Immortal University XLV: Darius

[TheMeInTeam]

Hello all and welcome to the Immortal University! This series was started a long time ago to move a group of the forum's players to the next level. It is now hosted by professors Ignorant Teacher (on sabbatical) and myself, TMIT. Are you ready for the U?

This is the 45th beatdown on the AI, in case you're keeping track.

We will uphold the university's traditions...smacking down the hapless AI!

Our leader this time around:

An excellent UU if you have neighbors to demolish, and a boring (if at least useful) UB. The trait set can really allow otherwise punishing expansion too. We'll see if you can leverage ANY of this though. The maps are random after all .

Here's the start:

Another IU, another random fractal start. And man, unless there's food in the lone fog tile in the BFC, it's a woofer. Then again, we don't have a carpet of forests so we have a decent shot at strategic resources here. Decisions decisions...

Huts and Events are off. If you don't like it, just plop 4 warriors somewhere in world builder and give yourself 60 gold to simulate huts, and just delete your capitol and put 3 archers there to simulate events.

Copy and Paste of the doctrine:

To play, just extract the WB save file into your worldbuilder saves directory, then play it. Use custom scenario if you want some extra settings to tickle your fancy. This series was designed for people learning immortal, so most people here will be at that level or trying to attain it, although deity players are welcome also. Hell, if you want to play this on NOBLE, go ahead, but I'm not peeling off the AI bonuses. The intention of this and any other game thread I post is to get better. Play whatever level you need in order to improve. Just remember, there are immortal bonuses and that's not going to change unless you WB edit it.

If you are aspiring IMM+, try to remember to add archery back to the barbs in WB. Every time you don't, a deity AI will kill a kitten, although there are a lot of kittens so it's not the end of the world if you prefer easymode barbs .

I do request people to list their difficulty and speed. In terms of updates, well nobody follows that anyway. Post in the manner you feel comfortable. Typical comparison dates are 1 AD, liberalism, and victory/defeat, as well as any major events. If in doubt, go with that.

The save!

View attachment IU XLV Darius.zip

The initial autosave for those who want to duck having to add barbs or possibly use proper colors. It's IMM/Norm no huts/events.

View attachment AutoSave_Initial_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[iggymnrr]

A favorite leader. This would be fun to shadow, maybe even play. Useless UB? My Darius games end up in space more often than not. That UB is priceless.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

A favorite leader. This would be fun to shadow, maybe even play. Useless UB? My Darius games end up in space more often than not. That UB is priceless.

1. This is the immortal university. You don't shadow it, you play it. It's like a high-level noble's club.

2. I said the apothecary is BORING. I never said it was useless. It's nice to have, and for anything other than extreme early UU beatdowns it's consistent.

 

[babybluepants]

May be crap for food, but that's a whole lotta potential horsies.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Right clicking on the AI in the trade screen is not a dow!

Right clicking on the AI in the trade screen is not a dow!

Right clicking on the AI in the trade screen is not a dow!

Or maybe it is. Ok, back a few turns then.

This bug needs to be fixed 4 years ago.

 

[shyuhe]

I've never even heard of that bug. Do you right click on his face?

 

[kossin]

I'm guessing it sends a prior selected unit into enemy territory (before open borders)?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm guessing it sends a prior selected unit into enemy territory (before open borders)?

No, it is a glitch where the game things you're holding alt when you are not holding alt.

As I've replicated it on 3 machines, I'm guessing that 1) it's caused by relying on selecting a whole group of units using alt and 2) that a lot of people don't use unit selection hotkeys, because fireaxis has really been dismal with getting them working consistently.

 

[Tempesta13]

Normal speed to 1 AD

Spoiler :

Settled 1 east giving up ivory - wanted to save room for coastal cities. Went AH-Mining-Wheel-BW-myst-pottery i think. Obviously plan on immortal-rushing monty.

Did not use slavery - regretted this as attacking sooner would have made the war much easier. Monty had 5 cities by 1000BC and hooked up copper. 1 spear held me up a lot since no one wanted to even damage it at all...

Have lots of monty's gold and all but 1 city. Aesthetics in 1 turn and decent land blocked off. Convert to Hindu to make everyone happy and to run pacifism later.

I get tech lead off monty. Decide not to re-declare on him so he can be worst enemy of everyone while i get relations up.

to 1000 Ad

Spoiler :

Got parthenon and then great library. Napoleon declared on Joao, later monty did as well. They made peace already and monty was eliminated. Napoleon is everyone's worst enemy.

Will be number 1 in land when i finish settling. Also good tech position with liberalism a sure thing. Joao is friendly and sitting bull almost is. Nappy can still declare on me but he likes me more than the other two so chances are low. AP just built so temples/monasteries will help production. Plan on attacking Nappy with cavalry if i have a good tech lead, or rifles/cannons - still need to scout his land. Should be easy to win from there with the other two friendly. Other continent was warring so i doubt they are keeping up in tech. They have Judaism, Confucianism and Taoism over there so they probably aren't in the same religion.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

IMM/Normal

1 AD

Spoiler :

Settled 1E as I hate starts on grass hills, it gives us levee, and it is pretty clear that picks up 2 FP at the price of 1 + ivory.

With a warmonger psycho next to us, we have no choice but to prepare for war, be it offensive or defensive, or pray to RNG gods. Yes, he has a worst enemy elsewhere. But in this game that doesn't effing matter in a lot of cases, including this one.

Getting to his copper quickly was a convincing move. I couldn't finish him off though because IW = jags no matter what and he spammed them. Ghetto.

I have a lot of land and I'm going to use this production and diplo advantage to keep going, once I pick up some siege.

Liberalism

Spoiler :

Time to die feather ghey.

Nappy declared on Joao and made no progress, taking peace. I scout him out and realize I can take his SoD

From that point on just more medieval garb spam while taking cities. It's a slow war but not a costly one. I do take a break after making that cheesy city capture though, to reposition. Then I go again:

And while war rages on, the idiot AIs don't want to win liberalism. No, they INSIST I do so. I don't even have libraries, but OK.

1888 Diplomation with a little extra sauce.

Spoiler :

Eventually Nappy is snuffed. I bribed JC to war with him then out to manipulate DoW odds against me to about 0.

Joao built sistine and is going the techmonger culture. I'm not standing for it.

Aw hell. I get NUKED in this war, but I win it anyway.

I continue on to the cow

He caps easily enough after losing 4 cities or so. And then I realize I am close to winning UN. JC built it. JC did not get SDI. Sorry buddy, I need your pop lower.

And that's easily enough.

This was flagrant unit spam using cottages to pay for everything. After I took lisbon I got kremlin, and that made the nukes cheaper. Post-democracy I actually built some multipliers while regrouping for Joao.

Phear arty! And nukes.

 

[Gramm]

Been a long time lurker, but finally decided to post a game. This is my first real try on immortal, but I'm very comfortable on emperor. I know that I probably haven't been playing the map optimally, so I'd love critique

1 AD

Spoiler :

I settled in place and went Mining->AH->BW->Wheel->Myst->Fishing->Pottery->Writing->Aest->Litt as far as I remember. Then started trading for alphabet. Founded confuism (by mistake ) (would have liked to have gone AH->mining in hindsight)

Decided against warring, as I was afraid Monty might be too far, and have too many defences once I'd finally massed enough horsies. This is probably the biggest leak in my game, but units slow my game down, so I've never really gotten good at the war side.

Empire at 1 AD

Will settle my 6th city in a couple of turns, once I get a farm for it to work right when it's settled. Got bureaucracy in 8-9 turns and will get my first scientist at the same time to build an academy. The next scientist will follow shortly after, and will probably be used to found taoism.

Monty, Joao and Nappy are in WHEOOH, but Monty and Joao have been at war for quite some time, and SB is worst enemy of Nappy, so I think I'm safe.

Capitol

2nd cottage city

Got a comfortable tech lead

Plan is to bulb to a bigger tech lead once academies are in and probably get cannons on monty or joao.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@ gramm:

Spoiler :

Your tech rate is pretty good but I'd like to see more cities by 1 AD. You've been boxed to the point where you will have trouble coming up with military and can't get the 6 building national wonders. Probably now that you're in that position ASAP rilfedraft on monty will give you the most leverage.

Cottages, especially FIN cottages, can be excellent. However, they are pop efficient in a situation where you're now cramped for tiles. Grow as much as you can and gear for war once you can get an advantage...you'll be needing more land to win. Get national epic to gain more GPP fast ----> that will be your primary research engine in the near future

 

[Zexx]

Why is it that whenever I try to play the games you've hosted, TMIT, that I get an error message when I try to open them, and the game crashes? Is there some patch that I am unaware of?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm just using the basic 3.19 patch, no mods at all. Are you using BTS 3.19? Are you taking the autosave or the worldbuilder .zip file?

I ask because it seems others can open them without trouble consistently.

 

[Grashopa]

Gramm

Spoiler :

You've got immortals and should not have wondered about using them I started this game in deity and went immortals which I've never done - we'll see if it works out. But either way just do it. Don't micromanage it, just build a lot and go. Should take you 5 minutes to get to 1000 BC this map since you just set *immortals and hit enter until you have a crapload or more - you can't mess that up much.

Peaceful wise get that academy out a lot sooner. And your capital seems like it could be much bigger with much more commerce. Get a farm south of the wheat so it gets irrigated at CS and cottage the riverside plains.

 

[Grashopa]

Deity/Normal 1080 BC

Spoiler :

Settled in place, AH first then roads to hook up the horse. Then *immortals.

Caught Monty with 2 cities. And only 1 archer defending against my warrior and immortal. He got BW 3 turns after I declared, but I was just pillaging his copper.

The captured city whipped a settler for the gold. And I was able to take the capital by leaving that city defended by only 2 warriors, luring his archers out to attack. 11 immortals against 4 archers in cap is no problem.

I've got the only religion on the continent so monasteries are next and roads. I'll want a Prophet first so I'll have to figure that out. Need 2 settlers and 2 barb cities to block and I've got 6 workers to cottage up. Total of 13 cities looks like. And I've got ivory/fur/gold/silver.

 

[lymond]

TMIT or anyone -

I had a lot of trouble with my immortal rush on Monty. I couldn't catch him before he launched a bunch of spearmen on me. I tried it a couple of times. Would you mind describing the mechanics that make this work. Especially considering where you settled, since horse did not pop up in the BFC. Did you settle the horses? Tech path? Whipping/Chopping?

This is certainly an interesting start with no metal for support. It plays to Darius but an early rush is pretty much the only way to play it. I just couldn't get it to work.

thanks

 

[michmbk]

Seriously TMIT, while I'm not playing much civ anymore, I still like to read about others games, and that was one of the most entertaining forum games you or anyone has posted.

It made me want to get back in and play, if only i had the time.

 

[oranje willem]

Immortal normal domination win

Spoiler :

Immortal rush wasn't extremely succesfull but I got 2 cities from Monty. I didn't have enough land and as Monty was weakened I redeclared later with elephants and catapults when I finally had all his land, there were 3 very big AI's. Rome had vassilised Roosevelt, Joao had vassilised Napoleon and he also had veeery much land himself and then there was Sitting Bull without a vassal but with a big territory. Luckily Joao didn't have rifling when I had and by the time he had it, he was already doomed. I vassilised him, because of unhappyness and my army being too spread out to finish him in a few turns. Napoleon died very soon after this and then there were plenty of options. I decided to kill Sitting Bull as well, tough bastard but after 18 nukes and a big land assault he fell pretty quick. All the nuked land caused me to have a couple of % too few population , but after rushbuying another 20 nukes and launching them on rome his population decreased so hard I managed to get domination after all .

edit: notice how far i'm behind in the first screenshot, FIN/ORG definatly helped getting back on track.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Seriously TMIT, while I'm not playing much civ anymore, I still like to read about others games, and that was one of the most entertaining forum games you or anyone has posted.

It made me want to get back in and play, if only i had the time.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, but the end-game tactic was actually a move stolen from obsolete ...although he usually doesn't $$$ rush them.

@ lymond

Spoiler :

I just settled the horse to work it ASAP before a border pop and wound up using my 2 workers to chop, chop chop the immortals. The other important factor was to hit the best production cities (including the capitol) ASAP. This often disconnects metal, but also really cuts their ability to build more spears than they happen to have on DoW.