Immortal University XIII - Zara Yaqob

[silverbullet]

@Obsolete
Why don't you use photobucket for screenshots? This way it will not count towards your attachment limit on CFC (and it's also convenient to place the pictures inside spoiler tags this way). Then you can actually use the saved space to post saved games.

 

[Sleepless]

800BC - The End

Spoiler :

Carrying on from the last spoiler both Charles and Wil settled where I wanted to so I ended up with the 3 gem site as my southern border. After this I decided to play peacefully and see what happened whilst settling the rest of my lands.

Monte managed to get the tech lead.





As I expected later on he attacked Wil, Charlie came in on Wil's side and Monte eventually became Wil's vassal. Straight after Charles voluntarily vassaled to Wil as well. Another good reason for going the peaceful route.

I missed the GLib but did manage the GLh so my tech rate stayed high.



A view of my lands.



No Glib but first to Lib and took steel. Wonder where this is heading.



With the GLh I was able to get the tech lead.



All along I had planned on an early space victory but I would need some more land with Wil being my main target. After Wil had changed his religion from our Buddhist block to Taoism Charlie came to me asking to be my vassal. As I was 2 turns from attacking Wil I doubted I would keep him from harm but didn't let on and gladly accepted.

After reading an article on vassals not trading techs if you have another vassal they don't like I decided both Wil and Monte should both be removed from my island. Didn't quite work out as I planned but at least Charlie traded non spaceship techs to me. After a long drawn out war Monte and Wil were no more.

Not sure what the rest of the world thought about this.



Then again.

A while later sweet natured Cathie came and asked if I wanted a dp so.



Good that will let me finish my spaceship off nice and peacefully.



And off she goes. I was hoping for an earlier finish but having to tech everything myself proved a real bottleneck. I know Fusion and Genetics were only taking 3 turns each to research so not to sure on the best way to improve my spaceship times. Any ideas?

Sweet Cathie came with another offer.



Anyone ever mention she can't be trusted.

The UN to the rescue. Not that I really needed it.



Leading to:



My best spaceship score but still 30 years later than my earliest launch.

Anothe fun game. Thanks Silverbullet.

 

[obsolete]

@Obsolete
Why don't you use photobucket for screenshots? This way it will not count towards your attachment limit on CFC (and it's also convenient to place the pictures inside spoiler tags this way). Then you can actually use the saved space to post saved games.

I'll try to see if I can get ahold of decent hosting server again.

Anyhow, I mostly did the game just for kicks. But now I sort of wish there was another challenge.

BTW, what happened to the deity ones? Is that idea canned?


@ Sleepless using Liberalism to take Steel, I never did that, and makes me wonder a bit about your tech path. I see you snagged lib very late, which would explain that tech choice, but it seems strange considering the Pyramids, I would think you should have hit it much earlier. Was that an intensional delay?

 

[silverbullet]

There will be a deity challenge soon enough. If you are eager to start, check the save game I posted in the "deity win percentage" thread. I lost it but I suck

 

[Sleepless]

@Obsolete

One of my big failings is use of GPs. I don't usually get them early enough so most of the time I fail to be the first to Lib anyway. In this game with the GLh my tech rate was pretty good and I was keeping an eye on the AI so I knew I could leave Lib as late as possible. I think I had a couple of turns left on Chem when Charlie eventually got Edu.

The plan was always to attack Wil for his land and as I didnt't have horses the cannon/rifles seemed the best way to go. Also managed to get the GM from Economics which is unusual for me as well.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Immortal/Epic

Retired 910 AD

Spoiler :

Settled in place. Hut = 40gold. AG at first of course. BW after. Monty founded hindu, also met willem. Met charlie. As of 3000 BC I note that we have a TON of room an can easily get 8-10 cities peacefully. Charlie and monty have different religions and there will be fireworks.

We have copper. Priority settling will be the gems site for blocking/commerce/ownage. 3x Gems! With the eventual religious war I'll want to take a side to shave some cities.

