Immortal University X - Alexander the Great

[BurN]

@Dirk

Spoiler :

As soon as I saw how much room there was on the continent, I planned for a peaceful win. Hence I went for all the post-lib economic techs first. War from my position would've been good too, the AI was pretty far behind so a riffle vs longbow war was plausible.

Short round: 1300AD-1560AD

Spoiler :

Decided not to go after Physics just yet. A GS will pop soon, I want to get democracy and start another GA to change to US/Emancipation and use the GA to get to physics.

1310AD - Capture Zapotec, I should have moved it but I cba. Desert>peaks.

1340AD - Capture Ligurian. I should have moved it too so I could put one more filler city but I'm getting lazy/cocky.

1360AD - GS pop, start a GA & switch civics.

1380AD - Mehmed dows Justin & Hamm. Not smart.

1410AD - Hamm asks to stop trading with Mehmed, I reject. Mehmed asks to dow Hamm, I reject. Also get to physics and get a free GS, partial bulb biology.

1440AD - Mehmed loses a city to Justin. I give Justin Lib/Gunpowder for peace with Mehmed. The last thing I need is Justin getting another vassal.

1500AD - Louis demands some gold, which I give.

1520AD - Sushi founded in Argos, I'm not sure if this was a good choice but I'll see what the future brings. I replaced the farms with workshops to spread sushi and get WS to set up a GM farm later on.

1530AD - Charle asks to stop trading with HC, I reject. Also SoL built in Athens.

1535AD - GS from Argos, I keep it for a GA later.

1545AD - Justin asks to stop trading with Mehmed, reject once again.

1560AD - Short round. GF came home so I decided to call it quits.






Getting assembly for factories and then go after riffling and get some defense. I don't think I will get attacked soon but better safe then sorry. I'll probably put some scouting boats along the coasts so I can see an attack coming. After that I'll go after the Electricity/Radio wonders -> internet -> space.

 

[BurN]

1560AD-1770AD

Spoiler :

1575AD - Assembly line. Charle steals Astro, his ep is pretty high.

1590AD - A scary turn. Both Charle and HC brought their sod to my border. Both say: we have enough on our hands. Charle's sod is right next to Sparta and thinking my defense consists of some archers ... I don't think he's sightseeing.



But this isn't the first game where a pleased AI wants to backstab me and there's an easy solution...



Charle accepts and there's 10 Turns of peace. I can't do the same with HC though since he's annoyed. But HC's sod is rather small.

I trade physics to Charle for riffling/80gold/map and switch to nationhood.


1595AD - Big surprise, HC dows me. I draft 3x infantry and keep drafting 3 times the next +- 10 turns or so.

1600AD - Ran 0% science to upgrade a mace stack to infantry.

Bribe:



1605AD - Charle keeps running his sod trough my lands, I fear he's still planning to dow me once the 10 turn treaty is gone.

1610AD - Cleaned up HC's sod. (infantry vs cuirassiers) GG pops and settle in Pharsalos. Louis has enough on his hands .. I do the same as with Charle, just to be sure. By the time those 2 treaties are over, I will have a good infantry/cannon sod.

1615AD - Louis, Justin and Hammurabi dow Charle, yay. I starve Argos for a quick GP so I can start another GA and switch back to Bureaucracy. I don't think I will need any more drafting for a while.

1620AD - Apparently the AP decided to close borders with me. No more open borders except with Charle. My economy is taking a dive. Nationhood instead of Bur, no oversea trade routes, drafting and to make it worse I lost all open border diplo. ;[

1620AD - Sign peace treaty and let HC pay 120gold.

1630AD - GM pops, I start a GA and switch civics. No more drafting.

1640AD - charle steals steel.

1665AD - GM pops, settle in Argos which is future WS/merchant city. Also reopen borders with Hammu.

1670AD - Pentagon in Athens. Mehmed and HC dow Charle thanks to AP.



1675AD - Louis asks to dow Charle, refused.

1685AD - Louis and Charle at peace. Reopen border with Justin.

1690AD - Broadway in Athens.

1715AD - I don't like my diplo that much and since I have a tech advantage I hand out some techs.

