Immortal University 89 - De Gaulle

[Pengu]

Just despise these starts where:

1. You have to tech AH, as 1 dry rice will get you nowhere.
2. You have to tech mining and BW
3. no commerce so doing both those 2 takes forever.
4. Trying for the oracle is made impossible by the above facts combined with the urgent need for writing on this map.
5. Being boxed in by one of the craziest rexers in the game doesn't help.
6. Marble here doesn't help much as there is no way I can afford to waste turns on poly or preisthood to even get a chance to get failgold.
Sure, maybe when aesth is in you might find it useful...

 

[Sundowner]

1860 AP diplo victory

Spoiler :

Just finished this game. I'll have to say that I was quite challenged by it. I lost 2 times and had to go back to saves. The first trial was an attempt a cultural victory that I just completely botched. Seeing as how DeGaulle can build wonders and started with Marble I felt like I could bully my way into city flipping and get out of the hole that you're started in.

The second attempt was good but the entire world went Hindu and an AI won the AP vote, total cheese.

Third attempt at the map I went hardcore expansion out of the gate. I started my first build as a settler and sent a warrior over to Justinian's border. I DOW'd and took one of his workers. I planted the Settler as far out as I could go to grab the pigs and corn over that way. I then got peace and expanded to 5 cities. I knew he would DOW on me soon so I built archers to deal with it. He did and I fought a token war against him after which we were "friends" do to shared religion.

After that I expanded and took the excellent food city on the north east portion of the continent where I built the globe and teched up to rifles as fast as possible, then I abused the hell out of that place, drafting 1 rifle per turn the entire time until I got to infantry.

Massive army storms Justinian and caps him. Then Monte who was backwards. With my armies down on Monte land I wait and DOW Ragnar who has capped Victoria and is pretty massive, but he started a war with Pacal so I backstabbed him. Pacal had infantry by that time and was doing okay, he probably knocked out most of Rag's stacks for me before I really started eating up his cities. I had to eliminate almost 10 cities before Victoria broke apart from him and I capped him. Onto Victoria and almost insta-cap.

It took some time to move the huge army back across the map to attack Pacal on his eastern front. During that time I teched up to artillery and trade brokered to get infantry for the war. I took cities and kept upgrading units until Pacal capped. Then insta-DOW on Germany. He was huge having expanded into the new world almost unopposed. I planned to eat up his core cities but ironically I won a AP vote and got a diplo victory in 1860.

If I hadn't won there I'm sure I would have capped him.

Very challenging IMM. Thanks!

 

[Sundowner]

Just despise these starts where:

1. You have to tech AH, as 1 dry rice will get you nowhere.
2. You have to tech mining and BW
3. no commerce so doing both those 2 takes forever.
4. Trying for the oracle is made impossible by the above facts combined with the urgent need for writing on this map.
5. Being boxed in by one of the craziest rexers in the game doesn't help.
6. Marble here doesn't help much as there is no way I can afford to waste turns on poly or preisthood to even get a chance to get failgold.
Sure, maybe when aesth is in you might find it useful...

This start was indeed troublesome. I went AH, Mining, BW, then to pottery to set myself up for a later start. I also got a monster pile of fail gold off of the pyramids.

 

[Pengu]

One big problem with this start is that stone would had been so much better. Easy to get access to SH and mids just one tech away with lots of fail gold. But teching masonry
with marble itself doesn't give acces to any marble wonders

I am going down to emp for this one.

Would love to see a deity attempt from someone

 

[Sundowner]

One big problem with this start is that stone would had been so much better. Easy to get access to SH and mids just one tech away with lots of fail gold. But teching masonry
with marble itself doesn't give acces to any marble wonders

I am going down to emp for this one.

Would love to see a deity attempt from someone

Even without stone I got a boat load of fail gold off of the mids. They went quite late in my game and allowed me to build within one turn in one city and then keep building in another city for a while. All things considered, with the poor commerce in the start and lack of horses, I really would rather have the marble to all but guarantee TGL.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Stonehenge is like De Gaulle's Unique Wonder. Industrious lets you get it cheaper, and Charismatic means +1 happy in all your cities until Astronomy.

