Immortal University XXI: Asoka

[Sleepless]

Asoka Normal/Immortal - 175BC

Spoiler :

A very quick post. Settled in place. Tech went Hunting - BW - Agr - Wheel - Pot - Writing. I went for BW before Agr because the worker would have nothing to do for a long time. Even so I think I had 3 turns of doing nothing. Its been busy since then though.

With bronze and GK close I decided to try a chop rush which has worked but not very impressive. I built a up a few axes and spears and managed to take a couple of cities including Karakorum before a cease fire. Once I had built my forces up a bit I attacked again whilst teching alpha. So once alpha was in I had another peace deal for a lot of techs. I'm not to worried about WFYBTA with Joao/Peter they are easy to get to friendly although I will get more demerits from Peter for attacking his friend again. I will have to finish off GK before Peter gets Feud as it is very likely GK will vassal to him.

Current lands.

With marble, ivory and gold I'm going to go to Aesthetics and look at building the Parth/SoZ in the Southern cities. Hopefully I'll be able to flip Joao's gem city somewhere along the line. At least I'll get my bananas back.

Tech situation. Looks good but I'm currently at a - gold figure at 0% research.

Probably my unit costs don't help.

So plan is to kill off GK asap and rex the rest of my land before starting on Peter. Oh and get my economy back on track.

 

[Dirk1302]

@TMIT Looked at it, played a few turns setting spypoints on GK to see how fast he is and i tend to agree with you now. If at all possible it would be fiendishly difficult.GK is often quite a strong leader in my games, better than Shaka, Monty for instance.

 

[Rogozhin]

Hi again! Thank you.

20 BC - 625 AD

Spoiler :

I had a very dissapointing start, GK settling up and down and boxing me in.

Nevertheless, the segment ended with GK DOW Peter so well.

Turn 174. 10 AD.

You're right, we can't stand them either!

I side with Peter. I cancel Open Borders and Gems importation with GK.


Turn 177. 55 AD.

It ain't happening.

He's going to have to wait for that Carrack or whatever.

GS in Bombay. He will settle in Delhi (my "GP farm") next turn.
Also, I'm recruiting spears and calling the surviving axes from the tundras.

Turn 182. 130 AD.
I'm one turn at Construction. It's time to lay down the cards:

GK has a superlative weakness, has no copper, no elephants, just horses and iron.
His iron tiles are too close of my border. We must negate access to them. This will be the priority of the plot.

(crosses show GK iron). I will build 2 armies, the Main force will pillage and siege Niang-Hia. The Wing force will pillage and siege Samarqand first, New Sarai second and regroup with the main force on Ning-Hia to smash GK capital (Karakorum).

I'm watching Russian-Mongol war and GK is spaming UU like no tomorrow. I strat to think he is obsessed with horses to the point that even the casus belli against Peter was, aside from the cultural pressure, because of that horse pasture the Russians owned in Yekatemburg.

So I will rely heavily in spears and not only in auxiliar/guard roles: this will be the secondary objective of the plot.

Science to 0%. Citizens out of libraries.

Tech path: Code of Laws.

Turn 185. 175 AD.

Sorry, but we cannot afford a war right now.

Too soon fellow.

Turn 187. 205 AD.
Peter has made peace with GK!. 15 turns of war.

Turn 189. 235 AD.
Taoism has been founded in Novgorod (Russia).

Turn 191. 265 AD.

Sounds like a deal!!!.

Trade more than welcome.

Turn 192. 280 AD.
Christianity is found in a distant land.

Turn 194. 310 AD.
GK converts to Taoism.
Joao II declares war on GK. 7 turns of peace for GK and another war in. He is getting a lot of GG from the wars, and also a lot of GP and wonders in general.

Turn 197. 355 AD.

We reject your empty treats!.

He has a war to attend to.

Turn 201. 415 BC.
The most advanced civilizations.

1. Peter
2. GK
3. Joao II
4. Unknown
5. Unknown
6. Unknown
7. Rogozhin

Turn 202. 430 BC.
Random event. (it might not look like it, but it’s ON).

‘Dangerous number’ means 4.
This is a nuisance because the barbarians come from the tundra and my axes are piled just in the opposite side of my dominions.

Turn 206. 490 BC.

I manage to kill the barbarians, losing a catapult.

Turn 207. 505 BC.

It ain’t happening.
How many times have I told him?. What a chat whore!. Who remains very silent, is GK.

Turn 210. 550 AD.
GK has made peace with Joao II. 16 turns of war. I have no reports of this war. Closed borders with both of them.

Turn 212. 580 AD.

Fair enough.
I don’t blame him.
This cancelation reminds me it’s time to do the last whips.

Turn 214. 610 AD.
Peter converts to Taoism. Everyone is taoist but me.
If the mountain not come to Mahoma, Mahoma go to the mountain.

Turn 215. 625 AD.

My turn.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Spoiler :

Genghis Khan seems to be performing extremely well in the early game of most of our saves. Is this because the AI is good with Imperialistic or something?

I didn't really have time to play a game worth mentioning, but I got the start of an axerush in. Although I managed to capture Karakorum and several floodplain sites without much of a fight, there seem to be so many cities of Genghis' left that I'll be fighting at least until 0 AD before I can firmly seal the lid on the war. GK's tenacity is a surprise to me, as normally with bonusses like we have in this game (2 silver tiles, fast workers) I'd be expecting to have a very easy time rushing.

 

[Sleepless]

175BC - 1030AD

Spoiler :

Not much to report in this bit. Except no more Ghengis. He even declared on me so no more minus from Peter for declaring on a friend. It took me a long time to get out of the tech hole I was in.

Current situation.

A little bit behind but not to bad. With my current land and space for another couple of filler cities I should be able to catch up quite quickly. There has been a few GG born in other lands so hopefully they aren't very friendly over there.

Demographics.

I'm going to head for Lib now. I was planning on using all the GS's I get for multiple Academies and cottage everywhere. But just got an artist (still I can save him for a GA).

With this land it should be an easy victory. I still plan on taking out Peter (possibly Joao) along the way and then see how quickly I can head for space.

 

[mirthadir]

1920 something diplomation win

Spoiler :

I can't post any screens at present, but this seemed to be an extremely easy shot. I scouted south early and found GK; I opted to run Ag -> BW -> Priest -> Writing and managed to get out two blocking cities near the stone and gold; chopped out the Oracle and founded confucianism. Stone let me nab the mids, CI, and AW which provided me with a great shot an early SE(pr) I bulbed Philo first, and got it to found in my FP city (where I was intending to move the cap) which makes for a very strong late game B/WS cap. I made religious friends with the Hindus (GK and Joa) and teched out to lib (took nationalism and got the Taj) then I went for steel. GK was at war with Peter so I backstabbed and took his three northern most cities (including cap) with whipped cannons and drafted muskets with a few CR II Maces before he got a large stack of grenades and curis back up north. I managed to get the Kremlin and then opted for a nice run to infantry (which I used to demolish GK until he capped to Peter), flight and arty (which I used to destroy GK and Peter) followed by radio, industrialism (used to kill Joa in about 3 turns), and composites/computers (nabbing the Internet and taking an airhead from Pacal).

I had the UN sewn up with my own votes, but the French voted for me when I called for diplo victory vote as a complete surpise. Domination was just a quick splash of MA vs ATs/arty (no flight) until I got just enough land to cross the threshold.

The big choices that paid off handsomely for me were:
1. Block settling and then rigging religion to get two holy cities in the blocks.
2. Oracle for early CoL which made excellent trade bait and gave me a leg up on the stone wonders. Mids for early Rep.
3. Backstabbing GK. I got a great production city with his cap and it had 3 settled GGs.
4. Kremlin made it easy to whip out armies quick with civics cycling to vassal, theo, PS and back to OR/FR, B, and Rep.
5. With the holy cities giving me cash, getting some excellent resource trades, massive religious exploitation in genral, and taking Notre Dame, I was running 20+ pop cities with no more than 20% culture slider, without having to give up caste/slavery.
6. Getting the Romans to friendly provided me with an excellent late game trading partner.

All told this game was nice shot at leveraging Spi to its fullest and once again confirms for me that it is the most powerful trait on higher difficulties. Best tradeoff between economy and war, best diplomatic potential, and best tradeoff between production and science. Cheap temples for mass priest slots was also good.

 

[michmbk]

I finally got around to giving this a run on immortal epic, and my first try at it was a quick and spectacular failure.

Spoiler :

No pics because it was so quickly ugly. I went for a power axe rush on Genghis - I kept checking his territory for horses with my scouting warrior, and didn't see them - I sent 13 axes toward his capital and didn't bring any spears since I didn't see chariots anywhere. I got one tile from his capital, and 5 chariots showed up and blew me out of the water. Lost my axes, and lost the game right there. I could have tried to salvage (probably would have tried on emperor or monarch), but figured on immortal I was dead for sure.