In 2375 BC I settle gondar between the plains cow and gold - this city is food poor but the and commerce will be early welcome boosts.

After pottery I decide to go IW to hook up the gems ASAP once I grab that city. It may be possible to beat Willem east to the dye/sugar/silk/rice site also.

Buddhism spreads to me in 1800 but I'm biding my time. Willem converts to hinduism shortly after which may mean it necessary to take on charlie. Actually monty and I have him reasonably hemmed in so he won't be too huge - I might consider a sword war here if Monty is game for it. This is especially cool because willem will go FR and allow Monty and myself to smack him down also.

In 1450 BC I settle lalibela to claim the corn and 3 gems. 1 tile from the coast is but I'm looking for short term here. IW in a couple turns means I'll have the gems hooked up soon. I have a couple axes on D already too.

1350 ! The 3x gem city has iron also!

1000 Charlie is rapidly expanding, and even has a city SOUTH of my gem city now. A lot of it is useless jungle ATM. I wonder if I can bum rush his capitol and 1-2 other good cities?

875 BC I grab writing and instantly OB with Monty. I want hindu and allies. Badly. Teching masonry for some walls also.

800 Willem, in the same religion as Monty, declares on Monty?!

425 BC I declare on charlie with 4 swords, 6 axes, and a spear, and I'm heading straight for his money cities.
335 BC I capture Aachen. Barely. 4 units garrisoned in it now. Charlies extra intelligent counterattack forces are attacking the walled hill city of lalibela.
305 BC Charlie is actually willing to take peace without me giving him a city back, but I want to take away his factors of production some more first. The target city? Vienna, his only copper city.
200 BC Except that the city is HEAVILY defended, so I take a cease fire.
20 BC I declare on Charlie again. I doubt 4 axes, and 2 archers, and a catapult will hold out against 11 swords, 8 axes, and two spears!
5 BC I lost my GG sword at 85% odds since I was taking a chance . I capture the city. Charlie has lost his access to his only metal.
10 AD annoyingly, nobody has spread hindu to me. This may have something to do with monty/dutch still being at war...! Also note that "hidden modifiers" - otherwise known as the default game being full of lying !@#%$, gave me -1 for declaring on Willem's "friend", whom he's cautious with and in a different religion than. Logical.
70 AD Hindu spreads to me and I instantly adopt it.
85 AD Gilga declares war on charlie. He's not even on this continent as far as I can tell. Thankfully he lacks feudalism so we can't have any cheese occurring just yet.
250 AD I capture Prague.
400 AD I capture Nuremburg, getting my 3rd gem back and taking horses .
415 AD Monty capitulates to Willem :/
565 AD Charlie is off the !@#$ing map. I hate protective alot now.
640 AD I'm afraid I'm gonna get smacked down by Willem, who's cautious over my denials to go to war with monty .
745 AD Someone builds the pyramids . I check real quick just to make sure this is really immortal .
910 AD Willem declares on me, I'm toast .

 

[silverbullet]

Until 250 BC

Spoiler :

The Ethiopian Golden Age of Peaceful Expansion.
This map is exceptional. There is so room to expand AND there is the commerce to pay for it AND be in a tech lead after that.

After having scouted 3 gems in the jungle I decide that they must be in Ethiopian hands, but we don't have iron working. so I build another city to grab fish and 2xfur to help our research, so we can get iron working asap.

After wheel I tech fishing->pottery->iron working.
2000 BC I get a lucky event of discovering gold in the capital!!!
1640 BC iron working is in. That was quick with 1 gold and 2 furs.

1520 Lallibella is founded to grab 3 gems+corn+iron (1 tile away from coast, but I think it's worth it).

1320 BC writing is in.

I decide to tech alphabet next. I don't have marble so I don't think I will go for great library, and I don't think any of the rivals here will get alphabet anytime soon so I will be able to trade for it. Also, it will enable me to get better relations with them.

1200 BC Willem completes the great wall.

900 BC Alphabet is done. WOW, they are really backwards, I have nothing useful to trade for. Some backfilling for smaller techs next and self research of math.

