Immortal University 84 - Ramesses II

[Grashopa]

Welsh - Heres my attempt doing the same thing you did:

950 BCish

Spoiler :

I went TW-BW-AH, was roading towards the pig fish site when the horses appeared so I settled SW of the horses, built a worker first thing in the second city and barracks *WC in the capital after the settler. Attacked at 1800 BC, chopped the Great Lighthouse and may even get the pyramids.

But I have a diplo problem. I only just now barely got writing finally allowing open borders and hopefully a chance at a missionary from Monte. And I will gift him a city shortly. Hopefully I am early enough to be ok. If you don't get good diplo during a late war like you had then you mis-planned the war. Either way I don't think a rush will compare with the early date I think JSS put up even if say Monte doesn't attack me in my game.

A cottaged capital + that food city in the NW is enough to win this game. I was just trying out the rush to compare.

 

[WelshGandalf]

@Grashopa

Spoiler :

Definitely willing to concede that rushing Pacal isn't the optimal love, but man he's such a tempting target....

So any chance anyone can give some advice from my 50BC post? I thought the Immortal University was to help people play at Immortal level, and I'm definitely an Immortal noob.

 

[Kingjester1]

@WelshGandalf

Spoiler :

You are definitely in a rough spot at the 50 BC mark. You are the easiest target for Shaka in terms of distance, diplo, and power ranking. You have 2 options: 1) bribe someone to declare on Shaka to take the heat off of you if possible or 2) crank units and get ready to fend off Shaka at Mutal. Fortunately Shaka doesn't have a very advanced or huge stack, but you'll need to double time some units over there for defense.

 

[Htadus]

Advice needed at 50BC please!! Save is with BUFFY mod.

Sorry not much time to explaine but I played your game a few turns and actually switched to slavary and whipped 1 axe for 2 pop. Then reinforced the target city. Here is the results. He is ready for peace.

 

[pepe26]

did you really programm a save-file scipt, that creates these kinds of custom name or are you just really adamant about being thorough about naming each save? ^^

 

[Kingjester1]

Played into a stalemate on about 1200 AD (Emperor/Epic):

Spoiler :

My early game was great in this one, but I completely missed my breakout opportunity in the middle ages which ultimately sealed me in a rough position.

I started Mining -> BW, then saw Stone, picked up Masonry and built the Mids. I ran a specialist economy most of the game and it was quite effective, as the Obelisk opens +6 more beakers per turn per city that can grow. I ran Representation early and never looked back.

My GNP was #1 for quite a long time and I expanded peacefully to 8 solid cities. I figured at this point I could go for currs and a breakout, as Pacal and Monte both were at war with Wang Kon and it wasn't going well for either side. Unfortunately for me, late in the middle ages Pacal and Gilgamesh capped to Monte, making Monte and Shaka the world military superpowers.

I made it to currs first and pushed out 25-30. I attacked into the city nearest Monte's stack. However, his stack was HUGE: Mostly elephants and horse archers but with a total stack size of about 50 units. This lead to a Monte dancing his stack around the border and then running away as I kept my army in range. However, I didn't have the ability to break his stack and he eventually attacked into a city with about ~25 units in the stack and wiped out my army.

I'm realizing now that I should have actually expanded more aggressively into my neighbors, esp. Pacal as he was small and had some nice wonders. Monte just gets too big and in my game was too successful against Wang Kon and kept a huge army all of the time. He needed to be attacked early, so it actually may have been a good idea to run an early war. Fun map, I will try again soon.

 

[Htadus]

did you really programm a save-file scipt, that creates these kinds of custom name or are you just really adamant about being thorough about naming each save? ^^

I am not that particular.

It was an autosave created during exiting the game while using Buffy mod. I have a habit of exiting the game when I do really idiotic things and get mad at myself. So I have the game save a file when I exit the game. And those files are very discriptive.

 

[King Pluto]

I finished this game this morning before work, 1690 Conquest.

Spoiler :

I settled on the Wine SE, put a 2nd city next to the Stone and built the Mids. I grabbed two cities to the west for my 3rd and 4th cities to block off my land and rushed the GLib at the double-Clam site with a Great Engineer. I also landed the Parthenon around 300 AD after having it in the build queue of a poor-production city for fail gold. I probably should have settled the area to the NW with the Wheat/Horse/Clam/Fish faster but I am always somewhat later than optimal with my cities 5+.

There was a great Jewish lovefest that I hopped into, Pacal founded it IIRC. Monte spent the whole game going after Pacal, so I was free from his wrath. Shaka piled on everyone, even Monte at the end as I was rounding up everyone else.