Ugh - I swear I saw no chariots anywhere. All I needed was 1-2 spears and the stack would have been reasonably protected.

 

[Jet]

Imm/Normal 1630

Spoiler :

Started with a lot of settlers, but not early enough to keep Genghis away from the gold hill. Teching slowly I missed every wonder except Zeus despite going Aesthetics first. No level 4 unit either. Joined GK in Confucianism while he fought Apostolic Christian Joao and Peter, now vassalized and in FR respectively. Turtled with cottage spam and no military until Rifles/Cannons. Did get Liberalism to Nationalism (but not the Taj Mahal) and the Statue of Liberty. Now in 1630 I have a stack. Apparently Genghis has quadruple my soldiers, so it's a little iffy. He's at war with Peter and Napoleon, but I think Peter and him have been going at it for a while.

Oh yeah, and I went several hundred years incorrectly thinking I had switched into HR. Ha ha.

Looks like I was also incorrect in thinking I switched to Theocracy at the same time as Nationalism. This was in spite of reloading (just from the beginning of the same turn) when I also forgot to do it the first time. :\ :\ :\

 

[Volapyk]

Spoiler :

Genghis Khan seems to be performing extremely well in the early game of most of our saves. Is this because the AI is good with Imperialistic or something?

I didn't really have time to play a game worth mentioning, but I got the start of an axerush in. Although I managed to capture Karakorum and several floodplain sites without much of a fight, there seem to be so many cities of Genghis' left that I'll be fighting at least until 0 AD before I can firmly seal the lid on the war. GK's tenacity is a surprise to me, as normally with bonusses like we have in this game (2 silver tiles, fast workers) I'd be expecting to have a very easy time rushing.

The Ai tends to perform very well with any civ that is programmed to REX, that is most imperialistic and creative civs.

Spoiler :

Haven't had time to play this through myself, and properly wont find it either. However upon meeting GK so early my common reaction is getting an early rush in on him if but to at least bug him down a bit, you really can't let him get away with his REX'ing on immortal.

 

[Sleepless]

Well I thought I'd better finish this one before starting the Mao game so.

Immortal/Normal - 1876AD

Spoiler :

After finishing off Ghengis I went into rex and recovery phase. I settled the 2 islands to the West which at least gave me some continental routes when Joao/Peter went into Merc. As soon as I had banking and Con I went into merc and rep and stayed there for the rest of the game.

I had a couple of knockbacks along the way. Peter beat me to Lib by 2 turns. This lead to me missing the Taj by a couple of turns (Joao) which meant I missed the SoL by a few turns. So missing Lib did make quite a difference in this game.

By 1600 I had leapt into a tech lead and I was going to attack Peter with tanks and then probably Joao afterwards. But as per usual I decided not to attack my friends and go the peaceful route as I was sure I could get a fast Space victory. I did have Ceaser and Nap attack me a couple of times but the Inf against knights (Aug) and Tanks v Curs (Nap) didn't cause me any problems. Both came to the peace talks very quickly and gave me gold for peace.

I couldn't believe we had didn't have any Aluminium in our lands. . So just as I was thinking of going for Joao to get his a source popped in Delhi so that was good timing. I had literally just started the Apollo programme.

So in 1876.

My ship landed. Just as Leira revolted to me as well. I'd been trying to get that city as Joao had just beat me to the site for a long time. Glad I managed it just in time. It did have Red Cross in it so the first time I've got a Nat Wonder by revolts. Anyone know if you have already built a Nat Wonder can you get a second?

Thanks for hosting this TMIT. Now you just have to remember to put the huts back.

 

[Tobiyogi]

What a perfect set-up when you are about to learn how to optimize worker turns. Fast workers, so much forest, decent amount of resources in the surroundings. I never had such an easy Stonehenge. (plus, India starts with Myst. and Mining). Will see how I will get along with my "impulsive" neigbour and if he lets me build some wonders. T75 right now, in the middle of the mids.

 

[Izuul]

Is this really the fabled 1 deer start? I guess 2W, 1S probably has another food resource.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Is this really the fabled 1 deer start? I guess 2W, 1S probably has another food resource.

You wouldn't want to be spoiling 10 year old games now would you ?

Spoiler :

There is indeed other food!