 

[Pengu]

emp until 300 AD

Spoiler :

Well, since my immortal try went south I did know I didn't have copper or horses but that Justinian was close and had copper. So my tactics was clear, choke Justinian as fast as possible. I farmed a couple of workers and guarded as best as I could so he didn't settle towards me and didn't worl the copper. Meanwhile I built SH and started on the mids. Built 3 cities and got a small amout of failgold from GW. Finally got Alpha(should maybe have teched aesth) and traded for IW and AH. Yes I avoided AH as there was only 1 tile close to my capitol and 2 extra food wasn't worth 13-14 turns.
Saw I got iron close to my 3rd city and pumped out Swords and attacked Just capitol which was a potential great city. Normal losses. With 1 city left I took Mono, poly, priesthood and decided to look for the English as they were big and teching fast. Wanted to take them before feu. Teched contruction even if I didn't have phants for the catas. I didn't find the english but the 2nd best, the Mayans. Still no feu and a shrine in his capitol was appealing. He was the 2nd most adavanced civ so I declared. Took 3 cities including his capitol and shrine. The Oracle and GW wasn't that great though... Went feu in hope to cap him. Then even at pleased with ragnar he started plotting and I was afraid I was on his list. Backward as he was he had many cities and he has alot of units. Thankfully he dowed the English
This puts me in a nice spot. I just capped Pacal after taking his 4th city and could take out Just last city or follow Ragnar's coattail and dow the English.
My maintinence is tough though with no col. and have been living of conquest gold and the failgold from the mids.
But having Pacal as my vassal should help. Nobody likes Monty or Just as everyone else is hindu. Which is good news.

 

[Patchface]

Oh, man. That was brutal.

 

[vanillasine]

1050AD

Spoiler :

I think i've been getting lucky, as the tech pace is rather slow, because everyone keeps declaring on one another. pacal went for vikings, monty went for the english at first, then all made peace. then byzantines went to war with the vikings, and eventually bribed pacal back in again, and also the aztecs. The germans are really stuck behind the english. Basically I have a buffer in the Byzantines and Pacal, who are friendly, and I am free to do what i please.

I eventually expanded to 9 cities (5 in south peninsula, 4 up north). I decided to lib astronomy and will go for communism in order to maximize my presence in the new territories. There is quite a bit of lack of luxury resources (at least im not able to trade for them), so they must be over there. I will use my overall land advantage for victory,

 

[pepe26]

Settling on the marble seems like the best bet. I'd probably move the warrior NW just to see if anything pops up over there since the presence of seafood to the east isn't going to influence my settling location.

Good point. I guess settling on the marble is stronger than SiP regardless of whether there's seafood or not.

I respect Izuul game a lot, but this point I dont agree with at all... seafood definetely will influence my settling because i certainly do not want to waste a good resource by settling 2off-coast and not being able to grab the resource with another city later

 

[Habitus]

I respect Izuul game a lot, but this point I dont agree with at all... seafood definetely will influence my settling because i certainly do not want to waste a good resource by settling 2off-coast and not being able to grab the resource with another city later

I agree thou depending on how much weaker it made your capital, what seafood it was ie Fish is worth more, if it was coastal or ocean I may still settle in a way to lose it anyway.
I like De Gaulle too, and as i didn't get far in last IU I'll see if i get more time for this one

 

[pepe26]

i misspelled definitely again...

 

[Nothingontv]

immortal-normal cultural victory 1850 AD

Spoiler :

settles Paris on the marble

Justin was very close

Justin decided to settle towards me

my second city

my third city (i would settle a total of 6 cities and the last one vey late)

i adopted hinduism since Justin also had and he was my only neighbour. begged fishing from Pacal.

only had fish for trades and most of the time nobody wanted it.

for a cultural victory you only need the parthenon and the sistine chapel. i pre-chopped every forest close to Paris.

music in 50 AD

i settled the GA i got from music

sistine chapel in 100 AD (used the last of my pre-chopped forests)

used a GS for a golden age

Monty had been in WHEOOH mode since i first met him and he finally DOW'd on Elizabeth. Bismarck immediately came to her rescue.

got he statue of zeus in 300 AD !

first to LIB in 960 AD, took Nationalism and started on the Taj Mahal which i didn't get.

