Japan has one of the best starting positions. Pigs, Silks, Iron, Copper, Gold, Silver, Incense, Rice, Fish and Crabs can all be in the radius of 2 cities. A third (or the second culture pop) will get you Dye. If you get Korea, you get more of the same and a Deer.Those three uber-cities is enough to take over China, which yields you 6-8 uber-cities. I'd say it was a stronger position than Europe except for the need for sea transportation between 2 cities in the core.
Imperial Japan Challenge
- Thread starter Whitefire
- Start date
Japan has one of the best starting positions. Pigs, Silks, Iron, Copper, Gold, Silver, Incense, Rice, Fish and Crabs can all be in the radius of 2 cities. A third (or the second culture pop) will get you Dye. If you get Korea, you get more of the same and a Deer.Those three uber-cities is enough to take over China, which yields you 6-8 uber-cities. I'd say it was a stronger position than Europe except for the need for sea transportation between 2 cities in the core.
Jet
No, no, please. Please.
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,431
Here's a shot at the first 50 turns. I suggest making this an open, freeform multithreaded succession game (anyone can play from any save any time), since it's probably hard and personally I'd just like to find out whether and how it can be done. But if Whitefire steps up and actually plays some turns 
I don't know whether I'd play much more. I'd encourage him or anyone to try his own first 50 and/or play from here.
I think this is about as well as you can do. I settled in place and 2S. In place was because otherwise there's no canal to the west and the initial work boats have to go all the way around. Once things settle down I was planning for Tokyo and Matsuyama to get all the best tiles and for Kyoto's job to be to run 2 scientists.
- Researched Sailing, Alphabet, traded Pottery for Hunting, working on Mathematics, was planning on Calendar next. Qin actually offered the tech trade. I didn't look close, and in hindsight I probably should have tried to trade more before attacking.
- Kyoto built Great Lighthouse, Trireme, Galley x 2, Axeman, Barracks, Spearman, Axeman, working on Settler for Tokyo.
- Matsuyama built Monument, Barracks, Axeman x 4?, working on Lighthouse.
Took Seoul, then Hangzhou as soon as I had a Trireme and 2 full Galleys. Hangzhou is a double holy city, which is pretty typical. Last turn Qin became willing to sign peace, although he isn't offering any techs. He hasn't shown up with his usual catapults, so I think he's getting pounded by barbs. He settled Dairen in Manchuria but I think there's a good chance it will fall to horse archers, especially since he failed to build the Great Wall. I was planning to sign peace and build up a little before attacking again, probably after some Plantations go down for supporting commerce. Was planning to send the Trireme to India and the middle east for trade routes and tech trading.
I don't know whether I'd play much more. I'd encourage him or anyone to try his own first 50 and/or play from here.I think this is about as well as you can do. I settled in place and 2S. In place was because otherwise there's no canal to the west and the initial work boats have to go all the way around. Once things settle down I was planning for Tokyo and Matsuyama to get all the best tiles and for Kyoto's job to be to run 2 scientists.
- Researched Sailing, Alphabet, traded Pottery for Hunting, working on Mathematics, was planning on Calendar next. Qin actually offered the tech trade. I didn't look close, and in hindsight I probably should have tried to trade more before attacking.
- Kyoto built Great Lighthouse, Trireme, Galley x 2, Axeman, Barracks, Spearman, Axeman, working on Settler for Tokyo.
- Matsuyama built Monument, Barracks, Axeman x 4?, working on Lighthouse.
Took Seoul, then Hangzhou as soon as I had a Trireme and 2 full Galleys. Hangzhou is a double holy city, which is pretty typical. Last turn Qin became willing to sign peace, although he isn't offering any techs. He hasn't shown up with his usual catapults, so I think he's getting pounded by barbs. He settled Dairen in Manchuria but I think there's a good chance it will fall to horse archers, especially since he failed to build the Great Wall. I was planning to sign peace and build up a little before attacking again, probably after some Plantations go down for supporting commerce. Was planning to send the Trireme to India and the middle east for trade routes and tech trading.
Actually, I did a start and hated it. I tried an early war to deny China Copper and Iron before he got started on Axemen and Swordsmen. That was a huge flop since 5 catapults will take a city much more easily than 5 axemen v_v. Needless to say, thats the first time I lost a city to China. So, I'm gonna run a new start while I go out shopping and play a little of Jet's awesome first 50.
So, I went an entirely different path from Jet. He focused on having a great foundation for expansion, I just expanded. The only thing I did that was "wrong" in my first 50 was not building enough workers. We'll fix that ASAP. Other than that, my risky ideas all seem to have paid off. Starting with the first one:
I held off on settling the capital in order to have it at Matsuyama. My reasoning was that with the gold, and the palace, that city would be a great spot for beakers and gold. So the first building I placed in my Capital was a Library. Thats right, a library. And I have to say I loved the decision. I was getting at least 4.75 beakers a turn. And the results are evident since I'm working on Calendar at the same time Jet's game is working on Mathematics.
Next up was the tough decision on when to declare war on China. I hate trying to get China after they get ahold of Bronze or Iron. So I decided to forego the 7 turn wait until I finished Alphabet and declared war on China 20 turns into the game.
All they had was a catapult and a chariot defending, easy pickings for my swordsmen. We ended up whipping a temple there and started on producing a Great Prophet. We're gonna need that gold ASAP. We also picked up Seoul shortly afterward.
Our CRI swordsmen healed up and we started the march toward Luoyang when tragedy befell the glorious Chinese empire.
And worst of all, it ruined our plans to declare peace after we picked up Luoyang. Fearing that China would descend into civil war, we sued for peace, picking up a useful tech.
I was proved correct with China going independent the next turn. However, there was something fishy going on since I had independant units attack me, even though I never declared. While normally not an issue, it was a Chariot going after the lone axeman guarding Keijo. I had a spearman one turn away from getting into the city when the Chariot sprung on our courageous axeman. We lost the city, but gained it back the next turn when the spearman tore through the chariot. This wasn't a major setback, but it does take away one of our UHV requirements. I doubt anyone will invade Honchu, so we need to work hard on being #1 in score. I don't want to miss that useful Golden Age. Anyway, back to the flashy images!
Right after taking Huangzhou, I sent a galley to contact India.
Damn, they're annoyed. And they won't trade us any of their nice techs (namely Calendar). Since the only negative we have with them is religion, I took a gamble.
I'll gladly trade a couple turns of anarchy for 3 techs. Sadly, Asoka would not part with Calendar, but we're not complaining.
The rest of the turn I worked on building up a force of spearmen in order to take Beijing and guard against the hoards of horse archers.
I held off on settling the capital in order to have it at Matsuyama. My reasoning was that with the gold, and the palace, that city would be a great spot for beakers and gold. So the first building I placed in my Capital was a Library. Thats right, a library. And I have to say I loved the decision. I was getting at least 4.75 beakers a turn. And the results are evident since I'm working on Calendar at the same time Jet's game is working on Mathematics.
Next up was the tough decision on when to declare war on China. I hate trying to get China after they get ahold of Bronze or Iron. So I decided to forego the 7 turn wait until I finished Alphabet and declared war on China 20 turns into the game.
All they had was a catapult and a chariot defending, easy pickings for my swordsmen. We ended up whipping a temple there and started on producing a Great Prophet. We're gonna need that gold ASAP. We also picked up Seoul shortly afterward.
Our CRI swordsmen healed up and we started the march toward Luoyang when tragedy befell the glorious Chinese empire.
And worst of all, it ruined our plans to declare peace after we picked up Luoyang. Fearing that China would descend into civil war, we sued for peace, picking up a useful tech.
I was proved correct with China going independent the next turn. However, there was something fishy going on since I had independant units attack me, even though I never declared. While normally not an issue, it was a Chariot going after the lone axeman guarding Keijo. I had a spearman one turn away from getting into the city when the Chariot sprung on our courageous axeman. We lost the city, but gained it back the next turn when the spearman tore through the chariot. This wasn't a major setback, but it does take away one of our UHV requirements. I doubt anyone will invade Honchu, so we need to work hard on being #1 in score. I don't want to miss that useful Golden Age. Anyway, back to the flashy images!
Right after taking Huangzhou, I sent a galley to contact India.
Damn, they're annoyed. And they won't trade us any of their nice techs (namely Calendar). Since the only negative we have with them is religion, I took a gamble.
I'll gladly trade a couple turns of anarchy for 3 techs. Sadly, Asoka would not part with Calendar, but we're not complaining.
The rest of the turn I worked on building up a force of spearmen in order to take Beijing and guard against the hoards of horse archers.
Here's the current state of our army. You can just barely make out the stack of units heading to Beijing.
World map as we know it.
Civics
And cities.
I'd post the diplomacy screen, but we're not in contact with anyone else at the moment.
So I guess the obvious plan of action is mopping up the independents. We also need at least 3 more workers. Hopefully we'll get a few from the indie cities. I was also thinking that we should send some units up to the northern part of Honchu. They can hide out there and be safe from the plague. Japan always has low health, so the first plague is usually a doosey.
Speaking of Plague, after a few cats and workers, should we switch all of our cities to granaries and aqueducts? IIRC, the plague will hit us in 10 turns, so we'd have to whip those soon.
Tokugawa, Turn 88
Tokugawa, Turn 138
World map as we know it.
Civics
And cities.
I'd post the diplomacy screen, but we're not in contact with anyone else at the moment.
So I guess the obvious plan of action is mopping up the independents. We also need at least 3 more workers. Hopefully we'll get a few from the indie cities. I was also thinking that we should send some units up to the northern part of Honchu. They can hide out there and be safe from the plague. Japan always has low health, so the first plague is usually a doosey.
Speaking of Plague, after a few cats and workers, should we switch all of our cities to granaries and aqueducts? IIRC, the plague will hit us in 10 turns, so we'd have to whip those soon.
Tokugawa, Turn 88
Tokugawa, Turn 138
Meh, my post failed last night. I'm going to try and rush through another 100 turns this evening. I was far too sloppy to win a Domination this game, but it was a great learning experience for 193/143.
Last Night said:So, Rhye had to go and update the game. So I sped through 200 turns tonight. I'm not about to do a dull detail synopsis, but here's a quick primer of how things went down.
Beijing and the independent cities fell rather quickly. Unfortunately, this tanked my economy to 20% research, I recontacted India and traded my Alphabet and Monarchy for their currency. I left 1 unit in every city except for Beijing and Keijo and waited out the turns. About 10 turns later, we had a major scare when Plague spread to Hanoi. Thankfully, it didn't spread to any of our cities.
Once my economy was back to 60% research, I started to prepare for the imminent Mongolia spawn. I was able to get 6 War Elephants up there...the turn after they spawned. I captured Karakorum quickly enough, but most of Mongolia's units scattered. This turned out to be a great turn of fortune since I was able to mop up all of those cities with little effort. With the fall of Mongolia, we upped our percentage of the world to 4%. Only 40% more to go!
Again, we had to rebuild our economy after the fall of Mongolia. We rushed to Banking and traded that around for some useful techs (Guilds being one of them). We spread Taoism and Confucianism to every city and were good to go squash India...when the plague hit. I've got to say that this nerfing of the plague is really bothersome. Yes it killed some units, but it only spread to 5 of my cities that I had at the maximum amount of health. In any case, it hurt India much more than I and made taking them much easier.
So sometime around here, I did a stupid move. I was just about to finish the Taj, but I didn't bother to check the status on my research. And it would be just my luck that the first turn of my Golden Age happened on the same turn I wanted to switch to Representation. Since that would take me 2 turns of Anarchy, I figured it could wait. Then 1700 came around and I got a second Golden Age from two UHV conditions on top of the one from the Taj. So knowI had to go 17 turns without switching to Representation, costing me approximately 1,200 beakers.
After the fall of Delhi, I saw no reason to stop my momentum. 20 turns later I had finished off the reborn Persian and Babylonian Empires and captured all of the Independent cities left over from India's collapse. Here's the empire at 1817.
I chose to beeline to Communism quite some time ago. The only detours were Corporation for Wall Street and Astronomy because I needed to delay Scientific Method to finish a Hindu Monastery.
So yeah, we're in a good spot. While we're a bit behind in techs, State Property will not only allow us to up research, but also let us expand into the rest of Sibera. Speaking of which, I noticed around 1400 AD that there was no Russia to be seen. I had to quench my curiosity and retired my game to see what happened. Russia got wiped out by barbs after 10 turns. Anyway, thats good for us since it leaves us lots of space to take uncontested. And Mercantilism+Statue of Liberty+Caste System+Free Speech lets us have 2 artists in every city and pop our borders to the second level in very few turns. We should only need to build 5 more cities to claim the rest of Siberia and European Russia that is open. Speaking of civics, this game has one of the most hodgepodge sets I have ever run.
It's half a SE with a touch of Militarism thrown in. Once I switch to State Property....things still won't make sense. Anyway, when Communism finishes, I'm debating on whether to switch to Emancipation. The 100% growth bonus would definitely help out in the India sub continent where everything was pillaged. But swapping off kills my research city at Keijo and also the border popping of Siberian cities. Decisions decisions. Anyway, if anyone wants to pick up from here, feel free. I'm off to bed.
Ooops, I thought I mentioned that. Out of the 4 plagues, only one of them ever affected me (the second). It's so nerfed now that some basic precautions will let you avoid it for the most part.
I whipped very aggressively ;D. Although, in hind sight, holding off on the switch to Free Speech until after I finished off India would have been a better choice. India has very little production capacity, so whipping is a must.
The cities I had were Tokyo, Kyoto, Matsumaya, Keijo, Beijing, Huangzhou, Nara, Chongqing and Luoyang. The problem was that my capital was still in Matsumaya. But I had to decide on whether to build the Palace in Beijing or build 2 War Elephants.
I didn't learn much except zomg Matsumaya as capital+library makes this a whole lot more reachable. I was able to beeline to Civil Service, trade it for guilds and then research Banking before the European civs. With my 2 religious capitals almost maxed out with markets+grocers+banks and kept me in the tech game.
I'm still ambivalent about beelining to Liberalism. I know that Civil Service and Banking are mostly on the way, but by the time I got Liberalism, none of the AI had reasonable offers for trade since I was the score leader. So the extra tech came at the cost of being unable to make decent tech trades. This means that I was behind most of the way.
I picked up Chemistry and used the gold from one of my Great Merchants to upgrade all of my Samurais and Pikemen, which let me stay on top of the power chart. But I was quickly left behind in the dust on a whole branch of the tech tree. Right now I'm racing to get Assembly line while England, France, Spain and Germany all have that tech.
Hagia Sophia and/or Serfdom is a must. The amount of land we're assimilating is massive, and even with 25 workers, I have 2 cities with little more than roads passing through them to the front lines of my battle with Germany. It would have been worse except Delhi had the Hagia Sophia, so I was able to catch up. The catch is that Engineering is way off the tech path we want and I'm loathe to give up Slavery for Serfdom. Beuracracy maybe, Free Speech for sure (having outposts with 60% cultural defense is really saving on maintenance), but Serfdom...It's hard to justify. But without the Hagia I think my war with Germany would be a spectacular loss. My Trans-Siberia route wouldn't have been built in time for my units to race from my production core to Russia and beat off the German offensive.
The only other thing I gleened is that I need to focus while playing. I have been really sloppy while playing because I want to finish and start a new one with the new version. In order to win this it's going to take alot of micromanaging and focus. I'll post the turn of the 20th century update in a bit. No flashy pictures but some more play-by-play.
I whipped very aggressively ;D. Although, in hind sight, holding off on the switch to Free Speech until after I finished off India would have been a better choice. India has very little production capacity, so whipping is a must.
The cities I had were Tokyo, Kyoto, Matsumaya, Keijo, Beijing, Huangzhou, Nara, Chongqing and Luoyang. The problem was that my capital was still in Matsumaya. But I had to decide on whether to build the Palace in Beijing or build 2 War Elephants.
I didn't learn much except zomg Matsumaya as capital+library makes this a whole lot more reachable. I was able to beeline to Civil Service, trade it for guilds and then research Banking before the European civs. With my 2 religious capitals almost maxed out with markets+grocers+banks and kept me in the tech game.
I'm still ambivalent about beelining to Liberalism. I know that Civil Service and Banking are mostly on the way, but by the time I got Liberalism, none of the AI had reasonable offers for trade since I was the score leader. So the extra tech came at the cost of being unable to make decent tech trades. This means that I was behind most of the way.
I picked up Chemistry and used the gold from one of my Great Merchants to upgrade all of my Samurais and Pikemen, which let me stay on top of the power chart. But I was quickly left behind in the dust on a whole branch of the tech tree. Right now I'm racing to get Assembly line while England, France, Spain and Germany all have that tech.
Hagia Sophia and/or Serfdom is a must. The amount of land we're assimilating is massive, and even with 25 workers, I have 2 cities with little more than roads passing through them to the front lines of my battle with Germany. It would have been worse except Delhi had the Hagia Sophia, so I was able to catch up. The catch is that Engineering is way off the tech path we want and I'm loathe to give up Slavery for Serfdom. Beuracracy maybe, Free Speech for sure (having outposts with 60% cultural defense is really saving on maintenance), but Serfdom...It's hard to justify. But without the Hagia I think my war with Germany would be a spectacular loss. My Trans-Siberia route wouldn't have been built in time for my units to race from my production core to Russia and beat off the German offensive.
The only other thing I gleened is that I need to focus while playing. I have been really sloppy while playing because I want to finish and start a new one with the new version. In order to win this it's going to take alot of micromanaging and focus. I'll post the turn of the 20th century update in a bit. No flashy pictures but some more play-by-play.
The first? You really expect me to remember that long ago?
That was the same time I was running 20% research. I was whipping Libraries, Markets, Grocers, Banks and War Elephants. FYI, I was trading with India for Ivory. I definitely had the military to take Angkor Ivory, but I couldn't have stomached the maintenance. Turn of the 20th century will be posted in 10 minutes.
That was the same time I was running 20% research. I was whipping Libraries, Markets, Grocers, Banks and War Elephants. FYI, I was trading with India for Ivory. I definitely had the military to take Angkor Ivory, but I couldn't have stomached the maintenance. Turn of the 20th century will be posted in 10 minutes.
We'll entitle these 100 years as Project Asia. I knew that if there was any hope of succeeding, we needed to start eating up land like mad. Thankfully, the mad combo of 3 artists+Free Speech yielded 24 culture a turn and turned our outposts from resource gatherers to mad, land holders.
One hitch that I came across when expanding is that Rhye crippled expansion in the extreme north. There's literally 4% of the world north of our territory that we cannot claim because of this. I've never tried settling a city just below the ice line before, so this development forced some changes in goals. Now Project Asia turned into Conquer Africa. This plan however was made all the more difficult when Saladin decided to become a vassal of France. France just has to be second in score and in techs and, most importantly, one of our close allies.
Early on in the game I decided it would be best if I courted the consistently strong European civs, it would prevent all out Armageddon from happening when I tried to take out the Near East civs of Greece, Russia, Turkey and Arabia. I chose the Vikings, Spain, France and England and generally pissed off the rest. This has definitely paid off since I have come in as a war ally on several occasions. Germany is always belligerent, so you're either declaring war with them or against them.
Anyway, back to the play-by-play. After Saladin became France's vassal, we stalled our military exploits. We had marched from Hanoi to Ur in 33 turns, so the break was well deserved. Communism finished a few turns later, and we swapped civics. Normally, I would shop around a tech like this, since the AIs have it set as a non-priority, but no one has been willing to trade on decent terms, and I didn't feel the need to trade communism for Divine Rule
. Anyway, we finally started on some Military techs, finishing off Military Tradition, Replaceable Parts and Rifling in 18 turns. (We tried for the free Scientist from Physics, but France beat us to it).
Half the cities building Wealth were switched to Cavalry/Frigate production after the discover of Military Tradition. The rest were switched to military production after Wall Street finished in Delhi. Normally, I would have waited it out a bit. I wasn't planning on going to war and I could have used the wealth/research builds to fuel my drive to Assembly line. However, Isabella, one of my close friends, had Germany, her vassals Turkey and Egypt, Aztecs and Incas declare war on her in a matter of 3 turns. I knew it was an inevitability that I would be asked and forced to join. (Forced since I need to vassalize quite a few nations to meet the land area requirement). Any city not constructing military units was busy building courthouses, grocers, banks and markets in order to keep my research at a healthy 70%. FYI, my maintenance for "number of cities in your empire" was 11 gold per turn, per city. And it's only going up from there folks!
Meanwhile, the Hagia Sophia was turning my 25 workers into a road building machine. I was able to span the Gobi, the Kara Kum and the Kyzyl Kum and penetrate 6 squares shy of the German border before Spain asked for my assistance. It is a thing of beauty to be able to run a Calvary unit from Beijing to the Moscow area in 4.5 turns.
The war with Germany went very smoothly. Germany and her vassals there their first and seconds waves at Spain already and I only had to deal with defenders and the few straggling units that had been trapped in Siberia by my culture. However, those straggling units numbered in the double digits, and without my Trans-Siberia road, I would have lost all of my cultural outposts that were defended by Musketeers. Speaking of which, here's the contemporary Trans-Siberia road:
With Germany held at bay, I focussed on finishing Turkey. I still had the goal of dominating Africa in the front of my mind, so I knew they had to go first. Turkey was a tough nut to crack only because every farkin city had to be on a hill. My CRII+ grenadiers had been eaten up long ago, so the going relied on the mass sacrifice of Cannons and Cavalry. Check the power graph below. You can actually see the dips where I took 3 of the Turkish cities. Of the 4 Turkish cities I took, I raized 2 and built Echigo where Babli should stand.
On the German front, It was slow as molasses. Getting the road 6 tiles from their border meant the travel time from Beijing lessened to 11 turns
. And another delay occurred when I ran into Germany's stack they were sending my way. Apparently, Frederick was cheeky enough to try to send his units down my road. And I could not stand for that. Needless to say, his stack was crushed, but effectively delayed my stacked by 9 turns. The stack advanced and has raized one German city and is in 2 tiles of another, ready to capture it.
Up to this point, the war with Germany and her vassals is going well. War Weariness is becoming a problem at home with my 2 uber-cities, Huangzhou (27) and Keijo (24) both having some unrest. I'm constructing theaters and temples to combat the problem, but it's only a matter of time before it spreads to the rest of my cities and causes a complete shift in production.
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Here's the end of turn. First, we'll start with the ever present tech board.
Egypt of all civs is a player in the tech board. Thats because it's jumped from France to Germany as a vassal and picked up quite a few techs in the process. We will finish Physics in a turn. Then we'll really be able to see who's in the lead.
Civics
Once Physics finishes, and we do any tech trades that he IA will go for , I'm planning on switching to Nationhood. We're able to draft 5 units per turn, and with our heinous resources, most of the cities can handle 2 drafts without much thought to happiness. That will give us an army of Infantry the world has yet to see. Are there any other recommendations for Civics? Someone has Emancipation, and it's giving me some unhappiness. Thats not really an issue, but it does make one less draft per city.
Power
They say a picture says a thousand words, but what about a graph? That dip in the early 1800s is from finishing off Persia, India and Babylonia. Then, quite clearly, you can see the shift from persuing "peaceful" techs like Communism and my beeline to Assembly line. Also check out Spain and Germany. You can see their war breaking out right in the middle of my military expansion. However, Germany has a worrying spike right at the end of the graph. Since they don't yet have Assembly Line, I'm assuming they switched to Nationhood and drafted an army to throw at me. France's line is also worrisome, but that can be attributed to Assembly Line.
Culture
Can you guess when I adopted Free Speech?
A view on our buildings
I have been concerned with the population requirement. Now that we're exceeding it, I might let up on Granary production.
And now, the meta-game. First, I'll show you our empire and the reast of our known world. We just traded maps with 5 civs, so everything should be accurate except for America.
So Russia was crushed after 10 turns and now Inca is a colonial power controlling Zimbabwe and something-I-can't-spell. This is the most surreal game I've ever played. FYI, Incan is Confucian because I deliberately spread that religion to them. I was thinking ahead to the land requirement of Domination and figured if I could get both the Aztecs and Incans to be Confucian, I could vassalize both later with a switch from Free Religion to Theocracy. Sadly, Aztecs went Christian before I could get an open border, so we're hoping to vassalize Spain after coming to their aid against Germany.
Victory Conditions
We met the population requirement and IIRC, it shouldn't go past 40% for a world map. Then again, I've never gotten this far on a domination bid in RFC, so Rhye might have a surprise or two in the late game waiting for us. Land Area is slowly reaching the 66% requirement. I'm hoping to control 40% on our own and vassalize the other 26%, but you never know how the Vassal game will play out.
Diplomacy
I will save you my headache of the Diplomacy screen and explain it to you.
Germany is disliked by all but the Americans (Inca and Aztecs).
France is liked by most with the exception of the Aztecs and Germany.
Spain dislikes most.
England is friends with many civs and was the lord of both the Aztecs and Incans at some point in the game
The Vikings somehow love everyone. Which is odd since they're usually warmongers.
Inca is quickly becoming a world power.
Aztecs are a perpetual vassal and jump from independence to vassalage every 20-30 turns.
America is deliberately unknown to me. I didn't want to have to deal with their hate of England and Inca.
Mali drifts in and out of contact as she jumps from Lord to Lord.
Egypt is an unusually strong Vassal. If their AI weren't predisposed to being a vassal, I would guess they could be a world power.
Greece has avoided becoming a vassal but is a whole age behind in techs. They have survived so long because the other major players in Europe have been fighting amongst themselves.
Arabia has been marginal since the spawn of Turkey.
The rest of the civs are all destroyed.
One hitch that I came across when expanding is that Rhye crippled expansion in the extreme north. There's literally 4% of the world north of our territory that we cannot claim because of this. I've never tried settling a city just below the ice line before, so this development forced some changes in goals. Now Project Asia turned into Conquer Africa. This plan however was made all the more difficult when Saladin decided to become a vassal of France. France just has to be second in score and in techs and, most importantly, one of our close allies.
Early on in the game I decided it would be best if I courted the consistently strong European civs, it would prevent all out Armageddon from happening when I tried to take out the Near East civs of Greece, Russia, Turkey and Arabia. I chose the Vikings, Spain, France and England and generally pissed off the rest. This has definitely paid off since I have come in as a war ally on several occasions. Germany is always belligerent, so you're either declaring war with them or against them.
Anyway, back to the play-by-play. After Saladin became France's vassal, we stalled our military exploits. We had marched from Hanoi to Ur in 33 turns, so the break was well deserved. Communism finished a few turns later, and we swapped civics. Normally, I would shop around a tech like this, since the AIs have it set as a non-priority, but no one has been willing to trade on decent terms, and I didn't feel the need to trade communism for Divine Rule
. Anyway, we finally started on some Military techs, finishing off Military Tradition, Replaceable Parts and Rifling in 18 turns. (We tried for the free Scientist from Physics, but France beat us to it).Half the cities building Wealth were switched to Cavalry/Frigate production after the discover of Military Tradition. The rest were switched to military production after Wall Street finished in Delhi. Normally, I would have waited it out a bit. I wasn't planning on going to war and I could have used the wealth/research builds to fuel my drive to Assembly line. However, Isabella, one of my close friends, had Germany, her vassals Turkey and Egypt, Aztecs and Incas declare war on her in a matter of 3 turns. I knew it was an inevitability that I would be asked and forced to join. (Forced since I need to vassalize quite a few nations to meet the land area requirement). Any city not constructing military units was busy building courthouses, grocers, banks and markets in order to keep my research at a healthy 70%. FYI, my maintenance for "number of cities in your empire" was 11 gold per turn, per city. And it's only going up from there folks!
Meanwhile, the Hagia Sophia was turning my 25 workers into a road building machine. I was able to span the Gobi, the Kara Kum and the Kyzyl Kum and penetrate 6 squares shy of the German border before Spain asked for my assistance. It is a thing of beauty to be able to run a Calvary unit from Beijing to the Moscow area in 4.5 turns.
The war with Germany went very smoothly. Germany and her vassals there their first and seconds waves at Spain already and I only had to deal with defenders and the few straggling units that had been trapped in Siberia by my culture. However, those straggling units numbered in the double digits, and without my Trans-Siberia road, I would have lost all of my cultural outposts that were defended by Musketeers. Speaking of which, here's the contemporary Trans-Siberia road:
With Germany held at bay, I focussed on finishing Turkey. I still had the goal of dominating Africa in the front of my mind, so I knew they had to go first. Turkey was a tough nut to crack only because every farkin city had to be on a hill. My CRII+ grenadiers had been eaten up long ago, so the going relied on the mass sacrifice of Cannons and Cavalry. Check the power graph below. You can actually see the dips where I took 3 of the Turkish cities. Of the 4 Turkish cities I took, I raized 2 and built Echigo where Babli should stand.
On the German front, It was slow as molasses. Getting the road 6 tiles from their border meant the travel time from Beijing lessened to 11 turns
. And another delay occurred when I ran into Germany's stack they were sending my way. Apparently, Frederick was cheeky enough to try to send his units down my road. And I could not stand for that. Needless to say, his stack was crushed, but effectively delayed my stacked by 9 turns. The stack advanced and has raized one German city and is in 2 tiles of another, ready to capture it.Up to this point, the war with Germany and her vassals is going well. War Weariness is becoming a problem at home with my 2 uber-cities, Huangzhou (27) and Keijo (24) both having some unrest. I'm constructing theaters and temples to combat the problem, but it's only a matter of time before it spreads to the rest of my cities and causes a complete shift in production.
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Here's the end of turn. First, we'll start with the ever present tech board.
Egypt of all civs is a player in the tech board. Thats because it's jumped from France to Germany as a vassal and picked up quite a few techs in the process. We will finish Physics in a turn. Then we'll really be able to see who's in the lead.
Civics
Once Physics finishes, and we do any tech trades that he IA will go for
, I'm planning on switching to Nationhood. We're able to draft 5 units per turn, and with our heinous resources, most of the cities can handle 2 drafts without much thought to happiness. That will give us an army of Infantry the world has yet to see. Are there any other recommendations for Civics? Someone has Emancipation, and it's giving me some unhappiness. Thats not really an issue, but it does make one less draft per city.Power
They say a picture says a thousand words, but what about a graph? That dip in the early 1800s is from finishing off Persia, India and Babylonia. Then, quite clearly, you can see the shift from persuing "peaceful" techs like Communism and my beeline to Assembly line. Also check out Spain and Germany. You can see their war breaking out right in the middle of my military expansion. However, Germany has a worrying spike right at the end of the graph. Since they don't yet have Assembly Line, I'm assuming they switched to Nationhood and drafted an army to throw at me. France's line is also worrisome, but that can be attributed to Assembly Line.
Culture
Can you guess when I adopted Free Speech?
A view on our buildings
I have been concerned with the population requirement. Now that we're exceeding it, I might let up on Granary production.
And now, the meta-game. First, I'll show you our empire and the reast of our known world. We just traded maps with 5 civs, so everything should be accurate except for America.
So Russia was crushed after 10 turns and now Inca is a colonial power controlling Zimbabwe and something-I-can't-spell. This is the most surreal game I've ever played. FYI, Incan is Confucian because I deliberately spread that religion to them. I was thinking ahead to the land requirement of Domination and figured if I could get both the Aztecs and Incans to be Confucian, I could vassalize both later with a switch from Free Religion to Theocracy. Sadly, Aztecs went Christian before I could get an open border, so we're hoping to vassalize Spain after coming to their aid against Germany.
Victory Conditions
We met the population requirement and IIRC, it shouldn't go past 40% for a world map. Then again, I've never gotten this far on a domination bid in RFC, so Rhye might have a surprise or two in the late game waiting for us. Land Area is slowly reaching the 66% requirement. I'm hoping to control 40% on our own and vassalize the other 26%, but you never know how the Vassal game will play out.
Diplomacy
I will save you my headache of the Diplomacy screen and explain it to you.
Germany is disliked by all but the Americans (Inca and Aztecs).
France is liked by most with the exception of the Aztecs and Germany.
Spain dislikes most.
England is friends with many civs and was the lord of both the Aztecs and Incans at some point in the game
The Vikings somehow love everyone. Which is odd since they're usually warmongers.
Inca is quickly becoming a world power.
Aztecs are a perpetual vassal and jump from independence to vassalage every 20-30 turns.
America is deliberately unknown to me. I didn't want to have to deal with their hate of England and Inca.
Mali drifts in and out of contact as she jumps from Lord to Lord.
Egypt is an unusually strong Vassal. If their AI weren't predisposed to being a vassal, I would guess they could be a world power.
Greece has avoided becoming a vassal but is a whole age behind in techs. They have survived so long because the other major players in Europe have been fighting amongst themselves.
Arabia has been marginal since the spawn of Turkey.
The rest of the civs are all destroyed.
10 minutes? I meant in an hour, ugh. Way past my bedtime.
Anyway, where do you guys think I should go next? I'm definitely switching to Nationalism so I can draft an army to crush Europe. However, WW is catching up to me. Should I also switch to Emancipation for the happiness relief? Or/And should I go for Facism so I can adopt Police State?
As far as domination goes: I'm shooting for Greece while/after we crush Germany. Greece stlil lacks both Chemistry and Rifling, so taking their cities with a few cannons and Calvary will be a piece of cake.
Any other ideas on how we can dominate 66% of the earth would be appreciated. I'm off to bed now.
Anyway, where do you guys think I should go next? I'm definitely switching to Nationalism so I can draft an army to crush Europe. However, WW is catching up to me. Should I also switch to Emancipation for the happiness relief? Or/And should I go for Facism so I can adopt Police State?
As far as domination goes: I'm shooting for Greece while/after we crush Germany. Greece stlil lacks both Chemistry and Rifling, so taking their cities with a few cannons and Calvary will be a piece of cake.
Any other ideas on how we can dominate 66% of the earth would be appreciated. I'm off to bed now.
Lord Apolon
Warlord
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2002
- Messages
- 131
Wow. Inspiring job.
Unless I'm reading something on that screenshot wrong, you only need 50% of the world, not 66%... so only a bit more than twice what you have!
What about nabbing Greece and then just leaving Europe alone? There's a lot of land you can still get: sail around Arabia and settle Africa; get Australia before Inca does; maybe even zap the Aztecs and take Mexico and the US West Coast in one of their brief stints of independence. I don't know how close that would push you, not all the way surely... maybe you can hit it if you kill everyone except for Europe.
Let them keep squabbling and build a Maginot line of forts in case anyone decides to attack!
So far amazing and beautiful... it's even larger than the Mongol Empire!
At this point, is it even meaningful to say you are the Japanese Empire? I feel like China could do the same thing (easier), or Mongolia (harder).. you really are just The Empire now!
Unless I'm reading something on that screenshot wrong, you only need 50% of the world, not 66%... so only a bit more than twice what you have!
What about nabbing Greece and then just leaving Europe alone? There's a lot of land you can still get: sail around Arabia and settle Africa; get Australia before Inca does; maybe even zap the Aztecs and take Mexico and the US West Coast in one of their brief stints of independence. I don't know how close that would push you, not all the way surely... maybe you can hit it if you kill everyone except for Europe.
Let them keep squabbling and build a Maginot line of forts in case anyone decides to attack!So far amazing and beautiful... it's even larger than the Mongol Empire!
At this point, is it even meaningful to say you are the Japanese Empire? I feel like China could do the same thing (easier), or Mongolia (harder).. you really are just The Empire now!
If you check the previous VC screen, it says you only need 44% of the world territory. As time goes on, the requirement increases, so it really is a race against the clock.
I'm loathe to forceful overseas expansion. Inca will readily become our vassal once we jump religions and America I'm hoping to bribe onto our side. We need to crush England and France in order to keep them from winning a Space Race. IIRC, vassals do not build spaceship components, so we wouldn't have to worry about Inca or America building it.
I'm loathe to forceful overseas expansion. Inca will readily become our vassal once we jump religions and America I'm hoping to bribe onto our side. We need to crush England and France in order to keep them from winning a Space Race. IIRC, vassals do not build spaceship components, so we wouldn't have to worry about Inca or America building it.
Well, only 20 turns this time around, but I'm pretty sure I can say this game will be won by Score, not Domination. I'm still going to finish it out so I can get an idea of what the end-game will be like.
So our turn ended last time with physics being completed and a debate over whether to continue teh war against Germany. Well Fredrick decided that one for us when he dropped a stack of 6 artillery on one of our borders. Oh bother. Anyway, we called up for peace. He was willing to give us, oh, 1000 gold, 9 gold a turn and his world map, but he wouldn't part with any techs. This penalty is really starting to kill us =/.
Anyway, we switched to Nationhood the same turn in order to draft an Army to crush Greece and hold off those Artillery.
Before:
After:
It took a few turns to run those units over to the front lines (no Railroads still). But once they did, Greece was gone. The march to Athens took us 15 turns. While the Army of the Tiger had numbers and strength on Greece's lowly rifleman, they were slow as heck. Sadly, Greece never built the Church of Nativity, so no extra gold bonus there. The rest of the wonders Greece had were all obsolete or useless (Sistine Chapel). So the war ended with Greece collapsing as a nation. That's China, Mongolia, India, Persia, Babylon, Turkey and now Greece we've taken down. And thanks to our Conquest civic, we're unlikely to experience a rebellion anytime soon. This was a short but eventful set. Here's where we're at:
Empire
Old World
New World
America is finally eating up all that land.
Info
I pulled back on the granaries and started focusing on Courthouses and Theaters in our outposts. At home we got Factories and our UB Shale Plants built in several cities. They're pumping out a new Infantry unit every 2-4 turns.
Also, 22 cities founded? Man, I knew I was expanding, but thats crazy.
Score
Power
Well, It's rather clear where I drafted all those units. And in hindsight, it was a mixed blessing. While yeah, now I have 40+ Infantry units, my research tanked for 8 turns until the population was able to rebound. I'm unlikely to use it in such a massive wave ever again. But still, it's always nice to see those huge spikes on graphs.
Victory Conditions
Just shy of 1/3 of the world. Too bad we need 2/3 to win.With the diplomatic nightmare in Africa, I don't think we'll be able to win this.
Diplomatic Relations
Techs
So both Arabia and Egypt are pushovers (see above power graph). However, both are vassals to France and Germany, respectively. France I could probably deal with while running over Arabia, except that France had a DP with America. My scary high power score might be enough to make Roosevelt rethink that pact. Germany is just a bear, and will likely have Tanks in the next few turns. I'm beelining to Flight, then Combustion so I can pick up Gunships, but I don't want to tussle with Tanks until then if I can avoid it.
The other options are, well, not exactly ones I want to go for. Spain is currently besieged by war, so taking her cities would be a snap, especially since she still lacks Assembly Line. However, her cities are so spread that I would never be able to take them before the time limit. Meanwhile, she's friendly with me and vassal-less. I could probably persuade her to become my vassal and ass her 6% territory to my total.
Another option is to bribe England into war with Germany/France. Unfortunately, I have nothing to bribe with since my research is shot. Perhaps a could thousand gold would do it, but that puts me off of Flight/Combustion.
The third and final option is an invasion of the Americas. I can build 15+ settlers in my core and have another wave of drafting for units to accompany them. Then send a wave of attackers to down Inca, India and America if we're still even footing technologically speaking. That would easily yield us the other 30% we need for a win and probably get Spain as a vassal out of it.
Oh yeah, all that *****ing about researching? Check this out. First we have the base cost of Electricity.
Now we have the penalized cost.
So yeah. We're going to be way behind on techs until time runs out.
Right now you usually go on and on about what you learned, but I'm going to save that for my post-mortem post. Anyway, I could use some input on other strategies to take the other 30%+ of land we need. Should I switch civics at all? How do you think we'd fare against Germany if we drafted another 20ish Infantry and threw them at her?
So our turn ended last time with physics being completed and a debate over whether to continue teh war against Germany. Well Fredrick decided that one for us when he dropped a stack of 6 artillery on one of our borders. Oh bother. Anyway, we called up for peace. He was willing to give us, oh, 1000 gold, 9 gold a turn and his world map, but he wouldn't part with any techs. This penalty is really starting to kill us =/.
Anyway, we switched to Nationhood the same turn in order to draft an Army to crush Greece and hold off those Artillery.
Before:
After:
It took a few turns to run those units over to the front lines (no Railroads still). But once they did, Greece was gone. The march to Athens took us 15 turns. While the Army of the Tiger had numbers and strength on Greece's lowly rifleman, they were slow as heck. Sadly, Greece never built the Church of Nativity, so no extra gold bonus there. The rest of the wonders Greece had were all obsolete or useless (Sistine Chapel). So the war ended with Greece collapsing as a nation. That's China, Mongolia, India, Persia, Babylon, Turkey and now Greece we've taken down. And thanks to our Conquest civic, we're unlikely to experience a rebellion anytime soon. This was a short but eventful set. Here's where we're at:
Empire
Old World
New World
America is finally eating up all that land.
Info
I pulled back on the granaries and started focusing on Courthouses and Theaters in our outposts. At home we got Factories and our UB Shale Plants built in several cities. They're pumping out a new Infantry unit every 2-4 turns.
Also, 22 cities founded? Man, I knew I was expanding, but thats crazy.
Score
Power
Well, It's rather clear where I drafted all those units. And in hindsight, it was a mixed blessing. While yeah, now I have 40+ Infantry units, my research tanked for 8 turns until the population was able to rebound. I'm unlikely to use it in such a massive wave ever again. But still, it's always nice to see those huge spikes on graphs.
Victory Conditions
Just shy of 1/3 of the world. Too bad we need 2/3 to win.With the diplomatic nightmare in Africa, I don't think we'll be able to win this.
Diplomatic Relations
Techs
So both Arabia and Egypt are pushovers (see above power graph). However, both are vassals to France and Germany, respectively. France I could probably deal with while running over Arabia, except that France had a DP with America. My scary high power score might be enough to make Roosevelt rethink that pact. Germany is just a bear, and will likely have Tanks in the next few turns. I'm beelining to Flight, then Combustion so I can pick up Gunships, but I don't want to tussle with Tanks until then if I can avoid it.
The other options are, well, not exactly ones I want to go for. Spain is currently besieged by war, so taking her cities would be a snap, especially since she still lacks Assembly Line. However, her cities are so spread that I would never be able to take them before the time limit. Meanwhile, she's friendly with me and vassal-less. I could probably persuade her to become my vassal and ass her 6% territory to my total.
Another option is to bribe England into war with Germany/France. Unfortunately, I have nothing to bribe with since my research is shot. Perhaps a could thousand gold would do it, but that puts me off of Flight/Combustion.
The third and final option is an invasion of the Americas. I can build 15+ settlers in my core and have another wave of drafting for units to accompany them. Then send a wave of attackers to down Inca, India and America if we're still even footing technologically speaking. That would easily yield us the other 30% we need for a win and probably get Spain as a vassal out of it.
Oh yeah, all that *****ing about researching? Check this out. First we have the base cost of Electricity.
Now we have the penalized cost.
So yeah. We're going to be way behind on techs until time runs out.
Right now you usually go on and on about what you learned, but I'm going to save that for my post-mortem post. Anyway, I could use some input on other strategies to take the other 30%+ of land we need. Should I switch civics at all? How do you think we'd fare against Germany if we drafted another 20ish Infantry and threw them at her?
fearuin
Born to be Warlord
I think your mistake was not to follow the tips during loading times, specially that one that says "Don't get involved on a conquest war on Asia" .
I have started a game in Vanilla, and played the first 50 turns, but I'm just guessing, domination in Vanilla will be impossible, or near to impossible, thinking we have no vassals. The only thing on our favour: there are thounsands of barbarians, and only corner-civs as us (Japan), England, and Spain are free from those hordes.
However, here it's my story. I'll start over a new game on the new version, but my plannning it's essentially the same. Briefly, we had a timid start, setting up Kyoto and Tokyo on a particular way. I have chosen this, as it will allow us three giant cities in Japan (next will be Hakodate, on the dye resource to the north), a strong heart that will pump out our glorious army. In the first 50 turns we even haven't invaded China, but I've played later on until turn 71, and 3/4 are ours. Only one city remains, and it will fall on the next 4 turns for sure. So China is ours in just 25 turns, that's not all that bad. Seoul may have fallen peacefully under our culture, but two Chinese catapults made me to choose the hard way. Luckily, the catapults suicided, so our swordmen finded the conquest half done.
Here are two screenshots. First, our map on turn 50. Take a close look to my placement, and tell me what do you think. Second, their stats. I was REALLY surprise the numbers that Tokyo was giving, and by turn 71 it was bigger, and more productive than any of our cities, even Chinese ones (even Beijing!!
). In fact, this screenshot was taken after WHIPPING THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE. Wow. It was 8 population, and people started to feel unhappy, so I decided for whipping, though there was no need.
. I have started a game in Vanilla, and played the first 50 turns, but I'm just guessing, domination in Vanilla will be impossible, or near to impossible, thinking we have no vassals. The only thing on our favour: there are thounsands of barbarians, and only corner-civs as us (Japan), England, and Spain are free from those hordes.
However, here it's my story. I'll start over a new game on the new version, but my plannning it's essentially the same. Briefly, we had a timid start, setting up Kyoto and Tokyo on a particular way. I have chosen this, as it will allow us three giant cities in Japan (next will be Hakodate, on the dye resource to the north), a strong heart that will pump out our glorious army. In the first 50 turns we even haven't invaded China, but I've played later on until turn 71, and 3/4 are ours. Only one city remains, and it will fall on the next 4 turns for sure. So China is ours in just 25 turns, that's not all that bad. Seoul may have fallen peacefully under our culture, but two Chinese catapults made me to choose the hard way. Luckily, the catapults suicided, so our swordmen finded the conquest half done.
Here are two screenshots. First, our map on turn 50. Take a close look to my placement, and tell me what do you think. Second, their stats. I was REALLY surprise the numbers that Tokyo was giving, and by turn 71 it was bigger, and more productive than any of our cities, even Chinese ones (even Beijing!!
). In fact, this screenshot was taken after WHIPPING THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE. Wow. It was 8 population, and people started to feel unhappy, so I decided for whipping, though there was no need.Attachments
I would nix Hakodate. The problem with that area is that there's no food resource or irrigation. Consequently, you'll be growing at 2 food/turn for nearly the entire game with one hammer of production (assuming you axes the forests for cottages, which you should). If you work a mine, you drop your growth to 1 food/turn. So the area is pretty much useless and should only be settled late in the game for the minor land area it can claim.
fearuin
Born to be Warlord
Well, replayed the game on Vanilla 1.93, and made it to the the turn 100, to find some interesting things.
I did pretty much the same, except for going on for China earlier on (see first and second attachments, our empire at turn 139 - a slip of hand, sorry- and our cities. This has showed up a mistake as long as in turn 100 I was much like on the previous version on turn 71. So I'm 29 turns slower than before. In fact, as you will see on the first attachment, Beijing will be conquered by barbs next turn. It took me a while to retake it, and that was what slowered me a lot. I'm not sure how this will affect the later game, but I'll keep playing, as long as the game has shown up a situation completely unpredictable: the uber-Persia.
When my army aproximated Chongqing, I saw it was Buddhist, so I expected a contact with Asoka, but, instead, Cyrus face showed up! I sent a galley and saw that India no longer existed, and Cyrus had conquered Delhi. If you take a close look to the third attachment (our empire on turn 188) you'll see Persian culture near Calcutta, and on the south of India. Hmmpf, what a relief.
Finally, you'll see on the fourth attachment the fact that confirms my theory about Tokyo. It's the best city of the world! Kyoto it's on the third position, what shows that we're not doing a bad job, after all.
To end with, you have the savegame, if you want to start a game and play a different way. My suggestions are: not to start a war with china until we have Iron Working, Mathematics, and Hunting (what I did the first time I played); and build the Colossus instead of the Lighthouse (much more profitable, early on).
I did pretty much the same, except for going on for China earlier on (see first and second attachments, our empire at turn 139 - a slip of hand, sorry- and our cities. This has showed up a mistake as long as in turn 100 I was much like on the previous version on turn 71. So I'm 29 turns slower than before. In fact, as you will see on the first attachment, Beijing will be conquered by barbs next turn. It took me a while to retake it, and that was what slowered me a lot. I'm not sure how this will affect the later game, but I'll keep playing, as long as the game has shown up a situation completely unpredictable: the uber-Persia.
When my army aproximated Chongqing, I saw it was Buddhist, so I expected a contact with Asoka, but, instead, Cyrus face showed up! I sent a galley and saw that India no longer existed, and Cyrus had conquered Delhi. If you take a close look to the third attachment (our empire on turn 188) you'll see Persian culture near Calcutta, and on the south of India. Hmmpf, what a relief.
Finally, you'll see on the fourth attachment the fact that confirms my theory about Tokyo. It's the best city of the world! Kyoto it's on the third position, what shows that we're not doing a bad job, after all.
To end with, you have the savegame, if you want to start a game and play a different way. My suggestions are: not to start a war with china until we have Iron Working, Mathematics, and Hunting (what I did the first time I played); and build the Colossus instead of the Lighthouse (much more profitable, early on).
Attachments
fearuin
Born to be Warlord
Sorry, on the overview it doesn't show a picture of our exploration on India, but here you'll have the save on turns 139 and 188, and you can check by yourself.
and 1 extra 
per turn, two if I don't work the mine, what it's not very much, as you expected. But it's too late to undo it. I didn't realized this, so I decided to settle earlier on, and start building the Lighthouse, using the axes with that use. If I success, the it won't be a complete waste.
More pictures. Here you'll see a diplomacy screen, where we can see the cities and techs Cyrus has. His empire ranges from Constantinopolis to Delhi. We'll had a tough time with him, I guess. And he is much more advanced. Fantastic.
And finally, you have the stats, where you can see Cyrus has a larger empire, with more soldiers, more tech and more, more of everything than us, including enemies: I guess Constantinopolis is named that way because it was conquered to Romans. And Arabs have already spawned. So he'll be pushed hard... towards the east. We'll have to hurry to go for India. So we'll head to Hanoi and Pagan after Tieujing is conquered, and afet that, conquer of Central India (barb) will start.
That's my plan for the next 50 turns. If things go well, we'll get moving to Parsa and Shush.
As you can see on the screenshot, Hakodate produces 3WhiteFire said:
and 1 extra per turn, two if I don't work the mine, what it's not very much, as you expected. But it's too late to undo it. I didn't realized this, so I decided to settle earlier on, and start building the Lighthouse, using the axes with that use. If I success, the it won't be a complete waste.More pictures. Here you'll see a diplomacy screen, where we can see the cities and techs Cyrus has. His empire ranges from Constantinopolis to Delhi. We'll had a tough time with him, I guess. And he is much more advanced. Fantastic.
And finally, you have the stats, where you can see Cyrus has a larger empire, with more soldiers, more tech and more, more of everything than us, including enemies: I guess Constantinopolis is named that way because it was conquered to Romans. And Arabs have already spawned. So he'll be pushed hard... towards the east. We'll have to hurry to go for India. So we'll head to Hanoi and Pagan after Tieujing is conquered, and afet that, conquer of Central India (barb) will start.
That's my plan for the next 50 turns. If things go well, we'll get moving to Parsa and Shush.
Attachments
wolfigor
Emperor
Hello Whitefire, thank you very much for your long postings... they were a pleasure to read.
I also started my campaign for domination with Japan.
I didn't have too much time to play so I'm not as much far as you are in the game.
However, even without reading your postings I followed a very similar line.
I colonized the Korean peninsula and made war against China.
The timing for the warm against China is a tricky balance between your army build-up and the expansion of China itself: invade China when the gain is max, against Chinese strenght.
I invaded when China had about 5 towns, two religion, and the great wall still wet of paint.
I was rewarded by an incredibly weak defence.
After a full conquest of China I worked on balancing my tech-gold income and slowly expand in south-east Asia (full of nice resources) while safe behind the great wall.
So far so good.
India is scarcely developed and the middle east is a bit messy (as usual):
Egypt is second in score (two religion and Jerusalem) but weakened by a terrible plague.
Greece is no more... conquered by Rome.
Babilon dominate from Turkey to the persian gulf.
Persia weak by constant barbarian attacks and relatively small territory.
Now I have a powerful army of Samurai + (some) trebs + crossbowmen,
but... my next target refused to collaborate: India offered herself as a vassal.
I have two options:
1. not accept
Easy, roll down India with lots of elephants and samurais transported via sea
2. accept
build more troops for a later full push india+persia
3. accept but...
use india to conquer Persia... resore my forces and later attack India from two sides
The main trouble is that I don't want let my army do nothing for too long time... at the moment they are one step above any other army, but if I wait the other powers can catch-up.
In the meantime I may get soon (12 turns) astronomy.
That will mean the possibility to ferry more troops and maybe start the colonization of america.
I also started my campaign for domination with Japan.
I didn't have too much time to play so I'm not as much far as you are in the game.
However, even without reading your postings I followed a very similar line.
I colonized the Korean peninsula and made war against China.
The timing for the warm against China is a tricky balance between your army build-up and the expansion of China itself: invade China when the gain is max, against Chinese strenght.
I invaded when China had about 5 towns, two religion, and the great wall still wet of paint.
I was rewarded by an incredibly weak defence.
After a full conquest of China I worked on balancing my tech-gold income and slowly expand in south-east Asia (full of nice resources) while safe behind the great wall.
So far so good.
India is scarcely developed and the middle east is a bit messy (as usual):
Egypt is second in score (two religion and Jerusalem) but weakened by a terrible plague.
Greece is no more... conquered by Rome.
Babilon dominate from Turkey to the persian gulf.
Persia weak by constant barbarian attacks and relatively small territory.
Now I have a powerful army of Samurai + (some) trebs + crossbowmen,
but... my next target refused to collaborate: India offered herself as a vassal.
I have two options:
1. not accept
Easy, roll down India with lots of elephants and samurais transported via sea
2. accept
build more troops for a later full push india+persia
3. accept but...
use india to conquer Persia... resore my forces and later attack India from two sides
The main trouble is that I don't want let my army do nothing for too long time... at the moment they are one step above any other army, but if I wait the other powers can catch-up.
In the meantime I may get soon (12 turns) astronomy.
That will mean the possibility to ferry more troops and maybe start the colonization of america.