Steel to HC, +1 diplo
Biology to Hamm, +4 diplo
Biology to Justin, +4 diplo
Biology to Louis, +4 diplo

1720AD - HC demands 80 gold, agree.

1730AD - Justin asks to stop trading with Charle, refused. GA pops, I'll keep it for corps.

1740AD - Cristo in Athens.

1750AD - Justin asks to dow Charle, refused. Rock 'n Roll in Pharsalos.

1765AD - Eiffel Tower in Athens.

1770AD - Louis asks to dow Charle, refused. Mehmed asks to dow Charle, refused. zzz

Last turn of this session, the game is going slow on my comp and kinda bothering me.


















Once Hollywood is made, I think I will switch to Rep/FS instead of US/Bur. I have Cristo so switching back and forth between prod-science is easy.

For the rest I think it should be easy win -> Internet -> Labs -> Space. Unless Louis decides to backstab me soon or something.

 

[BurN]

1770AD-End.

Spoiler :

1780AD - Switch to Rep/FS and go from 1399 34 to 1626 46.

1785AD - Charle asks to dow HC, refused.

1800AD - Hollywood in Athens.

1804AD - GE born, kinda lame .. wish I didn't make/spread jewelers inc now. Anyways I settle him in Athens.

1812AD - Computers and switch to US/Bur to build internet.

1814AD - GM, settled in Argos. HC vassals to Louis, Louis dows Charle.

1824AD - Charle steals electricity.

1826AD - Internet in Athens.

1828AD - Tech overview.




1834AD - Gorges Dam in Pharsalos.

1838AD - Louis and HC sign peace with Charle.

1840AD - Capital before I put workshops.




1846AD - GA, settle in Argos.

1850AD - GE, partial rush space elevator.

1856AD - Space elevator in Pharsalos. Switch to caste/Bur.

1860AD - Bribe Louis to war with Charle for Medicine. Capital with workshops.




1868AD - Charle sabotages a casing.

1880AD - Defy resolution for emancipation.

1888AD - Charle sabotages Cockpit and random buildings/improvements.

1890AD - GE, settled in Athens.

1898AD - Launched, 12 turns till arrival. I cancel all resource deals for the hell of it. (I know it will lower my score but I don't really care about that.)

1911AD - Victory.










The game was a bit too easy. After education the AI never came near tech parity ever again. So the last half of the game was rather boring to play.

 

[tycoonist]

@ Burn:

Spoiler :

it looked simple from the start. with an easy to pacify neighbour and plenty of good land to expand into, it was going to be a dull space race. i stopped playing after i scouted the map. warless games dont interest me anymore.

congrats on the win, you played it well

on a side note, has anyone else stopped playing if they are going to win by space? i just find it too time consuming and dull, especially with the bts additions.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I can't get these right . I always stop playing the way I normally due out of fear of a new difficulty or something, and then fall ultra behind in tech without any clear benefit from doing so. In this case, I settled hyper-aggressively to block but then wasn't able to make any new cities for ages because of it (running into things like writing - 30 turns isn't a good sign).

This map should be ultra easy...frustrating . I guess I don't like playing from behind much either but since some of you guys consistently stay ahead in tech on this difficulty I'm not giving up on it yet .

If I run into something where I lose/fail without KNOWING why I blew it, I'll post here, but for now just know that I'm following along with you all and that I've tallied an "idiot loss" on this one :/.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

@Burn

nat. park removes access to coal? so unless you had the +4 hammer/coal plant event...

 

[Dirk1302]

@Tycoonist, i considered stopping here but then noticed that i'd be declared on so i played on, got declared on by 2 ais which slowed me enough to play it out afterwards. IIrc i didn't play out 2 imu games, one with Louis as i was totally winning but getting domination there would've cost me another night. Recently in the Ghenghis game, the position with Great lighthouse was just to dominating there, i knew precisely what'd happen if i played that out.

@TMIT, Currency is very very important .

Spoiler :

I find it hard to see how writing could ever cost 30 turns, if you settled that aggressively then you'll also have the 2 gold with the marble settled and that helps a lot. I always make sure to have writing before i take on a gambit like axe rushing or insane rexing. You can always recover in that case with assigned scientists. But a save of position where writing takes 30 turns should help.

Btw i read up on your emperor game in the NC thread (have played to 1 AD too there), if you had played this map as you did there you wouldn't have much trouble, that was a good effort.

 

[BurN]

@ Burn:

Spoiler :

it looked simple from the start. with an easy to pacify neighbour and plenty of good land to expand into, it was going to be a dull space race. i stopped playing after i scouted the map. warless games dont interest me anymore.

congrats on the win, you played it well

on a side note, has anyone else stopped playing if they are going to win by space? i just find it too time consuming and dull, especially with the bts additions.

Spoiler :

Well, I was hoping for some cross continental competition. Justinian and Louis had quite a lot of land (/vassal). And you don't need to go space here, you could've gone for domination/culture/conquest/diplo.

I can't get these right . I always stop playing the way I normally due out of fear of a new difficulty or something, and then fall ultra behind in tech without any clear benefit from doing so. In this case, I settled hyper-aggressively to block but then wasn't able to make any new cities for ages because of it (running into things like writing - 30 turns isn't a good sign).

This map should be ultra easy...frustrating . I guess I don't like playing from behind much either but since some of you guys consistently stay ahead in tech on this difficulty I'm not giving up on it yet .

If I run into something where I lose/fail without KNOWING why I blew it, I'll post here, but for now just know that I'm following along with you all and that I've tallied an "idiot loss" on this one :/.

If you post a save, I wouldn't mind to take a look at it.

@Burn

nat. park removes access to coal? so unless you had the +4 hammer/coal plant event...

At first I was thinking "Yea, I know that, what point is he trying to make here?" After wondering about that for a while I looked at the screenshot, saw what I was building and laughed.

People at work wondering what was so funny.

 

[silverbullet]

Finally I have some time to play this game. I know everyone already finished it, but I hope you still have patience to provide some feedback.
I will try to detail as much as possible so I can get the best feedback.

Spoiler :

Settling decision:
Moved the scout to the SE and didn't see any seafood so I decided to move the settler and settle on top of the ivory. I am not losing any food resources and gaining an extra floodplain.
I was very unhappy to see pigs outside of Athens BFC.

I decided on agricultuer as the first tech. Mining would be nice too, but before I have some food, I wouldn't be able to work the mines and grow. AH will give me access to a great tile, but I will have to idle the settler after that.

3800 BC - Scouting to the jungle in the south and I meet charlie

3640 BC - agriculture->AH, budhism FIDL

3520 BC - athens: worker->warrior.

Scoutnign reveals great land near charlie. I am considering rushing him - I want all this gold/dye/marble/food, but he is a bit far - I have to check my closer lands first.

Another reasonable option is to build a blocking city on the jungle hill south of the corn, to get corn, pigs and 2 dyes.

3320 BC - Scout finds out that Aachen is on hill plains. That is not good for a rush of a protective civ.

Turn 18 (3280BC) Hindu FIDL

Turn 20: AH is done, research mining, warrior is done, send him scouting while building another one.

Turn 27 - mining is done and I decide to go for archery, for better fog busters. It seems that no one except charlie is here, and he is difficult to rush with axes, so no BW yet.

Turn 29 - Athens starts a settler at size 4 (9 turns)

Turn 34: Archery-> Wheel

Turn 37: Athens Settler->Worker

Turn 41: Turns out that imperialistic charlie settled differently than I thought.
This gives me an oppurtunity for a more ambitious land grab, to get the double gold hills (marked 1). 2 is an alternative spot for better blocking.

Another question - I found stone to the north.
Assuming Charlie and I are the only ones on this continent, and I can safely block the north, is it worth it to go for pyramids? My expansion will be slower, but I think I can afford it with a blocking city, and being philosophical I will want to run many specialists anyway.

There is a danger that this game might turn into an isolated start, so the extra research/hapiness from the pyramids would be appreciated.

This is our current glorious capital

Looking forward for your advice before I play further. Thanks.
The first one to reply will get the technology of archery for free
Please don't include spoilers beyond what's revealed in my game in your reply.