I did the typical Great Scientist spam to Liberalism and took out the continent with Curis, Pacal/Gilgamesh/Pericles/Shaka/Wang/Monte, based mostly on when people were getting to rifles. Monte had Rifles, but I declared on him, had him enter my borders, pounded him with a few Airships and destroyed his stack with Cavs. I went from 0.90 his power to 1.62 his power with that one stack elimination. Rifles are obviously a pain for Cavs, but I had such a tech lead that I had both Airships and Cannons by the time Monte had Rifling. From the beginning of my Lib/Taj era buildup, the game was decided in my favor; the rest was cleanup.

Fun game, thanks

 

[WelshGandalf]

Thanks for advice. I need some more at 1140AD...

Spoiler :

I distracted that Shaka stack with a lone axemen. He took the bait which gave me 2 more turns to get some defence whipped up, which I managed.

Economy took an age to get going. I don't know if I expanded too much and kept too many of Pacal's cities, or if my economy skills could use some work. Anyway the masterstroke was bulbing philosophy, which I traded for calendar & something else with Gilgamesh. I then bribed Aztec on the Zulus with philo, CoL and something else (asthetics?). Net result of this was is I now have a massive +5 shared military bonus with him (I didn't know it could go that high!) and that every time Shaka brings a stack to me, Monty destroys it for me Poor Monty can't reach the Zulus by land so his stack just lives in his westernmost city, which is 3 tiles west of where Shaka sends his stacks. It's all rather convenient and those fields must be stained red given how many fights have happened there.

I now have 11 cities, with space for 2 more if I really want them but I'm not sure I do. I have built Parthenon, GLib, UoS, Sistine. Rather crazily for an immortal game, it's 1140AD, I'm one turn from finishing lib and no-one else even has Education. Seriously!!! I even have 2 great scientists sitting around doing nothing. I'm not sure what to get with lib. I need to research another 4 techs to open up steel with lib but I'm sure someone else will have education by then.

Pericles has an insane amount of tech (he built Taj in 680AD I think) but hasn't even got education. He's benefiting from being the only person never to be at war. Shaka has fallen way behind in tech, as he does get sidetracked by wars. He, the Koreans and Greeks are buddhists and the rest of us are hindus, this has made diplo rather straightforward. The Sumerians were at war with the Koreans for ages and then asked me to join, so I did, then 3 turns later they made peace! So Wang now sends stacks at me too. Nothing big yet, and I traded for feudalism so I have something decent to defend with.

I still haven't decided weather to chill out and go for a cultural victory (I built sistine) or something more ambitious. I suppose tech nationalism, get miltard with lib and go attack would be the best way to go. I never manage to pull off cuir rushes that well though. Maybe I need to whip harder.

 

[yena]

I played this game and got a domination win at 1595 (immortal, epic speed) but my score was low, only 57916. Probably because my population was small after all the wars.

Spoiler :

Anyway, settled on the wine and made the capital a commercial powerhouse with cottages everywhere. Quickly settled a few cities to keep Pascal and Monty away, and because the diplomacy was a mess I never adopted a religion, but trading made the neighbours happy with me and I could bulb and research peacefully until liberalism with MT as the freebe. Because I had stone I managed to build the pyramids for happiness and the research boost. After liberalism I backfilled with engineering and other techs on the rifling line, and started building a treb/horseman army.

Monty was stupid enough to declare on me just when I had gotten a stack together and was about to get rifling, so I played defense (destroying his inferior stack) until I could upgrade to cavalry, then attacked and took Aztec cities until he surrendered. Shaka had conquered Korea and Sumeria, and was at war with Pascal. I declared on him, rushed through Mayan lands, and took a few marginal former Korean cities to use as a base for the attack on the Zulus. Unfortunately he got rifling at the same time I got cannons (I bulbed chemistry), but after putting my research to 0% for some turns to pay for trebs upgrades, I started to take cities slowly until he finally gave in. Then it was just a matter of backstabbing Pascal who had very weak defense (no rifling), and then wait for 64% land mass.

The games was pretty easy. With two warmongers the research speed was slower than usual.

 

[ben-jammin]

Interesting game here. This turn at 1320 and the next handful will determine how well the rest of the game goes...

Spoiler :

All in all a very sloppily played game, but hasn't demanded better so far. Ramses with stone...built the mids obviously. Blocked off my peninsula with my next 2 cities in the obvious spots and then was in no hurry to backfill to 7 cities. That spot to the north-west with four food specials made an obvious GP farm and later whip city. Won music, did the usual golden age with the artist and made as many trades with the tech as possible. Stayed out of trouble and libbed military tradition after self teching nationalism. Built the Taj.

Bribed Monty on Pacal to make sure he didn't jam me up. AP resolution to end the war passes the next turn but it accomplished the bare minimum I needed it to (keeping monty off me while i prepared). That's the second time I gave monty a whole bunch of techs for a war that ended at the next AP vote...what can you do. Luckily he's still backwards.