Germany and England were Buddhists while the rest of us were Hindu (or free religion) so some wars were fought. Justin and I were never in a war until the last few turns.

I got a defensive pact with Justin. He was the biggest empire most of the game.

I flipped 1 city but i never needed it. Still, it's always nice when it happens.

Roosevelt appeared as Bismarcks vassal and i made some trades with him since nobody disliked him yet.

In 1832 Monty (aka mister madman) declared war on Justin and because of the DEF Pact also on me. He had Elizabeth as a vassal.

Luckily i had 2 cities close to 50.000 culture and 9 great artists so i was about 4 turns away from victory.

 

[Izuul]

I respect Izuul game a lot, but this point I dont agree with at all... seafood definetely will influence my settling because i certainly do not want to waste a good resource by settling 2off-coast and not being able to grab the resource with another city later

I agree thou depending on how much weaker it made your capital, what seafood it was ie Fish is worth more, if it was coastal or ocean I may still settle in a way to lose it anyway.
I like De Gaulle too, and as i didn't get far in last IU I'll see if i get more time for this one

I think you guys misunderstood me.

My point was that i wasn't considering SIP, thus i wouldn't be wasting the seafood regardless of whether it was there or not.

 

[Habitus]

I think you guys misunderstood me.

My point was that i wasn't considering SIP, thus i wouldn't be wasting the seafood regardless of whether it was there or not.

I don't either of us thought you meant SiP, atleast I didn't. From the SS there are still possible places for seafood you would block by settling on Marble if you didn't scout them by moving NW on to Hill.

 

[Izuul]

I don't either of us thought you meant SiP, atleast I didn't. From the SS there are still possible places for seafood you would block by settling on Marble if you didn't scout them by moving NW on to Hill.

Well, this was the initial post:

Settling on the marble seems like the best bet. I'd probably move the warrior NW just to see if anything pops up over there since the presence of seafood to the east isn't going to influence my settling location.

I still think it makes sense *shrug*

 

[pepe26]

i get it now and now i do agree it makes sense... its exactly like i would have done it too... iff the warri finds fish to the north, we can reconsider the marble spot

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Played to ~1400 AD Immortal/Normal save

Spoiler :

Hah, interesting map. We're boxed in and only 5 cities or so can be built with good resources. I snagged stonehenge, mids, parthenon, great library, and sistine chapel. I missed oracle and temple of artemis.

Settled a blocker on justinian ASAP to the west as that was an obvious choke point. Tech pace is pretty brutal while doing obsoletes WE/SSE. I managed to abuse the AI in trades though and have largely kept just ahead in tech until recently. I won lib and took astro with it...something I was not planning but the brokering made it possible so I got it.

I am now spamming cities into the new world. I'm a turn away from communism and I have 3 cities over there with another 2 in shipment. Obvious civic flop will be for caste/guild/chem/state properly workshops; I am about to enter a golden age to do it.

Justinian took a peacevassal (ragnar) and capped liz, so he has ~23% world land though is still not impressive in tech for the moment. Pacal is going culture but tiny and slow since I snagged his beloved sistine and his land sucks/is poorly cottaged.

My plan is to just blanket the new world in workshops and then ship enough hell back over to the old world to cut down justinian and pacal...the only two serious candidates to win. There is a possibility that I can gouge enough pop in the new world that I win UN also depending on who builds it; most AI are quite friendly towards me or are bent over.

The settlings spree will mean poor infra for a long time so i will fall behind in tech. I really only need assembly line after communism though and I'll be able to build very powerful cities quickly. If need be I'll just flood pacal and justinian with infantry/arty; we'll see how the pacing goes.

Edit:

@Klonoclown: These kinds of maps are preferred in terms of the challenge...easy ones are too boring and formulaic and can get people into bad habits .

 

[klonoklown]

@TMIT: I agree, I felt my last couple maps were too easy and a challenge needed to present itself. Hope everybody is having fun with a different style of play than they are probably used too. I'll try to get this map done myself in the next day or so.

 

[shulgi]

@klonoklown
I wasn't up for this challenge as I had a tough time in the Cathy game especially with AI peace vassals. I will come back to this map eventually.

Spoiler :

Are people successfully choking Justinian or being peaceful?