Immortal Challenge #4 - Greece (Oval, no DLC)

[kirbdog]

Not everyone is a fan of tundra island starts, so I think we need an immortal challenge for the rest of us. This one has had DLC unchecked and requires only Gods and Kings. It is an oval-type map, which is like pangea, with bays carved into it.

Greece has the Unique Ability "Hellenic League," which restores city state influence at double speed and degrades influence at half speed. They also have the Companion Cavalry, a horseman replacement with higher combat strength and increased great general generation, and the Hoplite, a spearman replacement with higher combat strength.

The only option checked is promotion saving. The suggested victory condition is diplomatic victory, but all victory conditions are checked, so feel free to pick your own path to victory.

Spoiler :

 

[Matthew.]

So many immortal/deity maps and not enough time

Probably gonna try the Siam one since it sounds... interesting.

 

[Matthew.]

Couldn't get the Siam map to load after two download attempts

Looks like I'm stuck with Alexander

 

[sufficiency]

Greece UA + Patronage Opener + Religion = IF does not decay at all.

Furthermore, Greek units can pass through CS's without IF penalties.

 

[kirbdog]

Finished up the game.

Spoiler :

Stole France's worker, got peace 10 turns later. Turn 70 National College. Bought library in first city, bought 2nd settler and founded right after.



Turn 87 Petra. Turn 100 Oracle, open Patronage. Turn 113 Education, rush 2 universities.



Use Oxford for Astronomy. Turn 160 Public Schools. Also pick up the Sistine Chapel, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Porcelain Tower, and Taj Mahal. Use 2 GS to speed up Plastics. Finish Big Ben on turn 189 and rush buy 3 research labs.



Get to ecology on turn 207, unlock the rationalism finisher, start the UN.



My faith production was way too low. The only great person I got was a great engineer, which I had to wait on. The religious city states had been conquered. The vote took place on turn 223. (This is one reason why good desert starts - with lots of desert - produce very strong finish times. Two more great scientists and no waiting on the GE could save as many as 20 turns.)



Policy order was full Tradition, Aesthetics, 5 out of 6 policies in Rationalism, Order opener, finish Rationalism, philanthropy.

 

[sufficiency]

Wait. Cathy went tall in your game? In mine she got like 11 cities by turn 80

 

[kirbdog]

I guess she might have wanted more cities, but she wasted a lot of military attacking me, which led others to attack her when weak.

 

[sufficiency]

OK I'm done playing this. Turn 232 Domination Victory.

Spoiler :

The starting location was OK, but it was very isolated. Theodora dropped a troll city between me and Cathy, whom immediately got double dow'ed by Cathy and Isabella. Theodora soon surrendered and yielded the city to Catherine. I, on the other hand, had nowhere to expand so I figured I just dow Catherine.



I think this is the first time I actually built Companion Cavalry. It isn't too bad for last hitting cities, but that's about it. Catherine, for some reason, dow'ed Isabella WHILE in war with me. But regardless, CB > Swords, so I wiped her pretty much off the map.



Catherine surrendered and gave me another 3 cities, shooting my unhappiness to a grand total of -21. Meanwhile every other AI pretty much dow'ed me because I was "building cities too aggressively".



I decided to take on France first, but Napoleon also built the Great Wall, which made the whole thing a lot more painful than previously envisioned. But after losing about 5 units myself at least I managed to get rid of him, whom I saw as the a huge annoying factor.



Theodora didn't offer much resistance at all (it was Rifles vs Pikes); Harun al-Rashid, however, was about to run away in science. I popped a GS and beelined to Artillery, while Harun was doing Biology and Plastic... time to fight!



Meanwhile, Bismark was also in a war with Harun, and that left him in a vulnerable position.... *rolls eyes*



Andddd there goes Berlin. Since Bismark already took the Ottoman/Spain capital, I won by Domination Victory.



This was actually my first Greek victory so I got the achievement for it. Domination Victory seems very fitting for the first Alexander win.

It was an easy map overall. I messed around a bit and did not end up with good results (missed Pyrimids by 2 turns and Petra by 1). I guess I should just give up on Immortal and play on Deity, lol. I'll play the DC tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Unresolved]

Turn 235 Diplomacy Victory.

Spoiler :

As others have said, easy map. The terrain kind of sucked to take out Russia with crossbows, but it was easy to defend as well. I was about 2 turns away from completing the Rationalism finisher when I researched Globalization. I'm not sure if annexing Moscow and Paris so late was worth losing the Rationalism finisher. I also didn't get to build Oxford, so I lost a number of turns there as well. After I conquered Russia and Paris, my happiness was down to an awesome -33. So it was by some miracle that it actually rebounded to +20. I never really got a religion going and just let other people spam their missionaries and prophets at me since I had given up. I had about 7 RA's in the game I believe. The most influential ones were the first wave when everybody was still close in beakers. My production was horrid throughout the game, so I ended up rush-buying nearly every science building. I bought 6 Research labs which cost me a fortune.

