Immortal University XXV: Sury Mk II

[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. Are you ready for the U?

This is the 25th in the storied series. Not steroid series. At least, we've never failed a test .

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

Our leader this time around:

AN ALIEN! AAAAAH!

Ok, so it's Sury. Starts with a solid hunting/mining. Good traits too, only problem is his sorry UU, but at least it's still an elephant.

Here's the start:

Bit of a difference this time. Fluxx requested I make his save into IU XXV, so I decided to go with it because even though IMO Big and Small sucks expletives, a lot of people like it. I left huts in because people complained so much about them not being on. I'll just alternate putting them on/off from now on, since I hate them and you have to WB edit to add or remove. This is also why IU is getting it's second repeat leader (Pacal has been done twice as well). We even get 2x plains cows just like last time!

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.

Without further ado, the ZIP file:

View attachment IU XXV Sury II.zip

 

[Fluxx]

<3 TMIT.

Good luck to all contenders!

 

[Lansky]

I'll play, but I must first complain about B&S maps. They suck. Okay now I can move on.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You know...this is why I'm not a big fan of low sea level maps.

Immortal/Normal no events

To 1 AD

Spoiler :

Settled in place. Opened warrior to start vs barbs, then worker (still finished before AH), then BW/fishing and so forth.

Scouting revealed a lot of land to settle. A lot. So...

Argh! Damn! (think gears of war weapon jammed line). There's too much land to cost-effectively beat it with warriors, so archery it is.

After that it was a straight up REX. I went IW because there is a log of jungle to improve. Aesthetics was a nice trading chip.

I decided to go with DaveMCW's "more buildings? No! Workers/settlers/military? Yes!" approach.

To ~1100 AD

Spoiler :

Ohgoditactuallyworked.

First I bulb philosophy for a trade chip (actually got the religion)

Keep expanding, capture a barb city, flip another, and then SB takes the one near my lands:

Haha!

Yeah...

I'm not focusing Asoka, he's just small, but he's also going to win lib...

And I'm not too far behind, choosing to continue that path for the trade chip.

Considering nobody is geared for war on me...I think...I might maybe sort of have enough cities to win (#1 land).

This looks like a draft rifle/cannon game, if I can pick off sitting bull with that and cap him, I can roll over the entire continent like a tidal wave.

 

[Lansky]

Immortal/Normal to 925BC
Intriguing map for sure

Spoiler :

A coastal start! What a shock! Big and Small! Oh yeah! Move the scout and reveal moving the settler costs some turns and fresh water but will gain fish and give 5 great tiles to pump out workers/settlers so I waste the turns to grab the fish. I feel good at first but after clams appear to the south of the settle in place position it’s an awful move. Oh well. Start with a warrior and tech fishing swapping between tiles so the warrior finishes the same turn fishing is done. From there it goes worker – boat – boat – settler followed by some combination of workers, warriors, and settlers.

Maps revealed a path north through the jungle to the over side of the landmass void of another civilization. Warrior heads west and finds another coastline. Also see the edge of an ocean to the east from one of the maps. So far this seems to be the largest peninsula ever. Still have met nobody!

First leader contacted is Lincoln. Via workboat…

Okay here we go. Found a Khan or Sitting Bull. Can’t really tell what shade of brown that is. Hoping it is “I’ll sit here and watch you take my land without doing anything because I’m a poorly coded AI” Bull.

Oh it’s Sitting Bull! Land grab is so on. Settler one snags fish/banana to start the block. On a related note this aggressive settling is brought to you by tribal villages that had almost 200g to hand out along with the 2 maps and The Wheel.

City #2 goes down. Bit food light but it can work a few scientists at least. City #3 goes NE of this one claiming Pigs and a 2nd source of iron. Barbs are becoming a huge issue that must be dealt with at this point. Archers are becoming predominant and soon will overrun me. 1360 BC and The Great Wall is still up for grabs. SH was JUST built a few turns ago. Capital still has 2 forests to chop. It’s go time.

4th city will work cottages asap and eventually plan to move the capital here for a more central location and if all goes as planned to fund a large empire via cottages + Bureaucracy. Hut gold is just about gone but Pottery is also just about done and writing is already in. Not ideal but AG will have to be funded almost exclusively with scientists.

Poorly coded AI finally settles towards my direction. It is his 5th or 6th city and in 15 turns Harlyadayada will completely seal my area from land based settlers. Just need to watch the coastline now. I really have no respect for Sitting Bull as an AI.

Amazingly in 950BC I actually build the Great Wall. Mismanaged a bit and should have whipped sooner but oh well I’ll totally take the good luck and ignore the poor micro.

Empire in 925BC. Losing gold at 0% research currently but tile rearrangement will prevent me from striking and cottages will allow me to fund more settlements once I improve a few more tiles. Only thing I see slowing me down long term is if I simply tried to claim more land than I can hold onto or a stunning DoW from Sitting Bull.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

IMM/Normal No Events.

1917 Diplomation

And I was VERY close to domination at that, stupid islands B&S BS TT. Whatever.

Spoiler :

Actually, I didn't do the draft rifle tidal wave after all. With close to 20 cities and a lot of them cottaged, I decided to go the ole' trusty democracy route. Got it around the 1200's AD, then emancipation + US REALLY started boosting the output, a lot.

No records set here, but that's pretty good output.

So I just powered to assembly line + artillery, the game-ending techs for land maps...enough AIs were on my landmass there wouldn't be a need for navy. My first target was SB, since he was whoring culture and had a 20k 3rd city (and the UN!)

Tech situation at that time:

In order to assemble that army, I finally built buildings ---> gold buildings. I used $$$ buy from now until the end of the game, keeping science at 0%. Really, infantry/arty/AT is all you need.

The anti rush cow is in no position to counter my invasion:

The cute thing about this land conquered is that I got all 3 of the happiness wonders, the UN, AND a 66 gold shrine. Not bad. Onward...

I declare on lincoln and take two cities.

Then I go willem, waiting for him to fight with lincoln a bit before I move in.

Lincoln actually takes a city, I take amsterdam (killing another, slower culture attempt) and

Yes, he caps even with a vassal because I have THAT much power.

Now, for asoka, who is master of de gaulle AND stalin (colony):

I conquer all the cities on his mainland, De Gaulle breaks free...

And once again, massed power prevails.

My allies do something useful, capturing all but paris on the main continent (I finally get some forces over there to capture the former french capitol).

And even though the more powerful asoka would cap...

So I get screwed out of domination.

System getting bad slowdown from the masses of units, I take what I can get.

Some good kill stats:

As you can see, very close to domination too:

And one last thing...the final tech picture:

After asoka folded I stopped cash rushing units, instead merely letting gold accrue. 3.19 makes it so that vassals are always willing to trade with you. So, I bought monopoly techs off one AI and brokered them for more, and kept doing it until I got a lead on all but 1 vassal and 3rd place in the game in tech (well more like a tie for 2nd) . If I were to curb-stomp izzy, I could win space by directing all vassals toward future tech, investing in hammer infrastructure, and then researching fusion. They'd probably steal it eventually, but I'd have all the ability to build it faster first (not to mention I could keep all of them off MULTIPLE space techs).

Boring and slow though. Since I was semi-cheated of domination, I took diplomation and the W.

I still hate B&S, and I'm not a big fan of low sea level and this game shows what the implications of low sea level are. Not necessarily harder, but both script and sea level settings can be more annoying, especially to slower computers.

But, I'll take the W any day .

 

[Fluxx]

@TMIT

Spoiler :

GJ, the timelines with the techs you got, and the tactics you used were similar as mine.
Only big difference was I expanded northwards, and you expanded westwards.
I guess that made a big difference, since in my game Sitting Bull ended up with a full fledged modern army with tanks/marines/bombers and what not around 1750 AD.

 

[Duckweed]

Never try big and small map before, so gave this one a go. However it started to lag ~ 1AD, so I'd stop here.

Immortal/Normal

Spoiler :

Tech:

GLH techs...->Currency...->CS->Aes

Wonders: GLH & mids

1AD Empire of 9 Cities. There is room for another 10 cities. Surprise to see #1 score at this stage.

1AD Tech

Edit:
By the way, habit of early rush and over expansion before stabilizing economy are the major reasons that stop immortal players to advance to deity.

 

[shyuhe]

Not a huge fan of B&S

Spoiler :

I settled in place and scouted around. Found that there was lots of land to settle so I went early archery -- IW. I then basically rexed as fast as I could, finishing with almost 20% landmass by the time I had run out of space. That pretty much sealed the game at that point, although Sitting Bull was teching reasonably well.

Liberalism was around 1130 AD for nationalism. Got Taj (pain to build without marble). I then went towards MT + gunpowder followed by rifling. By the time I had barracks and stables in place, I had already teched rifling so I just mass cavalry spammed and then went to war, rolling over one AI after another. Lincoln took a bit to capitulate, mostly because I think he had a navy out wandering somewhere that I couldn't destroy.

This is what my empire looked like before I built any cuirassiers or cavalry:

Note that it's based almost entirely on my population. My standing army consisted of about 6 ballista elephants.

And here's my post-liberalism tech screenshot:

I capitulated DeGaulle around 1600 AD but had no boats to reach Izzy. I didn't hit her until the late 1600's when my transports traveled halfway around the world to start shipping cavalry on to her island. The result (via conquest):

 

[ungy]

played a bit:

Spoiler :

I settle in place, went war-worker and tech AH-fishing-Bw. Get myst and archery from huts and build the GLH and 'mids. It's a hindu lovefest and the AI did not settle towards me and there are a few barb cities in between.
tech aesth--trade IW+alpha and iron solves the lack of bronze problem.
won't bother to play this one out--way to much land and the GLH+'mids is very powerful

 

[PaulisKhan]

Had fun, ended up implementing some of TMIT's strategies.

Part 1

Spoiler :

played with huts and random events on, popped 4 maps from huts... that'll teach me >.<

Settled in place

Second city, sole purpose is to pop some GS for me while capital grows and then spams workers/wonders/settlers. Later on this city builds Moai and donates rice to a commerce city to the north.

Key early commerce city claiming rice + 3 gems + stone.

Chop mids, swap to Rep since slider is going to be low for a while, judging by the amount of land we have to settle.

Pop first GS and save him for later bulbing (made a habit of that in this game, bulbed almost all my GS's along Philo-Edu-Lib-Printing Press-Chem-Sci Methx2

Tech Aesthetics and trade it around for pretty much everything from Alpha+Math+Ironworking down.

Self research currency.

There's a huge hindu love-fest going on with the exception of SB who has confuc, I avoid converting until the request comes up. Accept it for the diplo boost.

Popped copper on a hill, and again next to the capital a few turns later. These random events do not fall under the "random event" category.

Self tech drama and use it to help backfill the monarchy+construction techs

Capture a nice barb city with 4 workers inside, the 5th worker escapes my wrath.

Standard Philo bulb. I decide not to trade it around immediately.

Score a very nice gold+incense city to the north, I'm such a rebel settling 1 off the coast (twice!)

The tech situation. Bulbing + triple gems city is proving very effective. I'm very comfortable with the situation. In the process of picking up civil service. I didn't prioritise it as heavily as I normally do due to lack of reliance on commerce in the capital.

Pathenon, built this in capital along with GLib and run pacifism, my capital is the source of all my future GP and also gets the Nat Epic, somehow it's also my most productive city in terms of hammers too. Wierd hybrid but it's working well.

After a few trades the tech situation is looking even better. Despite me using a silly trading strategy and trading many techs with one civ rather than one tech with many civs. Blame it on the drink.

Standard education bulb on the way to lib.

 

[PaulisKhan]

Part 2 - Diplomation Win

Spoiler :

Sitting Bull has been making quite a few demands recently. He'll be the first to die.

Sorry for another tech situation picture, I'd done a decent job of keeping the AI away from Lib but Asoka has his eyes on it now so I go ahead and finish it off.

Steel. Yay. I also tech Mil Sci for Grenadiers and start building. I don't bother with a whip/drafting spree because I got lazy on settling small coastal fish cities and my inland cities are all busy maturing cottages. Not very well planned but I have a solid lead so I'm not afraid to slowbuild the troops.

Building Wonders for failure cash at twice the efficiency of building wealth thanks to stone? OMG I'M SUCH A FAILURE.
I'll take the free 450g thanks (that's almost half a tech at this stage).

Popped a GE at low odds so use him to rush oxford in a hammer poor commerce city.

I'm wanitng to mix up my war strategy a bit from normal so I hit Physics early for airship assistance. I became quite impressed with their effectiveness though I'm not convinced that it's worth skipping something like bio or communism for.

Sorry for the sudden intro, forgot to take a screenshot at the dec. This was predominantly gren+cannons+airship war that was increasingly assisted by rifles. I was intending to take on a couple more civs with the army but the dumb cow just wouldn't cap for the longest time. I eventually ground him down though and had enough time to ...

cap lincoln who really got shafted by the map.

At this point I realise I've run out of time to take out the rest of the civs with such an army so I ramp science back up and pick up artillery+assembly line before turning science back down again.

From here on out I grow increasingly frustrated as the rest of the AI stubbonly refuse to capitulate.

I take all his cities on the mainland and then just settle for peace. Whatever.

Same deal with Willem. Gah.
During the war his vassal De Gaulle does break free though, and capitulates to me after I take one of his 3 cities.

With every city on the mainland under my or my vassals control I give up on war and turn the science back on for a short rush to Mass Media for the UN, which I rushbuy

I take the win.

Score chart

Shot of the units I used. Vast majority of my casualties came from suicide siege. That's what it's for right?

Game over.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Targets wont cap if their power is above the average power of other civs. That includes the power of your vassals and crappy little colonies (another reason among many to hate map scripts that yield situations where the AI spams colonies). Masters of vassals get another multiplier on top of that.

 

[PaulisKhan]

Bump for the next IU.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's only been four days, but I'll host another since there's at least some demand (other than myself .)

 

[PaulisKhan]

It's only been four days, but I'll host another since there's at least some demand (other than myself .)

I demand immediate gratification!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I demand immediate gratification!

And so you have it. Me too though, I have a lot of time for a little longer after all.

 

[PaulisKhan]

My UK work visa still hasn't come through so I'm sitting on my thumbs with nothing to do.

 

[GenerallyGreat]

Immortal/Epic conquest win 1814 AD score 178,294

Better late than never, I actually finished this game ages ago.

Spoiler :

 

[Tobiyogi]

When I got the pyramids, I decided to go for a cultural victory. It's a map with a very nice start, but....

Spoiler :

there is so much land that takes SB, he ended up with 24 cities. On the LAST round (!) before my cultural victory, he started plotting, strange. Maybe the computer checked what was going on. I won culture on deity, 1870 AD, my first vicotry ever on deity, even this is the IMM University...