a way?

 

[obsolete]

The good Lord says he can get me out of this mess.
But he says, that you're f*cked!

 

[Mylene]

It's my island!
...you mean Ireland? Yep, it's mine! hahahaha...

 

[vranasm]

The good Lord says he can get me out of this mess.
But he says, that you're f*cked!

would like to hear what would you do in this situation. I know you don't like people generally, but some advice could be interesting to hear.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

So he enters late-stage culture almost immediately. Sounds like an interesting challenge.

Space (that doesn't involve killing everyone first) is probably impossible. Being a dog in assembly line isn't helpful either.

Can you run some UN shenanigans, or are we looking at a nigh-mandatory invasion in a limited timeframe? There's no way with that kind of tech that you're going to pull nukes + paras in time to intercept culture in ~30-40 turns. You'd have to research it, build the MP, then make it to rocketry and you don't even have AL!

It SEEMS like a lost cause, but I might be missing something I'll see when I open the save later. Generally you want to be teching much better than this though. Assembly line by 1700 AD is slow IMO, but it's long after that.

 

[vranasm]

UN is built and some few next turns there are some votes. You are the GenSec though and thus you could try some shenanigans with civics.

I tried diplo victory -> no use, but didn't really look deeper if I could "buy" some of them into friendly (or above +11)

I tried enforcing some lame civic which Sury defied, would be better to enforce Hanni to defy though.

You have GA next turn and you can build factories+CP's almost everywhere in that GA (and made big civic switch - like all civics changed - US+FS+Eman (to grow cities a bit)+FM+FR)
At the end of GA I would switch into slavery though (difference from what I did).
The advantage is you have ~900 gpt on 0% slider so massive buy + whips should bring you some army, question is the type.
You have access to modern navy (another advantage)

I think nukes are out of question. I was after ~12 turns 2 turns from industrialism though, you have oil, that could mean tanks... Or Infantry+cannons.

you can count with ~40 turns from the provided save (30 after the GA preparations)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You don't need friendly for a diplo win. You need +8 net (including hidden modifiers). I only see 3 people at pleased or better however, and if one of them has the UN it isn't looking good for that VC.

 

[playshogi]

Thanks, guys, for the comments. I think it should be possible to stop Hanny, but winning after that, still might be tough. From 1844, I teched theology (doesn't slow down AL). Civics switch to Nationalism, Emancipation, Free Market and Theocracy. After AL comes in, Artillery, Rocketry, Fission. Building internet is a pipe dream. You can get a few tac nukes built and based while sending over stacks of infantry, anti-tank, SAM, and artillery. After building my nukes I can propose the vote to prevent further nuke builds! But, the victory countdown changes, it went from 9 turns to 1 turn in 1 turn and dropping an ICBM on the last candidate city did not change that. Also, nukes don't damage the rail network, so any attacking stack will get attacked by fresh units from all over Carthage.

If I played better earlier, you can't get photo-finish endgames!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

^ Nukes + paratroopers. Don't give them a chance to close in. Burn the city the turn you declare.

 

[playshogi]

^ Nukes + paratroopers. Don't give them a chance to close in. Burn the city the turn you declare.

So, on the way to fission I should research flight instead of artillery so that I could build paratroopers. I've never used paratroopers. Can they drop and attack on the same turn?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

^no, but they *can* drop and capture an empty city on the same turn.