Immortal Shoshone Marathon Playthrough (of an amateur)

[amateurgamer88]

Hi everyone! I'm amateurgamer88. As you can see in the title, I'm returning to Immortal difficulty on Marathon Speed. It has been awhile since I have done Marathon speed so expect this to be a bumpy ride There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Deity feels like a grindfest without making the game noticeably harder. Secondly, the game is quite long so this can be a very long series. Unlike my A-Z Leader and A-Z Nation playthroughs, this series will be at least 3 times as long. If you don't like this slow games, then this isn't for you.

I know I'm not a great player so I appreciate any advice as I want to learn more. I have many areas lacking so feel free to point them out to me. I like to improve more as I actually want to eventually win some deity matches. As a result, I'm doing these playthroughs to learn and maybe people can give some criticism.

This game uses the 6-12 version with a few minor mods like extra maps and improved city view. I usually play with 3rd and 4th UC but the latest version isn't out yet. This is Standard Size Continents map with high sea level and strategic balance. I also picked a random civ and I got the Shoshone. Since I don't enable ruins, the Shoshone isn't as strong. However, I also play without ruins against the Shoshone so I think this is only fair.

An additional note is that, due to various reasons, I have to play this game windowed so, in later eras, you'll see the various things like gold, resources and etc overlapping. I also have to lower my graphic setting so my game can run smoother. I apologize for that but it's the limitations I work with.

 

[chicorbeef]

I personally always play with ruins because
a) It kind of hurts Pathfinders/scouting in general, especially the Trailblazer promotion line, to play without Ruins.
b) It hurts Shoshone.
c) Ruins are fun! At least to me. Getting a Scout changes my strategy, getting a ruin can allow a Shrine first strategy to pay off, etc.

So I think it would have been fine to play with ruins, but you do you.

I usually work 2 /1 over 2/2 on the first turn. I think it's better because more doesn't translate into a faster Monument but more does. You also could have worked the 1/2 Forest when building the Settler.

I don't think it's worth it to build a Shrine in my second city before I even have my second policy, I think going for a Monument so you can get Organization and Liberty faster.

Never play Marathon, but I think the minimum threshold for an alliance on Marathon should be 180 (does Diplomatic Unit influence scale?), I would never make an alliance so quickly with a CS on Standard and I think this throws off the balance with CS quests.

Interesting map you got for your game. You could squeeze in 5-6 cities, maybe a 7th, but for more than that that, you would need to war. You have a very defensible position though and your available cities are decent so that makes me feel like it might be worth it to just turtle? I don't know if you want to stay defensive or if you want to rush Austria, I suppose I'll just wait and see what you do.

I typically go Liberty before Expertise, I just feel like the is super useful when expanding and I don't see the point of going for a small amount of (you've barely expanded),before you get a good early game policy. Building Monuments faster usually makes up for it to me.

Might wanna edit the title, cause you're playing Shoshone, not Sweden.

 

[amateurgamer88]

I personally always play with ruins because
a) It kind of hurts Pathfinders/scouting in general, especially the Trailblazer promotion line, to play without Ruins.
b) It hurts Shoshone.
c) Ruins are fun! At least to me. Getting a Scout changes my strategy, getting a ruin can allow a Shrine first strategy to pay off, etc.

So I think it would have been fine to play with ruins, but you do you.

I usually work 2 /1 over 2/2 on the first turn. I think it's better because more doesn't translate into a faster Monument but more does. You also could have worked the 1/2 Forest when building the Settler.

I don't think it's worth it to build a Shrine in my second city before I even have my second policy, I think going for a Monument so you can get Organization and Liberty faster.

Never play Marathon, but I think the minimum threshold for an alliance on Marathon should be 180 (does Diplomatic Unit influence scale?), I would never make an alliance so quickly with a CS on Standard and I think this throws off the balance with CS quests.

Interesting map you got for your game. You could squeeze in 5-6 cities, maybe a 7th, but for more than that that, you would need to war. You have a very defensible position though and your available cities are decent so that makes me feel like it might be worth it to just turtle? I don't know if you want to stay defensive or if you want to rush Austria, I suppose I'll just wait and see what you do.

I typically go Liberty before Expertise, I just feel like the is super useful when expanding and I don't see the point of going for a small amount of (you've barely expanded),before you get a good early game policy. Building Monuments faster usually makes up for it to me.

Might wanna edit the title, cause you're playing Shoshone, not Sweden.

Thanks for noticing the typo. I was getting lazy about it. xD

For me, I find ruins to cause imbalance. It's an issue that I notice where benefits are too random and I feel that the human player can utilize the Shoshone ruin UA a lot better than the AI. In addition, games can vary where you might get a lot of ruins some games and hardly any ruins in others. I just prefer if there's less RNG affecting the game, especially in the early game where something like a free tech can really snowball a civ.

Regarding the Gold, it's actually more important on Marathon. On Immortal, I believe barbarians can enter your territory starting in turn 10. With a GPT of 5, you will only have 50 Gold when the barbarians can enter your territory. Since you need 200 Gold to purchase a Warrior, you'd basically need 30 more turns before you can get that Warrior. That's a lot of turns where barbarians can harass your capital. With 7 GPT, I at least shave the turns down to 29 turns so that's 19 turns of vulnerability. It's quite different from Standard Speed and those barbarians can really slow you down. As for the 1 /2 , I guess it doesn't affect the turns I need to shave off the Settler but saves me some time later when the Settler finishes?

I normally go for shrine for my later cities. I guess I'm just worried that, without it, my odds of securing a religion is that much lower. A monument makes sense as it unlocks policies faster but I guess the issue is when I need to expand quickly. That monument is pretty powerful if I stay with two cities but, if I keep expanding, then it has diminishing returns?

I do think that's a good idea but I don't know if it's possible to code that. It's really easy to get multiple alliances early on and that's pretty ridiculous. If you complete a bunch of CS quests quickly, you can snowball so quickly. Of course, balancing slower speeds is going to be a tough task that will require as much time as what was spent on balancing Standard, if not more. Since my hiatus with Marathon, I don't even remember if diplomatic units influence scale or not.

I definitely like my position where I have some decent locations to settle. 5 cities seems like what I have in mind. As for approach, I think turtling is the best approach at this stage of the game. Persian Immortals are no joke and Austrian capital is pretty vulnerable overall. Then, there's another warmonger in Mongolia. I have no intention of widening my front line and fight some gruesome battles. Next episode also shows some interesting developments with the borders...

I'm always debating about Expertise vs Liberty because the fourth policy is always very slow for me. It usually coincides with my expansion so the policy costs get pretty expensive. Liberty doesn't give any additional Culture so Expertise will be delayed quite a bit. The extra , free Worker and faster improvements are all very beneficial but, since I'm going Shrine first, I wonder if I can really make up for it with the Monuments. My luxury doesn't give extra Culture either so that doesn't help much.

 

[amateurgamer88]

Here's episode 2.

 

[amateurgamer88]

Here's Episode 3:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Here's Episode 4:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Here's Episode 5:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Episode 6:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Episode 7:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Episode 8:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Episode 9:

 

[amateurgamer88]

Episode 10: