Immortal University XVIII

TheMeInTeam

If A implies B...
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
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Hello all and welcome to the resurrection of the Immortal University! This series was started a long time ago to move a group of the forum's players to the next level. Interest died out over time as the players all became more skillful - a number of these players are deity-class now.

This is the 18th in the storied series, and the first I get to host (although I did create a map that the old cast asked be made hard deliberately).

Enough history. We are the new class that's headed through immortal on the quest for deity. We will uphold the university's traditions...smacking down the hapless AI ;).

And who better to resurrect IU than:



Shaka! Breath a sigh of relief folks, because he didn't spawn next to us :lol:. This guy is probably the #1 player killer as an AI, but now we get to use him. The UU is average at best, the UB solid if a little boring. We can deal with it. If you build a barracks you kind of sort of get to approximate ORG or something. Whatever. Most of you don't build a barracks for maintenance reductions, I'm assuming ;).

Here's the start:



Ok, dual corns. Am I being too easy on us?! Well, I don't know. I actually managed to not see the land's layout, so we may or may not have fun leaders. The map is continents, standard size. Huts and events are off by default (this is a game comparison and learning thread, after all), although if it bothers you terribly you can add the latter back. I reserve the personal right to point and laugh if the vedic aryans knock on your door though.

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 I prefer you play at that level, 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's immortal bonuses and that's not going to change unless you WB edit it.

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.

Without further ado, the ZIP file:

View attachment IU XVIII Shaka.zip
 
Ok, 3.30 AM here, so I'll try this tomorrow. I was about to ask about the overall map difficulty, but you didn't see anything.
Will be my very first game at Immortal, so let's hope for some reasonable AIs.
 
We are playing from a WB file, so wont the Barbs be gimped?

I agree with that "play at or above level" comment, no doubt. I play them all at or above. Heck, I think the only Nobles Club I played at Noble was the Liz (first) one, maybe not even that.
 

:lol:.

That's not to say people can't do as they please, but this one is intended to differentiate from the other series :p.

If anyone can game spam, absolutely feel free to do like emp+ or something, but as bleys mentioned, barbs will be gimped due to WB save.

The only way to mitigate that is to go into WB and add archery to barbs (the text version does not have barb data). I will do so, but if you're moving up you might like the non-archers for the first game or two.
 
I fear I will not be able to resist... I am winning about 40% of my SP immortal games and completely thrashing emperor, I have been trying to move up permanently for a couple weeks now, hopefully I will be able to learn a thing or two by playing this. For me winning at immortal is all about slowing down, however when I start to micro and be careful with my turns the game gets boring... Not that TMIT would know ANYTHING about playing too fast eh? :lol:
 
I suggest grouping the workers rather than relying on the governor on immortal, though ;). I use sets of 2 or 3.

Immortal is still something that can be won on strategy, as long as micro is even remotely serviceable. I've gotten a lot better since I switched to it as my most played difficulty.
 
Give up my governor!?!?! only in a couple cities will I not use my "trusty" governer, and yeah I don't automate workers on immortal yet, but groups of 2 or 3 has been a rule of thumb for a long time for me.

My strategy is decent-good but I am just being a bit too tentative to push an edge due to new difficulty jitters and I am not trusting my warmongering instinct as much as I should

I am currently at that weird in between stage where Emperor is easy and immortal is a bit on the hard side for my liking, just need to put in 4-5 more immortal games I think before I am comfortable
 
Yeah I was the same until about a month ago...the new levels seem to take some adjustment then they're fine.

By giving up the governor, I meant in terms of dictating worker actions of course ;). I have confidence that once I learn the requisite micro, the governor can be used even on deity.
 
I'll give this a shot on immortal. I win most of my emperor games now, so immortal should be a good challenge. Probably won't have a chance to get to this until Sunday though.
 
1000 BC general remarks
Spoiler :
This reminds me of the Cyrus IU. Everybody was like, "yeah, so here's a screenshot of my 20 Immortals in 3000 BC [pretty much saying only that] when I started taking cities". Either that, or they said, "here's my 4 Immortals... and here's the 10 cities I captured 10 turns later." I was like, ****. My Immortal rush was OK, but worse than most of those posted. In this game the peninsula looks good enough to wait for catapults if you want. Maybe that's best. But the land and holy city are outstanding, and I think a sword rush that gets his capital and a gems will take the whole game. I'm not finding that easy against Pro+Stone (and I guess I suck), so the details are important. I'm reloading and trying different ways to do it. I'm planning to post the autosaves from every turn of the different paths I tried.
 
I'm also at the point now that emperor is too easy, but not quite good enough for immortal so this should be good. Glad i finished the MS student game for this week already - now i can play this over the weekend. Winning that MS game easily after making a few huge mistakes (including losing my first settler to barbs - and basing my entire mid-game strategy on a resource i didn't have) - and also playing fast, around 4 1/2 hours, not TMIT 3 hours quick though, means i really need to suck it up and start playing on immortal. Will give this a try tomorrow.
 
Not really a spoiler, just a tip for the starting location:

Spoiler :

by moving 1SE, you actually don't lose a turn.

Build time for the worker decreases thanks to the EXP trait and the forested plain hill.

Additionally, you gain the pigs and 3 hills for a very nice capital, riverside location (minor), more riverside tiles. Finally you keep the suspicious bare grassland 1NE of the settler.
 
Is the default wb save not corrected for barbs? In other words will we use impi to lay the smackdown on barb cities all around the continent?
 
Wow! I am so glad to see you all MS guys playing immortal now! ;)
i'll try this too - it's surely not my level, but maybe i get lucky and stay alive long enough to have anything to post :)
 
I will have a go at this. While I have had some really strong Immortal victories I have had more crushing defeats. I have been finding Emperor very easy lately so this series is well timed for me :). Funnily enough my biggest problem has been barbarians so the no archer thing may help.
 
Pauliskhan-Immortal

To 1000AD

Spoiler :
Started this game with heavy economy crash (-ve gpt at 0% research).
Went straight for ironworking, settled 3 mediocre cities (left the good stuff for charly) repeatedly bashed my head against hill fortified city defender protective archers.
Every time my economy looked like recovering I tried to take a few more cities.
Had to revolt quite a few times while my troops were on the move just to avoid them going on strike. Disbanded dozens of troops manually during peacetime because my cities literally had nothing else they could build and I couldn't afford to support a troop buildup.


Charly built stonehenge and founded buddhism in his capital. I eventually captured it and the Gproph from henge was used to shrine the religion.

It's now 1000AD and I just teched through pottery, writing and polytheism on my eventual way to CS-paper-education, still don't have animal husbandry or currency or CoL or Math. Currently -31gpt at 0% research
Have Charly down to two cities, will probably have to wipe him out just get rid of "fatherland" unhappiness. Hopefully the other AI find me soon so I'll have someone other than Kublai to beg from.
Figured I'd give the AI a headstart, let's see how it goes from here >.>

-edit-
bleh, couldn't get Kublai to friendly despite sharing religion and favoured civic and open borders. With no other viable targets he made the inevitable war dec, my swords and axes were no match for his grenadiers. I guess I should have stuck with a more conservative approach.
 
Immortal/Epic to 370AD:

Spoiler :

Tech path was something like BW-->AH-->Achery-->Writing-->Alphabet (backfill trading for the wheel etc.)-->Currency-->Construction. Specialists&hammer economy, no cottages. Just 4 cities.

Civ4ScreenShot0526.JPG
Civ4ScreenShot0527.JPG
Civ4ScreenShot0533.JPG

25 AD Catapult war, Charlemagne was in war with Khan and 2 techs away from longbows:

Civ4ScreenShot0535.JPG

Took 3 cities, but got stuck after that, most cats are gone and Charlemagne is spamming protective archers.
Civ4ScreenShot0538.JPG


View attachment Immortal Student Shaka AD-0370.CivBeyondSwordSave
 
The hardest bit of immortal for me at the moment is that while I know I'm going to lag behind at the start I don't know when a game is recoverable and when its already lost. I've played up to 1000bc so far but I don't know how well I'm doing.
Spoiler :



I settled in place and explored a bit. Techwise went mining>bw(no copper)>AH(no horses)>archery>writing>IW>fishing>3turns from sailing atm. Don't have the wheel or pottery yet. Got 5g in the bank, running at 10% research and breaking even at 24bpt. Running scientists in 3 cities.

Founded uMgungun 2550, Nobamba 2250 coz I didn't want to get totally hemmed in, Bulaweyo 1075 (iron and 2 fish is pretty respectable), got a settler for the northern deer/wine spot but can't afford another city atm.
 
immortal marathon, to 1ad
Spoiler :

well, i started by moving SE.
turns are not so valuable at slower speeds, and location is much better.
-3985.ulundy0000.JPG
Explored a bit to find Charlie (bloody warmongering zealot) and KK(insane raving madman)
i decided to research AH from the start instead of mining->BW, because:
Charlise was very very very close to the east, and to the west is sea.
with so many unforested hills near capital i can do with later slavery.
i relied upon AI's and magic Dan'f anti-barb rule tokeeps barbs away.
so i calculated i'll need a maximum of 4 warriors to effectively prevent barbs from spawning in my vicinity.
in addition to that, charlie is almost guaranteed to neglect BW for a long time, and, if i do the same, barbs will not know it.
So i researched AH, hoping that bare grassland is horses not copper.
techs path AH-wheel-pottery-mining-BW-Fishing
I found myself boxed by charlie without horses or copper.
his buddhism spread to me.
-1730.buddhism0000.JPG
quite poor land foodwise, but 2good places for commerce cities.
founded second city (uM-something) to share pigs with capital.
third (nobamba) - without any food at all (well, it's corn in BFC, but under charlies culture)
fourth - in 2-fish site.
My fogbusting was effective enough to stay alive, and i was right about barbs not knowing BW.
Still it was bad enough to allow some barb rubbish to appear in the north of my land.
-1370.screen0000.JPG
later techpath writing - aestethics.
However, having discovered it, i found that AI's can't trade yet - no alphabet.
-1240.techs.after.aest0000.JPG
IW - alphabet - mathematics
-1040 discovered IW, bare grassland turned out to be iron (thanks it was not aluminium)
-1070.iron0000.JPG
-880 i got my first GS in ubuntu. settled him in nobamba.
-880.gsc0000.JPG
-840 after razing that annoying barb village, i build Khu-something to SE of the ruins.
-840.last.city0000.JPG
So I'm with 5 cities.
War with charlie seems reasonable - he has mids, good land, holy city, and KK will be safe once i get to CS. But medieval war against a protective unit-spammer with an unvelnerable defensive UU is not a thing i dreamed to be my first serious immortal game.
I developed peacefully the rest of the round, trading techs and building culture buildings is Um and Nobamba to compete with charlie's holy capital.
they both still don't know alphabet, so i can trade techs with both safely.
Charlie is friendly, KK pleased. Nobody is going to war yet.
0.techs0000.JPG
0.land0000.JPG
0.cities0000.JPG
Honestly, i don't know what to do now. Cats+swords or mace+trebs agains charlie seems hopeless, and waiting untill renaissance with 5cities looks silly. What would you advise?
 
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