750 BC Addis Ababa has been founded to grab 2 dye and silk. It will be a nice commerce city after calendar.
I have now a nice commerce empire, but very little production, and a very weak army.

The diplomatic status seems good:
Charlemagne founded Hinduism, Monty founded Buddhism, Willem adopted Buddhism.
Charlemagne is not dangerous yet, he is almost as weak as me. Willem is strong, but we have no shared border yet and he has a different religion from Charlie, he should fear him more than me.


525BC Yeha founded to block Charlie and grab cows+gold.

My first GS goes to build an academy in Lallibella - best commerce city and it needs the extra culture push to take over Charlie's lands.

Monty demands Mathematics and I agree. Now he is pleased.

325BC I finally get monarchy from Monty for Alphabet. My first tech trade.

Debra Berhan fonded to grab cows+fish+incense.

275BC currency is in.

Tech status:

It's not everyday we see Monty as a tech leader

Overview of our lands

Spoiler :

 

[silverbullet]

Until 980 AD.

Spoiler :

175 BC
I decide to covert to budhism, which might have been premature, because I don't have philosophy and not running organized religion.
I annoy charlie and he has enough on his hands at the moment, but I am not too worried about him.

I have neglected GPP production by skipping literature and philosophy and teching directly to civil service->paper. I decided that since the AI are backwards here and there is still room to expand and good commerce I will focus on that.
Also, with my tech lead I could probably attack Charlie with maces vs. archers. I need to focus on getting good whipping cities.
Tech status 375 AD:


I have moved the capital to Lalibela:


Soon enough Charlie declares war on me (500 AD), but I am ready.

I let him suicide his ancient stack before going out with my macemen to capture Mainz:


Charlie just got feudalism, but I have engineering now and a few cities dedicated to whipping trebuchets.

Willem has unfortunately built Shwegadon Paya and is now in his favourite civic of free religion and therefore cautious with me. I will have to be careful and watch him closely.

Charlie (and my neglect of GPP) has forced me to delay liberalism quite a lot, but it is still within reach. I use me 2nd GS to bulb education and it due in 7 turns.



I don't need such a big army for Charlie anymore, but Willem is next and my Trebuchets will see a lot of use in his lands.

Willem has only 1 source of horse that he recently stole from me culturally, and he doesn't have guilds yet. This means that if I pillage this horse on the 1st turn of war I will not see many knights, meaning my Oromo warriors will be unstoppable.

 

[silverbullet]

980 until the end

Spoiler :

Despite being late to liberalism I manage to grab it and take astronomy for free.
In retrospect it proved to be a poor choice because soon after that all the AIs teched it or traded for it with someone else.

1130 AD The Holy Roman civilization has been destroyed. I get the great lighthouse.

I will wait a bit for the HRE cities to come out of revolt and grow to a decent size so I can draft them. I tech nationalism and chemistry->steel, while Monty is kind enough to tech those techs while I am halfway there and trade it with me.

1340 AD - I decide to trade chemistry to Willem for 1300 gold so I can mass upgrade my trebuchets. With drafted oromos and cannons I have no trouble taking over willems lands, especially since he was "smart" enough to park half of his army in this border city:



I pillage the horses on the first turn of war so I don't have to worry about knights.

And this is the same city after the attack:


I have so many hapiness resources that I didn't really need the globe theatre, and war weariness never became an issue.

I used the cash from the war to tech military science, in case Willem in fast enough to get rifles, I will have something to do with all my promoted macemen.

1505 AD - the dutch are almost destroyed. I don't want to vassalize them because I still want to trade and I want to keep both Gilgamesh and Monty friendly.



I am a bit behind in tech, but this is easily recoverable with the extra land I have over everyone.


I also have the masoleum built by Willem, and I have only made 2 GP in the game so far, which means I can run ahead with multiple golden ages.
I will actually try to get sushi this game. If the next GP is not a merchant, I will use him to run a golden age +caste+pacifism to get a merchant somewhere.