Guess I'll give IC3 a try tomorrow. I don't really know how to start on tundra though .

 

[sufficiency]

Turn 235 Diplomacy Victory.

Spoiler :

As others have said, easy map. The terrain kind of sucked to take out Russia with crossbows, but it was easy to defend as well. I was about 2 turns away from completing the Rationalism finisher when I researched Globalization. I'm not sure if annexing Moscow and Paris so late was worth losing the Rationalism finisher. I also didn't get to build Oxford, so I lost a number of turns there as well. After I conquered Russia and Paris, my happiness was down to an awesome -33. So it was by some miracle that it actually rebounded to +20. I never really got a religion going and just let other people spam their missionaries and prophets at me since I had given up. I had about 7 RA's in the game I believe. The most influential ones were the first wave when everybody was still close in beakers. My production was horrid throughout the game, so I ended up rush-buying nearly every science building. I bought 6 Research labs which cost me a fortune.

Guess I'll give IC3 a try tomorrow. I don't really know how to start on tundra though .

I think the level of difficulty is still OK for Immortal Challenge though. If the point is play a hard map, Deity Challenge is available.

 

[kirbdog]

I think the level of difficulty is still OK for Immortal Challenge though. If the point is play a hard map, Deity Challenge is available.

Yes, I agree. The supposed point is to introduce players to strategies that come up when playing Immortal or to help experienced players refine their tactics for better finishes. An average to fairly strong start makes a good playground for trying out typical strategies.

There's still room for the occasional completely baked desert start, or borked tundra start, I suppose.

 

[vixafox]

I will have a go at this one. I struggle with Immortal and I need a good start to succeed. This start looks very good and should give a decent chance for a win (or at least surviving until the end)!

 

[Sadato]

I managed to get most important wonders and greece is great keeping CS allies. Most of my science went from patronage.

At the end France hit me hard with planes but didn't reach my city.

Spoiler :

 

[Matthew.]

Nice finish time Sadato.

Downloaded the map but haven't really played it past the first few turns. Like Oval scripts, but they can be crowded, too, although it is a good start location for a OCC, especially with the neighbor CS allies.

 

[Maxym]

Looks like we all went for same city placement, with unresolved one tile off on western city.
In my game I took some early cash from Izzy, no workers to steal. Then got peace and a DoF from her, at one point DOFs with everyone except Nappy. I figure he will be my first target, so I said yes to Cathy in ten turns, and then watched her lose one city and other to 0 hp and sign peace with him. In meantime he builds his GW, and I lose two warriors withdrawing from his returning army.

I saw Theodora mass troops around my old faithful city, so I abandoned education for few turns to get CB, and then crushed her army, and that troll city too. By that time Nappy and Cathy were in on it sensing an opportunity so I had to be careful they don't swipe it.

Planning to keep going to her cap, then back for Nappyand his GW but need XB for that. We'll see how it turns out. Initially I was considering doing a hoplites rush with honor or OCC. I liked the spot for OCC, but don't have much experience there. And abandoned rush when I saw how far neighbors were.

2 city NC with third same turn it finished, t114 education, rush three unis. Now need some way of getting plastics fast. Got beat to DF, so I needed HS to found, and not planning to spend heavily on it. Got tithe and 15% prod, 10% growth as pantheon.

Spoiler :

 

[Fire0rb]

i just tried it, but i had a quarrel with france in the beginning, but i could not reach his cities and he did not make any peace possible (even when i cleared his army twice) so i took out theodora (barely though)
but then Nappy skyrocketed, expanded like crazy and with his usual rush to musketeers he just steam rolled me with about 20-30 musketeers...after 20 Turns of defending i was not quick enough anymore with killing damn musketeers of
dunno how he got so many in so few times but happens

 

[Maxym]

I was thinking my war against Nappy after taking out Theodora was a mistake as I am bogged down against his GW and now Himeji as well, but at least I am keeping him busy and not coming at me with a swarm, i kill about two per turn and he keeps sending more. But I don't lose anything unless I do something dumb, which I do occasionally I lost a bit of my army at Constantinople, so I am light on XB and don't need to lose any more.

I am fighting him in the SE corner, near Orleans, but thinking of trying a backdoor play on Paris which is all I really need anyway. I don't want to divert to arty but can't see myself making progress this way.

 

[salocin097]

I was going to try Immortal starting with challenge, but I just realized I have no idea how to use the save. After I download it, where do I put it?

 

[Unresolved]

Documents -> My Games -> Civilization 5 -> Saves -> Single

Save it in there. If I've forgotten a step, someone please remind me.

 

[salocin097]

Thanks, I found it once before, but couldn't remember.