 

[patagonia]

@ Silverbullet:

Spoiler :

You could afford to be more aggressive in blocking Charlie from the north. There's marble and gold S of your proposed blocking city and with a cottage or two on the floodplains in the capital, you can afford both.

 

[silverbullet]

@ Silverbullet:

Spoiler :

You could afford to be more aggressive in blocking Charlie from the north. There's marble and gold S of your proposed blocking city and with a cottage or two on the floodplains in the capital, you can afford both.

Patagonia:

Spoiler :

I just noticed that I had posted the wrong screenshot for my alternative blocking city. I fixed it in my original post.
The spot marked 1 is a super great commerce city in my opinion. It has great commerce tiles and the food to work them.
The spot marked 2 is better for blocking, but worse city overall. May be worth it if I go to aggressive blocking, although I am a bit afraid of being to aggressive. I don't think Charlie is very peaceful usually.

 

[patagonia]

@ sliverbullet:

Spoiler :

Charlie's a religious nut. If he manages to found one and spread it to you, he should be easy to get on the right side of.

 

[silverbullet]

@ sliverbullet:

Spoiler :

Charlie's a religious nut. If he manages to found one and spread it to you, he should be easy to get on the right side of.

Spoiler :

That's a good point. Hindu and bud hist religions are not picked by him unfortunately. Maybe he'll get Judaism. Confucianism is to long for me to wait. If I block him to much he will declare before that.

Also, I think that point 2 is a worse city overall compared to point 1.
If I settle there, mysticism should be a priority to get culture for a better block, and I would also need another quick filler city (probably between the corn and 2 dyes). This means pyramids will not get built.
I am still not sure what is best - smalller land with pyramids, or better land with no pyramids.
On one hand, if I get the pyramids, 2 library scientists will produce similarly to 2 gold mines, but on the other hand, If I get all this gold for myself I deny good land from my future enemy Charlie, which may turn out more important overall.

My inclination is to go for aggressive blocking and forget about pyramids for now. Opinions?

patagonia: Thanks for your quick feedback. As you are the first poster who gave feedback, I would like to offer you the technology of Archery as a gift

 

[oyzar]

I actually got archery from a hut already in this game... Not that it have much of relevance also:

Spoiler :

Waiting to confu should be fine if he gets it... The AI's seldom attack THAT early...

 

[silverbullet]

Oyzar:

Spoiler :

I think there is a part of AI code that makes them attack if they are completely blocked, but I think you are right, I have some time before Charlie runs out of land to settle completely.
I think I will go for spot 1 and forget about pyramids for now unless somebody will give me a convincing reason to do otherwise.

 

[Dirk1302]

@silverbullet

Spoiler :

Charlie isn't that aggressive, take as much land as you can and afterwards make friends with him, he'll probably not attack unless he hates you. If he does anyway that's just bad luck, you can see that coming though so you'll still have a chance to win the game in that case.

I'd like to play the next but i don't want to rush you.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

charlie's not so aggressive; more like backstabber/dogpiler, but not that aggressive(not that he's ghandi, or anything like that either... )

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Hmm I really messed this up from start.

I tried to 'play authentic', but I was allway's going to move 1 east...yeah..I scouted north first..to play fair, but wasted time on blocking..

Spoiler :

I let Charlie get a settler inbehind me....Hmm it was allready out. and inspite of my reading the forums, I ignored the dual gold...makes it even I suppose.

Trouble is I've crashed my economy, forgot to turn of inhibit growth in capital after a 3 pop whip, and many other issues.

Is a map of lands found so far, adopted buddism, so charlie should be all pallie.

Really its just a request for some ideas of what to do first up...I'd really like to try obsoletes stragetum...

save is attached.

 

[silverbullet]

@silverbullet

I'd like to play the next but i don't want to rush you.

That's fine Dirk, I think I will play this one slowly and carefully, posting 40~80 very detailed turns at a time and waiting for feedback.
I don't want to delay everyone else so I will post the new IU thread today.

 

[royolini]

Can these immortal university saves be played with the bugmod?