Cathrine gets bribed by Willem and declares on me, which is great, it is an oppurtunity to steal the city she settled on my landmass because I was too busy warring. conquer another island city she has nearby and a barbarian city with 3 seafood resources, which will help future sushi corp.

After destorying Willem I attack Monty and vassalize him (I just really wanted his shrine ).
With Sushi being mine, the AI has no chance to compete. I even manage to found mining inc. although I don't really need it.

I can choose any victory I want. I go for diplomatic, as it is the fastest and I am tired of micromamanaging so many cities.

1800 AD I win a diplomatic victory.

 

[Jet]

Summary of my game (it was a little while ago)

Spoiler :

Settled in place, second city was a production city to the Southeast on the plains hill.

Grabbed two more cities on the ithsmus, but didn't make it farther than that.

Built the GW, although I didn't want it very much (I was waiting for some tech, BW or IW maybe). Built the GLH, which I did want. Maybe if I hadn't built the GW I could have settled farther south, and the game would have gone better.

Built a ~lot~ of coastal cities in Ethiopia, anywhere I could get a food surplus. This went decently... I don't know, though.

In late Medieval I got fairly early Gunpowder and Nationalism and drafted Oromos. Attacked Willem, but he had too many Knights (and superior power in general) and I didn't have enough Pikemen. I reloaded and realized it would be much better to attack Charlemagne, who didn't have Iron. Got his core and vassalized his two border cities.

Willem was a bit ahead so I just teched along, missed the Internet (IIRC) but might still have gotten space, since Willem's capital was close enough to the Holy Roman border to attack and raze with airplanes and 2-move units after he launched.

I also came close to a diplomatic, but even with my best diplo and espionage diplo (and reloading to try different tactics) I couldn't quite get it.

Then Willem attacked me, and IIRC I fought him off OK, but kind of lost interest in the game.

 

[obsolete]

The plan was always to attack Wil for his land and as I didnt't have horses the cannon/rifles seemed the best way to go. Also managed to get the GM from Economics which is unusual for me as well.

I should take another look at my tech paths, and see about possibly going after these in the proper occasion. I'm just not used to being too far ahead of the AI so I am definitely not playing optimally on maps like this.

Anyhow, it's interesting seeing all the differences between the players. Still looking forward to the next...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Well since it's been 1/2 a year and I suck less, let's get revenge on this one:

1905 UN

Spoiler :

Cannons and draft oromos for 1.5 wars (got to rifles vs monty).

After that it got ugly. Willem gets to internet and mech infantry, and I invade him with infantry/arty/AT. The ATs get up to 50% interception with good spamming, only for me to find out that willem somehow has no oil! So, they shoot down airships like crazy. That also means it's mech infantry only that threatens me on the ground. After cutting down his SoD arty and PS just powered through, and that was enough to win UN thanks to keeping diplo with gilga.

End tech situation was BAD though. Then again, apparently infantry/arty/PS can beat anything :/.

 

[Shurdus]

@TMIT

So after half a year this loss was still bothering you?

 

[Fluxx]

^^ indeed, talking about long grudges!!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

All of my IU losses bother me . I periodically go back to play games I've lost in the past to see if I've improved enough.

I have that kind of memory though. If a professor emphasized something heavily 5 weeks ago, I remember it. If something was really bothering someone/caused them to do something, I might remember it for years. One of the reasons I hate BUG mod is that it slows down the game, while for most of the early game I remember the majority what's going on in my cities if I have less than 10 or so.

Hell, I even remember things like which city I chose for heroic epic when playing with my friend last summer on an earthlike tectonics map, including things like losing a city to barbs (god that was embarassing), getting GLH in my 2nd city settled to the east, TGL in GP farm at the southern tip of Africa (I spawned kind of south central there), etc etc.

It's less a grudge than going back to see how much I've improved. I got roasted alive in my first attempt, and winning something that you couldn't beat before is just delicious.