Declared on Pacal as soon as I had 15 or so cuirs (took only 3 turns or so, upgraded a bunch of knights to speed it up). Took his two closest cities on the first turn (one with the temple of solomon for +30 gold, how convenient). Wang Kon declares on me and I kill the units of his that dribble in on open ground. Bribed monty in and waited for his stack to bombard and suicide into Pacal's capital. He obliged in a timely manner and I took the city without losing a single cuir. So this turn I capitulated him, gave him gunpowder and military tradition, and made him adopt free market.

Shakas red fist disappears when Pacal vassals, that must have been his target. I notice he's willing to take a war bribe against anybody on the map, how generous of him. I make Pacal stop trading with everyone except Shaka, and here's where we stand for the rest of the turn:

As you can see I'm almost at rifling and have 5 cuirs coming next turn:

Here are whats left of Monty's first stack of doom that he just threw at Mutal for me, as well as what I have ready 2W of Chichen Itza:

And here is what I have waiting in Memphis, as well as Monty's newer stack 1W of Chichen Itza:

The time is right, I don't even think I'll bother waiting a turn to free up all the cuirs that used up their movement taking Mutal. I'll declare on monty, immediately bribe Shaka in, finish off his wounded stack-remnants, and take out as many of his units out in the open as possible. Then I'll probably hang back until Shaka shows up to help out and cap monty as quickly as I can once I upgrade my cuirs to cavalry. I hope it doesnt turn out that waiting would have been more prudent.

 

[ben-jammin]

Results by the end of the turn:

Spoiler :

20-something units killed, mostly knights, zero lost. How's that for RNG luck? Half those attacks were at odds in the low 70%s. So long as Shaka doesnt have a whole lot of knights I don't know about very nearby in the fog of war there should be minimal immediate counter-attack losses as both my injured stacks have a few cuirs at full health. That's a big if with Monty.

 

[ben-jammin]

On LoL-worthy AI decisions:

Spoiler :

Monty teched to constitution before gunpowder I have never seen that before from him. What a dummy.

And still....

He was within a few turns of rifling by the time I capped him, and had produced a good number of cuirs.

On LoL-worthy human decisions:

Spoiler :

So I thought I was pretty clever bringing backwards Shaka in. It cost a pretty penny even though I had declared myself first:

Oh well, I thought. It's the price you pay for genius. So his stack will be showing up any minute now...

...unless he hates Wang Kon and doesnt have open border Man I'm dumb. I could have just bribed him on his neighbour instead of someone he can't even reach, instead:

He's almost at rifling thanks to me. And knowing Shaka, he won't be doing what Monty did and teching towards democracy instead. Sigh.

 

[yena]

@ben-jammin: ouch, that mistake could hurt you. Shaka is a pain when he upgrades all his junk to rifles.

 

[ben-jammin]

@ben-jammin: ouch, that mistake could hurt you. Shaka is a pain when he upgrades all his junk to rifles.

Yep...painful. On immortal, it's gonna mean a slow cannon war against 3 of the AIs, when I should have been able to roll over the only warmonger amongst them with my current stack.

 

[pepe26]

ben, I los'ed (silently was the only way i could laugh out since im in the library )

its hard to avoid those kinds of mistakes, tho, since one forgets to check these kinds of things so easily... i just reload in this case because its makes such a big difference

 

[pepe26]

by the way, is this an easy map for deity beginners? i have yet to find i map that i'm able to beat on deity

 

[ben-jammin]

pepe, i re-load really bad mis-clicks like sending my whole stack the wrong way, or brainfarts like losing an undefended city to a barb when I had a unit fortified 2 squares away. But that's a mistake ill just play through.

Spoiler :

Wang Kon capped within a couple turns. He's so far ahead of me in tech I can't even trade him for steel or scientific method, but he had nothing better than grenadiers for defence. Rushed to monty's borders...already a few upgraded rifles in the closest city. Decided to go for it anyway while I still had a chance to make something happen, took my cavalry around back through greek land and took a lightly defended city, razed it, and backed off to see what would happen. What happened was unexpectedly nice. Shaka's stack came out into Wang Kon's land, and my shiny new vassal smashed a bunch of cannons into him for me. Shaka's stack was toast with zero losses, and If Wang Kon can suicide a few cannons into cities for me I might cap him with my current cavalry.

I just finished steam power, but Wang Kon won't accept a rifling trade for anything I actually want from him

 

[Habitus]

pepe26, I don't think its a hard deity map, so it be worth a shot

 

[pepe26]

i just realized, that i played thru this map on immortal already... its definitely a very good candidate for my first deity win... in my first three deity attempts here, barbs gave me so much trouble, i eventually rage quit ^^